Dada DAAAAAAAAAAAA! Letter!

Dear Humans that can read,

This week, this week, this week,

was good.

 

So, the Assistants showed up outside of my apartment, and we chucked everything into the van and headed out for the four hour drive to Iwaki.

It was just me and them.

One of the Assistants, Nepia Choro, sat in the back with me and said that I could ask him any thing about dendo. (missionary work)

Wow.... I learned so much. One thing particularly:

He talked about how sometimes people argue, and if it becomes an argument then it is always purposeless.

He said when you need to reprimand someone softly, you do it clearly, and the other person will ether do one of two things:

1. They humbly accept what you say and try to change their actions.

2. They'll give a reason (a justification) for why they can do what they can do.

He said it doesn't matter how stupid the reason that the other person gives, once they have set forth their reason, they very rarely will change it.

Instead of arguing- do... He used a good example that illustrated it perfectly:

One of his companions would sleep past six thirty. Nepia Choro tapped him on the arm and told him to get up. He said he was praying while laying in his futon. (despite his snoring, etc.)

Nepia 長老 said, "oh, I'm sorry I didn't know you were doing that. That was my mistake."

Then he said you explain your feelings. "I just thought you were sleeping in."

 Then you propose a compromise "It would make me more comfortable if you could show me some sign that you were awake while you prayed (laying down). Do you think that when you pray you could criss cross your fingers and put then on your forehead while you pray laying down, just so I can know you're awake?"

He agreed and a few days later he started getting up at six thirty and praying kneeling down.

 

Nepia Choro is a stud. He said honest discussion is excellent, but arguments rarely (if ever) help anything.

 

We got to Iwaki. And yep. It's a city. I love it.

We started driving up the hill to get to the apartment, and allow me to tell you, that hill is a beast. The apartment is on a hill just outside of the main part of the city. Every night we bike up that beast. Okuda Choro (Iwaki was his bean area. (bean means first)) named it "saigo made taishinobu" or "Endure to the end". And yep. The car couldn't take it. The engine started freaking out. So we parked it at the bottom and called the Iwaki Elders to come help us take my stuff up the hill.

I still have no idea why I've emergency transferred. Sorrenson 長老 and Breinholt 長老 seemed like best of friends. They're both super cool, and super genki.

The Assistants couldn't get the car figured out, so they left it that night in a shop, and spent the evening with us. Nepia 長老 after finishing daily planning just started cleaning the apartment, and scrubbing down the walls, even though he'd never even been in the apartment before. He's awesome.

They got everything figured out so they left the next day.

My new companion and area are amazing.

They both big.

Time has run out... Here's a little thing about stop lights.

"I love being a missionary, and I love Iwaki. 

My favorite thing is that there are so many people here. An excellent trait that Ohori 長老 did his best to instill in me was talking with everyone. He told me once, despite his natural Japanese humility: "I am not good at many things, but I am very good at talking with people."
I've been doing my best to emulate his example. 
Japan in general, but especially in Iwaki, we have the privilege of having an abundance of stop lights. And, as it often is, what initially appears as a hindrance, is actually a great blessing. Every red light that we stop at, is a green light for missionary work. 
Our light waiting partners are perfect targets. You're both standing right next to each other in a totally natural setting. 
Those couple seconds to a few minutes are perfect for improving people's image of the church, practicing Japanese, inviting people to English Class, or (most importantly) sharing a little bit of the Gospel. 
I do my best not to let a red light switch to a green, before I open my mouth and talk with people. 
I love talking. "

So we've been talking to a crazy amount of people. I love it.

Well, time has gone... So

I'll write more next week!