I don't know how I ever
thought that anywhere else was a wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey loop, but man, this
life in the mission home is throwing me for a loop. There times where I
don't have a ton of things to do so I work on inventorying the back room or
finding things to do and time seems to take forever, and then there are times
where I have to finalize drafts for the weekly newsletter and get things typed
out, printed, faxed, scanned, and all sorts of other things, and time flies
like lightning! Something about translating into Japanese seems to eat
time like nothing else. It's been a way fun week!
So this week we got to have the grand release of our first weekly newsletter, the FM mini News! Last week I sent you the draft that I made for the previous week, and it's gone through a good number of changes since them. I'm still trying to decide whether I like the layout of it or not, but I've been receiving some pretty good feedback from other missionaries, so I think it's pretty good :) So I think I'm just supposed to be in charge of the whole thing, the spiritual message, the spotlights, ideas for proselyting, missionary quotes, and the peek around the mission.... it's been a great blessing for me so far. A lot of my time is spent going through messages from the brethren, and watching Mormon messages, seeing if there's anything that I can apply in the mission. It's also been a great way for me to get to know people around the mission that I've never met before through the interviews for the spotlight each week. As much stress as it is, it's great! Hey, I don't know if any of you have seen the CES devotional from this past Sunday or not, but I highly recommend it! WATCH IT, it's good things!
I've heard that it's been super pretty weather in North Carolina recently! I'm jealous, it's been kind of rainy here recently. I don't know if I've ever seen so much dry lightning before, but I think it's pretty cool. It's a lot more fun to go lightning watching when it's not raining.... as weird as that sounds, it's been really fun! Also we've heard rumors of a super typhoon coming through Okinawa this week. We have Elder Yamashita of the Area Presidency over Japan and Korea coming to visit next week, so it'll be interesting getting around the super-typhoon Sanba for the APs and President. Luckily I only have to drive around Fukuoka and not from city to city! But I think that that would actually be easier.... Fukuoka is a big city and the streets are tiny.
Oh yeah, I didn't even say it but, this past Thursday we got Elder Watanabe and I an international license that lets us drive in Japan without having to take the notorious driving test! It's way cool and it comes with a little pamphlet that has it translated into 9 languages. So I'm perfectly fine to go and drive most everywhere in the world now :D.
But as far as driving goes, I've so far only driven in the middle of rush hour, so my view of Japan is vans, busses, and all sorts of vehicles streaming past you within inches of your car. Elder Clements told me to remember "They don't want to get hit just as much as you don't want to get hit"... then he followed that with "well, at least that's what I hope they think." I'm not sure if that's supposed to be reassuring or not.
Our baptismal date ended up getting pushed back a couple of weeks. He's still a little worried about changing religions, but we've been helping him focus on developing a belief in Christ and in his role. Because he has work every day it's been hard to meet with him more than once a week, but with e-mail and phone calls hopefully we'll be able to help him have the contact with the spirit that he needs to make the decision to be baptized! He knows this church is good, and he likes the changes it's brought in his life... now he just needs to know that it's true. And prayer is the only way how, and he knows that, and he's doing great working toward that goal.
"You know, someone, in life, someone in the 21st century, someone in all these situations has to live his or her religion. Because otherwise, all we get is a whole bunch of idiots, acting like moral pygmies" ~Jeffery R. Holland (I told you you should go watch the talk!)
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
So this week we got to have the grand release of our first weekly newsletter, the FM mini News! Last week I sent you the draft that I made for the previous week, and it's gone through a good number of changes since them. I'm still trying to decide whether I like the layout of it or not, but I've been receiving some pretty good feedback from other missionaries, so I think it's pretty good :) So I think I'm just supposed to be in charge of the whole thing, the spiritual message, the spotlights, ideas for proselyting, missionary quotes, and the peek around the mission.... it's been a great blessing for me so far. A lot of my time is spent going through messages from the brethren, and watching Mormon messages, seeing if there's anything that I can apply in the mission. It's also been a great way for me to get to know people around the mission that I've never met before through the interviews for the spotlight each week. As much stress as it is, it's great! Hey, I don't know if any of you have seen the CES devotional from this past Sunday or not, but I highly recommend it! WATCH IT, it's good things!
I've heard that it's been super pretty weather in North Carolina recently! I'm jealous, it's been kind of rainy here recently. I don't know if I've ever seen so much dry lightning before, but I think it's pretty cool. It's a lot more fun to go lightning watching when it's not raining.... as weird as that sounds, it's been really fun! Also we've heard rumors of a super typhoon coming through Okinawa this week. We have Elder Yamashita of the Area Presidency over Japan and Korea coming to visit next week, so it'll be interesting getting around the super-typhoon Sanba for the APs and President. Luckily I only have to drive around Fukuoka and not from city to city! But I think that that would actually be easier.... Fukuoka is a big city and the streets are tiny.
Oh yeah, I didn't even say it but, this past Thursday we got Elder Watanabe and I an international license that lets us drive in Japan without having to take the notorious driving test! It's way cool and it comes with a little pamphlet that has it translated into 9 languages. So I'm perfectly fine to go and drive most everywhere in the world now :D.
But as far as driving goes, I've so far only driven in the middle of rush hour, so my view of Japan is vans, busses, and all sorts of vehicles streaming past you within inches of your car. Elder Clements told me to remember "They don't want to get hit just as much as you don't want to get hit"... then he followed that with "well, at least that's what I hope they think." I'm not sure if that's supposed to be reassuring or not.
Our baptismal date ended up getting pushed back a couple of weeks. He's still a little worried about changing religions, but we've been helping him focus on developing a belief in Christ and in his role. Because he has work every day it's been hard to meet with him more than once a week, but with e-mail and phone calls hopefully we'll be able to help him have the contact with the spirit that he needs to make the decision to be baptized! He knows this church is good, and he likes the changes it's brought in his life... now he just needs to know that it's true. And prayer is the only way how, and he knows that, and he's doing great working toward that goal.
"You know, someone, in life, someone in the 21st century, someone in all these situations has to live his or her religion. Because otherwise, all we get is a whole bunch of idiots, acting like moral pygmies" ~Jeffery R. Holland (I told you you should go watch the talk!)
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
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