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
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