Good morning, afternoon and evening everyone! (I think that about covers it all) Is it just me or does anyone else feel weird to write 2012 when you're writing a date? New Years is always a weird time.
If this week were a page on Facebook, I'd be a fan of it. We had 2 companion exchanges (which are always fun) and got a lot of good work done! First we had an exchange with the Elders from Hamada (they have a 2 hour bus ride to make it to district meeting, so that's a little problematic, and it costs about $50 to boot) so they just stayed here instead of the normal split. We got to work together with them, and they even helped out with our English Conversation class. Speaking of Eikawa, oh man, we had a way good time there but, it's tanked. I don't know if it's because of New Years or what but our Eikaiwa has dwindled to 3 people (all members) and it's hurting. It's interesting because apparently in this mission most of the convert baptisms come from Eikaiwa attendance so when that's suffering, it's usually not a very good sign for the area. So that's become one of our main focuses this past little bit.
Well, not really a focus, mainly we've been working on visiting Less Active members and then searching around their neighborhoods to see if anybody is interested in hearing our message, or at the very least coming to Eikaiwa. Usually being a blond-haired blue-eyed American helps but, Hiroshima has too many foreigners come through to really have any big sort of effect.... well, ok, so mainly for little kids and the older adults it has a rather large effect (I don't know how many times I've just walked to the Train Station and had at least 2 people stare at me with mouths agape. I'm a human being man, not an object to be gawked at!) For instance, this past week we were trying to contact one of our less active members but they weren't home so we decided to leave them a message. While Okada長老 was writing the note a group of elementary school kids walked by and sat down on the other side of the road asking me to teach them English. We ended up talked to them for a little while and taught them a couple of new words and invited them to bring their family to Eikaiwa. I don't think I've seen any Japanese kid with more gumption than those kids; they were fun to talk to!
Shortly after those kids we went housing (going door to door) around that area. After we had been searching for like an hour or so we get to this one door and this girl opens the door. Usually, to make us not look like creepers we try to talk to the parents before talking to kids (especially young girls) so we asked her if her parents were home. To which we get the response "I'm the wife." OOPS. She was really nice about it though (seriously she looked about 15) and after a little conversation invited us to come back again to introduce the message when her husband was around. That's a family that we got an appointment with! That doesn't happen in Japan (at least it's the first time I've ever seen it!) and she's number 3 in our recent potential investigators we've found that has a young family! Working with kids is the best, and whenever there's a family we get to work with the kids and really see the Gospel change and strengthen the families! Things are really on the brink here in Yasufuruichi (and hopefully it won't end up the same way it did that one day in Tokuyama......).
Also, we had an experience here that really helped to define to Okada 長老 and me what it really means to love the people you work for. The member that teaches English and has been inviting us to meet her students ran into some problems this past week. We had made an appointment to meet with her on Sunday but things happened and that fell through. She's been having a rather hard time with her son recently (she's a single mother and the only member in the family) and we decided to give her a call. We learned that she and her son had a bit of a spat and that he had run away. He's her youngest son (everyone else has already moved out) and she's been worried about him for a long time. We had a long conversation on the phone that day. She didn't know what to do in that situation; she didn't know where he was, when he was going to come back, or how she was even going to talk to him after he did. We ended up going to her house and taught a lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon.
Ok, so you may look at that and think, why in the world would you teach about the Book of Mormon at a time like that? I'm pretty sure you might think that because that is almost exactly how I thought when I first said that that's what we're going to teach. If you recall the October issue of the church Magazines were all about the Book of Mormon and its special Promise. It's a message from the Prophet Thomas S. Monson on how we can use the Book in more than our search to improve our spiritual understanding, but also in our quest for a more peaceful family. In his message he quotes Gordon B. Hinckley in this promise “there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God." I don't know the specifics of how it will bless her life and the life of her son, but I do know this: There is power in the Book of Mormon and it extends far beyond personal edification. Families will be strengthened as they read together, relationships will deepen, faith will increase, contention and strife will cease, and the "added measure of the spirit of the Lord" will emanate and radiate from all those who put the promises of the Book of Mormon to the test.
I don't know if I've said it lately, and I know I haven't said it enough, but I love you. I love the examples you have been in my life, the teachings and the lessons that you have prepared, the care that you have shown, the diligence you have demonstrated, and the unwearingness from which far more people than myself, have benefited and grown from. I love you, and I remember who you are.
It might be a little late but I'd like to share this little clip about new years with you. It seems like the appropriate time to share it, and it goes along with the message and scripture of the week that my family sent me!
And after you watch that message, feel free to watch more, I love the messages there, and would love to see them used more in teaching and lessons for not only the youth, but for everyone!
Well, I think it's time to go, Okada is passed out over two chairs and we've got an apartment to clean. So long for this week and I wish you the best from Japan!
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
Elder Benjamin Everett
Japan Fukuoka Mission
9-16 Hirao-josuimachi
Chuo-ku
Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka
810-0029
JAPAN
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