It's no April Fool .... it's my Last Month!!

HAPPY EASTER 復活祭おめでとう！

How was your Easter?  I'm sure many of you had Easter egg hunts, special dinners, church programs, and fun coloring eggs and playing games.  Well, in a country where less than 2% of the population claim to be Christian, none of that happens unless you make it.  So that's what I did.  Through several strange chain of events I ended up teaching Eikaiwa 3 days in a row this week, in 3 different areas: Mihara, Yasufuruichi, and Takasu.  In all of which I ended up throwing a surprise Easter Party!  We had Easter-egg hunts throughout the church and then colored the eggs once they were found!  Due to a lack of food coloring and Easter supplies of any sort, we used highlighters and markers, but it was just as good!  Prizes included Oreo Cookies, Pocky, Hi-chew (kind of like Japanese Starburst), and a Giant Hershey's bar.  Something about seeing 8 or 9 fully grown adults (many over 50) going around anxiously searching for eggs made me smile.  That's one of the best things about Japanese people, no matter how old they are, they're just as intense about winning when it comes to playing a game.

Some of you may have noticed that I mentioned Yasufuruichi in there, and there may even be some of you that realized that that is one of my former areas!  I ended up going on a Junkai to Yasufuruichi for 2 days this past week.  It was really interesting coming back to an area I was in before.  I still remembered all of the streets, all of the houses and the people around there.  I went with the missionary there to visit many of the former investigators and less active members that I used to work with there and helped them find new people to work with as well.  As soon as we got  there I started making phone calls and we managed to double their Eikaiwa attendance in a single day!  It's not often that you go on a junkai and end up getting fed every meal!  

Friday at our District meeting we talked about the いろは Iroha of missionary work.  In Japanese the Iroha is a way to make an ordered list and is similar to saying the abc's of missionary work.  I broke it down to 3 main basis.  いー祈り I-inori Prayer.  In all that we do Prayer is key in all that we do.  We need to be humble enough to pray, pray for us and all others, seek for answers, and have prayer as the base for all that we do.  ろー労力 Ro-rouryoku hard work.  As a missionary we have to go do work.  Whether its streeting, housing, making plans for teaching investigators, preparing something to give members or anyone else.... there's a lot of things to do as a missionary.  Last was はーはｐｐｙ　Ha-Happy.  I wasn't sure what to do for put for ha, so I used a bit of good ol' japanglish to emphasize the importance of being Happy and letting this eternal plan of happiness show in your life.  I talked about it as the basis for missionary work, but it is more than just that, I believe that it's very much part of the basics of our lives.  Prayer, work, and finding happiness in all that we do.  With those three things, what can't be done?

Have a great week! Go do something cool :)

Elder Everett

エベレット長老