west pacific front (that's a bit confusing.. I thought I was in the east but its the west pacific)
Moral:
I can feel the progress; I can see the fruits of my work. Sometimes with Japanese you hit these little walls where you go a week and you feel like you have literally learned nothing... (I hear they turn into months). However, I can honestly say my Japanese (while still being horrible) has actually gotten a little better and I am sooo lit up about it! Life its awesome!
Food fact of the day:
Topic - peeling
Oddly enough they peel everything. For example, the other day I grabbed an apple out of the back and just took a bite. They were so concerned for my health! The next day I did the same thing with a carrot and they were just disgusted, but when I ate a grape with the skin on they were straight up impressed! sagoi! sagoi! and they wanted me to do it again. If you want a self confidence boost about how tuff you are come to Japan and eat fruit.
- Side note: I peeled a cucumber and they thought I was super weird but that it actually kind of made sense... I guess there are exceptions to every rule.
Cultural fun fact:
While the importance of politeness is soooo big, as well as being very giving and kind, they do not put any importance on ``hold the door open for people department``. Part of it might be very few doors that are the western style are weighted and close on their own, most doors just slide too.. idk.. but you feel a distinct difference (especially after the mtc door holding frenzy).
Spiritual thought:
I want to share a quote today. Its by Elder M. Russell Ballard of the quorum of the twelve. pg 146 preach my gospel I don't have it with me so Christine will hate me but I will ask her to look it up! chapter 8 goal setting section.
"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life."
I am so thoroughly convinced that this quote is not only true but applies to everyone. There is a distinct fear in my mind that i will die and not have reached my full potential. Goals are key, I have learned that in life and doubly so out here. I am just a pup so I know all of you guys have way more experience in this department but I still give advice to set a goal every week, month, day year maybe hour. Pick the direction you want to go and go! Then, after the hour day year check how it went and plan again. In the real world I know this is much more difficult, but wanting to improve is righteous so God will help you if you ask him to guide and give you strength in making and keeping these goals. When I get home I want you all to hold me to making goals every week and day!
Barracks:
I found more mold, and after about a half an hour of confusion my doriyo now knows what bleach is and that I want some!! hahaha all will be healthy and well in nagamachi soon!
This is the church we go to every week, it's the biggest ward in the mission but I think there is a bigger chapel somewhere else. It's super tiny compared to like rose street but it is very functional and clean and nice.
This is the church we go to every week, it's the biggest ward in the mission but I think there is a bigger chapel somewhere else. It's super tiny compared to like rose street but it is very functional and clean and nice.
Update on the family at church:
So pretty much my doriyo is a stud! They played with a piece of string tieing and untieing knots for like half an hour! Then he ran out of interest and I sacrificed a pen to him. (we bought a supply of cheap pans just for this purpose) he ate it!! cruch crunch cruch! I was afraid he would choke or break his teeth on really hard plastic but his parents and takeshita choro just smiled and cooed! I mean he is cute, but I don't want him to die!! I don't know, his parents were able to pay attention and that was soooo cool! He is sooo cute too. Handsome cuss and he had really good teeth.. had. I will keep you posted.
Funny story! woot woot! refer to next e-mail i want to attach a pic
what else do you guys want to hear about?
Ok so it finally happened. My Japanese is really bad, one of the worst in the whole mission, but I am always really careful and just talk my way around a lot of difficult grammar to get across what I want to say so I am actually pretty safe in the lessons. As far as I know this is the first relay big "oh carp" moment. (my companion is Japanese so I am pretty sure this is the first).
Ok so it finally happened. My Japanese is really bad, one of the worst in the whole mission, but I am always really careful and just talk my way around a lot of difficult grammar to get across what I want to say so I am actually pretty safe in the lessons. As far as I know this is the first relay big "oh carp" moment. (my companion is Japanese so I am pretty sure this is the first).
So the lesson was the plan of salvation. We were teaching it to a member for practice for me and a good review for him. I had a basic plan for what I wanted to do but as we started I thought ``I should teach with an analogy! Jesus taught with them and he was the ultimate teacher so I should too!`` and I thought of this perfect one for the plan of salvation. This is what I thought I taught in a nut shell:
There is this pilot. The best pilot in the world (God) who has a ton of children (us) and
all his children want to also become awesome pilots. This pilot is a super father so he wants his children to have their dream so he makes a plan for them to become pilots.
First he sends them to pilot school. At pilot school they all need to be able to learn how to fly so he gives them a little airplane to use. The teacher and leader (who they can be able to get a pilot license through) is the teacher (Jesus Christ) who is also an awesome pilot. Every one will graduate from pilot school and because the teacher works so hard he can buy every single one of them a sleek new jet airplane. But just because everyone went all the way through class (died) doesn't mean everyone is a good pilot. They had to learn and come to the teacher for help. So after the best students will all become super good pilots like there dad (celestial), the okish ones that didn't learn how to fly but learned a little about airplanes will work at the air port (terrestrial),
the bad ones, the drop outs, all they will get is a boat.
Cute. simple, and a nice little tool, right? You need to remember the man I am teaching is a full member and knows the plan of salvation really well! so remember how this idea just came to me in the middle of the lesson? I didn't know how to say pilot but I knew most of the rest so I said ``takeshita choro, pilot はにほんごでなんといいますか?`` (how do you say pilot in Japanese?) he answered me. (his English is pretty stinking good and he knows the english word more then half the time. So he told me the word that I used for the rest of the lesson.
Now there is something you need to know. Anyone who has been around a lot of Japanese people might already see it... I forgot it. To Japanese the sound L and R and pretty much impossible to hear the difference. Pirate. I said pirate so a 45 minute lesson. I called God a pirate people. uhhh... if you want a good laugh I want you to go back and read the whole lesson again with the word pirate instead of pilot and only change the word pilot! it is super confusing! I didn't realize the mistake until that night when I was making my new vocab words and I looked up pilot in my dictionary!
See you all have awesome lives! Serve each other for me!
Much love,
Law Choro
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