April 27, 2014 Letter

1049 hours Spring!

It's such great weather here lately and missionary work is on fire!

 

Culture point:

Bread stores. It's funny because we think of Japan as being a place where bread is less popular than in America and it is: but, they have these fun little shops where you walk in and grab a tray and then roam around with a pair of tongs and grab all these different little breads ranging from ￥500 to ￥80 and just pile it higher and higher. It can be hard on your wallet if you like food as much as I do. Then you go pay at the counter and they bag up the bread and you go sit down at a table (normally upstairs in the places I go to) and you enjoy your bread with your friends as lunch! Probably not the most healthy of things when you choose the breads I do but way good!

 

Fun food fact:

Bread. So the bread you make toast out of I explained but the bread at the shops is a little different. Japan has pretty much mastered bread pastries. They look insanely perfect. There is everything from the classic croissants, to French bread, to bread filled with care, to filled with seet beans, to filled with cheese, and bead with vegetables, and others with fruits and some with potatoes in them, some with custard... Melon bread (they call honeydew melon and flavor everything from soda to bread with it) donuts, eggs... put sausages in the bread, ketchup backed into the top of the bread... and it's actually all good! I try all the best looking ones and the weirdest looking ones and it is all great. Also different than America is the bread doesn't need to be warm, like we keep it under warming lamps but they like it warm or cold, no difference.

 

Spiritual thought:

I think of all the goals people have in life, all the problems they want to overcome and the things they want to do. If you truly scraped away all the facades and misconceptions you would end up with a thread that runs through almost every one; I think that common thread  is peace. Peace from guilt and regret, peace or fulfilling potential, peace of worth, peace of safety. I am young and naive and maybe wrong but maybe I am right. I think the opposite of peace, that goal of us all, is fear. 

 

In 1 John 4:18 " there is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear" 

 

I clearly understand that pretty words about loving each other sound nice but with actual way to apply they do us nothing and even make us desensitized to recognizing truth. But I think if we come from this perspective I think it is easier to desire that love for others. It not only pleases God when we love others but in the end it will give us our goal. When we have that desire God promises us that He will give unto us according to our righteous desires (Alma 29:4 page 279). I have been praying for this love and through my own actions attempting to show it, and little by little it has been coming and little by little I am more and more happy. God loves us so He is guiding us.

 

Funny story: 

So I bought this awesome shirt... it's the rakuten! The baseball team of Sendai that won the Japan national championships last year (it was an awesome year for law choro with the seahawks and the rakuten). Anyway, I wore this shirt to a frisbee activity we did at the park and on the way home I ooked really good on my bike wearing it. I said konichiwa to this high school student on the way home and then he stands up and starts chasing us! Since this is Japan I stopped because when people chase you in Japan they are not scary at all because this is Japan... It turns out when he saw a foreigner with a jersey on as buff as myself he thought for sure I was a player and he wanted my autograph. So instead we took him to the church and played pingpong with him! :-)

 

love each other for me!

Law Choro

April 20, 2014 Letter

The heart of Sendai 1408 hours

 

Konichiwa! It's like being a new missionary again with all the Japanese that is washing over me! I missed it so bad! My companion Elder Keshino is soooo awesome! Right now three words to get the jist of him are: kind, intelligent, and silly. Be excited! I just cleaned the most moldy shower you have ever seen... and it looks like a boss! It had just got a bit behind because everyone is busy but from now on its getting bleached everyday for a month and then every other day from then on. I am stoked with the apartment too!

 

Fun food fact:

Hayashi rice. If you mixed together tomato soup and curry you would have it. It's a bit more sweet then than curry and less rich maybe. It looks almost exactly the same unless you are lucky and have some fresh tomatoes that you throw in. I crave and love tomatoes all the time now... its so odd.

 

Culture point:

Ohanami! So to makes it polite or honorific, hana is flower and miru is to see so it means going and looking at cherry blossoms! The trees are sooooo pretty! They are everywhere, not only in huge parks where you feel like you came into a pink flower jungle, but also just in peoples yards and on the sidewalk and by the road and at the train station. It's beautiful! At the parks the people just come from everywhere and have picnics! You bring a tarp and food and sake and some Frisbees or balls and they just sit amidst the beauty and have a good time with friends and family! So fun! In fact its so fun that I really didn't have the strength to take pictures... and all the pictures I took don't do it justice... probably google is the way to go.

 

Spiritual thought:

I was talking with one of the elders in the apartment about restarts the other night. The chance to kind of clean slate, set new goals, get rid of old problems, and the joy and freedom that brings. In my limited experience there are two real ways to do that. The first is to take a day and do it, whether its moving to a new town, a new baby, someone dies, new years... big things. That's awesome and really effective I think but impossible to do every week let alone every day. I want that feeling everyday personally, that freshness and clarity, smoothing to give me hope and drive. God wants us to be happy so he gave us a way with prayer. When we talk to God heart to heart, tell Him the good and look at the bad with Him and decide how we will change into what He wants us to become we truly can. All of His commandments are for our benefit.

 

Funny story:

So there is an eight year old in the ward here that is getting baptized next Saturday. His name is Towakun. It's kinda cultural in Japan that before a kid gets baptized they have a lesson with the missionaries (there parents actually teach them everything but its a way to maybe get it one more time from a source that is kinda special so it sinks in just that much more). So Elder keshino puts together this amazing lesson so that he can get the wow factor and maybe make the principles really stick in his heart. He wants to do a object lesson where at the end he writes all over his shirt and then says it's sin and then takes off that shirt and has a clean one under and that is after baptism. Great idea I think! He wears two shirts to church just sweating like a dog and his collar looked super weird all day... then the lesson comes! We go through the scriptures, we go through the comic we made for him, we talk about the relationship in his life, and he is just being a little business man, super professional and has all the right answers (and we are doing are best to amaze him into explanations of wonder) nothing... but we brought the secret weapon so I was not worried at all. So keshino choro starts in and draws this long purple line up his right arm.... that got a raised eyebrow..

 "is that washable pen?"

"no."

the chills....

Then he proceeds to draw all over his beautiful white button up shirt. (it actually had a big curry stain on the front but towakun didn't know that)

and so the excitement kinda dies and he isn't flabbergasted at all..

but then keshino choro is like

"but through baptism..." and just rips that shirt right open and emerges a beautiful clean man. (it was the most insane display of violence and flying buttons I have ever seen in my life, let alone a Japanese person..)

and you know what towakun said?

"i think we need to pick up all the buttons.."

8 year olds are a tuff act.

 

love each other for me!

Law Choro

April 13, 2014 Letter

1305 hours my favorite place ever!

 

Transfers... (do that sound dad makes when you hit all the coordinates on one of someone's ships in battleship) I am leaving my beloved Misawa... I am headed back to the heart of Sendai but this time I will be as big as it gets right next to the big train station. It's called Kamisugi. My companion will be a few transfers ahead of me and his name is Keshino choro. I know him kinda and he is awesome! Having a Japanese companion is part of the silver the lining to the cloud and I am now a zone leader so I get to go sometimes and do missionary work in Nagamachi!!!!! (my first area) so all is well!

 

Food fact:

Sakura tea! Sakura are the cherry blossoms (still waiting for the fresh ones) but one thing that is done is they take the blossoms and salt them and then you put it in hot water on special occasions and they like bloom in the water and you drink them! (it wasn't a special occasion but kimura san made us some because she is awesome) its like a really salty cherry taste! And you drink the flower! So fun and pretty pretty.

 

Culture fact: 

Tea. There is so much I could talk about with tea culture but one thing I learned recently was about the cups. On the inside of the fancy cups like the inner rim is sometimes painted a flower or leaf or ssomething pretty. And when you fill up the tea and give it to your guest you make sure the flower is on the side of the cup closest to you so that they can see it when you give it to them. and then when you finish the tea you turn the cup to face them and say how wonderful it was and thank you... kinda fun!

 

Spiritual thought:

I really loved conference this weekend! (we watch it the next weekend) and i especially loved the talk by the prophet Thomas S. Monson about having the courage to do what is right. no matter the pressure from friends and family, from politics and popular opinion from our own pride and lusts... just to have the courage to do what is right because we love our god. I think that is simple but it really have given me a little extra umph when the moment comes to choose the best or choose something else... i recommend watching it if you have a few minutes i promise it will impact and have relevance in your life because he is the mouthpiece of the lord to his people today. 

 

Funny story:

so there is so prepping this story but our favorite sister in the world ate lunch with us at a different members house (it was soooo good) and then we all left on the way home. and on the way down the hill she is a little older and has a cane normaly and it was a pretty steep hill so she told elder mantz to help her and they held hands all the way down the hill. like its so natural and a good thing to do that we would do every time but it was just so cute and in the spur of the moment and she just teased him the whole time that is like made me smile for days after! i am getting all not wanting to transfer just thinking about it... ahh! god is good!
 

Love each other for me!

Law CHoro