Smile Only

 こにちは！

Well, this week I hit my one month mark.  On my "One-Month Day" I wore this new shirt that my mom sent me. And let me tell you something, getting new clothes on your mission is like Christmas. It's really so very exciting. You only have so much stuff to wear, and getting something new to offset the routine is truly great! Thanks, Mom! 

But seriously. How has it already been a month! How crazy is that, am I right? I can't believe I've been a missionary for that long! I've talked about this before, but time WARPS on a mission! Like, it doesn't make any sense at all. It feels like I've been here FOREVER, and yet, just yesterday I was at home watching Phineas and Ferb for two hours straight. Hard to think that priorities can change that fast, huh? That's what a mission can do for you, though! It will change you completely! I love this work so much and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the opportunity to serve Him. Remember - this is His work and His glory, but it is also mine. It is ours. We have been sent here to the Earth at this time for reason, and I would like to suggest that maybe that reason is missionary work. This does not mean, necessarily, that you have to go on a mission. No. just by living righteously, we are being a missionary. We are being an example to others and showing them the way to Christ.

Sister Weigl and her MTC Companion

This week, we had a very special devotional. It was for all the missionaries going to Japan to serve. It was truly great to see all the せんきょし(missionaries) bound for Japan all in one room. There had to be at least a hundred. We are apparently one of the biggest groups of missionaries on campus, minus English speaking. Just thinking about that makes me tingle with joy! Think of all the people in Japan whose lives will be changed because of our united efforts! It really is a testimony to me that God knows each of his children. He knows all His people. He is not a respecter of persons. The speaker talked about something very similar to this -- that our expectations will effect our progress and our productivity. I don't know if anybody has ever heard anything like this, but oftentimes people can be sort of negative about the missionary work in Japan. It has a reputation for being a non-baptizing mission. If we set our expectations to what people say, then we won't be able to fulfill our purpose as missionaries. We are not supposed to be negative, but be hopeful. If we have a wider vision of what can happen and have our expectations aligned with the Lord's, then miracles can and will happen! A sister in my district said this, and it really impressed me: "This is the Lord's work. Let Him set the expectations."

White Handbook

On Thursday it was the birthday of a sister in our district - Sister Griffin. She turned 20! We must have sang Happy Birthday to her at least 5 or 6 times, and ate dinner on special Happy Birthday paper plates the Elders found. Her parents sent Sister Griffin a big care package full of birthday treats and even new clothes (refer back to what I said about new clothes in the first paragraph). She wore a special birthday outfit with new clothes. We all sang Happy Birthday at every meal in Japanese and one of our leaders sang to her in German. We found out later that we weren't supposed to sing in the cafeteria...oops! In our defense, we were never told of this rule so we didn't even know that we were being disobedient. I guess that's why we've been counseled to read the White Handbook daily, so that we really internalize the rules in it and know all of them. That way, we cannot say that we didn't know about a rule when we break it. To those of you who are preparing to go on a mission, get a copy of that handbook! Read it daily! Read it as part of your scriptures. Start to live the rules that are contained in its pages as much as possible. It is a book of inspired revelation. It is the combination of more than 100 years of missionary knowledge! This is His work, so we must do it His way, and His way is the White Handbook.

Sister Missionaries in my District
Provo MTC

So, we taught Yajima-san this week for the first time since our little....debacle we cleared up. Hehe...yeahhh...but it went so well! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he even said the opening prayer when we extended that invitation! The best part, though, is that we were really able to reestablish a relationship based on trust. We tried really hard to just shower him with love. We asked if there was anything we could help him with. We told him we wanted to help him understand what we were teaching, along with anything else he might be in need of. We listened intently when we asked questions. We told him we loved him. The thing that I found that changed my perspective the most, was just smiling, which is sort of the theme for this week, it would seem. 

My mom sent me this wonderful little story about smiling, along with some smile stickers to help me to remember to smile. By just sincerely smiling at Yajima-san and showing him that we were excited to be there to teach him, well, it really made all the difference. For both his attitude, and mine. I find it a bit difficult, personally, to be so open and "outgoing" in a sense with people that I don't know. It's really not so much a part of my personality. Innately, I am a more shy person until I really get to know them. However, God has helped me feel love for His children. He has helped show me that they are not strangers, not really. I know them all. They are my brothers and sisters, and I should act that way when I teach them. I'm most likely not meeting them for the first time, for we all lived together in the pre-mortal life. I am bringing them a message they already know and that they have already accepted once before. It's just a matter of helping them to remember it. I should look at meeting new people as a sort of reunion, and treat them with love immediately. I once heard a saying that goes like this, "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." That was really relevant with Yajima-san. By the end of this lesson, his whole countenance had changed towards us. He was smiling when we left.

I also came to realize something about the eternal principle of planning this week. It might sound sort of, well, obvious, and I guess that it is. But you know how it goes. You can hear people tell you something your whole life, but until you actually learn for yourself, it doesn't really have any personal significance. We have this little Missionary Planner that we are supposed to be using everyday, and although I have been using it, I haven't really been using it effectively. I would just copy a general outline of our activities for the day, and then put away the Planner until the next day. However, this week I decided to really start utilizing this planner. I would schedule and plan out every part of my TALL (Technological Assisted Language Learning) time, Language Study time, and my Personal Study time. I would write what I would do for each of these and for how long. It was really helpful! I was able to learn more and be more effective during these periods of time, than I ever have before because I had a specific purpose and a plan in mind. So thus, when you effectively plan, you effectively work. You effectively learn. How relevant is that to life? Oftentimes, I would waste my time away, because I hadn't been setting any goals for myself. Without goals, there was nothing for me to work towards or be focused on. The more I follow the rules of missionary life, the more I realize how divinely inspired they are. Not only that, but I also realized that I was focused on learning Japanese for the wrong reasons. I was learning Japanese so that I wouldn't look silly when I got to Japan. I was learning for myself. However, that is NOT why I am learning this language. I'm learning this language as an outward expression of my love for the Japanese people. So that I can communicate my love, and God's love, to them in their native language. I'm learning how to speak this language for a people I have yet to meet, but whom I already love. If I keep this perspective in mind, it is harder to become frustrated with the language, and with myself. It is easier to be dedicated.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
"Missions Are Forever"

On Sunday, I saw a replay of an AMAZING talk by Elder Holland called, "Missions Are Forever." He kind of shook my world, but then again, all of Elder Holland's talks do that. In the talk, he asked us why we thought missionary work was hard? Why is it hard when we are doing the Lord's work? Shouldn't people be lining up outside our doors from morning to night? Shouldn't the only trouble of a mission be the fear of pneumonia because we are in the font all day long? If only that were so. His answer to this question was that missionary work is not easy because it wasn't easy for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If it wasn't easy for Him, why should it be easy for us? He told us that the road to Salvation goes through Gethsemane. It has a cross that must be carried to Calvary.

From,

Sister Weigl

Sister Weigl and MTC Companion
(near the Provo, Utah Temple )