From the sister city of Wenatchee Washington (seriously that is true) 0239 hours
Exciting Purchases:
I bought a sick camera!! It's pretty much the twin of my trainer's Elder Takeshita. It's a CANON powershot S110 way small way awesome! And it even has an English mode! So now you will continue to get to see pictures. I will try to only be in half of them to make them better for you!
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| We are so spoiled! We got to play basketball on the base. |
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| These are my apartment missionaries. |
This one is from Moma bear: "what are the rules for bowing?"
Great question. Hand shakes are weird. Because I am American I can get away with it but unless you are in the church handshakes are weird. But bowing doesn't replace the hand shake, its not so formal and final and clear cut as a handshake. Different people bow different amounts of the time but I will give you when I bow (and I bow pretty close to accurate because I really watched the native companions I had). You bow when you are flattered, grateful, might slightly interrupt what someone is doing, or you are leaving.. and its not like "I am leaving now, let us bow to each other and then depart. It normally works like we are leaving there house and you don't turn your back to them and you shuffle out as you find your shoes and you say arigatogozaimasu over and over (like at least 10 times back and forth to each other) and you kind of half bow a ton as you slowly walk out of the door. Bows have all different sort of stages. Rarely do you like go all the way bent in half unless you are an employee bowing to a patron to thank them. It's fun and full of respect and makes everyone feel thankful and you feel others people thankfulness (at least I do but I didn't grow up doing it).
Our mission mom's blind gift exchange present. She wouldn't put on the mask.
My favorite trainer! He is my zoneleader now.
Fun Food Fact:
Pickled radish. It's not actually a radish but it tastes like one raw. It looks like a HUGE white carrot in its most natural state and is called a daikon. It is funny though because you see it two places. The first is boiled in miso soup and you would swear it is a potato. Or you see it pickled and grated or diced and served as a side to eat in small amounts with meat and rice (normally fish). But they are in every store and you eat them all the time but I don't ever remember seeing them in the states! Cheap and filling. If you make miso soup I recommend them. The pickled version is interesting, I used to just wolf it down first and then drink a bunch of water (you have to eat everything on your plate) and then enjoy my meal. That way it is not very good. But when you actually do it in little bits with the rest of the meal it is actually not so bad. I can at least now understand it.
Spiritual Thought:
I remember when I was like 8 years old I got into this huge debate (it seemed huge in my mind but I doubt he remembers it) with my father. I didn't even start it he did. He said "Cameron, did you know that is no darkness?" and of course I came full charging in telling him that I experienced it all the time and that I knew for a fact there was, and that we had seen it together and so on... Then he explained that perhaps there was "only absence of light" and that shut me up. And it stuck to my little 8 year old mind. It kind of changed how I see things.
So i had a thought on my bike the other night: perhaps there is no sin, misery, hopelessness... "only the absence of God". My thought is this: that God is always there in his perfect, loving, infinite Glory. He is the light and we can choose whether to come to the light or walk away, let the rays hit our face, or block it with something between us and the light. We are all perfect and perhaps the terrain we walk takes us down a valley that makes it a little darker for a bit but you still know where the light is. And if you look off in the darkness and see a glittering of light do not be deceived, binding chains of metal can reflect the light a little but I promise they are cold. If you cant tell which is the metal and which is the Lord call out to Him and He will answer! I know He answers prayer. I know it.
Funny Story:
So this one is a bit old... it took place in Nagamachi with me and Elder Anderson (we had a lot of adventures). Every week as missionaries we try and do a service project that helps someone out in a physical needs type of way. Elder Anderson and I had no real plans on what to do so when we got a phone call from a sister in the ward to ask if we could help out at the retirement home with some of the older folks that needed a little help we were all on board! I kind of figured they needed some weeding or some songs sang or just someone to talk to, to mix it up in there! I figured a little American speaking bad Japanese would lift there spirits to see that at least their situation wasn't as bad as this pathetic chap... something like that. So after traveling about 2 hours by bike we get to this place and are directed to this little rec house type thing between all the big buildings. "ahh... we are going to help with some Japanese crafts!" i think. But as we get closer I start to here the music.... its the workout dance that everyone knows! Exercise! Wow.. well i can do exercise... and we just through our bags in the corner and go to town copying everyone else. When it finished they through in this elderly person workout video and we did that for 10 minutes (I would kill to know where to find this video to show you guys but it was very unique..."). Then we all settle down and they direct us to a table on one side of the room (when you are a foreigner people assume that you cant understand anything so they don't really tell you much they just direct you around). So we are assigned our seat (they knew who we were) and we are on the side with all the young ladies in aprons.... what on earth? and then they give me two bottles.. not water.. I open and smell them. Lavender and in the other is orange and mint... like fragrance oil... then they give us the paper. A little Japanese but mostly pictures and those I understood. "How to give hand massages." Elder Anderson leans over, "where are we?" right as our first customer plops down. It was about an hour long. I got a blue hand made scarf from America and a set of skills my wife will love (they actually hooked us up with a legit teacher and professional) but I have to say that was one of the oddest experience of my life. I probably broke 10 mission rules doing it but we were trapped... all's well!
Love each other for me!
Life is awesome!!
Law Choro
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