Jaunary 25, 2015 Letter

1400 Hours North Shore

So we got up and headed out really early with a bunch of Japanese friends and went to an aquarium that was sooo fun! After that, because they were all Japanese, we went to a fish market and I ate more fish, octopus, squid, shrimp, and clams (all raw) than I have in a long time!

 

Fun food fact:

It's a special thing that might only be found here in Aomori - you go pay money and they give you tickets. Then you enter this giant fish market and they give you a bowl of rice. You then go around with your tickets and go up to the different vendors and point at the thing you want that they have chopped up and they give you it on your bowl and you give them a ticket. Everything is raw and fresh that day and I got soo much! Macnab choro hasn't eaten much raw fish yet so he gave me half his tickets and I just got a mountain of food! It was super fun and so yummy! I took a picture to show you!

 

Culture point:

I had a Japanese man explain to me why Japanese was so hard a few days ago. This isn't necessarily doctrine but I liked it and get where he is coming from: English is the international language. It has people from all parts of the world talking in it to communicate; So that is just what the language has become (according to him) a language with the purpose of explaining meaning clearly and quickly. He then said Japanese people have been trapped with just Japanese people on an island for thousands of years and they all already know what each other mean; so Japanese has become a language of expressing feelings subtley. and when you look at all the ways you can make a verb polite, honorific, passive, assertive... ect. I kinda see it. haha

 

Spiritual thought:

One thing I read from Preach my Gospel (a missionary guide book that I recommend to anyone after they have read the Book of Mormon and Bible) is a bit in chapter 4 about how to improve your prayers that I have really found helpful. It said to report your day to the Lord in the evening and to talk about your plans with the Lord for the next day. I have personally found this to be the easiest way to get clear, easy to understand, and feel revelation from God about what I need to be doing. I recommend it to anyone that is trying to build a closer relationship with God. And when you do it have a pen and paper or phone or something to record what you feel. I know God loves his Children and He wants to help them through you!

 

Funny story:

I am less funny then I used to be.. haha hmm..

Did I already tell you what they call a weed eater in Australia? A whipper snipper. I love that.

It's really not that funny but one thing that has been cracking me up lately is being with Macnab Choro. Because we are in a foreign country where there aren't very many white people around (Japanese people are super nice to foreigners anyway) a lot of young people will think a foreigner is kinda "cute" or "cool" because they have seen a bunch of Americans on t.v. and its something different. But they don't normally think we speak Japanese and why would we. So a lot of the time people will talk about how cute Macnab is and I just get the giggles. Remember we are like male nuns so we completely avoid anything like flirting or dating or trying to get the ladies; but because he is a way nice guy and has no idea what's going on as far as them thinking he's a total stud he just keeps on going with his smile. It's just fun to be around! I love this guy!

 

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

January 18, 2015 Letter

1000 hours Blue Forest City 青森市 (aomorishi)

The middle kanji is three of the kanji for tree and it means forest! (it hardly ever works out that easy hahah)

Culture point:

Shoes are taken off when you go inside! Why? Because the bottom of your foot is super gross. That’s the culture. Ha ha.  You don’t touch people with your feet, you don’t touch walls or tables with you feet, especially the bottom. I think my mama might be Japanese.. Ha ha.  I know we don’t like feet in the states either but it’s the same just stronger. Very rude.

Fun Food Fact:

Potato salad! Oddly enough you will eat it. Quite a lot of it.  It’s not served at a picnic on the side of your hamburger though. It’s normally a tiny little scoop on the side of a bento (boxed up lunch) It’s always cold. Ha ha. I don’t really know what to say about it because you all know what it is and I never ate it in America so I don’t know how they are different. But I went to a member’s house yesterday for dinner and they was this giant blob of purple something on my plate and she was like looking at me look at it. (I didn’t even flinch) and then she said.. "looks disgusting doesn’t it? I was trying to scare you. It’s just some potatoes I found that are purple. It’s just potatoes, vegetables, eggs and pork" and then we took in a big breath and ate it!

Spiritual Thought:

Part of what our church believes is that God is very much alive today, very much eternal and unchanging, and that he is still a God of miracles.  We believe that the same gifts of the spirit that existed in the new testament (1 Cor. 12) exist today. This week I was trying so very hard to have the gift of discernment to know how to help one of my friends that we are teaching be able to come unto Christ. We were just kind of stuck, but then in the middle of the lesson I was just praying my little heart out and then all the of the sudden I knew what to say. It was something that my companion had told me he felt we needed to say earlier but I had forgotten. I won’t go into too much detail because it is very sacred to me but I just wanted to share with all you guys that you can have all the miracles and gifts found in the ancient days. That Christ still lives today and is guiding his living church. It brings me peace. You can also know of the truth of this message by asking God in the name of Christ.

Funny story:

So every day when we leave the apartment we pray. (we pray a lot) and I always pray for a chance to serve someone like a shot at doing something kind of random and nice (its because I am such a punk I have to balance out or God will blast me)

I was especially into this last summer in Sendai. Like it was my theme for about 2 months of everything I did.  One day (this is kind of an old story) we were riding along on our bikes and I had my eagle eyes on.... who can I serve who can I serve... and it was a pretty hot day but the wind was just a howling away.

Culture fact: in Japan white skin is pretty and tan skin is not as pretty. Japanese people get in the sun and they tan black. like soooo dark. So in order to stay pretty a lot of women (mostly the senior generations) will use umbrellas

So we are waiting at a light that is about to let us cross I see right as the light goes green a woman lose her umbrella bag (the little sheath you store it in) chance!! So I kick ‘ol Pegasus and we go after the sheath.  Watching someone try and catch something in the wind is not the best way to build faith because if that’s all you had to go by you might think God has a sick sense of humor. But I became that puppet.  It looks even worse when you are on a bike because it looks likes you are trying so hard and spending so much energy for nothing. But I got really close and it was mine!! Then it moved about 6 inches and I... STOMP! GOT it!

I turned around to see a grandma with a slightly grossed out face and my companion doing the hair grab that lets you know something was awkward for him. I sheepishly gave the defiled sheath back to the woman and apologized. So understand why they both felt as if I had just spit on it refer to culture point above.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

January 11, 2015 Letter

 1500 hours: the snowiest city over 300,000 people in the world.

I wish I could send you pictures, but this cafe doesn’t let you. ごめん

Culture point:

Language. So Japanese can be a kind of hard language sometimes everyone has heard that. There are a lot of reasons for that. When I first came it was the grammar and the polite Japanese that really took me a long time to understand better (I am still working a lot on both). Now it’s the kanji and the katakana that are making me especially humble. (This is the most fun language ever to learn because it is so pretty and clean and i recommend it anyone who wants to learn a language!) Kanji everyone has kind of heard of. Katakana is the alphabet they use to take foreign words and make them sound Japanese. For example, we call tortilla a "tortia" because it’s easier for us. They do the same thing, but they are suck a nice country that a TON of words especially things that are just the English or German words put into Japanese sounds. For example, computer is konputa. Or camera is kamura. Some words sound the exact same but like McDonalds is makudonarudo.  Sometimes you are searching your vocabulary bank for that word they just said and searching and then you realize it’s English! It’s good when you don’t know the word and you just try the English and it turns out steering wheel is suteringu wuiru. :-)

Fun food fact:

It’s fun to have a new companion, because he points out how different something’s are that I had never really thought about.  For example, today for lunch we had sushi and they served us a hot egg custard with vegetable soup. It’s warm and really nice. Before you eat sushi you normally get something like soup or that egg custard before.

Spiritual thought:

This thought is from church this week, but something was said to the effect that, wouldn’t it be nice if we has a mysterious little compass that we could look at every day and it would tell us what we need to do to be happy, what job would be best for us, what school to go to, how to help our kids that are having a hard time. How sweet would that be? Then the point was all those that enter into the covenant of baptism with God receive that very gift in the form of the Holy Ghost. And that is one of the reasons why it is so important to try and keep the commandments, so we can hear his voice. I thought that was easy to understand. I need the guidance, so, I am going to work harder to hear his voice.

 Funny story:

This one goes a bit back but we were driving on a 5 hour road trip with three of us and so we were desperate for things to talk about, and so, Elder Ito (Japanese) asked Elder Fox (American) about what Mormon kids did at college for fun? (They don’t drink and do follow the law of chastity) so elder fox thought about it and answered they have dance parties sometimes that are fun. (This is all happening in Japanese and dance party is kind of a hard word so he throws it out in his best katakana "Datsu pati" and Elder Ito understands. He says, “Really!? We actually have those in Japan too, but I didn’t think you guys would have them.”

“Oh we have tons of them!”

“Do you like them?”

“They are all right. I don’t like dancing a ton, but there are a ton of girls, so it’s fun I guess.”

“There are girls there?!”

“Yeah, I would say there are more girls than boys by a good shot.”

“What?! (And this is where I started dying) “nihon no bai de kowai onisantachi bakari”. So onisan means older brother or in this context a nice way of saying 18-30 year old single guys and kowai means scary.  So he says, “In japan there is just a bunch of scary men.”

So then this whole conversation comes about (Why, in japan, at dance parties, there are tons of scary men.)

But on the other hand, elder Ito was talking about dansu pati... datsu means dart party. So he was having a big discussion about why there was a bunch of college LDS girls that loved dart parties...

Once we figured it out I was nearly driving off the road I was crying so hard!

We had interviews with President and Sister Smith yesterday. The snow just keeps getting deeper and the missionary work just keeps getting busier. We are starting to get to know the area which makes us a bit more effective and teach more. Elder Macnab is the best, he is teaching me tons about realism and the power of experiences in a lesson. Sister Johnson from my group in the MTC (there were two Johnsons, this was the one who served with me for 3 months in Kamisugi) sent me a picture of the missionary she met in her home ward and it was Seth, my cousin!! It made my day!

I am working out hard in the mornings. We are the master planners. I don’t forget anything now! (All three of my companions in the home office gave me the improvement point, which I need to write things down better, so I don’t forget. I am trying to do better)

We eat way to good. Elder Nishiie is 25 and worked for 5 years, so he is more generous, so he is always buying good ingredients that we make yummy stuff from. Yesterday was pot stickers.

(I am up on how far I can run in the snow, because we are always late and running in the snow. ha-ha)

I have a new goal this year to go to a private place and pray out loud every morning and night and it has really been strengthening my relationship with the Lord. Life is just too good. I am waiting for the stress to come. I am at a good point in my mission I think. I always heard people talk about this period and I like it. It’s like state for track. You know the most so far, the weather is the best, and you have the most desire to serve. Elder Macnab is my friend. Companions are one of my biggest blessings I think, so far, in the mission.

I am stoked about the Seattle choice Nick and Christine made! I was hoping that way the whole time. (I hear there are many Japanese stores over there).

I have a goal to read the New Testament and Book of Mormon both in 12 weeks. So far, I am about a fourth through both of them and really loving it.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

January 4, 2015 Letter

1100 hours land of the Eskimos

So you know how the Lord says he prepared those he sends. I just have to give a shout out to the Moses Lake ice skating rink (I heard it closed which breaks my little heart) but working there has given me the edge to be the missionary with the least falls in the area. They call me Whaling Wallace for the advanced arm techniques I use on the especially difficult stretches.

Fun food fact:

Milk. So I think I talked about this a long long time ago but I now am not as confused by the Japanese so I know a little more. The biggest container I have ever seen milk sold in, is one liter cartons. I have never seen it in anything but a carton. Now that carton runs from about ￥120 to I have seen ￥400. The huge variations in price has two big reasons that I can tell. One is where it is from. If it’s from Hokkaido the island to the north it will be expensive. If there is milk from china it will be dirt cheap. The other big difference is fat content. It’s either fat free or whole and fat free is way cheaper. But for some reason fat free and whole milk taste sooo different here. I have a theory, the fat free is actually from goats.. ;-) 

Culture point:

In the USA I always kind of felt that by the 2nd everyone stops saying happy New Year. But in Japan (in my experience (I always get worried you guys will take this as doctrine and not the notes of an idiot 20 year old)) people say akemashite omedetogozaimsu. kotoshi mo yoroshukuonagaitashimasu. (Happy new year! I am looking forward to working with you this year as well!) For like a month after New Year’s! You only need to say it once but if you haven’t seen someone since the New Year began and you already knew them and it’s the 7th of January I think you are totally cool to bust it out. (Especially old people think you are super cool)

Spiritual thought:

 This week’s thought comes from being around my beloved companion elder Macnab. This guy is full of experiences. It all comes back to the experience and the knowledge that the fruit is sweet. I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I came across this scripture the other day, it’s about a prophet that is talking about why he is making these sacred records "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." (2nephi25:26) the influence of my companion combined with me finishing my first journal (which was given to me by Sister Heather Calder love her.) kind of made me think of why I am writing. If in the future or today sometime someone needs my help am I prepared with my own experiences and knowledge of how to use it? In 200 years if someone read my journal would they know how to get the remission of sins? My advice is go out and spend way too much money on a journal or buy some app that is way too expensive so you feel bound to write! It has been a blessing to me! :-)

Random Pic:

This is one of my beloved past companions Elder Keshino. He is home now... :-( he went home last transfer but I really like this picture he took on his last day.

Funny story:

We walk a lot... like A LOT! I already bragged to you a bit about how good I am at staying up. Sometimes it’s just me and Macnab Choro, sometimes lots of people, and sometimes we walk with Moffat and Nishiie Choro. But when we are walking around and there are no other people. No cars. It’s dark. I get this really strong temptation to be unprofessional and occasionally I throw a snowball at a sign or something. Wild I know. One thing that is really stupid I do is I throw them really hard straight up. The idea is they will stall for a solid 3 seconds then come down and drill Elder Nishiie in the face. (He says goodnight everyone! I love you Macnab i love you Moffat. I like you Law) but he is normally a foxy little fella and never trusts me, so is always on the lookout and avoids them. One day I made this beauty of a projectile. Just enough snow to be heavy enough to throw but small enough to give it the “bring it to the just two handed grunting compact”. It was round it was hard and it was up in the air a solid thirty feet. In all honesty I didn’t think too much of it because normally I suck. Then I hear this crack. I am thinking that had to hit the ice on the road because of that sounding like ice cracking. Then the yelling begins. I turn around see Nishiie with half formed snowball in his hands big eyes and looking at Moffat who is the one making all the noise. If you have ever seen what a snowball the drills a car window looks like, that bit that sticks in the shape of a little cone. He had that plastered to the front top of his head and he had snowball shrapnel all over his shoulders...

It would have worked a lot better, but he was making way to much noise and I knew that he had plastered himself in the face to try and make my feel bad. He is too honest. ha-ha! But Elder Macnab totally judged me for being a monster for 10 seconds. We are working on apartment relationships.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

December 28, 2014 Letter

1300 hours; The silence before the storm.

So every morning we have been doing our normal exercise but then, Elder Macnab and I do the last 5-10 minutes together and we do this thing where you pick an exercise. For example; low squats. Then you do as many as you can in 20 seconds, then you break for 10 then as many as you can for 20 seconds then break for 10... You go for 5 to 10 minutes. To put it simply my body has part of it that is dying every day. Today we are both limping around and walking all funny, because my calves feel like they have knifes in them. I will have the toned body of a gazelle by the time I return.

Fun food fact:

So I was served the most amazing Christmas dinner ever this year. It was at a Japanese home but the hostess made us lasagna, baked whole chicken (I have never seen that here but it even still had a neck!) sweet and sour chicken, sushi, cake, many different salads, sweet potato soup... etc. It was sooooo yummy and I will love her forever for only that! But one thing was this sea food soup.  I had never seen it before. It was a clear broth with one red piece of meat in it with a tail on the meat. It looked to me a lot like a shrimp filleted open. I drank the soup and it was sooo yummy and so I grabbed the little shrimp and threw it all in my mouth at once and was surprised that it was fish. I love fish. This was especially good. (My guess it was a pretty high quality buy) and then I bit down and was way surprised to find a lot of bones. I have grown up eating salmon and other fish and I stopped spitting out the bones when I was like 16. They don’t bother me if I chew them carefully. But these bones were very hard and very sharp. I almost died. Ha-ha! So I looked with panicking eyes to the sister missionary next to me and she showed me how you pull the bones out of your mouth with your chopsticks and it’s not rude. (At least I hope it wasn’t rude) but it tasted amazing! My point is be careful and don’t try to chew that little fish’s bones. It was called a puffer fish...   No, I am just joking!

Culture point:

New Years is this week! This is the huge family holiday in japan! All the people are moving and getting ready for it! It consists of cleaning before, big meals together, maybe going to a Shinto temple... I get the vibe it really depends on your family what you do, but everyone seems to be with their family. It’s like the only time you see the country shut down. It shuts down for about three days. (31st-2^nd) everyone greets each other with "this year has been a wonderful one I am looking forward to working with you next year." (That sounds a lot better and more natural in Japanese)

Spiritual thought:

I had an experience at church this week where a lady who has not been baptized, but has been learning about our church for over a year and coming most weeks, said she felt like she was unworthy to come to worship with us because she did not have faith. It was very touching and kind of emotional for me for some reason (like I got a little fired up out of nowhere) but I was reminded of a scripture in Alma 32 that says "And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." I felt so clearly that the faith required to come to church is merely the tiniest hope that there might be a happier future out there. The tiniest hope that there might really be a God and he might potentially love me. I really felt the Lord’s love for that lady and I am so thankful he was willing to share that with me.

Funny story.

So this one goes way back. I was with elder Ito in Nagamachi and we were visiting this family and because I am always trying to win the hearts of the people here. (Elder Ito was too much of a stud so I always had to bust out all the moves) I would always break out my family picture album to entertain the Mother of the home. (They love to talk about our families because they know we love to talk about our families and are so nice) so I was a bit behind of Elder Ito on the coolness level. So I go straight to my ace in the hole. Page 11. Baby niece section.

So I have tons of pictures of my nieces in my photo album I show people. Everyone loves babies. When they are insanely cute babies that are white, it’s even more interesting. But I have a page that beats all others... it has the picture of Adalee, the day she was born with her head in someone’s hands and her little eyes closed. Sooo cute.

 Then comes my favorite picture of Mikilah which is when she is in the tub, no teeth, HUGE smile, and she has a little giraffe book and rubber ducky. It’s darling.

 

  

Everyone is cooing and telling me how cute they are and I take all the credit for their curtness and bask in the glory. Then all the sudden Elder Ito stops smiling. He gets that look where the eyebrows come down the nose bunches and the bottom lip comes up and out. Looks like you just saw a dog licking a sleeping baby’s face. He says

"Nande gorira ga akachan to ishoni ofuro ni imasu ka?!"

Which translates to:

"Why is there a gorilla in the bath with the baby?!"

And I was like:

What?! 

I had been too distracted for all these years with the cute smile to notice the gorilla foot in the bottom left corner.  I died.  I laughed so hard but explained it wasn’t a gorilla.

Love each other for me!

Law Choro

December 21, 2014 Letter

1100 hours; The frozen North.

I transferred from the city up to the most northern place in the island. It’s called Aomori which means blue forest. There is a lot of snow and the snow is perfect for skiing. (Not that I ever sometimes think about snowboarding.) My companion is a total stud for Arizona. He is a wrestler and can do over 50 pull-ups. He has lats that are ridiculous. He is super genki and loves to say hi to everyone. You will all like him.

Fun food fact:

I am starting to forget what I have told you about... but bear with me if you have heard this because I love it.

It’s called Nabe. Nabe is actually just the name of the big pot you cook it in. It’s so basic... a giant pot of boiling water that you put some type of flavor in. It can be anything from Shoyu (soy sauce) to kimuchi (korean spicy pickled cabbage) and everything in between. Then you put meat and cut up vegetables like cabbage, mushrooms, greens, carrots, potatoes, tofu, sometimes noodles, meat... anything! Then when it is done you eat it with a bowl of rice. It’s hot and fast and feeds lots of people and can use all the leftovers in your fridge and its super good. My favorite way is sukiyaki which has a flavor made with tons of dashi (bullion) sugar, and soy sauce. Then you put in meat and hakusai (napa cabbage) and these giant mushrooms, and then you take a bowl and you mix up a raw egg (I remember when I thought that sounded so gross too but just trust me and try it) and you take out the cooked meat and vegetables and you mix it in the egg and you eat it... i am telling you it is sooo good!

Culture point:

So I am in an internet cafe right now (this is the first time I have ever used one in my life) and there is nothing very interesting or different (I think) about it. But next store is an arcade and those are so exciting in Japan. There are normally like 50 little kids running around all over and the machines are super packed and the volume is turned up full blast on all the machines and it is just sooo loud! Japan made Nintendo and so they obviously love games just as much as America. (they don’t like shooting games as much as America I think but they like adventure and "cute" games waaaay more) and you know those little robot arms that you can use to grab a little toy? (We are eternally grateful alien guys) those are way more popular here. But the prizes tend to be waaay better than the ones in America.

Spiritual thought:

It’s Christmas/ :-) everyone check out the "He is the gift video" here is a link! http://www.mormon.org/christmas of all the experiences in the scriptures of people in the scriptures with Christ I find myself most similar to the experience of Enoch... his is more exciting than mine, but I know from my own experience that through Jesus Christ we can receive the forgiveness for our mistakes and the strength to overcome our weakness. I recommend the whole chapter but some key verses are:

 4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

 5 And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

 6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

 7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?

 8 And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.

I know through Jesus Christ’s name we can receive peace.

Funny story:

So we came into town and didn’t know anything about the area at all except for the fact that there was a Christmas party that night at 5:30 and we were in charge of the game. But that the game had already been prepared all we had to do was present it. So we get to the church and find our game. He was in the back room waiting. It was a dark night, so I couldn’t make out more than his general 2 and a half foot stature growing bigger from the bottom to the top.... the name was frosty and he was cold. 

A piñata was the Christmas game. (This is what happens when you put a bunch of Americans and Australians in charge of the Christmas party game in a country with no Christmas traditions... they choose Mexican fiesta games. But he was pretty impressive and I was stoked. (If we are all going to be honest everyone loves a piñata no matter the time of year.) So I give him a heft... and I saw a flash back of the Pocahontas of 96...

After 1 broken coat rack, 2 dented ceiling tracts, and a couple chairs stacked up old frosty was dangling a bit to the left but still dangling away in the middle of the stage. We had 3 bats lined up and not a blind fold in site. This was not a game of tricks, this was an exercise of strength... we call up the kids. First is lil Shokun he is like 3, but pretty coordinated, strong. We give him the bat and tell him to whack away about ten times... the poor little guy takes a big back swing lets her go and... thunk... his poor little hands hurt too much after 6 swings to want to continue.. next comes the 4 year olds... the first bat broke around the 2nd graders... frosty started to at least swing from the strikes of the 5th graders... by the time the 7th graders got to him his nose did break to the ground... everyone had stopped clapping around the 8th graders and the cheers went from "candy candy" to "give it to him Johny!" "Pulverize him!" Then came old Aichan (freshmen girl) and she just started wailing on the top of his head over and over and over and bam... his rope snapped and he just sat on the ground slightly bunched up unharmed sneering at us through his broken nose with those little black eyes.. Aichan had destroyed the second bat so it was on to the high school boys with the last bat... I won’t go into too much detail but once he was on the ground like that only his head was a good shot and the students finished it off....

His body was say to strong so I had to break out a knife and just cut him open and throw the candy to all the sweaty blistery handed children. Duct tape and cardboard are the worst idea for piñatas!

Christmas pictures!

Merry Christmas! Love each other for me!

Law Choro

December 15, 2014 Letter

21:00 hours; The last Stand

Winter has brought down the last leaves and has yet to bring forth much snow so I have decided I am going to transfer up to somewhere with more snow. I am going to Aomori! :-) (It is the farthest north on the big island of Honshu that you can go.) My companion will be an Elder Macnab. It will be his first experience as a missionary in Japan. I am excited to work with him.

sannintomadachi

:

so these are what is left of my MTC group after war disease, 19 months, a mission split and the snow of 13.... no one has really changed that much! 

This area with a bunch of kids that are way too cute!

Culture point:

So I got a letter this last week inviting me to a coming of age party in the town center. When you turn 20 in Japan you are an adult! I might go check it out. But with regards to age something that I have found really hard to understand is a thing called keigo. It’s polite Japanese. First of all I found it hard to understand because it is beautiful and long and just hard. Second is when to use it. As a missionary and volunteer, I should use it all the time really. An employee or anyone serving you will use it too. But for example in normal conversation within missionary groups and two Japanese Missionaries are talking to each other. One might use keigo and the other just speak normal... and the reason is one might just be more casual than the other guy, but I have found a specific pattern of one speaking up to someone because he is a few years older. This especially seems to occur to people that played a lot of sports in high school. I can kind of understand speaking more polite to a teacher or boss, but someone a year older than me is harder to understand. But the more I feel the level of respect for other people I see that is a lot less of speaking down and more of speaking up.. It’s hard to explain... ha-ha 

Sorry my time is gone! Love each other for me!

Law Choro