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!