So Desune

The most interesting Japanese mistake of the week:
Boden Choro told a lady if she has any questions about Mormon.org,
then to call his dinner. (Bango is number, and Bangohan is dinner.)
Also he told me a golden story:
He was teaching someone and he was teaching about Christ, and he
didn't congigate the verb at the end of the sentence into passive,
which determines who the subject and the object are in the sentence.
(the one who is acting, and the one who is being acted upon.)
Intending to say "Christ was killed by wicked people"
"Christ killed wicked people." He told them.
The person was confused and said "But I thought Christ was nice. I
thought he liked people. Why did he kill them?"
Boden choro thinking he said "Why did they kill Christ?" replied:
"Christ killed them because they didn't like His teachings."
(He meant "Christ was killed by them because they didn't like His teachings.")
It's funnier in Japanese.

So this week!
It's becoming spring! (I'm speaking Japanese style English)
Haru ni nariteimasu
So we can ride our bikes everywhere. :) so wonderful.
On Monday:
We went with Ryutaro to go and see the Meikosan. The Japanese dancer
women. They looked like geisha's.                                                            Wear crazy old kimono's in a crazy old house, and one plays a
crazy old guitar thing with three strings, and they sing Japanese
that Ryutaro didn't even understand. They paint their faces white
and... We got pictures with them. I'll send you one.
The dance they did... So. Just imagine someone doing the robot... but
with flowing, but not flowing motions, and... It's like a poorly made
machine that's supposed to look graceful but in a good way. It's
difficult to describe. It was cool. We checked out the 100's of years
old, house. The little Meikosan said only one thing to me, and I
thought she could old speak in old Japanese, but as I walked past her
down the hall way she said with a smile, "Don't hit your head." The
house is super short.... I only hit my head once. :)
Good stuff.
We headed to Sakata this week and taught Kimura Shimai's sister. I
turned to Kimura
Choro at one point in the lesson, while the Kimura Shimai and
Nagoiya-San (her sister) were talking, and asked "Should we invite her
to be baptized?" He said in the funniest way in English "Sure, why
not?" Boden Choro asked her. She got quiet, and told us she wasn't
ready yet, but she'll get there.... bla. It took the Kimura Couple two
years of meeting with missionaries before they accepted baptism.
Hopefully it will happen sooner with that then Nagoiya-San. But our
purpose is to invite other to come unto Christ, it never says anything
about how long it should take.
We were teaching Murokoshi-San again this week. Again, I was fretting
(but in a good way) about the lesson. We were going to bring it back
to Baptism to she if she could understand it this time, having gained
back her confidence. I asked her to read 2 Nephi 31 about the Gospel of
Christ, and she did. Kimura Choro sent her a postcard with a picture
of the Salt Lake Temple, so we talked about work for our ancestors,
and brought that back into baptism. She wrote in her little journal
that we gave her to keep her spiritual thoughts, and read it out loud
to us, because we can't read Japanese. It was like this (about
2 Nephi):
"I didn't understand all of the words. But I did understand this much,
Baptism is important. We need it to get the Holy Ghost and to be free
from sin. Then we need to endure to the end, so we can return to live
with God."
In the Church, especially in Utah, this sounds like a boring primary
answer, but for this 71 year-old Japanese woman who previously had
never even heard the word baptism, and only heard the name of Christ,
but a no more idea of who is was than you probably know who
ocyaka-sama is. It was amazing.
I testified like I'd never had before, and invited her to be baptized.
She got quiet. Looked down at the temple and the book she held in her
hands. And looked back at me and said "I have one wall.... There's one
wall."
I paused, an odd feeling in my gut, "What's the wall?" I asked gently.
Then using her Japanese super powers, she worked her way around the
question and didn't answer anything definite at all. Maybe it's her
husband? She won't invite us in past her genkan (door step). Maybe
it's the split from Buddhism, or fear that she can no longer pray to
her ancestors. We're going to continue to teach her... Pray for her.
On Sunday something odd occurred.
The Sato family invited us over for dinner the day before, and I'm at
church, in the front row (the place for the those passing the
sacrament) and I hear a girl's voice speaking in English. I whip
around so confused, wondering if the Sato's high school daughter could
suddenly speak English, when I saw a blond-haired blue-eyed american,
with gauges and two other earrings in each ear.
"Hey?..." It was the oddest thing. She's a high school exchange student
from Washington, staying with the Satos. Weird. We translated for her
in young-women's.  

Maybe the Gospel will slowly sink in. Who knows. She's Catholic, and
says she has a stack of Book of Mormons at her house, in
Washington,(that the missionaries helped them build) that she builds
towers out of. I  asked nicely if she'd ever actually
read one before. She hasn't really. Oh well. She's nice enough. ]
The Sato's made us some amazing sushi, and Sato Shimai made us
brownies, American Style. Amazing. We tried not to eat too much. (It
was the most amazing sushi I've ever had!) We biked back quick, so
Ryutaro could pick us up, and we went to Sakata with him and his wife,
and met Ryutaro's mom and dad. They were amazing. His dad would speak
Japanese really slowly and loudly and gesture at things. It was funny.
When he found out we could speak, he started using the most difficult
words. Just random things. We showed them our family pictures [mine
were a little boring] they loved them. We ate dinner which was a big
pot of noodles with squid and vegetables, boiling in front of us, then
you pull some out and drop it in your bowl full of natto (rotten
beans) and raw fish. (It was actually a cross section of a fish, with
skin and everything that we chopped up with our chopsticks and mixed
it with the natto.) It was actually way good. I'd totally forgotten
that I'd told anyone, but out of no-where Ryutato turns off the lights
and Mami brings in a cake with candles on it. Turns out my birthday is
coming up. So, I guess it was mine. It was amazing. I love them both.
We taught them the first lesson, from Prophets on, and everything I
said in Japanese, just came out smooth. It was amazing. When I'm
testifying with the Spirit, I can all of a sudden speak. I testified
with power.
It was amazing.
In the middle of the lesson Boden Choro gets a call. He looked down at
it to see who it is, before he turns it off, and "President Rasmussen"
is flashing across the screen.
He answers "Hello, this is Elder Boden."
"Hey Elder Boden, is your companion there?"
"Yes."
"What about the rest of your district? Are you in the apartment?"
"Um. No, we're actually teaching a lesson right now."
"Well. You give me a call when you get back, okay?"
TRANSFER CALLS!!!
So we called him back later. He didn't answer, and we went to sleep
not knowing what was going to happen to the next six-weeks of our
mission.
This morning the phone started ringing on Boden Choro's desk.
I answer it calmly. "Moshi moshi, Wheelwright Choro desu."
"Hello Elder Wheelwright, is Boden Choro there?"
"Ya, just one second."
He was on the pot. I knock on the door. "It's the President."
"Are you serious?!"
Then he jumped off and was out in less than 5 seconds.
I put the phone on speaker.
"Boden Choro, You're getting transferred up to Aomori, and you're
companion will be Malmrose Choro. Okay, and Elder Wheelwright, you're
going to be senior companion, and your companion will be Elder Moffet.
He's one or two transfers below you. Take good care of him."
Yep... SO that's what's going on.
Now everything is crazy.
BUT!!! I love it here. :) Hopefully my Japanese is good enough to be a
decent leader.
Alright. So.. I'll let you know what my new companion is like next
week, when I finally meet him.
I love you all!
I'm finally sending the elder wheelwright's mission prep. It's four
weeks. This week is physical. Hope you enjoy my little brother. :)
I love you all!