Following the Spirit

The district is working more and more in unity.  The sisters here are particularly amazing.  Each one of them is strong, and willing to work hard.  I feel blessed to have this opportunity to learn from them all.

Relations with the branch are also improving.  We had the opportunity from the Brand President to, rather suddenly, do a mogi (role-play) in front of all the member about how to better help us when we mogi with them.  After our demonstration we had a good discussion going on with the members where they got to ask and have us answer questions as well as express their ideas.  They wanted so badly to learn and help that the meeting went 20 minutes after the end of church. -(thought I'm unsure if that's good or bad.)

As for myself, this week I had an amazing experience with following the Spirit.

We were talking with an English teacher, Justin, at the Eki (train station), when I saw a group of people walk out from the station.  A thought warm, soft, and clear entered my mind: "One of those people needs you." The conversation with Justin had ended, and I told my companion that we had to follow that group of people.  They were walking down the stairs to go to the bus station on the lower part of the Eki.  I stared at the group; all waiting in line to get on a bus to Tokyo.  The bus' doors opened, and people from the line started filing on.  I scanned the people, and as I looked towards one girl, I knew that it was her that I was supposed to talk to.  There was no time to do anything besides  give her an English flyer with our number on it and an 'Iam Mormon' card.  I told her that it was important, and she smiled and sid she'd look at it.

Who knows if it'll amount to anything, but I find comfort and peace in the fact that I know I did exactly what my Father in Heaven wanted me to do.

I love this mission; I love this people; and I love the Lord.

Well, that was interesting....

How did the meeting go with the drunk guy on the 20^th? It.... well, on a scale of 1-10 on how good it could've gone, 10 being baptism, and 1 being he killed one of us, I'd put it at a 2-ish. 

 Was he sober?

Nope.

  Was he even home?  

Yep... but let's just say we're not doing to visit him again... I don't think I've been hated by someone like that, in a while.

How is the singing and the guitar playing going?

It's going good. Lately the Lord has been using my lack of music talent. On Sunday I played the piano at the Fukushima District Conference Priesthood Session. (praise to the man and come all ye sons of God). That and, I'm also accompanying the whole Zone (on guitar) at our Zone conference on Tuesday.  

What has strengthened your testimony this week?

Well... That's a good question. hhmmm.... I was really irritated at something weird that my companion was doing this morning, (I obviously wasn't going to say anything.) Then I just prayed right then that I would be filled with charity and possess the ability to love him. :) .... Then SWVOOP (that's the sound that receiving charity from God makes), I received charity from God, and then what ever he was doing was okay, because I loved him.  I love my companion. I don't even remember what he was doing anymore. :) He's a good guy. 

Who has been the best investigator you have?

Right now I'd say, Yokoyama-San. He's come to church three times in a row, and we teach him lessons during Sunday school. He's about 38ish and he always comes with the funniest little suits and neckties with wine glasses on them. His breath smells like black coffee and he had a pack of cigarettes poking out of his vest pocket. 

He loves reading the Bible in English, and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon in English and in Japanese and he's been reading everything that we've told him to read so far. 

He's super cool. Pray for him ね。

 "We had a great opportunity to go to District Conference and associate with the members. 

What was particularly interesting to me was the attitude of the Koriyama members towards the missionaries. 

All of the members of the church in Japan love and are so helpful to all of the missionaries, but the Koriyama members, not having any missionaries in their branch, seemed especially excited and impressed with the missionaries. 

I was touched by one of the sisters testimonies during the Saturday night session. 

We had just sang called to serve in a very particular way- first the Elders dake (it means only) were going to sing the first verse in English, then the Sisters the second in English, then we sang the whole song with the congregation in Japanese. 

The sister that had played the organ for the song stood up and bore her testimony. It was something like this: 

"When the Elders sang the first verse in English, I though 'Oh, their voices are so few.'" (There was actually only five of us singing.) "Then when I heard everyone join in, I knew," she choked with emotion, "that surely they need our help." 

We do need their help. We are tiny. If all of the members joined with us in missionary work like they had in singing, the sound of the joy of the gospel would not only fill chapel, but it would fill all of the world. "

Ryutaro and Mami drove from meeting with Boden Choro in Aomori (on their vacation) all the way down to Iwaki to meet me. 

I love them.. They gave me a Japanese  two piece summer kimono. It's pretty sweet. 

This week we were riding with the branch president and his wife down to district conference, and I made the mistake of asking if there were anymore weird Japanese foods. 

I've felt like I've done a pretty good job at mastering them. I've done all the raw fish, the squid jerky, the fermented soy beans, the wheat tea (burnt popcorn water), pig intestines, and I actually even enjoy the texture of raw octopus (you've just gotta be careful with octopus and squid, I've almost choked a number of times.) 

They said they knew another food that most gajin don't like: Raw pickled squid guts.

Luckily they brought it the next day when we went down so that when we were eating lunch after the Sunday morning session, that we could eat it. 

Well, I ate it. 

It was a pinkish purplish goo with hard to chew chunks of squid, black and white in color. 

I spread it on some of my onigiri (rice ball), and dug in. 

Description: You know the smell, of like, when dad is gutting fish, and throwing them in the water? It like that except it's in your mouth, and then mix that with the texture of chopped up tire in snot.... It wasn't bad. :) I might eat it again. I love the members.I love you!!!  

A Park by our apartment
Japan is beautiful!!

 Iwasa-shimai, Mr. Mori, and Me

Keep doing the Right Things

There's like no time for me to write, (in order to let another shimai write)

SO I'M GOING TO FLY!!! 
We got two new investigators.

I'll tell you about the second, because it's crazy.

He's the husband of a member who we found in the area book. The sister (Kujiraoka Shimai) is only his wife in name. She lives in a different house than her husband.

He was an investigator is 2008, who's home fell down after the tsunami in 2011 (I think).

But the reason no one had visited him before that time was because he got crazy drunk, and yelled and the missionaries, (chased them I think) and they wrote about it in the area book.

I wanted to visit him anyway.

We got his new address from the sister, and she laugh and warned us. But said "If you get him to come to church, I'll buy you both steaks" 

Laugh, I love her.

So off we went.

We knocked on his door, and the window next to our head opened and the head of a little man with glazed eyes poked out.

"HELLO! I haven't seen you guys in a long time! But you don't like me when I've been drinking. Well, guess what! I've been drinking a lot! So it looks like we can't meet, and talk about God!"

I was sick of excuses. "We can teach you even if your drunk." I said.

He bust up laughing. and the door flew open "COME IN!"

We sat on the floor because he had no furniture. He was probably the funnest little man I've ever met.

He believes in God, and in the Holy Ghost, but says believing in Christ is impossible.

I was just going to drop him right there, and leave, but I figured he deserved a chance when he wasn' t drunk. 

I asked him if it would be okay for us to teach him when he wasn't drunk.

He said he wasn't sure if he could do it.

Here's his life scedjule:

12:00 midnight - wake up

2:00am-6:00 am, deliver newspapers (he's like 70, he does it as a hobby)

6:00am-4:00pm Drink sake

4:00pm- midnight - sleep.

So, we said we could come at eight, he said he could hold of drinking sake for two hours for us. But if we were late he couldn't do it.

I had experianced an investigator like this before in Tsuruoka, so I wrote him a note telling him not to drink on friday the 20th. We'll see how it goes.

(He's got moldy teeth and yep, I won't describe him for your sakes)

 

THInGS HAVE BEEN CRAZY!

I played and sang at the train station, and met a group of high schoolers that sings in national competitions. We sang songs back and forth. I played nearer my God to Thee on the guitar, and they were so excited. We invited them to english class, and they invited us to a concert.

A man ran into us and talked to us for a while. Mid conversation he just left. He came back a few minutes later and dropped a bag at our feet and ran off.

it was three cans of beer.

"what do we do?" I asked

"We could give it to someone." my beloved companion said.

I shut down the idea of giving someone the means to sin. We dumped it out.

 

SO many crazy stories. So little time. I love you all. Keep doing the right things.

Elder Wheelwright

HEADLINE: LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD GARBAGE PATROL MAN YELLS AT FOREIGNERS

 LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD GARBAGE PATROL MAN YELLS AT FOREIGNERS:

On June 5, two unsuspecting gaijin (Japanese for "foreigner(s)") on their way to the public church thought they could get away with putting out their trash a day early. "There were other garbage bags already out!" claims Elder Garret Brienholt, 19 year-old. "We didn't know." 

In Japanese society, they have specific days that a specific type of garbage needs to be taken out. e.g. pet bottles on Fridays, burnables on Monday, etc. Socially it is considered extremely rude to place your garbage out at anytime previous to the morning that the refuse is collected. 

"I already knew the custom." stated Elder Tyson Clark Wheelwright, 20 years old. "But my companion insisted on doing it." The term companion in modern English as a term for one's () pre-espoused partner. In the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" however, the title is far less affectionate. "I had to support him." E.T.C.W. resolutely declared. 

Before the crime had even come close to being committed a "squat,angry midget" as E.T.C.W. described him, "popped out of a near by house and started yelling at [them]". 

"I'd never heard the word 'dame' used so many times in only two sentences." -egb 

"Dame" is a Japanese word that can be best translate to mean "not okay," "not cool" or in a more colloquial tongue: "Wo' bro'! Ya' dan be messin' up da cystem! [sic]" 

"He yelled at us for a good couple of minutes." said etcw later shaking in head rubbing his eyes in an obvious painful recollection. "The sad thing was is that I understood everything that the man said!" which is shockingly amazing considering the difficulty of the Japanese language, and etcw's only 11 months studying the language. 

Normally Japanese people as a whole are extremely nice and understanding, especially to foreigners who aren't often able to speak the language. "Ya, he just, like, pointed at the garbage that was already out, and like, ya' know, said it was like, ours and stuff." -etcw 

Though the two young men haven't yet said, the author infers that they tried to make an excuse for their behavior, most likely explain that because they were foreign they "didn't quite get the system [sic]". Excuses (or iiwake, as they are called in the native tongue; meaning: 'spoken reason') are the sure way to "bring out the wrath of the Japanese 'Don't Break the Social Rules' dragon." - (David Witmerharris, Don't You Mess With the Excuse Dragon1979) 

"Despite the strength of the excuse, the Excuse Dragon, done will mess you up." -[3] 

The tension heightened until egb bowed in humility and whispered a soft apology. In a later interview with David Witmerharris, he stated "It's a good move that one of the boys did what he did with the bow and the weak words of apology. That's the only way to satiate the beast that's been brewing since the first Japanese man ate the first raw fish." -see[4] 

The two Christian young men escaped a close one.  

Having learned their lesson etcw said "I don't think we'll make the same mistake again... We'll put our garbage out a day early on the other side of the block." 

Pfffttt. .... So this week ne! Today is my beloved companion's birthday... Birthday's don't normally happen on p-days... So this is a first for me. So, I told him that for his birthday we could do anything he wanted on p-day. He said he only wanted two things:

1. He wanted to sit in nature, so long as it wasn't raining. 

2. He wanted to email for a long time. 

Well. It was raining. So... I've got a lot of email time. (Hence the story above). It's a true story.... 

That man was not a happy man. 

One thing that I've been trying to do recently is something that Nepia Choro (the Assistant) told me after I asked him about how to reprimand someone with love. 

"You've have to hate the sin, but love the sinner." 

I think often in my weak mind, I tend to connect the two. When that squat little man was yelling at us, with his face wrinkled like a rotten potato in anger, I was a little peeved at him. 

I felt like we didn't deserve to be treated that way, and blamed. (One of my weaknesses... taking responsibility and the blame, when I feel like it wasn't my fault.) 

I considered that man meanness incarnate. In my brain there was no separation between that man and his conduct. That man was his conduct to me. 

As we walked the thirty minutes to church, (we ate dinner with a member the night before so, we they just dropped us off at our apartment because we didn't have time to get our bikes and make it home on time) I was trying to love that squat little potato-faced Japanese man. 

(most) Japanese people are extremely easy to love. There had only been one before this man that I hadn't really liked. (But that's another story) 

It's hard to love someone who you've only had one bad experience with, but what was starting to help me was imagining him in different circumstances than the one that we met in. 

(and at first all I could picture is his head yelling at children for having fun, and his wife for not making his steak cold and raw enough) But then I pictured him as a father, holding his first child, playing catch with him, growing old, pondering deep into the night about his own purpose in this life, him making waffles for his wife when she's sick, etc. 

Then I was able to love him a little more. 

In the words of a ninety year old Japanese WWII war veteran "People are just people. Humans all have the same heart. I don't understand wars. Don't we all just grown up in families? Don't we all have fathers and mothers? Don't we all get old and die?" 

People are people, no matter who you are, or where you were born. Racism and prejudice and hate are all sins that stem from ignorance. If you took any spite ridden man, driven to hate another, and showed him the life of another, I'm sure, far more often than not, that he would grow to love the one that he hated. 

I love the potato faced man, though I don't like that he was mean to us. 

My companion was writing a letter to attach to the present we bought for one of the members in the branch. We were at the mall, and after his second or third draft (each taking ten minutes each) I couldn't sit and study Japanese on my dictionary anymore. Chanto, always remaining within sight of my companion, I sought someone that I could talk to. 

This old man pushing a walker, (at least 90 years old) rolled up to a table near by me and plopped down. 

He was staring at me, with eyes sparkling in awe. 

"Hello!" He said (in English). His voice and hands shaking. 

I sat down across from him. He just took a moment and stared at my face; his eyebrows strained to hold up all of the skin that seemed to be flowing from his wrinkled forehead. 

"How are you?" I asked. 

"I'm just great!" his said in an airy voice. "Where are you from?" 

"America." 

"America!" he gasped for air. "I love America! I fought for American army during the Second World War." 

"Really?" I said

"Really!" He replied. His tone shooting up at the end of every sentence. 

"What did you do in the army?" 

"I translated between the Japanese cooks and the American officers." 

"That's cool!" 

"Ya!" 

So we had a good chat. He said that he really really love America. I told him to come to our English class and gave him a flyer, he said he's too old for that, and that he's going to die soon. (He looked like he was made of wrinkles and cords.) He said that he'd give the flyer to his grandson. 

We got a new investigator this week. His name is Tetsuhito. Which means... just wait. Iron-Man. 

HOW SICK IS THAT?!?! 

But anyways. He just came to church one week to see Juleita-Shiami (a sister from the Philippines) talk in church. He loves English, so we jumped on him, talked with him, got his number and texted him and invited him to come to church again. He came, and we taught him a lesson about God after. He says he's not sure if he believes that God is a person, but he believes that what many people call God, might be the thing that we call will, or thought, and the ability to chose. 

He's coming again next week. 

"Our investigator who committed to be baptized this month won't answer our calls and texts. My companion suggested that we just ride out to his house to visit him. 

His house is thirty minutes away on bike from the church- and Japan was 'warmly' welcoming me to my first rainy season here. 

All of our supposed "water-proof" items were suddenly "water-logged". 

He wasn't home. 

His father (an old investigator) answered the door and, after glancing quickly at our dripping clothes, hair and faces, asked: "Are you heads alright?" 

He didn't let us in. Probably for fear that his house might sustain flood damage. 

We decided it was time to 'look for the miracle'. 

We visited some PPI's, none of who answered, until we went to the house of a 14 year old boy. We talked with him for a bit, challenged him to read the Book of Mormon that he already had, and then left. 

Hopefully it will have a good end. 

I love the rain. 

People tend to associate the rain with sadness, or bad luck, but I believe that being soaked to the bone shows people that we visit that what we teach transcends the worldly-woes; that this is truly important."

Dendo is great.... Let me know if you have any questions. 

Thanks for everything everyone! 

Wheelwright 長老

This Beautiful Week

Dear Mother, 

That's a way sketch story....(Elder Wheelwright's brothers were in a Bicycle Crash) 

We've had our fair number of close calls. 

I've almost gotten hit by so many cars. 

We go flying down the hill in front of our apartment everyday. 

(Random but: there's a bridge right by the hill that's called the yuurei bridge. yuurei is zombie or spirit.... 

Japanese ghosts are not a pretty sight. And apparently a lot of people see ghosts here... They've got no legs and wear white kimono's and sometimes have these weird triangles on there head... Not sure why. Google search itね。)

That's scary. Hopefully he's okay. Did you give him a blessing?

I had an opportunity this week to give the Japanese sister in my district a blessing.... But she asked me if I could do it in Japanese. 

So yep. I did it. The Lord helped me, just like always. 

His grace is an unlimited power source that at ready access to all who are worthy of it. 

We must be pure as missionaries and members (both representatives of Christ), so that we can conduct the power of the Lord to light the lives of other people. Pure like copper- a block of wood won't conduct. It's never been about the quantity, but always the quality. The Lord delights in the weak things that are willing to turn towards Him- He doesn't not look upon sin or imperfections with the least degree of allowance, but He knows as the weak rely on Him, there's no faster way to Godhood. 

This week... ne. Well. We didn't get transfer calls, so it looks like Brienholt Choro and I partying it up in Iwaki... (That was ill phrased... Doing the Lord's work. Dendo (missionary work) is pretty much a party.- I never thought it would be so fun.) 

I've gotten better at talking with people, and understanding... So whether it's a bad thing or not, my personality is starting to show more. 

Ping-pong! (doorbell sound) 

Us: Hello!!

(Old woman though the screen door): What do you want? Who are you? 

Me: We're missionaries from Christ's church! 

Her: We're Buddhist in this house. We're not Christian. 

Me: I know. That's why where here. 

Her: We really are Buddhist. We don't know about Christ's church of anything. 

Me: You see, that's why we're here right now. 

Her. We're Buddhist, you see. We don't know Christ. 

Me: That's unrelated. (that's just how you say "that doesn't matter") 

Her: But we're Buddhist! We're not Christian. 

Yep.... My companion suggested that maybe we should go. But first. 

Me: We've come to Japan to help people. Do you have anything that we could help you with? 

Her: We're Buddhist! 

Me: I like Buddha too. I studied a little bit of Buddhism before I came here. 

Her: We're not Christian! 

.... Then we left. I was laughing after. Man... 

We talked with this guy the other day in the park, just smoking at this bench. 

He said that in the past the Japanese government in order to protect that Japanese culture and way of live, propagated lies about Christianity and Christ in all of the schools, and taught that Christ was evil. He said people around their seventies and older still think that much of the time. 

It was interesting... He told us some interesting things. He said that people in the rest of Japan "bully" the people in Fukushima. 

"You would've thought bulling would only be a problem in elementary school, not with adults." is what he said. (That was way Japane-y. They always put と言いました, at the end of quotes.) He said that because because of the radiation that when people from other prefectures figure out that they're from Fukushima-ken (ken is prefecture) that they get kind of scared of them. And many of them won't marry anyone from here.... 

Kinda weird. Apparently it's still a problem. The radiation... We went to the beach to finish our companionship study before we did service at a hotel close by. You can't swim in the water because apparently there was some leakage into the ocean. 

They're going to open the beaches soon is what I heard, but even then we probably won't go swimming. We're not really by the ocean too often on P-days.                       (man I so funny!!! :D ) 

So yep... I'm getting cancer... Or maybe I'll grow taller. :)

The other day as we were mapping out some old investigators that we wanted to visit at the church, we heard someone speaking on a loud speaker and the sounds of drums. 

I got excited and opened the window. 

"IT'S A PARADE!" I yelled. Pretty ignorantly happy. 

People were holding flags with Kanji (Japanese) and marching down the street. I'd heard about the summer festivals, but didn't think that they'd be starting so soon. 

Then... Slowly... 

I noticed that everyone wasn't wearing traditional clothes... In fact, no one was. And they weren't marching in that pretty of a formation... And there were police cars and men trying to do something... Hummm... and then I understood what the man on the loud speaker was saying. 

Yep. It was a riot- not a parade... But they're like the same thing, right? 

They were matching because (I think) that they don't believe proper precautions were taken with the nuclear radiation problem. ... It was a long parade. 

So yep. I'm having all sorts of fun. :) 

We taught a man who's never prayed before how to pray this week. We're doing free family English program with him. 

That's were we meet with the person, we teach them English for thirty minutes, and then for thirty minutes we teach them about the Gospel. 

It's one of the middle aged Japanese guys from English Class. eikaiwa. 

We went as a district this week to the eki (the train station) and I brought my guitar. 

It was pretty fun. I just jammed out playing and singing Nearer My God to Thee, Hallelujah, and Country Roads.  

Yep... a group of high school girls was kind of following me, so I turned to them and did my best to get them to come to English class... In English. 

They didn't think I could understand Japanese for some reason... so they they started saying some... odd things. 

They were all ichinensei (freshmen) and so were 15, and when they found out I was twenty they cheered and one said 

"Yes! He's only five years older!" in Japanese... 

Yep. They asked if they could take a picture with me. I said if they would come to English class I would let them. 

They said yes. They took the picture- they didn't come. 

Sasuga. 

Yep. There's some funny moments... I usually avoid telling these stories, but since the topic is already up. Mom, you can decide if this is blog worthy or not. 

I've taken a surprising number of pictures with high school girls or guys to try and get them to come to English class. 

Yep. We were talking with some younger boys (13ish) who had a fake katana, and two high school girls were walking by. 

Their eyes were fixed on us, so they didn't see the curb that was coming up... Laugh.. caught themselves, turned super red, but kept staring. 

Enough temporal things- let's get spiritual. 

We testified to a woman (a different one than above) that God was real, in her door step.  She said she couldn't believe it. 

We testified that Christ was real to two Nepal-jin (people) that we met at the eki (train station). He said that he believed that every God existed, and that he agreed, and that he hated how people would say that only their God existed. He also said he hated Japan- which made me kind of angry, because (if you couldn't tell from my last letter) I kind of like Japan. 

I recently read the talk that Elder Boyd K. Packer gave in the last general conference. Dear everyone in the world, I would strongly suggest reading that talk. His writing is beautiful. When he spoke it was good, but a little slow, and difficult to understand entirely because of his age. When you read that talk... man. It's amazing. Kando shiteita. 

The Lord is amazing. And He is blessing this land. These people, more so than many Americans, are spiritually inclined. They, like all people in the world, feel a natural yearning to be close to God. They feel inside of them their true potential. It just takes some time to show them the way. 

Kudomasato-San slept though his last lesson. I was really worried. We didn't get any contact with him last week until Sunday, despite how often we called. 

We sang a Japanese version of Now We Take the Sacrament. I did my best with the tenor part. 

We had a student from Eikaiwa come to sacrament. Saki-chan. 

I was so happy. She's a smart high schooler who answers all of my Japanese questions after English class. 

I'm a little sad that I still have yet to have a Japanese companion. I guess my trainer counts, but he never spoke Japanese to us, only broken English. 

I feel like I can speak decently well, and know a fair number of words and grammar (still not enough), but one thing that I like is how to speak/ phrase things like an actually Japanese person would. The only way that you can do that is be with a Japanese person, and though I learn a lot from talking with people everyday, it's not like everyday life kind of conversations. Japanese people speak a different language outside of their house than they do inside. 

Meh. 

Brienholt Choro is a good man. It's kinda awkward sometimes because he doesn't understand sarcasm. But we've developed a system. Whenever I'm being sarcastic I (like the badger does on fantastic mr fox) I made a sign by raising my arm. So that's helped a lot... Maybe I should give up sarcasm.... 

PFTTT>.. Nope. that was a joke. 

I can give up sarcasm. 

And irony. 

(that was both sarcastic and ironic) 

I LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Wheelwright

English Class For Children "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes"