This Week...

So this week some crazy things happen. Let me catch you up:
Monday we had two new people come to takkyu night. Our one
investigator Tsugiyama, and her friend Yuko. (Dear Japanese people,
don't think I'm rude because I'm not putting San and the end of
people's names. I just think it confuses people!) We're hoping to
teach Yuko soon. 
Olson Choro
She's 31 and super nice. (I think she was kinda
liking Olsen Choro, but he got transferred. Also,     before we left we
told her we were both       nineteen. You should've     seen the look on her
face. WHEW. She thought I   was 25 or older. :) laugh. )
Tuesday, I don't recall... Oh we did weekly planning   and family home
evening. Boden Choro and   Olsen Choro tried to get a picture of
Karube-Kyodai (Kyodai means brother),


but he'd throw his arms     right in
front of his face right at the picture was being taken. Hilarious.
Wednesday- Olsen Choro left. :(
We were going to do some    housing, when Boden Choro felt inclined to
walk though the park. So we did. We saw a lady playing around in the
snow with this 4 year old    boy. We walked up to them and started
talking. The crazy thing     was, is    she actually wanted to talk to us.
Her name's Minami san, (which is easy to remember, because it's the
same pronunciation as the word 'south' in Japanese) and what's weird
is it doesn't have a kanji. Her name, unlike almost all Japanese,
doesn't mean anything.
She said she spoke some English, which usually meant that the extent
of their knowledge was: if we said "Hey, how are you?" that they could
say "I'm fine. Thank you."
So we tested her English out. We started with the classic responses
and she did well so I decided to test further- it was perfect. Her
English was amazing(well toiuka, for a Japanese person.)
"How did you learn to speak this well?" We asked.
"I did... well, you know, kinda what you guys are doing now, except in
America. In LA."
"You served a Mission in America? For what church?"
"Tenrikyo."
"What do you believe?"
"Well... It's kinda hard to explain. Come. The Shinden is five minutes away."
(shinden in our religion means temple. But for tenrikyo it means
church, as we came to find out.)
So we walked with her and the boy to the Tenrikyo Shinden. It was
crazy. She explained how they pray though this one lady called Oyasama
(which means: 'Honored Parent') in order to get to god. Oyasama
apparently lived in the 1800's and restored the 'true religion' to the
world. Most of it didn't make sense. Then... she asked us what we
believe.
(We'd gone into this other part of the shinden, with other people,
walking though. She told us to wait and she brought out some coffee
and some rice crackers. We explained we didn't drink coffee because of
our religion, and she looked shocked.
"Really?... Wow. I'll bring you some green tea." (our conversation was
in Nihon-glish.)
We laughed, and told her we didn't drink tea either. She almost passed out.
"Can you eat rice crackers and chocolate?" We told her we could.
"What can you drink?"
"Water, juice, soda, milk... Anything but Osake, kohi, and ocha"
(alcohol, coffee, and tea)
She brought out some juice. And we explained what we knew about God.
About prophets, and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I gave her
one in Japanese, and she gave me a question and answer book about
Tenrikyo in English.
(random: Kimura shimai just came in and gave us chocolate chip
pancakes and wheat tea. Wheat tea is okay. It's actually super
amazing. Nothing like some Mugicha on a cold p-day)
We told her we had to go, she said she'd come to English class, and
that we could visit anytime. We'll baptize her for sure.... :)
On Saturday we went and played indoor soccer with Ryotaro and his
friends. Let's just say it's been a while since I've soccered. No
scored on me when I was goalie, and I almost made three shots it....
but somehow I missed. Everyone was super nice to me though. If I did
an awful pass, the other team would let it roll by until it got to
one of my teammates. Laugh. It would've been embarrassing if I cared.
But, instead it was just fun. I got to talk with a lot of them when we
took breaks. One of them stayed after to talk with us. He asked us
what we were doing here, we said we teach English and about our
Religion. We invited him to come to our English class. He said in
broken English; "In English... No interest. But I want to hear..
religion!" I laughed. Usually we teach people English so they'll be
interested in our religion. Man. IT'S CRAZY. So we got his phone
number.
Later that night Ryotaro invited us over for dinner with him and Mami,
and Mami's friend Aiya. We were with Ryotaro in the car when we picked
up Aiya-San. Ryotaro told us to only speak in English, and pretend not
to understand Japanese.
This is how it went down.
She got it the car.  (I'll put the Japanese in [brackets] and the
English without)
Her: "Konnichiwa!"
Us: "Hello!"
Her: "[oh] Hello!" To Ryotaro "[Do they not speak..? Well of course.
They're foreign.]"
Us: "How are you?"
Her: "[oh, how do you say it?] I'm fine thank you. [Was that right?
Oh, I don't know.] How are you?"
Us: "We're good. We're pretty excited to eat octopus tonight."
Her: To Ryotaro "[What in the world did they just say?]"
Ryotaro: "[They're excited to eat octopus tonight]"
Her: to us: "[oh it sould be very good. I love cooking.]"
We pretended to be very confused.
Her: "[oh. you probably didn't understand that.. um.. how do you say
it?... um.]"
Ryotaro: to us: "Now."
Me: "[Probably:] I like to cook. [or something like] Cooking is fun.
[There's a lot of different ways to say it.]
Her: "[Oh, I get it... wait! How?!... You can speak?]"
Then we all burst up laughing.
Boden Choro: "[We actually speak Japanese pretty decently.]"
Me:"[It was Ryotaro's idea.]"
Then she punched him.

Good stuff. We made Cabbage pancakes (so delicious. Seriously.) and
octopus balls. It was all amazing. I probably couldn't have enjoyed
it when I first got here, but man. It was good. Then at the end, we
taught them all a lesson. And instantly, we had three new
investigators. Mami and her friend seemed pretty interested, but we're
still not sure about Ryotaro. We taught them about the nature of God,
and how we can talk with Him though prayer. We taught them how to
pray.
Normally three new investigators a week doesn't happen in our mission.
(the standard of excellence is 1 new investigator per week.) So the
Assistants texted us letting us know how awesome we are. But it's
seriously all the Lord.
We did our weekly planning for this next week and we've got five PI's
and quite a few investigators as well. Truly the Lord is giving to us
success.

Murokoshi-San took an interesting turn. She said she just skimmed the
reading about baptism, and that she came up with an idea, and wrote
about it in her study journal. She said that almost everything we were
teaching her was exactly the same as the Buddhist beliefs. She said
she was surprised at how similar everything was. She asked "We all
believe in the same God." "Well, yes." I answered. "(With different
images of Him)" I said in my mind. She said "When then. I think, that
we all do believe in the same God, and that He just put different
people in different places to be taught His teaching in the best way
for them. Christ for the Europeans, and [some Buddhist person] for
the Buddhists... So what you're teaching me is good for you, but also
true."
I was silent. I know that she believes in Christ. She herself said she
has faith in Him. So why? I think she's caught between what she's been
taught her whole life, and the truth of what we're actually teaching
her.
Boden Choro was excellent and heard her out and said it was a good
thought, and worked his way back to the restoration and Joseph Smith,
and then I came in, and I hammered. And to my regret, I fear I may
have hammered too hard.
"He asked God, 'Which Church is right?' and God answered him: 'none'.
Other Churches disagree, so how can they all be right? There is one
God, and one way, and this is the way. You can pray to God and ask
Him. I promise that He'll answer you."
We both testified. Boden Choro's was solid, like always.
I tried to commit her to pray and come to church, but she avoided.
She tried to give us back the Book of Mormon to teach someone else
with it. We told her we had a lot, and that she could keep it.
Sigh....
I thanked her for the peanuts and made her laugh by telling that my
older brother would die if he ate any, and that I'd always offer him
candy with peanuts in it. It lightened the mood, and she told us that
we were welcome to come back again.
Before we left she asked us a question that I could tell was aching at
her heart.
"Do you... You know... Do you guys pray to your ancestors?"
I felt like we were breaking her heart. All the truth and light that
she was finding in the Gospel, was so different from all of the
lifelong comforts and beliefs that she'd held so close to her.
I paused. Words heavy in my mouth...
"No. We don't." I said, quickly adding. "But we do believe our
ancestors are very important. We do all sorts of work for them. And I
personally believe we can feel their love, and that they are the means
by which God helps us."
My last words softened the blow. But it she still looked a little hurt.
GaH! She needs this, and she knows this is true. I know she does. I
can see it in her eyes. She is so pure in heart that the Spirit is as
clear as crystal to her, and she can't deny the existence and power
of Christ, but she's afraid. She's walking in uncharted territory. And
to make it though she'll have to leave behind many pieces of a belief
that has comforted her more than anything else.
She's caught between two religions, her warm childhood memory and
ancestral belief, and the new truth and light of the Gospel. She
needs this. She is the elect of the Lord.
Pray for her to have comfort, and courage. I love her too much, and I
can't even fathom how much the Lord loves her...
So, if there is any amount of birthday and Christmas presents that I
can give up for this one favor, I'll do it gladly: "Pray for her." She
needs this.

Anyways. Not this week, but next week I'm doing an special email...
Since the time is coming up for many people who are currently in
High school and otherwise, to go on a mission, I'm going to do a
special next week all about how to prepare for a mission.
Before I left I was completely lost on how to get ready even
physically, let alone how to prepare myself spiritually. So... I'll do
that next week. Tell you friends, it's gunna be BIG!
とにかく
I love you all!

I love this! I don't want this to ever end.

So this week has been pretty grand.
We got the transfer call last night, and to be honest, it was probably the
most boring transfer call I've received.
Hoops Choro answers, he puts it on speaker, and the President tells Olsen
Choro he's going to Kitakami, and Hoops Choro that he's getting a pretty
young missionary.
Then he turns to us (the conversation to us... not literally turning...)
"Elder Wheelwright, Elder Boden, can you both here?"
"Yes President!"
"You're going to stay the same."
Boden Choro and I look at each other, and smile.
"Sounds good."
"Alright! Take care!"

Six more weeks. Man. I'm actually really happy. I love my companion, and I
love Tsuruoka. I love the people we have, and things were just starting to
pick up.
So it was our turn this week to head down to Sakata. We taught
Kimura-Shimai's sister Nagoiya-San. She came to church last week and this
week as well. She's so amazing. She made us egg sandwiches and we taught
her about the Spirit. She's amazing. Her husband recently died so
everything has been been a little more difficult for her. But she loves to
study, and makes the thirty minute drive every Sunday. Amazing.
WO! so some snow just fell off the roof which reminds me of what one of the
members told me:
"Be careful walking around this week. Two people have died this week in
Tsuruoka because of the snow."
"What?! How? Did they freeze?"
"No. Snow from the roofs of buildings fell on them and crushed them."

Alright, back to Sakata. We visited and taught the Honda family after.
(Yes, Honda. Like the car.) There's 4 generations of mother-daughters. The
great-grandma, the grandma, the mother and the daughter all live under the
same roof. The mom has two little daughters around 4 and 2 years old. Sora,
and Toa. They're usually super quiet and scared of us, but we started
playing with some of their toys with them and they warmed up to us. In to
time Toa was screaming and jumping up and down and Sora was making giving
us plastic food for our tea party. Little kid Japanese is the cutest. It's
so much shorter because you don't have to be polite. It was so simple to
speak.
I got to teach Murokoshi (Muro, not ra) San twice this week. Once on a
split with Hoops Choro, and the second time yesterday I was praying like
crazy before Hoops and I went over. I was a little frightened. Last time
we'd talked about the Atonement just a little, and she told us "I'm not so
sure if I can believe this."
Boden Choro and I decided that we had to teach her about Christ before we
could move on. But how do you teach a devout Buddhist that some far away
Man, know and loves her, and suffered for her sins? ... Well... You pray...
a lot.
So we headed over. We rang, slid the door open and walked in to her Genkan.
We talked about ささいな things and then I gave an opening pray, pleading that
the Spirit would help her to learn, and us to teach.
I asked her if she'd read third Nephi 11 like we'd asked. She ran into the
other room and came back with her Book of Mormon, with tabs sticking out
every where. She said she read some (and I later learned that 'some' was
her being humble. She read it all and reread and pondered the scriptures
we'd shared last time) and she read us a question from her study journal.
"Who is 'I' in verse 11? The person who said that they are "the light and
life of the world"? And who is the Father it talks about?"
I responded "That is the Savior, Jesus Christ. And the Father is our
Heavenly Father, who is also called God."
She stood silent for a second, and then I light came across her face, and
she looked happy.
"Oooh. He suffered for us. So we wouldn't have to. Alright. I understand."
I was shocked. "Murokoshi-san," I asked slowly "Do you believe that Jesus
Christ is your Savior?"
"...Yes. I do."
I almost passed out, bust up laughing, and cried at the same time. But
luckily I did none of those three. Then she continued.
"Isn't it wonderful that He did that for us, that He took our sins? No
wonder you want to share it with everyone. Think of all of the people who
don't know this."
It was one of those moments when I couldn't stop smiling.
We expounded on the Atonement and told her we'd come back next time and
teach her about the Gospel of Christ, the way we can be saved. She said
she'd study more to be prepared.
GAH!!! I love her. She's perfect! Once we rounded the street corner I
screamed and started laughing "AHHH!!! She believes in Christ! She believes
in our Savior!!" We were laughing almost all the way home.

So, we helped Takuo-san shovel for the third time. He's this skinny little
60 year old man. We scraped, broke ice, shoveled, and dumped it in the
river until he said (in English) "Enough. You have done enough."
We helped him put away the shovels and I told him that I'd like to hear him
play the piano. He said (in Japanese) "Why not now?"
He invited us in. He had a REAL piano. Only the second one I'd seen.
(Hanzawa-San's was the first) And he had an electric as well. He had shelves
full of music. His wife brought out rice crackers and lemonade. He started
playing after putting heaters right in-front of both of us. It was
beautiful. He played us a bunch of classics.
"Where did you learn to play?" I asked. "How long did you have to take lessons?"
He laughed. "I never took a lesson. I learned by myself."
It was amazing. I brought up religion, as the topic turned towards it.
"What religion are you?"
"Well, I've got a Buddhist shrine on the first floor, and on the
second floor I've got a Shinto shrine, then if you look behind you," I
did. There was a nativity and a statue of the virgin Mary. "I've got
that as well."
He dodged the question very well. He said he went to a Catholic church
when he was little even though he was Buddhist, and he said he was
volunteered by one of the Buddhist priests to be a worker at the
temple/ shrine.
I told him we'd come by again and I'd bring some of my music (Hymns)
to play for him, and that we'd bring our guitars and visit him again.
He said okay. Boden Choro had us finish up with a prayer. He got
confused despite Boden Choro's explanation. He didn't close his eyes,
or bow despite how Elder Boden taught him. Meh. We'll see how that
goes.
We visited another PI. The young couple Ryotaro and Mami. He invited
us in and we ate dinner with them. Boden Choro told him about
transfers and he got a little worried. He gave us each a photo album-
"In case you leave." He told us. Then he gave us both soccer jerseys
as a present, and told us to come and play soccer again with him and
his friends on Saturday if we didn't get transferred. When we called
them and told them that we weren't getting transferred they got way
excited. Mami requested me as a friend on facebook. I told her my mom
would probably accept the request. They said they'd come and visit us
in America in five years when they finally got enough money. They're
amazing. They said they'd told their friends about us and they all
wanted to meet us. They invited them to come to our English Class and
our Ping-Pong night. So we're hoping.
We then taught Murokoshi-San again.
She accepted repentance in a second. She talked about how wonderful it
was, that our sins could be taken from us. We then taught about
Baptism.
We showed her a picture and Boden Choro started asking her (and I
don't blame him) why Christ had to get baptized if He was perfect. She
looked confused. I asked:
"Murokoshi-san, Have you ever heard of baptism before?"
"... never."
We explained about how it was a symbol, and how it washed our sins
away from us. She got confused. "Isn't repentance enough?" We read the
section about baptism in the pamphlet. She got even more confused.
"Forgive me... I just don't understand."
I spoke "There are a lot of difficult words, so it's..."
"I understand all of the words, but I just don't understand why."
We said we'd think of a better way to explain it. She said she'd study
the pamphlet some more, and we gave her Mosiah 18 to study. Whew...
Pray for her to understand, and for us to be able to teach in this
language. gah.. I love her. She needs this.
I love this! I love my mission. There's nothing I'd rather be doing.
I had a dream that I got sick and had to go home, and it probably was
the scariest dream I've had. Shutter. (No offence family. But I've got
work to do)
I don't want this to ever end. :)
I love you all! (If you Email me I'll email you... I'll try my best to
email you!)

JAPANESE NEW YEAR!

はい！皆さん、こにちわ！

今週の手紙のために日本語だけ書いています！

ごめんね、

冗談です！！！

eigode

In English. 

Okay!!! 

SO.... THIS WEEK WAS NEW YEARS!

So, in America, Christmas happens to be the big deal. As I expressed previously, this is no so in Japan. So  this may be true, but for New Years, (pause for effect) it's a different story. 

The story starts as thus: 

We got a call from the Zone Leaders, informing us that this week would be the week of all 0's. We laughed. 

Monday, we bought cleaning supplies. 

1st Japanese tradition: The new year's clean. Okisoji. Big Clean. Tuesday we went to town on the apartment. We were told to cut language study from our morning schedule in order to get all of the cleaning done. There was scraping of shower mold, and organizing of pamphlets that I didn't know existed. It was intense. 

Wednesday was the new years day: Our instructions were to find someone to go to a jinjya with.

Wind at the Ocean

(A Japanese Shrine) and have a culture learning experience. So. We did. Three days in a row with different people... 

1st- branch members took us. The night before it was storming like crazy. It carried on. There was icy rain and the loudest kaminari (lighting/thunder- in japan they are the same word because they're always so close to you that they happen at the same time!) that I've ever heard in my life. Windows shook and the sound wave shot though us all. It looked nice at first. 

2nd- We went with an investigator to a shrine in the mountains. It's apparently the biggest shrine in Tsuruoka. (I probably told you this but, Tsuruoka means Crane Hill) There was snow, creepy statues, and... snow. (also giant bells). He also took us to the ocean, where we went on this Island Shrine across this bimiyo bridge. I have never seen waves like that in my entire life. If you fall... you die. yay. 

3rd- We went with a young, just barely married, PI couple. Ryottaro and Mami. They explained all of the reasons for the different things we did at the shrine. We got our fortunes for this is. Dai kuchi. be jealous.  

Here's how you... um... do.. the shrine thingy. And apparently it's different depending on where you go in Japan. So here's the Tsuruoka way. 

So you first get your family to come with you. New Years a holiday all about family. 

Next you enter the shrine area.

You walk though a giant gate called a Tori gate. This represents leaving this world, with all of it's cares and worries, and entering into a different one. You don't walk directly though the gate, but rather on the sides. The center is for God(s?) to enter and leave. Though Ryottaro told us many Japanese people don't know this. 

Next is the washing.

Brother Sato does a good explanation of this, and I also got a video of Olsen Choro and I washing ourselves in the frozen ice of the mountain jinjya. 

There's this alter like table fountain thing with a slowly dripping constant stream of water flowing into it (sometimes out of dragons mouths, sometime out of bamboo, kinda different at each shrine). The water pools and there are a bunch of ladle like things, most often made of wood, resting on a pole going across the water. 

You fill the ladle with water from the pool, and pour it on your left hand, then your right, and then scoop some water in your hand, and wash around (or inside) your mouth. (inside was drinking and spitting it out) 

Ryottaro (who doesn't know anything about our church or Christianity told us): "You must clean yourself before you go to converse, and meet with God. Not literally clean, but it's a symbol. This represents not only cleaning your hands, but purifying your heart." 

After your purified you then go to the actual shrine house thing. You walk up reverently and pull this giant rope which rings a bell. This is to let God know that you've made it. To let Him know you've come. Then you throw a coin into this wooden case in front of you. (Representing your willingness to sacrifice for God was Ryottaro's guess, but he didn't know for sure.)  You then bow before God. You clap your hands twice solemnly, and bow again with your palms together. Then you whisper your prayer to God. Normally people pray for their families, for success, or for health. You stand up, clap one more time and bow really low to express your humility and gratitude. 

That's it! 

Then you go to a stand where these people are selling trinkets that do various things like Improve your health, or give you better grades. (they also have arrows that you keep in your house.

Arrows that are supposed to kill the demon. (satan!)) There as well you do various things to get a fortune for the year. (this year is the year of the Horse, by the way.) My comp and I went fishing for one, and Ryottaro and Mami shook a thing full of sticks. 

Boden choro and I both got Dai kuchi. We pulled it out of the little wooden fish's mouth and showed it to them to read. Mami read mine and freaked out. "DAI KUCHI!... oh. This the the very best fortune." Boden Choro showed Ryottaro his. He had a similar reaction. 

They both got "so-so" fortunes, which they say is normal. 

If you get a good fortune like we did, you keep it. If you get a bad one,

you go and tie it onto a fence next to the shrine. You leave your bad fortune with God, and pray that He will take care of it. That He'll take the bad fate from you. 

People also write little wishes on these wooden blocks with painting of the horse on them. They hang it on another fence hoping that God will grant them. 

Anywho. I'll send you some pictures!