Wow, what an interesting week! Nothing out of the extraordinary happened but WOW, did this week feel special for some reason. I guess every week is pretty special and something quite unique when you are a missionary but yeah! Cool beans I guess. This week started off with our usual "English Club" where we teach our friend Tatsuya San (who works at a nearby hat shop). Sometimes our less active friend Asakawa San (who is planning on coming back to church in one and a half years instead of three years now) takes over the lesson but he has a good testimony and helps his friend Tatsuya out a bunch to understand things. They are both definitely on the shortlist of bros here in Fukutoku. This was followed by an Eikaiwa where I tried to wear every single clothing article possible (including a makeshift earring using the cap of my pen). While teaching English Class you aren't allowed to really straight up teach the gospel so you can just be a total goofball in your native language and basically make the students like you enough to accept a church tour or maybe some gospel talk after class is over or at a different time.
This week also we finally met our Iranian less active I'd heard a lot about after not being able to see him for three whole transfers. He has been living in Japan for twenty years plus and still struggles with kanji (don't we all) and has had it rough recently with being involved with an accident and having a hard time finding a job. We had tried to visit his house six weeks ago and had found his 20 year old son there (1995 babies for the win!) and we had chatted with him for a little bit. We asked him about his dad and he said that he tried hard to provide for his family even though it was hard for him. Fast forward to this week and Shams Kyoudai was expressing his concern about his relationship with his son. We told him his son told us that he tried hard to provide for his family and had fluent Japanese so he started to cry. Shams Kyoudai said he never really heard his son express much love (which is a stereotypical problem over here in Asia) so it was cool to be able to be the messenger of that love. Moral of the story: People don't know how much you love them until you tell them. So I love you all!
Another cool little miracle this week was with a referral from a member. A member gave us the address of two families who come to her private English class a couple months ago and we tried to visit a couple times but no body was ever home. So, we decided to do it again on Saturday but no one was home again. Not thinking anything about it we leave to do something else after nobody answered the doorbell. The next day at church the member who gave us the address comes up to us and was like "You visited my friends yesterday right?" "Uhh... yeah... how did you know?" It turns out when we rung the doorbell, they had this camera that took our picture and when they got home and saw it, they were super excited and texted the picture to the member friend! Apparently they really want to have us teach their family English and are down to listen to the gospel too! So all we have to do is go back this week, set up an appointment, and then we have a family of investigators! So cool right? I'm excited to go back and I will keep y'all updated.
Usually I use a General Conference talk to end this off but today I want to use something from our Area Presidency. For those that don't know (I only learned this on my mission) the church around the globe is split up into several areas. I am serving in the North Asia Area that includes Japan, Korea, Guam, and MicroIndonesia. They are made up of multiple stakes just like stakes are made up of multiple wards. Each Area Presidency is made up of a President and two counselors and all three of them are members of the Seventy. Below is a rough layout of the church organization:
Well, why is this important? Each year they create an Area Plan that constitutes what the church wants to do this year in terms of growing and strengthening the church in their area. Usually a 200 page plan is made by the presidency and others in the headquarters in Tokyo and the leadership implements it without us knowing little to nothing about it. This year however, it is two pages and has been given to everyone! And man, it is SO COOL! I might just move to Guam to be part of the Asia North Area for the rest of the year! Here is the layout of it:
It is super simple but SUPER powerful as well! We got sheets where we make a plan for each of the six attributes so you have one for how to better love, how to better elevate, etc. We all met together during third hour of church as a whole entire Ward and watched a video from the Area Presidency introducing it. It was really well done even though it was only for like four countries. It even had an anime segment! The church is true folks! At the end the Area Presidency (which my old mission president is now in!) bore their testimonies and I don't why but I got all teary-eyed which like never happens to me. I realized this wasn't just an Area Plan, or a way to increase church membership but it is something that will help us find joy and return to God. I could feel of the Area Presidencies love for all of us in the area and how they want to help us return to our heavenly home. It just simplified dendo for me. My job is 24/7 to help people find the joy I have felt during the gospel. Not just a numbers game but saving people's lives here on Earth and giving them the opportunity to live with their loving Heavenly Father forever. I am so grateful for all the times I have been down and no one but my Father in Heaven could bring me hope and help me as I struggled to speak Japanese or to get along with a companion or help an investigator. I guess that is why I am a missionary because someone did the same thing for my family way back when and it has brought me so much to my life. It really just means the world to me. If I could just do that for one person how great would be my joy and their's too. I hope you can find the joy in gospel as we all strive to return to our Heavenly Father and bring our brother and sisters along with us, I love you all and have an amazing week!
This week also we finally met our Iranian less active I'd heard a lot about after not being able to see him for three whole transfers. He has been living in Japan for twenty years plus and still struggles with kanji (don't we all) and has had it rough recently with being involved with an accident and having a hard time finding a job. We had tried to visit his house six weeks ago and had found his 20 year old son there (1995 babies for the win!) and we had chatted with him for a little bit. We asked him about his dad and he said that he tried hard to provide for his family even though it was hard for him. Fast forward to this week and Shams Kyoudai was expressing his concern about his relationship with his son. We told him his son told us that he tried hard to provide for his family and had fluent Japanese so he started to cry. Shams Kyoudai said he never really heard his son express much love (which is a stereotypical problem over here in Asia) so it was cool to be able to be the messenger of that love. Moral of the story: People don't know how much you love them until you tell them. So I love you all!
Another cool little miracle this week was with a referral from a member. A member gave us the address of two families who come to her private English class a couple months ago and we tried to visit a couple times but no body was ever home. So, we decided to do it again on Saturday but no one was home again. Not thinking anything about it we leave to do something else after nobody answered the doorbell. The next day at church the member who gave us the address comes up to us and was like "You visited my friends yesterday right?" "Uhh... yeah... how did you know?" It turns out when we rung the doorbell, they had this camera that took our picture and when they got home and saw it, they were super excited and texted the picture to the member friend! Apparently they really want to have us teach their family English and are down to listen to the gospel too! So all we have to do is go back this week, set up an appointment, and then we have a family of investigators! So cool right? I'm excited to go back and I will keep y'all updated.
Usually I use a General Conference talk to end this off but today I want to use something from our Area Presidency. For those that don't know (I only learned this on my mission) the church around the globe is split up into several areas. I am serving in the North Asia Area that includes Japan, Korea, Guam, and MicroIndonesia. They are made up of multiple stakes just like stakes are made up of multiple wards. Each Area Presidency is made up of a President and two counselors and all three of them are members of the Seventy. Below is a rough layout of the church organization:
Well, why is this important? Each year they create an Area Plan that constitutes what the church wants to do this year in terms of growing and strengthening the church in their area. Usually a 200 page plan is made by the presidency and others in the headquarters in Tokyo and the leadership implements it without us knowing little to nothing about it. This year however, it is two pages and has been given to everyone! And man, it is SO COOL! I might just move to Guam to be part of the Asia North Area for the rest of the year! Here is the layout of it:
It is super simple but SUPER powerful as well! We got sheets where we make a plan for each of the six attributes so you have one for how to better love, how to better elevate, etc. We all met together during third hour of church as a whole entire Ward and watched a video from the Area Presidency introducing it. It was really well done even though it was only for like four countries. It even had an anime segment! The church is true folks! At the end the Area Presidency (which my old mission president is now in!) bore their testimonies and I don't why but I got all teary-eyed which like never happens to me. I realized this wasn't just an Area Plan, or a way to increase church membership but it is something that will help us find joy and return to God. I could feel of the Area Presidencies love for all of us in the area and how they want to help us return to our heavenly home. It just simplified dendo for me. My job is 24/7 to help people find the joy I have felt during the gospel. Not just a numbers game but saving people's lives here on Earth and giving them the opportunity to live with their loving Heavenly Father forever. I am so grateful for all the times I have been down and no one but my Father in Heaven could bring me hope and help me as I struggled to speak Japanese or to get along with a companion or help an investigator. I guess that is why I am a missionary because someone did the same thing for my family way back when and it has brought me so much to my life. It really just means the world to me. If I could just do that for one person how great would be my joy and their's too. I hope you can find the joy in gospel as we all strive to return to our Heavenly Father and bring our brother and sisters along with us, I love you all and have an amazing week!
Elder Hall
ホール長老
Monday Flashback
"So no matter what, even if you are a sick elder inside your apartment and can`t eat chicken without it doing weird stuff, Christ stills loves you."
- Elder Hall's Body's Forced Diet 2/2/2015
Ponderizing Scripture
"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"
- D&C 18:15
Sorry no picture this week! And sorry I didn't have time to email people individually! We had to help a sister in the ward move most of the day. I still love you though and will get back to you next week!
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