Grandma will be very glad to hear that I was able to play the piano. I told the music coordinators in our district I would be willing to as long as I got to pick the hymns so I picked the easy hymns of "Come Follow Me", "I Stand All Amazed' (which has one note on the bottom hand half of the time) and "Be Thou Humble". I was able to get most of it without many mistakes but I kind of struggled with the tempo of the hymns. I guess I need to practice more for next time.
But playing the piano was not all I did in Sacrament Meeting, I was asked to give a talk, IN FULL NIHONGO!!! The way it works is that each week coming into sacrament meeting, no one knows who will give the talks so everyone will have one prepared. Luckily, I had prepared mine and when I he announced my name along with the sister I was speaking with, I was ready for my three to five minute Nihongo daka talk. The other Elder Hall in the zone was a bit freaked out since he just got there two weeks ago but the Branch President clarified and made sure he knew that I was the one giving the talk and not him. The subject was endure to the end and I quoted Job(which in Japanese is Yobu so everyone was a little bit confused when I said where the scripture was and it didn't help that I read the verse a little haphazardly because it was in Hiragana), and I talked about 2 Nephi 31:20 which was my mission scripture. Each week someone will sit in the back of the room with the Branch Presidency's wives who know no Nihongo and translate for them. My companion was the translator this week. For the most part I saw him able to understand my Nihongo, and I was trying to use the grammar patterns we had just learned so I hope others were able to understand me. But it was really cool to realize that I had just given a sacrament meeting talk all on my own effort without any google translate. Just some grammar books, a dictionary, and my knowledge.
Monday we went to a meeting with a trainer named Brother Mills from the MTC who had been a mission president in Fukuoka and served in the same mission of Nagoya and all the elders in the district. We talked about how our expectations will affect the way we work and the way we approach things. In the end of the meeting, the person who was leading the discussion in the meeting told us that we need to have a fine line of expecting many baptisms and hard work but also realizing that because people have free agency, our investigators or others won't be willing to accept the gospel sometimes and that it is not our fault. After the meeting I was kind of confused on what to expect in Japan as I had never really thought about it before. I remember being told at that meeting that to help change our expectations we can pray to the Lord to help him give us the expectations that He wants for us. So, I got down on my knees for nightly personal prayer and asked him to give me righteous expectations. Like a lot of times at the MTC, my prayer was answered at a devotional.
On Tuesday night, we had Stanley G. Ellis from the Quorum of the Seventy give our devotional and instead of talking the whole time, he let his eight kids who had all served faithful missions bear their testimonies on missionary work. One of his daughters talked about hope in Christ, and Elder Ellis talked about promises that God gave us missionaries and these two things really stood out to me. I realized then that hope is just what I needed to have righteous expectations. Before I came to the MTC and even in it, I have been aware that Japan is not a baptism crazy place like some stateside and South America missions. I knew when I opened my call, it wouldn't be easy and I probably wouldn't have as many teaching appointments as some of my friends going to other places around the globe. In the expectations meeting, Brother Mills said that he thinks that the work in Japan could be improved and when Elder Ellis's daughter talked about hope I remembered that. I have come to realize that my expectations should be a baptism everyday and a lesson for every meal over in Nagoya Japan. Is that what is happening right now? No. Is that what is going to happen when I go over there? I guess I won't know until I try. If I go in thinking or wanting anything less, I think my work will suffer. I'll be happy with a little improvement or one baptism but that isn't what the Lord wants. The Lord wants all of his children to come unto him and be saved and if I don't want that too, I shouldn't be here. I know that I won't convert everyone in my mission, but I wish that could happen. If I go in thinking that this person might reject me when I street contact them or that this person we are giving lessons to will drop us soon and it happens, it won't concern me. But if I go into everything thinking that the answer will be yes, I will work so much harder to bring them closer to Christ and teach them the gospel. I'll be rejected and I'll have my hard days but I know that if I try my hardest to help everyone I meet, that many, including me and everyone back home, will be blessed. Elder Ellis quoted Proverbs 3 that the "Lord shall direct they paths" if we are righteous. And the thing I have learned in the MTC is that if we are righteous and follow Christ, that the Lord will direct our paths and that we can be the best us we can be. I know that when I go to Japan, I can have the Spirit to be with me all the time and that the Lord can make me great.
Thank you so much for the support as I feel it everyday. May the Lord bless all that may be reading and I will talk to you next in Japan.
Love you all!
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| Branch President and wife and Shawn |
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| MTC District |
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| Elder Hall and Elder Meservey (Las Vegas Buddies in MTC together both going to Japan) |
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| Elder Shawn Hall with Grandpa Woodruff |
