November 2, 2014 Letter

17:20 the office.

I want you to imagine a Japanese kid comes to your Halloween party. He is kind of small. Can understand most of what people are talking about but when he talks there are a lot of cute grammar errors. He has really bad pronunciation. Someone has dressed him up in a Mickey Mouse costume. He has never even seen Mickey Mouse but he says he likes it because he has seen it all over since he came to America. He keeps doing this whistle and acting like he is driving a boat. He has no idea what it even means but with those ears and his little nose and that tail you can’t help but laugh and coo and vote him to be the champion for the costume party that night. 

That was totally me and I won the costume party as Anpanman. My Doriyo tried to be the Japanese version of Bugs Bunny. (Doraimon) and he made children cry and got no prize. It was a bit of a real heartbreak for him. But the face paint Christine sent was just too real on him, while I looked cute.

Food fact:

Chinese is like the Mexican food of Japan. Maybe even more mixed up then us and Mexico. Pot stickers are called gyoza and we eat them like candy. Ha-ha-ha! Well they are a lot more expensive then candy but taste better too!

Cultural fact:

There are a ton of ways to say the word "I”.  There are punk cool ways like "ore" there are super polite ways like "watakushi" there are informal ways like "boku" there are ways to kind of skirt the rule like saying "personal pen" instead of my pen like "jibun no" It can be pretty confusing at first. Kids don’t know this obviously. What is insane is that a 3 year old will already start the word that a little girl will say, and a little boy will say what a little boy should say. At church this week a 3 year old told me they were Boku`s shoes. and then a little girl (this is soooo cute) she told me it was Miko`s candy. That is like me saying "that’s Cameron`s candy" like talking in the third person but for a little girl its ok and super cute sounding to my foreign ears... :-)

Spiritual thought:

I saw a man that was what a lot of people would call the worst of the worst. Problems with gangs, alcohol, was a race car driver, and a rock star, kind of wild maybe. I saw him pray to God, ask for help, receive guidance, follow that guidance, enter the waters of baptism and become so happy. A light. I believe it only takes one day for a man to change. I am so thankful for that power that is the atonement. I know it is real.

Love each other for me!

Law CHoro