23 February 2014 - Becoming the Lord's Missionaries

Well this week was interesting.... hmm what happened.....

Here a few of the thing that happened:  We were taken out for some cake by the old eikaiwa ((English lesson) ladies.     I rode a bus for about 16 hours.   An old grandma from the ward when she met me at first told me I look like Jesus, then changed her mind and said I look like Snow Whites Prince named `Prince Charming.`   She has since become my favorite person in the ward.   I played basketball for the first time in 9 months.   I gave my first 4 hour Zone Training Meeting.   My companion enjoys to comment as often as possible how handsome he thinks I am.   I realized people in Kagoshima actually speak Japanese and not Chinese, Arabic, or English, like they do in Saijo, and it is fairly difficult to understand.   Come to find out, Dentist women (His companion had to go to the Dentist) also love to talk to gaijin's about their entire life thus far and comment on their `clear blue eyeballs`, even if they are actually green.  My companion called me a tool and a few other things during language study, in an attempt to use the words he's read or learned to find out what is appropriate and what isn't.   hahah   Poor guy!!     That's about all I can think of for this week.  That was some of the trivial things that took place this week.  Here is a little more of my week.

Tuesday we had mlc (Mission Leader Conference) in Fukuoka so we spent the night Monday then came back late Tuesday.  Planned ztm (Zone transfer meeting) on Wednesday, and taught eikaiwa.  I held zone training meeting on Thursday.  It was way fun because Elder Hanohano (his companion from the Provo MTC) is a District Leader in the zone so we had a good time at lunch after speaking of all the ridiculous things that happened in the mtc.   

We are implementing a `Becoming the Lords Missionary` 6 week program in the zone to help all of the missionaries become more effective.  In the zone we seem to have a struggle of working hard, but not seeing the success we can be seeing, so we are trying to weed out the ineffective work and loss of the Lords time to become more effective and see the fruits of our labors.   We have certain goals and things the missionaries will do each week and they will build up each week and the goal is that by the end all missionaries will be able to reach Kaicho`s (Mission President) standards on a consistent basis and be more effective in their work. The only unfortunate thing is it is much like members in perhaps Stake Conference who listen to the beautiful talks and love the spirit and then go home and forget what they learned.  Sometimes missionaries can do the same.   So the goal is to follow up as much as possible and see how things are going.   

Oobedience is so important.   Without it we don't have the spirit with us. If only more of the missionaries could understand that. Being a ZL has opened my eyes to how many missionaries actually just are missing stuff here and there.   If we could only be 100 percent obedient then we would actually find it to be much easier than picking and choosing what we want to be obedient to.   Much like our life in the commandments ehh!!!???   

Sunday we had a lesson with an investigator we found last week that is much like Takamatsu san (the video game guy) if you remember him.   His apartment is pretty messy but he actually does have a job and enjoys studying religion so there is a light that he can change.   He is ridiculously difficult to understand though.   

We also found an older lady who knew a little bit about Christ, so we taught her about the Book of Mormon and when we came back for an appointment she had already read quite a bit of the Book of Mormon so we are excited for her.   We had a good lesson on the atonement with her. 

The apartment life is good and yes the food is definitely a change up from the usual soba, curry, then whatever Elder Bloomfield wants to make and then more soba and curry like it was in Saijo.   The nihonjin's in the apartment are actually pretty hilarious.   Elder Kishihara is quite the goofball and they have all learned quite a bit of sarcasm and slang from other Americans in the past.   They are all way funny.   I enjoy them quite a bit.  

Well that is about all I can think of so far this week.   I hope all is well and safe.

Much love, 

Elder Bloomfield 

This is a picture of the Volcano that is near Kagoshima.  You can see it erupting a little.  It makes things very smoggy from all the smoke and ash.

This is a picture of Kagoshima.  It is smoggy often from the volcano.

Thought for the week: