General conference was so good! I love it so much! How amazing is it that three new apostles were called!? I cannot even imagine the sacred revelation the prophet must have received. Something I felt a lot as I watched was that self reflection is really important. In that Heavenly Father wants us to take a step back and ask, what can I do more? What is keeping me from progressing? That can be a scary question sometimes but I love how one of the speakers emphasized that He doesn't expect us to be perfect all at once, but instead work on one thing at a time. There was also so much about how life is hard, but it's worth it! And we have an amazing way to make the most out of life and that is through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ felt the agony of every mistake, weakness, feeling of inadequacy, we have ever felt. Because of that I know that as we turn to Him, trust in Him, rely on Him for strength, He will bless us with the strength that we need.
Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is Charity, the pure love of Jesus Christ. Last week when we had interviews with our Mission President, his wife Sister Egan gave us this Poem about Charity:
Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other,
when we don't judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give
each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet.
Charity is accepting someone's differences, weaknesses and
shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down or
resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle
something the way we might have hoped.
Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weaknesses and
being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us
Charity is looking for the best in each other.
-Marvin J. Ashton
Man, if everyone could be this person, the world would be a much happier place. Of course it's easy to be charitable to those we love or get along with. Christ's challenge to us is to have charity even
for those who get on our nerves.
This was a good week! We had a first lesson with a man we met while housing a couple weeks ago. His parents were Christian but he never really practiced. But after a variety of really difficult experiences, he really wants to know how to follow the example of Jesus Christ and become a better person. He had so many questions when we met with him! We had to tell him that we can't answer them all right now, but I felt so confident promising that we could answer all of his questions with
our message, the teachings and church of Jesus Christ. We are so excited to start teaching him!
We had a really awesome lesson with another lady we are teaching named Sumie. We taught her about the Spirit. We taught about how Heavenly Father answers our prayers through the Spirit, and how the Spirit can tell us when what we are learning or doing is good. She seemed to understand it really well! We helped her recognize the good feelings she has during our lessons is the Spirit telling her this is true. It was such a simple and powerful lesson!
We went to see some scenic parts of Itoshima! Izumi Shimai is on the
left and Megumi Shimai is on the right
left and Megumi Shimai is on the right
We got pizza...it was weird Japanese pizza...Chicken and mayo and some
kind of white sauce! It was weird!
kind of white sauce! It was weird!
These are the women that Packard Shimai and I share an apartment with.
Magleby Shimai (left) and Komatsu Shimai (right)
The Visiting lesson for October is on Charity. My companion and I had a very interesting discussion with one of the sisters that we visit today on Charity and some of the different ways that President Monson said to think about it. We are all still learning more each day about what Christ meant about Love and Charity and really Forgiving. I am so happy that you are finding good people to teach. Love, Grandma
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