Some sort of deeper purpose

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!!!!! 

So we had eikaiwa, and after class I was asked by a 28 year old student named Kumiko (san) if I'd seen Frozen or something- 

I felt a choice had to be made- I'd been working on tying every conversation into the restoration- so there I went. 

I told her that we as missionaries can't watch movies now- to focus on our 'Mission'. Which eventually lead to me testifying about Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon, and how anyone can ask God if it's true. 

She said she believes in God. 

She said she hasn't for most of her life, but then one day a few years ago she started to think to herself: "Which way would be easier for me? Which way would make me happier? Believing in a God or not?" She had heard about God from some of her friends who went to other countries and she liked everything she heard about that. She said there were too many things in her life that seemed to be connected and have a purpose. "For example" she said "I'd be thinking of one of my old high school friends, and then look up and see he walking down a stair case next to me and stuff." So she decided that maybe she'd entertain the thought of there being a God and a purpose to life. And she liked it. 

I gave her a Book of Mormon which she gladly accepted, but said "I want you to sign it for me." So right after Eikaiwa, I signed a Book of Mormon, and gave it to her. (I hope that's not blasphemous.) 

We set up an appointment for the next Saturday (three days after) before English Class. 

She came and we taught her. 

(I prepared so hard for that lesson. And we... or rather, the Spirit  nailed it. It was solid. Every principal we laid down fix perfectly on top of the other, building the perfect foundation for the rest of the lessons. And all of it connected back to her perfect need: having a desire to be close to God. 

That's why we do the How to Begin Teaching, all of you missionaries out there. We're searching for their needs and once we find it, we staple it to the gospel. If we don't build that connection to what they need or desire, our message will have less relevance to them than a random show on TV. The gospel is beautiful. It can connect with everyone's needs. It is the thing that will save the world; it is in fact what everyone needs. You've gotta follow the Spirit, ask inspired questions, and then though the Spirit connect it to the gospel. It's a delicate process, much like a surgery. We lack the knowledge of their needs, and often times we're not quite sure how to connect it (though we should study our hardest to be able to do so), because of that, if we don't have the guidance of the Spirit, we're going to do nothing for them. The surgery will fail. It won't help them. If we don't listen to them and connect the gospel to their needs we're like a doctor just chucking out random drugs at a patient that has only said "I'm sick.". We're shooting in the dark. 

So the Spirit helped us out. We talked with her. Figured out her needs, and connected it all in- now all that we will do will be some more than words. It'll be the truth she needs, the medicine that will cure her soul. 

We taught about prayer after God, and she told us

That at night when she felt like no one was listening to her, she'd just lay on her bed and draw her thoughts out to God (not knowing how to pray). She said "When I felt like no one was listening, I'd talk to God those nights. I feel like maybe He understands." 

And I had the chance to tell her: "He does understand. He does. He knows everything about you, and He loves you."

She started coming to Eikaiwa (English class) here a week after I came here, and she says she believed that maybe there's some sort of deeper purpose or reason that she came when she did. She said that she felt in her heart that she was going to talk about something important here, but she wasn't sure when it'd be, but that she felt it would happen soon. And then the next week we invited her to hear the lessons. 

Yosh. (It's like, 'yay' or 'yaaaa!' or 'I did it' 'that just happened')

So ya. We have a mission rule that makes it so that we have to pass her to the sisters pretty soon. But, we're going to wait until the end of this week when we find our about transfers. (A lot of sisters are going home now, so they're getting pulled out of all of the smaller areas, so the sisters might get taken from here.) 

I love the mission. 

We had ZTM and during the business the Zone Leaders would just look at me before moving on because I just kept asking questions. Laugh. Just as always. (sasuga me!) 

Yep. 

I chatted it up on the train with this girl, and shared the message of the restoration. But it just got way awkward. 

Some times you win some, sometimes you lose some. 

I mean, how do you share the restoration in a way that doesn't make you sound totally crazy. Especially to people who don't know prayer, Christ, God, prophets, or any other basic Christian, or religious concept? 

Just image if a Buddhist priest came up to you in the grocery store with a heavy Asian accent and started telling you how Buddha reached nirvana and one day if you're good you can get reincarnated enough to reach it too. (except for that wouldn't even be weird enough, because you all have some sort of concept or belief in a deity or a higher power.) 

I guess we just have to try and connect them to the gospel, and then whip it back to the restoration, but that's a little rough for a five minute conversation, or even the twenty minute one that I had with the lady on the train. 

Practice, practice, practice, and study. 

THE SNOW IS MELTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! We've been riding out bikes. It's so wonderful. So so wonderful. 

Well, that was a long one folks. thanks for 我慢するing for me. 

As always, 

Love ya'll, 

Elder Tyson Clark Wheelwright

SWEET

So I've been focusing on trying to get our English Class bigger. I thought that the previous missionaries had hung up a lot of posters because I kept seeing them everywhere, but then when I looked in the map book I realized that they'd only put them up in the area near the apartment. 

I think it's funny to read Brandon's emails where he talks about how his area is only two miles square. At the shortest point across mine's more than 20 miles- probably 30 in some. 

So we hung up a lot of posters which I haven't done since I was a young one. The interesting thing is now I can understand what people are saying. 

I felt like a grandpa for a minute when I told my companion refused to take the next poster to ask- I said "When I was your age I was..." 

But eventually he got the hang of it. One super funny one was he walked in the store, walked straight up to the lady and said "This poster... English. I want you to hang up." 

He used plain form too, which you don't use on anyone but children and close friends. 

The lady graciously took the poster, and just as me, was trying not to laugh. We met eyes and bust up for a second. She said she'd hang it up and then we walked out. 

My comp was all like "What, what did I say?!" 

Good times. 

Most of the stores we went to would hang it up for us, but some were just way grumpy. 

We even went to this public hall where you can advertise anything you want there, so long as it's volunteer and the lady there frowned at us and said: "Oh, you're the Christians. We refuse to hang up anything to do with religion." Which ironically, they had shinto festival posters and pictures everywhere. 

Well, unlike you had in America, Dad, we don't need to take any time to convince people that Heavenly Father and Jesus are different people, or that we're even Christian. Most of the challenge here is to convince people that there might be a life after death, what a sin is, who Jesus Christ was, and ultimately that there is a God. 

The older generation (and very few of the younger) believes in praying to their rocks and ancestors. Most of the people here don't believe in any notion of God at all. If you die that's it. And every religious holiday is not just a party. 

Ah. :) The biggest barrier is the way the people view religion: religion is one of two things: A scam, or terrorism. 

But despite all of that, there are some people that probably don't even have the veil over them they're so prepared. 

The people are the nicest and most courteous  that I've ever met in the world. Everyone is helping everyone out. 

The members here are so strong. In Utah where it's a rarer thing to see someone even smoke, here they're the only member in their entire school, work, neighborhood. Out of 64,000 people 8 or so are active members. That's like what, a tenth of a percent? You could meet 8,000 people and only one of them would be an active member. 

But hey, what's exciting is that I'm part of that work to bring them back. I love these people, and they would all make such good members of the church. We've just somehow have got to change the way they all view this church or religion in general. 

I'll just be famous here, and then tell everyone about religion.. or something. 

Well, we're trying to get younger people, so we went and played basketball. I was pretty awful. They'd apparently seen missionaries before so they were willing to play half court. Apparently I made two? (is what my companion tells me) I don't remember. 

We've got to make the natural approach, invite them to ramen, and then they'll start asking us questions and BAM! they're an investigator. 

We're trying to avoid doing housing (though I think I like it more than basketball, which probably sounds pretty odd). 

We're planting seeds, and soon we'll be reaping. 

We taught our 12 year old investigator, Myuto-kun. We did a super punch lesson again. (Super short). He focused. Mostly. 

His grandma joints with us and she always pesters him about focusing, which actually has the reverse effect. He focuses less. 

But instead of teaching him next time I felt like (inspiration from God) instead of us teaching him, why don't we have him teach us? 

So he chose to teach us a lesson on how to find good friends. 

Church was crazy good yesterday. I'm getting so much more edified now that I understand most of what everyone's saying. (There's just some really specific tango (vocab) that they whip out randomly that makes it kind of rough. 

Also, I was suddenly asked to conduct the fast and testimony meeting. But hey, if I mess up at least there's only 17 people there to see it. (I say 17 because we had some visitors this week. The 2nd councilor in the district president came up with his daughter and stuff. He's a member from my previous area, Hachinohe. It was good to see him.)

After church we did a role play lesson with a member and she did not go easy. Even we made the slightest pronunciation mistake she's be like "What?" until we got it right. Laugh. I was trying to explain everything the best I could, and she just kept hammering us and I was loving it. "We never use that word. We wouldn't say God as a body of flesh and bones. We'd say He has a touchable body.  Flesh and bones is a written word, not a spoken one." 

I was like "Sweet! thank you!"  because normally they're too embarrassed or scared to correct us. 

Hanson Choro got frustrated, because she told him he was just whipping out words without making a connection to the previous principal. 

But I feel for him. Just like when I was his age- he asked me after we got home "Does your head hurt?" "Not really, why?" "Really... There was so much Japanese." 

Yep. I'm pretty sure working out your brain that much hurts your head just like working out your arms. 

I've made a new language study plan. I don't know so many words, even still. 

I love the PMG. Read that stuff. It's so golden. You all do realize how brilliant it is, just like I didn't. If you see the application of it, like so many missionaries are now, you'll understand a little bit more. I think it'd be cool to be a mission prep teacher. I'd blow everyone's minds with the PMG. So good. It's so good.

Anywho. That's about it for this week. 

Love ya'll. 

Knowledge & Faith

Well, 

So one of of two investigators is looking like he might be a drop. 

I called him up and he said he had a customer, so I told him I'd call back later- 

Called back later and--- I asked him if he could meet with us. 

He said "What business do you have?" 

"Uhhh... We want to meet with you?" 

"Then I'm busy." 

"What about this week?"

"I'm busy." 

"Alight, we'll call you next week."

On Sunday coincidentally President Domon said "When a Japanese person tell's you that they're busy, 80 or more % of the time they aren't."

But on the flip side, we had some good news. Our chubby little 12 year old investigator... with him lesson did! ahhhhfmmn. 

(I used to have this problem in reverse. I would often start a sentence in Japanese with the English order... Now as we can see.)

But ya, him with lesson did! He's a 12 year old kid, so we did a power-punch lesson. The goal is to make it as interesting, spiritual, and QUICK as possible. But the traveling Assistant had come that day to split with Koide Choro, so we had a Sannin doryogumi (Three person companionship). 

So ya. Teaching lessons totally changes with three. I spoke at the first making it fast and intense 

So we'll keep doing good stuff. 

Uhh... For finding- we figured housing just ain't the way to go, because everyone has already been housed, so we've been going to the community center trying to build friendships with people and teach them. 

I'm on the search for young people so some of the activities have been hit and miss. 

I go to a table-tennis activity expecting to get pounded down by some high school kids, but instead it's like twenty grandmas.. The sad thing was, we were pretty even. But we got to talk with them about what we're doing here. 

We checked out a guitar group (though we decided rather then just spend time there if we thing there's no hope, just to sneak in at the end of the 'class' if you want to call it that. We walked in guitar-less and the teacher looked at me. 

"Play me some guitar" And he practically threw his classical guitar at me, and pointed at the sheet music. 

I gulped. 

"Well, guys... I uh, actually can't read guitar music. I just play chords." 

The Sensei (which translates at both MASTER as well as teacher) came up to me and said "Give me your left hand."

So I did, and he stabbed my fingers with his finger nail. 

"mmmm.... kekko yatteirundane" ... (that's hard to translate, but ya, pretty much I passed. ) 

He said he doesn't know chords, just sheet music, so he wants me to teach him. 

Another good one that we had was the shogi group. (Shogi is Japanese chess, and it's both simple and crazy difficult. The pieces don't move as fast or far, but once you take an opponent's piece you can place it anywhere on the board that you want.... yerp.) So I got creamed. My mind just can't imagine them coming back and how to prevent them from killing me. 

But surprisingly THERE WAS A YOUNG PERSON!!!!! 

I found probably the only person under 30 (besides us) in all of Odate!!! (oh ya, and besides myuto kun) YAY!!!

He seems way cool. I came into the room watching the young kid and a shogi 'master' playing. There were a few people watching- they apparently thought that we couldn't speak Japanese and jumped when I laughed at one of the jokes that one of them said. I left the kid my number and an eikaiwa flyer. 

Well, that... and uh.... Zone Conference?... Was that last week? Ya, on Thursday. Not that I'm getting trunky or anything, but it's just super weird to think that I have only one left. 

It was way good. We got to watch the Meet the Mormons movie. It was pretty sweet, except for I think my brain and body had a melt down. 

I haven't watch a full movie for... a long time... and it was excellent, but it never seemed to end, and gave me a headache. I loved it though. I would recommend it.

This last Sunday was way cool. Everyone gave sweet talks and lessons.

After church we had a fireside about family history. 

Many people here are converts and still haven't done their family history or temple work. I'm the only missionary in our district that has ever done it before, 

the branch family history consultant asked me to teach her how to do family history. 

Yep. I love it here. The thought of returning makes some people want to give up on their mission for some reason, and as to why, I don't understand in the slightest. The thought of ending makes me want to push though all the more. 

In every other thing, like running a race or getting to the end of your life, people push all the more. The final sprint with a push of energy, or some of the death bed repentance's; 

I've got all the knowledge, all the Japanese, and more faith then I've ever had- 

(Now when I say 'all' I mean the most I've had up the this point) 

If you've got any questions just shoot them to me!

Love, 

Elder Tyson Clark Wheelwright

  

Drunk People

"Will you tell me about the people you are working with in your area?"

Well, we got transfer calls again so.... Half of the district is leaving so I don't really know,  but I can tell you what I've heard.

My companion is getting transferred-- So instead of Elder Hill, I'm getting a younger missionary named Elder Hanson (I think.) Apparently he's really nice. It's crazy, he'll be youngest missionary I've served with (besides when I was young). (Young as in dendo age young.)

Fukuchi Choro is leaving his bean (green bean) and he's going to be... the third AP?.. He was confused. Apparently things in the mish are getting crazy so we need three Assistants to handle it all. We've got two zone trainings, (the first I've ever heard of) mission taikai (huge meeting), and two or threeish zone conferences with in the next two months- so they're pretty busy. He'd just finished being a zone leader for 6 transfers before he became Odate's district leader (6 transfers 9 months) Now's he's going back. Otsukare- ('honorific tire'- as in tired)

Uh, Koide Choro is now in his second transfer- he was taking a ton of notes on the split we went on this week. He fell asleep in a lesson we did to a member, but I didn't even notice (he told me after). Laugh. He's funny. We were walking back home and there was a pack (a flock? a heard... a gang?) of middle school girls so I did what I do and walked up to them, and spoke English- 

"Hello!" 

"Herro!"

"How are you?"

"I fine, shank you!"

And it pretty much ends in all of them wanting to come to eikaiwa. (English class)

Koide Choro was freaking out, "That's so cool! You are a super missionary!"

"How do you do that?" He asked. I explained simply- 

"Elder Koide, I'm white." He thought that was funny.

But I told him that he could still give out Chirashi (flyers) and stuff, but he might have to take a different approach. 

It was funny because it made me remember when I was a bean, and every day was kind of a challenge. Now it's just 100% normal. America sounds like a challenge.

Well, then there's the Sister's Sakuma and Fujiki Shimai. They're pretty nice. They pretty good friends with their investigators and stuff, and like doing things independently so we don't have too many chances to talk with them. But they're great! Fujiki Shimai is transferring and we're getting another Gaijin Missionary named Carr Shimai. 

That's the district. 

"We know very little of your comp and of the branch. "

Well, so do I- I haven't met him yet............ man, I'm so funny. 

Elder Hill is great. He's smart. We've had fun. He's a good cook. :D we're friends.

 "Is it time consuming to be in the Branch Presidency." 

No, I don't do a whole lot. Next week I conduct the meeting for the first time. (President Smith is coming to our little branch) Other than that there's not a whole lot going on so... Pretty normal. 

"How is that whole thing going over?" 

It's going pretty good. The branch president and me are buds, so it's going pretty good. He took us all out to ramen the other day. 

"Did the District Pres accept you and everything?"

Ya, they love me. He came here a little while ago and we chatted it up. He's a nice little man, who has a whole lot of respect for everyone. In the church it's hard to find people that actually have evil intents. They're all so good.

Okay- Thanks for the boots and stuff. They work great! (I had Koide Choro and Fukuchi Choro try the twislers, Koide Choro just said "oohp" when he ate the black one. He said he was going to be a challenger and ate a whole piece. They said it wasn't gross, but it wasn't good- it just... was. 

This week was pretty good. We had zone training meeting and it was great to see everyone (the missionaries) from Hachinohe again. It was a good meeting. Moffat Choro (My 2nd companion in Tsuruoka) is our Zone Leader now, and he's grown so much, especially in Japanese. He did the whole thing in pretty good Japanese. 

Uh, Eikaiwa was good. I only have two students who are about at the same level, so I can teach them like crazy. I decided to do a review week, and they didn't remember anything that I had taught them up to that point- I decided to make them do Mogi's (role plays) like the missionaries always do, but in normal real-life situations. They were freaking out. I made them pretend we were at a bus stop, and they had to start a conversation with me. (at some point it became less of an english class and more of a social skills class for a bit.

'You normally say 'Hi' before you start talking to someone' 

'Asking for people's age could have some odd implications' etc. 

I repeated what they did in English to them in Japanese, and they cracked up laughing. 

'tashikani, tashikani- sorewa ienaimon ne' 'you're right, you're right- we shouldn't say that' )

We were housing it up again on Sunday, and for the third week in a row we got to give out a Book of Mormon. 

It was blizzard like crazy, and I laughed to my comp and said "Housing is always better in a storm. They just feel bad for you." 

So, some people did. 

 We got into two different houses. 

One's an old guy who likes to talk about less pleasant things, but I've mastered steering him to the gospel. Hopefully we can get him. Though he doesn't really care for religion or God. He's a good guy though. I love him. 

Then the other was way weird/ scary. 

The door flung open after we rang it and there was a giant of a Japanese guy standing there. (He was taller than me- I'd say he was 40 years old or so?)

"What do you want? What are you doing here?"

"We put this flyer into your post the other day-"

"What is it?"

"It's about the after life" 

"Well, I've got cancer so, come on in!" 

And we just jumped inot this guy's apartment. 

We found out shortly that he was drunk. He said a lot of things, but it was hard to tell if he was joking or not, but I decided to play it safe and split. (After of course playing guitar for him- he had like five or six electric guitars on the wall.) He seems like a cool guy, but I just stood up and told him we'd come back later. 

then what made me stand up to go is when he said 'Everyone thinks that Japan is full of just good people, but that's not true. There are a ton of evil people in this country...' then he leaned forward and whispered 'I'm the most evil of them all' 

So, ya, joke or not, we left him a Book of Mormon with our number- he was half-creepy half super nice. Hopefully we can help him.) 

Ya!!! 

Now we've got transfers this week, so we're headed to the big city. 

I'm going to make Odate the sickest. Every missionary has been saying that Odate is just waiting to blow up, and I think the time is coming soon. 

If I can just get everyone to focus on dendoing at all times, and becoming like Christ then we can get some work done. 

My theme will be Like-Christ. We will dendo as He did, serving others and teaching along the way. I love this mission. I love missionary work. 

I'm in the fourth quarter, and I've finally figured out the rules of the game. 

Love ya'll!

Keep on keeping on- 

Elder Tyson Clark Wheelwright

Getting stopped by the Cops cause we're white

This week was pretty interesting. 

So.....

We ate some Sushi. And I think it's quite a bit different than sushi that we have in America. I think most of it in America is like the roll style. 

The kind that we eat the most here is a chunk of fish on a chunk of rice. The tuna is pretty good actually, even though at first it grossed me out. 

I wonder if all of you could even handle sushi?... ? 

I tried some Buri, which is sardine, and I don't know if it was because it had the skin, or the bones, but something about the texture was weird. 

But other than that it's all good.... 

Uhh.  An older member invited us over to her house, and she's hilarious. She can't walk, so she's got all these crazy chairs around her house, that she just jumps off one to another. 

She's even got one up the stairs... .So she commanded me to ride it and to have fun. So I did both of those. 

Uh............................................ 

We got a new student at eikaiwa this week. (English Class) She's way cool. I told them about prom and explained all the steps and everything. 

They said it seemed like a dream- or like a Disney Princess movie. 

They don't have dances here at school or anything, which is super sad. No parties.

The new girl took a picture of us and said she was going to advertise us on facebook and stuff. 

On Thursday we spend all day on trains to get to zone training and back. It's cool though because I love train dendo. 

Japanese people are all about talking with people about the whether. So, I started up a conversation with a 90 year old grandma next to me. (you always call old people grandma in Japanese for some reason... not to their faces normally, but when you talk to other people) 

She loved me. By the end she gave me her number, address, and name and said that we'd have to hang out sometime. 

She was speaking in an odd dialect. But I got most of what she was saying. She kept asking me (cause young people don't even understand them sometimes) "Do you get what I'm saying?" "Is it getting though?" 

I'd always answer honestly: "Ya, most of it." 

She said I was the best.... yep.

So ya. I feel like a grandma. 

Back problems, 

Shoulder problems, 

My hip started killing me the other day- 

But oh well. I've just gotten a (oldmanish) appreciation for the doctrine of the resurrection. :D

So. 

Yep, then we didn't even get time for studies because we had to go straight to the city next to ours to do Kid's eikaiwa there. 

That was fun. There's just like 10, 10-year old girls, that are all hilarious. I play a game where I write two words on the board, and practice them, cover my mouth and say one of them and they have to point to it. 

Laugh.... It was hilarious. 

Right ------ Light

I cover my mouth 

"Right"

They all point at light. 

So ya, because of the snow our train home got delayed... (over two hours) 

But a train to akita was coming in a few minutes and it would take only 1 hour and 40 minutesish. So we got the green light from the District Leader, and us and the Shimai (sisters) jumped on. (we had interviews in Akita the next day and would have to wake up earlier than 6:30 to get there anyway. 

We met four tired missionaries at the train station in Aikita at 10:30. The Elders there walked us back to their apartment. (which was way close.) 

It was funny cause when we got there, Elder Hodskins (I can't spell his name) took of his winter coat and pants and was wearing pajamas underneath. 

So ya. They were nice and gave us toothbrushes, toothpaste, savers, towels, and beds. (well futons) 

Had some good interviews the next day [

"Be the best missionary you know how to be. Consecrate your life to Him. Give your time to Him. Let your whole eye be single to His glory and He will change you." 

And so here I go. 

This week I'm going crazy trying to make every minute the Lord's. 

I'm so tired every single night 

So yep. On Saturday we rode a 1 hour train to a (even more in the middle of nowhere) town called Kazuno to visit an LA. 

It was blizzarding up there. 

We carried a huge map book, which we cracked open to navigate to her house. 

We were laughing as we walked though the snow and wind. (at one point a gust of wind kicked in which made it so we almost couldn't walk forward- we blamed it on satan.) 

We made it to her house. Her husband wasn't there, (who is the LA. She's a member though. She gave us hot coco, (standing in the genkan isn't against the rules) and we gave her come pictures of Christ with notes on them for her and her husband. She told us on Sunday that as she saw us walking away into the blizzard tears came to her eyes. 

Then we got stopped by the police. 

Hill Choro had warned me that this might happen. 

So Kazuno, is so much in the middle of nowhere, that there are no white people that live there. A ton of people probably haven't even seen a white person before. 

And no matter what happens, for some reason, a person will see us gaijin, walking around and just feel the need to call the cops. Yep. 

That's the truth. Let me sum it up in a sentence. 

We so much in the middle of nowhere, that people call the cops on us cause we're white.

But ya. I thought it was pretty funny. We just showed him our cards and he was way cool. He knew where we lived and everything. Nice guy. 

I thought the whole thing was funny, and wanted to share the joy of how funny it was with some of the Japanese people in my branch. 

But everyone seemed kinda angry. "Well that's way rude." 

or "They shouldn't do that." 

No one laughed.... I hope ya'll laugh in America.

We did a mogi (role play) lesson with one of the 6 sisters after church. She said my Japanese sentences were too long and hard to understand. (Plus my pronunciation was a little bad... Humbled.) 

But we challenged her to pray for us this week. "Hill Choro and I will go crazy, working hard, but we need your help" is what I told her. "We need you to pray for us as well so that we can find a new investigator." 

So here we go. 

We went to go deliver the sacrament to Sasaki Kyodai, and asked the nurses preemptively where the chairs were, (so that we could sit by his bedside).

They asked "Why?" 

We said "To visit with Sasaki-San"

"Haven't you been told?" 

"What?"

"He's ()" They used a weird word that means checked out. Or unregistered. 

"What do you mean?"

 "Well... He's dead."

So, ya.... We wrote down the date and time... and just sat down for a little bit.. I called the Branch President and passed on the news. 

Sigh. Well. He was only in his 60's. 

I told him that after he got better I'd come back and I'd go take him out to eat ramen. He hated the food there. He always told us he just wanted to go take us out to eat, just like he'd always done with the missionaries. 

Turns out he'd passed away only a couple of hours after we left the hospital last Sunday; a couple hours after he took the sacrament.

Just like the cliche line says, he's most definitely "In a better place now", but I wonder if the transition is difficult. I pray for him every night. 

(The sisters went to visit him a few hours after with Tamura Shimai, who's the same age as Sasaki-Kyodai, but the nurses didn't have the heart to tell them, they just said to call us and we'd tell them. So yep.)

Well. Since we had some extra time before the train came, we went housing. And just the same as ever we got rejected, but this time I was a little angrier because of how hard their hearts were- So one lady opened the door and said right after we finished saying Christ's name 

"I'm getting a little old. I've only got about 20 years left in life, so I don't need religion."

I retorted. "Don't you?! You know religion usually deals with what happens to people after they die, and preparing for it?"

She just said politely: "I'm truly sorry." 

In Japanese, you can have a conversation with no emotion at all if you use, keigo. (really polite speech) it carries no emotion at all. 

But ya. We got home and visited a PI we affectionately called the Crazy Lady. She wasn't home again. So we went housing. 

I've been praying for the Spirit a lot and I felt like we should stop at some apartments on the way back. (They were a little out of the way and tucked in behind some houses.) 

So we knocked with no answer until the third door, when a middle aged lady opened. 

She was spunky, and was actually willing to hear us out. She said don't believe in a religion, but she is willing at least to read their texts. I whipped out the Book of Mormon. 

"Sorry, it's a little beat up." I said. (It's been a while since I've passed out a Book of Mormon)

We tried to set up an appointment for the sisters to come back and teach her, but she just said 

"For now, I'll read this book. I'll give you a call when I'm done so you can have it back." (she flipped though it and whispered to herself 

"It shouldn't take more than a few hours." )

So ya. I testified to her that if she read that book and asked God though prayer, that she would know that it's true. 

So that was pretty crazy. 

Well this is the longest email I've ever written in my life. Enjoy it. 

I'll conclude by telling you that my favorite company of yogurt drinks came out with a new fruity flavor. It's sitting the fridge at home, waiting for my lips. 

(Isn't it weird that we have fridges in the winter...? It's cold outside so we have a warm room inside, and it's warm inside so we have a cold box inside of that.... Maybe it's just me.) 

Be inspired everyone. 

Elder Tyson Clark Wheelwright

The Lord has helped me learn how to work

まあ、日本語ができる。

People in line to go to the Shrine

ma- nihongo ga dekiru. 

Well, I can (speak) Japanese...

So... 

Let me try to explain, 

When I was in the MTC, when all my teachers only spoke Japanese, I was trying so hard to understand- but it's like trying to figure out the quadratic equation when you've never seen (done) math before. My head hurt constantly. 

I got in the field and like everyone feels, I couldn't speak at all- 

In my second transfer (a month and a half in Japan) I had a third transfer trainer. Both of us couldn't really speak Japanese, so we wandered the streets trying to understand what people were saying. To be honest I had no idea what they were saying, but by the tones of their voice and the afraid expressions on their faces I could tell they were  rejecting us. 

I was determined not to be beaten by this language. 

A friend,who was a return missionary from Sapporo Japan,  that I had in collage before my mission was talking with me about Japanese even before I got my mission call. 

"How was the Japanese?" I asked, knowing nothing other than that Japanese was supposedly hard. 

"It was awful." he told me "It wasn't until a year that I could understand what people were saying to me. Even after two years I couldn't really speak. I kept quiet most of the time and let my companions do all of the talking."

When I got the call to Sendai Japan, I was determined not to be beaten by the language, and put off studying really at all before I went into the MTC. I figured it'd come. 

At a couple months in, my Japanese wasn't coming- and I remembered the story my friend told me. He kept quiet... He let two years almost uselessly slide by, not because he wasn't willing to share the gospel, he wouldn't have left if he hadn't, but because he didn't beat the language. 

Now, you hear of the gift of tongues, and you might think just as I though., I thought some sort magic was going to occur. I thought I'd be standing there with someone that needed the message and magically I'd open my mouth and all the right words would spill forth- but one thing that I've learned- is that God with His infinite wisdom and power, will not do things for us that we can do for ourselves. We grow though overcoming trials, and the saving grace doesn't always kick in when we want it to, or think it ought to. 

I thought one night, laying on the floor, (that's how we sleep in Japan), and had what you might consider a Gordon B. Hinkley experience. I was thinking selfishly, and wondering why God had seeming left me all alone to waste my time. Every day, I tried my best during language study to learn, but it would all slip away the next day. Why aren't you helping me?! I asked in my wrath to God... 

Elder Uucdorf said "That spiritual light,rarely come to those who sit in darkness." 

I was certainly trying, but a little thought creeped into my head, at the time I didn't know, but now I know that it was from the Spirit of the Lord. 

'Are you doing ALL you can?'

Me and My Ramen

Missionaries only have a few precious hours a day of time to think.   There's the hour in the morning to shower and eat, the hour for both lunch and additional study, the hour in the evening for dinner, and the hour after planning for writing in the journal and prepping for bed. If you clever with your time, you can maybe have a few minutes to think during that time. 

That little bit of thinking time was precious to me... The question that came was "Are you doing ALL you can?" and I wondered... Am I really doing ALL I can...? 

We sometimes lull ourselves to think that we're doing enough, we don't need to give any more. 'I'm doing all I can!' 

but are we? 

I looked around and realized that there was something more that I could give. I could trade (as we all have to at some point) something that I want a little now, for something I want so much more later. 

So I made the trade. 

Every morning after exercise, a quick shower and breakfast, I started to study Japanese writing. During language study I study the grammar,(lunch and dinner I study what I feel is lacking) in the evening I memorize vocabulary and make flash cards upon flash cards, and during the day, I try to speak as much as possible. I started then and I still do it now. 

And though I still lack so much and am not even close to fluent. I'm better today than I was yesterday. And after looking back over 100's of days- I can see growth. I thank the Lord for letting me learn, and pushing me along the way.

Yep... that sounded like I'm bragging... I don't even know if I want to tell anyone other than family that or whatever.... 

But yep. The Lord has helped me learn how to work. 

On the train yesterday I stuck up a conversation with a girl about the snow, and she kept freaking out saying that I was fluent and stuff. Then right after she said that she said something that I didn't understand. Laugh. I've still got a long way to go. 

But ya, motometara, (in conclusion) 

yep. We've gotta work. 

Spiritually I'm still as stupid at a brick. I've learned a lot, and am leaps and bounds above who I used to be, but still am lacking so much. But hey, I think we get to the point when we are leaning to the more spiritual side. I've always thought I was pretty good stuff and knew a whole lot when I was further away from the Lord before my mission. The closer we get to Him, the more we realize that we suck and need Him so much. 

Yep. I hope that gives you something to work with.

A sister drew this picture of me for a newsletter

Ya, we visited Sasaki Kyodai again yesterday (the member in the hospital who speaks English).

He's taken a turn for the worse, and has an O2 mask and all that. He recognized us but couldn't really understand too much of what we were saying. His leg is all skin and bones. His eyes were wide with fear. 

The nurses said we could say long, and he just kept saying 'sacrament' over and over. 

So we did that, then he told us with tears in his eyes that he loved us and gave us handshakes- and we left.

He's only in his late 60's. Pray for him everyone. Brother Sasaki. 

We did a lesson with Myuto-kun. He says he half believes, half doesn't believe in God. It was a good lesson. We told him how he can know the truth. He said he'd pray every night to get an answer. 

He's such a little chub. I love Myuto-kun. He hugs us every time we come in and wraps his legs around us. He's funny. 

He couldn't come to church yesterday because he had a judo tournament. 

I can't type English correctly anymore. So I might have grammar mistakes. 

Uh... We tried to go to ZTM, but.. ya. There's was to much snow, so the train from hirosaki to aomori was down. We got to try again this week.

Yep. That's dendo. 

Peace out. 

Elder Wheelwright