Hello again. It's me Elder Williams. Well I guess there is no better place to start then where I left off last week. So here goes nothing.
Monday ~ Without much of a plan we decided to head out to an area a ways away from our apartment to go talk to people. In the process we were getting rejected, a lot, which is no bother to me as I am here to find the one that is looking for, or needs the gospel. It doesn't matter if I have to weed through thousands of people who say "no". I will keep going and so I did and eventually we found someone and he said we could go out to eat together. But after that we had to rush home. Tuesday ~ So we were just a bit busy this day. First off we traveled to the way north edge of our area and visited an FI (former investigator). He was a cool guy, but he's a bit of an eternal investigator, 10 years. So we probably won't be visiting much. Then we had our recent convert lesson, also on the northern edge of the area. Then we ran down to meet with our Filipino friends, who live on the southern edge near the ocean. It was a way fun day, but we felt like we were running everywhere, north to south. But after the lesson with the Filipino’s the day was spent and we had to go home. Wednesday ~ So this day we did DKK, weekly planning. So yeah, we were planning and then when that was finished we had to prepare for Eikaiwa, so yeah. We hardly left the church. But hey we planned really well and got ready for the upcoming week. Thursday ~ We had a zone meeting in Yokkaichi and that meant we had to get up about 30 minutes earlier than usual, so 6 AM, not too bad. And we then rode the trains all the way to Yokkaichi. There we received training from the AP’s and the mission president. And that was good stuff. Then we had a lunch and then more training. After that we had a member appointment, and that was our night. Friday ~ Today was a Kokan (exchange) so I went to Gokiso. It was a good night where I ended up finding two investigators and getting someone a baptismal date, kind of a crazy day. But nothing much else happened besides a meeting with a recent convert. So, all in all not a bad day. Saturday ~ We ended the Kokan (exchange) with sushi. It was a good Kokan. After that we went to our Filipino friends and visited and then we went off to basketball. I had a decent night nothing too crazy. Kind of took it easy on my shoulder but it was all good. From there it was the usual rush home. Sunday ~ Our early meetings were canceled, but we still ended up being way early to church and then stayed way late, as people had lots of questions about the gospel and doctrine and that good stuff. During church we ended up doing splits and teaching two separate investigators. One of which, was one of our recent convert's wife. So we learned Jeff is married. Yep, you read that right, it was kind of funny because none of us knew he was married, but it was all good. After church, we visited a less active and then visited some investigators. After that we returned home and that was the week. So one thought from the training I received. God always wants to help us, but he also wants us to grow. So while being a missionary we seek to be helped by God at pretty much all times. But God also requires us to do something. He requires us to give our all, literally. He wants us to be hungry and striving to hit the streets and talk to people, and not relaxed and waiting for people to come to us. We have to be desperate to find the souls God is preparing for us. And once we find them, we need to keep going and never look back. Anyways, when he sees that we truly are committed to him, he blesses us so much more. Anyways that's all from Japan. Love, Elder Williams 愛している ウィリアムズ長老
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Subject lines are a hard thing, and I kind of no longer have the will power to think of creative stuff to start with, so here it goes.
Monday ~ Prep day. Groceries, laundry, and all that fun stuff. Then we cut our free time short and went and visited a less active and gave her chocolate. Then off to the church, to help some members clean and then we headed home and started calling all the people from the old Eikaiwa (English) class records. Man, it took a long time. Anyways, didn't quite finish because it got kind of too late to call people. Tuesday ~ We had a lesson with a young man with lots of deep questions so we took some extra time preparing and then went to his lesson. He actually accepted our testimonies and enjoyed the lesson instead of trying to pick the lesson apart, kind of nice. We then got a call from a recent convert who practically demanded a visit. Kind of got worried, but on arrival to his place he was just like "I wanted to be ministered to today because I didn't go to church." So we taught him. But it's a bit frustrating sometimes, because he wants us to just teach him and not learn on his own. But we try anyway. And after that we just talked to people on the way home. Wednesday ~ So on this day we went to a festival at one of our favorite parks only to learn that there weren't many people at this festival. It was kind of lame. So we left and with all of the day's plans pretty much gone I was wondering around the city praying and pretty much saying stuff like, "Ok where should we go?" or "What are we to do?" and sometimes, "Ok what the heck is going on?". Finally I looked up while biking and decided to turn left across the street and then ride this small little street till it opened up to this set of large danchi’s (apartment buildings). And for people who know me. I much prefer to talk to people on the street and not house, but that's how this happened. So we housed and found some way cool people. And the Lord once again has taught me to humble myself, suck it up and do as he asks. After that we had dinner and Eikaiwa (English class). After that I chased down a ramen truck for the sisters and it was really funny because I passed an Eikaiwa student who was walking home and I was like "Hi, I want to eat ramen. Bye." But that was all. Thursday ~ So we were supposed to plan, but that didn't happen and so we went housing at the same place we were at the day before. There we found another investigator. Then we rushed to the church to meet up with Robert, formerly known as Elder Lehman, my ex comp who is traveling Japan. He came back and we had a dinner party with an investigator, that Lehman and I had found together, it was way fun. Then we went to an appointment where the guy ended up giving me and Pollister haircuts in the process. Kind of funny but hey apparently I look good. And that was our night. Friday ~ We started with DTM (District Training Meeting), where I was assigned to speak on striving. So I kind of played down a mini "sermon" in which I said that when we strive we don't settle for second best or almost there. It was kind of preachy, but then the District Leader backed me up with another sermon like thing, it was all good. Then we had a Kokan *(exchange). I took Elder Porter and we had some fun visiting less actives. And as we were getting ready to go play soccer we got a call that told us that soccer was canceled and we would be unable to attend, kind of sad. But we went and visited our Filipino friends when unexpectedly Lehman showed up. We shared a short message with everyone and then headed home and bid the guys a short farewell and told them not to have too much fun at karaoke. That ended our night. Saturday ~ We had some good studies and then we headed back to the Filipino's house to meet them and take them to the mission home for a missionary concert. Yeah, way cool and we spent the whole day with them. Sunday ~ Stake Conference, so only 2 hours of church. Then we had tons of home teaching we did and then we had a small party with a member and her friend. Then we had dinner. We then proceeded to meet a less active and we dropped in right as she was cooking, so she decided to feed us. Way good food with a really fat feeling. Then we went and met with one of the Filipino’s and taught the plan of salvation and invited him to baptism. He agreed and he is set to be baptized on the tenth of next month. And that was our night. So there was my week. If you learn something from this, it should be that you can be humble or humbled. Take your pick. You can give it all to the Lord or try and hold something back. In the end, giving all and putting it all on the altar is what brings the most joy and greatest rewards. Love, Elder Williams 愛して、 ウィリアムズ長老 Here we go again. Kind of low on time, but that's how it goes some times. Any ways I'll hop to it and get to the week.
Monday ~ Prep day! Or in other words run around and do everything you will need for a week in one day. It's really fun. So that night no real appointments so we went out to talk to people. No one was really into it but the real gold mine was the phone because I picked up some old investigators through the phone. Yeah! Tuesday ~ So we visited a recent convert and helped him out with some stuff and shared a message. Then after that I felt like I needed to find this less active, Roberto, so we went looking and did not find him. So we had some dinner at a nearby McDonald's and then headed to a nearby investigators house and taught him then his friend Wales in and we ended up teaching him and he liked it said we could talk to him anytime. Score one for random friends. Then we went home. Wednesday ~ So we were in the middle of our studies this morning when we got a call from a member asking for us to help do service at the church. We hustled on over and worked on cleaning up the church and then headed home to finish studying. We then went to give more service at a local children's hangout by helping them with English and stuff, the real purpose besides helping people was to find Roberto, but it was to no avail. We then went to Eikaiwa to teach our own English class. Thursday ~ So this day we did planning. And then we went out and we randomly met a hard to meet LA and got a return appointment with the correct address, all because I promised chocolate. Then we headed out to meet our recent convert and try and help him through a hard time. But talking to people along the way home took the rest of our night and no one was interested. Friday ~ It was crazy. We had DTM and it was cool. Then we had lunch and then went to a park to talk to people. And it turned out good to people set a next event and it was a good park day. Then we headed out to look for Roberto again and again he was nowhere to be found. I was really starting to kind of doubt my prompting. It was kind of sad. We then went and visited our Filipino investigators and we watched the whole hour long restoration video. After that we rushed to the church to meet another investigator, kind of. And he had ordered us pizza so we sat and ate pizza and talked. Then we took the extra pizza home and went to sleep. Saturday ~ Crazy, crazy day. To start we go to a fair at a local temple to help a member. Then while there the organizer learns that my comp, Elder Pollister is from Hawaii and that he plays the ukulele. It also happens to be the next fair is Hawaii Themed and elder Pollister will probably play in it. Then we rushed to a lunch with the bishop and his son. Here the bishop said that he wanted me to find Roberto, yeah I know I wasn't crazy. He told me he was worried about him because Roberto is only 16 and is technically the next to serve a mission in the ward. After that lunch we went to another LA's house and they fed us lunch too, we are soooo fat. It was a good time and we shared a message to her and her boyfriend. Then we rushed to talk to a member about the talk he would be giving and because he speaks English we had to figure out the translation situation. Then we rushed to basketball to be greeted by a familiar face, it was Elder, now Brother Lehman, my old comp back for a visit. Yeah it was fun. Sunday ~ Church went smoothly I gave a talk with zero prep so I guess I kind of speak Japanese. Then we had lots of meetings after church and then I decided to give Roberto one last chance and check if he was home. It didn't look good as there want a single light on in the apartment but he opened the door and we had a nice long chat and he said if he ever doesn't come to church we can come over that night to share a message with him. It was awesome! Finally found him. So the spiritual message for the day is always follow through on a prompting and if it doesn't work once go for it again and again and the Lord will bless you. Do this especially when people's salvations are on the line. That's all for the week. Love, Elder Williams 愛、 ウィリアムズ長老 So we will go back in time and visit what happened during this week. By the way, if it wasn't clearly stated in last week's email, we did have transfer calls and I will be staying in Takabata, with my companion, for another transfer. It was a good week. But stories are best told from the beginning right? Anyways. . .
Monday ~ Yeah, it was the day I did all of the mailing and the shopping and good stuff. Yeah, it was a good day. Nothing too big or crazy happened, just visited some investigators. All in all, a pretty good day. Tuesday ~ So Monday night we got a text from the APs (Assistants to the President) about how we were being selected to go and train the new trainers that would be getting beans that week. So I and the bean worked out our presentations, based on the topic of accountability. And so I read them Jacob 1:19 and Jacob 2:2 (see below). It was really like a hard slap wakeup call and don't mess up kind of message because Jacob is way straight forward, so they got the picture. It was way fun. After that we went to visit a recent convert and then we decide to walk home and talk to people on the streets. It was a good idea as we met two really cool people. But because we just decided to walk home we didn't have anything else really happen. Jacob 1:19 ~ “And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.” Jacob 2:2 ~ “Now, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, according to the responsibility which I am under to God, to magnify mine office with soberness, and that I might rid my garments of your sins, I come up into the temple this day that I might declare unto you the word of God.” Wednesday ~ We planned our week out this day so nothing at all really happened and then we went to looking for less actives to no avail. And then we had Eikaiwa, which is always fun. But that was pretty much it. Thursday ~So we decided to do some more less active searching and we found one and we had a really long lesson with him. But he's pretty sure he's graduated from religion. Yeah, he thinks he's on a level above the prophets and apostles. But I really don't think that's possible. Like Elder Bednar is way awesome and Elder Holland is great. Not to mention President Monson and the others. But hey, we will keep trying with him. Then we had a meeting with some investigators and we ended the night going out to eat with two of our investigators. All in all, it was a good day. Also found a guy who wasn't interested in the church, but said he would cut our hair for free if we gave him a call. He was way cool. Friday ~ We went to go contacting, but no one was outside. So I decided to go looking for some more less actives, and we stumbled across a place that the missionaries used to volunteer at and decided to pick up right where the other guys left off. Later we learned that a less active, we are looking for, frequents this place that we decided to randomly stop at. So thus we shall begin our stake out for a LA while doing service every week. We then went to a lesson with an investigator and he proceeded to take us out to dinner. Way nice guy, and a way nice way to end the day. Saturday ~ We went out and did some more contacting/ less active searching. While we were out and about I saw one of my favorite Brazilian stores and all of the sudden I had the biggest craving for Brazilian food and a root beer, because they sell them at this store. Elder Pollister was ok without stopping, but I wanted food, so we stopped and while eating the food a less active, who had been lost from the records, rolls up and says he wants us to come visit him next Sunday. Like what?! So I have learned that sometimes promptings may come as food cravings and that God can direct you in any number of ways. After that we proceeded to go to a Matsuri (Japanese festival) with an investigator and watch a fireworks show. Way awesome! And that was pretty much our day. Sunday ~ As always, church. We got two investigators there and one was a member’s husband. He's a way cool guy and he is a pro basketball referee. Way cool. We had a good lesson with him and he was way nice. We will probably meet with him again soon. After that we visited our investigators who decided not to come to church. We shared a Holland talk and some other church videos. We then talked about the messages that were given and bore testimony. It was a good way to end our night. Well that's pretty much all from here in Japan. I hope you guys all enjoy reading what goes down in the crazy life of a missionary. Anyways, catch you all in a week. Love, Elder Williams 愛、 ウィリアムズ長老 As missionaries we usually can get outside and talk to people all the time, but not this week for us. We had lots of activities that made us stay inside. So sorry if my week seems a bit boring, but that's how it rolls sometimes.
Monday ~ So we had P-day (preparation day). Lots of cleaning, laundry and buying food, but not much else. We went out to meet some people, but they never showed and we also met some really cool people that hopefully we can meet up with again. Other than that not much else happened. Tuesday ~ So we headed out to Yokkaichi that morning at around 10 AM to go to our interviews with the president. He ended up being about an hour late, so everything got pushed back. It was way great. We had time to take some funny photos and get taught a little lesson. After that we returned home at like 4 pm and had a lesson with a way awesome guy and he rolled up in style on his way awesome motorcycle. Way too cool for the missionaries but we had a good lesson. We then had some dinner and went searching for some less actives but to no avail. And that was our night. Wednesday ~ We did all of our studies then we went to the mission home for a training for senior companions training new missionaries. It was way nice for Elder Pollister to see all of his friends from the MTC and talk with them, but it was a three hour meeting. After that we rushed home for a lesson and then we ran out for dinner and then rushed back to Eikaiwa to have a fun time. Thursday ~ We had a Kokan (exchange) and we actually got to get out of the house and had a great time. Me and another elder got out and had lots of fun. We found this less active who has a lot of potential. We had a good long talk there. It was way awesome. But we started to get rained on so we rushed home. Friday ~ Guess what we had another meeting! Yayyyyyyyyyyyy. (apply sarcasm liberally to the prior sentences). Anyways, it wasn't too bad it's just more time where it feels like I can't do anything to help he people in my own area, but I guess sometimes we need to be helped before we can help others. After that we had weekly planning and then seminary with the youth. So it turned out to be a good night. Saturday ~ We had apartment checks and we passed with flying colors. So much that the senior couple took us and the sisters out to lunch and it was way good. Then we went and visited some investigators and then went to meet another but his job forced him to work late and we had to reschedule. But after that we went to basketball. And it was not a good day for me. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if I tried. So I stopped shooting and became a passing point guard. Sunday ~ We had church and one investigator came and loved it sooo much that he's already trying to get more Sunday's off from work. We then went home for lunch and then came back to the church for a lesson but got stood up hard core. But we rolled with it and went less active hunting and talking to people. We ended the night racing home in the rain and getting soaked. All in all, a good day and a good week. Love, Elder Williams 愛、 ウィリアムズ長老 |
MissionCalled to Serve in the Japan Nagoya Mission.. Archives
July 2017
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