Blessings of a Mission/Finding Joy

This weekend was very enjoyable.  We were able to view two devotionals by Elder Bednar, one for the youth on Saturday evening, and one for everyone on Sunday evening.  He and Sister Bednar were in Sapporo along with the Asia Area Presidency.  The Saturday devotional was a Q and A session with the youth and was very interesting.

 One question was regarding “How do I prepare for my mission?”  Sister Bednar’s response was to learn to cook at least 5 different meals.  Everyone liked that. 

Elder Bednar’s response was really good.  He said that he never asks a young man “Are you going to serve a mission?”  Rather, he asks in a very private and confidential manner, “Are you worthy to enter the temple?”  If they say “Yes”, then the next thing he says is, “Make sure you stay that way.”  Being worthy to enter the temple at age 12 and above, is the way that you can best prepare for your mission, and then make sure that you live your life in such a way that you stay worthy.  He also said that missionary work or service is an inherent part of the Priesthood.  He said that Sisters should not feel the same sense of obligation as do the Brethren. 

He then talked about the “Temptations of Christ” as recorded in Matthew Chapter 4.  The temptations all had to do with things that would have benefited Jesus as a person.  The nature of Christ was to do things that would benefit or bless others will little or no concern for his own personal needs.  The natural man is selfish, which is not the nature of Christ.

The Sunday devotional centered around “finding Joy”.  He had members of the Asia Area Presidency and their wives each talk extemporaneously about what has brought joy into their lives.  Without exception, in one way or another, it was the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elder Bednar went on to say that joy was a gift from the Spirit and that we only receive it when we use that joy to bless someone else.  If you want it for yourself only, you won’t get it.  He gives us joy when He trusts us to do what we should. 

It was a wonderful devotional.

Today we had the missionaries over to our house for lunch and to allow them to go online for email.  They usually do this at the church on P-Day, but the internet is down there.  We fixed them lunch and decided to go with the old missionary standby, Mac & Cheese with hot dogs, AKA “Yellow Death”.  They said they really liked it, but then maybe they were just being nice.

Sunday at church, there was a new member of the branch, a young marine named Nathan that had just arrived.  After church, he asked my if I had any daughters.  I told him two, Rebecca and Cynthia.  The told me that he had met a Struempler, but they must not have been related.  I told him that this was unlikely and asked what was their name.  He told me that his best friend in San Diego had married a girl name Elle.  I told him that was my granddaughter.  He then told me that Enrique had actually baptized him.  It was a very special day!

Tomorrow we head to Ube again for Zone training with the Mission President and his wife.  That should be very good.  The rest of the week we will spend driving all over the zone inspecting missionary apartments.  It will be fun to get to know the missionaries a little better and to see a little more of the area.  Our furthest apartment is in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka and is about 183 km away or about 2 and a half hours.  We will get to do this about every 6 weeks following transfers.  We have 9 apartments with 26 missionaries.  Looking forward to this opportunity.

In case you are wondering, we are still loving it out here and the opportunities we have to be of service. 

FINDING JOY!!