October 19, 2014 Letter

1600 hours

The trees are changing and its super pretty! Like a rain forest that goes orange and red!

Culture point:

Imonikai! So this is something that is specific to the Tohoku Region! (Tohoku is the top 6 prefectures on the big island of Honshu) (Which is the area that I can transfer within) So if you translate it, it means sweet potato celebration. Kind of like a harvest festival. But the main event that they all have is a Soup that is what you would get if potato soup and miso soup had a child. Its way good!  Everybody seems to be having one these things. Pretty much, I try and make it to as many as I can. :-)

Fun food fact:

So I learned this cool thing from my companion a few transfers back about the "ABC`s of cooking is Japan. They of course use their alphabet.

SA さ - SAto     - Sugar!

SHI し - SHIyo  - Soy Sauce

SU す - SU       - Vinagar  

SE　せ - SEishu- Sake (Japanese alcohol)

SO　そ- miSO   - Miso (a paste made from soy beans)

So these are 5 letters that fall in a row in the writing system. This is the order in which you put things in while you are cooking to give flavor! (Whenever I start talking about food with a mom I somehow bring that up and they are like super amazed, so if you come here I recommend it). They all have a reason for their order. For example Miso is a bacteria like yogurt and so if you boil it for too long it doesn’t quite taste the same. Or if you put sake in fire by itself, it’s for obvious reasons kind of dangerous. I am sure there are about 100 other reasons I know nothing about)

Spiritual thought:

I want to share a story I heard of two kids today. (It was the Grandchildren of the Smiths).

Their dad normally woke up around five, but he had a chance to sleep in till seven. But like we all do he woke up at the normal time and just kind of laid there and relaxed. Then he heard his 5 and 2 year old out in the hall playing by their door. He heard the play flow to a problem, "woody is gone!" so they searched, and looked, but couldn’t find him! Then the 5 year old turns to the 2 year old, "mom said if we lose something, we can pray, and God will help us!”.  So they kneel down and say “heavenly father please help us find woody. Amen" "Amen." They begin searching. So Dad probably feeling like he is in some country song kind of wanders out to watch and they ask him if he has seen Woody. He kind of thought about it, and, it popped into his mind where he had actually seen it. So he told them to check there, So they went and checked and then found him! They were so excited. They went shouting into their mom, that God does answer prayers! She asked them if they said thanks to God and they stopped. They ran back upstairs and said they would. They returned later. "Did you say thanks to heavenly father?" "Yes! And he said you`re welcome!"

I was reminded of the most often promised thing in the scriptures "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." I just want to add my testimony that I know God does answer prayers. Most of the time it isn’t when or how I want it, but it always works out if my desires are righteous. I also have found that the second or third time we continue that previous discussion with Heavenly father, we can get even more answers just like the two kids.

Funny story:

So within a different culture, speaking a different language, I think anyone who has done it will say the same thing but sometimes you have these horrible situations where you want to laugh sooo hard but you shouldn’t because others will completely misunderstand your laughter. I had a really bad one this week.

I was on a trip with Elder Ito and this wonderful couple missionary to a 2nd hand store to try and get some cheap appliances and things to furnish their apartment. They are both American and full of personality and fire for life. I am American. Elder Ito is of course Japanese and in the store was all Japanese workers and shoppers. So to set the stage, we all start looking at space heaters then over to the vacuums. They are kind of discussing what they need and so I might have got a little distracted by the shirts (I am always looking for cool shirts with kangi on them to wear). So I am digging around and then I hear a vacuum start up. Not super weird, but I knew the others had been over there, so I wander on over to see that, they had found an outlet behind a rack of clothes and wanted to try out the vacuum, to see if it works. Maybe a little weird to plug it into the middle of the store in the states but not bad at all, but I thought it might be a bit much for Japan. Sure enough, a cute little professional lady scurries on over in about 3 seconds saying, "Hey, can I help you guys test that out up front? It’s against store policy to do it here." We of course go to the front. (the reason I tell you this part is so you know that because Japanese people are soooo kind she probably felt guilty about making a customer do that and so wanted to be sooo nice and professional the rest of the time.) We go up to the register and Ito Choro and I are kind of standing 5 feet off watching this next scene.

So they plug her in... She comes roaring back to life and they start searching for dust bunnies to test her out on. They are both looking her over good, kind of bent low over it, the helper gal is like straight faces looking forward like a soldier on guard, and are just watching...

Then I start to get this tingle... like a warm breeze when you’re hot. Then the warm feeling starts to go a bit on the soar side. Right when I cock my head he spews the word in his Japanese accent (I am sure my accent is much more funny in Japanese we don’t make fun of each other but all the same it sounds super silly sometimes) that killed my composure.. "Stinky" and he bales out into the forest of cream colored plastic and too short t-shirts. That’s when it gets bad. The vacuum is just puffing out air for days and I start to like cough. The Sister missionary is giving these faces full of pulled lips and concerned eyebrows, her husband is searching all over for the source, and I am just dying it’s so bad! I knew the smell, it wasn’t my first encounter, but it had been a long time. Then Elder Hill ( I normally try and keep names out but they won’t care) looks up straight and with a victorious grin "cat pee." And that when I just die... everyone is dying from this horrible gas the machine is putting off.  Our helper lady is just like the stone soldier. I just started laughing from it all, like tears coming down my cheeks, and no one knew what the heck I was doing! But man it smelled so bad...

Love you all! Smile and love each other for me!

Law Choro