Hey everyone!
The rock of Ishigaki has been doing great recently. As last week was
transfer week, Elder Arnold and Elder Yanada left the island, both
heading up to Naha. And with their departure, Elder Hafen and Elder
Arpilleda came down! I'll have the privilege of working with Elder
Hafen for at least the next six weeks, and I can already tell it will
be a blast. He's from American Fork, UT, and loves music, coming out
on his mission after a year at BYU. Honestly, I feel like it was a
really inspired transfer, because he constantly reminds me of me at
the beginning of my mission, and so we will go forth and see miracles!
Go forth, of course, being used in the context of continue. The first
day Elder Hafen got here, we were dendoing an apartment when this
younger guy comes up the stairs. Out of nowhere, I find myself talking
to him, and in the conversation, the place where he works (Taketomi)
pops up. As luck has it, we had just been to Taketomi on Tuesday for
Pday, and so we connect there. Long story short, Takayuki invites us
in Thursday night, and then invites us over for dinner Friday night to
keep talking. It was one of the most random experiences on my mission,
which, as I've come to realize, means it was the most divine. God
guides everything we do, and He prepares people to meet us. Our job is
simply to open our mouths, to listen to the guidance of the Holy
Ghost, and to act. In the scheme of things, it's actually quite
simple.
And with the Holy Ghost, one of the other things I've realized this
week is how soft that voice may be sometimes. A quote I've come to
enjoy reads "If you are doing the right thing, and if you are living
the right way, you will know in your heart what the Spirit is saying
to you" (President Hinkley). Just this week, I realized that we might
not even know that it is coming from the Spirit. We just know that
it's good. When I started to talk to Takayuki, I didn't realize that
it was the Spirit prompting me to speak. For most my mission, when I
talk, it hasn't been because I feel a divine hand guiding my words.
I've just always been able to try, to try to do what God would want me
to. And looking back, just as with coincidences, you start to realize
that they weren't random. The story you shared, the back road you
took, sometimes things you didn't even realize you were doing, they
turn out to have been necessary. In Gods vocabulary, coincidence isn't
a word. And as I think I say every week, I'm amazed and honored to be
a witness of that divinity, of that love and compassion, each and
every day.
Love you all!
Elder Woodhouse
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