January 19, 2014 Letter

A different Iceland 1102 hours

 

Transfers:

It's that time of the 6 week period and this time the phone call did come and in a big way for our apartment. The Misawa boys are splitting up (I'm John Lennon if you were wondering). Elder Breinholt is going to Iwaki which is the farthest south in the mission as you can go (he is looking at like an 8 hour bus experience). Elder Kawamura is going to Aomori which is as far north as you can go (one district up from us). So me and Elder Anderson are eternal roommates (I think he might being praying for patience so God just keeps him living with me so he has to exercise it... ;-)). My new companions name is Elder Manz and he is a total boss! He is like 5'5", 100 pounds maybe, and way genki! He is an American from Smithfield Utah who is a stud snowboarder. Some have said he looks a little like Malfoy from the first movie.. I don't really see it. He is from the same doki as Elder Breinholt so he is one transfer younger then me. Elder Anderson's companion is named Ida choro and he is Nihonjin. We are going to dominate this place!

 

Culture point:

Calligraphy.On New Year's another big tradition is you write calligraphy on these long sheets of papers. The idea is you make a New Year's goal and you write it beautifully on the paper and then you post it up so you remember to do it. Kawamura choro bought us a ton of paper, brushes, ink, inkwells, paper holders, practice paper, mats, and ink grinders and taught us how! You pour the ink in the well and take this little piece of stone and kind of grind the stone and the inkwell together and the ink will get darker and smoother. Then you lay out your paper on the mat and put a weight on the top of the paper. Next you take your brush and get it wet kind of like you are painting but with more ink then normal painting would have. Finally you write. It's interesting because I feel like in beautiful English writing someone that is skilled would write very "correctly" and with consistency and uniformity; but in calligraphy it is very much an art and its all about the ending beauty. I don't want to cheapen calligraphy but it's kind of like graffiti style writing where you change the shape of the letter to make it beautiful. It's waaaaay hard! hahaha! We all wrote like a hundred things and were all proud and showing Elder Kawamura but I guaranty it was like a 5 year old writing their name and showing mom and dad! But we did improve! It's hard because you do not go back and fix a stroke once it is made, you get one chance. But it was sooo fun!

 

Fun Food Fact:

I am so sorry Father.... but I might have had the best fish I have ever eaten in my life. This isn't very common in Japan (according to Elder Kawamura) but there is a man that takes big fillets of fish and roasts them on sticks at the train station and its sooooooo good! I finally took a picture and will attach it! Just fire fish and love. It is sooo good for some reason (I really think it is just the quality of the meat) and it's super cheep! 300 yen!

 

Spiritual Thought:

I have really been trying to get rid of my habits that's take me further from God. Any unclean thought, never being snappy or uncaring to the missionary I always work with, ungrateful or judgmental thoughts, grumpy and lazy complaining thoughts. These are really the hardest of the hard for me and I tried all these different ways with setting goals: I would read every day, praying for the strength in every prayer, and giving myself rewards or punishments if I did or didn't do it. That all helped but I still had a pretty serious problem with one or two of them. I think everyone has one or two favorite sins that they just cant seem to let go of and when they do they tend to dwell on them or want them and its hard to not give in! At least for me. I found a scripture that has had more power for me then I ever would have thought; it's in the Book of Mormon on page 432 verse 30. "for it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things wherein ye will take up your cross than that ye should be cast into hell." My thought is: Christ has gone through every temptation, and so He knows it's hard and knows its tempting. But He also knows the presence of the Father and how great it is. If we can just not do it and when the bad thought comes just toss it away for the sake of not wanting that stress. We know there is a happier path in this life. Just toss it away and move onto something that matters because that thought is not worth it. May we all find joy and help others find it as well.
 

Funny Story:

Everyone remembers the older sister in the branch that got after Elder Breinholt? Well yesterday she made us lunch again at church. She made us mazegohan (I will talk about that maybe next week) but it's like rice and other food mixed. She tells me to eat it and so of course I go for it with a fork into the pot (I have seen her do it lots of times!) and she freaks out!

"Get a dish you animal!" ouch.....

So I look around and all there is in the kitchen is this little stack of cups and seriously that is it. So I grab one and get ready to scoop it in.

"BAKA!"

That is actually a word that a lot of Americans that watch anime will know. Its very not nice! It's like "stupid, moron, idiot, imbecile..." all put together. (It's actually pretty much just stupid but she yelled it so loud and is Japanese that is gets 100 times stronger.)

I got called a baka by a grandma who is a saint.... life is rough.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

 

p.s. GO SEAHAWKS!!!!!