Good morning! :)
Yesterday we went to a fireside in Kichijoji with the YSAs
of the Yokosuka Military ward. I was so happy that we could go, it was trully a
learning experience. My favorite thing I heard last night was "you have
two years to work, and all eternity to reflect on it". It's SO true! As I
get closer to the end of my mission I've already started reflecting on things I
used to do as a younger missionary, and the things I've learned. I feel like
I've come a long way, but I know I still have a ways to go as well.
Another thing I liked from the fireside last night
was the explanation of the "What e'er thou art, do well thy
part" stone. I'd never heard that there was a mathematical magic square in
the symbols below the phrase! If you assign the "x" as roman numeral
10, and the "||" to be 2, then count the sides of the symbols and
assign them to their respective symbols, you can note that each side row,
column and diagonal totals to 18... That's so cool!!! As I applied
this to my role as a missionary, I found comfort in whatever happens at
transfers . No matter what I'm called to do, I'm ready to act well my part.
This also fit right in with my study the last few days.
Recently our mission has taken the motto:
"Obiedence is the Price
Faith is the Power
Love is the Motive
The Spirit is the Key
Christ is the Reason"
To be honest, up until recently I'd been a little against
reusing a motto from another mission 20 years ago. It's a great
motto, but I'd felt like we should come up with something of our own.
Thankfully I decided to study it out and learn more about what our mission
motto means. I the BYU speech that had been posted on the mission portal, and
thought that would be a good place to start. I went and downloaded it from the
BYU website and have been listening to it every night. As I've listened to the
talk, I've come to love the motto more and more. There's so much to learn from
it, and I've realize that if the whole mission will unite under the motto we can
be such a strong force in the battle to save the souls of Japan. I'm so sad now
that I only get to see the beginning of what this mission will become. I am
excited however to "act well my part" in this mission, no matter how
small/short it may seem. I understand now that my 5 months here is a necessary
part in helping the mission meet it's goals, just like the first symbol
(coincidentally also representing 5) is needed as a 5 to fill it's role in the
mathematical magic square.
But anyways, that's what I've learned this week. Here's an update on investigators. ;)
Nagaii family: They were busy again this week and didn't get a time scheduled to meet with us. I'm not sure if they'll be baptised before my mission ends or not, though that's not really important. What's more important is helping them to progress as a family before dad has to go out on a ship again next Spring. Dad has been reading, though not much. He still seems a little hesitant in general about the church, which worries me, but I think that the support the ward is working to give them will be a big help to him. Mom has been reading the book of mormon frequently from what I understand, though I don't end up talking with her much on the phone. They want to either go out to eat with us, or just have us over again sometime this week, though we need to follow up today on that and see when works for them.
Step Mom: Desilva's step mom has been doing pretty well. She came to church yesterday, and has been reading from the book of Mormon. She has a hard time understanding what she reads, so our plan for the next lesson is to read about who Jesus Christ is, and what his role on earth was. There's a really nice scripture chain in the PMG that we're hoping to follow and explain to her what things mean as we go. Though we may choose to default back to 1 Nephi 1 with her instead. We'll be meeting with her on Thursday provided we can find someone that has time to drive out to the other side of the peninsula with us.
Bridger: Bridger contacted us last Wednesday night and told us that he had interest in our church, but that his knowledge was "not sufficient" so he'd like to meet with us. As we taught him the first lesson I was amazed at how much he already knew. Turns out his mother used to come to church when he was very young, but I guess went Less Active. As we taught him he seemed to have an underlying question, but we couldn't seem to answer it, or get him to voice it. He's a busy college student, so meeting with him might be tough, but he said he's very interested in church, and would like to become a member. We didn't set a baptismal date with him >.< but we did get a soft baptismal commitment. He didn't make it to church yesterday, but we're going to call him today and see how Book of Mormon reading and prayer has been, and then invite him to another lesson.
That's all I can think of right now, plus I'm very much out of time so I'll end here. I'm excited for transfer calls tomorrow. Whether I stay or go, I feel like there could be a lot of change in Yokohama Zone, and it'll be fun to see what happens. Thank you so much for your prayers and everything you do for me!
-Elder J. Mosdell
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