Monday, October 12, 2015

Challenges Are Better Achieved Together

Excerpt from Alex's letter to me:
We don't have that much food in the apartment at the moment, and
nothing for our usual breakfasts, and we were contemplating what we
should do. The doorbell rang suddenly, and in walked a member with a
tupperware full of food that he made saying, "I brought you
breakfast!" It was a nice little miracle, and I'm glad that he was in
tune with the spirit to help us out this morning. Thought you'd like to
know that the Lord is watching over me.

(I'm not sure why he doesn't buy more food. He has plenty of money in his account. He has become very frugal, which is a good thing as long as it's not taken to the extreme.)



His letter to everyone:


One of the talks in the most recent General Conference (which I saw
this week), talked about how we can better cope with life. He
mentioned that we would try and ponderize (ponder on and memorize) a
verse of scripture each week. He also stated that we should try and do
this in groups to see more success. So, I would like to invite all of
you to join me in taking this challenge and working on it together.
This week, I have chosen to ponderize 3 Nephi 9:14 "Yea, verily I say
unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold,
mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come,
him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." Please
chose your own verse of scripture (make it have personal relevance to
you to help you have a willingness to ponderize it), and don't worry
about word for word memorization. Get the main point of the scripture
and the reference down, and ponder on it this week. I invite you to do
this for as long as you can.

This week's kanji of the week is: 古川 pronounced "furu-kawa" and
(spoiler alert!) is the name of my next area, which I'll be going to
this next week.

Monday I really don't have too much to report on. I can say that we
had fun playing uno and having a spiritual message with a less active
member.

Tuesday we went to set up an appointment to help a different less
active member who lived far away. We spent the rest of the day (not
too much to be honest) with our investigator Brother Yamamoto.

Wednesday we went back to the less active's house and help him weed
his yard. There isn't too much of a yard (normal for Japan), but there
were a lot of really big weeds, and it took awhile to get them all
out. After that we went together to a restaurant, and he was nice
enough to pay for a delicious ramen and tempura lunch for us. Besides
that we only got to study and have English class. There was a new
student in English class though, and he was pretty good at English. It
was a fun class once again.
Thursday we went to help a member's friend weed her garden, which was a bit bigger than the less active's house, and also full of weeds. She was nice enough to make us rice balls and gave us some thank you notes. We went from there and ate lunch with the less active member from Monday, and it was a good all you can eat place. After that we went to the church and played ping-pong with the new student from Wednesday, and talked a lot. He's a good guy (college student), and hopefully he brings his friends to English class. Friday we had Zone Training Meeting, and it was way good as always. After that all we did was studies basically. In the evening, we got a call from President Smith regarding transfers. I learned that I am going to be moving to Furukawa, an area that my first companion has been to. It will be fun to learn of people who he once associated with on a regular basis. Saturday was all viewing General Conference, and the only time we left the church building was to go to a local restaurant with a member. It was very delicious food, and General Conference gave a good spiritual feast. Sunday was spent in like manner, with the majority of free time taken up by studies, food, and packing. I got everything already to get sent away this morning, but found out that it won't come until tomorrow. So that's good. I love you all, and hope that you take my challenge to ponderize scriptures with me. I challenge you to try and do it for 20 years and see what effect it has on your life, and even more if you can. Have a great week everyone! Love, Elder _______ 長老
    

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