Wow, the weeks are going by super fast! This Monday is the start of the last full week of this transfer! It's so hard to imagine that I've already been in Oita for 4 months!
Well, this was one jam-packed week, and it seems to get even more hectic as the transfer wraps up! This past week the big event was our Thursday mini-zone conference to meet the new mission president: President Gustafson. It was really cool to go and hear the vision and the goal that he has for this mission. We hear a lot of the time about the great promises and blessings that have been pronounced about Japan regarding missionary work and we've heard of many prophesies that are to be fulfilled some time here in Japan, but it's always seemed like “sometime” it will happen. What we learned this week is that the time is now; the prophesies are being fulfilled and we need to go out and "let's go fulfill some prophesies"! How's that for a theme!
So apparently President Margetts decided not to give President Gustafson any information about anybody in the mission, so everybody in the mission has a relative 'clean slate' to start over who they will be in the mission. Apparently there are some horror stories that circulate around mission presidents about coming into a mission and it just being full of rebel missionaries, and from talking to Elder Clements (who is serving as an assistant to the president during the turn over) I learned that hardly a day has gone past that the Gustafsons haven't thanked President and Sister Margetts for leaving them the best mission in the world! There's a beautiful thing that happens when people come and work together with singleness of heart and purpose; when people do the things they know they are supposed to and follow the rules. That's when miracles happen, that's when you can go out and fulfill some prophecies.
Well, as far as getting Dendo done in Oita, that was a little rough this week. But that's only because we were in Kumamoto for 3 days! We ended up going to Kumamoto earlier on Wednesday and I got to teach the Shimizu Eikaiwa again, almost exactly 1 year after the very first time I taught that Eikaiwa! There are only 2 people still there from when I was there but that was all good because Yoshiaki was one of them! It was kind of sad because we didn't get to spend the 4th of July with our own Eikaiwa, but it was fun to spend it in Kumamoto with people that I at least had known before. Truth be told though, the extent of our July 4th celebration was eating out at McDonalds..... and singing the national anthem to wake up one of our Australian friends in the mission.
As this week has come and more and more people are realizing that it's the end of the transfer and that Elder Everett is the one in the hot seat, we've had some great blessing come from it. One of the less active members that we visit every Friday had a birthday this past Friday and I had my one year mark in Japan this past Saturday so we had a celebration and she bought us this awesome cake! Then she offered to make a portrait of me in her art studio! So I might be sending home a painted portrait of me in to near future. :D And other members, less actives, and investigators seem much more willing and able to meet when they know that you might be leaving soon. A ton more people have been trying to meet with us, as is evidenced in our plans for this week which has us either at an appointment or traveling to one almost every hour on some days! Have I mentioned how much I love Oita!?
The big thing that's been happening in the ward is the efforts to create a new branch in Beppu. That's the city that's up along the bay from Oita and has the college, APU, that Naoya and a couple of other members and investigators go to. Speaking of Naoya, we finally got to talk to him again this past Saturday. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon every day for 10-15 minutes, a challenge that I want to extend to all of you. I'm sure somewhere in your lives you can find that short time that can change your life. I know you have time, and I'm sure you can spare 10 minutes to improve your life (that's less time than it takes to watch an episode of Scooby Doo.)
This past Sunday was the first sacrament meeting there in Beppu and they had a great turnout of 26 people! That's almost more than how many people we had come to church when I first started in Yasufuruichi! If we can get that branch organized there then the people who haven't been able to make it to the Oita church due to money and time will have a place where they can worship, take the sacrament, and keep or develop their faith in Christ and in the Gospel. There are many people there who are active in the Gospel, but not as active in the Church purely from the strain of time and money presented by being so far away. But at least they're trying!
I hope you all have a good week. And go do something hard this week!
Lots o' love,
Elder Everettエベレット長老
Well, this was one jam-packed week, and it seems to get even more hectic as the transfer wraps up! This past week the big event was our Thursday mini-zone conference to meet the new mission president: President Gustafson. It was really cool to go and hear the vision and the goal that he has for this mission. We hear a lot of the time about the great promises and blessings that have been pronounced about Japan regarding missionary work and we've heard of many prophesies that are to be fulfilled some time here in Japan, but it's always seemed like “sometime” it will happen. What we learned this week is that the time is now; the prophesies are being fulfilled and we need to go out and "let's go fulfill some prophesies"! How's that for a theme!
So apparently President Margetts decided not to give President Gustafson any information about anybody in the mission, so everybody in the mission has a relative 'clean slate' to start over who they will be in the mission. Apparently there are some horror stories that circulate around mission presidents about coming into a mission and it just being full of rebel missionaries, and from talking to Elder Clements (who is serving as an assistant to the president during the turn over) I learned that hardly a day has gone past that the Gustafsons haven't thanked President and Sister Margetts for leaving them the best mission in the world! There's a beautiful thing that happens when people come and work together with singleness of heart and purpose; when people do the things they know they are supposed to and follow the rules. That's when miracles happen, that's when you can go out and fulfill some prophecies.
Well, as far as getting Dendo done in Oita, that was a little rough this week. But that's only because we were in Kumamoto for 3 days! We ended up going to Kumamoto earlier on Wednesday and I got to teach the Shimizu Eikaiwa again, almost exactly 1 year after the very first time I taught that Eikaiwa! There are only 2 people still there from when I was there but that was all good because Yoshiaki was one of them! It was kind of sad because we didn't get to spend the 4th of July with our own Eikaiwa, but it was fun to spend it in Kumamoto with people that I at least had known before. Truth be told though, the extent of our July 4th celebration was eating out at McDonalds..... and singing the national anthem to wake up one of our Australian friends in the mission.
As this week has come and more and more people are realizing that it's the end of the transfer and that Elder Everett is the one in the hot seat, we've had some great blessing come from it. One of the less active members that we visit every Friday had a birthday this past Friday and I had my one year mark in Japan this past Saturday so we had a celebration and she bought us this awesome cake! Then she offered to make a portrait of me in her art studio! So I might be sending home a painted portrait of me in to near future. :D And other members, less actives, and investigators seem much more willing and able to meet when they know that you might be leaving soon. A ton more people have been trying to meet with us, as is evidenced in our plans for this week which has us either at an appointment or traveling to one almost every hour on some days! Have I mentioned how much I love Oita!?
The big thing that's been happening in the ward is the efforts to create a new branch in Beppu. That's the city that's up along the bay from Oita and has the college, APU, that Naoya and a couple of other members and investigators go to. Speaking of Naoya, we finally got to talk to him again this past Saturday. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon every day for 10-15 minutes, a challenge that I want to extend to all of you. I'm sure somewhere in your lives you can find that short time that can change your life. I know you have time, and I'm sure you can spare 10 minutes to improve your life (that's less time than it takes to watch an episode of Scooby Doo.)
This past Sunday was the first sacrament meeting there in Beppu and they had a great turnout of 26 people! That's almost more than how many people we had come to church when I first started in Yasufuruichi! If we can get that branch organized there then the people who haven't been able to make it to the Oita church due to money and time will have a place where they can worship, take the sacrament, and keep or develop their faith in Christ and in the Gospel. There are many people there who are active in the Gospel, but not as active in the Church purely from the strain of time and money presented by being so far away. But at least they're trying!
I hope you all have a good week. And go do something hard this week!
Lots o' love,
Elder Everettエベレット長老
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