Breaking News: Things and Stuff

Whoop!
So it's nice to hear that everything in the family is going well.
So, this week..
On Tuesday, we met with Minami-San. So she said she had a few minutes

and came over to church so we could

talk with her. (Kimura Choro was at the church, so it's was all good)
She got lost, and texted us in Japanese, telling us so. We figured it
out, and ran towards the main road, hoping that just standing by it
she might be able to see us. We were there for a couple of minutes,
worrying that she couldn't make it, or would give up, but I looked up
and I saw her in her car, just waving at us like crazy. We jogged back
to the church to show her the way.
We got inside and Kimura Shimai showed her the building. Minami said
she felt peace. We took her in the other room and taught her a lesson
with Kimura-Shimai. We started off with a prayer, and our relationship
with God, and then Kimura-Shimai and her took off in Japanese, and the
amazing thing was, I understood (just about) all of it. The problem
is, I'm not quick enough at speaking Japanese just to jump into the
conversation naturally.
Amongst the many things they talked about, I gathered that Minami-San,
had been secretly reading the Book of Mormon, and had to hide it at
her house so no one would find it, because it says "Jesus Christ" on
it in big letters.
She says she wants to keep meeting with us.. She really is amazing. I
don't know what's going to happen though. She told Kimura-Shimai
straight out that she couldn't join because of the situation she's in.
But... I don't know. The Spirit's working on her.

JAPANESE HOLIDAYS: Valentines Day
So, it may be a little late, but I'll give you a quick run down of how
Valentines Day works in Japan.
Just like America they buy little gifts and give them, but... only the
girls give gifts to boys. And the gift specifically (and usually) is
Chocolate. :)
Guys don't have to worry about anything but their calorie intake for
the holiday. (Though they have a holiday that's the opposite (where
only guys give chorolate to girls) in March. I believe it's called
White Day.)
Boden Choro and I got about five or six Valentines. Yosh.

So, I've gotten better at soccer. This last Saturday, I scored two
goals. It was intense. I shot for another three. Two were blocked, and
the last one went high. BUT THERE IS PROGRESS! Boden Choro and I were
on different teams, and one of the guys said that this next game the
losers were going to have to buy juice for the winners. Boden Choro
didn't catch the Japanese, so he was just playing like normal,
everybody else went crazy. I'm better at defense, so I hung back and
blocked some goals. It was up 3-3 and then in two minutes we scored
another two on them. Then just passed it til the time was up. It was
fun. (Though deep down I'm worried about the productivity of this.
Sure we're building our relationship with our investigator, but we're
not getting really any appointments with the other guys... so... we
might just stop, unless we can figure something out.)
Ryutaro is taking us to Sakata today to go to a restaurant by the
Ocean. :) I'm excited.... raw fish. ?
I love this mission, and I love the Lord. I've been reading Jesus the
Christ recently, and I'm getting towards the end of His life. The
calmness and tenderness (especially) in the face of trials, is an
impressive example to all of mankind. He, as tender and as innocent as
a lamb, took upon every pain and anguish for sin and weakness that
He'd perfectly avoid His whole existence. He's amazing. I'm working
hard to incorporate His character into me.
Anywho, I love you all. Thanks for writing 
Love,
Elder Wheelwright

Alright!

Here's what's going down this week. I am going to tell you a little quickly, so I can finally finish the mission prep letter. It's gonna be good. Maybe.

Boden Choro
 being eaten by a street fish

So NEW INVESTIGATOR!

That's the Japanese equivalent of three baptisms in a Spanish speak mission. :) just joking... kinda... 

Her name is Yuko-san. She's this girl who is Tsugiyama-san (our other investigator)'s friend. She's super nice, but... We're not sure if she's interested in us, or the Gospel right now. I just asked her last week if she could come an hour early to English class so we could teach her about why we're here in Japan. She accepted. We did a joint lesson, with Sister Hirayama, and Brother Nomura. Brother Nomura bore a sweet testimony, and I could tell she was interested in what he was saying. He told a story about how he worked at a noodle shop, and one day he was really tired, and his hand got caught into the noodle making machine, and 'became\turned into' a word I didn't know. I looked it up on my dictionary. It meant 'in chunks or in pieces' He showed us his scar on his wrist... Nasty. But he said that God comforted him though the pain, and other amazing stuff. I love him. 

Takeya-san came to church, but said he can only meet with us on Sundays because of the way winter affects him. He gets super tired. 

I was sitting by Takeya-san, and we were just having a light conversation about sports. He said he loved Judo, and since he was a cop in Tokyo, I assumed he was pretty good. Plus he's huge. I told him he should teach me sometime. 

He stood up. "Now," And walked to an open part of the room. 

'Well, now I done it....' was my only thought, and I pictured him breaking me in half. 

But, none the less, I let him grab my collar, and my sleeve. He showed me how to throw someone to the ground, (without throwing me to the ground thankfully) and he had me try it on him. He had me do it hard, so he almost went to the ground.

So on splits Hoops Choro and I visited Murokoshi-san. 

One of the first things she said:

"Hey, I met with some of your friends." 

"What friends?" -I asked, expecting exactly what happened. 

"Um.. they gave me a pamphlet, do you want to see?" 

She grabbed it. Hoops Choro flipped it to the back. The good old JW was looking back at us. 

"They're... a different church." Hoops Choro said. 

"Oh, well. I invited them back." She said not knowing, with a smile. "They're both Japanese, so it's pretty easy to talk with them and understand." 

Dahhhh..... It was time to activate phase two. 

We taught her about the Spirit, and helped her recognize that she's felt the Spirit's promptings before. Challenged her to read and pray to God to ask if it's true. She accepted. 

Phase two is to do a joint lesson with the Kimura Couple. So that's the plan. 

Whew... I've gotten a cold and I'm all achy all over, so... Hopefully it doesn't get worse. 

I love you all.... 

Elder Wheelwright

Us in our Oni masks

Weekly Update

Dear Minasan,

(Minasan is how you refer to "Everyone'.  There's this poor girl in our English class, whose last name is Mina... Unfortunate.)

Well, this week!

We read a children's book with Murokoshi-san. Taisetsuna kimi. (In English the book is called 'You are Special') It's the book about the little wooden puppets, and one, Punchanello, who's not very good at anything, finds out his relationship with his creator.  It's amazing.  She loved it.  We explained to her that our relationship with God is similar, that He knows our names, and He is just waiting to talk to us.

She still believes that Christ is the Savior, but Ocyaka (whoever that is?) is also a religious leader from God.  Boden Choro worked his way around and then testified that there is one God and one way.  She is caught between the two worlds.  We're just trying to build her faith, until she's ready to make the jump.

Played soccer with Ryutaro again.  A couple of the guys taught me how to do rainbow kicks etc.  Granted, I'm not very good at all but it was really fun.

Spring cleaning

We taught Murakoshi-san this week. We decided to back off a little bit, and build her faith in Christ a little more. (So we just don't conflict and lose her) 

So we taught her about service and shared the scripture in Mosiah. She loved it. We talked about how Christ's entire life was dedicated to serving others. She also liked that too. She showed us some of her family pictures and that really got her talking. She was surprised to find out that we were the same age as one of her grandsons. She said he couldn't ever live on his own, let alone go to another country and speak a different language. We gave her a cookie, and she gave us chocolate bars. I love it. The whole gift giving part of Japanese culture. 

We also taught Ryutaro and Mami. They invited us over for dinner and we did the whole traditional 'Oni bean throwing thing'. We showed showed them two I am Mormon videos about two fathers who considered their most important job their family. Which is a problem often times in Japan. Another one of our investigator's husband is so involved in his work that he moved to Aomori, and only comes home about once a month, if even that, to be with his wife and two daughters. I was relieved to hear from Ryutaro (roughly translated)  "Though work is important, I only do work for my family. If there ever comes a conflict between the two, family comes first. Every day after work I speed home to be with Mami." I love them both. 

Takaya-san is progressing. He said his philosophy is changing. Which is amazing. I'll update you on him later.

Pretty much I am loving my mission. I'm having fun, but doing my best to work hard and focus on the work. I could always do better, but luckily, I'm always progressing. 

There's no-place I'd rather be.

Anyways, I'll give you more detail next time. I'm exhausted. 

I love you! 

Wheelwright 長老

Japanese custom that occurs on the third day of the second month. 

It's the "Day before the first day of spring". It's not very catchy in English. 

So... Pretty much you do a spring cleaning in your house... except you cleanse it from demons... And how do you do that? Beans... 

So you have someone (some people) put on a demon mask(s), in Japanese they're called the Oni. (like "O", my "Knee".)  usually the kids put on masks. 

You throw beans at the people with the Oni masks (we used peanuts) and say  

"oni wa soto" Which means "GET OUT DEMON!" 

and then say "fuku wa uchi" which means "Come in good fortune (or happiness)"

Then you do that in every room of the house. At the very end you throw beans at the oni in the room with the door to outside, and the people with the masks go outside, and come back in without the masks.... Then you eat your age in beans... 

Why beans? Because... well. it was explained to me that they blind the oni, because they hit their eyes. 

Yep. Demon spring cleaning... do it. 

Boden Choro and Wheelwright Choro being Oni

Mami and Ryutato as Oni

Me in my Soccer stuff