Oh my, this has been a bit
of a crazy week! I wouldn't be exaggerating very much at all to say that
this was one of the BEST weeks for Oita in the entire time I have been
there! (And we were only there for half of the week too!)
And it all capped off with the events of Thursday night and Sunday (all day)
Ok, so Monday we went over to Nobeoka to have our one real district meeting a transfer and for Junkais. It's always fun to see other missionaries every once in a while.... Oita would have been a pretty rough 4 transfers without it going to a 4-man area. Basically we just played ping-pong all day and tried to get something done that night as far as dendo goes. But that was just our time in Nobeoka (cool things happened: I actually won some ping pong games, met some awesome members, had famous chicken, and got some letters written).
There was something going on in Oita this week, I think something must have been in there air, because everything was just going right. Well, we got back to Oita Tuesday afternoon and were trying to figure out what to do. We only had a couple of hours left, but we decided to go and visit some people about 45 minutes out of town on the off chance that we could finally get in contact with them again. Both visits were awesome in their own way. One of them was the speaker for that buddhist group and we had a really good lesson with him that essentially covered our entire missionary 4 set of lessons! Then we met the younger brother of the person we were trying to visit, and he is just about the coolest, nicest high school student I think I've ever met in Japan! It was way fun talking to him, now if only he'll go to the website we referred him to and will accept the lessons, then it would be perfect. These are a couple of people that we just haven't been able to get in contact with for some reason or another, and it was super good that we finally got to meet up with them again.
Wednesday we had our last lesson with our investigator before her baptismal interview and actual baptism! She's now pored through the Book of Mormon 2 full times and is cross referencing every footnote along the way, and has been teaching everyone that she can come in contact with at the hospital! For her baptism we had to be a little creative because she can't actually stand, so Elder Gandy AND I performed the baptism. Elder Gandy was the voice for the prayer, and I held her up and supported her head and back as she was baptized. It must have been quite the sight to see both Elder Gandy and I in all white with a woman in a wheel chair in all white, radiating with the spirit. She's a keeper!
Thursday and Friday we had a ton of success in just finding people to talk to. People actually listened to us, and we even got called out by a couple wanting to talk to us (that never happens). So Thursday as we were housing we got a call in the middle of a contact. Elder Gandy was doing the contact so I had time to check to see who it was, and my heart skipped a beat. I looked at the phone and in big letters it said "PRESIDENT GUSTAFSON", our Mission President.... well, I couldn't very well ignore that one so I stepped to one side and picked up the phone. We exchanged some pleasantries, then he dropped this question: "Will you accept the call to be the Mission Recorder and come to the Mission Home this Sunday?" Well, there wasn't a whole lot of options to answer that question but yes, so that's what I said.
Fast forward to Sunday, well, actually Saturday night. The plan was for me to pack throughout Friday and Saturday in order to leave right after church on Sunday. But with the way the week went, we were so busy talking to people that the time never really was there to pack, so Saturday night I finally finish packing around 11:30 that night. I don't think we actually got to bed until about midnight thirty or so, and I was only asleep for about an hour before I woke up itching everywhere. I sat up in bed and immediately my mind went to 'BED BUGS'.... I got out of bed and took all the sheets and threw them into the wash and started filling up the tub. My whole upper torso was covered in red marks (partly from scratching) and strange welts.... so I just soaked in the tub until the wash was done and hung it all up to dry before I had to leave the next afternoon. The whole ordeal lasted from about 1:30 until a little past 3:30..... and by then I was so awake that there was no hope for sleep right away... somehow I finally got to sleep about 4:30 just in time to get woken up by the alarm at 6:00.... What a way to spend the last night in Oita! But It was all good; nothing is wrong and there were no bugs in sight!
Sunday was just perfect! We had our baptism before Church that morning but, none of the dresses fit our investigator because using the wheel chair made her shoulders too buff, so we had to ask a member to come and borrow a dress from her. The member had been to the Temple the day before and was planning on taking the day off to rest and recover, but she accepted the call to help with the baptism and ended up staying for church as well. I'm truly grateful for her sacrifice because the call I made at 8:45 for the 9:00 baptism woke her up, and she came right away … what a champion!
Somehow the news that it was my last day got around... ;) and there were a ton of people that came out! We ended up having 4 investigators attend all of church, 2 of them for the first time, and had another one come at the end! We also had a visit from the Stake President and the Area 70 who I happened to run into in the bathroom and I got called to give my testimony before the start of the meeting. Neither of them had any idea that it was my last day in Oita, but somehow they got the impression that this missionary needed to bear his testimony to the ward that he had so closely worked with for the past half a year! Oita really has been a special place and I'm deeply grateful for the chance that I had to serve there with so many great people. Elder Gandy was there for most of the ups, the downs, the miracles, the baptisms, the best time I have had on my mission. It was a little sad to see him off... but he's going to be a stud of a missionary (not that he isn't already, but he can only get better from here!). I know that Oita is being left in good hands with Elder Gandy and his new Companion that I still haven't told him who it is... he's going to have to wait just like everybody else (even if your old companion is now in the Honbu).
Sunday I made it to Fukuoka on a two hour bus ride and met with Elder Oba (who I'm replacing) and Elder Yamanashi who is going to be my new companion. To put it simply, life in the Honbu is different, but it's going be an awesome time! There are a lot of new responsibilities that have just come, but I know that all calls are from God and that we are given the skills and ability necessary to do all things that are expected of us. Because the Lord will never expect anything of us that we cannot do. From here on my P-days are going to be on Saturday, so the updates are going to be a little off from the times before. This area looks like an awesome area and I can't wait to get down into it all!
Do cool things (and be careful of 4-wheelers... I hear they're dangerous!)
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
And it all capped off with the events of Thursday night and Sunday (all day)
Ok, so Monday we went over to Nobeoka to have our one real district meeting a transfer and for Junkais. It's always fun to see other missionaries every once in a while.... Oita would have been a pretty rough 4 transfers without it going to a 4-man area. Basically we just played ping-pong all day and tried to get something done that night as far as dendo goes. But that was just our time in Nobeoka (cool things happened: I actually won some ping pong games, met some awesome members, had famous chicken, and got some letters written).
There was something going on in Oita this week, I think something must have been in there air, because everything was just going right. Well, we got back to Oita Tuesday afternoon and were trying to figure out what to do. We only had a couple of hours left, but we decided to go and visit some people about 45 minutes out of town on the off chance that we could finally get in contact with them again. Both visits were awesome in their own way. One of them was the speaker for that buddhist group and we had a really good lesson with him that essentially covered our entire missionary 4 set of lessons! Then we met the younger brother of the person we were trying to visit, and he is just about the coolest, nicest high school student I think I've ever met in Japan! It was way fun talking to him, now if only he'll go to the website we referred him to and will accept the lessons, then it would be perfect. These are a couple of people that we just haven't been able to get in contact with for some reason or another, and it was super good that we finally got to meet up with them again.
Wednesday we had our last lesson with our investigator before her baptismal interview and actual baptism! She's now pored through the Book of Mormon 2 full times and is cross referencing every footnote along the way, and has been teaching everyone that she can come in contact with at the hospital! For her baptism we had to be a little creative because she can't actually stand, so Elder Gandy AND I performed the baptism. Elder Gandy was the voice for the prayer, and I held her up and supported her head and back as she was baptized. It must have been quite the sight to see both Elder Gandy and I in all white with a woman in a wheel chair in all white, radiating with the spirit. She's a keeper!
Thursday and Friday we had a ton of success in just finding people to talk to. People actually listened to us, and we even got called out by a couple wanting to talk to us (that never happens). So Thursday as we were housing we got a call in the middle of a contact. Elder Gandy was doing the contact so I had time to check to see who it was, and my heart skipped a beat. I looked at the phone and in big letters it said "PRESIDENT GUSTAFSON", our Mission President.... well, I couldn't very well ignore that one so I stepped to one side and picked up the phone. We exchanged some pleasantries, then he dropped this question: "Will you accept the call to be the Mission Recorder and come to the Mission Home this Sunday?" Well, there wasn't a whole lot of options to answer that question but yes, so that's what I said.
Fast forward to Sunday, well, actually Saturday night. The plan was for me to pack throughout Friday and Saturday in order to leave right after church on Sunday. But with the way the week went, we were so busy talking to people that the time never really was there to pack, so Saturday night I finally finish packing around 11:30 that night. I don't think we actually got to bed until about midnight thirty or so, and I was only asleep for about an hour before I woke up itching everywhere. I sat up in bed and immediately my mind went to 'BED BUGS'.... I got out of bed and took all the sheets and threw them into the wash and started filling up the tub. My whole upper torso was covered in red marks (partly from scratching) and strange welts.... so I just soaked in the tub until the wash was done and hung it all up to dry before I had to leave the next afternoon. The whole ordeal lasted from about 1:30 until a little past 3:30..... and by then I was so awake that there was no hope for sleep right away... somehow I finally got to sleep about 4:30 just in time to get woken up by the alarm at 6:00.... What a way to spend the last night in Oita! But It was all good; nothing is wrong and there were no bugs in sight!
Sunday was just perfect! We had our baptism before Church that morning but, none of the dresses fit our investigator because using the wheel chair made her shoulders too buff, so we had to ask a member to come and borrow a dress from her. The member had been to the Temple the day before and was planning on taking the day off to rest and recover, but she accepted the call to help with the baptism and ended up staying for church as well. I'm truly grateful for her sacrifice because the call I made at 8:45 for the 9:00 baptism woke her up, and she came right away … what a champion!
Somehow the news that it was my last day got around... ;) and there were a ton of people that came out! We ended up having 4 investigators attend all of church, 2 of them for the first time, and had another one come at the end! We also had a visit from the Stake President and the Area 70 who I happened to run into in the bathroom and I got called to give my testimony before the start of the meeting. Neither of them had any idea that it was my last day in Oita, but somehow they got the impression that this missionary needed to bear his testimony to the ward that he had so closely worked with for the past half a year! Oita really has been a special place and I'm deeply grateful for the chance that I had to serve there with so many great people. Elder Gandy was there for most of the ups, the downs, the miracles, the baptisms, the best time I have had on my mission. It was a little sad to see him off... but he's going to be a stud of a missionary (not that he isn't already, but he can only get better from here!). I know that Oita is being left in good hands with Elder Gandy and his new Companion that I still haven't told him who it is... he's going to have to wait just like everybody else (even if your old companion is now in the Honbu).
Sunday I made it to Fukuoka on a two hour bus ride and met with Elder Oba (who I'm replacing) and Elder Yamanashi who is going to be my new companion. To put it simply, life in the Honbu is different, but it's going be an awesome time! There are a lot of new responsibilities that have just come, but I know that all calls are from God and that we are given the skills and ability necessary to do all things that are expected of us. Because the Lord will never expect anything of us that we cannot do. From here on my P-days are going to be on Saturday, so the updates are going to be a little off from the times before. This area looks like an awesome area and I can't wait to get down into it all!
Do cool things (and be careful of 4-wheelers... I hear they're dangerous!)
Elder Everett
エベレット長老
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