Here we go on our final ten days! In all reality it is all drawing down to a rather unexpected
close. I'm just as busy as I would be if I wasn't going home. That's all good, but it just feels like
the end will be like running into a brick wall halfway through transfer week (the busiest week
there is). I have to make sure that Jones and the new AP (who we pick up on Monday) know
everything because they can't call me with questions later. It's going to be a busy week.
This last week was pretty busy. We finished off our last two zone conferences and we had
three exchanges. Monday we said goodbye to my past companion Elder Nakamoto. He extended
his mission for a couple of weeks so his parents could come pick him up. It was good to meet
his family and then before you knew it he was gone.
Tuesday was our zone conference and exchange in 岡崎 (Okazaki). It was a super good zone
conference. The ZLs and STL did a really good job with their training and I was impacted by a
question the focused on. The theme for this transfer's zone conferences has been developing
missionary attributes which is essentially developing Christ-like attributes. The question that
Elder Baldwin and Tsuru asked the zone was this, "Why do we want to become like Christ?"
I don't know why it impacted me so much but it was a pretty deep question to me. As
missionaries we try so hard develop Christ-like attributes, but I think we forget why we do so.
We all are developing these attributes because we want to be more like Christ, but why do we
want to be like the Savior? Everyone has a different answer. Everyone has a different reason.
The important thing is that we recognize our individual reason and continue to grow and
develop.
After the conference I went on an exchange and spent the evening with Elder Baldwin, who at
the time didn't realize that he's going to become the next Assistant. He is one of the nicest
guys I've met out here. He's going to be great with Jones. We spent the night streeting and
trying to visit less actives and he's a rock star missionary and a super good example for
everybody.
Thursday was 名東 (Meito) Zone Conference which also went really well. There are so many
good missionaries! The majority of my really good friends in the mission are in the 岡崎 and
名東 Zones. It's weird to think that I've said goodbye to all those people and won't be seeing
them for a long time. After their conference we went out to 野並 (Nonami) to exchange with
the ZLs. We tried something new which was playing guitar and holding up signs for our
English class at one of the subway exits. I've never tried to advertise 英会話 like this before,
but we had a couple of people get interested and we talked with some people that might
start coming. After that, Elder Smith and I went and visited an investigator of theirs who owns
a karate schools and he has his students ask us questions about English or God when they
finish their lesson. These students' ages range from 10-40 and it's a really good opportunity
to give people a good image of us and an opportunity to share our message.
Finally to close out our week we had an exchange with the 静岡 (Shizuoka) ZLs here in 名東
yesterday and it was nasty hot! Like, holy crap! I felt like a melting popsicle of sweat out there.
Anytime Elder Burns and I stopped and talked to someone we would get soaked by our own
body juices and it we were constantly wet all day. We were successful in contacting two less
active we wanted to find and it was a good day. In the evening the bishop called me and told
me his back was in severe pain and he asked me if I could come over and give him a
priesthood blessing. It was the first opportunity of my mission to give a blessing in Japanese
and it was a neat experience and cool to see the word come as I spoke. I'm glad I got this
opportunity at the end of my mission.
That was the end of this week. I've got one more ahead of me and it's going to be an exciting,
fast paced week. I hope that you all have a great 4th of July! I wish I could be there to
celebrate with you all, but we'll all celebrate soon. I still will send an email next week so
prepare for and incoming message. I love y'all!
スピードと天使
堅城長老
写真
Pic 1- 名東ゾーン
Pic 2,3- 野並 Guitar 英会話伝道
Pic 3-Burns and I biked up this monster hill
すべては善し
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