Week 7: Small and Simple Things

Hey Everyone!!!

So... first of all, I didn't write last week. Sorry. We moved into another Elder's apartment last week. SO p-day was spent cleaning and unpacking. :P

Anyways... last week, we had lessons with 4 investigators. At the beginning of last week, we had 2. SO... that pretty much sums up how awesome that week was. Things are pretty much exploding here.

First, we have two part member families that we should start working with this week. In both cases, the wife is the non-member. One of them said that she probably needs to receive baptism and wants to take the five lessons. She is pretty much a golden investigator. Yep. Their family is a little busy, though. We have many other potential investigators, but these are two of the more interested ones.

Second, our four investigators. I feel like I haven't told you much about them, so I will give you a little background and what we have been doing with them.

First, Brother Y. (I don't think I can give you full names, sorry). He has a baptismal date. He is the one that says "I know this Gospel is true." He gets a little distracted sometimes, but loves getting
lessons from the missionaries and learning about the Gospel. He is a little older, and has traveled the world, so he speaks English, which is helpful.

Second, Sister M. She is a young woman, about 13. She came to church once with her less active mother. Her mother doesn't come to church anymore, but she does. She loved hearing about the plan of salvation, and loves hanging out with church members. She's been coming to church for a while, which means she has a pretty good understanding of a lot of things we talk about. She can ask some pretty deep questions, which is cool.

Next, Sister S. She wants to be baptized. In fact, she almost was. Then, during her interview, they found out (they being missionaries a couple transfers ago) that she was previously Muslim. So... she had to do some stuff to take care of that. But that should be taken care of in the next couple weeks, and she is coming to church and wants to be baptized. I'm excited for her!!!

Last, Brother E. He has been an investigator for a while now. He knows the Gospel SUPER well, and has read the Book of Mormon all the way through. He wants to be baptized, but is struggling with some commandments. He is frustrated because he has set many baptismal dates, but hasn't been able to meet them. Elder Abo and I decided to take a different approach. We will be helping him start doing things like daily prayer and scripture study. He recently started reading, which is SUPER exciting! Through these things, we know that he will have power to overcome his difficulties. These things will bless his life in soooo many ways!!

We also work with a lot of less actives. Whenever we ask them if they are doing these things (church, scripture study, prayer), the answer is always that it's been a while since they've done any of them. One of them even commented, yeah, my testimony was stronger when I was doing those things. YEAH IT WAS!!! They may be small and simple, but they are powerful!! Getting personal revelation on a regular basis is essential to your testimony. So go out and get it! Read the Book of
Mormon every day, go to church every week, pray morning and evening - if not more - and attend the temple. If you don't have time for them, make time! It's that important. I can promise you that as you give God a little time each day, He will pour out blessings in return. Those blessings can be seen in our individual work, school or job related, in our individual feelings of peace, our abilities to overcome trials or temptations. I am convinced that it is the small and simple things that contribute most to our happiness and success. So don't forget them!

Well... that sums up my thoughts about the last two weeks!!!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder O'Reilly

One of the youth in a part member family in Kasukabe (I went on splits)

Brother in our ward. He served in Kobe Japan! Says he knows Skeets.
(Skeets says "Hey, it's Elder Kamakura!")

A couple of tidbits from emails to his siblings:

What one thing (physical object) do you miss the most from home?

Hmm.... That's a hard question. Right now, probably fresh fruit. Fresh fruit is worth it's wait in gold in Japan... But
then again, everything is either worth it's weight in gold or free according to my companion. Haha. But fresh fruit really is expensive here.

From his 8 year old brother...

Hi Thomas,

I still miss you,

and I still love You.
I'm scared to go on a mission.

I'm going to cry the whole time and I'll be embarrassed and I'll wish I didn't go because I didn't get anything done.

And I wouldn't get anything done because I'd be crying the whole time.

And I would cry the whole time because I would miss all my family too much.

I'm sure it's hard for  you because you miss your whole family and not just one person.

Thomas, I'm scared, will you tell me a little more of the fun things you did on your mission so I won't be so scared?

Thanks.

HEY JACE!!!!!!!

I still miss you and love you, too!!!

Man, your right! Missions are scary!!! You know, I talk to random people all day, and sometimes, it is a little hard. Especially cause I don't know much Japanese yet. :P

But you know what, Jace? Even though it is hard, and I miss you and love you sooooo much everyday, it is still worth it. I'll tell you why.

First, get it out of your head that you won't get anything done. Cause you will do SOOO much good. You are an AWESOME kid! And I bet you will be the BEST missionary ever! And don't forget, because God loves everyone, He will always bless you to be able to do what He asks you to do. Just look at 1 Nephi 3:7. You can read that whole chapter and the next one too, if you want to. It may not always be easy, but with God's help, it will always be possible, and always SUPER worth it.

So... fun experiences? Well... I've played capture the flag with my zone and I've eaten sushi at LEAST once a week. But even cooler than that, I get to teach people the Gospel! And you are right! Nothing beats the Gospel!!! When you are a missionary, you get to feel the Spirit ALL the time, and then it blesses peoples lives. Which just feels awesome!

Don't worry, Jace!!! You will be a great missionary!! And I promise, it's awesome to be a missionary. You won't be crying all the time. You will probably be happy most the time, even if you do miss your family.

Love you so much, bud!!!

Elder O'Reilly