23 Jan 2012

Well, it's that time of the month again where missionaries are all running out of money and trying to figure out what they are going to eat until the next month's stipend comes.  And things couldn't be better.  Well, they could, but, it's a pretty good situation now!

Ok, so I GOT TO RIDE THE BULLET TRAIN!  After being in Japan for 6 months, moving 4 times, and hearing people gripe about having enough money for the Shinkansen tickets, I FINALLY GOT TO RIDE THE BULLET TRAIN!  Man, the thing's so smooth, I didn't even feel it when we started moving, and it was great fun to see trees and mountains whizzing by at 8:00 in the morning!  BUT, the reason for the trip was to go see Elder Ringwood with the other zones!

So we get to Fukuoka and oh my heck, the subway systems and the bus systems are a maze!  We started out with a big ol' group of the whole zone, and by the time we finally made it to the last station (2 train transfers and an underground tunnel walk later) our numbers had fluctuated anywhere from 2 to 5 to 9 to 16.  But everyone got there safely, and we all had a really good conference.  I got to see Sonntag 長老　again, and a bunch of other elders from around the area that I wasn't sure if I was going to see before they went home!  It's way nice to hear how everyone is doing in their areas and hear their stories again!

Elder Ringwood and his Wife were also fantastic.  They talked to us about various topics ranging from self-worth and keeping your head in the game, to Mission Pride and not allowing anything bad or inappropriate happen in the mission.  One thing we learned about that really kind of blew my mind was about word placement and choice in the scriptures.  Sometimes we take for granted the accepted ways that we first understood a passage of scripture, but just because we took it one way doesn't mean that it's the only way to take it.  For instance we talked about the "strait and narrow path" that leads to eternal life and salvation.  We've heard that, and taught that, a bajillion times, but it never clicked for me that it actually says "strait" and not "straight."  A Strait is something that connects two points, usually by water, to join the two together.  When you enter into the strait and narrow pass, you are connecting your life, and taking your journey to the way of Eternal life and salvation.  Cool stuff.

So that was Thursday. We left early in the morning to get to Fukuoka and were back in our respective areas by 7:00 that night.  We had a couple of other elders staying in our apartment getting ready to go to the conference and it was a really good time.  Somehow our apartment became the Japanese apartment and the Zone Leader’s was for all the gaijin (foreigners).  I was too lazy to move over so it was me and a bunch of Japanese elders in the apartment for the night.  I learned how to play Shogi out if it!

The other thing that Okada長老　and I have learned recently is that most all of our Dendo time is done on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We try to do work on the rest of the week, but with our weird little travel situation where we don't actually live in our area and some other factors, almost everything that actually gets accomplished is on the weekends.  Which, if they keep going the way they are, I'm fine with that. 

We've been meeting with this one Chinese student and he came to church on Sunday!  We ended up having a lesson with him during the second hour of church with 7 members of the branch and the Sister Missionaries.  We even had the Stake president visiting that day and he helped out with the lesson!  Right now he doesn't really know anything about religion or anything related to that but he is really receptive to the message and seems to be progressing really well.  Knowledge and Faith seem to be the keys in his success right now!

We also started working with the son of one of our less active members.  He's 20 years old and his interests are bowling, anime, and video games.  So essentially he's a perfect match for Okada and me.  We had a really good lesson with him and he's just really easy to relate with and teach.  I can easily see either him or the Chinese student we're working with getting baptized within the next couple of weeks (or months)! 

Sadly, most of our potential investigators, (those we met with once and haven't been able to get in contact with again to teach) are downright impossible to get in contact with.  I don't know how many mountains I've climbed with my bike now just to find no one home.  But, such is the life of a missionary.  I'm pretty sure I'm well on my way to developing a nice set of goat legs.

Well, time is running out, we have a train and a ferry to catch on our way to MIYAJIMA!  It's ranked as one of the top 3 prettiest places in Japan to visit and it's in our zone!  I highly encourage looking it up if you have the chance.  I love you all and am sincerely grateful for all the hard work and sacrifice you make in every facet of your lives.  Thank you and have a great week!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Elder Benjamin Charles Everett

Japan Fukuoka Mission

9-16 Hirao-josuimachi

Chuo-ku

Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka

810-0029

JAPAN

Greetings from Japan 15 Jan 2012

Ok, so first I'd like to let you all know that I am now officially an Adult.  I may have thought I was before, but not so.  This past Monday I participated in the New Adult ceremony here in Japan.  So basically, in Japan you become an adult at 20 and then on January 9 (or maybe it's just the 2nd Monday in January) they have a big ceremony where all the 20 year olds in the area come and officially become adults.  So all of the girls came in their best Kimonos and all of the guys were in Suits and some were even in their best kimonos.  Then there were the missionaries.  3 foreigners and one Japanese.  Even in a group of 6000 20 year olds, we stick out like, well, we really stick out!  We would like to have been able to talk to some of them more, but it was kind of like a high school reunion, and teaching at that point just kind of felt a little awkward.  We did get to meet some cool people though (they just happen to live in Tokyo.........)

Also this past week we've had a bunch of activities through the branch.  The funny thing is though, that through all our plans, our clever ideas we thought we had to get people out to events, the one event that wasn't planned by the missionaries is the only one that investigators came to.  It was a guitar class that our branch decided to start.  Every 2nd Saturday or so we're planning on having a Guitar circle for the community.  On our way to it we decided to stop by one of our investigators to see how he was doing, and thought to ask him to the circle.  In America it’s pretty hard to get someone to come out to an event on the spot, but in Japan if they don't have notice at least a week before hand, they flat out won't go, so you can imagine our surprise when he was like "You mean right now? Yeah, I'll go". 

We ended up biking with him to the church and showed him around while people were practicing Guitar.  It ended up being a really great experience and I'm sure that he felt something.  We showed him around some of the rooms and he was impressed with the Young Women's theme that they have posted on the wall in one of the rooms.  We ended up talking about each of the values in the Young Women's theme and used that as our focus for teaching.  Who would have known that hearing the young women's theme every mutual night for 6 years would have come in handy while trying to teach a Chinese man in Japan 3 years later?  One of the things I've really learned recently is that no effort is wasted, and that as long as you are doing the right thing, you will affect lives, whether it be those that you mean to or not.  I just want to say thank you to all the Young Women leaders and all the faithful young women that, I'm pretty sure don't hear it from the young men enough (if at all). Thanks!

This week was also filled with songs that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to hear while on my mission, but through eating out and going to a member's band event we ended up hearing music from a wide range of sources.  We heard Abba, Jack Johnson, Lady Gaga, a medley of the studio Ghibli themes (of course Japanese high school bands would play Ghibli!) and Bump of Chicken, also Ragged Wimps.  Don't worry if you don't know the last two, (or even the last three really....) they're Japanese bands.

This week we have a mission-wide conference planned for Thursday, where we all get to hear from one of the area authorities around here, Elder Ringwood.  And in February we will be having Elder Oaks come and speak to our mission.  It's not often that the whole mission gets to meet together, but here are two great opportunities, and there are even fantastic speakers to boot!  This is going to be an interesting way to start out the new year!

Wishing everyone as safe and productive week!

エベレット長老

Elder Everett

10 Jan 2012

Good morning, afternoon and evening everyone! (I think that about covers it all)  Is it just me or does anyone else feel weird to write 2012 when you're writing a date?  New Years is always a weird time.

If this week were a page on Facebook, I'd be a fan of it.  We had 2 companion exchanges (which are always fun) and got a lot of good work done!  First we had an exchange with the Elders from Hamada (they have a 2 hour bus ride to make it to district meeting, so that's a little problematic, and it costs about $50 to boot) so they just stayed here instead of the normal split.  We got to work together with them, and they even helped out with our English Conversation class.  Speaking of Eikawa, oh man, we had a way good time there but, it's tanked.  I don't know if it's because of New Years or what but our Eikaiwa has dwindled to 3 people (all members) and it's hurting.  It's interesting because apparently in this mission most of the convert baptisms come from Eikaiwa attendance so when that's suffering, it's usually not a very good sign for the area.  So that's become one of our main focuses this past little bit. 

Well, not really a focus, mainly we've been working on visiting Less Active members and then searching around their neighborhoods to see if anybody is interested in hearing our message, or at the very least coming to Eikaiwa.  Usually being a blond-haired blue-eyed American helps but, Hiroshima has too many foreigners come through to really have any big sort of effect.... well, ok, so mainly for little kids and the older adults it has a rather large effect (I don't know how many times I've just walked to the Train Station and had at least 2 people stare at me with mouths agape.  I'm a human being man, not an object to be gawked at!)  For instance, this past week we were trying to contact one of our less active members but they weren't home so we decided to leave them a message.  While Okada長老 was writing the note a group of elementary school kids walked by and sat down on the other side of the road asking me to teach them English.  We ended up talked to them for a little while and taught them a couple of new words and invited them to bring their family to Eikaiwa.  I don't think I've seen any Japanese kid with more gumption than those kids; they were fun to talk to!

Shortly after those kids we went housing (going door to door) around that area.  After we had been searching for like an hour or so we get to this one door and this girl opens the door.  Usually, to make us not look like creepers we try to talk to the parents before talking to kids (especially young girls) so we asked her if her parents were home. To which we get the response "I'm the wife." OOPS.  She was really nice about it though (seriously she looked about 15) and after a little conversation invited us to come back again to introduce the message when her husband was around.  That's a family that we got an appointment with!  That doesn't happen in Japan (at least it's the first time I've ever seen it!)  and she's number 3 in our recent potential investigators we've found that has a young family!  Working with kids is the best, and whenever there's a family we get to work with the kids and really see the Gospel change and strengthen the families!  Things are really on the brink here in Yasufuruichi (and hopefully it won't end up the same way it did that one day in Tokuyama......).

Also, we had an experience here that really helped to define to Okada 長老 and me what it really means to love the people you work for.  The member that teaches English and has been inviting us to meet her students ran into some problems this past week.  We had made an appointment to meet with her on Sunday but things happened and that fell through.  She's been having a rather hard time with her son recently (she's a single mother and the only member in the family) and we decided to give her a call.  We learned that she and her son had a bit of a spat and that he had run away.  He's her youngest son (everyone else has already moved out) and she's been worried about him for a long time.  We had a long conversation on the phone that day.  She didn't know what to do in that situation; she didn't know where he was, when he was going to come back, or how she was even going to talk to him after he did.  We ended up going to her house and taught a lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon. 

Ok, so you may look at that and think, why in the world would you teach about the Book of Mormon at a time like that?  I'm pretty sure you might think that because that is almost exactly how I thought when I first said that that's what we're going to teach.  If you recall the October issue of the church Magazines were all about the Book of Mormon and its special Promise.  It's a message from the Prophet Thomas S. Monson on how we can use the Book in more than our search to improve our spiritual understanding, but also in our quest for a more peaceful family.  In his message he quotes Gordon B. Hinckley in this promise “there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."  I don't know the specifics of how it will bless her life and the life of her son, but I do know this:  There is power in the Book of Mormon and it extends far beyond personal edification.  Families will be strengthened as they read together, relationships will deepen, faith will increase, contention and strife will cease, and the "added measure of the spirit of the Lord" will emanate and radiate from all those who put the promises of the Book of Mormon to the test. 

I don't know if I've said it lately, and I know I haven't said it enough, but I love you.  I love the examples you have been in my life, the teachings and the lessons that you have prepared, the care that you have shown, the diligence you have demonstrated, and the unwearingness from which far more people than myself, have benefited and grown from.  I love you, and I remember who you are.

It might be a little late but I'd like to share this little clip about new years with you.  It seems like the appropriate time to share it, and it goes along with the message and scripture of the week that my family sent me!

http://lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#new-years-look-not-behind-thee

And after you watch that message, feel free to watch more, I love the messages there, and would love to see them used more in teaching and lessons for not only the youth, but for everyone! 

Well, I think it's time to go, Okada is passed out over two chairs and we've got an apartment to clean.  So long for this week and I wish you the best from Japan! 

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Elder Benjamin Everett

Japan Fukuoka Mission

9-16 Hirao-josuimachi

Chuo-ku

Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka

810-0029

JAPAN

Happy New Year! 1/1/12

あけましておめでとう　Ａｋｅｍａｓｈｉｔｅ　Ｏｍｅｄｅｔｏｕ　Happy New Year!  How was the first day in the year of the Dragon!

 So, New Years is the big holiday here in Japan, all of the Businesses are out, everyone goes to the parents, and there's no telling who lives in your area and who is just visiting!  Especially in a city like Hiroshima that's a tourist attraction as well as a pretty well established city!  But really, for it supposedly being such a big event in Japan, we didn't really see anything, we just had a whole lot more dinner appointments than usual (by a whole lot I mean, we actually had some!) and didn't even stay up until midnight....  Yeah, it was kinda of like a regular day for us, we just got to meet with people at a different time than usual because they suddenly became free during the afternoon.  It was way cool to see all the families that came in to visit!  Hiroshima became a bustling city again (and at all hours of the night too).  Okada 長老 and I had sparkling Grape and Peach cider (something tells me that a glass of wine isn't the most missionary appropriate thing to do on New Years so we got the next best.... or really, I just wanted grape and peach juice and It was a good excuse..:)...)

This week has been pretty interesting; lately it hasn't felt like we've really been finding anyone to teach but come our Weekly planning session we set out to write out all we were working with and it filled up our entire white board!  Thinking back on it, it doesn't seem like we have a whole lot of people that we are working with but seeing that list, we have a lot that we have to do!  Granted, a lot of the people on that list we haven't been able to get a real lesson in with yet, but soon, and then we'll finally be able to see the change in them that they've been waiting for. 

Tuesday we got a call from one of our members asking if we wanted to go play some basketball with some of her students!  Shoot, she didn't have to ask me twice!  We show up to the place just a little bit after we wanted to (which was fine, they didn't get there until 10 minutes later....) and went to go get changed.  When we came out one of the boys looked over at us and was like, "whoa, I think I've seen him before."  As it turns out, he was playing basketball in the local sports center when we came in for our first basketball activity with the ward!   I didn't really get to talk to him a lot at that time, but gave him an Eikaiwa flier and kind of never expected to see him again.  But on that day we got to talk to him and his little brother, and even have another activity planned with them this Friday!  I know that the world in the Church is pretty small, but I didn't really realize that the weird connections we find every day in the Church extend outside of it as well!  Our little branch really needs some Priesthood holders and a crazy little thing we found this past planning session is that just about half of the people we are working with or want to be working with fit exactly into that category!  Now we just have to work to make sure that it translates into some progress, and not just a dream. 

This past District meeting we all met together as a Zone afterwards to hear our zone theme for this transfer.  Our theme is "Drop the Anchor"  which is pretty great because in Japanese the word for Anchor is Ikari, and we have an Elder Ikari serving in this zone now.  And this next District meeting Okada 長老 and I have been planning a special present for our District! 

So our district is the Lion King district (or so Okada and I decided....) so we got permission to use the Lion King in our next District meeting.  The goal is to teach everybody how to have a "Simba" experience.  Ok, so Simba, starts out as a member of the pride, the son of the King, right? But after a series of events he falls, he forgets who he is, or that he's even the son of a King.  He becomes apathetic, without any sort of rule or order.  Then one day he meets someone who knows who they are, that knows they are a lion,  that knows they have a purpose. He learns from that person who he is, what his purpose is, and his inheritance.  He receives a message from his father in a vision, he is told:

Mufasa's ghost: [appears among the stars] Simba, you have forgotten me.
Adult Simba: No. How could I?
Mufasa's ghost: You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the Circle of Life.
Adult Simba: How can I go back? I'm not who I used to be.
Mufasa's ghost: Remember who you are. You are my son, and the one true king. Remember...

Simba does remember, he sees past what he is now, and what he can become in the future.  He comes back and not only rejoins the pride, but takes his place as a king, fully integrated into his role as a son of royalty. 

You are all a son or a daughter of God.  Sometimes we forget that simple fact.  We forget where we come from, we forget who we are, we forget why we are here.  The hustle and bustle of life are really good at drowning out the still small voice that whispers this to you.  You are a child of God, you have a divine royalty that is integrated into your very soul, all you have to do is remember, Remember who you are, remember that you are a child of God.  It doesn't matter how long you've been separated from the pride, how long you have been separated from the life you once knew, you can come back, and he is waiting for you to return.  The worth of souls is great in the sight of God, how great, we cannot even begin to imagine, but just remember, you are more than what you are now, Remember who you are!

To all of you, Happy New Year!  Take a bit of your time to create some new year’s resolutions, and when you do, I challenge you to do so while remembering who you are.  Here are a couple of mine.

·         * Become the Missionary the Primary kids think I am, the kind of missionary my Mom expects me to be.

·         * Dedicate all of 2012 to the Lord, to serve his children in a spirit of love and service.

·        * Leave every area, every ward/branch, every companion, every person I meet in a better situation than when I found them.

·        *  Respond to all of the letters I receive, because I am truly grateful for every single one I have received (I have a little folder where they are slowly but surely piling up).

Happy New year!  Yoi o toshi o

エベレット長老

Elder Benjamin Everett

Japan Fukuoka Mission

9-16 Hirao-josuimachi

Chuo-ku

Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka

810-0029

JAPAN