November 17, 2013 Letter

From the land of the rising sun

0152 hours (Is there still an s if its not 2 hours yet? wakanai.)

 

Companion:

 

So I have neglected to give you very much information on my companion. His name is Elder Breinholt. He grew up in Washington state (Duvall) until he was 14 and then he moved to Utah where he lived until he was 18 years and 11 months and went on a mission. He is 196 cm, 86 kg, brown hair, and blue eyes. His hobbies are swimming, water polo, and being silly. He is soooo humble and wants to do the right thing so its so easy to get along with him. After the mission he will go to school for the air force at Utah state and wants to get his mechanical engineering degree or become a flight surgeon for them. I can beat him at arm wrestling but he is way better at reading kangi then me. 

 

Military ward info:

I figure you guys might find all this interesting so I am going to skip the Japanese culture point today. There are really 150ish members in the ward. There are 30 young families and two older (48ish year old) empty nesters. Very few of the families are normal military. We have 5 dentists and 8 doctors in ward and all the families have 3 or 4 children all under the age of 7. It's a waaay loud, way fun ward! These are some of the hardest working coolest people I have meant!

Fun food fact:

Miso soup. So when I first got here i didn't really like miso soup that much. It tasted like hot seaweed water. Now I LOVE it. I like crave it and have to make it. There are no real rules to how you make it (I used to think that there was). Normally you choose some vegetables (like carrots, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, these giant white radishes, seaweed, it doesn't really matter at all) then you boil them in water with this flavor stuff called dashi that I really have no idea what it is (some type of salty bullion). As the bubbles come up you scoop of the bad bubbles (its super important and I learned it from yamamoto choro). Then when the balance is right with the dashi (you taste it about 100 times and yes you get a tongue of steel it gets burned so much at first) you scoop some miso, a brown paste, into a really small metal strainer on a handle. Then you drop that in the still boiling broth and vegetables and stir the miso around tell it dissolves into the water. It's way good and supposedly the most healthy soup there is. I don't know if that is true but I love it!

 

Spiritual thought:

I had the experience of watching change through the atonement. The atonement is the act Christ preformed so that we can all choose to come back to God. It is because of the atonement that we can repent. Repentance always has this scary "you did bad and have to repent" feel but I testify all it is is change. There are two ways I have seen the power of that change. The first was this week when a couple were able to slowly become more humble, their hearts changing, so that they could make a decision that made them happier. The second change is that we can take bad decisions and the guilt and sorrow associated with them and change them! We can change our desires to better things and lose the sting of the old choices through the atonement. We can come unto Christ and become the better person we want to be and he wants us to be! What a blessing and power. I don't have time to explain how to use the atonement but if you find some missionaries where you live they would be glad to show you how to.

 

Picture update:

Be soooo jealous. We get up at 5 and play ultimate Frisbee on Saturdays for exercise. Yes that is a turf field and yes it did snow once already but we run and you feel totally warm after the first ten minutes.

 

Funny story:

So everyone in our district in Misawa is new except for my companion Elder Breinholt who has been here for about 4 months. So when we showed up to church our first Sunday (American ward is from 10-1 and the Japanese branch is from 2-4) there was a whole bunch of introductions and the such. It was the end of the third hour of the American's meeting and we were on the stand (they use it kind of like a classroom for third hour) and I kid you not,  2 seconds after the amen of the closing prayer this little head pops up and is looking at us over little half wall of the stand. It was an Obachan (older woman) I later found out is 78 years old and about 4 foot 8 inches. She looked super suspicious of us. Then she marched right around the stand, up the stairs and straight to my companion and asked ウィタル長老はどこですか。"where is elder Whittle?!" (that is who I replaced when I transferred) and the normally rather calm Elder Breinholt is like sweating his guts out and stammers out in Japanese that he transferred to Sendai. I am kind of confused why she seems so mad and about to introduce myself when she just goes off on him! I kept up for the first 4 insults of his intelligence, but then it started getting ugly and the only words I recognized were ancestors and fecal matter. My trainers always told me there are no cuss words in Japanese but I started to doubt that when I felt the heat of those words. It was out of love for the previous missionaries and settlement of not being informed something was changing though. She is totally a stud and I love her sooooo much! But I about died inside I was laughing so hard and trying to stay calm. All the Americans were just shell shocked and didn't understand. Elder Briendholt was too terrified to really understand. Please picture him 6' 5" and her 4'8" and him terrified. Eventually we got to swear an oath to her that if there was ever a transfer again that he would notify her immediately. Then she was satisfied.

 

Love each other for me!! 

Elder Law

November 10, 2013 Picture Update

This is my companion now. He is awesome! His parents bought him a funny license plate too.

This one is for dad!

 

This is my trainers Halloween costume! It's sooooo good! But it lost the contests because it wasn't funny at all to the Japanese kids... ahaha

Doesn't he look a bit like Gunner when Gunner was young?

Lesuma shimai (from the MTC) and Shuto shimai! Shuto shimai is like my mission mom. She is Japanese and always fixed my manners. She finishes her mission next month and is like 22. She is a waaay good person.

These are sister Luk (left) and sister Hayashi (right) they were in my district in Nagamachi. Sister Luk came to japan with me. She is training sister Hayashi. Sister Luk is from Hong Kong and is literally my favorite person in the mission. I have never met anyone more funny or Christ like.

Look who i got to go on spilts with!!!! He is still the awesome Thayne choro! I love this guy!!

 

So the people that were in the MTC with me and have been in the mission the same time are called my doki. From now on I will refer to them as that! These are my doki that are in my zone! It was sooooo fun to see them!

 

November 10, 2013 Letter

From the Frozen North 11:33

 

Moral:

Way Genki! It was my birthday! I love all you guys!!! I was spoiled rotten on my birthday with packages, letters, e-mails, and posts! Thank you thank you! I will be sending letters to as many as I have addresses for to let you know what I thought of your generosity! I also got to be on a split with my zone leader on my birthday. you guys might have heard of him, his name is Takeshita choro!!!!! It was waaaay fun! So yeah... God loves me, you guys love me... I have to slow down on this getting happy thing. All that is left is Taylor Swift's love and I have officially peaked in life.
 

Culture fact:

Vending machines- I honestly can't remember if I have already told you this or just thought about telling you it but the vending machines are different here. First of all there are more of them; they are everywhere! Instead of having like a lone Pepsi on a whales blow hole spray, they have a little plastic version of all the drinks in the machine inside a display case. They are normally more diverse machines. Not like America where normally one machine has all bottled soda, one all Gatorade and one all the water. Here they normally have a bunch of coffees and teas, flavored water, soda, juice, chocolate water stuff, Calpis (I am going to bring this to the states and make millions) and so on. In the summer all the drinks are hot and in the winter half the drinks get underlines in red and then they are all hot when they come out! Way fun!

Fun food fact:

Calpis. It's white and a mix between a milk beverage and a juice. I actually have no idea what it is but I hear that they have it in Hawaii and no other state. It's sweet with a tint of bitter... like you would never say it is bitter but its not all sweet.., I don't know! It's way good!
 

Spiritual thought:

I want you to think of when a close family member did something bad (not huge but bad). Something stupid that hurt them or others around them. That sounds bad so now think of something stupider you have done so that you can forgive them and not judge them. Now I want you to think of someone else that did the exact same thing as your loved one but you had no real strong relationship with them. My experience with this is that for my loved one I still felt tons of hope and love and saw the thing as bad but them as being able to overcome and get away. While the other person I had more of a "that person is stupid" kind of feeling. I think the reason is that when we can know someone, truly know them, we will always see them for the spiritual sibling that they are. When we can know someone we can always love them, we can always have hope for them, we can have the faith that can work the miracle of them getting the strength to change and overcome what is hurting them. Get to know those around you so you can have the hope for them to become happier.
 

Funny story:

So this was about three weeks ago when I was training elder Anderson in Nagamachi. He had been out of the MTC for 5 weeks and had never had a haircut in japan and it was time. So I take him to a place that I hear from the locals is cheap and good quality. We walk in and I am putting on this big show of being a wise and in control trainer (it gives the little guys the a boost in confidence). But quite frankly when I study the words of God and how to talk about people's desires I have not really come across the vocabulary for " yeah, just give me a straight line across the back and fade it up to about a 4 at the celbrial corplex and then pull back the reins on top so I end up somewhere between a Brad Pit in Meet Joe Black and Brad Pit in Mr. and Mrs. Smith." So normally my secret weapon is to hold up my fingers and say "somewhere around this much" and it works like a charm (when you have a face like mine your screwed either way so I don't worry too much about it).
 

Anyway, I teach Anderson choro how to say "about this much please" and I warn him of everything that will normally happen: shave, haircut, shampoo, conditioner, scalp therapy (lots of minty oil and smacking my head really fast), shave around ears, shave ears, dry hair in big girly machine, and then style. Then we buckle up and dive in.
 

I could talk about this trip for about two hours and I recommend you ask me when I get home. But I want to talk mainly about two parts. The first is the shave. To save my manhood I skip the shave to not embarrass myself. But elder Anderson went for it. They ask him a ton of questions to specify how exactly he wants the shave. He of course pretends like he totally understand and just says yes to everything. So they lay him back and put the shaving cream on his chin, then his jaw and cheeks then his nose a little... then his forehead.. ahahah they just did it all! He just kind of sits there and squirms for 5 minutes while they shave his face! It was way fun for me! He says his forehead skin still feels weird. Anyway we get it cut and all the fun little things. I make it sound funny and it is but really its kind of fun too (except its like death silent the whole time you get it cut... except for my childish giggles when I look at my companion). We get to the end and we are just having the times of our lives. It's one price for everything you want so they ask us what type of hair style we want them to do. Normally I say "the most Japanese you can make it" missionary hair is way too short to be at all Japanese but normally they spike up the back and push down the front when I say that. But the guy styling that day had this long ponytail and goatee (both of which are super rare in japan) and so I was like this guy knows what up. So I told him to give us both the coolest hair styles he knows. He was like super stumped and thought and thought for like 5 minutes. Then he got revelation and just went to town. Turns out it wasn't revelation but inspiration. The inspiration was that we were Americans and he had seen a few American movies. Elder Anderson got all the side of his hair spiked straight up and the top smashed down and forward. I got every hair on my head straight on end. Two missionaries walked into that hair salon but the terminator and chicken little walked out. Japanese gel is a mixture of bondo and tar.
 

Love each other for me! Thanks again everyone!

Much love - Elder Law

November 3, 2013 Letter

From the Northern Base

14:27 hours

 

When you go to the MTC you get a bit of a culture shock. It's kind of like EFY, college, the combine and church all mixed together. Then I came to Japan and lived with 4 Japanese people. That was a bit of a culture shock. I learned lots of new manners, ate new food, learned a ton of Japanese, etc... But the biggest culture shock times a thousand was this place! When I went on base the first night and was served a cinnamon roll and dinner had cheese in it I was like getting slapped in the face with cold water. The American members giggle every time I bow to them... I was so confused.. I don't know what to say when people talk to me! I understand perfectly but the little in-between words are gone... do you have little in-between words? ahhh... luckily I spend the other half of my time in the branch and I am among my own people where we bow and speak the natural language. Haha! It's kinda funny to joke but I am not really joking. I feel so odd and funny with the Americans and when I am with the Japanese its all natural and I don't have to think so much about what is weird.

This is in nagamachi way out in the sticks

Misawa:

First of all let me explain something that always confused me when I wrote people on their missions and they transferred. You can send any mail to the same address my whole mission. It adds about a day on shipping now that I am not in the mission home but to save confusion that is my recommendation.

 

There is a branch of about 23 members of Japanese and a ward of over 200 Americans form the military base. We get fed every night by members of the American ward and holy cow... it's soooooo weird and wonderful! I ate pumpkin cheesecake last night for dinner.... WHAT? I have been sent to heaven where you have angels of two cultures working with you. Ahhh I am sooo stoked!

 

Food fact:

Eggs. The biggest you can buy them in is a pack of 10. That costs about 175. They are normally white but occasionally brown. The yolk is much darker and closer to orange then American eggs. You eat them raw all the time and no one ever gets sick from it. Yamamoto choro told me Japan's eggs are safe for some reason and no one really knows why. Someone find the why for me! But I throw a couple raw eggs in a bowl of rice with a dash of soy sauce and mix it up for breakfast all the time. It is way fast, healthy, and decent. I eat tons of eggs because they are really cheep compared to other things and before this area they were by far my biggest source of protein.

 

Culture fact:

In Japan all schools that I have ever seen have school uniforms. If you have ever watched anime and the kids in school have these `exaggerated` school uniforms on, it's actually pretty accurate. The preschoolers have uniforms too and they always have these matching little hats! I don't care who you are when you see one of those classes walking by holding hands with their little hats you will call it the cutest thing you have ever seen. They even broke Thayne Choro.

 

Spiritual thought:

I don't really like the thought of regrets but along those lines something I wish had done before the mission was sharing what the gospel did for my life a little more. Not dumping it on people or being all preachy, but when they had something that they were unsatisfied with or that was difficult for them at least offering that I had something in my life that was very real and could very much help them in every aspect of their lives. Sometimes I forgot how natural of a feeling that is. For example if I had back pain and someone offered me a solution that worked for them, even if it was kind of different, I wouldn't ever think poorly of them for offering. I testify that this gospel is the salvation Christ himself set up. That it will improve everyone's life if they come with sincerity and do it from their heart. I have seen in in my life, Japanese people's lives, and missionaries' lives.

 

Funny story:

The bad news is I have 3 super funny stories and want to share them all. The good news is I have time for one and time for two the next couple weeks unless something trumps them... but I kind of doubt it.

 

This week was Halloween. While people in Japan don't really celebrate Halloween they do know what it is and because we are happy cool people the missions lead a Halloween activity at the church. It was way good and I have no time to tell you all about it. But it was good. The thing was we needed all the missionaries to be in costumes for a few of the activities. So me and Elder Anderson needed a costume. We were super busy and didn't do anything about it tell like 5 hours before the party and we had appointments for 4 and a half of those 5. We were at the apartment and had no money to buy costumes so I starting looking around. Because I am my parents' son I had thrown away every unnecessary thing in the apartment about a month before and so we had nothing. A bunch of white shirts and ties, blankets, futons, sheets, food, garbage, a bunch of broken down cardboard and scriptures and paper. But it was enough. I don't think it was inspiration but it was something... 15 cardboard boxes, two dark sheets, 4 sheets of gold cardstock, and enough tape to wrap a whole football team of hypochondriacs later... we had them! We were big, we were dark, and I kid you not I made two little 3 year old girls cry...

 

We were Book of Mormons!!! hahahhahahah it was way hard to walk around but waaay funny.

 

These are the APs. They were a bit out of control.

This is my and Kung fu Panda.

 

 

October 27, 2013 Letter

0650 The Far West Pacific

Prepare for the North. Transfers! I will be leaving my beloved Nagamachi and it kind of makes me wants to cry... this place is soooo awesome! But the next place will be full of awesome people too. I am going to the far north east of the big island honshu to a place called Misawa. I will be getting a new companion that is one transfer my junior and will be the district leader there. The area is kind of interesting because we have a branch and a ward. The branch is a little Japanese branch and the ward is for the big American military base there. I have a feeling I will be eating some cheese very soon! We will also have an American senior couple there which should be awesome! I am a little scared to see my Japanese go in the toilet, but we will see.

 

Culture point:

Mail. I feel like I see the mail people 100 times more in Japan. They all have red clothes or bikes and trailers, or the most common is scooters and sometimes even a car or truck! They whiz around and I swear they just deliver as they receive and you can get mail a couple times a day. The mail boxes are red as well. International mail goes in the right side, which is where all your letters go.

 

Earthquakes:

My first transfer we probably averages like two a week and takeshita choro said that is was quite a bit even for japan. Now we probably see one once every 2 weeks maybe more rare than that. Lately we have had a couple pretty decent ones. Normally they are like 7ish seconds long. I don't know, you can look up how big they are but the culture about them is rather interesting. If you are in a meeting, and it is a kind of big one, then normally someone will say it "jishin.." then everyone goes quite. Then it ends and they start talking again. The biggest one I was in someone got up and opened a window. But he is kind of an odd fellow. You never really talk about it after. Also, if the earthquake is over a certain magnitude everyone receives a text. Like in church one time all the phones went off at once, beep beep beep beep, and then this earthquake hit. Sometimes the earthquakes hits finishes and then all the phone go off. But nothings perfect. It's kind of fun but also makes my stomach go funny. At night when you wake up to one is the oddest feeling.

 

Fun food fact:

Chop sticks. In Japanese they are called hasshi (which is insanely close to the pronunciation of corner and to bridge and gets me kind of confused occasionally). I am pretty much a Japanese and dominate with them. At a members house last night they all agreed I had the prettiest holding (my trainer was like a little manner drill Sergeant). You don't eat every single thing with chopsticks but you eat most. It's more the rare exception where you need a spoon. Kare for example you eat with a spoon. You never eat with a fork really. At restaurants I have never seen a fork given and a spoon only for Kare.

 

Spiritual thought:

D&C 78:19 I love this scripture and I have a testimony that when we apply the principle of showing gratitude with our words, prayers, actions, and temper that the Lord will give more. There is another scripture I have shared before maybe in D&C 130:20-21. I think that showing thanks and being thankful brings more blessings and joy because that is how God wired the universe. When we show thanks it really just blesses us. It makes us feel better because we open our eyes to our many gifts and then it makes us feel better because He can give us more! It's a win win situation. Smile for me people.

 

Funny story:

So I teach English class three times a week. It normally is only once a week but I have two special classes where we teach the gospel and English in more private settings. If you know anyone that wants to learn English I would love too and it's free! Anyway, one of these classes is on Wednesday nights and is a high school students only class. It's pretty much the most fun class ever because the teacher is the funniest person ever and always has way sweet activities... he is also grossly prideful. Anyway one of the games we played this week was 20 questions. I had one person sit facing the class and then I drew pictures on the board and the person facing the class had to ask the class questions in English to guess the object. The game is always last and is more of a fun finisher then an English focus time. So we have this one super kind sweet student that is always way genki, bubbly and happy (we all know the type) and I called on her to go. She is super smart and has probably the best English in the whole class. Early in the class we had talked about emotions and I had asked her how she feels when she sees a burning house and she told me she feels sad. The rest of the Japanese students told me they and most Japanese feel mostly curious and excited and she said she feels way sad. So I thought it might be kind of an easy thing for her to guess so I drew a burning house on the board. She starts asking the questions and gets to about question 8 and is just stumped (a burning house is actually pretty hard on 20 questions..my bad) and has no clue what to guess. She starts looking less genki... so I come swooping in to the rescue with a HUGE hint I thought and said most Japanese people kind of like this thing but you don't like it at all. She looks kind of puzzled and then perks up and guesses kaeru! which means frog... and I am like super confused.. frog? What the heck? They answer no. Then she guesses milk! The answer no... wait a second... she just starts listing off all the things she hates that most Japanese people love! It's kind of flattering for her to think I knew that much about everything. Eventually I gave another hint and she got it but man it was just so funny and innocent and I was laughing about that for like a 3 days whenever I thought of it.

 

Japan is awesome people! ahhh I love this place!! Next week my funny story is going to be awesome and short! It's Halloween!

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

October 20, 2013 Letter

Change:

First of all my companion Elder Yamamoto went home this week. He was tired and needed a break. Pray for him if you have an extra prayer. Thank you all sooo much for the birthday present you figured out for him and an awesome uncle for making and sending it! It made him feel love at the end and helped him to think a bit more about Christ I think.

 

So, I have a new companion! His name is Elder Anderson and he is as American as they come. He is the EXACT same height as me. The same color of hair. 1 kg heaver then me (I can still whoop him like a baby at arm wrestling don't worry). He has been in Japan for 4 weeks (I am a trainer). He was a quarterback in Texas and then in Utah when he moved there in high school so we have a lot in common. He is going to get us in the door with his good looks then I will show them God with my firey testimony and colorful Japanese. I am also the district leader now.

This is my new companion. This is a really bad picture of me, I swear he isn't that much better looking in real life. :)
 

My district! Minus Elder Yamamoto now. This is when Elder Anderson came.

Fun food fact:

So I sent a picture a while ago with a Heineken label on a glass. I promised I had a point and this is it:

First of all the glass was just funny because no one else had the label on their glass and no one but me understood what it was. The actual point was what was in the glass. It's actually really common and is just liquid plain yogurt. The first time I had it I almost gaged all over the lady's kitchen because I thought it was rotten milk, the 2nd through 10th time I had it I gave a little whimper when they brought it out. The 11th through 13trh time it was just like drinking a weird soda.. and now I like it! It is actually really refreshing and like a fresh feel! I think I am turning into a Japanese (people will say I am a Japanese" when I ask them something in English; they are so cute!).

 

Spiritual thought:

There is a vision a prophet has in the Book of Mormon called the tree of life. There is about 10000 cool things you can learn from the vision and I tota01lly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand our purpose in life better. But there is this part where people are trying to find the path of God but get lost because of this darkness and fog that come upon them. I have read this scripture a million times and have always thought of the mists as being Satan blocking our vision to keep us from seeing our goal of coming to God and I still think this is true. However, this week when I read it I had a second idea come to mind. There are lots of people making there way to God all around us. Maybe the darkness also blocks us from seeing them. He blinds us by letting us focus on just the self. Let's not be blinded and when we are blinded let's call out to those other people, let's be humble enough to feel around for them until we find them and can help them. We will be happier for it I know and wont stress so much about the self! When you get His sheep HE will take care of you.

Weather:

We had another bigger typhoon. We were told not to leave the apartment for the whole day. It ended up kind of going out into the pacific instead of hitting us directly. It rained a ton and was really windy but that's it. I just learned from my dad that some places were really hit bad but we are safe. Next week I will tell you about earthquakes if I can remember.

Random:

A sports activity that we have every month. I try to keep it calm and fun.

This picture is a bit old but is akonomiyaki and its sooooo good! I hear uncle Reid is pro at making it if you want to try it! The two guys closest to the camera are the a.p.s Elder Uchida on the left (he is like Bryan Earl) and Elder Takese who is a awesome too!

 

This is a good example of the slightly odd level... but I actually think the shirt is awesome! I asked her if she knew want it meant and she had no idea.

 

Funny story:

This is another old picture explanation. So we all remember the burning eyes burning hands story from a while back... that was a dark time in my life and I didn't want to go back there. But the trainer called. The zone leaders were all coming and in order to protect our more expensive foods we had to make tons of kare. Takeshita Choro liked to watch me squirm and burn and he is better at seasoning the kare so I was assigned onions. I have baby blue sensitive eyes and our knife is more of a juicer it's so dull (we bought a new one recently) so it's not that I am just a woos (at least the only reason isn't that I am a woos)! A lesser man would have coward away and given up the meat to the animals that are the zone leaders but instead I remembered a stud aunt of mine that like to make tons of pico de gallo. That involves lots and lots of onion cutting and she has a trick of wearing these awesome goggles. I am in japan and am a poor missionary with no time or money to find goggles or buy them... but I am kind of smart.

 

Two rubber bands and a 12 x 6 inch piece or saran wrap and you are golden. It works really good! But open a window because you become so productive and start working so hard and fast because you can see that you start to get a little warm and it gets a bit steamy in there!
 

Love you all tons! Stay awesome and love each other for me!

Law Choro

October 13, 2013 Letter

So in order to grace you all with a longer letter we woke up early, but the problem is I burned a lot of time on my letter to the mission president so we will see how this goes.

0637 Nippon (that is a really formal written way to say Japan)

Baking stories:

I feel like I am one of those bloggers that bakes one page a day through a cookbook and talks about it in her blog... they made a movie about that once.. mary to mary or sally to sally... it has Amy Adams in it. Anyway! I pumped out a pie this week! Baking is the most interesting thing. I will compare it to Harry Potter. If anyone has read Harry Potter you all have thought the same thing as me: you can understand defense against the dark arts as being difficult because someone might have a better wand or pronunciation or just be more powerful. The seeing the future class could be tricky because someone might have the gift and you don't. But what about potions? You just read the bloody recipe, measure it out and boil. Harry complains and complains about how hard it is... its an art folks. 

My pie was apple. it cost me approximately an entire shift as a lifeguard to purchase the ingredients. In japan shortening comes in a little squeezable bottle and is super fun to squeeze. The pie was super good tasting! It was a bit on the ugly side but won the "good looking award" at family home evening but came in second to Yamamoto choros pork boiled fancy, way delicious, in the tasting category. My vote was that the tie breaker should be a smell off but they refused....

 

Yes Moma... that is the family crest. The edges are a bit ugly in those corners and in the middle of the crust because I made the classic blunder of forgetting the butter until after i put the top on. But it seriously tasted awesome!

Culture Point:

Counting. It's going to be a bit hard to explain but its different when you count on your fingers here. In America and Japan the first 5 are the same. But the second five and up are different. In America when you finish loading the first hand you just bust out ol' lefty. In japan you have two options: the first is you start pulling down fingers form the side you started. That sounds super confusing but if you do it every time then it makes sense and is nice because you only rock one hand. The second way and the way you would show someone across the room to grab SEVEN eggs is you hold up the filled hand and then place the fingers of your other hand (in the case of seven two fingers) nail up on your palm so they can see. I don't know why but this way is super easy and natural to copy. I have been doing it on accident since the second week of the MTC.

Random:
This is a perfect example of the messed up used of English that I have talked about in previous letters. This one wasn't on a shirt so I could take a picture for you.

This is what a church building looks like

Yamamoto choro on my favorite road to ride. It looks like this for a couple miles with a river on the other side and occasionally baseball fields for little kids.

My first split where I was the senior companion! I love this guy and he wants to do the same thing at he same school after!

Fun Food Fact

Deep fry! Everyone thinks America is super unhealthy and japan is super healthy which is true in a lot of the diet. My image was always that most of the reason was Americans love deep frying. But Japan deep fries waaaay more. The thing is what you get with the deep fried batter. In America its normally chicken or potatoes or onions or fish or steak or corndogs or burritos or bread or snickers. In japan its normally meat or the most common is vegetables (egg plant, green beans, pumpkin, onions, pepers...). It is always super good! You should try it.

Spiritual thought:
So we just watched general conference this week end and because of the translation and the time issues I actually got to watch it in English which was sweet. A thought I wanted to share was a little story in President Eyring's talk. Its the morning session on Sunday and the story is the one about the grandma and the kid in prison. If you weren't able to hear it please look it up.

We are all literally infinitely in debt to the Savior for all He has suffered to help us. I thought this story was inspiring to maybe be able to pay him back a little. To become an arrow in his quiver that can be shot at the strongest, armor covered, flaming advisory and penetrate deep and not break off. Become the weapon the Lord can use to liberate the captive and protect the innocent. To be humble and loving enough that He is able to use us to accomplish great things. From the rest of conference I think the way is complete repentance and obedience to his commandments and then to pray. Pray for humility, pray for meekness, pray for love and I know He will give it. Through Christ's name I testify. Amen.

Funny Story:

So we had two birthdays this week! The first was my companion's and went perfect thanks to an AWESOME uncle and a super star family! But I will write about that in a real letter and mail it to you guys. I want to talk about Takase choro's birthday. It was yesterday and we had gone all out for elder Yamamoto and we needed to do something for elder takase. But it was Sunday and we didn't really know what he wanted anyway because he has everything he wants because he is a way old missionary. We tried to think of what he likes and all we could come up with was the gospel, Hawaii and his fiancé. We couldn't send him to Hawaii, the gospel birthday present was a bit boring, so that left the girlfriend. Except we didn't have enough to send him to her. So we decided to bring her to him. Not the real her of course (refer to letter 16, paragraph 6, "male nun") so we decided to make him one! Some lesser men would result to paper and ink but we wanted 3D so we went with rice eggs and ketchup (we have a chef in the apartment we can do anything). He died of laughter and said it wasn't his lover but that she was tasty. We presented it to him really funny but I don't have time to explain now. Above was supposed to be his favorite animal, a dog.
 

 

 

Love each other for me!

Elder Law 

October 6, 2013 Letter

It's going to be short and I am sorry.

 

Culture Point

 

Shogi. It's like chess at first hearing of the rules but its way more complicated and feels really different when you play. I have won once when he took off four of his pieces at the beginning. He was in a club (my companion) and so he kills everyone, especially me. I am getting better every time and will win the real way one of these days. We pretty much play it anytime we eat. It's kind of an addiction but I think it all good. If it gets out of hand I will stop. We didn't have all the pieces (we found it in the apartment) so I found a piece of scrap wood and a box knife and made three. They all thought I was a mountain man American boss.... no big deal.

 

Fun Food Fact

Bento. It's a sack lunch gone Japanese! They are so cute and super good! Lots of balls of rice with paste of tuna in the middle and vegetables prepared in certain way. You can put anything you want in it but a pb and j is a rice ball with tuna in the middle! Super good and fast to make!

 

Spiritual Thought

Matthew 18:19-20

I have had this on my mind for a while. Find something righteous that you need. Come together and ask God for it with faith and I know I know I know that if it is best for everyone God will give it. I had a sisters here whose husband dropped one day at home and when she took him to the hospital they told her he would die that night. She called all the family in the Philippines and they prayed and he was out of the hospital in a week. Come together and pray. And don't smoke...

 

Funny Story

So we have a person who is looking into the church that has been taught by the missionaries in Kamisugi but he lives literally 10 minutes away walking form us. So they want to have us teach him. So we wanted to get to know him so we could teach what he wants to learn so we went to this volleyball activity. He is from Taiwan, a little chubby, super smart, and kinda nerdy. The activity was at an elementary school on a Tuesday night. My image is a bunch of little Japanese 13 year old girls hitting some volleyballs around and I would have stayed mature and not get too competitive. 

Prepare people. The Japanese are already preparing for the Olympics and they are doing it on Tuesday nights in an elementary school and they have a secret weapon in the form of a Taiwanese chubby little genius. They spiked the ball, it hit two feet from the net and bounced to the ceiling!!! I was the pup. But I will give a shout out to Sadie hear for teaching the three step zombie arm thing because I at least saved my pride with that one. So be prepared people: I am going to be pro at volleyball, shogi, and Ping-Pong.

 

Love each other for me!

Elder Law

September 29, 2013 Letter

1027 An island somewhere in the pacific

(I sound so mysterious and cool when I say it like that)

Fun Food Fact:

Lets talk bread! They actually eat quite a bit of it! You cannot find any bread that isn't white and it normally has tons of butter goodness too it. To them bread is not really the most healthy of choices and the reason is that it probably isn't. The most pieces of bread you can buy in a bag is 8 and you can get the same size loaf in 6 or 4 piece slices (the 4 piece slices are about an inch thick and make awesome French toast). The whole loaf is about a 5x5x6 inch cube. There are no heels on any bread because they don't like them. The heels are called "mimi" which means ears! hahah and you can buy a bag of just the mimis for a dollar and you get more bread and a third the price so I do that for lunch sometimes. It's really good bread!

 

Culture Point

Tobishoku. It's the name of construction workers! They always have these pants. I want you to Google them. They look like genie pants and are huge and poofy in the middle and tight at the ankle and the waist. They tie rags around there head if it is hot or rainy and probably when it is cold. I will keep you posted!

 

Spiritual Thought:

Pride. I read 4th Nephi again today. The people start out at the tippy top. The happiest a people can be and they fall as far as you can all because of pride. Pride is selfishness and their isn't a sin that's roots aren't selfishness. Sin always in the end leads to sadness. My biggest weakness is pride and so God sent me to learn Japanese. ;-) I think the key to overcoming pride is to thank God in your prayers for the good parts of other people. You start to see your own lacking and at the same time love the people around you more. At least it worked for me!

Funny Story:

So moma bear sent me a ton of recipes to make. Things that were delicious and kinda simple...ish. She sent me her recipe for biscuits! She has the best biscuits and gravy so I love biscuits and gravy. My companion is literally a chef (he went to college for it) and so he cooks a lot. This is a pic of he and I:



I could kind of tell he was feeling like the little red hen so I said I will switch him and he will do the dishes and I will cook for the apartment! He kind of  smirked and said it sounded awesome! So I asked what he wanted to eat (expecting kare or stir-fry of some kind) but he said American! So I puffed out my chest and kind of shrugged and said "piece of cake" (that was a joke). I snuck to my little recipes stash in the back of my photo album and found the biscuits and gravy. I had saved up and bought some butter for just an occasion such as this and the rest of the ingredients my mom had hooked me up with or I had so I went to work! I really wish you all could see how cute our oven is! So I mix it all together after a bunch of conversions and sum substitutions of the last bit of butter for some margarine I found. It looks straight up like a mix between pancake batter and throw-up. Suuuupperrr runny, like I kind of remembered my moms biscuits almost on the dryer side of the dough world. But I dumped it out on a clean handkerchief (the towels were all too furry or big) and it just slides and soups everywhere! But I act totally confident! All the Japanese are yelling things "sagoi" "hontoni americajinpoi!" all these great compliments about how they never knew I was so smart! So I got this goop approximately 1 inch think like the "destrutions" say and I get my floured cup to cut them and I know there is no hope... so I totally act like its natural and use the cup to scoop approximately the right amount off the handkerchief onto the "cookie sheet" (in Japan it really is a cookie sheet because there is just enough room for one cookie -it actually isn't that bad. I think I got about 10 splats on each sheet). So I put them in the oven (200 degrees Celsius if anyone cares) and then the next step: I deal with religion and the things of God everyday and I have had some amazingly spiritual experiences and this was one of them... I was representing America! I was representing my manliness of being able to feed my self! I was representing my moms cooking! I made the gravy (it was awesome I am pro at making gravy) and then the timer went off...

They were about at good look looking as their maker but they tasted awesome!!! I think the problem was I kind of  guesstimated the last bit of the "easy to spread" (and therefore easy to melt and make your dough look like pancake batter) margarine and I put too much. But it made them more buttery! God loves me and now my apartment thinks I am an American chef. Life is way good people.

Love each other for me! 

   

Law Choro 

September 23, 2013 Letter

0325 Hours

The hilliest place on Earth

New Companion:

So has anyone seen that movie the last samurai? Well I testify that is a lie and Tom Cruise was not the last. My companion is. Yamamoto choro stands about 5 11, buff as they come, perfectly calm and well mannered, and as physically tuff as a samurai.  He is way into biking, is waaay into cooking, wants to become a chef, can do those two finger pushups I talked about, loves to work, and is a diehard missionary. Pretty much when I come home I will be all buff, can make super good Japanese food, and you can punch me in the face and I wont even feel it. All of which I will have learned from him. 

Fun Food Fact

So this week because I am who I am I wanted to beat my dad in a competition. He hooked me up with a picture of some maple chocolate bacon ice cream and I say well played. But top this - normally all you can ever find are the three basics: vanilla, chocolate, and str... green tea. hahah But that is not a good story (but seriously green tea ice cream is everywhere). I went to a buffet and got all the flavors with out reading what they were and I ended up pounding a ton of these two flavors that were super weird and not weird at all to Japanese people. The first was corn and straight up it tasted like a frozen can of corn. The other was sesame. It was black and tasted straight up like I was eating frozen sesame oil. The weirdest part was I kind of liked it. I say again both are super normal!

Culture Point

When you are in the kitchen or the bathroom you wear slippers and take them off when you leave. Super weird and important.

Spiritual Thought 

I have found the power of a personal inventory with God in prayer. Set goals that way and they tend to be more righteous, more powerful, and you have more drive, power, and faith in them. God wants to help you achieve your righteous desires!

Funny Story

So I am at that same buffet. I am eating all sorts of super odd foo; I get a little of all the soups, fried things, ice creams, breads, sushi's, fish, pastries (they have awesome pastries) and then I come to the meat. It's an all you can eat place so I just pile it on. I look at this old couple at the table next to me and they have just tons ands tons of these two types of meat. Old people love buffets so I figure they come a lot and knew what was the best so I pile on tons of what they are eating. I take it back to the table and throw it on the grill (long story for another time but you cook your meat in the middle of the table) and the member we are with is kind of giving me the weird eyes. It smells pretty good so I don't know what his problem is... he probably just thinks "wow Americans are super fat and love meat". He asks me if I like.... and then some word I don't know but he points at the meat so I say "oh yeah I love it!". Then I tried the darker one and all of the sudden knew what on of the words meant: liver. Japanese and American liver tastes the same if anyone was wondering. The lighter one was the chewiest piece of flesh I have ever put in my mouth. It took me like 5 minutes to chew every piece. When I asked him to explain where it came from on the animal in simple Japanese he told me it is what the poop is in. I think I ate an entire cows intestine soaked in Japanese sauce and I liked it.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

(hopefully I will have more time next week)

September 15, 2013 Letter

First of all to the missionaries I send this too. My advice is that if you straight up don't have time don't read this. Second, if you really want to read it and have time later but now don't then take a picture of it on you camera and then read it later. I learned that from a sister in my district and it has pretty much saved my life

10:46 Somewhere in the east

Transfers:

So I said somewhere in the east because this week is transfers. Transfer happen every 6 weeks and missionaries switch leadership positions, companions, areas, all three or maybe none. I have not switch areas but I got a phone call and I am switching companions! My new companion's name is Yamamoto Choro (yes he is very much Japanese) I have only meant him twice and very briefly because he only knows Japanese (WOOT WOOT! That is a HUGE blessing for my language) but what I do know about him is he wants to become a chef. Fun fact: I feel like in the states if you say you are going to be a chef its kind of not respected a ton but here is super respectable. So I will be eating like a champion. He can do two finger pushups: that is one arm and only two fingers touching the ground. I can do one arm 5 fingers but when I put down two fingers only I cried for my moma and gave up. Give me 6 weeks and I will master it!

Weather:

I could talk for hours about the weather alone but today is a special day because it is a taifun! (I think it is spelled different in English.) Pretty much it just means super windy super rainy and tons of thunder down here. But I can check it off my bucket list and so I thought I would brag it up to you guys.

Fun food fact:

Lets talk about mugicha. It is like a tea but you can drink it. I actually don't know what it is from but its everywhere! It's like sweat tea in the south and water in the north. If it is a semi-hot day and you go to someone's house they are totally going to hook you up with a glass. If there is a big meal with lots of people at the church, for sure the drink is mugicha. It's everywhere and its for all ages. It is light brown in color. In the summer it's cold and in the winter it's hot! Sometimes if you are feeling wild you can mix that rule up a bit. In the mtc I had a half Japanese elder describe it in a way that I think fits perfectly. "It's fire water" that is what he called it and the reason is not that it burns like whisky (people out there are going "yeah cause you know what whisky tastes like") but because it tastes like you lit a match let it burn all the way and then dropped it in water and stirred. Now, the first time I drank it this description was perfect and I dreaded when people saw the sweat on my face and ran in the back to grab me a drink (ok the word dread is a bit strong it isn't that strong of a taste for anyone to really dread it) but I didn't really like it that much. Then I started to not even notice a taste it was like water! Now I kind of love it. If there is a pitcher of both I will grab the mugicha. It is oddly refreshing and just clean feeling; like nature and hydration came together in a tea.

Culture point:

Trains, buses and phones. So this might be because I am from a small town in Washington and have never really ridden public transportation but this was rather interesting to me. You cannot call people on your phone on a bus or train. It's not only just a cultural rule but it is actually the bus and trains systems rule. They announce it all the time! There are like a million people on the bus ands it's dead silent except for me asking the person next to me lots of questions (talking is ok its just they normally have no reason because they dont know anyone) and my questions are about japan at first so they get a feel for how bad my Japanese is then about Japan's religion because I am into religion of late and then what they think about the whole thing. It's super natural and I learn lots (mostly I learn lots of new words then I look them up later but I get better at it every time!). So can you talk on the phone on the bus and train in America?

Spiritual thought:

So we are at a cross roads with a lot of people. They have told us what they desire and it is to come closer to Christ and God and they wish to follow the commandments. Now they have to do. Honestly I feared for them. My faith was weak and with elder Takeshita leaving I was really kind of worried. Then I came to this scripture really rather randomly Moroni 8:16 "...Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from god; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear." (if you want an interesting couple hours study the word fear in the Bible, Book of Mormon and D&C) You know what? I repented. Not of my fear, though that was from Satan, but for my lack of love. I think of those that are dearest to me and I would have absolute faith that they could change for the better if they wanted to. I loved these people more, I studied answers to there questions harder, I prayed for them harder, and I thought about how I could serve them more. Even though their positions have not changed in the slightest, I have twice the faith and hope for them. Love them.

Funny story:

So if you know elder takeshita this story is way funnier but I think it is still pretty good. You have to understand Japanese are very polite and outside of the apartment all the missionaries agree he is the most polite and formal of Japanese.

It's a normal day in the nagamachi elder apartment. We eat a big breakfast and study and then start to kind of munch for lunch and then we get a phone call that a brother can in fact eat lunch with us at the church. So we throw a huge thing of "takeshita special" in a tub and hit the road (I will make you takeshita special sometime its super good). The member is 24 so the three of us eat like males our age do when we are together and we are stuffed to the gills (we had munched before and we didn't want to pack the food back home so we literally pounded a ton). Then we road up a mountain for about an hour and a half. It is the longest bike ride we do on a semi normal basis and we were dying. Takeshita says he might be sick but he calms down and we knock on the door. Because it was such a long bike ride she bought us lunch! This is a funny ironic story all alone but the best part is what it was when she brought it out: a little bigger then a normal sheet of copy paper size tray for each one of us! AND on the tray was piled sushi. Raw fish for days (Takeshita choro hates raw food). We had been worried this sister didn't really feel our love so this was super good news and yet horrible news. We ate it and after Takeshita choro said he literally doubled the amount of raw fish he has consumed in his whole life. I will send you a picture next week! (nobody threw up)

 

1 Nephi 3:7

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

September 9, 2013 Letter

20:15 hours (Super late I know. Its been a crazy day)

Our most recent zone pic. We have the biggest zone in the mission by about 10 people and there are 4 zones.

 

Barracks:

It is the mission moma`s birthday this week. She is pretty much super rich compared to us missionaries and the only ones with pretty handwriting are the Japanese, but she cant read konji, so a card was out. That left just the service option. Her biggest worry is we are all going to die in our own filth. Fixated in our mold and grime. I have always been a bit of a momas boy so I completely share her concerns! So the whole zone's present was to totally dominate the apartments with cleaning and then take pictures and video to send her. So that is what we have been doing today! You know those fun hoods above stoves? We have one. But it hasn't been run or cleaned in my guess is 10 years. That might be a bit long or maybe a bit short. Edwards choro might be able to enlighten us? Anyway it's bad. This aint my first rodeo! I have been in the duplexes. But oh my grease! I carved a "I heart mom" with a screw driver into the filth and it was a lot of work (the picture is sick though). My hands have this permanent oilyness to them and I worked for like 3 hours and still there is no way I would lick the thing but it is pretty good on the eye! I also finally really cleaned the shower drain. There have been lots of flies and bugs crawling and flying out every time I turned the water on. It's not like American drains or I would have done it sooner! I think they were eating the hair ball creature thing. Maybe Japanese hair is edible?

Samurai Castle that we visited

Me being a samurai in a samurai castle. Pretty much awesome! No it is not a real sword. Yes that pose is the biggest regret of my mission so far.

Japanese language:
Fun fact for you all. you know onamonapia? Thank you Mrs. Macatee! If you don't look it up. In English they are used a lot but have a bit of a silly connotation and is regarded as slightly childish and cute. In Japanese it is as professional as any other word! The interesting part is what they choose to make the sound! For example "tsurutsuru" means "slippery" and "kirakira" means "sparkly" and a small object rolling (like a pencil) makes the sounds "korakora"! It's super fun to learn and when I use them all the Japanese are super impressed and kind of confused. "Why does he know the word for a rolling small object and the word  for 'abraideth not' (james 1:5) but he doesn't know the word for dog?" (its inu by the way. I looked it up).

One of my favorite missionaries! Ohori Choro, my first AP. The most obedient missionary in the whole mission and he can grow a samurai mustache in about 6 hours. This stage is hour one and closely resembles the southern direction of North America... Cousin to the samurai mustache. Get it?

Culture fun fact:

So they love English. They cant speak it at all (people will tell you before your mission that everyone can speak it and they are trying to trick you) but they have all studied it a ton. A lot of their media entertainment is originally in English. They are really smart so they like the challenge of a different language I guess. If something is "cool" it will normally have its name big in romanji (English letters) and then under in Japanese (all the instructions/ingredients/description is in Japanese too so it doesn't much help me).

 

My Saturday night English class and a bunch of missionaries. We have way too much fun and even play Uno to learn English. Weird I know.

Food fact:

Rice. Imagine you took all the carbs you eat: noodles, bread, potatoes, rice, tortillas..... and you switched it out with rice. That is how rice is here. They also use it the other stuff too. It's better then our rice so it makes sense. Everyone has a rice cooker and that is pretty much all they use, even the fancy (I have no idea if it was fancy but it felt pretty fancy to me) restaurants serve it right out a rice cooker. It's not cheap either. For 10 kg you pay 40 bucks. Supply and demand I guess.

Big shout out to my awesome older sister Christine! I am now officially super happy, super safe, super stylish, and super bright. My companion is now officially super embarrassed all the time. The fanny-pack, the basket, and now the vest!

Funny Story:

So there isn't really a culminating moment of this but I have to share it. The reason I talked about Japanese loving English so much is the fact that almost all the clothes here have English writing on them. BUT not all the clothes here are made in English speaking countries. At least I think that is what happened because the English is super weird. It starts off with just random! For example, there is a sister (super young and fashionable) in the ward that always wears these shoes. The left says "yes" huge on the toe and the right says "no". Then it gets odd (this category is bigger then you might think): "want to interest me?" huge on the front of some ladies shirt. What the heck does that mean?! But the worst is the ones that are designed by the Americans for preppy dirty young men, instructions sent to china to be made, the Chinese make them, then ship them to Japan. Somewhere along the line the label "this shirt should only be worn if you have a dirty mind and want to wear it on your shirt in a 'clever' way" goes missing. (These are the shirts the kid in 8th grade is wearing inside out because my mom made him flip it. Now there are four other kids looking up his shirt to see what it says and he is smugly smiling and nodding his head.) These same shirts are randomly divided among the racks in Japan and randomly bought and worn! I have seen anything from a mother of three to business men. I guess the bishop a couple districts over had a couple bad ones... I would quote them if I wasn't a missionary.

My jaw always drops and then I just laugh and look over at my companion to do the "did you see that?!?!" and then I just sigh. Lol (don't take that wrong way. I am sooo grateful for a Japanese companion). He asked me why I laughed one time and I told him. He says he completely understands my situation. I asked him why. He explained that there are really popular websites in Japan where they have huge blogs of American tattoos. The ones in Japanese... "oh yeah this one here means hope!" This tattoo guy probably knows Japanese right?

Love each other for me!

Law choro

September 2, 2013 Letter

19:39 Pacific Front

Moral: Way too high! I have been sooo busy this week and everything we do is fun!

Fun food fact:

So you know when you get a sun burn and your mom slathers you in vinegar? This isn't about that heartless mother, its about the loving mother who puts aloe vera on her children. We have all rubbed it on with a love hate, soothing and sticky relationship. You might have even had a life skills teacher or two that had a plant in their classroom. It's like medicine, one of the medicine man tricks that works like money. Turns out you can eat it!

 They peel it, throw it in some sugar water that is kind of like canned pineapple water (notice the Dole) and then you pound it. The way I had it was you put a big bowl of plain yogurt (not vanilla plain and I could talk to you about that for an hour! I will next week!) then you sprinkle some brown sugar on the yogurt and throw some aloe on it. Super super tasty! Oddly enough the closest thing I can say it tastes like is a big peeled grape!

I also eat Indian curry

Culture fact:

Malls. I kind of talked about this before I think; it's starting to get to the point where I can't remember what I have told you! haha But the malls have something totally different about them and I finally figured out what it is! There is no real walls. In America there is a whole bunch of stores and they are all in the same building. Like you walk into a store through a door and then walk around almost in a separate room. In Japan the separate stores don't have doors because they don't have a front wall! Half the time they don't have side walls either; they just flow from one into another. It seems like it would be a security nightmare but I think they just don't have that big of a problem with it. People are awesome like that here. Sometimes I am kind of confused where to pay though. haha

Spiritual thought:

I would like to take you to the bible today, the gospel of Mathew. The Pharisees are talking to Christ and one of them, a lawyer it says (the worst ones are always lawyers ;-)) asks him, tempts him even with a question: "which is the great commandment in the law?". This is what He said, " thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the laws of the prophets"

I love the last bit. I love it all and really could stop right there and be a content as a clam. The focus is the first bit and it is my opinion that we should all focus on doing that bit. But as an after thought I would like to add this. The last bit, where is says all the rest of the commandments and teachings of the prophets hang on the first two, I love it! If ever I lack the "WHY" why is this commandment important? Why are you giving me this answer to my prayer? Why do the scriptures tell me this? I always find the answer in the first two great commandments. God is the creator of this universe and so his laws always are the most, natural, efficient, and correct. We live in a world of men so sometimes we are blinded by this lesser level of thinking, but if we look hard enough we can always see the truth of God's way. I testify this way brings happiness, in Christ's name. Amen.

 

 Long story I will have to explain later

I made delicious pancakes!

Funny story:

So there is a brother that we try to visit every other week at least. He is about 1000 years old, sweet as they come, and a little crazy maybe. We repeat a lot of our messages because he has a hard time remembering. He is sooooo kind and lives on his own because he is a stud and his house is always spotless! I love him!

So we ring his doorbell. Nothing, no big deal, this is normal. So we yell "COOONICHIWAAAA.." super normal and very japanese poi (it means ish and is a super useful word). We hear a shuffling and see some movement through the textured window. He starts walking toward the door and we begin to make out his human form... his oddly all the same color human form. The color is a tannish white. I think the technical name for the color is actually nude. All the same color. I start the slightly cocked head and stare with a "no, no, no..." under my breath. My companion's normally cute little squinty eyes aren't squinting. He always walks up to the window that is right by the door and opens it to see who it is before he opens the door. The window come flying open. It come to about his belly button. I was actually surprised by how good he looked! Pretty buff and pretty shirtless.... "oh! it's the missionaries! Good to see you... let me open the door!" He is half deaf folks; He couldn't understand our screams of terror let alone our cries to stop. The door come flying open and all he is wearing is a smile...

 

and a pair of nude colored boxers. Who the heck makes nude colored boxers?! I almost died! Some other time I will give you a culture point on people's answering the door clothes... Oddly naked.

I promise there is a point to this picture

Bike ride with the President

My companion:

This might be a bit long and boring for all of you but I want it for me after and my moma will want it. Takeshita choro! He is from just north of Tokyo, he could get on a train and be home in literally less then a few hours. This is the Boise Idaho mission of his world but he has learned to truly love it he tells me! I would physically describe him but you all have pictures!

His hobbies before the mission were the clarinet (he doesn't know who Squidward is) and traveling. When I say traveling it's not really what I think most Americans think of as traveling. He would get a summer train ticket (all you can ride type of deal) and then he would literally go all over japan by himself by train. He wouldn't really go to specific tourist places but sometimes certain festivals though. He would just spend all day riding, listening to music, reading a books he bought at the last stop, eating good snacks, napping, looking out the window. He LOVES this! So he also loves everything about trains! The older slower ones are better than the bullet trains. I asked him why and he asked me if I would rather ride in a 747 or biplane. I said good point.

He is incredibly smart and wants to design trains when he gets home. He was in an accelerated schooling program thing sounds kind of like running start and a.p. classes mixed. Kind of cool!

His family is him, his parents (both converts in there teens and returned missionaries) and a little sister who is 19 and has a "severe handicap". I don't really know much more than that but she is still small (like 10ish size). I asked if she likes pens too and he says yes and she also loves milk.

He is the most loving missionary in the world. He gets so emotionally into the people we teach! Sometimes it makes him so tired but it is such a blessing to us! He is very good with correcting my Japanese (he dad is a teacher who teachers radio, news, and other professional speakers how to speak Japanese correctly and beautifully and I think it rubbed off). He is super humble and treats me as a 50 50 partner in all decisions even though he is my trainer. He loves summer weather like I have never seen anyone! He is the best chef in the mission according to all and I learned how to make some kick bum Japanese food from him! He is as obedient as they come and it makes getting along the easiest thing in the world. He might be the only person in the world who drinks more milk then me before the mission (I have quit. It is too expensive and it's different so I am not as tempted).

He is very Japanese in almost every way except two. I could talk for an hour about how Japanese he is but instead I will tell you the two weird things. He doesn't like raw food. SUPER weird for a Japanese person. Eggs, fish, vegetables, you name it he prefers it cooked but can eat anything! The second makes me laugh.. I am actually going to use it as a funny story! Sorry.. another day...

I love you all! Love someone for me!

Law Choro