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.
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