No better way to celebrate the day of the birth of Christ than to preach His word

hope all goes well in America. 

Uh... So ya. This last week was Christmas in Japan.

Just so you can get an image of Christmas, and what it is, I'll explain some history. 

So Japan was ruled by warlords back in the day one smart guy worked the system and got the emperor on his side, and unified much of Japan. 

(Oh, by the way, the first emperor was the son of God apparently, so the current emperor has the blood of a god in him, which gave him a bunch of power- because no one likes to fight against God) 

So yep, white people and stuff started coming to Japan to trade and stuff, and brought guns and it threatened to destroy their society and culture- so they cut off their boarders for like 200 years. 

So while the rest of the world was progressing through the industrial era, Japan had Samurai sword fights and stuff. So, they were a little behind, but they liked it. So like in the 1870's an American guy shows up on a steam boat and demands that the Japanese trade with them. First of all it freaks all the Japanese out, because they've never seen a seam boat before, calling it the 'ship with black sails'- but the Japanese are suborn and like the way Japan was- (I'd rather hang out with samurai and ninjas too.)

so they naturally rejected them. The American said in effect, 'alright, I'll kill you all'

So he got in his ship, and let loose the cannons on Japan blowing up the port-

So ya, that did two things for Japan, 

1. they started trading with America, and 

2. they realized that unless they modernized they'd get taken over. 

Japanese people don't like getting taken over- 

So they changed their ideals, tried to preserve their culture while growing- 

The United States refused to trade with Japan, they got angry, and yep. 

The attack on pearl Harbor, and then the Atomic Bombs

then the U.S. occupied them, tore down their military, and America became their military. 

And then random aspects of American culture like the commercialized aspect of Christmas (and Halloween etc.) all soaked in but only on the surface level. 

So everyone knows Santa gives gifts to kids and has elfs, 

But no know he lives on the north pole, or let alone anything about Christ. 

So we put on Santa hats and we passed out all of the these little bags with candy canes and chocolate, (the physical food) and put a card about where Christmas really comes from and the Japanese missionaries in our district wrote little notes on another card too, wishing people a merry Christmas and stuff. 

We passed out probably a little over 100. which for this small town is a pretty big deal. 

{We got our pictures taken by some high school girls, so if you're surfing some Japanese girls facebook pages, don't be surprise if you see us.}

Christmas was good. No better way to celebrate the day of the birth of Christ than to preach His word. 

I love the Gospel. 

I love ya'll! 

Elder Wheelwright

Life is pointless without service

Well, I've moved to a new area and all of that stuff. 

I moved from Aomori ken (blue forest prefecture) to Akita ken (Autumn field prefecture) and now I'm in Odate shi. (Large... center/ building?) 

Ya apparently there was a giant castle out here, but it burned down... So now there's nothing. Laugh. 

That's a joke. People told me I was going to the most rural part in our mission, and so I was expecting the worst- but ya, if you compare this place to Morgan... this place is New York City. It's got a mall and street lights and everything. 

I always tell people the town that I'm from doesn't even have a street light (don't tell me they got one) and they just about drop the things they're holding, or they jaw. 

Yep. 

Well, we went to sendai, and I met a bunch of my old companions so that was way good and stuff. During lunch I ran over to a book store and bought some more Japanese books- that's seriously all I do with my extra time, just flip though grammar books and stuff. 

I've some how been able to convince everyone here that I'm 'fluent' in Japanese. (In our district of 6 only my comp and I are gaijin, everyone else is Japanese) 

So, yep. 

I was walking down the road and I said hello to an older woman, which isn't that impressive, then I said 'samui desu ne' 'It's cold, isn't it?' and she almost fell over screaming about how fluent I am. 

I think everyone here that's ever seen a gaijin, has never actually seen one that can speak Japanese... maybe? 

We took the train into a neighboring city to do a kid's English class, and they freaking out at my Japanese. 'perapera ja-nn' 

A member asked Elder Fukuchi if I could speak Japanese at the shokujikai (meal party) after church, and he said 

"hai hai, kare wa oishii" 'Ya, he's delicious' for some reason...? 

I think he meant to say 'umai' instead of 'oishii' the former meaning both 'really good' and 'delicious' and the latter meaning only delicious in the food sense....? It was funny. 

But I still can't read or write. 

Anyways- 

I went to buy some boots, because the snow here is rediculous here. There's so little space, everyone opens up like the sewer drains (kana?) and stuff and dumps the snow in. The snow piles up on the sides of the street too, so even though it melted a bit the other day, it's still about up to my chest. 

But the normal snow is only about up to our knees. So ya. I went to buy some boots, and I tired on their biggest XL size and it's still too small, so I took it up to the guy and the counter and asked him if he had any bigger sizes, and he just started cracking up laughing. 

Yep, so I went with that. My feet hurt, but hey, it was only 2000yen. And with the exchange rate being in favor of the dollar, means it's probably only like 16 bucks. Yay. Cheaper is better. 

We were at McD for lunch, and these five high school guys came in. 

I've gotten sick of teaching old people so I'm going crazy and focusing on young people. (Sure I'll still talk to and teach the older people, but I yuusen the younger over the older. I... put the younger over the older(?). 

So I was debating in my mind whether or not to talk with all of them. 

I felt like I should, and part of me wanted to, but then the other part of me just wanted to enjoy my lunch/ language study time (because we've been so busy), at that moment I felt like I lacked courage, power, the right kind of words- but then I just said a little prayer that though the atonement that I could do it, and bam! No fears, I talked with all of them, it was way cool, I gave them all cards about Christ. 

The atonement works. Ya'll can dendo. (I picked up ya'll from my last, last companion.) 

What else..? 

I've been wearing a santa hat and using it to talk to people about Christmas. It pretty great. 

Ummm... 

I love missionary work. It's actually really fun.  

Japan is cool because: (I'll do one thing a week) 

We've got sented toilet paper. It smells like cupcakes.

We visited this member in the hospital to give him the sacrament yesterday. 

His name is Brother Sasaki, and he's amazing. 

He's 70 or so, and he's been put in the ward where all of the dying people go. 

It looked like he was going to die, but he's made a slow recovery and has to be transferred to a different city to go to a retirement home because the one here is full. 

We came and his eyes welled up with tears. (oh by the way he's fluent in English) 

and he said 'no, man. I told you guys to stop coming. Why did you come?' 

I took his hand and said 'we came because we love you Sasaki Kyodai, and because God loves you.' 

We gave him the sacrament and talked for a bit. He's such a cool guy. He was the former branch president here. 

He said he hates the food there, and he just wishes he could walk to he could take us out to lunch or dinner. He said when he recovers and gets back to Odate he will. 

I told him I'd come back to Japan sometime, and I'd take him to lunch. 

I felt such an immense amount of love for that little man, with a clear mind and a deteriorating body. 

And even in such a dark place where people were screaming, and gurgling their own blood- this man was a light as bright as the sun. He lit up the room. I want to be a man like him... ah amazing.

I took a picture with him. I forgot my adapter so I'll sent it next week. 

We went to help this member at her butchery- we cleaned all of the machines. We were crazy boots, suits, and stuff so we wouldn't get all the chunks of meat and fat all over us... it was sweet. 

Um...  Merry Christmas everyone. 

I love you all! 

Life is pointless without service for other people. 

Elder Wheelwright

TRANSFER

Well, It's a transfer- and just like it's been my whole mission, I can't stay in a place more than 2 or 3 transfers. 

So, I'm going to Odate. And I'm going to be companions with Elder Hill. (Not the one in my apartment right now, the other one). So, it should be cool and stuff. 

I've heard two things about Odate so far 

1. The is a TON of snow. 雪はすごいねって言われている

2. There are only about 7 active members in the branch.

So it should be fun. :) I love Japan. 

Here's something. Sorry, this week is busy. 

"I think transfers are a good opportunity to reflect on how the area and you have changed over the past couple of months. 
I've become a better person because of Hachinohe, but I was also able to see quite a bit of growth since I've come here. 
I don't attribute it to myself or any sort of work ethic, though we are working hard, but rather whenever we find an investigator it seems to come randomly from the grace of God. 
When I started here there was only one investigator, and now we have seven. 
We'd work hard, and people would just show up out of the blue to church, or people asking questions about the bible would appear on the street. 
The whole time I just thought how blessed I am, and how truly this work is in the hands of the Lord. 
If we're not worthy, then we don't qualify for the Spirit, and are like rats in a maze; just wandering around aimlessly for some sort of sign. 
That's one of the deepest lessons that I've learned on my mission- we're useless unless we're moved by the hand of the Lord. "

Love ya'll 

Elder Wheelwright

I Don't Even Remember

I was looking around on Mormon.org, and I searched for my own profile with the intent of rewriting it to sound better, but I realized that my English has digressed so much, that I can barely even understand. 

Mom, you wrote me a letter with you week backwards so I'll try and do the same. 

Today- 

man... do I even remember what happened this week? The first week of my mission seemed so long.... Now it's... wow. 

Anywho. 

We made a deal with some American members from Misawa. We said we'd give them the map with all of the recycle shops in Hachinohe that missionaries had found, if 

1. they'd take us there

2. if we got pizza. 

Actually we're not that mean, they just did both of them because they're nice. 

So... We surfed recycle shops. They're like the DI but with everything. In Japan it's really expensive to throw stuff away, so it's better just to clean off something and sell it to a recycle shop. (they give you like, what, ten yen for something... not really worth it. However it's better than paying the 200 bucks to throw it away) 

So yep. Found some nice 1 dollar ties. 

Sunday- 

Fukagawa-San came to church. WHOO! We were supposed to teach young men's, and since we only have two young men, we decided to do a joint lesson with both of them. 

It was pretty good, but I felt like it was hard to teach Fukagawa-San, so after while Mo-Choro was talking to Yuuki-Kun (one of the young men) I taught Fukagawa-San the first lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. 

I told him how all that we're saying rests on wether this little book is true. If this book is true, then God really does exist, Joseph Smith really was His prophet, and this church is the only way to find true and lasting happiness. 

He paused for a while, deep in thought. 

"What do you think about all this?" I asked after a bit of silence. 

"I feel something... difficult to explain... Something deep. Something.... I want to say mysterious, but it just doesn't seem to fit.... How do you describe it?"

I testified that the feeling was the Spirit. He said he'd read it and pray. 

I love teaching the gospel to people who actually want to learn. It boosts your faith. 

I've been pondering a lot about a lot of different gospel principals, and a pattern of seeking and asking, then after words receiving truth- (not always the one I wanted)- has occurred so often that in general, just having faith is a lot easier. 

Truth seeking, and getting revelation is probably the most important quest we have in this life. 

Knowledge, true knowledge (knowledge of truth) is so powerful... SOOOO POWERFUL! Knowledge understood and remembered will change our behavior and even our very desires. 

Yep.

Yep...

Oh I just remembered two things- 

So Japanese people here in Japan when they initially see us, their brain instantly thinks (for some odd reason) that they won't be able to understand anything that we speak- so even if we're spitting out fluent Japanese, they just get confused.

One lady at a restaurant today was trying to hard to speak English to me after I'd spoken to her in Japanese. I looked and her and told her, "Look, I speak Japanese.... Is it okay if we talk in Japanese?" 

But then other times like at a shop today, I started talking with an older woman in the line and she got super surprised and exclaimed "You speak Japanese better than I do!" And started telling all of the people around to listen to me. Laugh...

I don't even remember what happened on Saturday... 

We did our English Class.

I love doing missionary work. 

We were riding our bikes when we heard a man screaming at another one, and I stopped and saw though a fence and past some cars all these people holding this one guy back from getting this other guy. I rolled my bike back a little bit to see what was going on.. .and I saw cameras! It was a movie! Hopefully I'm in the background of it. 

Then a crazy guy came up to us. (Mo- Choro's two fears are crazy people and centipedes. (I just killed one for him, I chopped it into a centi-pieces) ) 

So yep. It was way funny. He was probably drunk and started to try and speak English to me, and gave me a hand massage at one point. He told us to come over to his house some time... I asked him to write down his address for us. He just said, "no no no... nono." It was pretty funny... Ah... I love crazy guys. 

(It's nice because every crazy person in Japan (almost every person in Japan) is very little. It's not even scary. You know they don't have a gun- plus you're like twice their size so... they probably couldn't even push me over.) 

Ummm... We had a ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) I gave a training, because the Zone Leader's onegaied me. (asked me to) Yep. It was good... I guess. 

I talked with people on the trains. (My favorite type of dendo.) 

uhhh.... 

I love studying the gospel. I'm ready for some good old deep gospel questions.

Anywho. 

I love ya'll. You're all awesome!

Elder Wheelwright

Please marry me--- Back in America--- And Trunkyness

So, the title of this letter, sounds pretty sketch, but I'll leave it that way to remind you of a lesson that we already know:

"You can't judge a book by it's cover" nor a person nor an email. 

So on Thursday we went to America. 

A family from Misawa (which has the American Air Force Base in it) invited us to come to an American thanksgiving. 

It was insane.... 

Everyone from the district came with this family and we just ate food and played games with them. It was so weird... 

There was an oven, a trampoline, family pictures on walls, and most importantly, a couch... a sweet glorious couch.

All the American missionaries just sank into it. For some (and me as well) it had been the first time I'd sittin... ? I've sat on a couch in over a year. It was crazy.... 

Mo Choro just sank into the couch and stopped moving. I'm pretty sure he just fell asleep in like a minute. When he woke up to go into the other room he with blood shot eyes asked a simple but profound question: "Why doesn't Japan or Tahiti have couches?"

The answer: I don't know. 

It was so odd eating things you once considered normal, now foreign but strangely familiar at the same time, like something you've done in a dream. 

Rolls and Turkey, etc.... and it caused me to learn something about American culture (which I then decided to teach to my English class, cause I always teach them the good things.) We WASTE FOOD! 

Every missionary ate every last bit of food that was put on their plate. There wasn't the smallest bit. But everyone in the American family, every one, had a little bit of food left over that they threw into the trash. 

I'm  not judging, because I used to do that all the time. It was just interesting for me to realize that I've been in a different world for such a long time.

This week, dendo wise we didn't have a whole lot of time. 

I did a training at district meeting, (I've been assigned to do one at Zone Meeting this week too).

I did it about the "Afterlife". 

Cox Choro fist palmed when he saw me write it on the white board. 

I was told him the truth in a joking manor when I told him I was going to do a training for trunky missionaries. (Him and Tuttle Shimai are going home in like two weeks) 

I talked about how we're all missionaries forever, and used my famous example of rechargable batteries vs normal ones. 

God likes things that are eternal- God doesn't just want missionaries for two years, He wants forever missionaries. 

We planned an talent show/ thanksgiving dinner event. I wrote and directed a 7 minute play about where thanksgiving and the first thanksgiving came from. It was hilarious, but under-appreciated, there was only about twenty people there besides the missionaries ,which is too bad.... We do activities to the members and mingle with our investigators and build friendships, but out of the over 50 active members in the branch, only about five actually showed up. 

I guess they must've been busy or something.

Oh my English, it's getting progressively worse. 

okay, 

So a member onegai-ed us (asked us) to help him propose to this recent convert in the branch.  

It was pretty awesome- He had someone kidnap her and sit her in a wheel chair with a box around it so she could only see in front of her, they attached speakers to it and we did a live music video where we all slowly came in, starting with his friends dressed up as the band members. She was like crying and stuff, and the crowd split and they he walked out with a suit and a one dollar bow-tie, and proposed to her. It's similar in Japan, (like the getting on one knee and stuff) but the way you say it is a little different. 

Instead of 'asking' them to marry you, you say

 "Please marry me!"

Then you wait for their response. 

She was crying and stuff, and she said doushoukana, which literally translated is "I wonder what I should do."  in the least sarcastic way possible. 

He got up off his knee looked the other way, walked around for a bit, then said 

"I'll give it another try." and got on his knees and said again 

"Please marry me" 

She responded the same. 

He said "I'll lose weight"

She asked in a high pitched voice between sobs "Five Kilos?"

After he agreed she replied "Onegaishimasu" Which means lit. (what you have just said) is my "honorific wish". 

 and bam! 

PDA is like culturally not okay, so they didn't kiss or hug or anything, but it was good. 

I love missionary work in Japan. 

I've got to go really soon.....

uh... 

Japan is cool....

I love you!!

Elder Wheelwright

"I'd get baptized if it wasn't for the word of wisdom"

So... 

The Week

MONDAY 月(The day of the Moon)- 

We did district P-day. We just all get together and have fun as a district to build district unity. 

(In some missions, like in South America, it's dame (against the rules) to be friends with those in your district. Here we're told to do one or two district P-Days a transfer.) 

So we asked a member and she dressed us up like ninjas a samurais. I'll send you some pictures. 

We could've killed people with that spear. 

TUESDAY 火(The day of Fire)-

We ate some sushi for Tuttle姉妹's birthday. (that kanji means shimai or sister). Hill長老 ate twenty-four plates of sushi.... That's $24. ooh.... (He did it to win a prize, because every five plates you eat you slide them into a slot at the end of the table and then a 5 minute cartoon plays, and if your character in the cartoon wins then a prize comes down from above you.... Wow. that actually sounds way cool... But it's... more normal in Japan. Anyway. I ate 10 and I got a prize. (the only one out of the four elders.) It's a little plastic sushi... YAY! 

We taught Fukagawa-san. He had a hard time understanding prophets, but he wanted to so bad. 

I looked at the clock and said 

"Hey! Your train comes in like nine minutes!" 

He looked at time on his phone, thought for a moment and replied:

"I can do three more minutes. Is that okay?" 

I've never had someone want to learn so bad.... 

WEDNESDAY 水(The day of Water)-

We had district meeting and 英会話 (English Class). 

We had a new girl come to class. We've also just split classes so now I have my own intermediate class that I teach. It's sweet. We only have like 3 people right now, but we'll get more.

(Fukagawa-san's in my class. He taught me how to play a crazy Japanese board game, called Igo. )

THURSDAY 木(The day of the Tree)-

We weekly planned. We taught a member. 

I also taught a piano class and Elder Mo taught a guitar class at the same time. We use our talents. 

FRIDAY 金(The day of Gold)-

We did a newly started church activity called 'FUN FRIDAY' which is pretty much an FHE for members and non-members alike. Fukagawa-san came. :) 

SATURDAY 土(The day of the Earth)-

We woke up and went with the other Elder's PI to an early morning fish market. 

We all bought respectively fishy things; each of which I ate- 

Cox Choro- Raw Shrimp 

Hill Choro- Raw Shark

Mo Choro- A Mix of Raw Fish

Me Choro- Boiled Squid (I love me the squid. If you cook it right it's no longer super chewy, but has a nice little cartilage-i feel to it)

We then went to a funeral of a member. It was way sad... Brother Kame. 

At the end as we were walking out I shook his non-member wife's hand after bowing to her- she told me to come to her house to visit sometime. Hopefully we can teach her. 

We had Eikaiwa (English Class) again. It was good. We played Uno after with everyone to build our relationship with them. We spend so much time trying to convince people that we're normal. Once we do that though things get moving. 

SUNDAY 日(The Day of the Sun)-

I report to the PEC, and was asked to do the 手話 (Japanese Sign Language) for the sacrament prayer, because the member who normally does it couldn't because he was conducting the meeting. So.... I had to lean that during the two hymns. 

I thought to myself. This is impossible. I'm going to mess up, or not do it fast enough- 

So I prayed my heart out that the Lord would help me. 

So there I sat in front of the whole congregation... and the prayer started- magically I could do it. 

(the words flowed right out of my... hands!) and I did it exactly in line with the person praying. 

The "Amen" of the sacrament prayer is the coolest. Normally a men is putting your two hands in front of you and kind of... tapping two of your fingers together, but for the sacrament you use all of them because it's a heavier Amen. I felt like a champ. 

After I got really stupid and instantly started thinking, "Man, I'm so good a shuwa (Japanese Sign Language) I probably the best in the ward. I could probably translate the talks." But then it hit me that the only reason I did it was because I had the Lord's help. 

We're like that though as humans, when we get desperate we turn to the Lord, and once we make it we congratulate ourselves on how good WE did and forget the Lord entirely. I repented quickly, and thanked Him for carrying me through it. 

Then... the guy stood up and said that it was my turn to talk in sacrament meeting... I was just so busy that I'd forgotten. 

I wrote a talk the day before, but it was in my bag, which in my stress for PEC and the Shuwa, I had totally forgotten where I had put it. 

Laugh... Then the funnest thing that I have never seen happen in all of my years of going to church- I stood up, and asked if anyone knew where my bag was, and a committee was formed to find my bag. It ended in like five seconds because I found it in the copy room. 

We all got a good laugh out of it. 

Most people feel like they need a spoken joke to start of a talk. I'm a walking one, so I can just be myself and forget my bag to wake everyone up and break the ice. Laugh... It was pretty funny. eeeh.... 

We also had a PI now an investigator named Tasuku-San come to church. He's up here in Hachinohe because his mother got cancer and passed away, and before he even had the chance to go back home to his daughter, his father got cancer pretty suddenly and looks like he's going to pass away as well. So now he's working on a boat and he never knows when he can have a day off, so it's been hard to teach him. But he showed up wearing a perfect black suit, with a Bob-Marly like rainbow colored beanie. 

He sayed the whole time, we taught him a lesson... And he said the subject line of this email. 

He knew all about the first vision even before we told it to him. He told us he was like Joseph Smith who has tried every single religion in the world and doesn't know which is right. He said he'd ask God, and thought it was too bad that God and Christ probably wouldn't appear to him. (Like he says Buddha has) 

So.... Yep. After church we had a shokujikai... what's that in English... a... meal meeting...? where we all eat after church... but ya we had that, and he went around asking all of the members about why we have the word of wisdom because he didn't think our answer of believing in the prophet's words and trust in the Lord was good enough. 

Luckily he asked Ono Shimai (A sister who's husband is a previous branch president, (who actually built the church building that I'm in now) and now her whole family except for her is less active and hates the church because it asks too much of us. ) 

She just layed it all out. Every argument for why we have it in the most perfect way... After all Tasuku-san could say was "naruhodo" which mean, "I see". 

THEN WE PASSED OUT FLYERS ON THE COLD STREET TO DRUNK PEOPLE WHILE I WAS PLAYING THE GUITAR!!!! 

and that's my week! 

AHHH.... That was too long. My hands are cramping. I love you guys. 

Keep doing good. 

Elder Wheelwright

Dear Family and stuff

Well, let me tell you what I did last Monday, 

So you expected me to eat some weird foods when I got called to Japan- 

So did I, 

But last Monday I ate something that I'd never expected... 

-raw horse meat-

Yep. 

we ate horse tongue too, but it wasn't raw so.... We're all good. 

My cowboy ancestors were crying... 

The other missionaries stopped at about one or two pieces, and it's pretty expensive and pretty rude not to eat it, so... I ate four or five. :) It doesn't even phase me anymore. I've eaten so many odd things that it's normal now to eat one more. 

Our mission got an Onegai (an honorific request) from the Area Presidency.... We're supposed to teach twenty lessons a week. (or at least try to) 

So to prove that it's not impossible, we decided to do it. We did. All twenty of them. 

I feel dead.

"Speaking of His work, we were able to work with our new investigator Fukagawa-San this week three different times. He listened intently, and when we were teaching him about God and prayer, he just paused for and second and his eyes got wide. 

He said in effect: "Let me get this straight. You don't believe that religion is a once a month at a shrine kind of thing, but rather, you all believe that you have a constant connection with God all the time! That He's always watching and willing to listen and that you can talk to Him anytime! That changing the whole meaning of religion!" 

Those are the kind of moments that make a mission worth it.  "

I love Ya'll!

Elder Wheelwright

Well, That was different.

The first of the week was crazy and I went on splits with Hill Choro twice while the other two (Elder Earl and Elder Fox) went around visiting people. 

Hill Choro's a good guy. Apparently in one of the transfer schedules last transfer, I was supposed to be Elder Hill's companion instead of Elder Fox's. 

But then one missionary from America didn't show up and it kinda mixed up the whole mission. 

My new companion came! 

He showed up on Wednesday night right after English class.

Let me tell you a little about him: 

He's a tiny bit taller than me- 

French and Tahitian are his native languages. 

(Which is crazy, because when he got into the MTC he was required to learn Japanese from English- two languages that he didn't know. All of the texts and missionary vocab lists and grammar books are all in english- he told me he gave up trying to learn ether language from books, and learned from listening to other people speak. He would hear what people would say, he'd repeat it, and if they gave him weird looks then he knew that he was doing it wrong. Now he's almost fluent in both English and Japanese.)

We've been in Japan exactly the same time, we go home exactly the same time as well. 

He's probably the nicest person on the entire planet. 

He always is laughing and is so sincere in everything that he does with everyone. He's humble, oh so humble. 

He shared some candy that his family sent him from Tahiti. It was so weird. 

He was dryed mango covered in salt and spices. I guess it's chinese. But it was good. 

When he was in Japan last winter, it was the first time he'd seen snow. He says in Tahiti the lowest it gets in 26 C and the hottest is 36 C. 

He says he's not sure why, but they don't have screens on their windows, and everyone sleeps under mosquito nets. 

He told me the haka dance is a war dance that sacred, and means that you are going to eat someone. 

There are places on the island that are taboo where no one can go, where they used to sacrifice and kill people. (He says that the islanders a long time ago were cannables (people eaters)) 

He told me this morning that no one in his entire ward plays piano. They sing accapella. (their hymbook is in French and Taihiti(go) and the conductor just tells everyone what language he wants them to sing.  He says lessons are too expensive, and only rich kids can play. 

I'm teaching him to play. He can play guitar and piano better than I can by ear, but he can't read music. 

I probably didn't tell you but here's a shout out to people that think playing the piano is useless: 

I played piano in church in the:

MTC

Tsuruoka (every other week) 

In Iwaki 

At the priesthood session of district conference in

Koriyama 

Aomori 

I teach piano every week here to an investigator's daughter. 

I've played in church for missionary musical numbers, 

And now I'm slowly teaching my companion to play so he can play in his ward in Tahiti. 

The Lord will use your talents.  

Speaking of talents my companion is amazing at drawing. He's teaching me little by little. 

One tip he gives me is to hold the paper up to the light and see how it looks with the image reversed, then you can see what's wrong. 

So up to this point in my whole mission, I'd always joked around and talked about how I'd never even seen a baptism up to this point on my mission. 

Well, up in Misawa a little old Japanese woman (who was Mo Choro's (mycomp)'s investigator that he found when he worked in Misawa. 

The Misawa District Leader called me up and said he could find anyone that could play the piano--- (Learn piano everyone- I'm not even good, and they use me all the time) So we took a train up there. 

I love train dendo. I talked to this high school girl, and her friends almost died. For some reason they thought it was the funniest thing in the world. 

But it's rude to laugh at people, (they always cover their mouths when they laugh for some reason) but this time they were cracking up so bad that all four or five of them just slammed their faces onto the windows of the train at each other. I commented, "They're going to die" and it made it all the worse. 

(when you say American expressions in Japanese it just cracks them up. Like yesterday I said "I've eaten so much I'm going to explode" in Japanese and they(the members) thought that was the funnest thing.)

So yep. She got baptized. Put under water and all that... And it was special, but it finally instilled a thought in my mind that had been brewing for such a long time.

Here it is: 

BAPTISMS DON'T MEAN ANYTHING. 

Now, let me explain why it's not true- 

obviously baptism is a very important step in coming unto Christ. It is an amazing and sacred commitment that people make with God. The more people that get baptized the better, so long as they are willing and ready to make that commitment with God. 

However, 

often times people that don't understand the importance of every other step , or the real purpose of a mission. 

Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ- though faith in Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end of it all. 

Baptism's one of five. 

Don't get me wrong, and important one of five. 

But if anyone asks the question: How many baptisms did you get? 

They don't understand the purpose of a mission. 

It is to INVITE!!!!! 

How many people did you INVITE to come unto Christ? 

Laugh. So basically what I'm getting at is that it wasn't as intense as I was expecting it to be. I've felt the Spirit so much inviting so many people to come unto Christ, trying as hard as I can to help them build faith in Christ- and that's what missionary work is. Of course we are to get as many as we can, and never give up- but even if you never see someone get into the water, doesn't mean you lose....

Baptism is just another step along the road to back to God. 

It's just as marvelous to tell someone about who Christ was on a train. 

They're just different steps along a path. 

It was still good though. 

We missed our train home by one minute- and then met people that Mo Choro had taught in Eikaiwa, They were so excited to see him. 

So--- then that night we had our second English class- and at the very end a new 25 year old student came. 

His name is Fukagawa-san. 

Mo Choro talked with him and gave him a pamphlet about our English class, and he read in it that we had church on Sundays, so we were getting ready to report to the PEC and then he showed up in the hall. 

He stayed for all of church (we taught gospel principals and I had everyone act out a play to explain the gathering of the tribes of Israel. It was pretty funny. Cox Choro got to scatter them.... by himself) 

and we taught him about prayer and God. 

He prayed at the end of the lesson. 

At one point he got super quiet, maybe for like two or three minutes (which felt like a straight Ammon long hour.) and he asked us if he had to convert. 

I was tempted to say yes, but then Mo Choro answered and said, "We do desire all people to come unto Christ and be part of the church because we know it is a good thing. But we respect everyone's agency. All we will do is teach, and you can decide what you want to do with it." 

He sighed really big. 

After church the members invited him to go and eat dinner with everyone at Nakajima-shimai's house. 

(She's the grandma of the branch and sometimes just throws dinner parties. She's kunio san's wife. ) 

So we all headed down there, had a party. All the members loved him so much. Etc. It was great. He'll probably come back to church next week. He want's so keep meeting with us. 

(We had the party for a missionary named Money Shimai, who is going home. Her parents came to Japan to pick her up, and she's visiting all of the branches that she went to before. So, Saito Kyodai wanted to talk to Brother Money- so I got to do some good old translation. And it was pretty great. I took what they said, made it sound fancy in the other language, and bam! It was an awesome conversation. 

I could've changed everything if I wanted to... but I'm nice. 

ppppfff......

It has been busy. We're going to teach twenty lessons this week by the way. 

well that's all folks... it wasn't pretty English, but it resembled it... blaa. 

Elder Wheelwright- out.... 

PS I finally got a name tag that just has Light written on it in Japanese... Now people actually remember my name. Yoshi.