Wow. Well. Here I am. Were I to attempt to elaborate on the events of the past 7 days, I would suffer a miserable defeat. This week has contained sorrows beyond the human capacity to comprehend and joys beyond the most incredible imagination. Regardless, I shall make the attempt to best tell these past events to you all.
Tuesday. We met with an investigator whose name I will leave out. He pulled out his Book of Mormon. He told us he read the whole thing. Then he told us he could not believe. It was too hard. It was a rough experience for me. We had been teaching him for a while and he had progressed very well up until that point. He had a stressful past couple of weeks at work, though, and he told us he just couldn`t do it. We tried everything we could just to meet with him again, but he was done.
That night we had thanksgiving dinner with a member. It was great! It was quite the feast. They had a huge chicken (no turkey in Japan) , and it looked just like thanksgiving turkey. There was salmon and fruit salad and homemade bread. I had forgotten my camera, so no pics, sorry. We had pumpkin pie, cheese cake, and everything! It truly was a thanksgiving feast. Delicious!
Wednesday! Brother Futakuchi received baptism. It was an incredible experience! I performed the ordinance, and it was a great spiritual experience. I am so glad I got to see it happen. The Spirit was strong, and brother Futakuchi bore a strong testimony. Almost the whole ward came to see it, and it was a great chance to see the ward one last time.
Yep, that`s right! I`m not in Joyo anymore. Thursday was spent almost completely in travel on trains. I am in the distant land of Fukuyama 福山, in Hiroshima! It is the only area in the mission in Hiroshima, on the very western edge of the mission. It is a huge area, and is a bigger city than Joyo was. Tons of big buildings and lots of people.
My companion? want to take a guess? I`ll give you a hint, we`ve been companions before!! haha. It is Hunt 長老！ We were companions in the MTC! haha. So we are both pretty young missionaries, actually the youngest companionship in the mission. We get along really well. ^^
Also, I am District Leader over Fukuyama and Kurashiki areas. District leader. You know what? For some reason I thought there would be some sort of training or I would have been a missionary long enough by the time I became district leader that I would know what to do. haha. There is no such training, and I am the youngest missionary in the district. I am responsible for the communications with my district and the zone, as well as keeping updated and updating the zone leaders on the district`s investigators, and I am completely in charge of District meetings. woah. So it will be an adventure. I can tell it is going to be very good for my progress, though. As district leader, I have to make lots of decisions, be in tune with the Spirit when planning trainings for meetings, and be an example to the district and zone.
On Sunday we had 3 investigators to church, all of which had never been before. This area is doing pretty well! haha. 2 of them have baptismal dates before the end of the year. If everything goes well, I think they can make those dates.
Yesterday we did home teaching! First I was like, what....? missionaries do home teaching....? But it is a little different in Japan. Home-teaching means dinner and a spiritual message. So I am OK with having a home teaching assignment. haha! ^^ We had Tacos! First time I`ve had tacos in forever! There were several members there, including a family, a couple, and 2 YSA. It was way fun! The father of the family, brother Hirokane, is WAY funny and he even speaks English! haha. It was just a crazy fun night. It felt like Family Home Evening.
Well, hope all is well back home! it`s crazy to hear that Spencer has returned from his mission!
愛しております。皆さん、今週、楽しんでください。
オーライリ長老
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| I just had to get one of these finally. You can buy them anywhere. Actually pretty tasty. Good lunch for the middle of 2 long train rides. |
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| Fukuyama is beautiful! The scenery is incredible! |
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| From the top of an apartment building we were knocking. at night. Big city. |
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| The apartment building in Fukuyama |
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| Me and my new companion. Does he look familiar? haha |
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| Home teaching! It was way fun! |
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| Futakuchi's baptism!! |
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| Almost the whole ward came! well at least half. ^^ It was a great meeting. I love Joyo ward! |
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| A day of Trains all the way to my new area. The scenery was incredible! Fall in Japan...... is magical. |
I am a 100% sure that Elder O'Reilly and his companion did their best to make this Japanese brother to understand the gospel. It happens in Japan all the time. It's sometimes really hard to make a Japanese person to understand that there is SOMEONE out there that loves you and cares about you all the time.
ReplyDeleteI met lots of missionaries in Japan before I committed to my baptism. I was just not ready. It was just too hard for me to give up on many things and understand the importance of that. I wish I had all those missionaries contacts to let them know that they DID made a difference in my life and eventually I decided to accept the gospel. Mission in Japan is not easy, but it's so worthy! Please tell O'Reilly chorou that I will be praying for him!
Thank you so much! I will pass on your message to Trevor. I know he will love to hear from you!
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