Good morning everyone.

Now I have a new toy. I have a step counter. Do you know what that is? I’ll show it to you. When I walk somewhere, this counter shows me how many steps I have taken. My nutritionist friend gave me this and said to me “you have to walk over 10000 steps a day for your health” 10000 steps!

Oh, that is a lot. How many of you walk over 10000 steps a day? Anyway, I always have it on my belt.

Last month, I didn’t have a chance to talk at Sunday service. Even if I do not give even one talk on Sunday during the month, I still receive my salary from the Betsuin. So, I felt very bad about that.

Last week, Rev. Bob and I went to San Jose to attend the BCA National council meeting. At the meeting we had a symposium for the propagation of Buddhism in America.

But, on the very first day of the gathering, we had BCA Minister’s Golf tournament. I will talk about my game today.

I got a trophy from the golf tournament. This trophy said BCA Minister’s Golf February 22, 2005. This award is for a highest gross player.

That means…last place.

On this trophy a man is trying to break his golf club.

At the golf tournament, my golf score was 151…151… this was not my bowling score… some ministers asked me “your score looks like a good bowling score”

All of you know Rinban Yukawa was a good golf player. No… he is still a good player. I heard a Betsuin minister should be good at playing golf. I am not yet very good at playing golf.

At last year’s golf tournament I lost 12 balls. This year I lost only 6 balls. It was not bad. But this year, I lost my putter golf club during the game.

On the 5^th hole, my first shot went into a pond. But my 2^nd shot was just right on the green. I was so excited that I forgot to pick my putter up.

Needless to say, the result of 5^th hole was not good.

By the 6^th hole, I tried harder to play golf.

My score was getting better. On the some holes I got bogey. You may laugh. But, bogey is a great score for me.

During the 18 holes of golf, I walked 14000 steps. I told this to my nutritionist friend and she said “It is very good. But you need more.”

She knew that I would not walk so much during the BCA meetings. Actually, after that golf tournament, I walked only about 5000 steps a day.

Do you give up easily when something is difficult? If I gave up playing golf on the 5^th hole, I might would never have won the trophy or walked 14000 steps. I also got a prize of 15 new golf balls…and I found my putter at the end of the game. If we want to enjoy something, we should never give up and keep on trying our best.

Gassho