Real Intent

Hello friends!!!!

Elder Bevan did get transferred out and I have a new companion named Elder Olsen. He is a half Japanese, but he didn't know any Japanese before the mission. His Japanese is really good. It kind of makes me feel bad since people turn to him and only really talk to him. He is a great missionary but really quiet. I'm looking forward to working with him.

On Tuesday we had a lesson with W again. When trying to fix Elder Bevan's bike, we met a member who we invited to the lesson. After we gardened with her outside the church, we taught her about the Godhead. Last time we taught her the time line of the Book of Mormon. Now we taught her what the Book of Mormon would teach. So we taught the Godhead and their purpose (Moses 1:39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. ). She brought up Satan by herself so we explained him and how he works. It shows such a great change in her. She seems to soak everything in and she keeps saying she is excited to read the Book of Mormon. She even hand made a cover for the book to protect it. I asked if she could make one for my Japanese scriptures and she said yes! She said she was happy I asked. Next time we will teach her how to apply the teachings. It's a slow process but it is well worth it.

Wednesday, was spent getting all the things in order for Bevan Choro. We did get to meet E one last time. other than that we went home and got everything ready to go.

Thursday I spent most of the day with the district leader and his comp. They did weekly planning while I studied. Elder Olsen came in and we headed to Nago. We taught eikaiwa and returned home.

Friday we had weekly planning. iI was really hard to do everything by myself. Granted me and elder Bevan didn't always agree on things but it allowed for ideas to flow out. This one was all just my ideas. I don't think they were all correct either. I'll talk about that in a bit.

We went to visit E and had a short lesson with her. That was good. Later we had to walk a pretty far distance to get to a lesson with an investigator. First off ,walking is so ineffective. Second off the guy wasn't even there. We just wasted time. A cool thing that happened is that E introduced the gospel to a friend and he wants to come to church!

Saturday we wanted to visit N but she wasn't there. The lesson plan didn't feel right anyways. I feel like I over think the plans and plan the wrong thing. I want to make it more simple but somehow I always make it too complicated. I even use the things Kaicho has give us to help for planning. Its not healthy for me to completely plan by myself. We did some finding and got things done there. I used to be really persistent when I was a younger missionary. I always had bad experiences with that. So I'm not as persistent as I was before. Elder Olsen is pretty good at making sure everyone has a fair chance to hear the gospel. He is good working his way to a lesson. I need to work on that more.

Saturday night all our plans feel through because of things popping up and walking while waiting for Olsen's bike. But we helped a member with some of her cat problems? She asked us to pray for her cats? I mean we were next to her house so we visited. After that it turned into a good mix where we talked about how she can introduce the gospel more. This morning (Monday) she went and talked to a kid and he said he would come to the party on Thursday.!

Sunday after church we talked to some members about less actives and got their opinion on things. It was super good and our relationship was built more. The bad thing is, since our ward mission leader is inactive, we don't really have a way to exchange our information with the ward. The president just says, please activate him. We don't have a top 5. We don't know a lot of the members all that well and the branch vision at all. Elder Olsen and I are going to go to work on that this transfer and try to build the relationship with the ward. It will take effort and time but it needs to be done.

After that we went to teach K family. This time it wasn't as good. It may have been from the start they didn't have interest but this time they seemed to not enjoy our visit. I felt bad because I thought "is it because of my planning?" All of my planning this past week took a nose dive. It was so weird. My other plans with Bevan worked well. These just crashed. Maybe it was needed for us to focus on other things. But still it hurts inside to see things fall through.

Later that night we had a little time so we knocked on a door. This lady came out and was the usual Japanese "I'm this so I'm good" response. I don't know how Elder Olsen did it but he got around to a lesson. The lesson wasn't all that great but again we got around to giving a Book of Mormon out. I want to be more persistent and better molding to situations so that people have a better chance accepting the gospel. I feel like I go into gospel mode and only talk about the gospel. He is good using things around us and getting to know them. I used to do that so much before. I want to be more of a real missionary. Real intent and real heart. Really trying to help these people. I think back to that talk at general conference of "are we doing what we need to be doing now for us to become what the Lord wants us to become." I think about that a lot. It worries me if I am the missionary I need to be. What can I do to be more like Christ and a concentrated missionary? How can I work harder and love more? How can I give more of me so that these people can find Christ? I want to be the me I need to be. I will keep working on that.

We are looking forward to a good transfer!