Week 10- Thou Hypocrite?

Aloha Minasan!!
First off my fault, There was a lot I wanted to do with my last Pday in the MTC. Past two weeks have been AWESOME though. Between the last week and a half of the MTC and my first half week of the field I've been having a blast. But I digress. 

This morning I had a completely different spiritual thought in mind but a funny story that happened on my call with my parents made me change what I wanted to share. So today is Pday and my new trainer was still asleep while I was on call with my parents (around 7am). My father asked me where my trainer was and I said he was still asleep. And in a kind of joking matter my Dad started making jokes about how he should be up and how he is not following the rules. (I still love you dad), but in epic missionary fashion I saw this as an opportunity to share a scripture with my Dad (and kind of make fun of him.) For background my Father was not the perfect missionary either, we all aren't perfect but the scripture I shared with him was 3 Nephi 14:2-5 which reads:

 
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother: Let me pull the mote out of thine eye—and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

After reading this to my Dad and after a little teasing from me and my Mom he did recognize he was not a perfect missionary either but it was still super funny as me and my Mom called him “Thou hypocrite.” Now I'm not sharing this story because I want to make fun of my Dad, because I am in no way perfect at all. However, we can all learn from this story and scripture. We all make judgments and say comments about others and sometimes we do it without even thinking. I know that it's something that I myself am guilty of all the time. But we must remember we ourselves are not perfect, we make mistakes, and we have our own flaws. Nobody is perfect, and through our own efforts we can't be perfect. But through Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ we can continue to strive to be better. Instead of casting our judging eyes and thoughts in other people's direction we should first reflect on ourselves. Instead of casting judgment we should strive to think about how we acted in the same scenarios. Be uplifting and kind, try to help others be better as well Instead of just making comments on the side. I myself will continue to work on that this week, and try to be a light to others. I promise that if you do these things as well that you will be blessed and others will feel the warmth and love you have for them and they will reciprocate it. Bahahaha I love you dad, sorry for teasing you so much for I too am a hypocrite.

Highlights of the past two weeks:
-Goodbye friends
-BREAKING FREE OF THE MTC
-Reassignment day
-So close so far (Saratoga)
-The new trainer/area
-Busy, busy, busy
-Making members cry
-How long have I been out?
-Fisher (of men)?

Goodbye friends:
Had to say goodbye to a lot of friends, my district, and my teachers. I was so heartbroken. These people I basically spent a transfer and a half with and had a lot of good memories with them. I just wanted to say that I am so grateful for them because they made my MTC experience as good as it was. My district and branch (Korean and Vietnamese district) I love you all. You helped me enjoy the MTC to the fullest and made the days a blast. To my teachers, Brother Jones and Brother Sandy. I love you guys with all my heart. My teachers definitely helped me want to be at the MTC and eager to learn even when the canvas content was redundant. You guys have helped me grow so much and I love you both so so much. Basically half of the last week I was doing my best not to cry saying goodbye to all these amazing people. Bahahaha we all good though see some of you in 2 (or in Japan) YESSUH.

Reassignment day:

LESSSS GOOOOOO I love yellow in the MTC but I was super stoked to get out into the field. Especially cause Kanoa kept gassing it up to me every week. So basically I could not sleep and even though I love sleeping in I woke up way before 630am. Low on sleep I finished all my packing and headed out at 11am. Said some goodbyes and was stoked to get out. We went over to the mission home and it was a 20 minute drive. Very anti climatic. Anyways, we had an orientation and basically had class for the rest of the day. The APs and President talked about all sorts of stuff in the mission and I was so antsy to get out of there. I was kinda bored but it's alright had a ton of fun. We went to a hotel to sleep for the night before meeting our trainers the next day. We were so bored. I thought I was gonna pass out but I didn't. And the thing that sucked is I had no phone either (because I was Reassigned) and I was at the hotel across the street from the outlet mall that my family always went to with the Lifferth family. I really wanted to have a phone to text my family to have a quick visit but it was probably good that I didn't so I could stay obedient with the communication restrictions President has. Anyways finally fell asleep and woke up stoked to meet my trainer.

-So close, so far

BTW I'm in Eagle Mountain area. In charge of Nolen Park Stake and Eagle Mountain North Stake. WHICH is right next to the Saratoga stake. I was super sad at first because it's like sooooo close yet so farrrr. But I LOVE the area. And I'm also giving two talks next Sunday! DEFINITELY do NOT pull up to the 10:30am Eagle Gate second ward at 3793 East Rose Hearty Lane EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah 84005-5102. Or Highlands 3rd ward at 12pm at 8732 North Desert Canyon Road EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah 84005 if you want to hear me talk. The area is super cool though and I'm super grateful for the members and people I have met so far. They are all super loving, caring, and kind. It's been a blast!

The New Trainer and Area:

Elder Peña IS GAS. I was super worried that I would get a bad trainer who I wouldn't get along with as well but my trainer has been super helpful. He keeps saying “You're literally goated at missionary work” but he has taught me a lot and walks me through the things we do and why we do them. He's super chill and kind of has the same personality as me so we've gotten along super well in my opinion. He's super talkative and he said he has ADHD and talks like a million miles an hour so I'm glad because I always feel like my mind is in a million places at once and he kind of gets that sentiment. He's also from California so the culture and lifestyle we both have are kind of the same so we are getting along just fine. The area is super awesome too. Sometimes I forget I'm in Utah still. But one time while we were out knocking we came across a car with a no liberal sticker on it. I thought it was pretty funny, sometimes people get too wrapped up in politics and hate others for having different viewpoints. But I had never seen a sticker like that in Hawaii before. But the area is gas and I love talking to the members and friends throughout the day. Sometimes catching rides with the members is a little scary though. I also learned that the motto “Just smile and wave” is very applicable to missionaries, we have to smile and wave at every car that passes us. It was kinda weird at first but it's fun to do.

Busy, busy, busy:
So straight from when I met my trainer we went home and I unpacked real fast and got settled. We went shopping for some food and got straight to work. We started going out and knocking on doors and giving member messages. It was gas I enjoyed talking to people and getting to know some of them. We have a daily standard of 5 member messages a day as well as contacting and finding people. And on my first day we had 5 member messages and 12 contacts, so definitely staying busy. We are also in charge of two stakes so we have 17 wards. And we are like the only walking area. So lots of exercise and travel. Super fun, super stoked and I love doing the work. I wish we had less members though because it's hard to connect and see every member and actually get to know them all. I love being super personable and getting to know all the members so it's a bit of a bummer not being able to connect with all of them. 

Making members cry:
NOT IN A BAD WAY, I think anyways. So far I've made two members cry with the messages I've shared with them. Just through being very genuine and attaching my own experiences and things I've gone through to connect with them. I hope that my message helped them feel the spirit and that they keep that feeling in their hearts and remember it. I also hope that means I'm doing a good job? I want to continue to touch peoples hearts and help them feel the spirit through the power of my testimony and experiences.

How long have I been out?:
Every time we teach a member lesson or have meetings they always ask how long have I been out? I always tell them to guess because I think it's so funny I've been out for 4 days. And usually people think I've been out for months, I actually had one family that thought I was out for 15 months. LOL I honestly owe that to my trainer. He kinda just throws me in and let's me lead discussions, I also definitely think it's just how talkative and confident I am. I'm glad that people don't think I'm new because that means it's obvious that I don't know what I'm doing. So far I'm doing a good job of hiding my inexperience, I'm just blessed to have an awesome trainer.

Fisher (of men)?: 

So we just went fishing for Pday, I was stoked when I heard that because it's something I wanna get into. Until we pulled up to this small pond in the mountains. It only had Goldfish in it and no one caught anything but it was fun to get to know the district. My trainer tried for the longest time to catch something too, he was at the pond the entire time we were up there. I ended up just finding some arrows and we had a make shift PVC pipe rocket launcher. Grabbed a plastic bag and a bike pump. Loaded the paper bag into the launcher like those old time guns and put the arrow on top, then pumped it up with the bike pump. Me and another companionship just tried shooting it as far as we could. It was pretty fun and there was no one around so kinda safe. Interesting first Pday but I definitely prefer playing sports and being active than trying to fish for goldfish bahaha. It was beautiful being up in the mountains though for sure. Super peaceful and quiet.

Japanese word of the week: 
かたな (ka-tah-nah): A Japanese sword typically used by Samurai and the fruit ninja (ifykyk)

Shoots!
エリスちょうろう
TheRisingSon