Halfway

I passed my one-year mark about two weeks ago.  We happened to have a special zone conference on that day with Elder Ringwood, the Seventy who presides over Japan and Korea.  One of the things he talked about was identity.  As we teach people, we ultimately want them to change their behavior, and there's a lot of things that go into that, like values and attitudes, but it all starts with identity.  Among the first things we teach people are that they're sons and daughters of God with divine origins and potential, and how to communicate with our Father.

I liked that.

We had a ward Halloween party on Halloween, but it ended up not being quite a ward social activity like I'm used to seeing in America.  Everyone from the ward's kids' English class came, and I think one of our English class students who's a kids' English class teacher brought all of her students, too, and it ended up being a huge group of moms and kids, most of whom only had a relationship with the Church through English class.  It was strange.  o.0  We also had our ward mission leader come (he dressed up as a half-zebra-half-okapi) and a couple of our investigators.  We also found out right before it started that the ward decided that us missionaries were in charge of most of the activities, while we'd assumed that the ward was taking care of it.  o.0  It ended up turning out well, and everyone had fun, so, it worked out.  :P

The other weekend there was a huge street-performing festival in our area.  I saw a guy juggle a knife, a torch, and an apple -- while eating the apple he was juggling.  o.0  Street performers are really cool.