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
No comments:
Post a Comment