May 18, 2008
So, I basically owe Jon the intern so much for being able to translate for me in church. I get SO much from the meetings because of him. Ok, wait, back to the start of my day. So, I fell asleep in my clothes last night cuz Jon was supposed to call me when he got home to help me with my internet...yeah, epic fail. So I woke up this morning in a super panic because I also forgot to set my alarm. So I rush into the shower and get ready for church super fast. Thankfully I live super close to church, so I hopped on my bike and got to church like 10 minutes early. As I walked in the missionaries reminded me that the area authority and the steak president was there. They said I’d like them and that I should go say hi. So, I went up the stairs and walked into the chapel. I found the two men greeting everyone as they came in. They were surprised to see me, and asked if I just moved in. I told them my situation and how there were 2 more of us…coming, lol. One of the men was a white guy and the other was Japanese. I totally placed the white guy as the area authority and the Japanese man as the stake president. (I had them backwards, lol) The Japanese man looked like Alec Baldwin’s Japanese twin. True story. It was funny. So I go sit down and wait for my 2 friends to show…and as I wait this lady from relief society hands me an English hymnbook, which was way super nice of her. I like being able to follow along. It’s way cool to hear English songs in Japanese because they match the lyrics to the tune so well. Jon says they don’t do that well getting the same meaning across, but for the most part the first verse is usually close. So anyway, it’s 5 minutes until the meeting starts and Jon shows up. He said he was supposed to meet Reina but she never showed. He tried calling but she never answered. I told him she was probably asleep. But we kept trying anyway. The meeting starts as usual, the Bishop usually conducts here. He introduces the speakers and then sits down. After we take sacrament the stake president stands. He’s a big bald white dude. Lol. But he has the bishop stand and talks about how amazing our bishop is. Then he continues his talk on the power a bishop has and how blessed we are to have bishops. He kept his talk short, he said he knew we wanted to hear from the area authority. Lol. So, the area authority stands and has the stake president stand up. He starts his talk by saying what a great and loving man the stake president is. Then he moves on to what his real topic is: Missionary work. His talk was so good, I wish I could remember all that was said. He talked about 3 examples of missionaries he had known. One was an American missionary who came to his home. When he saw him he had this really old coat on, so he commented on it and said it was quite the coat. The boy then proceeded to tell him that the coat was worn by his father when he served his mission in Japan. This touched the area authority, and he asked about his family. I don’t remember the specifics of the story, but the boy’s parents came to pick him up in Japan and he introduced them to the area authority. (I wish I knew his name,lol) He said he was able to tell the boy’s parents what a good man their son was and how he was worthy to wear that coat. His second story was about another American boy who was from Sandy Utah. The area authority was going to Salt Lake for general conference so he offered to call the boy’s parents. When he was in Utah he called them and was able to tell them that their son was doing well and that they should be proud of him. They were thankful for the call and invited him over to their house. He told them he could only spare 2 hours, but that he’d love to come. When he got there he found that the boy was the oldest son of 10 kids. He was impressed with the family and found the pictures of their son eating the gross food in Japan funny. (aka, nato…)He said the parents gave him a small package and asked him to deliver it to their son. They told him it had letters from everyone in the family inside. On the outside of the package was a note from their father. It simply read “Dear Taylor (the missionary), work hard hard hard.” I loved that. It says so much in that short sentence. It made me think of Jon and how important the work he will be doing really is.The third missionary was a woman from Ireland. When he met her he could tell she was having a hard time, so he sincerely asked her if she was alright. The woman told him that while she was in Japan she got to teach her Grandmother the gospel. Her family was so happy that she excepted it that they flew over for the baptism. She was able to see her parents and she was grateful for that, as her mother passed away soon after. She said that she knew the Lord has his hand in everything because she was able to see her mom before she died. He said he was very impressed by the missionaries attitude about it. I was too. How great is that? She could see how the Lord had blessed her.He kept saying throughout his talk how we need to pray for the missionaries and try to be good missionaries ourselves. He gave us some advice to pick three families. One that has just had a baby, one that has just lost someone to death, and one that had just been married. He said to send the missionaries to all three, because they have approaches for all three. He said if you think about it, you probably know people that fit at least two of those categories. Yeah, wow, I loved listening to his talk. So, after sacrament meeting was Sunday school. It was cute, cuz the Sunday school teacher was super nervous to be teaching to the area authority, lol. Then came relief society. Still no Reina, so no translation for me. Blah, eh, I went anyway. So, I’m sitting there and these two ladies come up to me and start talking to me in English. Super nice ladies, and their English was great. So, they again get me an English manual and they ask me to give the opening prayer. I was going to say no, but they said “English is ok.” So, I did it. It’s weird praying when you’re not sure anyone else can understand you. You feel a little more free with what you say and you’re not concentrating on what comes out of your mouth but you try to bring the spirit more. It’s really a cool thing. Anyway, so we are practicing this song by Janice Cap Perry called “Where is Heaven?”. It’s a cute song, and they translated it into Japanese. So, we sing it and after words one of the sisters comments how I’m not singing, and that English is ok. I’m like ‘um, yeah, not going to sing in English when you guys are singing in Japanese, that would be weird.” But I nod and smile anyway. Well, then they start the song again, and EVERYONE is singing in English. It was WAY cute! When we finished they said that everyone could sing that way, so they were going to sing it in English from now on. Then they asked how their English was, it was so cute. The thoughtfulness of those sisters is amazing. They change the way they all sing a song for one person. I was unable to get much out of the relief society lesson, but I knew the topic and the sisters that sat next to me were able to tell me the scripture references so I could follow along. So, after church I caught up with Jon and told him I was going to call home real fast. Mostly I wanted to exit because they were serving lunch before the fireside, and I didn’t want to insult anyone by not eating, lol. I asked him if he would be alright translating the fireside for me, and he said that he’d have no problem with it. He said that he was able to get a lot out of the last meeting because translating makes him focus more on the talks. Anyway, so the fireside was great, but short. It was just the area authority speaking. His talk was on prayer. He started by saying how important couple prayer is, and how it can strengthen a marriage. Then he spoke about family prayer, and how the kids might not get it or appreciate the effort, but they'll know that prayer is important to their parents, and that's important. It was a good talk, and afterwards he opened it up for any questions. He started by talking about his family, and how he's had 2 missionaries and 1 daughter preparing. His 19 year old son he described as "wild¨ and said he didn't come to church anymore. So, one lady raised her hand and said that she has a "wild¨ daughter and wondered how he handled his son. Now this was the part I liked. It made me cry actually. He said that in his travels he has met many parents who have wild children, and he often hears them say that they have failed that child. He said they often look into the past and question what when wrong, and how they could have prevented it. These were his exact words "Never say that you have failed. You haven't. Some families do all the right things, they have family home evening, they pray as a family, they study the scriptures and they still have a child go astray. You did not fail them.¨ He went on to say that we just need to love those children and pray for them. He also said to not let them forget our values and beliefs. We should let them know when what they do isn't to our approval and he said to not forget to bare our testimony to them so that they remember how we really do believe. I don't know, it just touched me so much to hear that. You could tell he is going through a hard time with his son. But just to hear him say that we should never blame ourselves, I don't know, it was just a good thing to hear. After the fireside we got ahold of Reina. She had over slept and was going to hang out with her aunt anyway. So, Jon offered to come over and look at my air conditioner cuz I think it's broken. So he followed me home. He kinda figured out my ac and he helped me with my internet. Yay, lol. For dinner I made these small steak strip things that ended up tasting super good. I loved them. But that was my day. I am SO grateful for Jon's willingness to translate for me, and I thank him a lot for doing it. Well, I should go.
So, I basically owe Jon the intern so much for being able to translate for me in church. I get SO much from the meetings because of him. Ok, wait, back to the start of my day. So, I fell asleep in my clothes last night cuz Jon was supposed to call me when he got home to help me with my internet...yeah, epic fail. So I woke up this morning in a super panic because I also forgot to set my alarm. So I rush into the shower and get ready for church super fast. Thankfully I live super close to church, so I hopped on my bike and got to church like 10 minutes early. As I walked in the missionaries reminded me that the area authority and the steak president was there. They said I’d like them and that I should go say hi. So, I went up the stairs and walked into the chapel. I found the two men greeting everyone as they came in. They were surprised to see me, and asked if I just moved in. I told them my situation and how there were 2 more of us…coming, lol. One of the men was a white guy and the other was Japanese. I totally placed the white guy as the area authority and the Japanese man as the stake president. (I had them backwards, lol) The Japanese man looked like Alec Baldwin’s Japanese twin. True story. It was funny. So I go sit down and wait for my 2 friends to show…and as I wait this lady from relief society hands me an English hymnbook, which was way super nice of her. I like being able to follow along. It’s way cool to hear English songs in Japanese because they match the lyrics to the tune so well. Jon says they don’t do that well getting the same meaning across, but for the most part the first verse is usually close. So anyway, it’s 5 minutes until the meeting starts and Jon shows up. He said he was supposed to meet Reina but she never showed. He tried calling but she never answered. I told him she was probably asleep. But we kept trying anyway. The meeting starts as usual, the Bishop usually conducts here. He introduces the speakers and then sits down. After we take sacrament the stake president stands. He’s a big bald white dude. Lol. But he has the bishop stand and talks about how amazing our bishop is. Then he continues his talk on the power a bishop has and how blessed we are to have bishops. He kept his talk short, he said he knew we wanted to hear from the area authority. Lol. So, the area authority stands and has the stake president stand up. He starts his talk by saying what a great and loving man the stake president is. Then he moves on to what his real topic is: Missionary work. His talk was so good, I wish I could remember all that was said. He talked about 3 examples of missionaries he had known. One was an American missionary who came to his home. When he saw him he had this really old coat on, so he commented on it and said it was quite the coat. The boy then proceeded to tell him that the coat was worn by his father when he served his mission in Japan. This touched the area authority, and he asked about his family. I don’t remember the specifics of the story, but the boy’s parents came to pick him up in Japan and he introduced them to the area authority. (I wish I knew his name,lol) He said he was able to tell the boy’s parents what a good man their son was and how he was worthy to wear that coat. His second story was about another American boy who was from Sandy Utah. The area authority was going to Salt Lake for general conference so he offered to call the boy’s parents. When he was in Utah he called them and was able to tell them that their son was doing well and that they should be proud of him. They were thankful for the call and invited him over to their house. He told them he could only spare 2 hours, but that he’d love to come. When he got there he found that the boy was the oldest son of 10 kids. He was impressed with the family and found the pictures of their son eating the gross food in Japan funny. (aka, nato…)He said the parents gave him a small package and asked him to deliver it to their son. They told him it had letters from everyone in the family inside. On the outside of the package was a note from their father. It simply read “Dear Taylor (the missionary), work hard hard hard.” I loved that. It says so much in that short sentence. It made me think of Jon and how important the work he will be doing really is.The third missionary was a woman from Ireland. When he met her he could tell she was having a hard time, so he sincerely asked her if she was alright. The woman told him that while she was in Japan she got to teach her Grandmother the gospel. Her family was so happy that she excepted it that they flew over for the baptism. She was able to see her parents and she was grateful for that, as her mother passed away soon after. She said that she knew the Lord has his hand in everything because she was able to see her mom before she died. He said he was very impressed by the missionaries attitude about it. I was too. How great is that? She could see how the Lord had blessed her.He kept saying throughout his talk how we need to pray for the missionaries and try to be good missionaries ourselves. He gave us some advice to pick three families. One that has just had a baby, one that has just lost someone to death, and one that had just been married. He said to send the missionaries to all three, because they have approaches for all three. He said if you think about it, you probably know people that fit at least two of those categories. Yeah, wow, I loved listening to his talk. So, after sacrament meeting was Sunday school. It was cute, cuz the Sunday school teacher was super nervous to be teaching to the area authority, lol. Then came relief society. Still no Reina, so no translation for me. Blah, eh, I went anyway. So, I’m sitting there and these two ladies come up to me and start talking to me in English. Super nice ladies, and their English was great. So, they again get me an English manual and they ask me to give the opening prayer. I was going to say no, but they said “English is ok.” So, I did it. It’s weird praying when you’re not sure anyone else can understand you. You feel a little more free with what you say and you’re not concentrating on what comes out of your mouth but you try to bring the spirit more. It’s really a cool thing. Anyway, so we are practicing this song by Janice Cap Perry called “Where is Heaven?”. It’s a cute song, and they translated it into Japanese. So, we sing it and after words one of the sisters comments how I’m not singing, and that English is ok. I’m like ‘um, yeah, not going to sing in English when you guys are singing in Japanese, that would be weird.” But I nod and smile anyway. Well, then they start the song again, and EVERYONE is singing in English. It was WAY cute! When we finished they said that everyone could sing that way, so they were going to sing it in English from now on. Then they asked how their English was, it was so cute. The thoughtfulness of those sisters is amazing. They change the way they all sing a song for one person. I was unable to get much out of the relief society lesson, but I knew the topic and the sisters that sat next to me were able to tell me the scripture references so I could follow along. So, after church I caught up with Jon and told him I was going to call home real fast. Mostly I wanted to exit because they were serving lunch before the fireside, and I didn’t want to insult anyone by not eating, lol. I asked him if he would be alright translating the fireside for me, and he said that he’d have no problem with it. He said that he was able to get a lot out of the last meeting because translating makes him focus more on the talks. Anyway, so the fireside was great, but short. It was just the area authority speaking. His talk was on prayer. He started by saying how important couple prayer is, and how it can strengthen a marriage. Then he spoke about family prayer, and how the kids might not get it or appreciate the effort, but they'll know that prayer is important to their parents, and that's important. It was a good talk, and afterwards he opened it up for any questions. He started by talking about his family, and how he's had 2 missionaries and 1 daughter preparing. His 19 year old son he described as "wild¨ and said he didn't come to church anymore. So, one lady raised her hand and said that she has a "wild¨ daughter and wondered how he handled his son. Now this was the part I liked. It made me cry actually. He said that in his travels he has met many parents who have wild children, and he often hears them say that they have failed that child. He said they often look into the past and question what when wrong, and how they could have prevented it. These were his exact words "Never say that you have failed. You haven't. Some families do all the right things, they have family home evening, they pray as a family, they study the scriptures and they still have a child go astray. You did not fail them.¨ He went on to say that we just need to love those children and pray for them. He also said to not let them forget our values and beliefs. We should let them know when what they do isn't to our approval and he said to not forget to bare our testimony to them so that they remember how we really do believe. I don't know, it just touched me so much to hear that. You could tell he is going through a hard time with his son. But just to hear him say that we should never blame ourselves, I don't know, it was just a good thing to hear. After the fireside we got ahold of Reina. She had over slept and was going to hang out with her aunt anyway. So, Jon offered to come over and look at my air conditioner cuz I think it's broken. So he followed me home. He kinda figured out my ac and he helped me with my internet. Yay, lol. For dinner I made these small steak strip things that ended up tasting super good. I loved them. But that was my day. I am SO grateful for Jon's willingness to translate for me, and I thank him a lot for doing it. Well, I should go.
12:31 AM |
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