Long time now see!
i am sorry i have not been able to send out an official email to
everyone in the past couple of weeks. This is the first P-day
(preparation day) that I have been able to spend good time emailing in
quite a while.
I want to start off by saying I love being a missionary. I think
everyone would enjoy being a missionary, and I hope everyone who was
one reflects on their experiences often.
This area has been quite difficult in many aspects (simply because we
cannot openly proselyte on Base) but it has reminded me of how much
God is in charge of our lives. I know He's there and I am watching
Him, through no real effort of our own, lead those who want to hear
about the church to us.
We have met many wonderful friends here, and I am so grateful for the
opportunity to serve here.
Never mind the bugs.
The bugs here are....well, insane. The worst is the cicada, which is
called semi in Japanese. It is so... Ugh. Because you rarely see them.
You just walk by trees and you hear this rumble of bugs and their high
pitched chirping going faster and faster...sometimes I wonder if I
will survive being here. None have dive-bombed me yet, bug the Elders
get hit quite frequently.
I am trying to find an object lesson to relate semi to a Gospel
Principle...hm....one day I'll find one...until then, if you feel
brave, please google them.
I have had a lot of great experiences this past week, but there are
two specific ones I would like to share with all of you.
One: We were in a lesson with one of our new friends, who is Chinese.
i cannot even begin to express the amount of love I feel for this
person who i have just met. We are excited to teach her, and she
really wants to learn. We have to work through a translator to speak
with her, but that is okay. Yesterday we taught her about Jesus Christ
(because she literally knew nothing about Him. She thought, because
there were two names, that it was two people) and we briefly explained
who He is and why He is the most Wonderful person on the planet. When
we were done, she leaned back and, as simply as possible, said, "Well,
if Jesus loves me like that, then i will love Him." We asked is she
beloeved in Jesus, and, after hearing about His life, said, "Yes, I
do. I think He's real." Her simple faith is so beautiful. I wish I,
and others, could also have such pure, childlike faith. I have found
on my mission that having faith like that is refreshing. It is not
for the simple minded, or the dumb. It is a faith that we find after
having run around in psychological circles, trying to find another
answer-any answer, from that which is so simple. I do not know why we
do that-try to make things more complicated than they need to be, but
I find that, after I run a mental track of complicated notions for long
enough, I find myself back at the origin the simple answer I knew all
along- that I believe.
Second: This week i went to a meeting where our mission President
spoke. I love my mission President. He is one of the best examples of
me of a person who loves the Gospel and has fun in living it. I have
learned a lot from Him. And, ask he spoke about his conversion story,
I finally made a connection. He spoke about being a quiet teenager who
met missionaries on the street, and, I connected it. There is a
stereotype of quiet Japanese teenage boys- we see them everyday. And
they act quiet and scared of...well, a lot of people. And. I realized
my mission president was one of those little boys who met the
missionaries. He was one of the quiet, nerdy boys who we see dauily.
And then i watched my mission president bear powerful testimony on the
Book of Mormon in a language that is not his native, speaking of
things that he knew. I suddenly saw all of those High School students
on the street as future President Wadas. People who believe in the.
Gospel so much and are strengthen by Jesus Christ.
Sometimes when we see people, we only see them in their current state,
not as who they could be. I hope I can, and i hope all of you cn, see
people this week not as how they are but how they can be. And maybe,
we will trest those people a little bit differently.
This. Gospel is true. This church is real. God loves you. Just read
the Book of Mormon, people. Let it flow through you.
愛しています
モレン姉妹
i am sorry i have not been able to send out an official email to
everyone in the past couple of weeks. This is the first P-day
(preparation day) that I have been able to spend good time emailing in
quite a while.
I want to start off by saying I love being a missionary. I think
everyone would enjoy being a missionary, and I hope everyone who was
one reflects on their experiences often.
This area has been quite difficult in many aspects (simply because we
cannot openly proselyte on Base) but it has reminded me of how much
God is in charge of our lives. I know He's there and I am watching
Him, through no real effort of our own, lead those who want to hear
about the church to us.
We have met many wonderful friends here, and I am so grateful for the
opportunity to serve here.
Never mind the bugs.
The bugs here are....well, insane. The worst is the cicada, which is
called semi in Japanese. It is so... Ugh. Because you rarely see them.
You just walk by trees and you hear this rumble of bugs and their high
pitched chirping going faster and faster...sometimes I wonder if I
will survive being here. None have dive-bombed me yet, bug the Elders
get hit quite frequently.
I am trying to find an object lesson to relate semi to a Gospel
Principle...hm....one day I'll find one...until then, if you feel
brave, please google them.
I have had a lot of great experiences this past week, but there are
two specific ones I would like to share with all of you.
One: We were in a lesson with one of our new friends, who is Chinese.
i cannot even begin to express the amount of love I feel for this
person who i have just met. We are excited to teach her, and she
really wants to learn. We have to work through a translator to speak
with her, but that is okay. Yesterday we taught her about Jesus Christ
(because she literally knew nothing about Him. She thought, because
there were two names, that it was two people) and we briefly explained
who He is and why He is the most Wonderful person on the planet. When
we were done, she leaned back and, as simply as possible, said, "Well,
if Jesus loves me like that, then i will love Him." We asked is she
beloeved in Jesus, and, after hearing about His life, said, "Yes, I
do. I think He's real." Her simple faith is so beautiful. I wish I,
and others, could also have such pure, childlike faith. I have found
on my mission that having faith like that is refreshing. It is not
for the simple minded, or the dumb. It is a faith that we find after
having run around in psychological circles, trying to find another
answer-any answer, from that which is so simple. I do not know why we
do that-try to make things more complicated than they need to be, but
I find that, after I run a mental track of complicated notions for long
enough, I find myself back at the origin the simple answer I knew all
along- that I believe.
Second: This week i went to a meeting where our mission President
spoke. I love my mission President. He is one of the best examples of
me of a person who loves the Gospel and has fun in living it. I have
learned a lot from Him. And, ask he spoke about his conversion story,
I finally made a connection. He spoke about being a quiet teenager who
met missionaries on the street, and, I connected it. There is a
stereotype of quiet Japanese teenage boys- we see them everyday. And
they act quiet and scared of...well, a lot of people. And. I realized
my mission president was one of those little boys who met the
missionaries. He was one of the quiet, nerdy boys who we see dauily.
And then i watched my mission president bear powerful testimony on the
Book of Mormon in a language that is not his native, speaking of
things that he knew. I suddenly saw all of those High School students
on the street as future President Wadas. People who believe in the.
Gospel so much and are strengthen by Jesus Christ.
Sometimes when we see people, we only see them in their current state,
not as who they could be. I hope I can, and i hope all of you cn, see
people this week not as how they are but how they can be. And maybe,
we will trest those people a little bit differently.
This. Gospel is true. This church is real. God loves you. Just read
the Book of Mormon, people. Let it flow through you.
愛しています
モレン姉妹
