Changing Needs, Changing Opportunities

Changing Need, Changing Opportunities

Sometimes new challenges arise, the efforts you put forward may not have the hoped for result. The missionaries see this everyday, when someone they have been teaching and come to care about decides to step back away. We've seen a couple of young adults who facing the challenges of in today's world or question their faith because of family trials, concern over a church doctrine, listening to voices that are critical or bias towards the church, finding life difficult to balance with gospel principles, or just feeling unworthy of the the Savior's redeeming love. Though such times can make you wonder what more could you have done, we then find comfort in the Spirit reminding us to trust in the Lord, and all things will work out according the his timeframe.

This past couple of weeks several members of the branch left on their 6-month deployment. Mostly active or semi-active when they returned from the previous deployment last December, all have had different challenges over the past few months. Some will still keep minimal contact with the members via text or e-mail. And yet, that still, small voice whispers peace to our hearts. We only see the here and now, but Heavenly Father knows the end from the beginning, and that end will be a blessing to all his children according to each of their own free agency.

Although the branch is shrinking due to the deployment and the moving of military families to new places, the work of serving others continues to expand at Atsugi itself. We just started coaching soccer with the Child and Youth Programs (CYP) on base. As our first time coaching on the base, we have the 7-9 year olds for 3 evenings a week for 10 weeks.  Our practices are Monday and Wednesday 5:00-6:00 with games held late Friday afternoons. This activity will take some time as we work with the children and their families. It also moves forward our mission of serving others with Christlike love and charity.

We were called as ordinance workers in the Tokyo Temple and are assigned on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month. That morning we did a coffee cart at the medical clinic before heading up to the temple.  We were set apart after a Tuesday temple session with the other missionaries.  We will begin training later this week. With the temple being about an hour away, this will keep us busy on those Tuesday afternoons and into the evening. Having been ordinance worker in other temples, we are looking forward to returning to this service.

There have been ongoing opportunities to serve in area clean-ups with the base, and we have continued to invite the other missionaries to join us. The most recent one was picking up trash along the flight line. What made this one even more worthwhile was it being a joint effort with the Japanese forces on the base. This gave the missionaries an opportunity to meet and talk to these Japanese service members. Although we do not directly proselyte on the base, the missionaries were able to introduce themselves as such, building connections with the base community.

With the Atsugi Public Affairs, we dropped off clothes to a Kids Cafe, which provides meals to needy children. The cafe gave us the materials needed to plant soybeans which we will try to grow over the next few months. In late October we will return the plants to the Kids Cafe for them to make Mizo. The cafe has been giving out 100 plants to others to help with this project, and it was an honor to be asked. We planted the seed and have them on our balcony. 

Missionary transfers happened this last week, with half of the younger missionaries in our district being changed. With the change of course comes new friends and new opportunities. On Sunday evening we had the three Elders over for BBQ chicken and blueberry pie. Next week we will have the two Sisters over.

Perhaps our biggest effort the last couple of weeks has been preparing for the Japanese Driving License exam. We have worked over several months getting together the necessary documents, taking the written exam, and practicing. The practical exam is considered the hardest part, so in preparation we took two courses: a one-hour course with a commercial driving school, and another course with actual evaluators at the course where we will be taking the exam this Wednesday. There are a lot of nuances that most US drivers are not used to. For example, when you first pull out for the exam, you need to look in 5 different directions. You do not accelerate coming out of a curve (only on the straight away). If you do not completely stop for 3 seconds behind the stop line, or do a rolling stop, it is an automatic fail. So we have studied, practiced, and prayed that at least one of us will pass this test the first time which is in just a couple of days.

One of the biggest blessings in helping us prepare for our exam is Brother Sakuma, from the Japanese Ward that meets with us in the same building. He has gone with us on several occasions to interpret and cheer us on. On Saturday we, along with  two other MRM couples treated him to dinner at Mike's Tex-Mex.

At the same time as our driving license effort, the mission is switching out the car we have. The Toyota Roomy was not really that big, but we have come to like it. We will be saying good by to it in a few days. In preparation for the exchange we provided photos to the mission office to help them determine the value of it, as they will be scraping it.

This period ended with Father's Day. It was nice to get calls from our daughters and talk to the grandkids.  Since we aren't able to be together, the next best thing was having the Elders over for Sunday dinner with BBQ chicken and Blueberry Pie. 

As we draw into summer, the weather is getting hotter, even though the rainy season is still very much upon us. There are always new opportunities and experiences for us. Through the challenges and opportunities to serve, we find our testimonies of the Jesus Christ to continue to grow. We hope you all also find joy in being of service to Christ and to your fellowman.

Brian and Donna 

Manning the Coffee Cart at the Clinic


Cleaning the Flight Line Perimeter with the JDF

Perimeter Road both inside and out

Missionaries and the Japan Air Force



Donating to the Kid's Cafe


Planting Soybeans for the Kid's Cafe


Our district before transfers


Here's the driving course we'll take for our license

The MRMs with Brother Sakuma at Mike's Tex-Mex


Saying goodbye to the Roomy


Father's Day with the Elders












  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Serving in a Telestial World

Image
 Serving in a Telestial World The Lord blesses all his children who seek after him, who pray for guidance, and have faith that he will be there to support them.  Through Jesus Christ we have been strengthened in going about trying to do good and be of service. This last week we attended a dinner at the Mission President's home near the Tokyo Temple, for all the senior missionaries.  It was particularly instructive as we shared our thoughts, successes, and challenges.  We discussed how we could better support the young proselyting missionaries who, although have testimonies of the gospel, are still learning the gospel, a new language, and a foreign culture.  We all felt we have things to contribute to these young minds as part of our callings.  During the last two weeks we have completed a few projects to serve others.  Some of these have been as a support to the young Elders and Sisters who serve as the proselyting missionaries in the area.  This ...
Read more

Appreciation for People and Culture

Image
Appreciation for People and Culture We are learning more about Japan's history and culture. With the New Year we have seen Japanese people going to their shrines lighting incense or candles and offering prayers. A Shinto shrine, called a jinja in Japanese, is a place of worship, where one or more kami (deities or spirits) are worshipped. It is a place of respect, just like a church. The entrance to a shrine, which marks the passage from the earthly world to that of the divine, is marked by a tori gate. Last week we visited the Odawara castle. It has been rebuilt and inside is a museum. there were a lot of steps and we are feeling our age more with each step. The Samurai armor collection was impressive.  During the week after New Year's Eve a lot of businesses are closed for the holiday. We had our Zone Conference on New Year's Eve and was able to pitch in as kitchen help. We stirred big pots of soup as part of the lunch for more than 50 missionaries that attended. Most Japa...
Read more

Preparation and Beginnings in Japan

Image
  Preparation and Beginnings in Japan   Part 1 – Pre-Mission   This is our first blog post for our mission in Japan.  We are serving in the Tokyo South Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as Military Relations Missionaries (MRM).  In this calling we are tasked with reaching out to church members living in the area and have a connection to the US military.  We may assist members who are stationed here as single member of the military, or families who may need assistance.  We are specifically assigned to Naval Air Facility (NAF) Atsugi. We were called in June, with a report date of 4 November. That is a short amount of time for a Senior Couple to sort out arrangements with the house and other affairs at home, while also packing.  It was a little more challenging as we needed to close Donna’s Optometry Practice.     But as we put our faith in the Lord, and our efforts focused on what needs to be done, we we...
Read more