This week has been... Interesting hahahaha. Honestly I've done pretty much the same thing everyday for the past week. I wake up, study, and then plan out my day while I wait for my companion to get ready. I have gym time everyday, and I crush at volleyball everytime. I used to play four square, but I got banned from that after diving too much. I have like 8 hours of classes of everyday, where we learn Japanese and learn how to teach people who literally have no basis of what Christianity even is. We also practice teaching on our teachers, who pretend to be investigators for us. There have been some funny things that have happened hahahaha.
First thing: In one lesson they asked me what Baptism is. Easy. I explained that baptism is an important covenant and that when we are baptized and confirmed we become members of the church. So they asked me what to steps were when we get baptized. So I just kinda paused for a second and said,"you walk into the middle of water, and get dunked." That sounds fine, but in Japanese I said dunkushimasu, which literally means to do a dunk. Which they usually use with basketball. So my teacher broke character for a minute to laugh hahhahaha it was pretty funny.
Second thing: I was trying to say that God translated the Book of Mormon through Joseph Smith. But, I accidentally said that God deep fried the Book of Mormon through Joseph Smith. So that was suuuuuuper embarrassing.
I've also been super frustrated this week because I can understand everything that my inves say to me in Japanese, but no matter what I say I can't get them to understand. The most recent one I was trying to teach about who God is. So here's a short little dialogue:Me: We believe God is our Heavenly Father.I (investigator): No he's not.Me: Why would you say that?I: I know who my dad is. He lives in Osaka, not Heaven.Me: Oh, well that's why I said God is our Heavenly Father. He's the father of our spirits just like your dad is that father of your body.I: I don't believe spirits are real, so I guess Heavenly father doesn't exist.Me: Well that's why we're here! If you read the Book of Mormon and pray, you will know that Heavenly father exists.I: Yeah I probably won't. See you later.
What a jerk (fake) investigator.
One spiritual experience that I had this week is at the sunday night devotional. Sister Eubanks (from the relief society general presidency) told us that God calls missionaries to use all their talents, personality traits, and quirks to serve others. I had always felt a huge pressure from other members of the church to fit a very tight mold of what I need to be like in order to be a decent Mormon. Listening to her talk just gave me a lot of confidence to be me. God didn't call a million Elder Dillons or Elder Gardners for a reason. He called me specifically to go to Japan, and I know that there is someone there that needs an Elder Oliver.
Pictures: Me and my incredible district (minus my companion in the last two because he didn't feel like going to the temple with us for some reason...)
愛しています, みなさん!Oliver 長老