June 29, 2014 Letter

0822 hours THE RAINY SEASON

Actually, this has been a really light rainy season. Rainy season is called tsuyu and it lasts in Sendai about all of June and a little of July, normally. But, it has been pretty mild compared to last year. :-)

Culture Point

 

My companion did Kendo before the mission and he explained it to me the other day. It’s super cool.  You fight one on one and if you strike your opponent in the wrist, stomach or head it’s a point.  The first to 2 wins. In order to have a good strike you have to

1. Move your whole body (legs)

2. Hit the spot with the sword

3. Yell with your voice

The idea is to become united in all three.  You meditate before every practice. Super cool!

Fun Food Fact

Cherries:  So all of those blossoms turned into delicious fruit. (not all but the little fruit bearing trees did) and they are so good and famous! Pretty expensive to buy if you are a poor 19 year old but when you have nice friends, you will be a happy camper! (and don’t worry, you don’t peel cherries!)

Spiritual Thought

Our beloved Ramussen Kaicho (previous mission president) is back in America and we have our new Smith Kaicho. (the new leader of all the missionaries in northern part of Honshu) we haven’t met him yet, but I hear he and his wife are total studs so we are excited. The last assignment I received from Rasmussen Kaicho was the same one he gave my entire area. He asked us to read Beware of Pride by President Benson. I would challenge you all to read it.  I testify that if you are prideful you are not as happy as you could be and if you are humble you can find happiness. At in my life, that’s what I have found so far.

Funny Story

So, if you go way back in my letters I think I once told you about a Hayachi Shimai. She was a missionary that came into my first area my last transfer there and she was so funny!  She is actually a few years older than me but she look about 14 and is just so kind and just a little angle. Anyway, she is in my District again and when we had a musical night, I laughed harder than I have ever laughed in my whole mission and I don’t really know why but I had forgot all my music for the rehearsal but it didn’t really matter because I don’t really sing anyway. But somehow in all the mix up I was reading the lyrics to a song and then they rush us up to the front and the piano starts because a guest came and wanted to hear that song.  As I was singing it, I realized that I didn’t bring my music so whose music was this.... and then I start looking around and everyone has a paper to sing from... what the heck.. but then I look a little closer and Hayashi Shimai just has this random sheet of paper she is pretending to read.  She had like been too kind and shy to ask who stole her paper or that she couldn’t find hers and was just bluffing. I don’t know why but I just died in the middle of the song... and ruined everything.. it’s not that funny but it was good hard laugh.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

June 23, 2014 Picture Update

June 23, 2014 letter

1828 Hours Somewhere in the West Pacific

Fun Food Fact

Cabbage: I have grown to love cabbage since I came here. The funny thing is a cabbage can run you anywhere from 3-5 bucks which is more than I would have thought.  But I buy it because it’s still way cheap compared to most stuff and it is way good to put in anything raw or cooked! My favorite thing to do with it is chop it up really tiny then boil it for a few minutes then rinse it in cold water and put it in the fridge.  I eat it with a salty chicken soy sauce based dish on rice. So oishii!

Culture Point:

So, I think I have talked about this before, but the words in Japanese for ``you`` are slightly rude. If you have heard someone’s name, then it is pretty rude unless it’s like a really close friend. You can say “anata” if you just met them and of course no one will even blink. But if they can, I’ve noticed thy almost always avoid it. There are a lot of ways to avoid it, but my favorite is they call you by a rank in a family. For example, when people don’t know my name and they don’t know I am a missionary, they call me “onisan,” which is the word for older brother. When I meet a man on the street and I ask him if that is his bike, I say is that “father’s” bike? and so on! grandma, sister, mom, you use anything! I think it’s pretty cool.

Spiritual Thought

Something I thought was very insightful was a talk I read by Elder Bednar (Pray Always) about how every time we pray it is a continuation of our last pray, or to say it better it is connected to our prayers before.  That just like when we pick up the phone to call mom in the morning and then call her again that night, she remembers what we talked about in the morning and so that is how we should talk to her. I really liked that and I think it is true.  We know God is listening and wants to answer our prayers. Let us not forget that relationship. It’s been very helpful to me. It makes me more responsible and is helping build my relationship with God.

Funny Story

You can’t bake in the apartment we are in now. There is just a stove top, a dinosaur of a microwave, and a small toaster oven that you can make two pieces of toast in. (I eat two every morning). Fresh baked goods are therefore a bit of a treasure. So when we found out there was a store making and selling muffins every morning we all got way stoked!! (and paid way too much money for one muffin a piece) We were just having a ball about this. But when we got to the church, Zone Conference started and we got really busy. We had a bunch of meetings after and then a little mishap occurred and it ended up being late in the night by the time we got home. Our beloved Simonsen and Willey choro had been kind enough to wait for us to eat their muffin.  So we get in the apartment and first we need to do some planning. Then it is muffin feasting time! So we are being all spiritual and trying to do a really good planning session and I hear the other Elders come out of their cave and start roaming around the kitchen. (this is about 9:45 at night) and then all of the sudden I hear this howling. If you mixed an baboon call and a small giggle you would have the sound I heard. So I rush into the kitchen ready to fight for someone’s life and at first I was a little confused because the lighting was all off.. like a little too bright for that time of night and a little too orange... then I see these two black silhouettes in the corner by the before mentioned toaster oven. (this is the area the sound was coming from. What was happening is they were trying to blow as hard as they could while having a giggle fit. They were laughing because I think they saw that muffin video on You Tube after the newspaper muffin, and they were blowing because of the old testament style pillar of fire that was coming out of the top of elder Willey’s "strawberry milk muffin.`` All ended well when I added my huff to the fire brigade. The lesson learned by Elder Willey was not to put paper in the toaster oven.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

June 15, 2014 Letter

0845 hours Northern Honshu

Konichiwa! It's a beautiful day everyone because I am an uncle again!!! Woot Woooot! She is so cute!!! Her name is Adalee Marie Bare. She was born June 13, 2014 at 5:30pm in West Des Moines Iowa weighing 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 19.75 inches long.

 

My sister Christine, brother-in-law Nick, and little nieces Mikilah and Adalee

Fun Food Fact

Uni! I finally ate it a couple weeks ago! It is sea urchin. It's bright orange and comes on a very strong smelling leaf. It is super slimy and slightly chewy, it's weird... kinda like a raw egg and peach's texture mixed together and got a bit stronger. Haha! Everyone says it tastes bad but I thought it didn't have much taste at all; the leaf was much stronger. But in the end I am way glad I ate it for the story but will not be eating it again not because of the taste but because it was way expensive!

 

Culture Point

Mega rock paper scissors! It has no name in Japanese so I gave it that name, but I play this with all the 7 year olds in the ward and its so funny! So first off they use saishogu jyanken pon! then you through out gu pa or choki (which is the same are rock paper scissors). Then to play the mega way whoever wins says 5 of these different lines then points at the persons face and then points either down, right, left, or up at the same time as the person who lost turns their head one of the four ways. If they match up then the person who pointed gets to do whatever they said. The punishments range from a karate chop to the top of the head, to an indian burn, to a weak two finger slap to the wrist, to the special of the punisher... mostly it doesnt hurt at all... especially when you are 5 times bigger then the person you face. But it's fun!

 

Spiritual Thought

I have a sincere testimony that talking bad about people regardless of if it is true or how innocent it seems will lead to no good. And I have a testimony that when you say lots of good true things about someone it will help you be more grateful, more humble, more able to see the beauty in the world, and therefore more able to build a relationship with God and become happier. It's all about the true and happier perspective.
 

Funny Story

God loves me. This morning we were down to one egg and so the breakfast I have eaten almost everyday for the past year was not an option. I remembered the Iida choro special with the peanut butter and honey egg sandwhich and I wanted to freak out Elder Simonsen who is not a fan of weird Japan foods (i love him). So I scrape out the little peanut butter jar. A couple weeks ago when I cleaned out the shelves I found some honey somone's mom had sent them years ago and it was like solid crystal. I through the bottle in the microwave and started getting the rest together. But I had two pieces of toast and only one egg so I went to the fridge to grab the jam and the lid was like jammed shut! One pop turn lid was threaded wrong and I couldnt get it off! First time in my life I couldn't get a lid off! ;-) So I grabbed a rag and got it off which took an extra 5 seconds. Then I go to the microwave that beeped 3 seconds prior and when my hand is like a foot from the door this bomb goes off inside it! I jumped so high! When I opened it up it looked like whiney the pooh had had a plastic melting party in the microwave. The good news was at the bottom was enough honey to get me egg. My face was saved (the microwave is right at face level on top of the fridge) from being uglier then it is now.

 

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

June 8, 2014 Letter

1034 hours Uppercedar

So I am way genki lately. We got a few meetings out of the way and have a bit to focus on the fun stuff like missionary work! ;-) I set some solid goals for the first time in months and am excited to progress from here. In transfers last week we received Elder Willey and lost Elder McClennan. Instead of food and culture I am going to give you an apartment update.

 

McClellan is from Southern California. He served in Misawa for a long time at the beginning of his mission and so we spend many a conversation talking about the people we both knew from there. He loves spicy Asian food. In my opinion he has the best Japanese in the mission... and his ability to write kanji is way insane. I learned a ton from him both of faith in planning, patience, and Japanese!

 

Simonsen choro. He played basketball at snow college for two year, is 6'4", 200 pounds, dunks like a beast, plays any sport like a stud, is always trying to get beat up by me, and doesn't like nato at all. He is 21 and has been in the mission for about 8 months. I teach him everything he knows. Hahah! He is just super chill and can make a friend instantly with any male between the ages of 17-30. His Japanese is really good and he has an interesting perspective on life. I really appreciate his sense of priorities and his laugh. When I need something done and don't want to explain very much I ask him.

 

Willey choro is our new district leader! The funny thing with him is I have kind of watched him grow up; I was the first person that gave him Japanese money on his first day in Japan and told him where to get food. Then I was in his zone when he started becoming a senior companion. He is from Utah and does competitive ski races, long distance running, bike racing, rock climbing and yoga. He wants to go into environmental sciences. He is a little younger then me but has built a solar powered small house. He also bought a 600 dollar Japanese shamisan, which is like a little guitar thing please YouTube some of that music, it makes me smile so big every time I see it in the apartment. He has no idea how he is going to learn it. I appreciate his strength of character and his knowledge of a lot of cool stuff. 

 

Keshino choro. As missionaries we hear a lot of scripture in the opposite language of ours so we learn a lot of funny words... so he calls me his beloved companion. He is the most touchy Japanese person I have ever seen. He loves basketball and rubics cube. He asks the most soul searching questions I have ever heard and He does it with more love then anyone you have ever seen. His favorite foods are takoyaki (octopus balls) and okonomiyaki (cabbage pancakes) but when you ask him and he gives you those answers he explains that while his does enjoy the taste of both the reason he likes them is because both are super fun to make. He is the only missionary I have seen that breaks more rules than me when it comes to playing with kids... he loves kids! bd3543@myldsmail.net is his e-mail if you want to ask him anything (you totally should because he can read English like a beast).

Spiritual Thought:

Something I have been studying a lot is how to find desire. I feel my whole life I have been able to get fire just from the fact that I think it out and the best way is to follow God, no matter how hard it may sometimes be. But lately I have seen people see the path perfectly clear and still not be able to find the drive to walk it, sometimes even the desire to walk it. They desire the happiness at the end, but the walk doesn't feel worth it. Speaking frankly I for the first time in life felt the fire start to wink out a bit. I didn't get way down or anything, but for the first time when I started to kind of get lazy I said wait lets fix this! Then when I searched for what I wanted to do to improve I found no answer. I don't really want to do anything... and I had no idea what to do from there. All the natural things that give you desire require work and if you don't want to work you are stuck in a escapeless pit. But luckily I was curious about why I felt that way so I studied it a bit. I found that the way others overcame this problem was to build a relationship with God. While I think prayer is the best way... the thing that truly found my relationship was beauty in the world from God. It gave me hope and something to fight for. Little kids, rain, sun, music, innocent laughs, really bad food, really good food... color and beauty. It made me feel Him there again, and I can fight for what He stands for. It's just we have to feel that appreciation for what He stands for.

 

Funny story:

It was a hot spring afternoon on the cost of Northern Japan. I was on a stroll through some famous temples in a place called Matsushima. The sun was shining, the trees were green, and the breeze was light. Many a folk were out for a walk that day. Because I was in such a good mood (the fact that i was in a good mood actually changes nothing I always do this anyway) I found the little ice cream shop that was there. As I scanned the long list of flavors I saw some winners... but as I thought of my posterity and how I want to brag about how brave I was in the far east, i chose the most wild. Jelly................

fish. Jellyfish ice cream. And because this is Japan I knew that is wasn't going to be flavoring of jelly fish it was jellyfish in ice cream. All the people in line kind of gasp and whisper as I boldly declare this to the waiter ``kurage!``. You have to understand normal Japanese people don't get the weird flavors either and everyone was way surprised that there was even such a flavor. So I get the cone, it looks kind of like the put a jellyfish in a blender then dumped that into a kitchen aid with vanilla ice cream and mixed for a bit. I draw all the ears of the Japanese moms as I explain how brave and cool I am to my companion and he takes a few pictures. There is like 10 moms watching me. Then Elder Keshino tells me to take a bite and see if the 400 yen was worth it. I take a little nibble and just give out this little bark of pain and all those moms jump about 10 feet in the air and start freaking out like the jellyfish stingers were still hot... but i was just teasing! It tasted exactly like the description I gave in the top: mostly like vanilla ice cream but with chewy chunks... but I made some friends from them laughing and telling me I am a jerk.

 

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

June 1, 2014 Letter

0900 hours shyawa funiki

It's hot and humid! Summer is here!

This is at the zoo and the sign says "human animals" and then has a way funny description:

 

Fun food fact:

Meron pan. So meron is what we talked about before, honeydew, and pan is bread. The funny thing is that is doesn't taste like melon at all. Keshino choro and I think that is got its name because of the shape it is. It is a bun and varies in size, but the classic size is like slightly smaller then half of a small cantalope. It's like a sweet bread with crunchy outside and a soft inside. I talk about it because if I ever come with anyone here I will make them eat some it's so good! Many a missionary's belt size have gone up a few sizes because of this stuff... but if you ever come ask for some!

 

Culture point:

Hair cuts! So I am pulling my information from a hair stylist from the American base and a hair stylist from the Japanese ward I am in now. For boys' hair when we cut it in the states normally you use buzzers and scissors. When you use the scissors you slide in two fingers pull the hair straight and then cut and continue, staying the same length or slowly getting longer or shorter but always using you fingers as kind of a reference point. Well, they do that same haircut in Japan but most of the time for Japanese guys that might buzzer the side like we do; but they have that cool spiky hair so that just kind or like jab in the scissors to the top of your hair and cut cut and kind of look at it and feel then the jab cut jab cut... like it looks so random and dangerous! Then they thin you hair out so much so you can have cool spikes! haha! The hair stylists are waaay good though!

Spiritual thought:

Sometimes I think that hardest thing is finding the desire to change. The strength to want to overcome and move on. It is easy to hold on the vine that is Christ, but it takes much less energy to rot in the mud on the ground. So I have been thinking a lot about what gives us the desire. What I keep coming back to is desire to become good comes from love. Love from and for God and love from and for others. In order to apply this I think we have to pray. Pray for the strength to see how others need your help, to thank God, and to see your blessings. I think a huge help is if you get involved with kids. That sounds silly but in my personal experience you give me some young kids and I will have the strength to overcome my filthy habits.

 

Funny story. 

So this was one of those planned things. Not so much a prank but more of a funny surprise. I have never in my life felt so much anxiety before hand. Like terror. If you have ever hid to scare your mother you know the feeling I am talking about. Our mission president will be going home in 5 weeks and the members of the church wanted to thank him so they threw a farewell thank you party this weekend. Each congregation did a little something on the stage for him. Some sang spiritual songs, some did traditional Japanese dances, others were funny skits... it was all stuff he liked. Our group did a rakuten fight song. It's the local baseball team that won the national championship last year. Our president is a huge fan of them. We all dressed up in the gear sang the fight song, showed a t.v. clip that president was shown in and then brought them on the stage and gave them a jersey! Then the big surprise.... we trapped him in a circle...

 

There is a Japanese tradition with sports: you throw people up in the air its call douage. Now this is all cute and fun with a tiny little Asian man. But our president is 6`4`` and not a pipsqueak (maybe like president Baker build). The group we are with are a bunch of Japanese guys... strong but not over 150 pounds. I was soo afraid it would all end in tears and flames with president going home 5 weeks early for surgery.

 

So we close in... and you see the realization come in his eyes and then... it actually worked pretty good.. he got at least 8 feet in the air I would say... Three times! so alls well that ends well!

 

Love each other for me! 

Law Choro

May 26, 2014 Letter

1024 hours upper cedar (translation of kamisugi)

This week was awesome!

Fun food fact:

Noodles- We eat a lot of noodles, they are cheap and taste good! Missionary diets include a ton of spaghetti in Japan because it is so incredibly cheap and normal Japanese people eat a decent amount too. The other noodles that are really famous (and more Japanese) are:

ramen (hot)

hiyashi chuka (ramen without soup) (cold)

soba (cold or hot)

yakisoba (they taste so different i am putting both) (hot)

udon (hot or cold)

somen (only cold)

and there are shops for all of these all over the place! So fast and good...Especially when its really hot or really cold outside and you want to eat something to make you feel the opposite.

Culture point:

So, I have been scouting these out for months but I wanted to go into one before I told you about them. They are called tachiguisoba. tachi is standing, gui is eating, and soba is a type of noodle. So these shops are at train stations or airports places where people are commuting and don’t have a lot of time but are hungry. So, you walk up and put in money into a vending machine thing with all sorts or dishes on it, you push the button for the one you want and a card pops out.  You take the card to the kitchen they take it and then in less than a minute you have your dish and you go eat it. But in the restaurant there are no chairs only counters! It’s so fun! hahah so you stand, eat super fast, then bounce! It keeps people moving and is Delicious!

Spiritual thought:

So almost everyone we talk to has never had any experiences with Christianity. Like they have seen famous pictures of Christ and learned about him in history class maybe a little but it’s like asking Americans about Buddha... some people might know a little but not really at all. So we have a lot of great chances to invite others if they would like to come unto their Savoir and partake in the blessings of peace of mind, strength to overcome our weaknesses, and vision that is real truth that comes from applying the atonement. I just wanted to testify that it is all very literal and real. It’s not something that just sounds pretty or focuses our goodwill, it is very much deity.  The plan of our God.  There is the ability to change for the better. I am so thankful the change it had brought in my life and pray for the love to be able to share it with others. It is for every single person if they would like it and if they understand that, will almost always take it.

Funny Story:

So we do a skit once a month for the ward where we demonstrate somehow how we can be better about sharing the gospel. This year’s theme is applying Christ-like attributes in our daily life.  This month we did a good Samaritan in the work place idea, where someone was being talked bad about. That person was a bit hurt. Then, two other people walk in and they are tempted to just let it be, mind their own business and not interrupt.  Or to do as Christ would do and reach out to the down trodden and help the person. I actually really enjoyed the skit. It was all silent except for an organ giving mood music and emotion. In the skit our tempter (his theme music was “Jaws”) was Elder McClanan dressed in a Satan costume with horns and this trident made out of chopsticks and a broom from our apartment. It was great. But after the skit there was a big pot luck type thing (Japanese pot lucks are amazing) but what was funny was the 6-8 year olds all formed an angry mob and beat Elder McClallan with sticks and rocks and fists until he was out of the church! And they were like chanting devils aren’t allowed in Japanese... it was super cute at first then it got pretty ugly... hahaha but we enjoyed it!

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

May 18, 2014 Letter

Today we have a sweet trip planned to Matsushima so it’s going to be quick!

Culture point:

So when European countries started coming over on ships to Japan there was of course a lots of cultural things that got swapped and also with that some language things! So for my father here are some words that we stole from the Portuguese:

kabocha- pumpkin

kappa- rain coat
tenpura- tempura
kasutera- sponge cake

 Fun Food Fact:

I am starting to forget what I have told you guys about... haha how bout I tell you how to make a super Delicious onigiri?! (rice ball that you put in your sack lunch)
- First, you cook rice.
- Then you dice up half an onion and one bell pepper.
- Open two cans of tuna and mix the fish with the vegetables (drain out the water or oil before)
- Add kupi (Japanese mayonnaise but if you don’t have that probably normal will work)
- Next, lay down some plastic wrap and maybe sprinkle some salt on it if you want it salty.
- Next, smear out the rice on the plastic wrap about 1 cm thick. Then, blob some of the fish and vegetables in the middle and carefully wrap it up into a ball or if you are authentic you can do a triangular prism. Lastly, if you have some, wrap it in dried seasoned seaweed and prepare yourself for something very good!

Spiritual thought:

Sometimes it’s easy to love people and other times it’s a lot harder. How do we feel that love for those that it’s a bit harder to love? There is scripture in the Book of Mormon, page 524 verse 48 (Moroni 7:48) that speaking of charity says ``...pray unto the father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love..`` and I took that principle to heart about a year ago and I have prayed that prayer almost every day for the last year. But honestly I don’t know if it was with all the energy of my heart. I wanted it so badly but like I felt love for pretty much every single person around me so it was like asking for a glass or water when it was pouring rain and I could just open my mouth and get a little all the time. But I had an experience where it was a bit harder for me to love someone and quite frankly I was suppose to help them I was worried I might end up punching them instead.. so I got to do that prayer with a bit more energy.. and it’s funny.. It worked out.. I had a little more eternal perspective that gave me the patience and the vision to have a wonderful time with this person.  I do not think God will always give us the fruit but he will give us a step ladder to climb. We can grow if we ask for it.

Funny Story:

So in our training meeting last week, we took a page out of Elder Packer’s book and did an object lesson his wife did where you take a cake and you ask who wants it. Everyone says oh me oh me then you take a handful and just nail someone, then you ask who wants more no one does, you cut a beautiful piece lay it on a plate with a napkin and fork ask who wants it etc.  Point is how we give something is super important. Love is important in inviting. Anyway, that alone was awesome. But there is this Japanese Sister in our zone that is so tiny, so pure, so quiet and so young looking. Everyone loves her! So we called her and prearranged that we were going to nail her. (we would have felt too much guilt) and so when we did it we about started a riot in the Zone meeting. Everyone wanted to kill us because how dare we hit her of all people! I can tell you about it better someday!

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

May 11, 2014 Letter

0729 hours Miyagiken

ohayogozaimasu! (good morning) summer is coming here and I am stoked!

 

 Culture Point:

Mother’s day! Everyone pretty knows about Mother’s Day here. It is not as big of a deal, I think, as it is in the States, but on that day the prices of all carnations triple and the flowers still sell out. So, I think it is safe to say that it is celebrated.  Also, they are a big fan of the ``all the kids get together with dad and do a service project thing.``

 Fun Food Fact:

Mugi.  so I have talked about mugicha before (cha means tea) but I have never really told you about mugi yet.  It’s pretty much oats. Food is kind of funny because sometimes things that we have 6 different types of they call all the same thing - like melon. They call it melon and we call it cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon. We call it ramen, they call it miso, shiyo, tsuke,... that kind of thing.  So I think mugi actually covers wheat, rye, barley, oats ect. But the stuff I am referring to here is the oats. back in the days of the dinosaurs ;-) they used to make the missionaries eat one cup of it every day so that everyone kept the meat on their bones but now we just eat it if we like it or are low on money  (Normally both).  I eat it in the morning with milk as kind of like a cereal. The Japanese do not eat it like that. Elder Keshino says that pretty much the only way people use it is to mix it in with rice to make for cheaper bigger meals.

 Spiritual Thought:

Someone once told me that you are never standing still. It is impossible to wake up, go through your day and never move closer or farther away from God and his influence. I can’t find a scripture that quotes that word for word but I think it is a pretty reliable principle. Every day if you do a little inventory and think, you can see the little changes.  No matter how good you are or how lost you are, everyday you will either take a step forward or backward. It kind of simplifies things down for me when I get confused. I think one of the best ways to make sure we get that positive step is a sincere personal prayer with Him.

Funny Story:

So this story actually comes to us from a mission in the south through my companion. (it brought back to memory a story I heard growing up a lot) there was a sister missionary (American) that fell in love with mugi. she loved the stuff! It was light on the stomach, healthy, fast to make into whatever she wanted. So she would eat mugi every single day. The problem was that eating so much was getting a little expensive.. not horrible but she figured if she was for sure going to eat it she might as well buy it in bulk to save some money. The next time she bought some she bought this giant bag that was way cheaper per the gram than normal because it was so big. Because she had so much, she freely partook of it every day.

As missionaries we are always with another missionary everyday (we call them doryo) so her Japanese doryo noticed some odd changes in the American. She started to put on a little weight. (not so odd in missionaries but kind of different for her.)  then the poor girl started to grow facial hair! that was not as normal. So the doryo checked on the food that the American was eating and found this mugi. When she read the label she found out that it was cattle feed. This feed was packed full of vitamins and minerals and all things fit for strong healthy cows including maybe some growth hormones and steroids... hahahah so she stopped eating it and I guess all is well now!

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

May 4, 2014 Letter

0856 hours kamisugi

ohayo gozaimasu! (good morning)

Culture Point:

Names!! I can’t believe I have never thought about this! So in Japan you have two names. The first one said is called your myoji and is similar to the Western family name. You share the same myoji as your parents and when you get married the female changes her myoji to that of the husband. Typically you have 1-3 kangi in your myoji and normally it is the name of a place, for example elder keshino my companion now is 芥野　that first kanji means poppy flower and the second one means field so his name is poppy field. Takeshita is 竹下　bamboo and the second kanji means under, so under the bamboo... 山本　Yamamoto which is mountain book... and so on. Typically, it’s something to do with an area and the guess is like the family came from that area originally, but sometimes that name doesn’t have such a clear meaning. So the second name you have is called you shita name, and that translates to under name, (because you write up to down) so your second name is like a first name in Japan. I tell people my whole name is law Cameron and if they really know western culture they know I have a middle name and then I tell them it. But if you are over the age of 25 you pretty much will only go by your myoji not your first name. They say san after it. If you are a little kid or young adult, you will probably go by your shita name and put a kun after it if you are a boy and a chan after it if you are a girl. (the little kids here are sooo cute!)

 Fun Food fact:

Something I really like and you see a lot of but doesn’t really have a specific name that I know of is these vegetables that are bowled and have a little bit of vinegar and soy sauce on them. Normally it has like spinach and radishes and lots of really dark green vegetables and I know that sounds kind of slimy and not so yummy but it’s really cold and really light and fresh tasting.. super good!

 Spiritual Thought:

Christ describes baptism as being born again in John chapter 3 and that has really been in my head lately, that we can take the mistakes and imperfections that are with us and we can make a promise with God through baptism that we will do our best to not do them again and then God promises us that we can have the Holy Spirit to be with us so that we can have the strength and guidance we need to return back to him. A clean slate, complete restart and this time with the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. What a wonderful blessing. It’s really the reason I am here, to tell people that God has again given his authority to perform these wonderful ordinances and that anyone that would like to can partake of the fruit here and see for themselves that it is not only amazing but truly from God. If you haven’t been baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or have ever seen a baptism, I really recommend going and checking out a baptism service. They are way neat!

Funny Story:

So, to update you on Ice Cream Flavors, I have eaten raisin rum (super gross), cheese and strawberry (pretty good), caramel salt (not my first time but way good), and something else that was way funny that I forgot!

The funny story this week was me trying to be cool.  We went to a kind of like buffet place where you pay for everything you grab as you grab it (kind of like a Japanese cafeteria, I think) and I wanted to be a big tuff guy so I got the wildest looking fish I could find and some rice and sat down and proceeded to eat. (mostly I did it out of pride to prove to the people that I was pretty Japanese and the other reason I did it was that I love fish) and it was so good! To be extra authentic, I ate all the bones and all the skin and only the tips of the tail and the rock hard part of the head I wasn’t going to eat. (I eat a fish like this pretty much once a week so I was really actually not thinking that much) but then when I got toward the head of the fish on the bottom side I took a big bite and it was all black and slimy and it was sooo gross.. and my companion just started a giggle fit at my reaction.. it’s like where the heart and liver and organs of the fish are and for whatever reason it was just really bad on this guy... so I am never eating that part again. No amount of rice was saving me.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro