I totally missed the Ides of March!

New missionaries are awesome.  Ok, so here in this district we have an 18-year-old missionary from Brazil that we are working with.  Right now as a District Leader I'm in charge of the growth and development of all of the missionaries I serve, with a special focus on new missionaries.  He may only be 18 (meaning he was a freshman when I graduated High School!) but he's got dendo fire that's contagious.  (You should be proud of me in that I spelled contagious right on my first try)

Wednesday we had a BBQ planned over in Hiroshima and went with our one active young man, and the seminary teacher.  March 20 is a holiday in Japan (the vernal solstice) so it was the perfect time for a BBQ and soccer, right?  Well, that's what we all thought; the weather just didn't want to agree.  The entire first part of the event was spent huddled under a tree trying to cook the meat without it getting watered down by the torrential rain that decided to fall that day.  It very much reminded me of many a scout camp I've been on... The whole stake was invited but the participants ended up being half Mihara and Kure branches (the farthest away) and the other half Yasufuruichi (who planned it!)  I was perfectly fine with it, I knew everybody there (a rare thing for a missionary) and it was super fun!  Just as all of the food was done and everybody was feeling full, the rain stopped and we had perfect weather for soccer.  Me being me, I had brought an Ultimate disc with me as well, and I think that that became just as popular, if not more, than soccer!  As one of the kids was leaving I heard him talking to his dad saying, "I think I know what I want for my birthday..."  (Converts to frisbee +1 :D)  

After the BBQ and sports, the contingent from Mihara (all 4 of us) went to this restaurant called the World Buffet in Hiroshima which was awesome!  If any of you happen to be in Hiroshima (not sure how it would happen) I highly recommend it.  Just don't eat too much, it'll be hard, but make a fixed limit and you'll be fine.

Tuesday we had a big mission meeting with 4 zones!  We had a similar conference a little over a month ago and I was happy because I knew everybody at the conference.  Now 1 month and 2 groups of new missionaries later, I don't know half of the mission!  The Fukuoka mission is currently under a revolution!  Our number had dwindled from around 140 to 108 at one point, but with the new announcement in October, we're looking at hitting 240 within a year.  Come 1 year from now this mission is going to be completely different!   Elder Mills, an old mission president who served in Fukuoka, was the guest speaker, perhaps one of the most animated speakers I've seen at a zone conference yet.  We learned about the importance of short, powerful statements to invite the spirit in as we Find on the streets, and the importance of doing more effective methods more.  Personally I was impressed that he kept his Japanese up for so long after his mission, and his presentation was animated and kept your attention.  I think the thing I came most from the conference was wanting to have that kind of attribute some 30 years after my mission.  You could just tell that his life was the product of his service to God and Christ, what could be better than that!

Saturday at our monthly service at the center for people with disabilities went really well.  We play Shogi (Japanese chess) with them and this was their yearly Shogi Tournament.  I lost very soundly, but it was a great time to get to know the people.  Somehow it got around that it was going to be my last time at the service activity, so the coordinator at the center and his intern (it just so happened to be his last day too) had us come and talk about American and Japanese welfare principles, religious beliefs, and life in general!  It was awesome, and if nothing else, they certainly have a great respect for Christianity and this Church in particular.  

Oh Church was awesome.  We suddenly jumped to 36 people, and at the branch lunch afterward we reached 50!  A family from New Zealand was visiting before they leave to go to Australia, and all of their friends came to see them off.  I don't know if I've ever seen so many people in the church building!  That's definitely a family that I respect, and would be very happy if my own future family turned out like.  We swapped facebook info (which is totally possible now as I can actually find them within a relatively short amount of time) and it was a really sweet farewell.  Things are moving, miracles abound, and life is good.  

As simple a thing as listing all the good things in a week can make any bad feelings, any anger, doubt, fear, frustration slip away.  Try it out, it's awesome.

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Welcome to the newest member in MIhara!

There's a lot that can happen in a week.  You could meet new friends, If luck is on your side you can find and start a new job, move across the country, move to a new country, you could even for example, turn over a new leaf (possibly a 4-leaf clover?) and start a new life.  There's a lot of things that we can do every week, and this week, our 71 year old friend here in Mihara made quite a big step and began her life as a disciple of Christ. 

The baptismal service was really cool.  Somehow Elder Swasey and I got out a pretty good version of 'When Jesus Christ was Baptized.' I would love to send over a video (Elder Swasey took one on his camera) but there's not really any way to send it.

However back at the baptismal service we had 2 of our investigators come (a mother and her daughter) and learn a little bit more about what it means to follow Christ.  They had a really good time, and after the service we had a dinner with everyone that came.  I don't know of any better way for people to fellowship and become friends than over a simple meal with a good atmosphere.  The members did a great job at welcoming Iwashita into the ward and even developing good relationships with the Asayama mother-daughter pair.  (Their names may mean 'rock-bottom' and 'shallow mountain' but they're great)

So Elder Swasey really likes to cook.  I don't know if I've ever seen a missionary make as many brownies (with pure cocoa, beet sugar, and organic butter and eggs) pudding (with organic soy-milk, 100% fruit juice, beet sugar, and an organic gelatin like powder) or 和菓子　(Japanese treats wagashi).  It's been really great as we've been delivering them to people that we meet.  I don't think there's been hardly anyone that we've met this past month or so that we haven't brought something to give them.  I feel like it's a good way to show them love and how much we care about them, but sometimes....maybe it’s a little much.  At the very least, it has them open the door a little wider, talk a little bit longer, and hopefully, eventually open their heart a little broader.  

Saturday we had a plan to go to Onomichi (the next city over) and visit a lot of less-active members, but as we made calls, every single person fell through.  We weren't really sure what to do but I had really felt like we should go and at the very least make the effort to go and see them, even if they weren't there (with loads of brownies and access to conference talks, we could at least leave something for them to eat and read when they got back).  There's been one member over in Onomichi that's been on my mind recently, and she was one that I really wanted to meet with, but fell through. This week I kept thinking, I need to call her, even if it's just for a little bit, I need to call her and see how she's doing.  The phone call didn't end up being something super exciting, it was essentially the same as any of the other phone calls I've had with her this past 2 months, and it even ended up with her canceling the meeting tomorrow.  So much for that little bit of inspiration..... At least that's that I thought until Sunday.

So Sunday was pretty great.  Iwashita got confirmed a member in Sacrament meeting, and she even made it to all 3 hours of church for the first time!  She always tells us how she doesn't know anything, but she plans on doing all she can to learn and keeping growing in the Gospel.  Up until Sunday she always left after the 2nd hour, missing Relief Society.  So today come the third hour we were really excited for her to finally make the step to go and join the other sisters!  As we were sitting in Priesthood meeting thinking that it was going all good, suddenly the 1st counselor in the branch presidency came and grabbed us.  He's like 'There's this woman called Shimatani at the door.'  I rushed out the door, and to my great surprise, it was Sister Shimatani, the member who I had been thinking about all this past week!  It was her first time back at church in over 10 years!  She had visited the building once when they had a big open house for it 6 years ago, but never on Sunday.  She made her way over by riding her bike to the train station in Onomichi, taking the train to Mihara, then walking nearly half an hour in a town she hasn't been in in over 5 years, and somehow found the Church!  Now it's not as if they come back to church once and all of the sudden everything is better, but that first step, the journey to come to church after a long period of absence, is possibly the hardest step to take; and I'm not sure what it is about Mihara, but more and more members here are beginning to take those first steps back to Church.  I'm fully convinced that a reactivated member is just as important, just a special as a new convert.  What a great Sunday!

Well, I think it should be getting warmer there, it certainly is here.  I hope you all have a great week, and go do something special!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Marching through Mihara

Well, it is the end of my 15th transfer and here I go starting number 16!  If I were to say that the feeling is surreal, well, that might just be an understatement.  So with the 4-week transfer, and nearly half of the mission changing, there was bound to be something happening in Mihara.  Well, if that's what you thought then you were with the rest of everybody else, everybody that is, except for President Gustafson and the Lord, because Elder Swasey and I are staying one more together.  

I started off my mission bouncing around and wound up in my third area by my third transfer, and I have now been in as many areas since then I as I had up until then!  I'm super excited for everything that's going to be going down in Mihara this transfer.  We've been going around finding all of the hidden youth here in Mihara.  We have one young man who comes every couple of weeks, and that's about it.  But throughout this week we've found that there are actually 8 possible young men here in Mihara!  4 of them are members, 3 less active, and the other 4 are non-members but they all range from 12 to 17 years old!  I'm not sure what it's going to take to get them to come out to church but I'm certainly going to do whatever it takes!

Tomorrow is a big day because we have a BAPTISM!  She's a wonderful older woman who's been meeting with us ever since she began taking English lessons last August!  She was telling us how much she has opened up since she began coming to church, and just how happy she feels whenever she comes to church on Sundays.  The power of the Gospel has a profound effect upon the lives of the people who let it in.  For the baptismal service Elder Swasey is playing the Violin and I am going to be singing 'When Jesus Christ was Baptized' which isn't in Japanese, so we've been working on translating it this week.  I've done a lot of translating throughout my mission, but something about translating songs.... that's just a whole other ball park (counting the beats, fitting the words, not mixing old and new Japanese, keeping proper respect levels and tenses.... ) it's a bit of a beast. 

As we've been continuing here in Mihara we've gotten really busy.  Almost every day has turned into us going from place to place visiting and teaching along the way.  As far as teaching goes, I have to say that this has been the busiest time in my mission.  At the same time I know that there is always more that I can do and with this last 6 weeks I plan on going all out and doing everything that I can!  

This past Sunday we had a branch conference, and our little branch of 20 or so people somehow grew to 36.  A good number of them were from the stake, but it was quite a sight to behold.  We even had a family come for the first time!  The mother is a member but hasn't come to church in many years, and she brought her 2 sons (part of the hidden youth of Mihara) who are 14 and 16 years old.  We also had a delicious pot-luck lunch afterwards with so much good food!  Carbonala Pasta, Japanese Beef Stew, rice balls, sushi, japanese fried chicken (its different you know)  … as they say in Hiroshima, 'my stomach got fat!'

The work continues to go on and I've got 6 weeks left to go and do all the good that I can!  Wish me luck!

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

Mihara's March Madness

I can hardly even believe that it's already March here in Mihara.  I still remember very clearly the day I came over from Fukuoka, and oh man, what a quick little trip that has been! 

 

Thing here in Mihara are really heating up!  This week we were able to visit with a lot of our investigators, especially ones who are hard to meet up with, and they are all doing really well.  This past Monday at the family home evening we have every week we challenged the family to have family prayer every day this week and to let us know how it went, today we're making them fried rice and planning on seeing how it went!   Before we visit them on Monday we drop by another family that lives around that area to talk to their son, who was baptized just over a year ago.  He's pretty much our only young man in the ward, so we try to spend a lot of time with him and help him stay active in the Gospel.  He's a really awesome kid and I love to work with him.

 

Speaking of, a little over a week ago we had him joint for a lesson with our main investigator, and his testimony really seemed to strike a chord with her.  He's 17 and she's 76, but even with the 60 years of difference, that's no barrier for the spirit to testify of truth.  This last week when we met with her again we reviewed the requirements for a person to be baptized and she set a goal to get baptized next week!  Now we're looking forward to the 13th and working with her to strengthen her faith and help her feel her savior's love throughout her life!  (I'm really happy that it's the 13th, because this transfer is only 4 weeks and if I get transferred, than it would be on the 14th.... If the only 'result' that comes from a short stay in Mihara is her baptism, then I am utterly and completely satisfied.)

One of the things that I've been coming to really appreciate is the effectiveness and the simpleness a phone call during the week can do for a person.  Even if we don't have something to really teach them, just checking up on how they are, getting to know them a little better, and really caring about them beyond Sunday is something that I've really come to appreciate this past week.  There's a quote that was said in General Conference that has stuck with me ever since I heard it.  It's been my motto for this last part of my mission and I think is more than worth sharing. 

 

"The Church cannot hope to save a man on Sunday if during the week it is a complacent witness to the crucifixion of his soul.”

 

This is why I go after all of the less active members I can in every area I go.  This is why we, as missionaries take time to visit members, hear their stories, lift them up and inspire them.  We are the Lord's hands in the service of his children, and we cannot fail as long as we pray to know and perform the will of the Lord.

 

This past week we made an extra effort to recontact former investigators and found ourselves in a brand new part of our area.  It took a good hour or so bike ride to get there (in the dark no less) which was possibly one of the more dangerous bike rides I think I've taken in the past 2 years.  Our options where either on the side of the highway with no bike paths or side walks (literally right next to the trucks whizzing by) or on the narrow walk ways between the maze of rice fields on either side. We ended up taking both ways at different times, relying on the kindness of the drivers while on the highway, and our little bike lights trying to navigate the maze of rice fields....  We're planning on going back, a good 2 hours earlier this time so that we have the Sun on our side.

 

Yesterday was a busy Sunday!  So March 3rd is a holiday here in Japan, the Doll Festival.  It's mainly for little girls, so there's pink things everywhere and dolls on gorgeous ornate stands everywhere we go.  It's to celebrate the start of the Cherry Blossom season here in Japan, which I think is just about the most beautiful time in Japan.  We were invited over to the Branch Presidents house for a sort of Family Home Evening where we made Pizza and had delicious ice cream (with pie filling as topping...?!)  But before that we got news that the son of one of our investigators was turning 13!  My companion and I made him a nice batch of brownies and got a member to take us over the 25 minute car ride to hand deliver it to him!  He's a really quite reserved kid, but oh man, he was so happy we were there to celebrate his birthday.  It's just like I was saying, going out of your way to go and do something nice for somebody else... there's not much of a better feeling then when they give that smile of appreciation back! 

 

The work goes on and the heat rises!  The cold winter is nearing it's end and the new life of spring is coming up.  皆さんの上に神様の平安と慰めがありますように。  (May the comfort and peace of God be upon you.)

 

Elder Everett

エベレット長老

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