#32 "Supercalifrag...Or However You Spell It"

So not much happened this week, we've just been continuing what we were doing before... Oh! I did think of two things!!

 

1. We found a new investigator!! Her name is Yuka. She is 19, and she lives in a home that is Buddhist, but when we talked to her on the street, she was competely interested in what we had to say. We've already met once and prayed together. It was an incredible experience. She's really quiet, but I think she's still interested in our message. I cannot wait to meet her again!

 

Sidenote; did you know that in Japanese Missionary Language, an investigator is called a きゅうどしゃ (kyudosha). This literally translates to "truth seeker". Pretty dang awesome, ね! I love it!!

 

2. I gave a talk on Sunday! It was pretty scary, but this is the 3rd official talk I've given, if I don't count the time I had to go up and bear my testimony when I first came. The talk was about faith, and was 13 minutes long (haha in Japan, they have every minute of this meeting planned out). It wasn't too bad of a talk if I do say so myself, but I just mailed it home to the most fluent Japanese-speaker I know, so...Dad please don't be too harsh! haha

 

My Disney reference for this week would have to be Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (please excuse my spelling...). I just remember Mary Poppins saying

 

"So when the cat has got your tongue, there's no need to dismay!

Just summon up this word and then you've got a lot to say.

But better use it carefully or it could change your life!"

 

(Another character interrupts her)

"For example?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"One night, I said it to me girl, and now me girl's me wife... OW! And a lovely thing she is too...."

 

Then they go on to say it about a hundred more times. I was thinking of this yesterday after I gave my talk, and a couple of the ward members came right up to me after the meeting. The talk itself wasn't very complex, I used some basic grammar principles and just about every Japanese word I know, but they all said I've gotten very good at speaking Japanese. Then they rambled off in Japanese and I was left completely clueless as to what they were saying. My companion found it pretty funny. She would just smile with them and agree, "yeah my companion can totally speak Japanese now!" It was a very...confusing...afternoon.

 

So better use your words carefully or it could change your life!! People might actually think that you can speak their language!

#31 "Practically Perfect"

HAPPY EASTER! I hope you all had a fantastic Easter! I had an interesting one; Grant Shimai got way sick so we ended up staying inside aaaaall day. She's doing much better now, so I'm happy. Yesterday morning I was able to steal out of my futon early in the morning and hide 25 paper eggs all over her desk for when she woke up. I wrote funny messages on them and she loved it. I just miss holidays.

 

In all my time indoors yesterday, I had quite a while to think about Easter, and what it truly means. Did you know that the name and holiday come from a festival that was already being practiced in Jesus's time? So Christians adopted the festival just for convenience and decided to make it about Jesus. I thought it was pretty funny, convenience seems to be the history behind a lot of Holidays, the more you read about them.

 

Anyways, in the midst of all my thinking, I thought of Christ's invitation to become like Him, Essentially, in the words of Mary Poppins, to be "practically perfect in every way". But at the same time, this invitation contradicts the world-wide acceptance that "no one is perfect". So why try?

 

I have a friend who once told me that it was impossible to be perfect, so we should give up. He told me, in times when I apologized or tried to improve myself, that I had no need to, once more repeating that it was impossible to be perfect. But why would Christ ask the impossible of us?

 

I must admit in the past couple of weeks I have felt the dread of looking up at the long path ahead of me on the Mount Everest of Becoming the Perfect Missionary. In doing so, I became discouraged; the path is long, it seems a difficult climb, and is the climb worth it? I began to slack off, believing that I could never reach the Peak of Perfection, so I should settle where I am, or even climb down just a little because it was just easier.

 

But this week has placed me back on the mountain - no longer focused on how far the Peak was from my reach, but instead at the little steps I can take here and there. We had a companion exchange with another sister's companionship. The sister who came to Komatsu and stayed with me happened to be the leader over all the sisters in my zone - needless to say I was somewhat nervous. But she really helped me to see the little steps I could take to make it little by little closer to the Peak of Perfection. The following day, I had an interview with my mission president, a regular check-in, but he also helped me to see ways I could improve. I also spoke to his wife and to my zone leader. To top it all off, even my district leader told me ways I should improve. Once more I felt that my backpack was loaded too heavy with the improvements to be made - I felt I could never reach the Peak.

 

But, in the words of Miley Cyrus, "it's not about how fast I get there and it's not about what's waiting on the other side, it's the climb".

 

Before you wince at the song that I indeed just referenced, let me tell something to you. God knows that we will never reach the peak in this lifetime - to be perfect is impossible. BUT, to Him, what is important is that we try.

 

He will make up for the rest, as long as we do our best.

 

And on that note, I take out one improvement at a time from my big heavy backpack and take another step towards that peak,　knowing full well that it is impossible, but that God is cheering me on every step of the way.

#30 "Dig and Dig and Dig and Diggity Dig"

Well this week once more as with the weeks to come, we have been continuing our work in people's gardens. I was actually pretty stoked to see all of you who guessed the Disney references - you got them all! I'll bet you used Google though, you cheaters. Haha anyways I won't give out the answers because I just might use them in upcoming posts.

 

This week was also General Conference. What a blessing it is to hear the words of a beloved Prophet and his apostles in your native tongue. I don't think I've ever been able to sit through Conference so attentively in my entire life (I've had good practice sitting through church in Japanese...). I learned some good lessons and felt some good feelings. It was during the Sunday afternoon session that I had a song from Pocahontas stuck in my head. Do you know the one where all the men begin digging for gold for the Ratcliff man? At the same time John Smith goes exploring and they sing a pretty cool duet? I thought of it originally because as I was taking notes, I saw it in my planner as a potential reference for last week's post, but I realized that it can apply to Conference as well.

 

First, some background; John Smith and Ratcliff man (sorry, I don't remember his name...) are in the Americas. John Smith came looking for adventure. He wishes to see all that there is in the land, and to see all that he can bring to the Americas. Ratcliff man is his opposite; he came to the Americas seeking gold, and to see all that he can take away from the Americas. This is where the song begins, and you see John Smith exploring, as you see the men working hard to dig and find gold for Ratcliff man.

 

Now for my thoughts; I remember being in a Book of Mormon class at BYU and the teacher once talking about eisegesis and exegesis. (I hope you'll forgive me, I don't remember which is which and I do not have access to a dictionary, but I remember that) he told us one meant applying one's self to the text they were reading while the other meant taking out bits and phrases of the text and applying it to one's life.

 

Isn't Conference just like the Americas? We travel over our own seas and plan our voyage as we meet every 6 months. And how similar are each of us to John Smith and Ratcliff man? Do we, like John Smith, go to conference with a mind willing to apply one's self to the things that we hear? Or do we, like Ratcliff man. take away only the bits and pieces we enjoy and apply it to our lives?

 

I'm not saying there is a wrong way or a right way to listen to Conference - the fact that you listened to either one or all of the talks given is wonderful in and of itself. I just pose the question to those who will read this - do we practice exegesis or eisegesis?

#29 "Dig, Dig, Dig"

Heigh Ho!

This week we've spent more time outside in people's gardens than I think I've ever spent in our own yard at home...Sorry Mom!

Lately for one of our gardening projects, we've been helping a Japanese grandmother work on her garden. It wasn't actually hers, it belonged to her grandfather, but when he passed away no one looked after it, so she's decided to plant her own vegetables. We started one week by weeding the entire thing (pulling out these three-foot tall weeds). This past week we started digging trenches for water to get to the vegetables. The garden itself isn't too big; it's roughly 10x8 meters, but it took us about three hours to dig four trenches, every thing is measured down to the exact centimeter so we have to measure it out first and then draw lines in the dirt and THEN we can start to dig. Even though there were HUNDREDS of spiders, I actually had a good time. We all told stories and laughed while we worked. It felt good to be out of a dress and to be covered in mud. In fact, I think sister missionaries should do activities like this on a regular basis. Haha we just had fun, and I'm actually looking forward to grabbing my shovel this Wednesday and going back to work.

We've been coming home exhausted, sunburned, filthy, but so dang happy every time. It feels so good to give all the strength and time you can to someone else and know that even though you hate the spiders and even though there are a hundred different things that you have to do, you're helping her.

"We dig dig dig and dig dig dig, it's what we like to do!" - the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White

P.S. While writing this post, I thought of three other Disney references that have to do with digging. Who can guess them all?