10/25/2016 | A week of blandness (not to much new)
 |
| Bridge in Muroran |
Hey all!
It's been a week. Hope you all had a good one. I had a
pretty good one. I'm doing pretty good. Training has been occurring, and I
almost feel like I'm learning more than him. But Elder Pace continues to
advance along. He's doing way good, and I love getting to work with him.
The Shibuya's continue to advance along well. We finished up
all of the rest of the lessons this week, and they have both quit tobacco completely.
We actually found out that our other guy Kone san hasn't been very accepting of
the message and has actually been telling them they should stop. He's being
kind of a pain, but he is still very kind to us, and will listen, so we
continue to try with him. I actually got a text from him on Saturday, saying
that the Shibuyas were worrying about something, and my heart sunk. It almost
seemed like he was saying "Hahaha I won!" kind of text message. So I
kind of panicked, but I called one of my Zone Leaders for advice, and boy am I
glad I have him to help me. I had tried calling them, but their phones were
off. It seemed though like they had rejected the call causing me to panic even more, so Elder Heslop, my zone leader, kind of slapped
me in the face (very kindly and softly) and helped me realize that I should try
visiting them. Duh. Why didn't I think of that.
Well because I had been panicking, on our way over, we
stopped at a store, and bought a bunch of expensive fruit to give to them as a
present. Something though that Elder Heslop said that helped me calm down and
have faith was that "We are on Gods team." I know that, I just forgot
it for a while. Well we went over, and it turns out that they were just fine.
They had had a question about tithing that we were able to answer and promise
them blessings of it, and they were totally OK. And it turns out that the fruit
we brought them, persimmons, were their favorite fruit too. We were able to sit
down, and plan out the baptism with them, and they both asked me to baptize
them. I was kind of expecting it, but when they actually asked me, I was
shocked, and just felt this overwhelming happiness, and love. It's hard to
describe. Then they also asked me to conduct the meeting, and I realized, I don't
know how to do that.... Not Japanese, that's probably just fine, but I don't
know how to conduct a meeting in English... lol. I'll probably ask for some
help on that one. They continue to trudge along, and as long as they pass their
interview (which i think they will) then we will have a baptism this week.
Another cool thing, I got to give a talk in church
yesterday. It's been a long time. The last time, I gave a talk I was worrying
about the language more than what to say, and this time I was more worried
about what I should say. I was still very unsure when I stood up,
but I had looked up a few things, and had a skeleton to try to throw some meat on.
Well I hadn't been given a theme, so I prayed about it, and felt like I should talk about repentance, and evaluating yourself
constantly. I had been thinking about it as of recently. I had been looking at
the facsimile in Abraham (the one that has all of the stuff written about how God has not yet revealed what it means) and wondering,
when will he tell us this stuff. The last time we ever really heard new doctrine,
or new anything in General Conference was when President Monson announced that Missionary age had changed. And I
realized, that we aren't yet ready to know new things, because we aren't
following the old things we know.
God gives us everything Line upon Line, and Precept
upon Precept, so that we don't get confused. Well if we aren't ready, and
keeping the commandments and following the basic principles, how could we
comprehend anything new? The 3 basic primary answers seem to be themes of a lot
of talks, and scriptures. Pray, Study the Scriptures, and Keep the Sabbath Day
Holy. Not everyone is doing these things, and some of us (myself included)
could stand to do better. We could pray with more meaning, try to really
have a conversation with our Heavenly Father rather than just going through the
motions. We could try actually studying the scriptures, and trying to learn new things,
and follow the things we learn as opposed to just reading your chapter for the
day because you're supposed to read every day. Sometimes we could do a little
more to keep the Sabbath rather than just go to church. Keep the whole day
Holy. There might be some people that are doing these pretty well. Their job is
to help others to get up to that point. The caution that I gave however is make
sure you have pulled the beam out of your eye. In Matthew 7:3-5
3
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest
not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye;
and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt
thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye
Well a mote, is tiny. It's essentially a splinter. A beam is
straight up a piece of wood, used in buildings. Make sure you have taken your own
steps, and you've gotten that wood out of your eye before you try to help someone else. Otherwise you'll probably do more harm
than good (bludgeoning them with the beam hanging out of your eye while you try
to reach for theirs) (just picture that)!
Anyway I guess I'll challenge everyone else. Do and
evaluation of yourself. Check to see how big of a piece of wood you've got in
your eye, and start fixing that. Then go and help others.
Well thanks for sticking with me. It's insane to think just
how fast time has gone by. Already my dad is sending me messages making the end
seem a lot closer, trying to get me to be trunky! But it won't work! 伝道 For
Life!!! This is God's work, and I love being a part of it. Until next week, see
you around.
愛しているよ
Elder Eliot
