The Final Countdown!

If I were better at e-mailing every week I could confidently call this the 104th installment of the 'Beverett's on a Mission' blog, but I think this might actually end up being number 100 or so.... which in and of itself is quite a crazy idea.  

Ok, so I'm e-mailing late this week because of a couple of different reasons.  On transfer week P-day goes from Monday to Tuesday so that if you are transferring you can have plenty of time to pack and get ready.  However due to a series of events we wound up in Hiroshima on both Monday and Tuesday leaving today, Wednesday, as the final e-mail day in Japan!?  

Ok, so this was a pretty intense week.  Tuesday was our last district meeting so I had to come up with something to make it good.  We talked about the importance of the basics, and just how 不可欠 indispensable (I had to look up the English word......) the foundation for anything is.  Imagine playing Tennis without knowing the basic forehand, backhand, or anything else... but even further than that, even more basic, imagine Tennis without a net, or racket..... These things are the bare minimum to at least make it Tennis, everything else is then added on that to make the sport something amazing to behold.  Missionary work is very much the same.  There are bare minimums that have to be present for it to be the Lord's work.  Prayer, Scripture Study, Hearing the good word of God..... can you even imagine trying to come to know God, or even living without these basics?  It's not only a truly daunting task, it's literally impossible.  When you ignore the basics, the thing in and of itself ceases to be.  I'm not sure if that translated so well in English... In Japanese I said 基本を無視したら、そのものじゃなくなる。　(good luck you Japanese speakers out there)  

Working on the basics we had a junkai (companion exchange) with the Kure elders this week.  I was working with Elder Coelho, a new 18 year old missionary from Brazil, which was an awesome opportunity.  It was interesting, having a missionary at the very beginning of his mission and me at the very end, with less than a week left, going and doing the same work.  It doesn't matter how 'old' you are or what your experience is, a missionary is a missionary, and now, as I've come to realize more and more, a disciple of God is a disciple of God, there are things that you need to do, and everything else will fall into place.  Even if almost everyone we went to visit that day ended up not being home, that's okay, good things always happen when you go about doing the Lord's work.  (And sometimes you get an awesome reward at the end, such as being driven up to the top of a mountain to see the night view of Hiroshima!  Oh my goodness that was a beautiful sight to behold.... Everywhere as far as the eye could see, lights, cars, movement, and just....it's crazy!)

Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning all ended up being farewell parties!  It's so cool to see everyone that I've come to love this past couple of months here in Mihara.  We had Tako-yaki (Octopus in fried dough!) parfait sundaes (toppings were received based on of how many scripture mastery scriptures you could recite), yaki-soba (stir fried noodles) home-made cheese cake (seriously, they milked the cow and everything!) All over the various parties!  

My last P-day we were in Hiroshima and went to a bowling alley called Round-1.  It was my first time bowling in quite a while, so I was a little bit worried about how it would turn out, but the very first game I end with 7 strikes in a row to get 247!!!!!  TAKE THAT!  I was so excited, I wound up with an average of 181 over 6 games!  We also went to eat at an Indian Curry restaurant around the bowling Alley, which ended up being a miraculous place.  Working at the restaurant was a less-active member from Yasufuruichi that I had worked with over a year ago.  I worked mostly with her father and had been trying to get in contact with him since I came back to Hiroshima, but never really could.  But here, on my last p-day in Japan (which just happened to be pushed back a day, if we had been the day before it was her day off!) I was able to meet with his daughter, share my calling card, and let them know that they still have people thinking about them and hoping for their well-being!  (The logistics of God has got to be absolutely ridiculous)  

Well, tomorrow is the day... I get on a train at 7:40, and head off for the last time to the Fukuoka Honbu.  I've come to realize that 2 years does not feel like 2 years, learning a new language is a beast, Japan is absolutely beautiful, and that the Lord is really in everything.  Never forget that.  Even if we don't realize it, that doesn't stop the Lord from loving us.  How much better it is when we do realize it, and accept the love and help in our lives.  

Have a great week, I'll see you all soon.

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Penultimate report from the Land of the Rising Sun

Oh my goodness, how has it already been 1 week?!  The Cherry blossoms which were in full bloom at the start of the week are now all gone.  There may be a few stragglers left over dotted somewhere but for the most part, it's over.  But that's okay, because there are so many other flowers everywhere in Japan!  

So this weekend we finally were able to watch General Conference. Granted, I was listening to the English version while I was e-mailing last week, but now it was officially shown (via DVD) here in Japan as well.  Usually members here in Japan all gather at the stake center to watch Conference on both Saturday and Sunday, but because Mihara is so far away, we were the only unit to watch it at our own building.  I kind of made it a rule of thumb to watch Conference in Japanese whenever we had an investigator there, but to watch it in English whenever we didn't.  Sadly we weren't able to have anybody come to Conference this time around, and I ended up watching Conference in English by myself on the computer monitor while everyone else was watching it in the other room.... It was a strangely quiet experience, being able to fully focus on the talks!  

Sunday we had more people come, including one family with 2 little boys, 7 and 4 years old.  We moved the English session to the primary room that day, so it ended up being me, the 2 boys, and the primary teacher.  I went from a strangely quiet, easy to focus experience on Saturday to a very rambunctious time with 2 boys, which, strangely was also a really good learning experience.  

One thing I felt during this past Conference was that there were an awful lot of talks focusing on Marriage and Families.  Until now throughout my mission I've kind of zoned out during those talks, or even tried to find ways to relate it to missionary work, but there just seemed to be an overwhelming pattern of forming a righteous home and family, marriage and courtship.  I'm sure it'll cause my mother to have a slight heart attack to know that her little boy took the most notes this past conference on how to prepare for marriage and a family!  

This past week we made our way over to Onomichi again to visit the members over there.  We received a 'top 5' list of less actives to focus on in Mihara and we've been focusing on visiting them and finding out what is needed to help them improve.  There's one woman that we've been meeting with who reminds me so much of my mother.  One of the first conversations I had with her was about Star Trek, and I've since introduced her to the TV show House and we talk very much like I was her American son.  Right now she still feels very reluctant to talk about religion or to even share a scripture, but she knows somewhere in her heart that the questions and the worries she has now can all be swallowed up in the Gospel.  Hopefully with this last week I can find some way to help her realize how much her Father in Heaven loves her, and help set her up to continue to progress and grow closer to God.  Nearly 30 years of separation from the church carries with it a lot of hardships and difficulties as the church comes closer to you, but the most important thing to know is that God and Christ are waiting for you with open arms.  They are ready to rejoice with you as you make  the effort to come to Them.  

Well, here I go to start my last 10 days in the mission and I plan on attacking it like it will never end.  I look forward to seeing and sharing with you all the wondrous things that I have learned and experienced this past 2 years.  Let’s go do cool things!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

April Showers

You have just enough time to get a final letter to Ben, if you want:

Elder Benjamin C Everett

Japan Fukuoka Mission

9-16 Hirao-josuimachi

Chuo-ku

Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka

810-0029

JAPAN

 *******************

April is a beautiful time in Japan.  The saying goes 'April showers bring May Flowers' but here in Japan all of the prettiest flowers are in early April.  The purple plum blossoms and pink cherry blossoms are everywhere!  The mountains are really round here in Mihara and look almost furry with all of the trees on them.  Come cherry blossom season the wild trees on the mountains look like white spots on a giant green furry ball.  Or the not-so-wild ones meticulously planted along a mountain path create amazing views dotted all over Japan!  

This past week we had a plan to have a 花見 hanami, flower-viewing BBQ at a local park, but the day before we received news of a heavy storm coming through that day, and it turned into a board-game conference and sandwich party.  Our original plan of 40 or so people quickly fell and we wound up with around 15 or so people at the event.  But of those 15 people, 7 of them were not members, and had a pretty good time playing Uno, Shogi, Othello, and several other games.  (Playing Shogi and Uno at the same time is quite a bit more of a mental work out than you might think!) Our Branch president had bought 10 lbs of meat for the BBQ which almost all went unused at the game conference.  Steak, sausage, and pork belly, all to go back into the freezer from whence they came....

But fear not, the next day took care of the problem!  The next day was Fast Sunday at church and everybody, still wanting to go see the flowers, made a plan to go Sunday and see some cherry blossoms at a local Shinto Shrine after Church.  But the bad weather came back again and we all ended up going to the Branch President’s house and had an impromptu BBQ/family home evening with almost the whole branch!  We ended up with as many people at the impromptu FHE as we did at the planned conference the day before.... (Japanese yakiniku is so good!)

Sunday was awesome here in Mihara!  Fast Sunday is usually a really awkward time in a small branch because everybody looks around to see who's going to go up and bear their testimony.  You can almost feel the tension in the room half of the time.  This Sunday was following much of the same pattern, until suddenly from the back of the room we had 3 of our investigators come in!  A mother and her daughter (who have been absolutely giddy about reading the Book of Mormon picture book, "I finally understand what it was saying") and one of our other investigators who finally got a day off of work and came to church.  We hadn't met him in several weeks because he was so busy with work, but in his first day off in nearly 2 months he decided to use that time to come to church!  We finally got his phone number and he's looking to be really good from here on.  We've been having a bit of a rough time being able to meet with our investigators recently, but they are now coming to us!  The three of them coming to Sacrament meeting seemed to boost the branch members and there was almost an unending stream of testimonies until the time ended.  I was certain that every single testimony was exactly what the investigators needed to hear.  Fast Sundays are the best!

 As I was reminded in this week’s call-in reports that I have 17 days left as a missionary in Japan.... Here's to making it something to be remembered!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

It's no April Fool .... it's my Last Month!!

HAPPY EASTER 復活祭おめでとう！

How was your Easter?  I'm sure many of you had Easter egg hunts, special dinners, church programs, and fun coloring eggs and playing games.  Well, in a country where less than 2% of the population claim to be Christian, none of that happens unless you make it.  So that's what I did.  Through several strange chain of events I ended up teaching Eikaiwa 3 days in a row this week, in 3 different areas: Mihara, Yasufuruichi, and Takasu.  In all of which I ended up throwing a surprise Easter Party!  We had Easter-egg hunts throughout the church and then colored the eggs once they were found!  Due to a lack of food coloring and Easter supplies of any sort, we used highlighters and markers, but it was just as good!  Prizes included Oreo Cookies, Pocky, Hi-chew (kind of like Japanese Starburst), and a Giant Hershey's bar.  Something about seeing 8 or 9 fully grown adults (many over 50) going around anxiously searching for eggs made me smile.  That's one of the best things about Japanese people, no matter how old they are, they're just as intense about winning when it comes to playing a game.

Some of you may have noticed that I mentioned Yasufuruichi in there, and there may even be some of you that realized that that is one of my former areas!  I ended up going on a Junkai to Yasufuruichi for 2 days this past week.  It was really interesting coming back to an area I was in before.  I still remembered all of the streets, all of the houses and the people around there.  I went with the missionary there to visit many of the former investigators and less active members that I used to work with there and helped them find new people to work with as well.  As soon as we got  there I started making phone calls and we managed to double their Eikaiwa attendance in a single day!  It's not often that you go on a junkai and end up getting fed every meal!  

Friday at our District meeting we talked about the いろは Iroha of missionary work.  In Japanese the Iroha is a way to make an ordered list and is similar to saying the abc's of missionary work.  I broke it down to 3 main basis.  いー祈り I-inori Prayer.  In all that we do Prayer is key in all that we do.  We need to be humble enough to pray, pray for us and all others, seek for answers, and have prayer as the base for all that we do.  ろー労力 Ro-rouryoku hard work.  As a missionary we have to go do work.  Whether its streeting, housing, making plans for teaching investigators, preparing something to give members or anyone else.... there's a lot of things to do as a missionary.  Last was はーはｐｐｙ　Ha-Happy.  I wasn't sure what to do for put for ha, so I used a bit of good ol' japanglish to emphasize the importance of being Happy and letting this eternal plan of happiness show in your life.  I talked about it as the basis for missionary work, but it is more than just that, I believe that it's very much part of the basics of our lives.  Prayer, work, and finding happiness in all that we do.  With those three things, what can't be done?

Have a great week! Go do something cool :)

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

I totally missed the Ides of March!

New missionaries are awesome.  Ok, so here in this district we have an 18-year-old missionary from Brazil that we are working with.  Right now as a District Leader I'm in charge of the growth and development of all of the missionaries I serve, with a special focus on new missionaries.  He may only be 18 (meaning he was a freshman when I graduated High School!) but he's got dendo fire that's contagious.  (You should be proud of me in that I spelled contagious right on my first try)

Wednesday we had a BBQ planned over in Hiroshima and went with our one active young man, and the seminary teacher.  March 20 is a holiday in Japan (the vernal solstice) so it was the perfect time for a BBQ and soccer, right?  Well, that's what we all thought; the weather just didn't want to agree.  The entire first part of the event was spent huddled under a tree trying to cook the meat without it getting watered down by the torrential rain that decided to fall that day.  It very much reminded me of many a scout camp I've been on... The whole stake was invited but the participants ended up being half Mihara and Kure branches (the farthest away) and the other half Yasufuruichi (who planned it!)  I was perfectly fine with it, I knew everybody there (a rare thing for a missionary) and it was super fun!  Just as all of the food was done and everybody was feeling full, the rain stopped and we had perfect weather for soccer.  Me being me, I had brought an Ultimate disc with me as well, and I think that that became just as popular, if not more, than soccer!  As one of the kids was leaving I heard him talking to his dad saying, "I think I know what I want for my birthday..."  (Converts to frisbee +1 :D)  

After the BBQ and sports, the contingent from Mihara (all 4 of us) went to this restaurant called the World Buffet in Hiroshima which was awesome!  If any of you happen to be in Hiroshima (not sure how it would happen) I highly recommend it.  Just don't eat too much, it'll be hard, but make a fixed limit and you'll be fine.

Tuesday we had a big mission meeting with 4 zones!  We had a similar conference a little over a month ago and I was happy because I knew everybody at the conference.  Now 1 month and 2 groups of new missionaries later, I don't know half of the mission!  The Fukuoka mission is currently under a revolution!  Our number had dwindled from around 140 to 108 at one point, but with the new announcement in October, we're looking at hitting 240 within a year.  Come 1 year from now this mission is going to be completely different!   Elder Mills, an old mission president who served in Fukuoka, was the guest speaker, perhaps one of the most animated speakers I've seen at a zone conference yet.  We learned about the importance of short, powerful statements to invite the spirit in as we Find on the streets, and the importance of doing more effective methods more.  Personally I was impressed that he kept his Japanese up for so long after his mission, and his presentation was animated and kept your attention.  I think the thing I came most from the conference was wanting to have that kind of attribute some 30 years after my mission.  You could just tell that his life was the product of his service to God and Christ, what could be better than that!

Saturday at our monthly service at the center for people with disabilities went really well.  We play Shogi (Japanese chess) with them and this was their yearly Shogi Tournament.  I lost very soundly, but it was a great time to get to know the people.  Somehow it got around that it was going to be my last time at the service activity, so the coordinator at the center and his intern (it just so happened to be his last day too) had us come and talk about American and Japanese welfare principles, religious beliefs, and life in general!  It was awesome, and if nothing else, they certainly have a great respect for Christianity and this Church in particular.  

Oh Church was awesome.  We suddenly jumped to 36 people, and at the branch lunch afterward we reached 50!  A family from New Zealand was visiting before they leave to go to Australia, and all of their friends came to see them off.  I don't know if I've ever seen so many people in the church building!  That's definitely a family that I respect, and would be very happy if my own future family turned out like.  We swapped facebook info (which is totally possible now as I can actually find them within a relatively short amount of time) and it was a really sweet farewell.  Things are moving, miracles abound, and life is good.  

As simple a thing as listing all the good things in a week can make any bad feelings, any anger, doubt, fear, frustration slip away.  Try it out, it's awesome.

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Welcome to the newest member in MIhara!

There's a lot that can happen in a week.  You could meet new friends, If luck is on your side you can find and start a new job, move across the country, move to a new country, you could even for example, turn over a new leaf (possibly a 4-leaf clover?) and start a new life.  There's a lot of things that we can do every week, and this week, our 71 year old friend here in Mihara made quite a big step and began her life as a disciple of Christ. 

The baptismal service was really cool.  Somehow Elder Swasey and I got out a pretty good version of 'When Jesus Christ was Baptized.' I would love to send over a video (Elder Swasey took one on his camera) but there's not really any way to send it.

However back at the baptismal service we had 2 of our investigators come (a mother and her daughter) and learn a little bit more about what it means to follow Christ.  They had a really good time, and after the service we had a dinner with everyone that came.  I don't know of any better way for people to fellowship and become friends than over a simple meal with a good atmosphere.  The members did a great job at welcoming Iwashita into the ward and even developing good relationships with the Asayama mother-daughter pair.  (Their names may mean 'rock-bottom' and 'shallow mountain' but they're great)

So Elder Swasey really likes to cook.  I don't know if I've ever seen a missionary make as many brownies (with pure cocoa, beet sugar, and organic butter and eggs) pudding (with organic soy-milk, 100% fruit juice, beet sugar, and an organic gelatin like powder) or 和菓子　(Japanese treats wagashi).  It's been really great as we've been delivering them to people that we meet.  I don't think there's been hardly anyone that we've met this past month or so that we haven't brought something to give them.  I feel like it's a good way to show them love and how much we care about them, but sometimes....maybe it’s a little much.  At the very least, it has them open the door a little wider, talk a little bit longer, and hopefully, eventually open their heart a little broader.  

Saturday we had a plan to go to Onomichi (the next city over) and visit a lot of less-active members, but as we made calls, every single person fell through.  We weren't really sure what to do but I had really felt like we should go and at the very least make the effort to go and see them, even if they weren't there (with loads of brownies and access to conference talks, we could at least leave something for them to eat and read when they got back).  There's been one member over in Onomichi that's been on my mind recently, and she was one that I really wanted to meet with, but fell through. This week I kept thinking, I need to call her, even if it's just for a little bit, I need to call her and see how she's doing.  The phone call didn't end up being something super exciting, it was essentially the same as any of the other phone calls I've had with her this past 2 months, and it even ended up with her canceling the meeting tomorrow.  So much for that little bit of inspiration..... At least that's that I thought until Sunday.

So Sunday was pretty great.  Iwashita got confirmed a member in Sacrament meeting, and she even made it to all 3 hours of church for the first time!  She always tells us how she doesn't know anything, but she plans on doing all she can to learn and keeping growing in the Gospel.  Up until Sunday she always left after the 2nd hour, missing Relief Society.  So today come the third hour we were really excited for her to finally make the step to go and join the other sisters!  As we were sitting in Priesthood meeting thinking that it was going all good, suddenly the 1st counselor in the branch presidency came and grabbed us.  He's like 'There's this woman called Shimatani at the door.'  I rushed out the door, and to my great surprise, it was Sister Shimatani, the member who I had been thinking about all this past week!  It was her first time back at church in over 10 years!  She had visited the building once when they had a big open house for it 6 years ago, but never on Sunday.  She made her way over by riding her bike to the train station in Onomichi, taking the train to Mihara, then walking nearly half an hour in a town she hasn't been in in over 5 years, and somehow found the Church!  Now it's not as if they come back to church once and all of the sudden everything is better, but that first step, the journey to come to church after a long period of absence, is possibly the hardest step to take; and I'm not sure what it is about Mihara, but more and more members here are beginning to take those first steps back to Church.  I'm fully convinced that a reactivated member is just as important, just a special as a new convert.  What a great Sunday!

Well, I think it should be getting warmer there, it certainly is here.  I hope you all have a great week, and go do something special!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Marching through Mihara

Well, it is the end of my 15th transfer and here I go starting number 16!  If I were to say that the feeling is surreal, well, that might just be an understatement.  So with the 4-week transfer, and nearly half of the mission changing, there was bound to be something happening in Mihara.  Well, if that's what you thought then you were with the rest of everybody else, everybody that is, except for President Gustafson and the Lord, because Elder Swasey and I are staying one more together.  

I started off my mission bouncing around and wound up in my third area by my third transfer, and I have now been in as many areas since then I as I had up until then!  I'm super excited for everything that's going to be going down in Mihara this transfer.  We've been going around finding all of the hidden youth here in Mihara.  We have one young man who comes every couple of weeks, and that's about it.  But throughout this week we've found that there are actually 8 possible young men here in Mihara!  4 of them are members, 3 less active, and the other 4 are non-members but they all range from 12 to 17 years old!  I'm not sure what it's going to take to get them to come out to church but I'm certainly going to do whatever it takes!

Tomorrow is a big day because we have a BAPTISM!  She's a wonderful older woman who's been meeting with us ever since she began taking English lessons last August!  She was telling us how much she has opened up since she began coming to church, and just how happy she feels whenever she comes to church on Sundays.  The power of the Gospel has a profound effect upon the lives of the people who let it in.  For the baptismal service Elder Swasey is playing the Violin and I am going to be singing 'When Jesus Christ was Baptized' which isn't in Japanese, so we've been working on translating it this week.  I've done a lot of translating throughout my mission, but something about translating songs.... that's just a whole other ball park (counting the beats, fitting the words, not mixing old and new Japanese, keeping proper respect levels and tenses.... ) it's a bit of a beast. 

As we've been continuing here in Mihara we've gotten really busy.  Almost every day has turned into us going from place to place visiting and teaching along the way.  As far as teaching goes, I have to say that this has been the busiest time in my mission.  At the same time I know that there is always more that I can do and with this last 6 weeks I plan on going all out and doing everything that I can!  

This past Sunday we had a branch conference, and our little branch of 20 or so people somehow grew to 36.  A good number of them were from the stake, but it was quite a sight to behold.  We even had a family come for the first time!  The mother is a member but hasn't come to church in many years, and she brought her 2 sons (part of the hidden youth of Mihara) who are 14 and 16 years old.  We also had a delicious pot-luck lunch afterwards with so much good food!  Carbonala Pasta, Japanese Beef Stew, rice balls, sushi, japanese fried chicken (its different you know)  … as they say in Hiroshima, 'my stomach got fat!'

The work continues to go on and I've got 6 weeks left to go and do all the good that I can!  Wish me luck!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Mihara's March Madness

I can hardly even believe that it's already March here in Mihara.  I still remember very clearly the day I came over from Fukuoka, and oh man, what a quick little trip that has been! 

 

Thing here in Mihara are really heating up!  This week we were able to visit with a lot of our investigators, especially ones who are hard to meet up with, and they are all doing really well.  This past Monday at the family home evening we have every week we challenged the family to have family prayer every day this week and to let us know how it went, today we're making them fried rice and planning on seeing how it went!   Before we visit them on Monday we drop by another family that lives around that area to talk to their son, who was baptized just over a year ago.  He's pretty much our only young man in the ward, so we try to spend a lot of time with him and help him stay active in the Gospel.  He's a really awesome kid and I love to work with him.

 

Speaking of, a little over a week ago we had him joint for a lesson with our main investigator, and his testimony really seemed to strike a chord with her.  He's 17 and she's 76, but even with the 60 years of difference, that's no barrier for the spirit to testify of truth.  This last week when we met with her again we reviewed the requirements for a person to be baptized and she set a goal to get baptized next week!  Now we're looking forward to the 13th and working with her to strengthen her faith and help her feel her savior's love throughout her life!  (I'm really happy that it's the 13th, because this transfer is only 4 weeks and if I get transferred, than it would be on the 14th.... If the only 'result' that comes from a short stay in Mihara is her baptism, then I am utterly and completely satisfied.)

One of the things that I've been coming to really appreciate is the effectiveness and the simpleness a phone call during the week can do for a person.  Even if we don't have something to really teach them, just checking up on how they are, getting to know them a little better, and really caring about them beyond Sunday is something that I've really come to appreciate this past week.  There's a quote that was said in General Conference that has stuck with me ever since I heard it.  It's been my motto for this last part of my mission and I think is more than worth sharing. 

 

"The Church cannot hope to save a man on Sunday if during the week it is a complacent witness to the crucifixion of his soul.”

 

This is why I go after all of the less active members I can in every area I go.  This is why we, as missionaries take time to visit members, hear their stories, lift them up and inspire them.  We are the Lord's hands in the service of his children, and we cannot fail as long as we pray to know and perform the will of the Lord.

 

This past week we made an extra effort to recontact former investigators and found ourselves in a brand new part of our area.  It took a good hour or so bike ride to get there (in the dark no less) which was possibly one of the more dangerous bike rides I think I've taken in the past 2 years.  Our options where either on the side of the highway with no bike paths or side walks (literally right next to the trucks whizzing by) or on the narrow walk ways between the maze of rice fields on either side. We ended up taking both ways at different times, relying on the kindness of the drivers while on the highway, and our little bike lights trying to navigate the maze of rice fields....  We're planning on going back, a good 2 hours earlier this time so that we have the Sun on our side.

 

Yesterday was a busy Sunday!  So March 3rd is a holiday here in Japan, the Doll Festival.  It's mainly for little girls, so there's pink things everywhere and dolls on gorgeous ornate stands everywhere we go.  It's to celebrate the start of the Cherry Blossom season here in Japan, which I think is just about the most beautiful time in Japan.  We were invited over to the Branch Presidents house for a sort of Family Home Evening where we made Pizza and had delicious ice cream (with pie filling as topping...?!)  But before that we got news that the son of one of our investigators was turning 13!  My companion and I made him a nice batch of brownies and got a member to take us over the 25 minute car ride to hand deliver it to him!  He's a really quite reserved kid, but oh man, he was so happy we were there to celebrate his birthday.  It's just like I was saying, going out of your way to go and do something nice for somebody else... there's not much of a better feeling then when they give that smile of appreciation back! 

 

The work goes on and the heat rises!  The cold winter is nearing it's end and the new life of spring is coming up.  皆さんの上に神様の平安と慰めがありますように。  (May the comfort and peace of God be upon you.)

 

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Down to Single Digit Weeks!

So while we were planning this past week I was flipping through the calendar I have on my wall and realized, Of the 104 weeks allotted to me to serve the Lord fulltime, I am now down to single digits.... What is this! Well, that just means I only have a little bit of time left to go and do everything good that I can and believe you me, I'm going to make this a 2-months to remember.

This has been a bit of an interesting week here in Mihara.  Every Monday we have family home evening with this one family in the ward who have been have a pretty rough time recently, and it's been really good to see them progress from week to week, but really sad whenever we see them regress instead.  The goal that we've set is daily prayer as a family.  I know in my own companionships there have been times where we pray together at night and times that we don't, and it's always been a huge difference between the times we make the effort to pray together and the times where we let our own feelings, exhaustion, or any number of other influences put a stop to our prayers.  How much better it is when we show God and ourselves that we are better than whatever Satan tries to throw at us. 

This past Thursday we had a companion exchange over in this place called Kure.  They've been having a little trouble as of late finding people to teach, and so we made our way over there to try and help them find and establish a teaching pool.  It was really cool to see the Lord guide our way as we worked in Kure over the course of a day.  While we never officially found somebody who would immediately continue learning, we met many people who had met missionaries before, rejected them, but for some reason this time listened and showed some genuine interest.  It's hard sometimes to meet somebody the 2nd time, but everything we do is going to have a great influence on the lives of the people where we work.  I've come to learn that even if we don't find people through our own finding efforts, it is the effort we put in that counts.  The Lord will bring people into your path as you show your faith. 

While in Kure we had an opportunity to go around with a member of the stake presidency to go and visit some members.  On the online membership records it shows a little update whenever somebody’s records move into the ward/branch boundaries.  There happened to be just such a record the day before and we went on the hunt to find the address.  After driving around for a good 30 minutes we finally found a place where we thought it was and decided that all there was to do from here was to knock doors.  The missionary that I was on splits with just went straight for the first door he saw and started knocking.  All we knew was a name and a general location, but through the work of the divine the very first house we went to was this Woman.  We learned that she had been baptized over 30 years ago and had fallen out of contact with the church, and didn't even know that there was one close to her home.  After some 15 years or so of living in Kure, her records just happened to come, the 2nd counselor just happened to see it, and we just happened to catch her at the only time in her busy day that she would be able to talk...  I've long since learned that there are no such things as coincidences. 

This past Sunday we had 3 people at church!  Well, in addition to the other 15 or so members who always come, we had 3 investigators!  2 of whom we weren't even expecting!  A mother and her daughter that we've been teaching for a little while finally made it to church for the first time in several months.  The Daughter had a really great time and is going to come with her mother to our Eikaiwa brownie making party this Tuesday!  They've been having a bit of trouble recognizing, and feeling the spirit, but I think they had a really great time at church.  2 people we expected to come didn't come, but instead 2 people we didn't expect to come, came!  Now if only the other two will come too that would be best!

The work here continues to move on and we continue to see miracles almost daily.  (A member took us to go visit a friend of hers that she wanted to refer to the missionaries and we learned that it was a woman that Elder Urakami and I had found and taught nearly 2 weeks ago and planned on meeting again)  And the land of Mihara is heating up (well, not temperature-wise, I would like that, it's freezing here) and I couldn't really ask for more (except maybe a bit more sunlight....).

I hope you all have a great week! Go do cool things.

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Ch-ch-ch-changes in Japan

Guess who just got companion number 10!  Earlier this week we had transfer calls and Mihara got hit by the transfer wagon.  Tuesday we had lunch with a member (we told him that transfer calls were coming soon and he wanted to have a 'possible last lunch' in case somebody left) and got the call right as we finished eating.  I couldn't very well put it on speaker phone because we were in the middle of a katsudon restaurant, so we didn't get as much of the hoopla and theatrics that the APs usually try to throw in whenever somebody transfers, but here are the results.  Elder Urakami got transferred to a place called Hofu in Yamaguchi Prefecture (which just so happens to have the location that they are going to have the 2015 World Scout Jamboree) about 3 hours from Mihara, so not a very long transfer for his first one, but he didn't get to ride a shinkansen. 

My new companion is Elder Swasey, another half-japanese elder, who for some reason prefers to speak English rather than Japanese in the apartment (That's two fake Japanese people in a row, but I guess it’s good to help me not forget English).  He's on transfer 12 so he's been out for a good while, 15 months or so, tying the record for my oldest companion so far.  If ever there were more opposites in personality than Elder Urakami and Elder Swasey, I would be surprised.  Elder Urakami would only eat frozen food, spam, or instant noodles, and Elder Swasey came in with a suitcase full of organic foods, spices, and his own organic beet sugar.  I feel like there's a good chance my diet is about to have a total overhaul.  I'm not sure how it will turn out, I'm still kind of at the "I don't really care too much about what I eat as long as I get the 5 food groups" category. 

Elder Swasey is from Tottori prefecture, which is in Okayam Stake, right next door to Hiroshima Stake. Mihara used to be in Okayama stake but moved over about 2 years ago, so everybody in Mihara knows the Swasey family.　There were people at church that recognized him as a Swasey before he even introduced himself!  Hopefully this will help us gain some leverage to help out the less-actives here in Mihara. 

Speaking of working with the less-actives ...  This past Sunday we had an interesting experience of going around and helping out with a Visiting Teaching route.  The branch president drove us around with the 2 sisters and we visited everybody on their route.  It was really cool because everybody they visited were people that I've been working with for the past month or so, so I was able to give them updated information, tell them a little more about their situation, and work with them on finding the best way to work with them from here.  I love visiting members with other members, it’s always a great time!  Most of the sisters we visited, by the way, are almost impossible to get a hold of most days.  It’s normally a hit or miss with 3 of them and for some reason we got 2 hits in a row!  It was great!

Around that same time we also found a new investigator, a 16 year old high-schooler, and started teaching him this week.  He and his family had met with the Jehovah's Witnesses (they are all over Japan by the way) several years ago, and believe in God and in Christ, but they never officially joined a specific church.  Now we are working with them and trying to teach them as a family.  That, I think, is one of the best times in missionary work when you get to work with a family.  Sadly most of the time we teach only 1 or 2 people from a family, and it ends up putting strain on the family relationships, but wherever we go, and whoever we teach, our prime goal is to strengthen the family and help them prepare to be an eternal family.  That task is much more difficult than I had previously thought.

Mihara is doing great (it's cold and rainy but that’s ok)  we have people to visit, food to eat (even if some of it looks like it’s for a rabbit) and as always the beautiful countryside of Japan all around us! 

I hope you all have a great week there with the crazy weather.  Go do something hard!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

A Japanese Valentine

I like Valentines day in Japan.  Like in America people give chocolates and various sweets to friends, and especially people that they like, but unlike in America, on Valentines day, its only the girls who give chocolates and goodies.  Guys are just there to receive.  Granted, Japan added a second holiday on March 14 called "White day" where all of the guys give chocolates to the girls, but it more of a 'return' and takes a lot of the stress off of deciding who to give valentines to.  楽だ！

This past week was really busy, and for the most part we weren't even in Mihara!  Monday and Tuesday we were over in Kure for a junkai that went really well!  I went around with an Elder that I've known for about a year and a half now (he goes home in 2 days) and had a great time finding.  Since coming to Mihara I've been working on getting myself out there and talking to everybody, which has been good, but it's been really hard to get somebody that will talk back.  We're pretty lucky if we get 1 or 2 people to talk to us in a day.  However in Kure, only having a little bit of time to go finding because we had to make it back to Mihara (nearly a 2 hour journey),  we taught 6 lessons and handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon.  That's more success than we see in a week most of the time, and it was all within 3 hours!  As long as you're out doing the Lord’s work, it doesn't matter how long you have, the Lord with bless you with the time available.  We just have to go and make the most of it.

So that took us out of Mihara Monday and Tuesday, so that left Wednesday to dendo in Mihara before heading over the Fukuoka for a 4 zone conference with Elder Ringwood of the Asia North Area Presidency.  Wednesday we had to stop by the doctor's office (Elder Urakami's been having some pretty bad eczema) which took out a good bit of time from finding, and we had a lesson at 5 before having to hit a train at 7!  So this time, with even less time than in Kure, Elder Urakami and I set out to go find somebody who will listen.  After walking around for a good little bit we felt impressed to go search down this one neighborhood to see if anybody was home (usually limited to old men and women especially in the afternoon of a random Wednesday) and found somebody in the very first house we went to!  She wasn't super interested in hearing any more than the first bit of the message we taught, but she accepted a pamphlet and said she would read it.  Then continuing in that neighborhood we didn't find anybody else until we were leaving it and started talking to this one young man on his way back home from school.  We talked for a good 25 minutes, gave him a Book of Mormon, and set up a time to meet him at Eikaiwa next week (today!).  1 hour, 2 people, 1 Book of Mormon, and somebody who wants to hear more! 

Wednesday night we stayed over in Hiroshima so we could ride a Shinkansen (bullet train) early the next morning.  We stayed in the currently unused Hikari ward Sisters apartment, which used to be the Yasufuruichi Elders apartment that Elder Okada and I had opened a little over 1 year ago!  That was an interesting experience going back there after a year!  I have to say, it's a lot cleaner when 1) nobody lives there and there's no stuff and 2) after sister missionaries have lived there. 

Elder Ringwood's conference was awesome.  We learned that when he and his wife had just gotten married, the bishop of the first ward they went to was President Gustafson!  That's got to be interesting, meeting up again in Japan, over 30 years later, as a mission president and a member of the 70.  We learned all about how no effort is wasted and that really, whenever we teach, we're not only affecting 1 person, we're bringing the gospel to them, their children, their ancestors, and generations on either side.  What a great chance that is to bring the Gospel of Christ to generations! 

The rest of the week in Mihara was taken up by a huge Festival that brought tens of thousands of people to Mihara (I think tripling the population).  A festival (祭り） here in Japan, is kind of like the State Fair back in North Carolina.  However in Japan they are always based off of the local shrine and have a lot of traditional history.  The food is awesome too.  I had tai-yaki (a type of deep fried pastry in the shape of a fish), karaage (japanese style fried chicken), okonomiyaki (kind of like a japanese pancake with cabbage, octopus, squid, and all sorts of delicious things inside), Fried Octopus, and yaki-tori (grilled chicken on sticks).   Festivals are a great place to get dinner!

Well, I just want to let you all know that the work is going great and it's so much fun here in Japan!  Today is the last day of the transfer and we get our transfer calls sometime today.  I'm not sure how it's going to work out but I'll be sure to let you all know what happens next week!

Have a great week and go do something good!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

How can it be February?!

I don't know how it was for all of you back in the western hemisphere, but man, it feels that January hardly even happened at all.  Thinking back on it, I've been in Mihara for a full month now, which I'm sure isn't true, except for the fact that I know it is.  Oh man, that wibbly-wobbly time vortex, it's coming back to haunt me!

So I vote that this was a pretty good week for Dendo.  This past District Meeting we discussed the importance of sharing your own personal experiences, and how that is one of the best ways we can improve our teaching.  I love sharing my own experiences as I teach, it always seems to make what I teach 'real'.  You can flap your mouth all you want, and say some really good things, but when you show it, and demonstrate how it’s true, that's when the spirit can come in and testify of truth.  Recently one of my favorite quotes is thus, "What you do speaks so loudly that I can hardly hear what you say."  Oh how true that is.  Anybody can say something good, but it takes somebody truly special to go and do something good.

One of the main investigators we've been working with is also progressing really well.  She's really hesitant about setting a date to get baptized, but she's already inviting her friends to go and hear what the missionaries have to say!  She's found the joy of living the Gospel and is so close to having the spirit with her to help her more fully polish and let her faith flourish.  I can only imagine how hard it is to change your lifestyle in your 70s but, she's going strong and is a great example to me. 

Elder Urakami and I were also happy because we were able to find more time to go Finding this week!  We've been so focused on contacting members, investigators, and so many people that we've been sacrificing time to just go out and find people who are waiting.  Now we've been working harder on finding people and trying to help them see the goodness of the Gospel.  We've both become more proficient at starting and holding a conversation, and even teaching as we go.  Sadly people don't quite seem so ready to meet again, but that's going to be our next step, transferring from a good conversation on the street to a second meeting!  It makes me think of the scripture "Many are called, but few are chosen".  We call out to many people, but only few ever agree to hear more.  I've got the influence of the world against me, but that's okay, because I have the power of God behind me. 

Its great to see the power of God work in people, especially as we go and visit the less active members in the church.  So far while I've been in Mihara we've had 2 people reactivated, coming to Church regularly, and have 5 more promising people that we are working with.  Most of whom have non-member families who are bound to see the difference of the Gospel in the lives of their family member.  The work of the Lord continues to go forward, and no un-hallowed hand can stop the work!

Go out and do something good in the world today.  Make it a habit and before you know it you'll find yourself surrounded by friends and those who will go and help you, too. 

Elder Everett

エベレット長老