Ok, so first I'd like to let you all know that I am now officially an Adult. I may have thought I was before, but not so. This past Monday I participated in the New Adult ceremony here in Japan. So basically, in Japan you become an adult at 20 and then on January 9 (or maybe it's just the 2nd Monday in January) they have a big ceremony where all the 20 year olds in the area come and officially become adults. So all of the girls came in their best Kimonos and all of the guys were in Suits and some were even in their best kimonos. Then there were the missionaries. 3 foreigners and one Japanese. Even in a group of 6000 20 year olds, we stick out like, well, we really stick out! We would like to have been able to talk to some of them more, but it was kind of like a high school reunion, and teaching at that point just kind of felt a little awkward. We did get to meet some cool people though (they just happen to live in Tokyo.........)
Also this past week we've had a bunch of activities through the branch. The funny thing is though, that through all our plans, our clever ideas we thought we had to get people out to events, the one event that wasn't planned by the missionaries is the only one that investigators came to. It was a guitar class that our branch decided to start. Every 2nd Saturday or so we're planning on having a Guitar circle for the community. On our way to it we decided to stop by one of our investigators to see how he was doing, and thought to ask him to the circle. In America it’s pretty hard to get someone to come out to an event on the spot, but in Japan if they don't have notice at least a week before hand, they flat out won't go, so you can imagine our surprise when he was like "You mean right now? Yeah, I'll go".
We ended up biking with him to the church and showed him around while people were practicing Guitar. It ended up being a really great experience and I'm sure that he felt something. We showed him around some of the rooms and he was impressed with the Young Women's theme that they have posted on the wall in one of the rooms. We ended up talking about each of the values in the Young Women's theme and used that as our focus for teaching. Who would have known that hearing the young women's theme every mutual night for 6 years would have come in handy while trying to teach a Chinese man in Japan 3 years later? One of the things I've really learned recently is that no effort is wasted, and that as long as you are doing the right thing, you will affect lives, whether it be those that you mean to or not. I just want to say thank you to all the Young Women leaders and all the faithful young women that, I'm pretty sure don't hear it from the young men enough (if at all). Thanks!
This week was also filled with songs that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to hear while on my mission, but through eating out and going to a member's band event we ended up hearing music from a wide range of sources. We heard Abba, Jack Johnson, Lady Gaga, a medley of the studio Ghibli themes (of course Japanese high school bands would play Ghibli!) and Bump of Chicken, also Ragged Wimps. Don't worry if you don't know the last two, (or even the last three really....) they're Japanese bands.
This week we have a mission-wide conference planned for Thursday, where we all get to hear from one of the area authorities around here, Elder Ringwood. And in February we will be having Elder Oaks come and speak to our mission. It's not often that the whole mission gets to meet together, but here are two great opportunities, and there are even fantastic speakers to boot! This is going to be an interesting way to start out the new year!
Wishing everyone as safe and productive week!
エベレット長老
Elder Everett
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