Week Seventeen

Ohayou Gozaimasu, family!

This week has been pretty fun. We have been trying hard to find new investigators, because the Sendai mission has a goal of finding one new investigator per week per companionship. We weren`t able this week to accomplish that, but we did have other success. For example, we were riding past a public park yesterday evening where only two people were playing soccer. Dowdy Choro said that we should probably go back and talk to the people, so we turned around half a block later. As we were talking to them, the father told us that he was a friend of Y (B) from our branch, so he had a good impression of Mormons. He even had been helped by the church and Y

(B) in particular after the tsunami destroyed his home in Ofunato. He was really nice and even let us exchange phone numbers and possibly meet again for soccer, which Dowdy Choro actually enjoys doing, thankfully.

We also went to another touristy area, Genbikei! Like Geibikei, it is a river gorge, but it looks way different. The river goes through a low, rocky canyon with an unusual turquoise colour. I`ll have to send you the pictures, because it`s rather difficult to explain it properly. But it was really fun! We also tried to order the flying dumplings, which is where you put money in a basket, hit a board, and have fresh dumplings sent back to you, but it closed right as we walked up. We`ll perhaps try again on a P-Day in the future. When Dowdy Choro told a store worker that he was from Australia, the guy went and got his 2000 Sydney Olympics picture book that he had taken. We were able to invite him to Eikaiwa, so perhaps we`ll see him again.

We`re hoping to really do a lot of work this week! We have a few lessons set up and will hopefully be able to pick up some new investigators this week. Also, tomorrow we`re going to Hiraizumi for the lego exhibit of World Heritage Sites. I`ll be sure to send you pictures of that too!

Cultural Point: People in Japan traditionally buy souvenirs for everyone back home when they go on vacation, so there`s lots of stuff available to buy. Especially treats with the name of the touristy place on the wrapper. Be prepared for something of that type in gift packages.

Sayounara!


Earl Choro

Well, in Japan the traditional thing to do would be to clean my grave and give me some offering, which would seem to indicate the sending of a package of my favourite food. Sounds like things are still fun back home. I`m sure Andrew would be disappointed that Hannah didn`t do everything like that, but it`ll be fine. I knew a lot of people at the MTC who didn`t do any of the stuff like that, and they made it here to Japan at least.

Week Sixteen

Well, this week has been pretty exciting as two new missionaries have come in to Ichinoseki! First of all, my new trainer Dowdy Choro is so cool. The other new missionary is Wolthius Choro, who is actually from Pleasant Grove. He said he had seen me at school before. He`s a football player. (By the way, I think his mom is on the missionary mom`s thing, so you can tell her that he`s probably going to be online at about midnight your time). It`s been really strange having so many gaijin in this town. I feel like I`m learning a lot of new things. For example...

Fun dendo! We were able to go to the touristy resort of Geibikei on Saturday. Because the purpose was dendo, it was OK to do it on a normal day. It was so pretty, it looks like the Chinese landscape paintings. Don`t worry, I took tons of pictures, so be prepared to be bombarded. We were even able to take the boat that they take into the gorge, which was really cool. Our boat drive used a pole to push us through the steep canyon, and she also sang the Geibikei song (which I recorded, but probably won`t be able to send because it`s a huge video). When we got out, you could buy some clay stamped with kanji representing different blessings. You then tried to throw them into a hole on the other side of the river. It`s pretty easy for us gaijin, so I should have a few blessings in store!

We were able to talk to a few people in interesting ways there. I wanted to try the ice cream, so I asked the shop-owner which flavour was best. She told me it was the edamame one (Dowdy Choro was hoping she`d say tofu, but this was sufficiently weird). It really wasn`t that bad, but a mom and her daughter were laughing at me as I ate it. While waiting to take the train back to Ichinoseki, they came onto the same platform! We were able to have a nice conversation, starting with discussing the food, but we were even able to hand out chirashi about the church and Eikaiwa. They were really nice, but they live in Kanto, so hopefully missionaries down there find them.

Also, as we were walking near the station, a woman in a tourist services uniform ran up to us asking if we were baptising people in the area. We didn`t know what she meant by that, but eventually found out that she wanted our help with English tourist brochures. She might come to Eikaiwa where we can help her with that.

We also went to one apartment complex that we felt prompted to visit. At the first door, a little girl came running up when we told her through the door about Eikaiwa. She said she wanted to go, but she`d check with her dad. At the other door, a woman and her three year old baby got to the door. At first, she said she wasn`t interested, but we talked for a bit, and eventually she said that she`d be willing to meet again. Her daughter was so cute, she wouldn`t stop waving to us as we left!

Anyhow, that`s basically my week. It`s becoming really fun, and the new missionaries are really helping me enjoy the area! 

P.S. I`ve started buying souvenirs! Tanoshine kudasai!

Earl Choro

Cultural Point:

Now that it`s harvest season, there are tons of farmers putting rice stalks on poles. I`ll have to get pictures, but it`s very interesting looking. I know this was kind of lame, but I figure the Geibikei story was worth a few cultual points.

[From Zach: I apologize for running behind on updates, I'll be getting back on a schedule soon.] 

Week Fifteen

Get ready for a lot of words! I`ll try to go in chronological order of all the stuff that`s happened around here.

First, we had our zone conference up in Morioka. This is the meeting that only happens every three months, so it was really good. We heard nice things about how we should have more faith to bring people into the church and how we should focus more on prayer and the Book of Mormon. We also ate at one of those rotating sushi restaurants. Unfortunately, I don`t have pictures, but it would be somewhat difficult to capture it anyways. It was really cool though! You can take food off of the conveyor belt or order specific items via computer. The computer will ring when your food is moved in front of your table. It was somewhat expensive, but not as bad as I was afraid it would be.

After the zone conference, though, me and Katayama Choro were planning on running to the bus so that we could back to Ichinoseki on time for seminary. However, the mission president gave us a ride in his car instead! While we were driving back, he had us do a mogi (mock lesson, but we always use the Japanese word, so I`ll probably not translate it again). It actually went really well, which of course made me quite happy. He said we had really impressed him!  We were very glad to make it back in time for all of the activities scheduled for the branch.

Also, we were able to teach one lesson. We were able to schedule appointments for the next week with the other investigators and PI`s, so we`ll be busy next week! Also, the Hills are coming soon.. All we know about them is that they love sports, and that Sister Hill doesn`t know Japanese. Should be interesting for her...

The first transfer is finished, so we eagerly awaited the schedule of the new missionaries. The call came, and it turns out that Katayama Choro is getting a new missionary and I`m getting a new Australian trainer, Dowdy Choro! We`ll all be here in Ichinoseki, so it won`t be too difficult. I think the president wanted people in both companionships to know the people who we`ll be talking to. But, I`ll get to go back to Sendai tomorrow for a few hours, so I`m kind of excited about that!

Finally, we`re in the middle of a major typhoon right now, the power went off in our apartment a few times, but at least the church is a beacon of electrical light right now. As we were going shopping this P-day, the power went off in the store. The store clerks had to use simple calculators to add up our purchases, as the storm raged outside. It`s really raining like crazy and the wind is blowing hard, but at least we`re at a reasonably high elevation, so we`ll probably be safe.

Cultural point!

When you leave someone`s house, you either say `ojama shimashita` or `shitsure shimashita`, which both mean `I`m committed a rudeness`. Also, you can say the same thing but with `shimasu` when you enter a house. Then it`s more like `I`m going to be rude`.

Matta ne!

Earl Choro

Week Fourteen

By the way, sorry for not writing yesterday. Hopefully mom didn`t worry. We had tried to, but the door to the branch president`s office was locked. We tried going somewhere else to write, but they closed early, and the elementary school we went to let us in after waiting an hour, but lds.org was blocked as a `cult site`, so we had to give up. Usually we can only write on Monday, but thankfully they let us do this if we really tried our best to avoid it. Also, I got an electronic dictionary yesterday. It is so cool! I got it for 5000 yen less than normal, but I figured out yesterday it doesn`t plug in to charge. I`m pretty sure I can get rechargeable batteries for less than 5000 yen though, so I`m still pleased with my deal.

We finally found an investigator that I think has real potential this week! It was such a cool experience too. We had found him on our first P-Day in Ichinoseki, but we couldn`t meet again until just a few days ago. We were only going to give him a paper for church, but he invited us in and let us teach a lesson! Completely unexpected. He also tried giving us drinks, but he only had tea, coffee, and sake, so we just got water (which we were fine with, he felt bad though). He also gave us grapes, cookies, snacks, etc. I love it when that happens! We taught about God and families, because we could tell that family was important to him (he showed us pictures of his daughter who lives in Chicago and him and his wife visiting her). He lives with his wife and adult son, so maybe we`ll be able to teach a family for the first time. He doesn`t believe in God yet, but I felt like he really pondered over our message and might have a chance of being converted. I don`t want to get my hopes up too high right now, but the other foreign missionary in our district said that it is quite unusual.

Also, we went to Morioka for our zone training meeting, which is a much bigger city than Ichinoseki. I wouldn`t mind being transfered there after Ichinoseki. We ate Chinese food there, which was of course delicious.

I got Sichuan Ramen, so it was a lot spicier than anything else I`ve eaten here for a long time. Other than that, we`ve spent the week preparing for the new missionaries coming. There will soon be four of us in the apartment, and two couple missionaries as well! I`m guessing we`ll be almost completely foreign too, other than my trainer. It`ll be interesting for sure.

People in the branch say my Japanese has improved, so I have that at least. Also, I had allergies for a while, but now that I remember to take my pills, it`s completely stopped, thank goodness.

Anyhow, I`ll try sending a few pictures.

Bye bye

I forgot my cultural point again!

This is kind of a funny one too. You remember how Grace used to use those funny onamotepia like `waaa`, `baam`, etc.? Well, the Japanese do the same thing, except it`s normal for them. It`s a part of adult language as well as children`s language in this country. In fact, I`ve heard the exact same ones that Grace has used before. It`s so funny! In Japanese, even emotional states have onamotepia associated with them, which makes it even better! I love this language.

Also, on the crowded train to Morioka (crowded as in there was literally no room for any more people to stand anywhere in the train), I saw a girl who I think is Grace`s sister seperated at birth. She had the same thick, difficult-to-control hair as Grace, the same facial expressions. She even had almost the exact same school uniform that Grace wore to Timpanogos Academy, which is actually fairly rare as most Japanese girls where sailor style suits to school.

Right now, I really am very much enjoying this mission experience. It`s been a good time recently here.

Week Thirteen

This week has been pretty exciting. To start, we actually taught a real investigator for the first time! Sasaki San is a small guy who was interested in the church but got sick, so we`re teaching him now. I`ve actually taught him stuff, which has been pretty scary. Even scarier is his apartment, which is in the nastiest apartment complex I`ve ever been to. The spiderwebs are just at my head level. Super creepy. 

Also, we had splits this week, which means that elders from Kitakami, the city north of us, teach with us here in Ichinoseki. That was pretty nice, because I got to go with the other gaijin. While we were out visiting people, we took a shortcut through a Shinto shrine as well as a cemetary. The Japanese are too creeped out by the graveyard and too bored by the shrines to go in them. The shrine was super cool, I`ll try to send a few of my pictures, but it`s hard to capture everything. There`s a place where you tie prayers to, a place to tie bad fortunes to so they don`t come true, as well as a big shrine surrounded by lots of little shrines. Super cool. 

The food`s also been yummy usually, no complaints there. I`ve been more willing to get drinks from the vending machines all around, especially on hotter days. I`ve said it before, but they`re so good! Seriously, go to Da Zhong and get Mitsuya Cider and any other Japanese drinks that you can find. You won`t regret it! Anyhow, that about sums up the week. My companion is annoyed at how often I yawn now, but Japan`s great. The time`s been flying (which right now, I`m perfectly OK with). Bye!

The food here is pretty good, you just need to know how to cook it! Also, the food baskets are very nice to receive from members. We`ve gotten tons of food that way! And yes, it is so hot here, but it`s nicer than when I first got here (either that, or I`m beginning to adapt). The rumor around here is that early next year we`ll all get iPads that we can use in our apartments. 

I think Sendai mission is just about to become more gaijin than Japanese, something the Japanese aren`t necessarily too excited about. In fact, Ichinoseki will go from being mostly Japanese to mostly foreigners once the Hills move in (the senior couple allegedly coming in September or October.)