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
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