So... This transfer has gone by really, really fast... We're already on our last full week together... woah that went really fast. I have no idea what's going to happen this transfer literally anything could
happen... どうしようどうしよう…
Well we had a pretty good week. We got to have a wonderful Zone conference from President Nakatsuka, in which he pointed out quite a few interesting things. We focused this time around on 3 things. Love, Becoming a consecrated missionary, and Teaching the Japanese people. What if I told you, that Japanese comes all the way from Adam. Would you believe me? No? Well here I'll give you an example. Here is a Kanji character. 造. This character means "to create". Well here is the
interesting part. Kanji is made up of Radicals, which are basically just other kanji. So this one is made up of 土、口、and 辶. Well 土 means dirt, or dust. 口 means mouth, or (an older definition) person. and 辶 means walk. Well dust, walking, person, "to create" hmm...... interesting. How about this one. 禁. This one means "Forbidden" well here are the parts. 木、木、示。木-Tree, 示-(old definition) God. 2 Trees, and God, "Forbidden" Just let that stew around in your minds for a minute, and tell me Japan isn't actually a Christian country.
Anyway there are a lot of other things I could talk about having to do with this. There's lots of evidences of things like that, and I can tell you about them all at another time. I'd actually like to share with you something from my studies this week. So I told you I had started studying the Book of Mormon in Japanese. Well I made if to 2 Nephi Chapter 4. Now if you know your 2 Nephi you'll know that this is the Psalm of Nephi spot. This is where he talks about how awful he is, and how good God is, and all that. Well it's also where we find this scripture in verse 28 "Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul." Well in the Japanese version it replaces the word "soul" with "霊" which means spirit. This is because there isn't a good translation of the word "soul" in Japanese. But it got me thinking. Make your Spirit stop falling asleep or "drooping into sin" or in other words wake it up. If your spirit is asleep, then the "natural man" (Mosiah 3:19) will take over, and them sin occurs. Well on the opposite, I'd your spirit isn't asleep, then the spirit is 10 times stronger than the natural man, so it will win. Therefore "WAKE UP YOUR SPIRIT" Now you might ask, how do you do that? Well in order to invite "The Spirit" or "The Holy Ghost" which gift you were given at baptism, there's several things we can do. Several General Authorities have mentioned this umpteenth hundred times, but try Singing a favorite hymn,
or quoting a favorite scripture, or anything else that you have found that invites the spirit. That is how you wake up your own personal spirit, and that is how you "Put off the natural man" that is in you.
This is the truth.
There is so much good stuff in The Book of Mormon, Logically it has to be true. But logic aside, I do have a testimony of it's truthfulness. It is the Word of God. You can all know for yourselves as well. Read, Ponder, and Ask. Or in the words of the Primary Hymn, "Search, Ponder, and Pray" Just try it out this week. Even if you already have. I promise you'll have a good experience (that's a missionary promise. That means it's Gods promise. That means it'll be kept 😉)
Well I think that's my piece this week. Love you all.
愛しているよ
Elder Eliot
