新しい伝道地

March 22, 2015 Email:

Hello everyone! As you probably know, this week has been crazy here in the Sendai mission. Apparently you already got the photo they took of our mission, so I don`t need to send that at least!

So, I`ll start by finishing up how Yonezawa went, since that`s where I was until Friday. On Tuesday we went to (a) family`s house and enjoyed a delicious meal of Tonkatsu and Kara`age. The kids were very well behaved!

On Wednesday, I taught my last Eikaiwa and a new student came. He spoke Chinese and he was really cool, but I won`t ever see him again, probably. But we`ll be friends on Facebook soon! We also finally got to see (H)-san and teach her about the Word of Wisdom with a member who just came back from Hawaii. (H)-san said that the Word of Wisdom wasn`t hard and seemed like a good idea anyways, so she`s going to follow it! The member, "M"-chan, told us about her re-conversion story where the love that the elderly missionaries had made her want to go back to church.

On Thursday, Pierson Choro and Olsen Choro left for Sendai leaving me and Mendoza Choro in Yonezawa for that day and Friday. We had a pretty good time teaching (S)-san about following the prophet. She has read so much from the Book of Mormon and is really starting to progress a fair amount. I think that General Conference seems a bit boring to her, but that`s how most people, even members feel, when they first watch it.

On my last day in Yonezawa, Mendoza Choro and I didn`t have too much planned, but we did what we could and actually found a new investigator about an hour before we had to head off for Sendai. It was pretty surprising for sure! He`s a member of another Christian denomination, but said that he is willing to hear about our church as well.

Sendai was pretty crazy after being in the `inaka` for so long. People just pouring everywhere! And the missionaries were all packed in Sendai as well, which was fascinating. I hardly knew anyone in my apartment, the Kamisugi apartment, but I finally met the other elder from our stake as well as my MTC companion who I`ve hardly been able to meet on my mission.

The conference itself was pretty insane. They had all the missionaries shake hands, and I realized that I don`t know a fair amount of the people I saw because we`ve had so many new missionaries recently. I thought the conference would focus on how we`re going to use iPads, but it ended up being focused on how to avoid temptations that come from iPads. Apparently we`ll get specific training later, but we have booklets that detail how things will go. For example, we`re going to get functions in phases, with iPads being used for study first, followed by using them for planning purposes, and finally, in a month or so, we`ll be able to use Facebook and other methods of missionary work. We should actually get the iPads in a week or so, which will be nice, but we have to wait for a district meeting with Smith Kaicho. Also, the good news is that it looks like we`re borrowing them for free! That was something a lot of us were worried about.

Anyhow, Yamagata. What can I say, it is a wonderful place! The ward is pretty big (not compared to a Utah ward, but to me it`s huge). The members are really cool and have a great desire to dendo. We met with a recent convert named "A" Kyodai (Kyodai means `brother`, mom!) and he made us a delicious feast of meat. The lamb was actually quite delicious, but the heart had a strange texture. Either way, it was a lot of fun. I`ve only had a day and a half here so far, but I can tell that Yamagata is going to be my favorite area!

Also, we had a two hour long baptismal interview with a deaf guy. Usually, only the district leader does the interview, but we had permission for me to go in as well. It was pretty intense because there are a few issues, but he will get baptized at some point. Either this Saturday or sometime soon, but we still have to check with our mission president I think.

I think that`s about it! I`ll send a few pictures of my new area! The one in this email is our district`s party with the Recent Convert. The device in the middle cooked the meat. You can see the six missionaries in our ward as well as a member couple on the far right with "A" Kyodai in the middle.

Aishiteimasu!

Elder Earl

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山形へ I'm Transfering!

    Earl Choro and Olsen Choro with        young friend and his origami trucks he made for them on their last Sunday in Yonezawa. 3/15/15

Hello everyone!

It feels like it`s been longer than a week since I last talked to you since so much has happened!

First of all, thank you for the birthday wishes and treats. We actually got hit by a freak blizzard from about Tuesday to Thursday, so even though it`s nice again now, we realized exactly how fickle Japanese weather is. It took us off our bikes for a few days, but we were still able to keep busy!

At church yesterday, we probably had the most people in Sacrament Meeting in years. 28 people were at church, including seven non-members! Some members referred to it as 奇跡的 or miraculous. The Spirit was especially strong as we had a member talk about prayer in a simple way that non-members could understand too. All in all, it was a good last Sunday in Yonezawa.

So, yeah, I`m transferring to Yamagata Ward. This will probably be my last area since I only have two transfers left, but it`s a great situation to end in. My new companion, Mantz Choro, is going home the same time as me, so we`ll be able to work well together. One strange thing about this transfer is that Olsen Choro is transferring with me to Yamagata. I`ve never actually heard of people transferring to the same area as someone in their previous area, but we`re looking forward to it!

Yamagata is the area just north of Yonezawa, only 45 minutes away, but it`s completely different. I`ll be going from a branch with 20 members maybe to a ward with more than 70 people in attendance. One way you can see the difference is in how the Easter Party is working. In Yonezawa, the missionaries plan everything, invite people, arrange the entertainment, and try to talk to people at the same time. In Yamagata, I`ve heard that we have to do a five minute explanation on the true meaning of Easter and that`s literally it. After that, our job is to talk to people and try to set up appointments and such. The mission leader is a Hawaiian who moved to Japan specifically to increase missionary work in Japan, so he has things very neatly under control. It`s pretty much missionary work the way missionary work should be. I can`t wait to use these last few transfers to work my hardest!

Also, we have iPad training on Saturday with at least three general authorities and the entire mission. Fukuoka mission gets Elder Nelson for their training, but I won`t complain too much! I don`t know when we`ll actually get iPads or really anything about them, but you`ll surely hear about that next week!

Well, I feel like there`s a lot more to say, but I`ll leave it there! I`ll send a few pictures too!

Baibai!

Elder Earl

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Fukishima etc.

Hey everyone! This week has been, unfortunately, a bit slow, but it was still pretty good!

So, first things first, we can use bikes again! The snow hasn`t completely melted, but the roads and sidewalks, at least, are clear enough to make travel safe again. You wouldn`t believe how nice that is! Trips that used to take more than an hour take less than half an hour now and we don`t have to pay for a bus fare. There are rumors that it could snow again, but at least it won`t be bad enough to stop us at this point!

We hardly had any lessons this week, unfortunately. We taught "S"-san on splits about the Word of Wisdom, which he said isn`t possible at this point, and taught "-kun about the importance of God. In addition, we taught "S"-san; we were going to teach about repentance, but she had a lot of questions from her reading in the Book of Mormon, so we spent the whole hour focused on that. It`s kind of crazy how much more she reads from the Book of Mormon now than when I first came here to Yonezawa. She said she would try to come to church yesterday, but something came up so she couldn`t.

On Friday, we went to Yamagata for our Zone Training Meeting followed by a dinner appointment in a town between there and Yonezawa. I made a mistake and ate a lot of Indian curry and bread before and could hardly eat anything that the Yoshida family made for us. Just when I thought we were safe, she brought out a huge cake for the missionaries` birthdays (we all have March or April birthdays). The pieces were almost as big as American cake slices. It was intimidating, though I`m now worried that there`s no way I`ll be able to readjust to American food. The family is really good and wants to do what they can to help their friends learn about the gospel.

We went to Fukushima and back yesterday, which was fun! I didn`t end up having to teach a lesson, which was kind of a relief for me. They were having a White Day shokujikai (lunch), which I enjoyed immensely. It was a lot bigger than Yonezawa`s. The members were as nice as usual, with some asking me questions about English, the Chinese lady talking to me as if I perfectly understood her, etc. We also saw a singing competition in front of Fukushima station with some gospel music! It was pretty interesting. A group of girls tried there best to talk to us in English and were shocked to find that we can actually speak Japanese. It`s always fun to do that!

I think that`s about it for this week! I`ll try to send pictures, because I actually have one of our district! The rest of the p-day time will probably be spent picking classes for BYU and enjoying district p-day! Yay for 17 Miracles!

Talk more next week!

Aishiteimasu!

Elder Kirk Earl

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春節おめでとうございます

Elder Earl and Elder Pierson

3/1/2015

Hello, everyone!

We had a pretty busy but fun week here in Japan.

First of all, we finally got to leave Yonezawa and have our zone conference in Yamagata. It was, as may be expected, really good. President Smith always has great things to say, with a focus this time on the importance of the gift of tongues and overcoming addictions. One good line from our president: `I`ve been studying this language for more than eight years, and even now I only understand about 50% of the words spoken in Sacrament Meeting. There`s no way that you can understand every vocabulary word. Even you, Elder Earl.` I can certainly understand the language much better than when I first got here, but Japanese is definitely a difficult language. Most of the time, you have to judge by context what the meaning probably is.

We also watched `Meet the Mormons`, quite the surprise! It was nice to watch a `real` movie for once, and it was interesting to see the lives of Mormons in different parts of the world. It was strange watching the missionary head off, for sure! Especially the pizza party they had. All the Americans here miss that sort of thing! I was extremely impressed by what a well-made movie it ended up being. I`d recommend watching it!

Finally, we had our Chinese New Year event, and it went really well! I was surprised by how many people came, more than Sacrament Meeting attendance by a fair amount, with nearly half of the people non-members. For a rural area in Japan, it`s pretty exceptional. Our Eikaiwa students did an English puppet play, which was really goofy, but it helped them actually come to our activity, and I think they enjoyed it. Yamaguchi Shimai, our Chinese recent convert, made tons of dumplings, which were extremely delicious. It was great to see the developing relationship between members and nonmembers, and we also had an Eikaiwa student say that he wanted to come to church!

One interesting thing that happened was that on Monday we went to teach "H"-san before she headed off to Tokyo for vacation. Our joint cancelled on us just after we got to Taira Shimai`s apartment, so Taira Shimai asked one of her neighbors to joint so that we could go in the apartment and teach the lesson. This neighbor was "K"-kun`s mom. It turns out, she is interested in reading the Book of Mormon and she said that we could do lessons with the family if the dad`s not home (he doesn`t like foreigners). Things are picking up here!

Thanks for all your prayers for us missionaries here in Asia. It`s a great place!

Random other stuff: Pierson Choro and I head off to Fukushima on Sunday to teach a lesson in Chinese. Wish me luck! And we are officially getting the iPads this month! Elder Evans is coming in to Sendai on the 21st and we have our mission-wide conference, the first I`ll have ever experienced.

Bye!

アール長老

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

2/22/2015

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! It`s not really a major holiday out here, just as it is in America, but we`ve been having a good time here in Yonezawa!

On Saturday, we went to a Chinese New Year lunch party sponsored by YIRA, the international association of Yonezawa. Our investigator was planning on going, but she cancelled. However, we still were able to have a tasty, fun time eating food and listening to a person from a small Miao village talk about the traditions in her remote hometown (to get there, you have to fly to Guiyang, take a bus for two hours, take another bus for half an hour, and walk for two hours). There`s some people that we met there that we definitely want to try working with, so we`ll see how that goes! This week, we`ll have our own Chinese New Year Party at the church, so hopefully we can get decent attendance!

In other news, this week is going to be a bit less busy than normal. "H"-san is going to Tochigi for the next few weeks and "K"-kun seems to have dropped us. However, we will get to meet with "H"-san today at least! And "S"-san and her son came to church along with one of the other elders` investigators! We also have Zone Conference this week in Yamagata, so we`ll finally get a chance to leave the area. I love Yonezawa, but three weeks in the same place can get a bit long.

I`m not really sure what else to say. We`ve continued teaching lessons, having people progress in the typical slow Japanese way, but at least we have good people that we`re teaching! In good news, we haven`t had snow for a solid week so it might actually melt sometime! Winter is almost over! If we`re lucky, we`ll be able to ride bikes again someday!

Hope you are all doing well! See you soon-ish!

Aishiteimasu!

Elder Earl