Week 50!

     It has been an amazing week, has it not?? Our investigator Rose is doing awesome! She is really progressing. She is seriously just a rock star! 

     This week we got to go teach again at our weekly service that we found at the school called Free School. I do not know if I told you because my memory is terrible, but it's a place where kids go because they were bullied or mocked and never felt accepted, so they dropped out of high school and they come to this Free school. We go once a week and teach the youth English. It is way fun and so awesome. Also, fun fact. In Japan, middle school is the last required thing for school. High school is optional and you actually have to apply just to get in so getting into good schools is competitive. Thought that was interesting. Also, no school buses in Japan. Kids have to take the train or bus or walk. What else... This sister in my ward keeps giving me recipes and teaching me how to make desserts so I am getting pretty good at those (just for future reference if you are ever hungry). I have also started on my official diet with 6 small meals a day through out the day and it is the best! How funny that change is from my pre-mission life. I hated healthy stuff more than anything, but now I am addicted. I hate eating fattening. How the mission will change you! 

It has also been interesting seeing my companion enter his last two weeks and just seeing how fast it goes. I will hit a year one week after he leaves. It is just so insane how fast it is going... You never really know until you experience it yourself. 

     Sorry that was all over the place but this week was interesting. This week two things finally happened in my mission! First, I finally let an elder cut my hair... And... As I am writing this it is still not finished because we did not have enough time to finish last night after planning so I am just trying to avoid the public eye until after it is finished but it is so abunai (dangerous). The second, and funniest thing of my week, was when a woman came up to us and told us she had lived in America for a little while and that she asked if we were Mormons and we said yes we are. Then the first thing she says (it was hard for us to try to figure out what she was saying at first because of her broken English) is, how many mothers do you have? Yes - I finally got it in Japan! I was wondering when it would happen. She asked, if it was one wife for each day of the week in our church or how it worked and continued to say that that would be the dream life for her, if she could have a different husband each day of the week. Needless to say it was the most interesting day. Sometimes Heavenly Father sends people our way because he knows we just need a good laugh sometimes I think. 

     But anyway! This week I wanted to talk about forgiveness! Sometimes it can be a pretty scary word and sometimes it is not on our agenda, but I love the poem that President Monson quotes.

School thy feelings, O my brother;

Train thy warm, impulsive soul.

Do not its emotions smother,

But let wisdom’s voice control.

School thy feelings; there is power

In the cool, collected mind.

Passion shatters reason’s tower,

Makes the clearest vision blind. …

          

School thy feelings; condemnation

Never pass on friend or foe,

Though the tide of accusation

Like a flood of truth may flow.

Hear defense before deciding,

And a ray of light may gleam,

Showing thee what filth is hiding

Underneath the shallow stream.

School thy feelings, O my brother;

Train thy warm, impulsive soul.

Do not its emotions smother,

But let wisdom’s voice control.

     How often have we let anger control our emotions and we say something that we do not mean. We say things that end up, because of our pride or the pride of others, ruining relationships for lifetimes, sometimes generations. With family, friends, or the like. Why do we do it? Why do I do it? Why do we let anger control us? Why do we feel that when someone wrongs us that they need to be punished or wronged back? Stop thinking that if we do not forgive, justice will not be paid. God sees everything, and a tear today will be paid back a hundred times with tears of rejoicing tomorrow. Let us please stop getting angry or impatient with others just because they have weaknesses or flaws in their personality or actions. We all do! We all are trying to improve. We all have problems. Honestly think, are we any different to them in God's eyes? See others not as they are, but as who they can become. By the way, am I the only one who keeps going back to Elder Renlund's talk about seeing people through God's eyes or a parents eyes, because that talk was so good. But if we saw those around us as children of a Father in Heaven or treated them as if he were present in the room, I feel we would treat people so much differently than we do now. Please, let us strive to be better in any way that can. Please forgive, and give the rest to the Lord. Free yourself of the anger, the grudge, the weight. Just let it go. Having that contention does not help anyone. 

   The happiness we feel when we win an argument is so temporary and fake. Even if we know we are right, let us have the strength, be the better person, and just let it go. Give it up. Lose once in a while. Little by little our hearts will be purified. That is my thought for the week. 

     I hope you all have the best week ever brothers and sisters. I love you all so much! Thank you for all you do! 

Love,

Elder Aiken