What a minute, somebody explain this to me, how in the world has a year passed already?? Not only that, but that was last week! No time!
So this past week started off with a companion exchange (junkai) over in Nobeoka. Nobeoka is the closest area to us at a 2 hour train ride straight south, on the super express train (not the bullet, just super express). Wow, I never realized how country Japan could be. Nobeoka was super pretty, fields and farms stretching out everywhere you can see, but, there's just no people there..... It also doesn't help that they live an hour by foot from the Train Station and Church!
The junkai was good things though. We had P-day together as well on Monday, and then worked together on Tuesday. Things I learned from p-day.... I'm not as bad at ping pong as I thought I was, Yahtzee comes to those only who have never played the game before, Farkle is a terribly addicting game, and writing the numbers 1-100 can be a dangerous affair. We also got to meet some members around Nobeoka which was an awesome experience. I don't think I've ever seen members with more fire for missionary work! Desire is a very important thing.
That Tuesday we planned on splitting up between two of the cities (towns) that are in the area because they have a second set of bikes in the second city. The problem is we forgot to bring the bike key for the second bike ...... whoops! It turned out good, though; we met a lot of good people and ended up meeting a member randomly as they drove past us on the road. Probably one of the sadder less-active member visits I've had happened that Tuesday. The member used to be the branch president and his wife was in the relief society presidency. But it seems that something may have happened and they have both quit coming to church. I'm not sure if they overworked and burnt themselves out or what, but the biggest problem that we found, and really, if they change it most all could be resolved, is that they both stopped reading The Book of Mormon.
Yes they are very busy, and sometimes it will be hard to read the book when we're tired, worn out, dragged out, ready to pass out; but we will always have time to read the Book of Mormon. It really doesn't matter if you read 5 minutes a day or 5 hours a day, the power of the Book will only come to you when you open it up and let it come; only we can keep ourselves from the blessings of the book from God.
From this past transfer I came to this conclusion: If you are suffering and you have a way to relieve yourself from stress, pain, and frustration in a fully acceptable way and don't take it, then you become the worst enemy to yourself. It becomes such that we keep the frustration constantly over us, so that when we complain, we will feel justified because we have been suffering (even if it has been brought on by our own stubbornness and pride).
To describe it a little easier - imagine you're going up a hill on a bike. The hill is not super steep, but it is very long. You start out on your bike and feel like you have the strength to push through and make it to the top. As time goes on you realize that this hill is longer than you thought, no matter how long you go the hill simply never seems to end. But we told ourselves that we have the strength to make it to the top of the hill on that bike, and stepping down is not an option, for then it would mean that we would lose that that hill. So we put the bike into a lower gear, and we push on some more. Our legs begin to feel heavy, with each stroke of the pedal feeling heavier than the last, but that's just pain, we're strong, we can make to the top..... So now at this point, our legs hurt, the hill is still there, we've slowed down because it takes so much effort to push forward, and we're slowly becoming more and more discouraged from pain, frustration, and the thought of losing to this hill. As we try to feel our pride the pain fills us. Strangers pass us by going down the hill and we ignore their greetings with an angry turn of the head thinking, they don't know the pain I'm going though, they have it easy, my way is hard, and I am suffering, why should I acknowledge them on their way down, they should congratulate me on my effort to push through the pain. When we reach this point, we are becoming our own worst enemy. The hill is not your enemy, the kind strangers on the way down are not looking down at you, and you are not showing strength by continuing in the pain, strife, and frustration from the decision you made to not get off the bike. We will always have the option to step down from the bike and walk the rest of the way up the hill. Our journey will be faster, easier, and a generally more pleasurable experience. How is it that we could not see this easier path before? To put it in one word: Pride.
I encourage each of us to think, what are our own personal hills? In what things are we ignoring the easier path because it is not the way that we decided on. Yes the prospect of walking sounds like it will take longer than the grandeur of a sleek mountain bike; but the steady, methodical application of consistent work will always make it to the top, and often times, in a much easier and pleasurable way. What things must we take in a steady, consistent way? Daily prayer and scripture study and weekly church attendance. There will be other duties that come up with each individual hill, but the three essentials will never change. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, make it to the top!
This past Sunday we had Ward Conference. We had members from all over the Stake make the 4 hour car ride out to Oita for a very good conference. I somehow got roped into translating for two of our foreigner members here. There's something special that happens when you're called to help translate for a special event. Something happens to your language skills, suddenly you begin to understand words that you previously wouldn't have, and find ways to put them into your own language that you had previously hadn't thought of. Now to see if I can get that received language skill to continue on throughout the other aspects of living in Japan.
So this Wednesday is the end of the Transfer, and the calls are coming! One of the Elders in another area may have "seen" the transfer calls after visiting the temple on Saturday, and called us to say "Man, Everett is going to have an interesting transfer next time."...... GAH, if that's all you're going to say, DON'T SAY ANYTHING! Man, now I'm going be thinking about what that means for the next 3 days!? But it's good, I know that this is the Lord's work and He will place me in the position that He knows I must be in.
Have a great week and enjoy the beautiful scenes of April! This weekend is Golden Week in Japan, so I'll have it good over here. :D
So this past week started off with a companion exchange (junkai) over in Nobeoka. Nobeoka is the closest area to us at a 2 hour train ride straight south, on the super express train (not the bullet, just super express). Wow, I never realized how country Japan could be. Nobeoka was super pretty, fields and farms stretching out everywhere you can see, but, there's just no people there..... It also doesn't help that they live an hour by foot from the Train Station and Church!
The junkai was good things though. We had P-day together as well on Monday, and then worked together on Tuesday. Things I learned from p-day.... I'm not as bad at ping pong as I thought I was, Yahtzee comes to those only who have never played the game before, Farkle is a terribly addicting game, and writing the numbers 1-100 can be a dangerous affair. We also got to meet some members around Nobeoka which was an awesome experience. I don't think I've ever seen members with more fire for missionary work! Desire is a very important thing.
That Tuesday we planned on splitting up between two of the cities (towns) that are in the area because they have a second set of bikes in the second city. The problem is we forgot to bring the bike key for the second bike ...... whoops! It turned out good, though; we met a lot of good people and ended up meeting a member randomly as they drove past us on the road. Probably one of the sadder less-active member visits I've had happened that Tuesday. The member used to be the branch president and his wife was in the relief society presidency. But it seems that something may have happened and they have both quit coming to church. I'm not sure if they overworked and burnt themselves out or what, but the biggest problem that we found, and really, if they change it most all could be resolved, is that they both stopped reading The Book of Mormon.
Yes they are very busy, and sometimes it will be hard to read the book when we're tired, worn out, dragged out, ready to pass out; but we will always have time to read the Book of Mormon. It really doesn't matter if you read 5 minutes a day or 5 hours a day, the power of the Book will only come to you when you open it up and let it come; only we can keep ourselves from the blessings of the book from God.
From this past transfer I came to this conclusion: If you are suffering and you have a way to relieve yourself from stress, pain, and frustration in a fully acceptable way and don't take it, then you become the worst enemy to yourself. It becomes such that we keep the frustration constantly over us, so that when we complain, we will feel justified because we have been suffering (even if it has been brought on by our own stubbornness and pride).
To describe it a little easier - imagine you're going up a hill on a bike. The hill is not super steep, but it is very long. You start out on your bike and feel like you have the strength to push through and make it to the top. As time goes on you realize that this hill is longer than you thought, no matter how long you go the hill simply never seems to end. But we told ourselves that we have the strength to make it to the top of the hill on that bike, and stepping down is not an option, for then it would mean that we would lose that that hill. So we put the bike into a lower gear, and we push on some more. Our legs begin to feel heavy, with each stroke of the pedal feeling heavier than the last, but that's just pain, we're strong, we can make to the top..... So now at this point, our legs hurt, the hill is still there, we've slowed down because it takes so much effort to push forward, and we're slowly becoming more and more discouraged from pain, frustration, and the thought of losing to this hill. As we try to feel our pride the pain fills us. Strangers pass us by going down the hill and we ignore their greetings with an angry turn of the head thinking, they don't know the pain I'm going though, they have it easy, my way is hard, and I am suffering, why should I acknowledge them on their way down, they should congratulate me on my effort to push through the pain. When we reach this point, we are becoming our own worst enemy. The hill is not your enemy, the kind strangers on the way down are not looking down at you, and you are not showing strength by continuing in the pain, strife, and frustration from the decision you made to not get off the bike. We will always have the option to step down from the bike and walk the rest of the way up the hill. Our journey will be faster, easier, and a generally more pleasurable experience. How is it that we could not see this easier path before? To put it in one word: Pride.
I encourage each of us to think, what are our own personal hills? In what things are we ignoring the easier path because it is not the way that we decided on. Yes the prospect of walking sounds like it will take longer than the grandeur of a sleek mountain bike; but the steady, methodical application of consistent work will always make it to the top, and often times, in a much easier and pleasurable way. What things must we take in a steady, consistent way? Daily prayer and scripture study and weekly church attendance. There will be other duties that come up with each individual hill, but the three essentials will never change. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, make it to the top!
This past Sunday we had Ward Conference. We had members from all over the Stake make the 4 hour car ride out to Oita for a very good conference. I somehow got roped into translating for two of our foreigner members here. There's something special that happens when you're called to help translate for a special event. Something happens to your language skills, suddenly you begin to understand words that you previously wouldn't have, and find ways to put them into your own language that you had previously hadn't thought of. Now to see if I can get that received language skill to continue on throughout the other aspects of living in Japan.
So this Wednesday is the end of the Transfer, and the calls are coming! One of the Elders in another area may have "seen" the transfer calls after visiting the temple on Saturday, and called us to say "Man, Everett is going to have an interesting transfer next time."...... GAH, if that's all you're going to say, DON'T SAY ANYTHING! Man, now I'm going be thinking about what that means for the next 3 days!? But it's good, I know that this is the Lord's work and He will place me in the position that He knows I must be in.
Have a great week and enjoy the beautiful scenes of April! This weekend is Golden Week in Japan, so I'll have it good over here. :D
Until next week,
Elder Ben Everett
Elder Ben Everett
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