Howdy from Japan! 29 Feb 2012

Hey, sorry this week's e-mail came a little bit late, we had exchanges this past Monday so Wednesday became our p-day.  Which means that we had to go to an Internet Cafe in order to use a computer.

Ok, so this week we had another special meeting.  Something about February just says special, I vote it's because it's a leap year and we had to do something to recognize it (by the way, Happy February 29th)  We actually ended up having a 2 day zone conference discussion the 8 fundamental principles of missionary work.  It's part of a new program that they are having all of the new missionaries do as they enter the mission field now.  It was way cool to see everybody again and to learn a ton of cool stuff.

So, because it was 2 days, missionaries that had to come up to Hiroshima from Yamaguchi prefecture had to stay over for the night in various different apartments.  We ended up with the elders from Shimonoseki, Elder Lyon and his bean (new missionary) Elder Thomas.  I ended up going with Elder Thomas, which was way fun, especially becuase it was Tuesday which is our sign language circle night!

We get to the place where we always go for sign language and learn that they aren't having one of their regular classes but rather a discussion on the differences between the langague of a deaf person, and of a regular speaker.  All in Japanese Sign Language.  Elder Thomas and I just kind of sat there trying to figure out what in the world was going on.  I can understand a bit of what was going on, but at this point, I only comprehend it in Japanese, and it's way hard to comprehend it in English, so I was using all of my brainpower I could to try and translate as best I could for Elder Thomas.... That's a day that'll be hard to forget.  It was definitely one of those "How did I get my self in this situation" kind of times!

As far a regular work (I'm starting to lose track of what is regular or what's not) goes, we've recently started adapting a new approach to teaching.  The Church videos.  I don't know if any of you have watched the church videos that have recently come out but, wow, they're pretty good!  We've watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with 3 investigators now, and each time in a different language: Japanese, Chinese, English.  It has a really good way of introducing the Savior, who he was, what he did, and how we can come closer to him.  If you have the time I highly, highly recommend watching them.

On another note for things out of the ordinary.  Saturday we had a "return missionary" meeting in which current missionaries and others with mission related callings were invited to attend as well.  One of our members was in charge of the event so we ended up being asked to gather various opinions from other missionaries on how to improve Eikaiwa.  We sent it up to the Zone Leaders, who sent it up to the Assistants to the President who sent it out to the entire mission, who then sent all of the responses to OUR cell phone!  All Saturday morning our phone was going crazy.  We ended up with responses from about half of the mission.

Okada and I then had to compile them all and make it into some sort of presentable format.  We got responses both in Japanese and English so I ended up having to translate half of them while Okada長老 typed it up in Japanese.  After we passed those out though we realized that half of the missionaries couldn't read it so I ended up having to translate it all into English as well!  I'm full well positive it was the gift of tongues because somehow I managed to translate 4 pages of material in about 30 minutes.  I am 100% positive that if I tried to do the same thing now that it would take an hour at the very least, with my handy-dandy electronic dictionary.  Hopefully this work will help Eikaiwa throughout the mission.  Eikaiwa has been the source of about 40% of the baptisms in this mission over the past several years, so anything to improve that is awesome!

Well, the mission is going awesome over on this end.  We're having people to teach, finding new friends, new investigators, seeing miracles, and feasting on the love and words of Christ daily.  At this point, there's not really a whole lot more that I can ask for.  Good luck with all you do this week, and remember, you have people all over the globe (we at least on the other half of it) praying for your success.

Elder Everett
エベレット長老

21 Feb 2012

Sorry I didn't get to send out an E-mail last week, but if you go to the temple, you don't have a P-day!

Big big event in Fukuoka on Saturday but before that, I've got a whole other week to catch you up on!

So, now we're back in the full swing of things this transfer!  Not that Okada長老 and I really took a break, but it seems that now everyone else is all caught up in their area and doing good. 

We had a way sweet lesson with one of our Investigators who is half-Japanese and prefers English.  It's always a little rough for Okada長老 but we always get him caught back up (I think).  She recently started going to a Gym 3 times a week, which will do wonders for her mental and physical health, but has made it that much more difficult to meet up.  We always have a rock solid lesson with her (it helps that she's already Christian) and these past 2 weeks or so we've seen a huge change in her!  It's the best thing in the world to finally see someone change and to see the work of the Lord illuminate and strengthen every aspect of their lives! 

Then we had a member randomly call us up and ask if he could come and do a joint lesson with one of our investigators!  We've been trying to find more people to come and teach a lesson with us, but mostly to no avail, so you can imagine our surprise when we get a call asking to come with us!  Great things are happening here in Yasufuruichi.  We may just be a small part in Northern Hiroshima (not to mention the surrounding towns as well) but you can feel the hand of the Lord pushing the work forward.  (Interesting fact I learned this week: In Japanese Economics they talk about the "Hand of God" pushing economic trends... in English it's just the "invisible hand")

Remember how a couple weeks ago I said that most of our work gets done on the weekends, well, something changed and now most all of our lessons are either on Monday or Tuesday!  It somehow made the switch and I'm still not sure how it happened.  As long as there's good work to do, I'm happy! 

Saturday (the 11th, one week before the big Fukuoka event) we had a Talent fair with the branch!  We learned a bit of Chinese from one of our investigators (我的名字是Everett)　＜－－Looks like Japanese, huh?  Sign language from our Young Women (speaking of Sign language, Okada長老 and I joined a Sign Language circle every Tuesday that one of our Less Active members puts on!  I have to say, I am a big fan of Japanese Sign Language, and I seem to be picking it up pretty fast!), and then a little bit of Calligraphy from our Relief Society president!  In another room we had the Husband of one of our members teach Guitar!  I'd say that the talent fair was a great success with 3 investigators coming and 2 less active members!

Sunday was an Okonomiyaki party (the Japanese pancakes that are filled with cabbage and octopus and other delicious things) with two types of Okonomiyaki.  So Hiroshima is famous in Japan for their Okonomiyaki (I swear I pass at least 20 stores of it every day, and I can think of 20 others outside of that) and they are main rivals with Osaka and their Okonomiyaki.  So we ate both.  I don't want to say it while I'm still here in Hiroshima but, I like the Osaka way better!

Speaking of delicious food … We've been meeting up with one of our Eikaiwa students at least once a week or so because he wants to give us food.  We get a call from him at least once a day asking to translate something for him, or if his translation is correct or not.  He says his hobby is "treating nice guys like you."  I don't know where he gets his money but I swear he's spent well over $1000 in the past couple of months feeding missionaries.  Everywhere we go he tells us to order 2,3, maybe 4 entrees!  I'm thankful for the love he's showing but, I just wish he would actually listen to us beyond our English....

Alright, so the big event in Fukuoka on Saturday, February 18.  We had a mission-wide meeting at the Honbu (mission home) (everyone except for Okinawa, they watched on video) and the main speaker was Elder Dallin H. Oaks from the Quorum of the 12!  He spoke to us on topics ranging from How to develop a desire, to How an eagle keeps it balance, to The power of the Atonement and irs effect in every aspect of our lives.  We learned of faith, desire, hope, repentance, and felt the weight of his words (and the weight of his hands on my shoulder as he told me "It's good to see an Elder from Raleigh here in Japan").  We also got to hear from Elder Hallstrom and his wife, President Margetts and his wife, (we only saw the Ringwoods this time) and an Elder Tashiro who informed us in the middle of his talk that he testified so much that he ran out of water in his mouth!  That's been one of my goals this week, to testify until my lips can say no more.

Right after the meeting Okada長老　and I, with the Sisters and the Missionaries in Takasu and Hamada (our whole district) went to the Temple with our members.  It just so happened that the meeting was on the same day as our stake temple trip and it was a great experience to go through the temple with all of our members!  A morning with Elder Oaks, the afternoon in the Temple with all of the members, and an evening with missionaries from all over the mission, it was a great day in Fukuoka.  Also a pretty day with 3 inches of snow blanketing everything in sight and snowflakes as big as my thumb dancing down the side of the Temple! 

"It is important to do the right thing, but the second most important thing, and only slightly behind, is doing the right thing at the right time."  There are many people who go about doing good works and seeing no progress.  Remember, the Lord will accomplish what must be done in "His own way, His own time, and according to His own will."  We are lucky to be a part of it and see it come to pass!

Remember, it is a testimony to you when God allows the power of the adversary to be strong around you, because he knows that you have the power to overcome that challenge and progress towards salvation! 

Remember the Joy of the Gospel and share it with everyone you meet, it's really the most unselfish thing you can do.  Share the joy, and watch it blossom in those around you!

Have a great week and I'll try not to miss out on a week again, I'll see what I can do to keep it from happening again!  Love you all and wish you the best (especially those getting ready to serve or who are now out serving, cherish every moment because it will go by mush faster than you can possibly imagine.  Today marks 10 months since I entered the MTC … Don't miss a minute!)

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Happy February from Japan!

Hey, sorry about missing last week, we had a zone p-day in Hikari and so 12 missionaries were trying to get a hold of one computer to use for e-mail.... I was more than happy to let everyone go first, but then time ran out.... oops!

Ok, so first big news.  Wednesday we had transfer calls!  Can you believe it? It's already been 3 months with Elder Okada, and 4.5 Months in Yasufuruichi.  Usually the calls come around 8:30 or so, but for some reason ours didn't come until after 9:30!  That's a long time to wait while we keep getting calls from everyone asking what happened.  So right now Yasufuruichi is a 4-man (well, 2 elders and 2 sisters) area, so it was way sad to hear that only 1 of the 4 missionaries are leaving.  So I feel really bad for Sister Kaneko, the only one to get transferred out of Yasufuruichi this transfer.  So, that means that I'm with Elder Okada for another 6 weeks (at least) and that we have another Sister coming in.  This is going to make 6 months that I've been in Yasufuruichi and 4.5 months with Okada 長老.  That's crazy!  Good things are happening here, though, lots of work to do.

So, Monday's zone p-day (where everyone in the Hiroshima area gets together for a p-day) was Olympics themed.  Now when I say Olympics, it was just a bunch of different games with some semblance of a tournament feel.  We played Uno and Ninja (it's a great game, especially when you add foam swords and ninja masks to the mix) and this sweet game called 100.   So, to play 100, everyone has a sheet of paper, and sits in a circle.  There 2 dice and one pen.  Everyone in the circle takes turn rolling the dice until somebody rolls a double; once somebody rolls a double they take the pen and right all of the numbers from 1 to 100 as fast as they can until the next person rolls doubles.  When the next person rolls a double you have to pass the pen (or as it turned out, they will just steal the pen out of your hand as you write!) and then continue from whatever number they left off at.  That's a great game to play with a bunch of 20-year-olds who just want to win. I ended up getting to 100 first and went to stand up but realized the table was in my way so I sat back down.  But the act of standing got the chair all off balance and I ended up falling straight back onto the floor.  It was all in slow motion and everything; I could feel the chair just tip and was not able to do anything about it.  If this computer had an SD slot I would send the picture!

Speaking of pictures, I promise I'll get some out...soon.  I'm not quite sure when but all it really takes is a SD reader, which this computer doesn't happen to have.  One of these days I'll just hit up an Internet cafe and send over all of the pictures (that might be a little sketchy... )

Today I was reading in Acts about Stephen and then again about Saul.  Stephen was preaching the word of God, related the account of Moses and all of the connections to Christ and was stoned to death for it.  His last words to the people who stoned him were a prayer to God asking for their forgiveness.  If we could find out how to have that kind of love, or at least see people in that sort of light, that would be a world I would like to live in, and that's the kind of person that I'm striving to be.  Then there's Saul.  He was pretty hardcore against the church, his whole job was to put Christians in jail.  But even during all that the Lord had a plan for him, He even called him a chosen vessel.  It's understandable why everyone didn't want to trust him when he said he converted.  But he was still a child of God, he still had worth, and he still had a destiny to fulfill.  There are going to be times where we meet with people that won't even give us the time of day, but that doesn't mean that they are bad people or the scourge of the earth.  They are God's children, and He has a plan for them.  Sometimes we might even be somebody’s Saul, earn back their trust, and prove you are who you say you are by your works. 

Here's to one more Transfer in Yasufuruichi, and to everyone, HAPPY FEBRUARY (Okada 長老　didn't believe me when I said there were 2 r's in February).

Elder Everett

エベレット長老