Week 42: A Not Really Surprising Surprise (week 33rd on the field)

Oh, Hello there! It's me again,

So the not really surprising surprise was that Elder Pauperio is actually dying this transfer. He was trying to get me super surprised by being like "When we go to Kagoshima, I'll tell you my BIG secret," and I was stating off random things like "You have an extra toe, you have multiple personalities, you have a weird hidden talent, you're secretly really good at magic..." stuff like that. Well, while we were on Junkai's (Splits) with the Miyakonojo Elders and the Miyazaki Elders, we had Indian curry together, and right after we finished eating our food, Elder Pauperio pulls up his flight plans and shows them to me. He's leaving on the 31st of this month. The reason why it wasn't a surprise was because (1) he was going on and on about this "could" be his last time in Kagoshima so he "NEEDS" to go shopping for souvenirs for his family, (2) he stated the week before that he was assuming that our district leader was going to throw him a party since this "COULD" be the last time they see each other, (3) getting ready for his "going home speech" by pretty much writing it and giving the talk 2 weeks ago in church, and (4) He asked Kaicho (mission president) in his last interview with him to give a talk in the Zone conference. If you look at it all, I don't think you'd be the most surprised ever. It's all good though. He was a bit surprised that I wasn't surprised though. He apparently went all of transfers stating to everyone that I'd "Be SOOO surprised and that [he'll] definitely pull one on [me]".

The boat ride back from the Zone conference was really nice. It was a bit worrisome at first since it was Japan's Golden Week -- which is one of Japan's busiest holiday seasons -- and no one from the boat company would pick up their phone. So, it was the morning of the trip back from Kagoshima to Amami-Oshima, and I called "A Line" for a reservation, but they said "You can't make a reservation the day of." So, we were like "If we get to the docks an hour in advance, maybe we can get a bed" so when we got to the docks we went straight to the ticket counter, but it was packed. We discussed with each other what we'd do if there was no more room, but luckily we didn't need to stay the night because we upgraded and had bunk beds instead. Let me tell you, those were SO much better than economy --the brick board like bed. It was only $10 more to upgrade, and it was surely worth it. We walked into the little room and we saw this nice family with little kids, and Elder Pauperio said to me "I'm so glad that in these upgraded rooms we don't have to worry about drunk people or the smell of smoke from smokers" and as soon as he said that, this dude who obviously smoked a minute ago walked into the room. No offense to smokers and all, but when you sleep above one on a boat, it tends to get you sick. Luckily, the bunk bed did wonders so I couldn't smell anything. Yay!

The zone conference was really nice. I enjoyed it a lot. President Mack re-emphasized the need to find people. Since he changed our focus as a mission, I think missionaries have thought that that is the only people we need to teach so they stopped finding and the numbers of people have dropped increasingly. Good thing he emphasized that again. Zone training was on "Don't fear, only believe. " It reminded me of my first zone training in September, so that got me to think a little. Their Tatoe (example) was really interesting. They had a companionship try to go through this course. One would lead and give instructions and the other was blindfolded and was to grab 10 crackers that were scattered around. They did pretty well as one of our Zone leaders was shouting discouraging phrases like "You can give up now" or "Go to the left" (when it was supposed to be the right). But at the end, the one instructing was to tell his companion to fall backwards. The other zone leader would catch the one blindfolded and that was the Tatoe. It was really fun to watch. We have to face our fears head on. Satan makes us fear so we stop progressing, but that's definitely not what God or Christ want us to do. When we stop progressing, we are in a nulled state. We aren't doing anything wrong, but we aren't getting to the point where our Heavenly Father wants us to be at. If we don't share our testimonies, we will lose it. That is why people go inactive. They've forgotten their testimony of Christ, or the restored gospel, and of everything that is good about life. We need to follow up on ourselves. Ask yourself on a constant basis, "How is my testimony growing? " We've got so much to accomplish as people. We have not reached our potential yet. But does that mean that we don't have potential? No!! It means, to get there we must understand what is good in life, we need to ask God to change us. We need to be willing to change and do so. We must be the better person. Don't fear, only believe. Love is the opposite of fear. Love one another! This church is true, Why? Because God is good ALWAYS! And, He loves us!!

Love y'all heaps,

Elder Jacob Wilson