29 January 2017

29 January 2017

The email Peter sent said specifically that it was not to be with everyone - it was just for us - but I think it was because it was just about the video games and Japanese culture things that he is interested it that he has found among the members in his area.  Nothing terrible, just not of a spiritual nature either - although he did say that one of the members uses Yu-gi-oh cards as bookmarks in his scriptures. :)

I will share this part that relates to their English language classes -

There is a new Eikaiwa program starting soon that sounds like it'll be pretty fun. We're going to be much more open about being missionaries and wanting to share the gospel instead of trying to keep the service and religious stuff separate. It'll make people a lot less suspicious that it's a persuasion method hopefully. We're also going to focus on high school aged kids for the eiken an important English test and middle aged people for the toeic another big test. Specifically on the conversation portions. Hopefully we get all the new flyers and banners and stuff for it soon. 

What he talked about most in our email conversation (short as it was) was learning Shogi.  He is really enjoying this traditional Japanese board game.

My mini shōgi set and home made pushfight board.
Miyagawa Shimai is teaching us the specific rules to shougi.It's basically just chess with more pieces and the pieces have more rules

Peter:This is Frank. He is Taiwanese and travels around all the missions inasia selling things to missionaries. Haha you can get anything from him.
Me:Black market dealer, huh? Can he get you the sword from the master edition of Breath of the Wild? :D
Peter:Ha, maybe.

And the rest of his pictures, unfortunately a couple of them were too dark to see so I didn't include them. 

w/Elder DeAndrade

w/Elder DeAndrade

22 January 2017

22 January 2017

I had a sad but interesting culture experience this week. The less active that we were serving? His mother passed away. We were invited to her funeral which presented quite a few problems. To go to a Japanese funeral (a church member funeral might be a bit different) you have to follow some very strict rules. It was a Buddhist funeral of course. Black is absolutely necessary first of all, with nothing flashy or shiny on. It's inappropriate to smell to strongly (which American deodorant is known for being too strong smelling here), and then of course there is the ritual stuff we had to do. 

Luckily we have three 日本人 (Nihonjin or Japanese person) that were able to teach us all the things that we had to do. For everything else we were left to mimic the other people. It was pretty crazy. Got to hear lots of Buddhist chanting from the monk doing the ceremony. I don't think we messed up too bad. Also, everyone just kind of did their best when it came to the wearing all black.. haha.

The other interesting thing I did was find an investigator. He works for Nu Skin and two years ago saw missionaries on the street, jumped out his car and asked them if they were Mormon. He really respects his boss(es) who have served as mission presidents now and he really wanted to know more. The problem is that he does not have time. He works from8:00 to 9:00 every day except Saturdays. It's really frustrating and we aren't sure how he'll be able to be taught. He says that his schedule changes in March and he will definitely come to church then. That's good. We told him he could call us anytime as well. So, I'm still investigator-less kind of. 

I can't really remember what else happened this week. It's been a strange week.

I hope everyone has some good experiences with their PMG! Or maybe it's too early eh? Until next week I guess.

In response to my questions about the guy that he ran into that works for NuSkin:

He is a distributor. He works from 8-9 every single day except for Saturday so unfortunately he just doesn't have time to meet. It sucks. He says that his schedule might change in march or something I guess. He is such a great guy and really has interest though.

Look I organized everything now that we finally got the stuff we needed.

16 January 2017

16 January 2017

This week I had the chance to go on splits with our zone leaders again. (Because thus far both of my 同僚 [dōryō, companion] have been district leaders) They are super awesome and really inspiring to work with. If I can become half the missionary they are, I'd be happy. We also met the most 元気 (genki, not an exact translation but like "good spirited") 日本人 (Nihonjin, a Japanese person) the world has ever seen. He was laughing and joking and excited the whole conversation and at the end when we went to shake his hand, he said no we had to hug. I don't know how he was Japanese because neither of us have ever seen that before. He got really sick though and wasn't able to come to church which he really wants to do.

Oh, also, I am emailing today because 月曜日 (Getsuyōbi, Monday, fun fact: day of the moon) was not our p-day but 火曜日 (Kayōbi, Tuesday, another fun fact: fire day or day named after Mars the fire planet) because it is our temple p-day this transfer. Which we didn't find out until 木曜日 (Mokuyōbi, Thursday, yes another fun fact: wood day or day named after Jupiter the wood planet), so I'm sorry about that.

So I wanted to talk about how Preach My Gospel is awesome. I always hate that thing that so many missionaries say "I wish I would have known PMG better before my mission." But, I certainly know why they say it and have felt the same way. But this is how I think of it now, "I wish every member of the church had a copy of PMG to go along with their scriptures." This book, manual, whatever you want to call it is the best. I think everyone could benefit from it a ton whether they are a missionary or not! I would tell anyone that feels like they want to get more out of their lives to get this book and use it. There is so much more to this book than just for 宣教師 (Senkyōshi, missionary/ies) teaching 求道者(Kyūdōsha, investigator/s)! 

If you don't know where to start I recommend starting with the Christlike Attributes section ("How do I develop Christlike attributes?"). Pick an attribute on Sunday and take ten minutes to read it and the scriptures associated with it, or spread the scriptures out and read them throughout the week (this is super important in my experience. If you just read the scripture and then move on, it won't do much. You can try what I do, which is to write a note in one word or something next to the scripture in PMG. Anything is better than nothing). Then think about them that week on the next Sunday, write anything you learned down in the notes section if you have anything and then move on to the next one. Some other great sections that can really help with life are..

"How do I study effectively and prepare to teach?"

"How do I recognize and understand the spirit?"

"How can I better learn my mission language?"

"How do I use my time wisely?"

"How can I improve my teaching skills?"

After seeing the condition of my MTC branch presidents PMG, I've decided we can probably use PMG for more than we think we can, and we can probably get a lot more out of it than what we think it contains. To quote the Missionary Handbook "Time is one of the most precious resources Heavenly Father has given you." and "Use it fully and wisely."

Anyways, this letter really got distracted... I hope you all benefit from using PMG if only just once to try it out for a week or something! And maybe I'll have something more entertaining for you next time. Sorry, I know my letters are boring. I may want to share something I learned about the title of PMG next week.

So I found a guy in the other elders areabook and I called him up. He wants to meet on Thursday. He has met other missionaries a long time ago. He works for Nu Skin and he said he heard about his boss going on a mission and he has a lot of respect for him. So we'll see what happens there. 

In response to the news that Erik has received his mission call to Rochester New York:

That's awesome. One thing I have definitely learned is that it's an incredible blessing to be able to serve in your home country. One that I don't have. Not that I'm complaining, I love the mission I've been called to of course, but the opportunity to build the kingdom in your home? Let alone the promised land. He and Markee are very lucky to have that chance. 

8 January 2017

I don't really have much to say this email. Not that I usually have anything to say anyways... 

I got to go on splits with the one and only 太田/Ōta 長老/Chōrō again. That guy is awesome he is super diligent and really focused all the time. He is actually the one that helped me translate my Facebook post correctly. We got to 伝道/dendō in his area (神奈川/Kanagawa) so I got to see a bit outside 港北/Kōhoku which was fun. I'm also grateful he took it easy on me when we were biking because I know he is pretty insane when biking.

So the other awesome thing is that we've been providing service for a less active member that we actually met during a 食事/shokuji (probably that kanji...). His mother was admitted into the hospital the day after we met him. He has been trying to deal with everything by himself now and he is crazy stressed. We have been helping him clean out his house and now will go over there every Saturday to help clean more. He is a really great guy and we all really hope he'll be able to make the changes he needs to to deal with what has been going on. Yay for service!

I've been working on interacting with the people at 英会話/Eikaiwa (English class). Because I know there are a lot of teaching opportunities there. Not that I try to "伝道" there necessarily, because I know what happens when someone tries that to hard.. but there are a lot of cool people at 英会話 and they are people that are much more likely to listen if you can build a relationship with them. Also, I can use English... so that's cool.. haha.

I don't know. That's about it I think. Remember that service is the best and you never know who needs it. Try offering it every now and then just for fun. 

港北ワードは素晴らしいです。

皆さん愛しています。

I try not to mention members and potential investigators by name in
emails because we're not supposed to by the way. I don't just forget
their names or anything.

Recently I kind of just try to survive till Thursday when I can have
fun with Eikaiwa and Monday when I don't have to think about all the
opportunities we're missing. Also, thankfully my companion is district
leader so he has to go on splits with everyone in the district.
Meaning that I get to go on splits with everyone in our district.
That's always fun.

Crazy Christmas house that is still a Christmas house after Shogatsu

Pierce Chōrō with an old rusty hatchet.

This picture accurately depicts Matsuhisa Shimai's personality. Both of them.

1 January 2017

Happy New Year!

Well. It was a busy week of shokujis. The Kōhoku is really REALLY amazing. My companion and the other missionary in our apartment that has been out a year have already tripled the amount they've had on their entire mission. You should see the fruit baskets the Shimai and we have had. We have soooo many snacks and stuff. It's great. The ward also puts huge boxes out for all the wards missionaries that the ward then puts a bunch of candy to send to them. It's so funny to see the pictures the missionaries send with their giant packages. 

It was also Shōgatsu or New Years yesterday so it wasn't really a good dendo time anyways I guess. I also got to spend some time at the hospital with Hall Chōrō and a member. That was interesting. We had to wait for almost two whole hours before he was admitted. And that was the SECOND place we went to. The first place told us they didn't know what was wrong with him and he should go to a larger hospital instead.

This morning we woke up at 5:30 to climb to the church roof to watch the sunrise. (It's a thing to watch the first sunrise of the year in Japan but we apparently we weren't supposed to on the first day because it was Sunday.) So we went this morning and waited about two hours until it became apparent we weren't going to be able to see it because of the clouds.. It was fun though, just REALLY cold. 

I've been thinking a lot about an experience the amazing Strauss Kyoudai shared with us. I won't share his experience, but I'll sum up the lesson he taught us and what he learned. He told us about how when we serve people (Mosiah 2:17) we get the great blessing of seeing and feeling just a part of Gods love for them. As we work at this, and try our best to serve people to help them feel Gods love for them, that part of Gods love that we experience slowly becomes our love as well. 

Anyway. I didn't have much to say today. Have a good week everyone.