Hahaha, my subject probably doesn't make any sense, but I'll
explain
it later...
This week was way good! I have been having a really fun time
lately
here in Ogaki! We are starting to see success coming from our
obedience and diligence! It is a way cool thing to see first
hand.
We got to meet with our investigator family, the Ohashi's
yesterday!
It was way cool! We taught about a lot of different things, and
eventually invited them to be baptized! Sadly, they didn't
accept
because they don't feel prepared right now, but we are going to
continue working with them! They are an amazing family that consists
of the two parents and their way adorable one year old daughter!
They
are amazing and want to do what's best for their family and
their
daughter, and they absolutely love the idea of eternal families,
so we
are trying to build off of that.
This week, I went on another cleaning spree of our apartment! It
was
astonishing to see just how uncleanly missionaries can be! But,
amidst
all the dust and garbage we found a miracle! While I was
cleaning out
an old cabinet that hadn't been used in literally years (I later
confirmed that), I found another record book of past
investigators!
I'm talking like hundreds of records at we didn't even know we
had! I
felt like the people who found the records of the Jaredites!
Hahaha
woah, I must be a missionary. 😂😂😂 But yeah, I started reading
through all of them as well as calling those that seemed like
they
might still have interest! Already we have found one new
investigator
and we have another potential that we are calling soon! It was
way
cool! I'm grateful for a mother that taught me how to clean!
Haha,
love you mom!
Ok, now to explain my subject. So in the down time at the end of
the
day, I have been studying a lot of old ensign articles and talks
and
one in particular has been on my mind lately. It is called May
We So
Live by President Thomas S. Monson. Here is a part that I'd like to share and sorry
that it is so long.
Doing Something Today
How fragile life, how certain death. We do not know when we will
be
required to leave this mortal existence. And so I ask, “What are
we
doing with today?” If we live only for tomorrow, we’ll
eventually have
a lot of empty yesterdays. Have we been guilty of declaring,
“I’ve
been thinking about making some course corrections in my life. I
plan
to take the first step--tomorrow”? With such thinking, tomorrow
is
forever. Such tomorrows rarely come unless we do something about
them
today. As the familiar hymn teaches:
There are chances for work all around just now,
Opportunities right in our way.
Do not let them pass by, saying, “Sometime I’ll try,”
But go and do something today.
Let us ask ourselves the questions: “Have I done any good in the
world
today? Have I helped anyone in need?” What a formula for
happiness!
What a prescription for contentment, for inner peace--to have
inspired
gratitude in another human being.
Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but
they
are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind
words
to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done.
There
are souls to be saved.
As we remember that “when ye are in the service of your fellow
beings
ye are only in the service of your God,” we will not find
ourselves in
the unenviable position of Jacob Marley’s ghost, who spoke to
Ebenezer
Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s immortal Christmas Carol. Marley
spoke
sadly of opportunities lost. Said he: “Not to know that any
Christian
spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be,
will
find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness.
Not
to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s
opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”
Marley added: “Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings
with my
eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star
which led
the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which
its
light would have conducted me!”
Fortunately, as we know, Ebenezer Scrooge changed his life for
the
better. I love his line, “I am not the man I was.”
Why is Dickens’s Christmas Carol so popular? Why is it ever new?
I
personally feel it is inspired of God. It brings out the best
within
human nature. It gives hope. It motivates change. We can turn
from the
paths which would lead us down and, with a song in our hearts,
follow
a star and walk toward the light. We can quicken our step,
bolster our
courage, and bask in the sunlight of truth. We can hear more
clearly
the laughter of little children. We can dry the tear of the weeping.
We can comfort the dying by sharing the promise of eternal life.
If we
lift one weary hand which hangs down, if we bring peace to one
struggling soul, if we give as did the Master, we can--by
showing the
way--become a guiding star for some lost mariner.
Fill Others’ Hearts
Because life is fragile and death inevitable, we must make the
most of each day.
There are many ways in which we can misuse our opportunities.
Some
time ago I read a tender story written by Louise Dickinson Rich
which
vividly illustrates this truth. She wrote:
“My grandmother had an enemy named Mrs. Wilcox. Grandma and Mrs.
Wilcox moved, as brides, into next-door houses on the main
street of
the tiny town in which they were to live out their lives. I
don’t know
what started the war between them--and I don’t think that by the
time
I came along, over thirty years later, they remembered
themselves what
started it. This was no polite sparring match; this was total
war. …
“Nothing in town escaped repercussion. The 300-year-old church,
which
had lived through the Revolution, the Civil War, and the Spanish
War,
almost went down when Grandma and Mrs. Wilcox fought the Battle
of the
Ladies’ Aid. Grandma won that engagement, but it was a hollow
victory.
Mrs. Wilcox, since she couldn’t be president, resigned [from the
Aid]
in a huff. What’s the fun of running a thing if you can’t force
your
enemy to eat crow? Mrs. Wilcox won the Battle of the Public
Library,
getting her niece, Gertrude, appointed librarian instead of Aunt
Phyllis. The day Gertrude took over was the day Grandma stopped
reading library books. They became ‘filthy germy things’
overnight.
The Battle of the High School was a draw. The principal got a
better
job and left before Mrs. Wilcox succeeded in having him ousted or
Grandma in having him given life tenure of office.
“When as children we visited my grandmother, part of the fun was
making faces at Mrs. Wilcox’s grandchildren. One banner day we
put a
snake into the Wilcox rain barrel. My grandmother made token
protests,
but we sensed tacit sympathy.
“Don’t think for a minute that this was a one-sided campaign.
Mrs.
Wilcox had grandchildren, too. Grandma didn’t get off scot free.
Never
a windy washday went by that the clothesline didn’t mysteriously
break, with the clothes falling in the dirt.
“I don’t know how Grandma could have borne her troubles so long
if it
hadn’t been for the household page of her daily Boston
newspaper. This
household page was a wonderful institution. Besides the usual
cooking
hints and cleaning advice, it had a department composed of
letters
from readers to each other. The idea was that if you had a
problem--or
even only some steam to blow off--you wrote a letter to the
paper,
signing some fancy name like Arbutus. That was Grandma’s pen
name.
Then some of the other ladies who had the same problem wrote
back and
told you what they had done about it, signing themselves One Who
Knows
or Xanthippe or whatever. Very often, the problem disposed of,
you
kept on for years writing to each other through the column of
the
paper, telling each other about your children and your canning
and
your new dining-room suite. That’s what happened to Grandma. She
and a
woman called Sea Gull corresponded for a quarter of a century.
Sea
Gull was Grandma’s true friend.
“When I was about sixteen, Mrs. Wilcox died. In a small town, no
matter how much you have hated your next-door neighbor, it is
only
common decency to run over and see what practical service you
can do
the bereaved. Grandma, neat in a percale apron to show that she
meant
what she said about being put to work, crossed the lawn to the
Wilcox
house, where the Wilcox daughters set her to cleaning the
already-immaculate front parlor for the funeral. And there on
the
parlor table in the place of honor was a huge scrapbook; and in
the
scrapbook, pasted neatly in parallel columns were Grandma’s
letters to
Sea Gull over the years and Sea Gull’s letters to her. Though
neither
woman had known it, Grandma’s worst enemy had been her best
friend.
That was the only time I remember seeing my grandmother cry. I
didn’t
know then exactly what she was crying about, but I do now. She
was
crying for all the wasted years which could never be salvaged.”
May we resolve from this day forward to fill our hearts with
love. May
we go the extra mile to include in our lives any who are lonely
or
downhearted or who are suffering in any way. May we “[cheer] up
the
sad and [make] someone feel glad.” May we live so that when that
final
summons is heard, we may have no serious regrets, no unfinished
business, but will be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith.”
I hope you can all live every moment to its fullest! I love this
gospel and all of you! Thanks so much!
Love,
Luke/パシー長老
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