Fantastic

Konichiwa! 

Alright, this week. 

We had Stake Conference in the Sendai Stake, so we headed to the big city at stayed at the Kamisugi apartment with a bunch of other Chorotachi. 

People live hours away, so not everyone could make it to the Saturday meeting. At one point, one of the councilors had all of the missionaries stand up. Half of the people in the room were missionaries. There's like 80 missionaries in our Stake. Nearly every talk was about using the resource of the missionaries. 

Apparently I was told, and this is just missionary talk so it's hard to tell if it's based on any viable source, but apparently by one of the apostles (probably not one of the currently living) he said that Japan would become one of the most successful missions in the world... So maybe this is just the kick starting of something huge. 

We challenged our English speaking investigator to be baptized but he's concerned with tithing and if he'll get to keep his Catholic insurance. As his conversion deepens, he'll come to realize how small so many trials truly are from an eternal perspective. Not that his trails aren't real, and aren't hard; that'd be emotionless to assume that. They are real, and they are hard. He's going to figure out if the company will let him keep it or not if he converts. He's been praying and he knows how to recognize the answers, I dare say, better than I do. He's been receiving answers to his prayers. 

Fred san on the other hand, has been a little difficult. (He's the guy who had a stroke when he was 25, and can't understand why God would do that to Him, even though he was Catholic and never questioned His existence.)  We work though every thought he has, and we answer it, what I feel to be, clearly. But we just go in a loop. 

Alright. So Fred has a question that I think many people ask. If God loves us, why do bad things happen? Or if God is perfect, then how come He causes us pain? 

Well, the second one is easy. God doesn't cause us pain. If so, He would cease to be God. 

So why do things like strokes, typhoons, and tsunamis happen? 

Well, it goes back to mans' agency. God gave us the freedom to choose. (From that pre-mortal gift we the Devil and the third-part, as lightening fall from heaven.)

Because of this gift, bad things can happen to us in three different ways- 

1. We make a bad choice and have to suffer the consequence. (Drinking excessively our whole life and getting liver cancer, or having an awful family life)

2. Other people make a choice that hurts us. (I get punched in the face by my little brother) (I'm not implying anything Jeremy and Brandon! ;) )

3. Something naturally occurs that makes us suffer. (A tsunami or a stroke) 

'So what?! The third one isn't because of agency. It's not fair!' 

Well actually, every disease, sickness, and jishin (earthquake) comes about because of the choice of another person. When Adam chose to partake of the fruit, because of choice, our bodies and the whole world are now in a fallen state. His body could not die. All thorns, weeds, cancer, ka (mosquitoes), typhoons, and runny noses, happened. When you get a runny nose, it's Adam's fault- it's because of his choice that we suffer, right? Nope. It's true that the choice of a single man brought about all evil, but we also made the choice to come down even though we knew that it wasn’t going to be a perfect world. So actually, it's kinda.. no one's fault.... But then how is that fair! 

Alright, I guess I should've explained the justice in the three, but actually just two, bad things that come about from agency. 

1. is totally, undeniably fair. We make a mistake and suffer. (I guess you could deny it, and I could walk you through things such as 'what if ignorance?!' but I don't have the time.)

2. This one is a little bit more tricky, but still very simple. We suffer because of someone else. But in the end, all of those sufferings will be made just. (This is especially hard for George to accept because he doesn't want to believe in an after-life to come to this conclusion. Which, in order for this to make sense, you need the afterlife. Many people who want to logically debate the existence of God get frustrated because in order for many religions philosophies to make sense, you have to have it in an eternal perspective. But we don’t have time for that ether!) After this life (not immediately after) we will all be judged, and every unjust thing will be made just. We will receive bodies that can't be subject to pain, sickness or death anymore. And we will be rewarded as to our good works, and punished as to our evil ones. Now here I could jump into the Atonement and how that makes sense, or we could debate about what is good and evil, but I don't have time 

So that answers the second question. I hope you're still following. 

The first question becomes quite easy as well; He allows bad things to happen because ultimately they will bring about our growth. We could also get into a discussion where we question why God intervenes sometimes and not others, but we don't have time for that. 

ULTIMATLLY! This is actually very easy if you have faith. If you pray about the Book of Mormon and learn though the spirit, which Alma called an experiment (you know, for you scientifically minded people) then you can know of the truth. 

Man. That wasn't only a tangent, it was a cosine as well! 

So we visited a blind and almost deaf 90 year old man named Hirayama san. (I thought about his name... it means flat mountain). 

He's a member that was baptized the year that I was born. He lives by himself in an old wooden shack. 

We knocked on his door, but he didn't hear, so we went in and yelled. "SUMIMASEN! SENKYOSHI!!!!!"  (indirectly translate: Hey! It's the missionaries!) and he slid open one a paper door and got a huge, mostly toothless grin on his face. He welcomed us in with a loud laugh. 

We sat in seza (on our knees) to be respectful even though he couldn't see us. 

He talked to us about how much he loves church every Sunday, and how much he really loves Jesus. He pointed at a picture of the Savior that was crooked in its frame on the wall. 

He told us about how important tithing was. And he said that sense he doesn't make any money, and he still wants to give, he gives people free massages after church. He laughed and told us how happy he was because of the gospel. 

It touched me. A man whose wife died long before, who lives alone in a little wooden building, who can no longer see or hear, was giving all that he had because he loved a man that visited this earth 2000 years before him, who most people in his country know little if anything about! WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD HE DO THAT?! Is he crazy?... 

No.. I don't think so. He does because he knows, and because though he cannot see or hear, he can still feel. And he still feels it deep in his heart. 

Man... I love these people. 

Take care ya'll. 

Wheelwright 長老