[Editor's Note: Ben's departure was delayed by a couple of days because he broke his thumb on Saturday the 2nd and had to be cleared by the MTC doctor. He was very disappointed not to be able to leave on the 4th with the others in his group, but he is in Japan now and ready to get to work!]
So, I don't really know how much time I have here, I'm sending this from the Mission Home before I go out to my first area in about.... an hour.
So........ it's all good, I'm here in Japan now and the flight was fine. It was interesting being on the flight, I was looking down the aisle and saw about 30 different movies going on, I just thought to myself "Huh, well, lets see what Ether has to say." The flight wasn't bad at all, I got through most of the rest of The Book of Mormon and it was really good. I was lucky to get a pair of seats to myself, so I got to spread out and do pretty much whatever for the 12 hours. I met some really nice people at both airports; and I started to see exactly what kind of trust and respect people give missionaries. There was this one girl flying to the Philippines to go back to her parents after visiting her aunt in Salt Lake, she was flying solo and got tagged as an unaccompanied minor. Her aunt brought her over to me so that she would have at least one person on the flight that she would know so that she wouldn't be alone on her transcontinental flight. People just trust missionaries I've found.
The extra two days was actually pretty nice. We had a devotional from Cree-L Kofford, emeritus 70. He focused on the importance of obedience and charity, and doing everything you can to have the spirit with you. It really helped me realize that the Holy Ghost will always be a third companion here in the field and that I need to give him just as much time to testify as I do my comp. Speaking of, my companion's name is Elder Clemments, he's from well, I forget, I haven't actually met him yet, that won't be until later today. I got 2 new name-tags, a helmet, and a mission booklet here. I just keep getting stuff......
It was interesting coming here, at the mission home I came just as the group of missionaries leaving today finished up the testimony meeting. Last night was an interesting mix of 1 new missionary and about 15 missionaries finishing up, it was an odd sort of dynamic, but I'm way excited to be out serving. My first area is called Kumomoto, we have 2 wards in the area, which is very rare here, I think it's 1 of only 2 or 3 areas that have multiple wards. It's also the only area where we share an apartment with another set of missionaries.
Well, the APs (assistant to the president) are waiting to interview me, and I don't want to take this computer from the secretary much longer. Good luck everyone and remember, when you're packing to leave the country, don't go throwing exercise balls down the hallway or break your thumb on a brick wall.....
ganbatte ne (good luck) from Japan!!!
Everett 長老
Elder Benjamin Charles Everett
Japan Fukuoka MIssion
9-16 Hirao-josuimachi,
Chuo-ku,
Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka
810-0029
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