Monday, April 15, 2013

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

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