1153 Hours Nippon
 
Konichiwa minasan!
So we had a fabulous week this week with the best numbers I have ever reported so we are pretty excited about that and life is just genki here!
 
Culture Point:
So I have been wanting to share this one for a long time but other things seemed more important all the time! It's very short, it's just one word, but every time I say it I just laugh and laugh and smile for like 10 minutes. The natural translation is "cry baby" like a sissy, or woos. But the word is nakimushi. naki means to cry just like in English but mushi is bug! So you call them a crybug! It's soooo funny! I use it at least once a day.
 
Fun Food Fact:
So in the states there is Mexican food everywhere, pretty much any town with two restaurants in it one of them will be Mexican. So we understand the concept of taking in our neighbors food type and having it really become our culture. So the same thing happens in Asia. One food that is kinda big in the culture is called kimuchi. It is actually Korean and is sold everywhere, you can almost eat it with anything that has meat and rice or noodles, and people just make it sometimes too. It is red and primarily consists of pickled cabbage and little pepper things. It's technically a spicy food but it doesn't like kill you. You normally eat it cold on the side of things like a bite of it then a bite of rice and meat, but its also very common to mix it into a meat dish. When I first got here I couldn't eat it because it smells so bad. But now I really love it! And I don't think it is like an acquired taste as much as it is being brave and eating with an open mind. Its way good! Very unique taste that compliments things. I guess they have it in the states sometimes but I had never seen anything like it. Another very Korean way to eat it is to take lettuce or cabbage and put some in it then put a piece of yakiniku (strip or barbecued meat) in it and eat it like a little taco. I feel super cultured when I do that!
 
Spiritual Thought:
So I gave a talk in church on Sunday and I want to share the theme! If anyone reading this hasn't read the Book of Mormon or doesn't have a copy you have to get one and check this out because its a way good story and will make my thought way more interesting. It's in the very first book called first Nephi and it's the very first 5 chapters. It will take you 30 minutes to read max and it's full of fire from heaven, blood, ethical delema, and the power of God. All in five easy to understand chapters... please check it out.
 - After you read:
So when I read this (it was my assigned theme for my talk) I thought of two different situations in it with the same principle. The first people are Nephi and his brothers. The 4 of them were in the exact same situation. They were commanded the same task and had the same ability and all 4 of them did it the same amount. (Laman made a solo attempt too)  but they did one thing different and so their results were all very different. Nephi and Sam trusted in the Lord and Laman and Lemual didn't. Then the first was happy and had patience in trails, and was not as stressed, and had faith which gave him success. While the latter were scared miserable, committed sin, got chastised by an angel, saw failure with no success. Same exact situation. The only difference was Nephi had prayed to the Lord to know what was right and then had the trust in Him after. Which life experience do we want? the exact same thing happens to the parents of these boys in chapter 5 verse one and two. Lehi is at peace while they are gone and Sariah just has a horrible time. But they are in the exact same situation. One of them had just taken it to the Lord and trusted in him while the other did not. I am so full of the same mistake Leman and Sariah made but I have done like Nephi a couple times and I testify that the latter is the happier path. We can read the scriptures and listen to the true prophet of God today and know His will, then pray about it so we can know enough to trust in him, and that he will take care of us.
 
 
 These are the district leaders in my zone
This is the person I told you the crazy story about finding. She came to church because I told her I would being speaking and she had pity on me! (we will get her come for normal church someday!)
 
Funny Story:
So anyone that went out with me a lot to restaurants knows I hate the idea of making a poor choice. So I either take forever or a lot of the times I just ask the waiter or cashier what the best one is, make them give me a strait answer then order it. About 30 percent of the time their answer is total crap but I can keep my pride and blame it on them so all is well. sS I actually made this habit my every time thing in japan because I want to become a nihonjin. Most of the time they try and give me like the basic of the basic but I tell them to give me the most exciting delicious Japanese one. It works great for me and the waiters get all excited and nervous. Well... we went on a little outing to this far away town that had some people I didn't know and its not important at all, but when we were coming home there was this little tourist place of a like 200 year old farm house and barn and on the property for the tourists was this little homemade ice cream place (sounds like America I know but it was still very Japanese). So we go up and of course they have all the classic odd ice cream flavors like sesame and corn and tea and then they had some blackberry and strawberry and such... so many! So I did the classic give me the most exciting delicious one and she like thinks and thinks and I am like "I can handle anything" so she gets all confident and says "this is for sure the most delicious of the delicious" I am getting all excited. She dips into this untouched white bin that has its name in English unlike the others and the name is "Georgia white" oh boy... Georgia white!! I am thinking of all the delicious things it could be and getting all excited. Milk - that was the flavor. Like I don't even think there was cream in this stuff, it tasted like Japanese milk. Weak sauce. I was so disappointed in that little scooper lady. Breinholt choro just laughed as he ate some way good fruity thing. Lesson learned: when you are as advanced an ice cream eater as myself you don't trust someone just because they are wearing an apron and are holding a scoop.
 
May you learn from my mistakes and love each other!
Law Choro