To start off I just want to apologize because I didn't say "happy Mother's Day" during FaceTime or email. I am so sorry! Please forgive me Mom! And happy late Mother's Day! XD
Next I wanted to make sure to tell you that we have changed our biking plans to next week. The weather took a sudden, cloudy, rainy turn so we will do it next week after the Elder Stevenson conference. So, I want to do this email a little differently. Since I haven't been able to write very much during the week, and trying to remember stuff is very difficult, I'm just going to go over the highlights of the week and then share a few more details about stuff here in Japan. We will see how it goes.
So we had companion exchanges on Thursday. We got up and left on the bus right around 8:00 am. We got to the Kogogawa Elder's apartment right at 10:00, just in time for companionship study. My goals for the exchange were to work on finding in the streets. We also met with an investigator and tried to visit a few potential investigators, but that didn't work out very well. He investigator we met with is an eternal investigator so she knows the missionaries very well. She likes the missionaries so she always buys them a ton of food. So when we left we had two things of juice, three big bags of doughnuts, and a couple boxes of ice cream. It was awesome! While we visited her we sang I Am a Child of God while Yamamoto Chōrō played the violin. She loved it, it was great. After that we had dinner and ended our day.
While I was with the district leader for the exchange we talked a lot, and I mean a lot, about this book he wants to write. He hasn't started writing it yet, but he has plans to publish after his mission. It is a very detailed, complex, fun, and crazy story that I won't go into detail to describe but it will fill many books. Anyway, I was talking to him about the ability, or gift, of making stories. I could tell by the way he was talking about his characters that he valued them as real people in a real world. This is something I really enjoyed hearing him express as he told me this story. I commented that I do not have the gift of writing stories but that I would like to develop that ability and become a published author as well. It's just a small thing on my life list. He then proceeded to tell me something that I had never heard before and that gave me something to ponder. He said, "for me, there are many different stories I have in my head. But the thing I think about when I begin any story is that a perfect story starts with imperfect people." That sent me off pondering.
All of us are imperfect people. All of us have our own stories. When we were young we didn't know very much and we were trying to find out who we were. I mean, we are always learning about ourselves, but you know what I mean. As we grew we made mistakes, small or big. For me, I made plenty, and I will continue to do so. I have a family who loves me no matter what and that is a big reason why I am the person I am right now. We all have glorious and infinite potential. Our stories are grand and elaborate. Even if a life seems ordinary, it really is a masterful work of art. It is amazing to me that this is the case despite all of our imperfections and setbacks, all of our faults and failures, everything that makes us human and imperfect, we are still loved perfectly. We have a loving God and a loving Savior who want us to succeed. They want our lives to be beautiful adventures. They want us to have a grand story even though They know we are very, very, very imperfect people.
This has been on my mind since the exchange and I felt impressed to share it in this email.
Over the past few days my companion, Yamamoto Chōrō, has been having some tooth pain on his upper row on the right side. It hurts when he eats and when he opens his mouth more than a couple of inches. And there is a constant, dull pain. We are going to get it checked out today. Hopefully it isn't anything big enough to send him home, we think it should be fine (cross your fingers). Other than that we are grocery shopping, getting haircuts (again for the Elder Stevenson conference), and emailing. I can't believe it's Preparation Day again. I can't believe a week ago I was Skyping you guys. I can't wait until Christmas Skype.
So our investigator with a baptismal date hasn't been coming to church so we have moved the date of his baptism. He wants to become better, but he is just struggling. So we won't be having his baptism this month.
We have a few other investigators who definitely have the potential. We are working with each of them to prepare them for baptism. It's a long road, and I may not see them receive baptism, but it's worth it! I am excited to get all y'all emails this week. I love reading each one of them! Fight the good fight and never give up! あいしてるよ！
けいぐ,
Elder Peacock
P.S.
Alma 37:36-37 is super good. Read it please!
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