Week 83 : Kochi 高知

Its Kochi! This place is way cool. The area is by far the largest one in the mission.  Its really huge. the closest area is like over 2 hours away by high speed bus. uhhhh..... yeah really far. On Friday, there was a crazy blizzard all over the mission! and it was transfer day. haha. dang it.  So went from matsuyama to okayama to kobe back to okayama then to kochi. Look at a mission map. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. like 20 hours of travel. The buses all shut down to the snow, so we had to take a train..... and the only train that goes straight there is super expensive, but we made it! haha. Got back the the apartment and just collapsed as soon as possible.

We arrived, and one of the bikes was in a repair shop already. bummer. haha. It got fixed today, but we walked around a ton!!! so we have the responsibility to visit every single less active, and try to get as many as possible to return to church. Most importantly, if kochi branch can get 3 more active M. Priesthood holders in the next 3 weeks, shikoku can become a stake! there are a few priests that could possibly become elders, and there are tons of less active elders and even a few high priests. In the 2 days we were here so far, we were already able to set up an appointment with 1 Elder, 1 priest, and get an Elder to come back to church yesterday! Everyone we have selected to visit has had positive reactions so far. Now that we have bikes, we can visit a lot more. haha. We walked for over 10 kilometers yesterday.

My companion is way cool. His dad served a mission in Japan, and married one of the sister missionaries from his mission. So he is half Japanese. His Japanese is way good already, but I have to do all the kanji reading. (which is a lot with this responsibility, record and map reading)

Looking forward to another great week! The Lord's hand is apparent here in Kochi!

love you all
Elder O'Reilly

The shoes died. One pair will make it,  but the other pair is dead.

Last English class in Matsuyama

Heart shaped meatloaf! Mom's influence spreads to Japan. ^^

Snow as seen from the train

Me and Elder Weir found this house yesterday. Its just someones house..... crazy.

This is my new companion, Elder Weir.

Week 82: Final Mission 結局の使命

My stay in Matsuyama has come to a close.

Its been an amazing time here. The baptism I was able to be a part of, and the many others who will at some point in the near future receive Baptism.  There are many clear reasons why I was called to Matsuyama.

We had a Zone Training meeting. Me and Elder Mergist giving training for 3 hours. Went really well.

Where am I being transferred to....?  That would be...... Kouchi. The southern half of Shikoku, largest area in the mission. Who is my companion....? I don`t know. uhhhhhh....... yeah. I`m training AGAIN. this is training number four. someone shoot me. no just kidding. But I really was hoping not to watch the district videos again. I have most of them memorized. haha.

So. I will not be a zone leader or a district leader. But. I have a new responsibility.

I don`t know if you remember when I told you about Stake missionaries, and their role to help people come back to church so that we can create a stake, but I`ll be a Stake missionary. (president said only companionships with a Japanese elder / sister would be called as stake missionaries..... maybe my new companion will be Japanese? or they consider me Japanese? haha. Either way is cool I suppose.)

So Shikoku needs 5 wards to become a stake. Right now........... 4 have enough priesthood holders. The only other branch anywhere close to doing it?   That would be Kouchi. Basically, if me and my brand new missionary companion are successful in Kouchi, then all 40+ missionaries on Shikoku will have been successful in the Shikoku Stake project. Woah.

So my work is cut out for me. Clearly, the Lord knows I can do it, and that is why he is sending me there. I can`t wait to rely on Him and get started.

I go to Kobe on Friday to pick up the new missionary. Then take the 2 day journey to kouchi. haha XD

Love you All!

Elder O`Reilly

It was Elder Fuller`s birthday, and Elder Hunt who was here for Companion exchanges had a birthday too...... so we kind of went to a way good place to eat.

Changed the set up for ZTM this time. It was better this way.

ZONE PICTURE!

made tempura with onion and chicken. it was way good.

There was a really cool Matsuri going on one day.  Imagine all the people you ever saw in your entire life. Now multiply it by 5. That is how many people were there.

'Come with me, chocolate banana. Together, we shall bring all unto repentance!'

Put fish eggs (ikura) on rice and ate it. It was way good.

This is one of our new investigators! I told her that I would be speaking for the last time, and she came to church! (by the way..... I spoke in church.  I went over 20 minutes.)

Put squid on rice and ate it. It was way good.

Week 81: Island Adventure. And a miracle. 島での冒険。奇跡。

We had the coolest island adventure ever. All 6 Matsuyama missionaries went to Gogo Island just for preparation day. The ferry was less then $3, and the island was way cool.  We did get lost on the island and were late coming back though. haha. The island has tons of clementines....  you can even find them floating in the ocean!

So this week we had a goal as a mission to get 400 non-members to church. The previous all time goal in the Asian north missions I heard was 210. So it was a pretty crazy goal.

But, we had faith. The mission president said we could do it.

A letter was sent out to all the branches, just talking about this goal. It was read at all meetings.

From our zone, our previous record was 23 people in one week in the 5 areas.

This week we had 56 people.

The mission had 396 people at church!

It was an incredible miracle. We doubled the previous record in all of Japan and Korea.

Most importantly, many many people were able to come to church for the first times in their lives. They have started a journey that ends in Eternal Life.

The Gospel is so great!

I bore my testimony yesterday (testimony meeting). I talked about how I`ve come to church for many years. Through the years, there have been a lot that has changed, but one thing that has been consistent is the Love God has for me, that I can feel at church. Coming to Japan, that feeling is perhaps the only thing that is consistent.  God truly loves his people!

The atmosphere at church was ecstatic. Here in Matsuyama, 20 non-members / long time less actives came. It was truly a great spiritual meeting.

The work moves on!

love you all
me

Us on the ferry. It was way cool.

up the first mountain of the island (by the way, this is the Island that Sis. Haley`s mom went to every summer!)

There is a mikan roller coaster that goes all over the island!  (mikan = clementines. Mini oranges)

me on a rock.

we had to go rock climbing a tiny bit.... haha. thought we would try to take a different way back.

Me in the rock throne. oh yeah.

The group!

There were a TON of beaches.  ....... because it was an island.

ummm... awesome

Me with Bamboo swords.

The ferry ride back. It was a nice boat for $3

I made Fried rice surrounded in thin egg..... and then put kimchi and mayo on top!

Week 80

We have no time for a message this week. Please wait one week.

Going on an adventure to an island.

 Love you all

The gospel is true, Jesus is the Christ, and God is pouring out his rich blessings upon this land of Shikoku.

Elder O`Reilly

(Trevor's Mom says: I wasn't going to post this week, but then I got these pictures from the Mission blog.)

Mission Leader Training

Shikoku Island Conference

Trainer/Trainee Training

Week 79: The Salvation of God 神の救い

Do all in our power, then stand still to watch the Salvation of God.

... or something like that. I can`t remember it word for word.

It was a good week. We had interviews with president, and made some discoveries that are going to give me a much more intense drive for the last few months of my mission. I`m going to do as much mayhem in Satan`s kingdom as possible before I`m done. hahaha.

We visited tons of family potential investigators. none of them had interest.

Then, we as a companionship decided to pray for revelation. We prayed that we were ready and willing to do anything the Spirit asked us to do, and then asked what it is that we could do that day, (yesterday) to find a new investigator. (We hadn`t been able to get any new investigators for quite a while, and all our potential investigators had been gone through already)  We were directed to an apartment building half an hour away. We knocked on the first door. `no thanks, go away`.  second door. A young guy comes out. after a short discussion, he says he is not interested. I talked to him for a couple seconds as the spirit directed. He let us in and we taught him the Gospel. It was that awesome. He is only 14, part of a family of 7. Only met him so far, but we got our foot in the door! way excited.

the Stake project here on Shikoku is going great! the zone is hitting numbers we`ve never seen before. We have placed all our focus on relying on the Lord, and the Lord is pouring down his blessing upon us. The zone Smashed the all time record for new investigators this week... 17!!

The Lord has great things in store for this people. It is such an incredible opportunity to participate.

I love you all and I love the Lord. The Gospel is the path to Eternal Life! Tell your friends. haha. ^^

Elder O`Reilly

I am so lucky to serve in an awesome place. Who else has a bamboo forest?

This was from the same place as the pictures from last week. didn`t take any new pics this week.

That was probably the best 4 seconds of your life.

Week 78: Faith brings Boldness 信仰が大胆さを齎す

So it was a good week. We have a new mission focus! all about relying on the Lord. Only had it a few days, but its been pretty great. I`ve been more bold in the last couple lessons than any lesson I`ve ever taught, and its getting things done! ^^ I even cut people off while they were talking and my voice got louder a couple times. Which is not normal of me, but when the spirit makes you confident with what you have to say, it can happen.

I was talking with a recent convert, who didn`t maybe feel like he needed to come to church. I was very clear. Our goal in this life is to return to God. To do that we need the Atonement in our lives. For that the Sacrament is necessary.  Anything that gets in the way of us taking the sacrament is from Satan. (read with him from Moroni 7). The spirit was strong and I`m not worried about him coming to church from now on.

We got a family referral! we should teach a family of some sort this week! looking forward to that!

Also an investigator that had moved up to Sapporo came back! he wasn`t supposed to be back until March, but he is here. He left in February, so its been a while since he came to Matsuyama, but he gets along great with the members. Might be able to be baptized soon!

Today we made more mochi! this time with a hammer. Way fun. haha. It is so delicious you would not believe. Like the deliciousness nearly killed me.

Love you all!
me

Oh how lovely was the morning...... in a bamboo forest. Actually it was last preparation day afternoon, like a 10 minute walk away from the church.

Pretty cool, right? I have a video of running down this path. Its pretty cool, but its also larger than 15 MB.

Yeah. An ancient battle ground right by the church. how cool is that.

This is how they made the rice for the Mochi today. Cool, right? they took off the wood thing on top, and stacked up 2 pots there. Then we smashed the rice. ^^

Smashing materials.

I smashed it too hard and rice flew everywhere. haha. Wasn`t too bad actually but hey.

Week 77: NEW YEARS 正月

Happy new years! 明けましておめでとうございます！

New years was pretty fun this week.

We made Mochi one day! and on New Year's Day we woke up early and saw the sun rise during exercise time. It was pretty great. Seeing as we are allllllll the way in the east, we were probably in the first percentage of people to see the sun in 2014. Pretty great.

Since the sisters are now `stake missionaries`, they focus all there efforts on building the stake. (visiting less actives, etc). So, we got all their investigators this week. new investigators! wooo!

So even though we are not the `stake missionaries`, they are supposed to visit 52 members a week in order to visit them all by March. so....... we have to help out. haha. This week we had to finish writing all 660 records, so that took up 2 entire days. Each has name, address, birthday, baptism day, family details, etc. all in Japanese. I think my Japanese handwriting improved 60%. haha.

So now that the records are done, hopefully we'll have some cooler experiences this coming week. ^^ With the craziness of new years over, people will be more willing to meet as well, which is good.

I am excited for what the Lord has in store for us this week. Love the work!

Elder O`Reilly

Making mochi!

Soooooooo good. Has sweet bean paste inside.

We had to wear ridiculous aprons (which is why I`m not pictured) but it was wayyyyy fun! haha ^^

Also.... we got Mcdonalds to eat while watching the sunset. Some of the first burgers bought in 2014.

All the people that were up there waiting for the sun. There were more but they gave up. haha.

Almost there.

Victory.

The main city area was like messed up from new years eve. Its like never this dirty....... but it still wasn`t too dirty. haha.

Made deviled eggs for breakfast one day. sooooo good. ^^