Week 15: When You are Asked to Build a Boat

Hey Everyone!!!

So, in one word, this week was CRAZY! I was transferred to Tech Staff, as I told you last week, but I DO still have an area, despite my concerns last week. There is a limit to 3 hours in the office each day, and we always shoot for as little office time as possible. However, transfer week is the busiest week for Tech Staff, and sticking to the 3 hour limit isn't always possible when there are deadlines, especially when both of us don't have too much experience working with the systems.

As far as telling you what I do as Tech Staff, I do a lot of phone support, a little bit of programming and such, and then a good amount of random errands. Every task we work on is a little different, but to give you a few ideas, we have: downloaded lists of missionaries and info and ran scripts on them to turn them into google contacts (and fixed some bugs on the script while we were at it), showed couple missionaries how to use Gmail and open files on their computer, and brought iPads with ruined screens to be fixed. SO... yeah. Basically any random task that has anything to do with technology - even if it is just "go find my camera. I think I left it somewhere in the office."

Now, my companion. His name is Elder Harrison. He is a massage therapist, has a little bit of tech experience, and about 7 months of missionary experience. Neither of us speak perfect Japanese, nor do we know the best ways to dendo... but we're both willing to try our best and work hard, so things should work out. Hopefully. And we get along super well, so it's been pretty fun. We basically just run around on the street and try to get people to talk to us. We've had a few stop that seemed that they might have interest, and they said they would come to eikaiwa, or call us later, etc, but none that have been willing to give out contact info... so not sure how that will go.

Currently, we have 3 "investigators." I haven't met any of them yet, and their interest still seems a little shaky when I hear about them. Hopefully I will be able to tell you more about them next week.

I have to say, it is really weird being transferred. It feels like I am starting all over. My last area started out this way - with a few investigators that haven't been met with recently, not knowing many church members (my companion has only spent a transfer here, and it was mostly spent doing a mission tour doing trainings - luckily I don't have to do that - so he doesn't know too many members either), and only really teaching 1 or 2 lessons a week. I still miss all the people I met and taught back in Urawa, but I'm excited to see this area become stronger, too.

The main difference, however, is that last time I just followed Elder Abo's lead. This time, when we plan and things, Elder Harrison is still learning as well, so I have to contribute some ideas. When we talk to people, there are times that he doesn't understand and there are times when I don't understand (they seem to be about equal), so we both have to take the lead occasionally.

I have to admit, that at times, this can seem overwhelming, even impossible. We don't know what we are doing, our time is limited, and our language skills more limited, but we are expected to run an area! However, as I thought about my situation, I thought again back to Nephi, about when he was asked to build a boat. I love his response - "whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten?" He didn't even know how to build a boat, but his first response wasn't "Wait, are you sure?" or "really, me?" or any other form of doubt, it was, "let's get started." So we decided to start in a similar way. We frequently pray and ask how we should spend our time, where we should go, etc. And like Nephi, we aren't told how to do it all at once, we have to go to the Lord frequently, so that "the Lord [can] show [us] from time to time after what manner [we] should work the timbers of the [area]." Sometimes, this is frustrating. I feel like I don't know how things are going to work out, and indeed, I don't. I don't have the big picture, or all of the skills to do what needs to be done, but in the moments of frustration and worry, I simply have to choose to trust in the One who holds the future, even though I may not know what the future holds.

So when you are asked to build a boat, whatever your boat may be, remember on Whom you can lean for support! "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?"

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly

Bro. F, Abo Chourou, and I, sharing an inside joke and taking a pic on
my last night there.

My new companion and I at the Ikebukero Pokemon center.
My companion is pretty into Pokemon... haha.

A little more info about his area:

We have 6 Elders in the apartment. The Assistants, the Tech staff (me), and the Recorder/commissariat.

My companion is from Pine Valley, UT. He's been out 7 months - transfer 5 (I'm transfer 3). We get along! We both just want to dendo all day. :)

YES! There are Japanese Elders in the apartment, and I will frequently force my companion to speak Japanese with me. And I'm always asking the Japanese Elders questions. Hopefully I don't annoy them... :P

I live next to the Honbu! It is where you send the mail. :) It is a two story office building practically connected to the honbu - I live on the Second floor.

I got a letter and a package for my birthday this week. :) THANKS!!! Me and my companion LOVE it! And I was able to give Elder Abo his present from it before I left... it got here before the letter. :) I also got a small package from the Haleys! I will send a thank you, but make sure to tell them thank you in person for me!!! I and all the Elders LOVED what she sent! :)

Love you,

Elder O'Reilly

Week 14: The Time for Preparation

Hello everyone!!!

This last little bit has been short since I wrote, but it's definitely been eventful.

First of all, I'm transferring. I'm really going to miss the people here, and it's going to be weird having a new companion. :P I'm going to be saying a lot of goodbyes tomorrow. But my next "area" should be
awesome, too!

I'm being transferred to... Tech Staff! Yep. They have those in this mission. So I will be fixing bugs, making blog posts, and helping people fix their iPads and such. Generally, Tech Staff doesn't get a lot of proselyting time - in fact, the name of my area was literally "Tech Staff." I think it is in Nakano, though, in case you were wondering. I will be living next door to the Mission President. Mostly works like a desk job, so that will be interesting... I'll tell you more about it next week. It should be good. :)

So... moving backwards... on Sunday, we had FOUR dinner appointments in this area, and two companionships... so every missionary went on splits to an appointment. Which means I had to go alone with a recent convert! I'm not going to lie, I was super nervous... but it was actually way cool. This family just happened to be the first family I ever visited in this area, and last time I went, I understood nothing of what was going on. This time, going alone, I had to hold a conversation, and share a message. I actually didn't have too much of a problem holding a natural conversation in Japanese, and the message went decently well. It was a great opportunity to see how much I've learned here, especially because they kept commenting on how much I had learned since the last time I had visited. haha. :P Anyways, just a cool coincidence - I went there for my second and last Sundays.

Then, definitely as the highlight of the week, I gave my first Priesthood blessing. We stopped in on a member to see how they were doing, and found out that their son was sick. I suggested he receive a Priesthood blessing, and he gladly accepted. His father is still a prospective Elder, so Elder Abo and I gave the blessing... and as a great trainer does, he let me take the lead on the blessing.

The moment he told me I was giving it (which came as a great surprise to me), a flood of memories came back. I thought of all the blessings my father had given me, and a sudden weight of responsibility hit me. I didn't think that I could do anything like what he did - his blessings were always inspired, always exactly what I needed to hear - but I did my best. And as I laid my hands on his head, all the worries went away. I don't think I was able to perfectly have and follow the Spirit, but I feel that at least a portion of my words were inspired (and he's better now, so it worked, right? ;)  ).

My big take away from the experience came as a quote from President Thomas S. Monson that came to my mind. "When the time for performance arrives, the time for preparation is past." Honestly, there is no way I could have known that I was going to give a blessing - and I think a lot of awesome opportunities to be the Lord's hands are the same way -  but preparation is definitely required. As I walked away from that experience, I had a new drive to have and recognize the Spirit, to really have the character required to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.

No, none of us will be perfectly prepared, but that is my challenge for the week. At some point, the Lord calls each of us to a work - and it will probably be a lot bigger than a simple Priesthood blessing (not that those aren't to be taken seriously as well) - and we have to be ready. There is no time to waste - the Lord is hastening His work! God knows that we aren't perfect, but He also knows that we can try our best, so that is what He expects. So this week, 頑張って下さい！ (Try your best!)

Have a fantastic week!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly

Me, on my bike, in front of a rainbow, in my rain gear. Yep.

The new missionary I went on splits with a while back.
It was way weird... we got dendod by missionaries for a Buddhist denomination...
and neither of us really understood what was going on. HaHa

The apartment I'm leaving :P

Week 13.5: The Secret to Happiness

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic week and a half!! I'm sorry that it took me so long to write! P-day got pushed back so that we could go to the temple, which was amazing, by the way. Definitely one of my favorite places to be. So, if you haven't been recently, you should choose to increase your happiness by going sometime soon. :)

So... one of my favorite miracles of the week actually happened on the way to the temple!

We were all just sitting on the train (we being a few other missionaries and myself) not talking to anyone. It's kind of a mission culture thing - on the way to the temple, most missionaries just take a break and think about life, look at emails from home, etc. I was sitting there, doing the same thing, when I had the impression to talk with the boy standing next to me (the train was pretty packed, so a lot of people had to stand).

So, I turned to the guy next to me to strike up a conversation. I looked at him for a second to see if I could find a good way to talk to him, and I realized that he was reading what looked to be a play script - in Shakespeare style English. I asked him if he could speak English, and he said that he lived in America longer than he lived in
Japan (even though he was perfectly Japanese), so yes.

I have to be honest, this made me very excited. Japanese conversation is still pretty difficult. Basically I ask them about themselves, I catch bits and pieces of what they say, and then make a very natural transition into religion, by asking something like "what do you think about God?" So... not very natural. :P But it works - sometimes.

Anyways, doing it in English was much easier, and much more natural - especially since this person was just golden.

I talked with him for a few minutes, and he asked me why I was in Japan. I told him I was a volunteer and showed him my badge, and he said "Oh, you're one of those Mormons, aren't you!" I was rather surprised, but we continued, and he told me about how he had chatted online with missionaries before. I asked him if he'd be willing to study with Missionaries, and he said yes! Apparently he wants to study religion in college, and he seemed happy to do some studying in advance.

In the end, we talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, and not just some supreme existence (what he had previously thought). When I asked him what he thought about it, he said that that changes everything!

Then came the final question - I asked him where he lived so that I could refer him to the missionaries in his area - the temple is not anywhere near where I am. This is the part that makes a lot of missionaries hesitant to dendo on the way to the temple - it's a lot of work to only possibly give someone else an investigator, though it really shouldn't be seen that way :P - but he replied that he lived near Naka-Urawa, which is where I live! It was the craziest miracle! We should be meeting with him soon. :) He is a high school aged boy, and I hope that we will be able to meet with his family; if we can't, meeting with just him will still be awesome.

We saw many other miracles this week, but time is short, and I've wanted to talk about the Mormon helping hands project for a while now.

So... jumping backwards a bit. About two, maybe three weeks ago, there was a ton of rain, even typhoons and flooding in some areas. All the missionaries in our stake were asked to go and help clean up alongside
the members. On the drive up, we passed cars that had been tossed into ditches and fields, rice fields that had been ready to harvest flattened and ruined, homes that were pretty well destroyed, and just garbage everywhere. When we got to the home that we would be helping at, we realized that the people we were helping were rice farmers, which means that the flooding had just destroyed their livelihood for the next while, but they still greeted us with a smile on their face.

They divided us (2 members and 4 missionaries; the groups were companionships plus a member) into two groups. We went to different sheds, and started shoveling soiled rice supplies into garbage bags. After that, we threw away ruined furniture; the furniture was so badly damaged that some of it fell apart when we tried to pick it up.

What impressed me the most with the experience is that as we were throwing away their  ruined rice, furniture, and other things, all they expressed was an overwhelming gratitude. In fact, they even wanted to feed us before we left (we didn't take all that they offered us, but they made sure we took at least some)! I just loved how they
had such positive attitudes even though things had to be pretty difficult for them lately. It was also a great reminder to be grateful for all the blessings I have in my life - in hard times, and in the good ones. It can be easy to focus on the negative, but there are just so many blessings in life! If we instead focus on counting our
blessings, we will quickly discover the secret to happiness. It's so simple - but it is much easier said than done. But, if we really want to be happy, then we will find that taking a little time to be grateful is definitely worth the effort!

So take some time to be grateful this week!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly

Week 12: Some Good Reminders

Hey Everyone!!!

Hope life is amazing where you are! It is beautiful here in Urawa! :) Weather is just about perfect right now - I'm told that we are between the rainy and the cold season - which means it's not boiling hot any more, just warm enough to feel the sunshine. :)

Now, on to the crowning moments of the week!

By far, my favorite experience this week was bringing four people to the Tokyo Temple for the first time! We did baptisms for the dead, and it was just such an incredible experience! Just looking around at all the people that I've been working with, and seeing them all taking important steps towards Christ!!

One of those that I was most excited to see there was Brother F. He has a heart of gold. He was converted about six months ago, and is now a ward missionary, so we work with him quite a bit. He has a super strong testimony, and shares it openly with just about everybody.

The reason I was excited that he came is because he has been worthy and ready for months - but he was too nervous to enter the temple. We've been working with him for a bit about it, and when we told him a group was coming, he said he would be willing to join us. However, he wasn't sure if he would participate. He still had a few concerns.

As we sat talking about our favorite scriptures in the temple, I shared a few verses out of D&C 109, and testified about the power that doing temple work brings into our lives. As we spoke, we felt the kind of peace that is only felt in the temple. He was calmed, and had an incredible experience at the temple.

This is the reason I love missionary work. You find golden people, you tell them how they can be happy, and then watch their conversion take place. Every time I see someone make a change - whether it be overcoming a concern, a commandment issue, or just finally feeling that peace - it strengthens my own conversion and reminds me of it's importance. Sometimes it feels like common place - something that everyone has, something that I've always had. But it isn't that way. It is something that I had to work hard to gain, that I have to work on every day. I love seeing it constantly take place in others, because it makes me never forget about my own conversion. So that is the joy of missionary work summed up in a nutshell.

The other big thing that happened this week was companion exchanges. We did it twice with the same companionship this week - so I got to go with another trainee and a Japanese Elder this week, both of which
were very exciting. :)

When I went with the trainee, we tapped into two sources of power that I hadn't really considered before. The first is gaijin (Foreigner) power. We stood out pretty well - we were literally the only non-Japanese we saw all day. Pretty exciting stuff. :) We talked to a lot of high school kids (that is the age group our mission is focusing on;
15-25), and one of them even ran off and told his friends about us afterwards! We surprised a lot of people, and that was pretty fun.

The second thing we noticed was the power of being positive. When we approached people with a big smile on our faces, and in a friendly voice, most were a little surprised, but very willing to talk to us. If we ever let ourselves get a little down, it didn't go half as well.

We definitely tried our best to use these two things, but there was an even greater power at play. As we talked with people using our broken Japanese - neither of us spoke all that well - there was clearly someone greater than us at play, or no one would have given phone numbers or showed any interest in what we had to share.

The Spirit definitely directed us as we were searching for new people - there was even a time that we sped past a family on our bikes on the way to an appointment, then looked at each other, and just knew we had to turn around. When we talked to the family, they told us that they had often seen two crazy gaijin, dressed up in white shirt and tie, biking past. We talked to them about why we were there, and how the Gospel had blessed our families - and they seemed fairly interested! It was way cool to see the spirit work on us and on the people we talked to that day. Unfortunately, we weren't in my area, so I probably won't know what will happen to the people we met, but it was
a great day anyways. :) It's always nice to realize again that God has a personal interest in directing our lives, and then to have the opportunity to testify of that to other people!

Go and have an awesome week!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly



Answering some of Mom's questions:

Japanese? I was able to translate without hesitation the other day (for the trainee I did splits with) - but that was definitely aided a bit by the Spirit. :) It comes day by day, so I understand 50-95% of conversation, depending on who is speaking, and what they are speaking about. Coming up with what I want to say and how to say it at the same time is still a little hard, though. It's just to the point that doing a lesson with the Trainee could come off as a success - understanding and answering questions, etc. So... yeah. that is how it is coming.

Biggest struggle? When people fall through repeatedly - I just feel like sometimes what I am trying to teach them just didn't get through somehow.

Simplest pleasure? Well... the simple ones include doing the dishes to EFY music, biking in the sunshine, and eating sushi. Yep. :)

Week 11: My Notes on the Week

Hey Everyone!!!

I don't have a lot of time. An appointment went over, and I had to do some reporting... sorry. I haven't thought about this at all, and it will be quick. So it will probably just be my thoughts thrown out on a page. :P

First, I want to talk about the man that we met randomly at the church who was searching for Eikaiwa last Friday! He came!

So, after Eikaiwa, the purpose is always to talk to people and try to set up lessons. I decided to try to talk to him, and see if I could find any desires that I could connect to a reason to learn about the Gospel. As I was talking to him and getting to know him, he just said, "yeah, I'm going to Australia soon. It seems there are a lot of
Christians there, so I would really like to learn about Christianity." I have to say, that is an incredibly easy desire to hook to the Gospel.

SO... we taught him yesterday! The lesson was great! We were on companionship splits, so I had to lead out on a lot of the lesson. It was exciting, though a bit crazy and scary, but in the end, he said it was fun and that he wanted to meet again! Aside from that, he said he wants to find out for himself whether or not it is true. He basically had all the right desires, and I was just there to watch the magic happen. This was one of many experiences that has shown me that this is the Lord's work!

Now, as for how the bulk of this week went, we mostly just met with recent converts and less actives. That's awesome, but not meeting with any of our investigators killed me...

However, on Sunday is when all the miracles happened. We had three or so lessons planned. However, through unexpected phone calls on Saturday night, and talking to people unexpectedly Sunday morning, we ended up teaching six lessons, four with investigators! It was crazy! We didn't have a lot of time to plan, and some of them had to be done on splits, so I had to think quickly. I know that the Spirit was the only way they could have gone well at all! I have two minutes, so I can't give details... sorry. :P But all of our investigators were able to, first, make some progress, and second, make appointments for throughout this week, so I'm excited. :)

I guess the big thing I learned this week is the importance of looking for and following the Spirit. We had a conference with Elder Whiting, and he said to take, as a challenge, every positive thought as a prompting from the Spirit. The biggest thing it's made me do is focus my thoughts more on my investigators and trust that God would give me inspiration to help them. Especially on Sunday, I KNOW that God helped me find just the right members to help and make the right lesson plans, even on such short notice!

The Spirit is so important in everything we do in missionary work - we couldn't do missionary work without it. But there are more things in life than just missionary work that we need the Spirit for. It's essential in making decisions, and we never know when we will need it to keep us safe. That's why it's important that we take time each day and live in such a way that we can really "receive the Holy Ghost." Doing that is an active thing, and there is no objective more worthy of our time or focus. As I've sought the Holy Ghost, I've been able to
more fully see God's hand in my life, and things just fall into place, exactly as they should be. Aside from that, who doesn't want to feel the  Holy Ghost all the time? And I know that other people can have those awesome experiences, too. That's why I'm here. :)

Well, those are my thoughts for the week!

Love you all!

Stay AWESOME!!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly

Us, helping with the Mormon Helping Hands experience on Saturday.
Sorry... I really wanted to talk about this, but... next week.

Week 10: The Perfect Plan

Hey Everyone!!!

So much happened this week, but I'll settle for just giving you the highlight - the coolest miracle of the week.

It was raining pretty hard - to the point that Elder Abo said "it isn't raining - it's flooding!" (we were joking, but apparently it flooded in other areas). Whenever it rains hard, a lot of appointments fall through. People don't like leaving their houses when they have to swim to get to their destination.

So, because of the rain, our teaching appointment fell through. We got a phone call from an investigator - Bro. Y, who we thought had dropped us - while we would have been teaching. We don't answer the phone when we are teaching, and we wouldn't have had time to teach him that day if the other appointment hadn't fallen through anyways. So it was perfect timing.

But wait, it gets better.

We hopped on our bikes and went to the church. Our investigator was a little late, so we had time to talk to a member we had been trying to get a hold of - plus he gave us a McDonalds gift card, which was both random and a miracle.

Afterwards, we walked into the church, and started talking to a member who was waiting for institute to start. Just then, a man walked in and asked us if Eikaiwa (our English class) was tonight. He had apparently searched us out online and found us, and just happened to walk in right after we got there! We told him that Eikaiwa is each week on Wednesday (it was Friday), we exchanged contact information, and he told us we'd see him then!

Finally, our investigator, Bro. Y. came in about 20 minutes late - which was perfect timing for us. He asked us if we thought that now was God's timing for him to be baptized. We told him that the fact that he was meeting with us was a sign that it indeed was - and he agreed with us! I'm excited to see him start progressing again!

It's funny - earlier in the week, I was getting frustrated with myself. I kept telling myself that perhaps if I were a better missionary, Bro. Y. wouldn't have dropped us - but I was missing the big picture. Sometimes, I think we want everything to work out, and we want it to work out now. God's timing doesn't work like that. He lets us struggle for a little bit. We learn some, and then He shows us the miracles.

Remember, God has a plan for me, and He has a plan for you. There are hard times in that plan. Sometimes, we mess up pretty bad, too. However, God is the perfect planner, and even when we don't know exactly how things are going to work out, we can have faith in the One who does. Just think - the most powerful, all knowing being in the Universe loves YOU and has a plan for you personally. I don't think anything can be more comforting than that!

Well... those are my thoughts for the week!!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder O'Reilly

Group of recent converts that we teach together about once a week. We
teach them how to teach the Gospel for missions and future families
and such... Cause I'm totally a pro at that. Haha. Lol.

My zone!

Apartment Building (Mom found it on google :-))