Week 25- Focused On A Single Leaf

Aloha 皆さん、 Join the Google photos album ＼(´Ｏ｀)／ https://photos.app.goo.gl/2tYzpjfjReZvcoCs7 “Preoccupied with a single leaf, You won't see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, And you'll miss the entire forest” -Takuan Soho

Recently I've felt fixated on so many small things and I feel like I'm missing the bigger picture. When I first read that quote I never thought about how it ever applied to me and my life. I understood the concept of being preoccupied with the leaf and missing the tree, And being too focused on the tree and missing the forest. But I never thought about what my leaf was, what my tree was, and what my forest was. The more you think about it the more you wonder what the leaf, the tree, and the forest is. I feel like I'm rambling so I digress Alma 34:32 says For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. Throughout my life there's so many things that I've desired. Material things, worldly desires, desires born through insecurities or a feeling of worthlessness. The more I focus on those desires or the more I forget about what is important. I forget that this life is to prepare and work toward becoming closer to Jesus Christ. I invite all of you to think about what your leaf, tree and forest is, whatever it may be. Goodluck though my head kinda hurts from writing this email. Highlights: -Sports activities -New people Found -Japanese? -Terry the goat -Food Sports activities: A forever highlight. I'm loving all the Sports activities we are doing in Japan ITS great. This week we played volleyball and basketball mostly and it was fun to play volleyball again even if I'm rusty. Next week we have a Futsal activity again too so im mad hyped. Not gonna lie though biking everyday in and of itself is a sport. Usually the biking was super chill and flat but this past week I found out why Fukuoka means the blessed hills. I might as well have been back at BYU with my downhill mountain bike trying to go up the hill from the IPF/weight room up to the clock tower again. Nevertheless my legs held out for another week and it's all been super fun regardless of how many hills I've had to climb. I am gonna call out Medeiros 長老 for ditching our morning basket all sesh frfr you owe me an onigiri cuzzo. New people found: This week we absolutely grinded. We found three new people this week through Japanese and English classes and just absolutely going nuts on social media finding. It may not seem like a lot but man has Japan humbled my finding expectations. Nevertheless we thuggin I out fr. Japanese: I think my comprehension is getting better, people say that the amount of Japanese I can understand is crazy (I would hope so I've been watching anime since 4th grade) but I know they just being nice fr LOL. But I know through our mission presidents new invitation to memorize 15 new words a day my Japanese will skyrocket…. I'll try my best. TERRRY THE GOATT:

I only met Brother Terry and was able to talk to him a bit on Sunday. He's low-key super inactive and told us this was his second time coming to church in 25 years. But we'll keep working with him. What's crazy is bro was on vouge. When he first pulled up he looked like a cowboy straight up. I was shocked, but when I talked to him he told me all about his jewelry and his life story and it was so fun to connect with him on something I really like. He showed me all his rings and jewelry and they were super sick. He had this one dragon ring on his thumb that I really want now fr. But I digress Terry was super fun to meet and is an absolute legend. Food:

I haven't really talked about food but if you are on the Google photo album you know I'm living It up. The food here is so cheap and so good I'm in Heaven. Almost everything here is about 1,000 yen which is about $7 ish dollars and some things I know for a fact wouldn't go for less than $20 or even $30+ in America its nuts. Also groceries too usually an average run for me goes for about 7,000 yen which is like $50 and I'm getting crazy amounts of food. I bought wagyu today so I'll lyk how that goes. Anyways that's all for this week we have transfers this week but I'll probably still be chilling in Fukuoka. Also since I'm from Hawaii apparently I can get a driver's license without having to take a test so maybe I'll be rocking a nice Toyota soon LOL. Shoots! エリス長老 TheRisingSon 愛してます！