Mission Life

Okay. 

First some Japanese lessons that I should've thought you all at the first of my mission. 

San= Mr. or Mrs. Or Miss. 

Cyan= is for little girls (or close friends.... or when you make fun of someone) 

Kun= is for little boys. 

Sama= is for God and samurai warriors. 

Church titles

Kaicho= is president 

Kyodai= is Brother 

Shimai= is sister

Choro= is elder 

also dendo means missionary work, or mission, or preaching. its a verb and a noun.... 

We call investigators blablabla-San, and members blablabla-kyodai or blablabla-shimai. 

Sorry about that... 

Things this week are great! 

Yokoyama-san is doing good. He didn't come to church again... But we did get a lesson in with him. Hopefully this next lesson will boost up his faith. 

Momoru-Kyodai, our branch mission leader is doing good. 

He's doing DCS (where we review the progress records... that meeting thingy) 

The language is jumping up quite quickly... I think. I still make mistakes, but my English is broken... It's getting more and more difficult to think in English. I really try to think in Japanese, and it starting to happen. It's slower, but meh. it's coming. 

I recently found an amazing kanji book this week that has helped me so much. It's memorizing kanji using your imaginative memory. Every kanji and symbol get's a story... I memorized the meaning and the writing of 100 and something kanji this week. In about fifty days I'll know 2,000. 

The first book teaching the basic meaning of the kanji and how to write it only, the second book teaching how to read the kanji, and how it compounds with other kanji, or so I believe. 

Well, charity-ne. This week, I had a good chat with my companion, and I think I gained some of his respect. I just told him straight up, "yep sometimes I have no idea how to say what I'm thinking in this language. It's not because I'm stupid that I can't speak, remember, this isn't my native language. If you could, it would be amazing if you could have patience with me when I'm speaking. If you don't understand, or if I can't find a word, just help me with patience." 

That seemed to do something. He's an amazing Elder. I've grown to respect him so much. 

Sean-ne. Sounds like a champion. How long is he in the Marines for? 

I was thinking about joining the Air Force, but that's a story for a different time. 

I hope Sean's Dad gets feeling better. 

I walked into the kitchen, and I looked on the wall and found a new friend: "gokiburi!" 

Cockroach.... 

I grabbed a paper towel and aproached my enemy, an enemy that I have never yet faced before in my life time. 

I pounced attempting to grab it in my paper towel, and it zipped across the wall like a rocket. I struck twice more like a viper trying to kill my prey, but each time it, evaded like lighting, and then shot though the crack in the door into the other room. 

I told my companion, and asked him two questions, the answer to which, brought me no comfort. 

"If there's one does that mean there's more?" 

yes

"can they fly?" 

to my second question he put his hands up in the air and wiggled his fingers making a "zzeezzp" sound... Which I assumed meant; yes... 

But they don't bite. :) 

Man it's a good thing we don't sleep on the floor... Oh wait. 

We did kusatori, or weeding twice this week. In total it was 7 or 8 hours of pulling weeds. But then the sister took us to get steak. 

Here were focusing on doing lessons with the members. 

Eventually the plan is to build members up to the point that they'll fulfill their missionary responsibilities. It's starting to work I think. 

We split the members into three groups so that we can focus on them, and we're doing lessons with each of them twice every month, just like the district president wanted us to do. 

We'll challanging them to read from the PMG, and the Power of Everyday Missionaries. 

Everyone has a copy here. 

I'm focusing on the Branch President and the Branch Mission Leader and am going to meet with them next week to discuss how we can bring build this branch- and unite our visions. ... 

It's going to be sweet. 

The Zone Leaders are amazing. 

I feel so much power from the Lord as of late.  

We're going to the beach... Got to go! Bye!

Elder Wheelwight

Yep, We're way there, and I really think we're living on a prayer

Yep, the mission's half over. Man.... Most people say it feels like it was way fast.

It feel like about a year to me.

(send me Brandon's letters! :) よろしくお願いしまい

A mission is quite a bit like a life time.

We come into it, study a little in the pre-earth life (MTC- little old Brandon),

Get born into a totally different world.

Fumble around with language, and teaching. Never quite being able to do perfectly.

We have our parent (trainer) and some times we wonder if they actually love us or if they're trying to kill us.

We move to different stages in life (area) make new friends only to have them all disappear.

We have the difficult teen years (when your trainer is only a transfer ahead of you, or you and your companion are both third transfers in a foreign world.).

Then we reach our mid life crisis.

We're getting old.

Eventually, we refine our talents, get the hang of things, then we die.

I was talking with my Zone Leader (Cox-Choro, and excellent man.) and we figured out a way to calculate dendo age.

(16+2)*10 all divided by 8. Yep. I think that's right. I'm about fifty years old. (my comp is 55) I'm feeling it.

Cox Choro said that he feels like he could sleep for days. I told him about how dad said he slept for weeks.

Getting old!

The weird thing in the mission is, there's really not too many new people being born.

My transfer is the 'baby boomer' of the mission. There's 28 or so of us. The transfer that's coming in now (which should be the biggest all year) is 6-8ish missionaries, I think. (man, Japanese people say I think at the end of the sentences instead of the beginning. I'm turning Japanese, I think.)

Leadership positions are rare in these days, because the two or three transfers above my snag them all. What you end up with is a lot of double leadership positions. Situations where one companion is the District Leader and the other is the Senior Companion, regardless of age (mission age).

It get's a little awkward sometimes when you both think you have good ideas.

Yep.

Awkward.

I've made a goal never to get in an argument with anyone of my companions.... It's not easy.

One thing that I'm working on over coming is the tendency to rebel when someone tells me to do something that I'm already doing.

q1: Things are going well with him. He's a good missionary. He's Japanese, and can speak the language quite well. He doesn't really like English too much. He says "when am I ever going to use it?" meh. probably more often then I can use Japanese. But I like speaking in only Japanese, so that's good.

I don't understand this language as well as English (obviously) so sometimes is hard to get the little  nuances

 that people say. Often times when people are talking indirectly to me, (in Japanese directness is rude) as they pause waiting for me to say I'll do whatever thing they were implying, I'll say: "okay... uhm... Alright... What should I do?"

Sometimes they'll explain it indirectly again, and if I still am not getting it, I'll go for a round two.

Reading and writing are almost impossible, but that's only thing that I've been wanting to focus on recently. I read at least one of the paragraphs from the white handbook in Japanese with my companion's help. If it's church words, it's not a problem. (or if it had furigana.)

I don't know if you can do it, but, could you see if you can find a good book for learning kanji? Don't send it to me or anything, just look it up. Maybe I might want it. (that was also very Japanese

Japanese is funny. "It would make me happy if you did..." "May I humbly partake of you doing..." "Would it be good even if you...." Etc.

Red man invited us to play tennis again, I told him if he does a lesson. He said okay.

The district is doing well. The new shimai are super nice.

Pray for Yokoyama-san.

Also our branch mission leader: Mamoru-kyodai.

Pray that I'll love people more.... pfft. and speak this language with more confidence.

This week was pretty interesting.

We had a Zone Training in Koriyama.

We had some "free time" (no time is free time in dendo time), so I mapped out a bunch of Old investigators and we visited them. They were all pretty nice, and pretty "busy".

One man let us in. I'll tell you that story next week though. This computer won't copy paste.

Thanks for all the pictures!

Keep them coming!.... :)

I love you all. A mission is an awesome experience........... woo!

 

New Mission President; President and Sister Smith

Dear Peoples that I know, and ones that I don't,  (hey, that's everybody) 

Let me tell you a story- 

I was fasting to know how to better learn this backwards (literally) language.

Then a little thought came into my mind. "Only use Japanese." So, now I've only been using Japanese. Only speaking Japanese, reading Japanese, writing Japanese. 

But of course there are some exceptions- Such as English class, and writing you guys, and my journal for my posterity and most of my personal study. 

I have a question for Austin: did you ever get the point that you only studied in your mission language? 

So, if my English starts getting weird, - ごめんね

So- we got a transfer call last night. 

And half of my poor little district is being sent to other places. 

My companion as well as Gallacher姉妹 is going to a place called Odate, where the branch has only 7 active members. 

Kurokawa 姉妹 too is heading else where. 

My new companion's name is Igawa-長老. Elder Igawa. And guess what- HE'S JAPANESE!!!! YES!!! FINALLY!

Apparently from what I hear he doesn't really speak English- so that's a good thing. :) 日本語だけですよね。よし。。

This week ね、It's been as good as ever. 

We met a black guy named Justin from America at the train station, as well as another Nepal人 (guy from Nepal. that's the kanji for guy. see... It looks like a little guy. :) ) I got both of their numbers, so hopefully we can teach them sometime soon. 

This week we rode on a bus for 3 and 1/2 hours to Sendai 仙台(hermit-shine)- and hit an hour transfer to Yamagata 山形(Mountain Form/Shape), where we were able to be the new Mission President: President Smith. 

He's a pretty good guy. His wife is hilarious. She's amazing at speaking, and she has an attitude. She spoke in English, and it was like listening to a book on tape, except she hadn't scripted any of it. She didn't even use notes (I don't think). She fun to talk to. She would do 'interviews' with the companions of the person being "INTERVIEWED" by the President. We ran out of time, so we didn't get to do it, but there was a Japanese Elder (Rassmussen-Choro's companion.) who as she shook his hand thanking him said in Japanese: "Yep, I have no idea what you were saying." She laughed and said "I have no idea what he just said." and laughed and kept walking. 

Probably not that funny to you, but they both, not understanding each other said pretty much exactly the same thing. 

President Smith is a good guy. He served a mission in Fukuoka when we was young. His Japanese is both good and bad. He's a little out of practice, but he still uses some Japanese words that I don't understand. 

I love this mission. I love being able to work for the Lord. 

Our investigators seem to be avoiding us- but that won't stop missionaries. 

An example of our missionary persistence: 

We set up a meeting with our Branch Mission Leader for after church so that we could plan our Dendo Fireside that we were going to do the next week. 

He didn't come to church, let alone the meeting that day. We sat after church, together as a district. 

"What should we do?" someone asked. 

"Does anyone have any ideas?" I responded with a question. 

Gallacher Shimai's hand shot up. "We could ride our bikes to his house, and do the meeting." 

Well, it was fast Sunday at around 1:30, and their house was about an hour and twenty minutes away... uphill.... 

So we went. :) 

There was a popped tire and some crying from one of the Shimai, but we made it. 

His dad (the first counselor in the branch) opened the door, and let us in. He walked upstairs to try and get his son to return from bed, but returned in vain. 

He came to deliver the sad news- 

My amazing companion asked: "can we go up?" He instantly replied "go for it." 

So my companion literally picked him up out of bed and shook him awake. 

"We love you...!" I said quietly. And he laughed. 

"Can I at least take a shower first?" 

"sure." 

So we did a district meeting while we were waiting, and then had an excellent planning meeting. Man. I love our branch mission leader. but like really, not being sarcastic. I love him. 

anyway! I'll attach a picture of our zone combined with 山形zone. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Elder Wheelwright

President and Sister Smith with some of the missionaries

Buddha likes me!

    A giant shinto bell... Kurokawa Shimai  said it was okay to ring it. I wasn't so sure. 

She pointed and some of the writing written on the stick to pull back to ring it and said "it says to ring it hard!" 

And then she did.... A deep low, explosion like sound shot out, and just like a movie birds flew away, and my hair stood on end... 

Then everyone in the district rang it.... She's Japanese and she said it was okay, so... 

 

Japan is Beautiful in the Spring

Very Beautiful