It's Almost June? Weird, May 26,2009
Hey everyone. Good to be able to talk to you this week - we weren’t quite sure if we were going to able to email until next Tuesday. We were busy with appointments (even on PDay…) and the library was closed for cleaning anyway. They weren’t going to open until tomorrow, but we stopped by this morning just to check, and they finished cleaning early, so here we are. It is good to be busy, but I’m glad to make it to email this week.
Let’s see, not much happened during this last week. We broke a new Ina record for number of people at Sacrament Meeting with 12 (the previous was 10), so we are definitely building the foundation (tell Bro. Edwards I thought 1 Cor 3:10 was pretty good, especially for being on the back of a cement truck). Unfortunately, convert baptisms are still just out of our reach here. Once we can get the members more excited about fellowshipping and participating in lessons, I think Ina has a lot of potential to grow to be a strong branch. Right now, in order for the Nagano District to become a Stake, Ina and the area next to us, Suwa, need 50 members or so, and at least 10-12 priesthood holders. We are making that our vision - I want there to be at least 15 people coming every week to Church, members/less-actives/investigators. It sounds like an odd goal for a missionary, I think, but it is important. I wish I could set goals as a number of baptisms, but in Ina that just wouldn’t be effective. I spent a decent amount of time on the phone with President this week, getting some praise for my work (which made me feel good) and some advice on how to help Ina, and we both settled on a member focused missionary program, strengthening the members first, and then helping them to spread the gospel. I have faith that it is the correct program, so now we are just working hard to get it going.
We also went (finally) to the District Training Meeting, and learned about being financially, spiritually, and mentally independent. I think the First Presidency is helping us buckle down for some difficult times, while helping the church in Japan become a little more stable and firm. One thing I have noticed here is that the sisters in the Church are very strong, excellent sisters, but unfortunately the priesthood isn’t quite living up to that standard. This is resulting in less marriage, less confidence, and less independence, which I think is what is being pushed in Japan right now. It is interesting to see the Church in Japan from a leadership perspective as well and a missionary perspective.
Interviews are this week, and we are pretty excited. It seems like we don’t get to see President and his wife very often when we are far away in Ina, so we always get a little happy around interview times. Elder Katanuma might be headed into the mission home to do translation/native speaker work, since we have been working on his English alot out here. The Zone Leaders kind of warned us about that. It isn’t for sure, but it is looking pretty possible. If that happens, I will for sure be staying in Ina for one more, making it a definite Endure to the End area. I wouldn’t trade my Ina experience for the world, though.
Good to hear everyone is doing well at home. Derek will have a blast in Europe I’m sure, I’m excited for him. I definitely want to go someday. Sounds like you had a good Memorial Day barbecue - I forgot it was even Memorial Day this time of year. Oops. Since my calendar only has the Japanese holidays, I am losing track of American holidays. I think for last Memorial Day I was in Utah, for the Death Cab for Cutie concert. That really doesn’t seem all that long ago. Time goes by pretty fast. It’s odd to think that in about one month, I will have accumulated the first year of my mission - and basically be half way done. It feels like there just isn’t enough time out here to do the work, and I’m actually starting to fear that I won’t get enough done in these two years, no matter how hard I work. I guess that is why they replace us with other missionaries in a big cycle. Gotta work as hard as possible while we still can.
I still haven’t sent memory cards home yet, we get our next batch of MSF soon, and I’ll do it then. Sorry, money has just been really tight. I haven’t even been able to send individual letters or the little package I have prepped for LeeAnne. Sending a letter off is half of a one-way train ride, so we have to be careful with every little bit. I hope you will forgive me - it will get better once I leave Ina and return to a more conventional area.
Well, sorry this week’s email was slightly less entertaining than usual. I think next week should be better. Oh, and unfortunately, no, Kitahara san has still not committed to a baptismal date yet, but we pulled weeds in her garden with her for a few hours and were able to talk to her for quite a while. I think she is close. She even introduced us to her neighbor, who we will begin teaching soon. I hope they can progress even further together. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again for all the updates every week, it is nice to come to email with messages in my inbox - it is motivating and definitely cheers me up. Hope you all have a good week - I’ll talk to you again soon.
Love you all.
Greg
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan
