So, secret of the week,
this is the last week of the transfer!? What a crazy awesome 6 weeks it’s
been! It’s really scary to think that somehow it is already over this
transfer; this has by far been the fastest transfer ever. I remember when
I was with Elder Clements at the end of my first transfer and he told me
"Wow it feels like I haven't even been with you at all" which I
thought was strange because my first transfer seemed to take forever, but I
think I understand him now, this really has just flown by! Let’s pick up
with what happened this week!
Monday we had a district P-Day and had the Nobeoka Elders come up here and went to this place called Round 1 (imagine Adventure landing, a bowling alley, a gym, a karaoke bar, casino, skate rink, and other like activities all rolled up into one building) which ended up being slightly more expensive than we previously thought. We made the mistake of going to the bowling and the Sports section, which you have to pay for separately so that ended up being all my money..... BUT it was an awesome time! (probably a once every couple of months type of activity though......) It’s always fun going bowling in Japan, because they always have some sort of crazy thing going on, such as their crazy 'moonlight' bowling that they put on once an hour and see who can bowl the first strike with all the lights off and intense techno music going on in the background. Somehow as soon as the game started it fell on my turn and within 10 seconds of them saying start I destroyed the pins at the end of the lane for a strike! They gave me a lei and I got to wear this sweet Bowling Pin outfit for pictures. :D.
Tuesday we had another Junkai with Nobeoka (we seem to always have a lot at the end of the transfer). I went around with Elder Eckman, he's on his 2nd transfer, and we ended up visiting our Bishop's family for family home evening. Elder Gandy and I had set up that appointment, purely because we were trying to meet with members, but somehow it turned into us teaching their family home evening (which I didn't know we were doing until he called on us to teach after dinner). I ended up teaching the lesson based on Alma 32:28 and the parable of the seed. It’s a good thing that we've been developing that lesson recently with all our visits to less active members recently, because it's always a little bit difficult to come up with a lesson on the spot as you teach (even if that is how I always taught before the mission.... sorry guys) For dessert we had chips and little cups of jell-o (which I think is a dangerous thing to bring out for kids, and more especially missionaries....no matter how much you jiggle it, it always keeps its shape, and believe you me, we jiggled it quite a bit.....)
Going along with our pattern that's developed over the past couple of weeks, the rest of the week was filled with visits to less active members. We met with one member for his first gospel visit in over 3 years, and continue to meet with some of our recent converts to strengthen them, and to give Elder Gandy a chance to practice his Japanese in a non-hostile environment, or at least as close as we can get. We've been meeting this one family at a beach near us and it's just been a ton of beautiful scenery as we've been talking about the gospel. I think I've really enjoyed teaching outdoors and in parks!
Eikaiwa has also been doing really well. We've had new students come recently and it's been really cool to see all our 'regulars' reach out the hand of fellowship for each new eikaiwa student. Now if only we could get that same effort and atmosphere in our ward, that would be awesome. There are sometimes I think that our Eikaiwa students are better at fellow-shipping then our members. I really like our group that we have at eikaiwa! They may have brought out the inner geek in me, but I think it's been a great way to create relationships with all of them. I actually overheard one of them talking to one of the new students, explaining to them who the teachers were, and he described me as a Japanese, born and raised in America. Man, I would make one very southern Japanese man :D
Sunday we had at least 6 less active members make it out to church! We also had this family that's visiting from Utah come to church, too. The mom is from Oita, and apparently comes to visit every couple of years, and she brought two of her kids, 15 and 13, both of whom don't speak Japanese, so I got to translate for them! I don't know why I enjoy translating so much, but it’s always a way good time! Well, the week is coming to a close faster than we really have time to do anything, but I'll leave you off for today. I have to get ready because we're having lunch with Naoya today!
Monday we had a district P-Day and had the Nobeoka Elders come up here and went to this place called Round 1 (imagine Adventure landing, a bowling alley, a gym, a karaoke bar, casino, skate rink, and other like activities all rolled up into one building) which ended up being slightly more expensive than we previously thought. We made the mistake of going to the bowling and the Sports section, which you have to pay for separately so that ended up being all my money..... BUT it was an awesome time! (probably a once every couple of months type of activity though......) It’s always fun going bowling in Japan, because they always have some sort of crazy thing going on, such as their crazy 'moonlight' bowling that they put on once an hour and see who can bowl the first strike with all the lights off and intense techno music going on in the background. Somehow as soon as the game started it fell on my turn and within 10 seconds of them saying start I destroyed the pins at the end of the lane for a strike! They gave me a lei and I got to wear this sweet Bowling Pin outfit for pictures. :D.
Tuesday we had another Junkai with Nobeoka (we seem to always have a lot at the end of the transfer). I went around with Elder Eckman, he's on his 2nd transfer, and we ended up visiting our Bishop's family for family home evening. Elder Gandy and I had set up that appointment, purely because we were trying to meet with members, but somehow it turned into us teaching their family home evening (which I didn't know we were doing until he called on us to teach after dinner). I ended up teaching the lesson based on Alma 32:28 and the parable of the seed. It’s a good thing that we've been developing that lesson recently with all our visits to less active members recently, because it's always a little bit difficult to come up with a lesson on the spot as you teach (even if that is how I always taught before the mission.... sorry guys) For dessert we had chips and little cups of jell-o (which I think is a dangerous thing to bring out for kids, and more especially missionaries....no matter how much you jiggle it, it always keeps its shape, and believe you me, we jiggled it quite a bit.....)
Going along with our pattern that's developed over the past couple of weeks, the rest of the week was filled with visits to less active members. We met with one member for his first gospel visit in over 3 years, and continue to meet with some of our recent converts to strengthen them, and to give Elder Gandy a chance to practice his Japanese in a non-hostile environment, or at least as close as we can get. We've been meeting this one family at a beach near us and it's just been a ton of beautiful scenery as we've been talking about the gospel. I think I've really enjoyed teaching outdoors and in parks!
Eikaiwa has also been doing really well. We've had new students come recently and it's been really cool to see all our 'regulars' reach out the hand of fellowship for each new eikaiwa student. Now if only we could get that same effort and atmosphere in our ward, that would be awesome. There are sometimes I think that our Eikaiwa students are better at fellow-shipping then our members. I really like our group that we have at eikaiwa! They may have brought out the inner geek in me, but I think it's been a great way to create relationships with all of them. I actually overheard one of them talking to one of the new students, explaining to them who the teachers were, and he described me as a Japanese, born and raised in America. Man, I would make one very southern Japanese man :D
Sunday we had at least 6 less active members make it out to church! We also had this family that's visiting from Utah come to church, too. The mom is from Oita, and apparently comes to visit every couple of years, and she brought two of her kids, 15 and 13, both of whom don't speak Japanese, so I got to translate for them! I don't know why I enjoy translating so much, but it’s always a way good time! Well, the week is coming to a close faster than we really have time to do anything, but I'll leave you off for today. I have to get ready because we're having lunch with Naoya today!
Peace out from the far east,
エベレット長老
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
Elder Everett
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