Good morning everyone! (It's 7 in the morning here so I feel
justified in saying that, regardless of whether you're reading this at 9 at
night or not :D)
This week has been pretty busy. It ended up not being as busy as we had previously thought (several people ended up canceling on us or knocking their appointment a couple of days later) so it was a lot more manageable. Monday went really well with visiting a less-active couple in our ward who used to be super active in the church. Well, the husband had back surgery and the wife is working as a cleaning lady at a hotel to provide money for the family, so it's been really hard for them to come to church. While they were mostly bedridden this past couple of weeks, they found a lot of time to watch the Olympics.... I was very jealous. (I wanted to watch the Olympics so bad. Granted, I did get to see some of the rhythmic gymnastics [the ball and hoop event] on the bus ride to Kumamoto, but, well, without music it's a little strange to watch, especially when you see a woman throw a rubber ball into the air and catch it behind her back with her head and her thigh, and immediately turn it into a back flip... cool, but a little strange.) The sad thing about the couple though, is that while they've been really busy with various hardships that have come up, they've stopped reading their scriptures and have forgotten a lot of the teachings of the church. We've been working on helping them realize the importance of taking the small and simple steps every day to read the scriptures and have heartfelt prayer unto the Lord.
That's something that Elder Gandy and I have been teaching and discussing a lot recently: what it really means to have a sincere prayer. We noticed that we say a ton of prayers every day: a prayer when we wake up, for breakfast, when we leave, before study, when we get back, throughout the day..... we pray a lot! But we realized that even while we're praying that much, if we don't take time out in the day and have our own special prayer, heartfelt and sincere, all the other prayers seem to be just words. Our heart isn't in our prayers, and our prayers aren't in our hearts, and the work cannot go forth without a prayer in the heart that calls out to the spirit.
Recently in Oita we've been having a lot of unexpected success and surprise joint lessons that have come up. On Tuesday we were housing and decided that it would be good to visit one of the part member families that we haven't been able to work with in a couple of months. So we knocked on the door and the member wife came out and talked to us in the entryway for a while, but couldn't invite us in because of missionary rules. It turns out that they had just gotten back from a family reunion (for Obon, the Japanese festival for the dead) and the non-member husband had stepped out for a bit. So we talked for a while and while we were talking the husband returned home and invited was like "Hey, come in, come in, stay a while, let’s talk." So, we ended up going in, and they gave us all of their left-overs from the family reunion and we ended up having a surprise meal appointment and a joint lesson.... You know, if the Lord chooses the mysterious way of surprise meal appointments and perfect timing to meet people’s needs, I'm perfectly fine being His tool to accomplish them!
Wednesday we met with a woman who was referred to us from one of our members. I was really excited because, well, a missionary is always really excited when they get to have somebody to teach, and it didn't take a full day of housing do find them. The investigator already has a friend in church, they have a good image of the church, they're a lot easier to meet, more willing to listen, the missionary has plenty of time to prepare a good lesson to teach them, and it's just all around a better method! How easy and effective our job becomes when we have the work of members to complement all we do. The change is almost irreplaceable.
One of our other main investigators, who is planning on getting baptized this coming Sunday, has been just awesome every time we meet her. This past Sunday she was sick and wasn't able to come to church, but we went to her hospital room and were able to have a really good lesson with her there. We only have a few lessons left, and she looks like she is going to safely get to the 26th with little to no hitches! It's been amazing to see the change in her that has taken place in this past 5 weeks; she's an amazing example of how the Gospel of Christ gives hope to the grieving soul and comfort to the weary!
Friday we had our big meeting with Naoya! Because it's been Summer Break we've been having time to meet with him and we've nearly finished teaching him the lessons! He said that he would definitely like to be baptized, but he first has to know for himself whether he can really believe in God and Jesus Christ. So in order to help him we've challenged him to read the Book of Mormon, and create a pattern of prayer and study in his life, to see if he can really come to believe that God is his Father in Heaven and if Jesus Christ really did perform the atonement and allow us a way to become better and rid ourselves of every sin that so easily besets us. He really understands the big step that baptism is and the blessings that come from it, and he is taking the path of true conversion. He may be a little weary because of the pressures from College, but the great thing about the gospel is that it gives us the confidence to do hard things and the courage to be a disciple of Christ. Because it really is something that takes courage and faith to continue in, and it is hard, but nothing in life that was easy was ever really worth it anyway.
Well, I hope you all have a really great week and do lots of fun things back in the other side of the world.
Do something hard.
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
This week has been pretty busy. It ended up not being as busy as we had previously thought (several people ended up canceling on us or knocking their appointment a couple of days later) so it was a lot more manageable. Monday went really well with visiting a less-active couple in our ward who used to be super active in the church. Well, the husband had back surgery and the wife is working as a cleaning lady at a hotel to provide money for the family, so it's been really hard for them to come to church. While they were mostly bedridden this past couple of weeks, they found a lot of time to watch the Olympics.... I was very jealous. (I wanted to watch the Olympics so bad. Granted, I did get to see some of the rhythmic gymnastics [the ball and hoop event] on the bus ride to Kumamoto, but, well, without music it's a little strange to watch, especially when you see a woman throw a rubber ball into the air and catch it behind her back with her head and her thigh, and immediately turn it into a back flip... cool, but a little strange.) The sad thing about the couple though, is that while they've been really busy with various hardships that have come up, they've stopped reading their scriptures and have forgotten a lot of the teachings of the church. We've been working on helping them realize the importance of taking the small and simple steps every day to read the scriptures and have heartfelt prayer unto the Lord.
That's something that Elder Gandy and I have been teaching and discussing a lot recently: what it really means to have a sincere prayer. We noticed that we say a ton of prayers every day: a prayer when we wake up, for breakfast, when we leave, before study, when we get back, throughout the day..... we pray a lot! But we realized that even while we're praying that much, if we don't take time out in the day and have our own special prayer, heartfelt and sincere, all the other prayers seem to be just words. Our heart isn't in our prayers, and our prayers aren't in our hearts, and the work cannot go forth without a prayer in the heart that calls out to the spirit.
Recently in Oita we've been having a lot of unexpected success and surprise joint lessons that have come up. On Tuesday we were housing and decided that it would be good to visit one of the part member families that we haven't been able to work with in a couple of months. So we knocked on the door and the member wife came out and talked to us in the entryway for a while, but couldn't invite us in because of missionary rules. It turns out that they had just gotten back from a family reunion (for Obon, the Japanese festival for the dead) and the non-member husband had stepped out for a bit. So we talked for a while and while we were talking the husband returned home and invited was like "Hey, come in, come in, stay a while, let’s talk." So, we ended up going in, and they gave us all of their left-overs from the family reunion and we ended up having a surprise meal appointment and a joint lesson.... You know, if the Lord chooses the mysterious way of surprise meal appointments and perfect timing to meet people’s needs, I'm perfectly fine being His tool to accomplish them!
Wednesday we met with a woman who was referred to us from one of our members. I was really excited because, well, a missionary is always really excited when they get to have somebody to teach, and it didn't take a full day of housing do find them. The investigator already has a friend in church, they have a good image of the church, they're a lot easier to meet, more willing to listen, the missionary has plenty of time to prepare a good lesson to teach them, and it's just all around a better method! How easy and effective our job becomes when we have the work of members to complement all we do. The change is almost irreplaceable.
One of our other main investigators, who is planning on getting baptized this coming Sunday, has been just awesome every time we meet her. This past Sunday she was sick and wasn't able to come to church, but we went to her hospital room and were able to have a really good lesson with her there. We only have a few lessons left, and she looks like she is going to safely get to the 26th with little to no hitches! It's been amazing to see the change in her that has taken place in this past 5 weeks; she's an amazing example of how the Gospel of Christ gives hope to the grieving soul and comfort to the weary!
Friday we had our big meeting with Naoya! Because it's been Summer Break we've been having time to meet with him and we've nearly finished teaching him the lessons! He said that he would definitely like to be baptized, but he first has to know for himself whether he can really believe in God and Jesus Christ. So in order to help him we've challenged him to read the Book of Mormon, and create a pattern of prayer and study in his life, to see if he can really come to believe that God is his Father in Heaven and if Jesus Christ really did perform the atonement and allow us a way to become better and rid ourselves of every sin that so easily besets us. He really understands the big step that baptism is and the blessings that come from it, and he is taking the path of true conversion. He may be a little weary because of the pressures from College, but the great thing about the gospel is that it gives us the confidence to do hard things and the courage to be a disciple of Christ. Because it really is something that takes courage and faith to continue in, and it is hard, but nothing in life that was easy was ever really worth it anyway.
Well, I hope you all have a really great week and do lots of fun things back in the other side of the world.
Do something hard.
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
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