Ok, so this week is the last week of the Transfer, I no longer have the excuse of being a bean (new missionary in mission lingo). Though this first transfer has been awesome! As a recap.... We got a baptism early on from a high schooler. Yoshiaki is way cool, spent one year in America with a Member family in Montana, and searched us out when he got back. This Sunday he got back from EFY (the first one in Japan) and blessed the sacrament for the first time. That was an awesome spirit seeing him bless the sacrament and then bear testimony later in the meeting. Another youth in the ward, his name is Naoya, also went EFY last week. His testimony was a little hard to make out, but it was very powerful, 声涙 if you can figure out what that one means, well, you win the prize of the week!
After Yoshi was baptized though, we kind of lost all our investigators (he being the only one at the time). BUT, after a few weeks we are at a good number of investigators. We have 5 people that we are working with doing regular lessons, and several others that we are working with trying to get a lesson. The weirdest part is that we are doing about half of our lessons in English. Well, those lessons are half and half English and Japanese, but that seems to be want they connect with. As long as they are getting the lessons, I feel like it's all good.
So, as it is the last week of the transfer, there are transfer calls coming up on Wednesday. Our district leader (Buckingham 長老) is probably going to get transferred, he's been in his area for 4 transfers now, or about 6 months. We learned the other day that he first entered into the area in February, before I even had sent in my mission papers. One of our Zone leaders is transferring all the way to Provo (he's going back home) and another missionary in our zone is transferring to Sapporo (the other side of the country, he's also going back home) In Missionary lingo, those missionaries are dying, but it's good knowing that they are just opening the way for new missionaries to become the next generation of missionaries in this part of Japan.
Oh, did I mention the big news that we have DVD Players now? We are supposed to use all of the DVD players for studying only, and boy what a study session we've been having lately, those Church videos are great. Our recent videos have been from the new Preach my Gospel videos called "The District" 1 and 2, and for our own time we've been watching the church's collection of Doctrine and Covenants movies. Those are so good, I highly recommend you give them a watch if you have the time. The message of each one is great and the filmography isn't terrible either. I recommend the John Tanner movie and "Just a Stone Cutter".
So I feel like giving a typical day in the life of a missionary might be a good thing at this time.
Everyday starts with us getting up at 6:30 (ok, maybe about 6:30) and exercising for 30 minutes. This is anything from Jogging, to climbing this giant structure outside our apartment, to sit-ups and push ups. Than at 7:00 we start eating breakfast, usually yogurt and granola, maybe some toast and jam, while we all vie for use of the shower. By 8:00 we're all ready (mostly all) and starting our study for the morning.
We start study at 8:00 and have an hour of personal study, usually from the Scriptures, PMG, or anything else in the Missionary library. Then, because I am a new missionary, we have 2 hours of companionship study where we study various different ways to teach and respond to peoples' needs and concerns, and where we plan out the lessons that we are going to teach that day. After that we have an hour of Japanese study before Lunch.
The typical lunch is some rice, and some sort of cooked meat and vegetables with various sauces thrown in, thrown on top of the rice. And Barley tea, lots and lots of Barley tea. The first time I drank it I thought it tasted like burnt popcorn, and it still kind of does, but it's nice not having to drink only water. After lunch we start proselyting. It is usually about 1:00 at this time, and we have most days planned out each and every half hour what we're going to be doing.
Monday-P-day and west side dendo (mission work). Tuesday - up north. Wednesday - Around the Daigaku (college) until Eikaiwa that night. Thursday - Planning day for the next week, and working near the apartment. Friday - Back up north and sports night at the stake center. Saturday- everywhere and nowhere, this day changes every week with Eikaiwa stuck in at 2. Sunday - church and wherever we're needed. Lather, rinse, repeat. We'll see what happens this coming transfer though; it'll be nice to have a good change of pace with new people coming in.
Return to the Apartment by 9:00 and plan the next day, sleep by 10:30.
The days may seem mundane, and even routine, but by and far the experiences from each day, all the people that we meet and the awesome spirit we feel each day keeps every day exciting and, even though it is tough work mentally and physically, as we dither through we are promised the strength of the lord, possibly one of the greatest blessings we can receive. All we have to do is continue doing what we now we need to do, read the scriptures, pray always, and keep the Lord and his sacrifice always on our minds, it is hard to do wrong when all you are doing is right.
I love you all and wish you all the best. Best of luck and remember, do cool things!
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
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