These past two weeks were wild and so fun lol. Sorry for the long email today as I’ve got a ton to say! I can’t believe I’m actually doing missionary work some days. I also genuinely don’t know if I’ve ever worked this hard in my life (at least physically and spiritually), but I wouldn’t change this experience for anything else. I genuinely have seen more and more miracles as the weeks go on.
God is good and loves you, so so much. All we have to do to inherit the full glory of God is to, as the ancient prophet Alma from the Book of Mormon said, reach out to him, believe in Him, and believe in His merits which are more than enough to save, freely, again and again, until you can truly become perfected in Christ. What a wonderful plan!
(More spiritual thoughts after these past two week’s reflections):
“Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you.
Yea, he saith: Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely.”
We started last Tuesday off with getting some ramen with the “Otsu bros”. It’s a bit of a misnomer as it’s only one guy, but apparently he’s a world champion in crew. Who would’ve guessed!? Well, he’s reading the Book of Mormon now! Dubs. We then housed and streeted for 4 hrs in prep for game night! Asaumi-san, our best friend, who this past week agreed to get baptized, brought a ton of snacks. It was epic. We then gave a member lesson and basically didn’t need to talk the whole time after we shared an opening scripture which was pretty epic, ngl. We are grateful for the member because [to those of us who are not brought up speaking this language] Japanese people do not make sense when they’re super smart [and speak really fast], and Asaumi-san is super duper smart. She writes piano music, is a computer programmer, and speaks miles better Japanese than I can understand right now. Even though I can’t understand or speak her language as well as I’d like, she heard me playing the piano and even though I speak just a tiny lick of Japanese now, we really bonded over the piano and music. Every time we give her a lesson she thanks God for my piano playing, which is just about the sweetest thing ever.
The next day, we had a lesson with PJ. He’s a chiller from France who’s a photographer for a living! He speaks perfect English and terrible Japanese (me too!) so we gave him a Japanese lesson and then a short gospel message. We somehow had a French Book of Mormon so we gave it to him and he said he’d read it! We then proceeded to street for three hours and gave an English conversation class for the Japanese people later that night.
On Thursday, we decided we wanted to visit 6 inactive members! It… was a lot of walking and nobody seemed to want to even talk to us. A lot of 結構s again today, but this time from former church members, which seemed to hurt a little more deeply. But on the way we ran into a couple people who literally just wanted to talk about Christianity! In Japan, it’s so insane when people just actually want to learn about Christianity straight up. So we agreed to give them lessons. Also, at the very last house on the list we were visiting, a sweet lady answered the door. Well, it turns out her husband’s health had just really taken a turn for the worse and she attended Sacrament meetings on Zoom as a result. But, my companion and I both knew she needed our short little message. We shared a scripture, spiritual message, and gave a prayer, and she and we were crying by the end of it. It is often in the little things that we can find the most joy if we let them. We definitely intend to visit her again soon. We then streeted for two more hours (on top of the 4 hours of walking already) before going to Institute. Streeting is no joke here in Japan, but the work goes on! I have to admit I’m jealous of the AP’s ability to have a lesson like 24/7, because that’s my favorite missionary moment for sure! It doesn’t even feel like work when we teach!
Last Saturday, we wanted to meet with an inactive member, but we caught him just as he was headed to the market. We couldn’t talk for long, but his vibe was awesome. Which was really disappointing, cause he didn’t want to talk this week when he was free! The Lord needs awesome chillers for His Church. Later that night, we also wanted to go to Kusatsu and house! We didn’t have much success unfortunately despite the 4 hours of finding but we did run into a festival. They called it the turning on the lights festival or something. But it was totally a Christmas light festival. Just call it Christmas, man! Anyways, we gave another Japanese lesson that night to Guillermo. He’s a mad chiller and liked reading the BoM I think. He didn’t come to church this Sunday, but acted super interested in coming before.
Last Sunday was so fun! We had stake conference so we met with Asaumi-san and took the train to Ibaraki. Some talks were on baptism and a few converts talked too, which was so great for Asaumi. We then did streeting for an hour and a half, but apparently the sisters just went over to her house and ate cake, which I’m insanely jealous ofヽ(｀Д´#)ﾉ
Last Pday was so fun! We went to Kyoto, ate takoyaki, spent wayyyy too long on the bus going to a temple and got home way too late. Oops. But it happens.
Now time for this week! Asaumi-san really wants to be baptized so we wanna teach her the rest of the lesson principles! She’s super keen and smart in the lessons, she picks up and remembers everything we say. She has reasonable questions about following religion (I.e., can you be Buddhist and Christian? If I don’t want to be LDS anymore can I just stop?) which is of course always more than welcome as that’s what we’re here to teach as missionaries! So we taught about “enduring to the end” and the blessings associated with that, and I plan to share some scriptures about how everything that is light and of wisdom inevitably comes from God.
Lots of similar stuff happened this week. We’re always trying to find more people who want to take lessons, but the finding is slow. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto! People here are quick to say they’re Buddhist and slow to say I’m interested. But they’re out there, for sure. Asaumi-san will be the first one baptized in this ward for over four years if all goes well. Please pray for her to follow the path that will bring her the most joy!
I really love this Church. It heavily emphasizes seeking higher education, that religion and science go together, recognizes and supports the sacrifice that having a family is, seeks to build bridges between other religions and cultures, enables hope in something beyond yourself and the belief that we’re not actually just really advanced animals, but that we really are all children of God made in His image, gives relief in our mistakes while still giving us support to push us to being a better individual and providing a framework and an individual by which and whom it is done, and aims to support and love everyone in both traditional and nontraditional roles. It really does feel like I am being prepared to be with God by being a member of this Church (And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”).
I genuinely do believe in God as He’s interpreted by the scriptures and prophets today. The Plan of Salvation is beautiful–it perfectly balances mercy and justice by emphasizing that all will have an opportunity to learn of Christ and His gospel, repent for our mistakes and eventually, even after death (D&C 138), be able to choose for ourselves if we want to follow it. Therefore, those who were born in knowledge of God and His plan for us as opposed to those who yet know of His plan for us do not stand on unequal ground in the eyes of God. Does that not sound like a perfect respect of agency, mercy, and justice? But even if we don’t desire to be with Heavenly Father and enter into his fold, the Book of Mormon esentially completely rejects the idea of hell (which is such a shame because Dante’s Inferno is a hell of a book, (kneeslapper)!), stating that it is because we have already chosen to come to Earth and follow Christ’s plan from the premortal life ( 2 Nephi 9:16 ; those who are filthy are Satan and his angels who sought to take away the agency of man), even the least of Heavenly Father’s kingdoms which we are able to enter into, by nature of our choice in the premortal existence, is “beyond all description.” The good news of the gospel is that, well, yes, we can inherit eternal life, but we can also access the power of Christ right now! I have felt Christ lift my burdens, and I know He does every day on the mission. I have seen the difference between having Christ as my focus, and having the world as my focus. Every day with Christ is a joy, no matter how hard! The precepts of the Book of Mormon, this Church, and most importantly, Jesus Christ ring true in my heart.
I’ve already forgotten like half the miracles that happened these past two weeks but just know it was blessed up by God. I’ll get better at journaling, so y’all can get more entertaining emails next time.
Oh, some goofy moments I just remembered. Asaumi-san went to church yesterday and it was over the sections of D&C that talk about shaking hands with angels and polygamy.[She didn’t flinch.] So cool! We also probably tried to street a yakuza. He had the silk shirt and leather jacket. I was so sad when he said no. I also wanted to street the Free Palestine protestors, but my comp wouldn’t let me, so we streeted a mom instead and she acted actually really interested. Maybe my comp was just really led by the Holy Ghost. I still want to street the Free Palestine protestors.
Also, I can’t see the comments on my site anymore so please just reply if you can[to elijah (dot) son (at) missionary (dot) org].
Anyways, this week was awesome. Talk to y’all later.
I love your emails Eli,