Elder Benny Yamagata: The Last Tale of the 3 Musketeers

Mom and Dad,

This week has been crazy and I dont know if I should talk more spiritual or physical, but I will do a little bit of both.

First the physical side of things. Lots of lessons this week but by far the best was with our most progressing investigator: Charlie. We went out to dinner with him, and also the 1st counselor in the bishopric. It was great and really powerful and I felt like I didnt do much though. Good food. This is also where I learned the spiritual lesson that I had this week but more on that later! Friday we had a mission tour, and Elder Whiting, A 70 in the First Quorum of the 70 and 2nd counselor in our Area presidency came and spoke to us all day! It was like 7 hours of training that was amazing! We also had a fireside on saturday night with Sister Burton the Relief Society President and Sister Oscarson the Young Womens president. As well as their husbands and also President Ringwood of the area presidency!!! Super nice!!!! Sunday was ok, Today will be nice, we have a member lesson tonight, and then tomorrow is temple day!

Ok enough of the physical side, time for the spiritual. So the dinner that we had with Charlie went really well, so well! But, I only said one thing throughout the entire lesson portion of the dinner. I felt so bad afterwards that I got extremely upset and had to walk off and pray as we were walking home. I couldnt get the feelings to go away. I had this awful feeling of resentment for only saying one sentence while they taught the entire thing. I tried praying again and then realized something. The lesson was GREAT! It was a total success! I was just being self Pitiful and not seeing the blessings that we had been given leading up to and including that lesson. I was reading Elder Hollands talk "The Other Prodigal" about the prodigal son parable. Long story short, The older brother who was at home serving faithfully the whole time became overcome with envy and nasty feelings as his brother who had lived in poverty and with pigs was coming home and being greeted by his father. I had those same feelings that even though we had a great lesson, I wasnt seeing that, I was only seeing that I had said one thing in the entire time! My Pride and Envy were raging and it caused me to get upset for no reason! I also realized that I have been like this for some time. In Elder Hollands talk he says that envious people think that when God smiles at someone else, it usually means hes frowning at us. And that is not true at all! He is there for each and every one of us and loves all of us equally! He gives us so many blessings that we should not covet or envy others blessings, nor should be proud and put other people down for being blessed! Great lesson to learn!

With Elder Whiting and the Mission tour he talked a lot about the power and authority of our calling. Very nice! I felt ready to work and do a lot after that meeting! We were also able to sit with him during lunch and he is very nice! Lives in Tokyo right now, so cool! He also talked about how he was bringing the apostolic authority because he had been sent on assignment from the Quorum of the 12, so that we should try to receive revelation during the training meeting as much as possible! It was a very spiritual experience! Elder Whiting brought up a good point about our role in member missionary work too. He said that we should do everything we can to be good examples, exactly obedient, etc. And then he said after that "Dont worry about it" Its not our job as missionaries, its the leaders jobs to get them to do member work! What a relief to hear!

With The Sisters and President Ringwood, They talked a lot about the tragedy that happened off the coast of JeJu Island in the South and the cruise ship that sank there and just being comforted by the spirit and such. It was definitely a powerful experience, and it was also very nice to see everyone in the South Mission there too! There was a nice part where President Ringwood asked the members present to think about "How much God wants them to be successful in Member missionary work." He then had every missionary in attendance stand up and there was over 250 of us there in attendance. He said " This is how much heavenly Father wants you to succeed, that he sent you over 400 missionaries to help you do it" And then had all the missionaries sing called to serve! It was powerful!

So yeah this week has been filled with spiritual ups through and through! Elder Chisholm Elder Smith and I grew close through these past couple of weeks and now its sad that we will be seperated again. Transfer calls were shortly after the Fireside on Saturday as we had 1 1/2 hours+ of travel to first get back to our mission and then back to our area. The Ward it was in was in the south mission so I had the opportunity to leave mission boundaries, freaky! But we have had a great time together! Me and Elder Smith are staying in our area and Elder Chisholm will be training a new greenie that is Korean. He picks him up Wednesday! Exciting!

Anyways I hope everyone has been doing well and staying healthy. I have had my first experiences with having a runny nose because of pollen these past couple of days as the flowers are in full force here in Ilsan. Stay healthy over at home! I love everyone and miss them so much! I cant believe I am almost a quarter of the way done! It goes by so fast!!!!!

Be safe this week and have a great time!

Elder Yamagata