Down to Single Digit Weeks!

So while we were planning this past week I was flipping through the calendar I have on my wall and realized, Of the 104 weeks allotted to me to serve the Lord fulltime, I am now down to single digits.... What is this! Well, that just means I only have a little bit of time left to go and do everything good that I can and believe you me, I'm going to make this a 2-months to remember.

This has been a bit of an interesting week here in Mihara.  Every Monday we have family home evening with this one family in the ward who have been have a pretty rough time recently, and it's been really good to see them progress from week to week, but really sad whenever we see them regress instead.  The goal that we've set is daily prayer as a family.  I know in my own companionships there have been times where we pray together at night and times that we don't, and it's always been a huge difference between the times we make the effort to pray together and the times where we let our own feelings, exhaustion, or any number of other influences put a stop to our prayers.  How much better it is when we show God and ourselves that we are better than whatever Satan tries to throw at us. 

This past Thursday we had a companion exchange over in this place called Kure.  They've been having a little trouble as of late finding people to teach, and so we made our way over there to try and help them find and establish a teaching pool.  It was really cool to see the Lord guide our way as we worked in Kure over the course of a day.  While we never officially found somebody who would immediately continue learning, we met many people who had met missionaries before, rejected them, but for some reason this time listened and showed some genuine interest.  It's hard sometimes to meet somebody the 2nd time, but everything we do is going to have a great influence on the lives of the people where we work.  I've come to learn that even if we don't find people through our own finding efforts, it is the effort we put in that counts.  The Lord will bring people into your path as you show your faith. 

While in Kure we had an opportunity to go around with a member of the stake presidency to go and visit some members.  On the online membership records it shows a little update whenever somebody’s records move into the ward/branch boundaries.  There happened to be just such a record the day before and we went on the hunt to find the address.  After driving around for a good 30 minutes we finally found a place where we thought it was and decided that all there was to do from here was to knock doors.  The missionary that I was on splits with just went straight for the first door he saw and started knocking.  All we knew was a name and a general location, but through the work of the divine the very first house we went to was this Woman.  We learned that she had been baptized over 30 years ago and had fallen out of contact with the church, and didn't even know that there was one close to her home.  After some 15 years or so of living in Kure, her records just happened to come, the 2nd counselor just happened to see it, and we just happened to catch her at the only time in her busy day that she would be able to talk...  I've long since learned that there are no such things as coincidences. 

This past Sunday we had 3 people at church!  Well, in addition to the other 15 or so members who always come, we had 3 investigators!  2 of whom we weren't even expecting!  A mother and her daughter that we've been teaching for a little while finally made it to church for the first time in several months.  The Daughter had a really great time and is going to come with her mother to our Eikaiwa brownie making party this Tuesday!  They've been having a bit of trouble recognizing, and feeling the spirit, but I think they had a really great time at church.  2 people we expected to come didn't come, but instead 2 people we didn't expect to come, came!  Now if only the other two will come too that would be best!

The work here continues to move on and we continue to see miracles almost daily.  (A member took us to go visit a friend of hers that she wanted to refer to the missionaries and we learned that it was a woman that Elder Urakami and I had found and taught nearly 2 weeks ago and planned on meeting again)  And the land of Mihara is heating up (well, not temperature-wise, I would like that, it's freezing here) and I couldn't really ask for more (except maybe a bit more sunlight....).

I hope you all have a great week! Go do cool things.

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Ch-ch-ch-changes in Japan

Guess who just got companion number 10!  Earlier this week we had transfer calls and Mihara got hit by the transfer wagon.  Tuesday we had lunch with a member (we told him that transfer calls were coming soon and he wanted to have a 'possible last lunch' in case somebody left) and got the call right as we finished eating.  I couldn't very well put it on speaker phone because we were in the middle of a katsudon restaurant, so we didn't get as much of the hoopla and theatrics that the APs usually try to throw in whenever somebody transfers, but here are the results.  Elder Urakami got transferred to a place called Hofu in Yamaguchi Prefecture (which just so happens to have the location that they are going to have the 2015 World Scout Jamboree) about 3 hours from Mihara, so not a very long transfer for his first one, but he didn't get to ride a shinkansen. 

My new companion is Elder Swasey, another half-japanese elder, who for some reason prefers to speak English rather than Japanese in the apartment (That's two fake Japanese people in a row, but I guess it’s good to help me not forget English).  He's on transfer 12 so he's been out for a good while, 15 months or so, tying the record for my oldest companion so far.  If ever there were more opposites in personality than Elder Urakami and Elder Swasey, I would be surprised.  Elder Urakami would only eat frozen food, spam, or instant noodles, and Elder Swasey came in with a suitcase full of organic foods, spices, and his own organic beet sugar.  I feel like there's a good chance my diet is about to have a total overhaul.  I'm not sure how it will turn out, I'm still kind of at the "I don't really care too much about what I eat as long as I get the 5 food groups" category. 

Elder Swasey is from Tottori prefecture, which is in Okayam Stake, right next door to Hiroshima Stake. Mihara used to be in Okayama stake but moved over about 2 years ago, so everybody in Mihara knows the Swasey family.　There were people at church that recognized him as a Swasey before he even introduced himself!  Hopefully this will help us gain some leverage to help out the less-actives here in Mihara. 

Speaking of working with the less-actives ...  This past Sunday we had an interesting experience of going around and helping out with a Visiting Teaching route.  The branch president drove us around with the 2 sisters and we visited everybody on their route.  It was really cool because everybody they visited were people that I've been working with for the past month or so, so I was able to give them updated information, tell them a little more about their situation, and work with them on finding the best way to work with them from here.  I love visiting members with other members, it’s always a great time!  Most of the sisters we visited, by the way, are almost impossible to get a hold of most days.  It’s normally a hit or miss with 3 of them and for some reason we got 2 hits in a row!  It was great!

Around that same time we also found a new investigator, a 16 year old high-schooler, and started teaching him this week.  He and his family had met with the Jehovah's Witnesses (they are all over Japan by the way) several years ago, and believe in God and in Christ, but they never officially joined a specific church.  Now we are working with them and trying to teach them as a family.  That, I think, is one of the best times in missionary work when you get to work with a family.  Sadly most of the time we teach only 1 or 2 people from a family, and it ends up putting strain on the family relationships, but wherever we go, and whoever we teach, our prime goal is to strengthen the family and help them prepare to be an eternal family.  That task is much more difficult than I had previously thought.

Mihara is doing great (it's cold and rainy but that’s ok)  we have people to visit, food to eat (even if some of it looks like it’s for a rabbit) and as always the beautiful countryside of Japan all around us! 

I hope you all have a great week there with the crazy weather.  Go do something hard!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

A Japanese Valentine

I like Valentines day in Japan.  Like in America people give chocolates and various sweets to friends, and especially people that they like, but unlike in America, on Valentines day, its only the girls who give chocolates and goodies.  Guys are just there to receive.  Granted, Japan added a second holiday on March 14 called "White day" where all of the guys give chocolates to the girls, but it more of a 'return' and takes a lot of the stress off of deciding who to give valentines to.  楽だ！

This past week was really busy, and for the most part we weren't even in Mihara!  Monday and Tuesday we were over in Kure for a junkai that went really well!  I went around with an Elder that I've known for about a year and a half now (he goes home in 2 days) and had a great time finding.  Since coming to Mihara I've been working on getting myself out there and talking to everybody, which has been good, but it's been really hard to get somebody that will talk back.  We're pretty lucky if we get 1 or 2 people to talk to us in a day.  However in Kure, only having a little bit of time to go finding because we had to make it back to Mihara (nearly a 2 hour journey),  we taught 6 lessons and handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon.  That's more success than we see in a week most of the time, and it was all within 3 hours!  As long as you're out doing the Lord’s work, it doesn't matter how long you have, the Lord with bless you with the time available.  We just have to go and make the most of it.

So that took us out of Mihara Monday and Tuesday, so that left Wednesday to dendo in Mihara before heading over the Fukuoka for a 4 zone conference with Elder Ringwood of the Asia North Area Presidency.  Wednesday we had to stop by the doctor's office (Elder Urakami's been having some pretty bad eczema) which took out a good bit of time from finding, and we had a lesson at 5 before having to hit a train at 7!  So this time, with even less time than in Kure, Elder Urakami and I set out to go find somebody who will listen.  After walking around for a good little bit we felt impressed to go search down this one neighborhood to see if anybody was home (usually limited to old men and women especially in the afternoon of a random Wednesday) and found somebody in the very first house we went to!  She wasn't super interested in hearing any more than the first bit of the message we taught, but she accepted a pamphlet and said she would read it.  Then continuing in that neighborhood we didn't find anybody else until we were leaving it and started talking to this one young man on his way back home from school.  We talked for a good 25 minutes, gave him a Book of Mormon, and set up a time to meet him at Eikaiwa next week (today!).  1 hour, 2 people, 1 Book of Mormon, and somebody who wants to hear more! 

Wednesday night we stayed over in Hiroshima so we could ride a Shinkansen (bullet train) early the next morning.  We stayed in the currently unused Hikari ward Sisters apartment, which used to be the Yasufuruichi Elders apartment that Elder Okada and I had opened a little over 1 year ago!  That was an interesting experience going back there after a year!  I have to say, it's a lot cleaner when 1) nobody lives there and there's no stuff and 2) after sister missionaries have lived there. 

Elder Ringwood's conference was awesome.  We learned that when he and his wife had just gotten married, the bishop of the first ward they went to was President Gustafson!  That's got to be interesting, meeting up again in Japan, over 30 years later, as a mission president and a member of the 70.  We learned all about how no effort is wasted and that really, whenever we teach, we're not only affecting 1 person, we're bringing the gospel to them, their children, their ancestors, and generations on either side.  What a great chance that is to bring the Gospel of Christ to generations! 

The rest of the week in Mihara was taken up by a huge Festival that brought tens of thousands of people to Mihara (I think tripling the population).  A festival (祭り） here in Japan, is kind of like the State Fair back in North Carolina.  However in Japan they are always based off of the local shrine and have a lot of traditional history.  The food is awesome too.  I had tai-yaki (a type of deep fried pastry in the shape of a fish), karaage (japanese style fried chicken), okonomiyaki (kind of like a japanese pancake with cabbage, octopus, squid, and all sorts of delicious things inside), Fried Octopus, and yaki-tori (grilled chicken on sticks).   Festivals are a great place to get dinner!

Well, I just want to let you all know that the work is going great and it's so much fun here in Japan!  Today is the last day of the transfer and we get our transfer calls sometime today.  I'm not sure how it's going to work out but I'll be sure to let you all know what happens next week!

Have a great week and go do something good!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

How can it be February?!

I don't know how it was for all of you back in the western hemisphere, but man, it feels that January hardly even happened at all.  Thinking back on it, I've been in Mihara for a full month now, which I'm sure isn't true, except for the fact that I know it is.  Oh man, that wibbly-wobbly time vortex, it's coming back to haunt me!

So I vote that this was a pretty good week for Dendo.  This past District Meeting we discussed the importance of sharing your own personal experiences, and how that is one of the best ways we can improve our teaching.  I love sharing my own experiences as I teach, it always seems to make what I teach 'real'.  You can flap your mouth all you want, and say some really good things, but when you show it, and demonstrate how it’s true, that's when the spirit can come in and testify of truth.  Recently one of my favorite quotes is thus, "What you do speaks so loudly that I can hardly hear what you say."  Oh how true that is.  Anybody can say something good, but it takes somebody truly special to go and do something good.

One of the main investigators we've been working with is also progressing really well.  She's really hesitant about setting a date to get baptized, but she's already inviting her friends to go and hear what the missionaries have to say!  She's found the joy of living the Gospel and is so close to having the spirit with her to help her more fully polish and let her faith flourish.  I can only imagine how hard it is to change your lifestyle in your 70s but, she's going strong and is a great example to me. 

Elder Urakami and I were also happy because we were able to find more time to go Finding this week!  We've been so focused on contacting members, investigators, and so many people that we've been sacrificing time to just go out and find people who are waiting.  Now we've been working harder on finding people and trying to help them see the goodness of the Gospel.  We've both become more proficient at starting and holding a conversation, and even teaching as we go.  Sadly people don't quite seem so ready to meet again, but that's going to be our next step, transferring from a good conversation on the street to a second meeting!  It makes me think of the scripture "Many are called, but few are chosen".  We call out to many people, but only few ever agree to hear more.  I've got the influence of the world against me, but that's okay, because I have the power of God behind me. 

Its great to see the power of God work in people, especially as we go and visit the less active members in the church.  So far while I've been in Mihara we've had 2 people reactivated, coming to Church regularly, and have 5 more promising people that we are working with.  Most of whom have non-member families who are bound to see the difference of the Gospel in the lives of their family member.  The work of the Lord continues to go forward, and no un-hallowed hand can stop the work!

Go out and do something good in the world today.  Make it a habit and before you know it you'll find yourself surrounded by friends and those who will go and help you, too. 

Elder Everett

エベレット長老