Angry Man in a Pink House, and British Asians

A week in Japan, 

Monday- Learned how to shoot a basketball

Tuesday- 

We had our Shuwa Class. (Remember everyone- Shuwa is Japanese Sign Language) 

I don't think a lot of Americans realize the convenience of speaking a different language than everyone around you. 

And in the rare situations where people both understand English and Japanese- we just use Shuwa. 

I gave a training when I just stood up in front of everyone- said that Christ taught through parables, and examples, and then just did a bunch of examples to teach everyone why we should be obedient. 

The kite looking like it's being held back by the string- (cut the string, the kite falls) 

I took a thin strip of twenty pieces of paper and cut it up all over the floor. 

I had a Japanese sister come up and gave her a vacuum to clean it. she started going, and I unplugged it. 

We have no power to fulfill our purpose if we don't have the Spirit, which only stays with those worthy. 

Wed- 

There's a mid 50 year old man who lives in a pink house down the road from the church. (There's like 3 houses in between him and the church) He complains that the church is too loud all the time for some reason. 

We're trying to prep for Eikaiwa (English Class) when Shion-chan comes running up the stairs almost crying, and tell us there's someone who wants to see us downstairs. 

--- Side story: Sister Shion. In Japanese- Zion is called Shion. Which it wouldn't be too much of a coincidence if her parents were members of the church. 

Nope- she was baptized in February- she's 16 years old, and she's a walking miracle.---

We run downstairs to find a slightly overweight balding man with glasses and a dirty scowl on his face. 

He starts yelling at us, telling us that we can't ride our bikes on the right side of the road, saying this ain't America. 

The debate side of me was screaming to come out and refute his logic, but- a lesson that I've learned from life: in an argument, the one who remains above the childishness of screaming, and getting angry, has all the more power. I remained complete calm, I agreed with him. 

"You're totally right. Man, I didn't know that was against the law here." (everyone in Japan does it) 

"We'll try our best not to do it again." 

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" he yelled. "You guys transfer transfer every three to six months, and you've all been wrecking this town for the last thirty or more years! New people will come, and it'll go back to the way it was." 

He told us he needed to talk with someone that was Japanese so he could fully express his feelings, but I perfectly understood everything he was saying. Someone called the branch president, and he was on his way, so we just had to distract him until he got there. 

We walked him back into one of the class rooms so he wouldn't scare away all of our students. 

We offered him water, and that made him angry too. 

I started having fun with him, keeping a serious face the whole time. 

I told him in order to solve the problem of missionaries not knowing when they change, that we could tell the Zone Leaders, and they could change the way missionaries ride their bikes in the whole Aomori prefecture. 

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" 

"And then the Zone Leaders will tell the people in Sendai, and we'll change all of the Tohoku region. From there, they'll tell Tokyo, we'll change Japan, and then the world. Thank You so much for everything that you've told us today. This conversation is changing the way we do missionary work everywhere." 

It would've been really rude for me to say that in America, but in Japan, they don't have sarcasm. Like really. People don't understand it, so he was feeling pretty proud. 

He said something derogatory to us, I agreed with him again. 

"You're so right... I mean, I can't do a lot of stuff. I can't cook very well, I can't dance-" 

My companion just turned and looked at me with a raised eyebrow- he later told me he though I was using a homonym with the word for dance, because of how serious my face was. 

I worked the conversation, and got out why the man was even complaining as he was. 

We found out he doesn't believe in God, (even in Buddha) and hates all organized religion. 

When he said he didn't believe in God, (and that he hated Him?) Jones Choro tensed up- and looked super angry. 

The Branch President came, after Eikaiwa, we saw him standing in the hallway rubbing his eyes, looking exhausted. 

"What happened?"
"Exactly what you probably think. He yelled for about an hour."

"What should we do?" 

"None of it's your fault. Do everything just like you've always been doing it- just never knock on his door. Hang up something in your apartment that let's every missionary know, never to knock on that door." 

I smile with the hugest grin (riding on the left side of the road) every time we pass the pink house on the way to the church. 

Thurs- We visited a collage. 

I talked with this kid at his dorm, and it baffles me that they've NEVER never even thought about what happens after death. No one thinks of it. No one cares. 

They're all super nice (pink house man excluded, but I still love him. I feel sad for him.... Half because he doesn't believe in God, half because he has no front teeth) . But talking about religion with Japanese people is like talking about chess- people just don't really care. 

I'm trying to ask them questions that spark their interest- so we'll see how that goes. 

We're talking with people like crazy, so pretty soon we should start seeing some results. 

We just got a new requirement from the Asian Presidency- we've got to teach 20 lessons a week, any way possible... Even if we just teach to members, teach twenty lessons. 

That'll kill a ton of finding time... but meh. 

(as a district this last week we had a total of two lessons.... eight missionaries, two lessons. (with investigators) but this week was just a rough week. things are looking up.) 

We taught our investigator- he doesn't believe in life after death- and we all know that faith starts with desire, so we ask him 

"Do you want to live with your family after death?" 

"There is no life after death."

"Alright, we understand that you think that- but let's just say that it's possible for a second, do you want to be with your family forever, even after death?"

"....There is no life after death." 

He speaks Aomori ben, so I'm only picking up 3/4ths of what he saying. 

Hachinohe

Area: Hachinohe (Eight Doors) 八戸　(it looks cool, huh?) 

It (like every single one of my areas) is right by the ocean. It smells like fish. 

It's not like Iwaki at all. It Iwaki was like a city popping out of a jungle- with towering hotels and sky touching malls. 

Hachinohe is like some one painted a thick layer of one and two story buildings over the entire bay. 

Our apartment is across this huge bridge from the church. (the bridge is probably about the size of Richville lane). 

Some firsts for me: 

8 missionaries in a single area

50 members in the branch. (up to now, in all of my other areas if we had thirty, the members were happy) 

Everyone complains about how hot it is here- and I just laugh. It's so much further north here dakara (and because of that) it's not hot at all. 

This area is known for how many deaf members it has. (It has at least six) and about three or four other hearing members that speak Shuwa (Japanese Sign Language) fluently. (They translate during sacrament meeting and classes. It's pretty sweet) 

We go to the classes that they have here at the church, and I've been learning. Sign-language is so easy. Japanese sign language just throws out every particle- so the only odd grammatical things are just the order and the expressions.  Shuwa is a super new language. Before this point, deaf people in Japan didn't have an organized language, but thirty years ago a Japanese member of the church just mixed a bunch of different signs that people were using, (and some american sign language) together and a sweet new language was born. I can already pray in Shuwa. I love the deaf members. Stories are so much more fun in Shuwa. They make some of the most hilarious faces, when they tell stories. It's like acting. 

We're clear up in Aomori, so we get to deal with some good old, feared by all Gaijin, Aomori-ben. (The Aomori dialect.) I haven't met anyone that's too bad, but apparently our investigator speaks it all the time, so we have his wife translate it into normal Japanese. 

We went to visit. inakkata. (he wasn't home) 

He was over in the far field, which is actually in another area. (Misawa) 

It takes like thirty or so minutes to get to his house. 

So you know our instead of saying 'apparently one of our investigators' I said 'apparently our investigator' yep. We've only got one. Yay! 

And we had a meeting with one of the members (Yamanaka-kyodai) after church, and he told us in front of everyone to drop our investigator, saying he's hopeless. 

Meh, I've got to meet him first. 

I've been pondering a lot about what it means to 'talk with EVERYONE' because, when you think about it, that's physically impossible. There are a limited number of hours, and an almost unlimited number of people. So it's IMPOSSIBLE to talk with EVERYONE.... But wo, wait a second before you start throwing stones, 

it redefines it in the PMG as talking to as many people as you CAN in each day. 

But let's think about this. If you judge it purely based off of the number of people you talk to, you could probably just stand at the train station all day, saying hello to every person that walks by, and you've done it. You could probably get a couple thousand each day. 

But, that doesn't fulfill our purpose. 

So, maybe it's more about the quality of the conversation you engage in. Maybe, was my next thought, maybe it is the number of gospel conversations you engage in. You've got to talk to every single person you pass about the gospel, which sounds a little better, but that's still wrong. 

Cox CHoro told me a story about a missionary who would have an appointment, but it would take him two hours to get there because he talked with EVERYONE along the way. So the members/ investigators got pretty ticked that he never made it. So, in order to keep his resolve to talk with every person he passes, he started taking back roads to avoid people, and he would still be an hour late. 

That's not okay ether.... 

So I made a TWE MODE (talk with everyone mode), that turns on and off depending on the situation. If you don't have an appointment or an activity, (study time) or a service,(or a plan) then the TWE Mode turns on, and you talk to every person. (if you have a rough plan but it's not a specific appointment, like we want to get to the collage so we can sign up for a club to make friends to get investigators, etc. then you get in a different mode, SD Mode, Spiritual Discretion mode. When you talk with people purely based on the Spirit. If you feel the slightest bit of a prompting, then you go for it. And that doesn't mean that the normal TWE mode doesn't involve the Spirit ether.- - The TWE mode turns on right when an appointment cancels, or you go to visit someone and they're not there. 

We've had some good experiences so far. 

One- We saw a man wearing huge rain boots, just golfing in a field. We went up to talk to him. 

Jones Choro started asking about golf, he cut him off 

"You're missionaries aren't you?" 

I smiled really big. "YA! We are!" 

He stuck up his hand and turned away. (It's a sign that means 'I want nothing to do with you'.) 

Jones Choro asks "Can I ask you a question?" 

Then he just says it " I don't want anything to do with you." 

"It has nothing to do with religion, just about golf."

"nope... can't" he did the sign again. with a look of disgust, walked away. "I don't want to hear your religion." and stuff like that. 

And I used my favorite Japanese: "you know, were like still human and stuff." 

Laugh. Then we shook our heads, shook the dust off of our feet (an inside joke... we don't really do it. We just houses an whole neighborhood, and we got rejected hardcore at every house, and we made the joke.) and we rode away laughing. 

We've learned to laugh at the rejections. 

A sister at church for some reason gave us a ton of flowers. We were headed home, (biking one handed because of the flowers). We decided the sisters could use them, and there was an old guy in front of his house, and when he saw us just brightened up and yelled "Konichiwa!" So we stopped and talked with him for a while. (invited him to take the lessons. he said "[Japanese that I didn't understand with an excuse tone]". ) I was holding a ton of flowers, so I pull out ten, and just give them to him. He cracked up laughing. 

We rode away. Jones Choro asked "Did you smell any alcohol on him?" "No, why?" "That wasn't normal." 

People don't normally say hello. 

I saw a girl walking down the road eating some pokey (the chocolate covered biscuit sticks), and we started talking to her.  She had no interest in anything, and seemed a little weirded out that two gaijin just popped out of nowhere)- but I asked her about pokey- she said she liked it,

"I love pokey too. What flavor is that?" 

"Mint flavor."

"oh, cool. I've never had mint before." 

"ippon, tabemasenka?" (Directly translated: Won't you eat one stick? (do you want one?)) 

I cracked up, and, then took one. thanked her, said we'll see her around, and we walked away. 

Giving flowers and eating peoples' food. If I keep it up then we'll be able to go back to the no purse or scrip policy. 

We had an activity on Saturday. 

It was pretty awesome. 

It's called nagashisomen. 

Or flowing somen. 

Now, men means noodle- 

most Americans probably only know ramen- 

but somen is a thinner stringier type of noodle- 

This is something that we don't do in America, but it makes totally sense. 

Cold noodles. 

When it's winter, we like to eat hot things, right? Soup and hot coco, etc. 

And when it's summer we are all about ice cream, right? 

Cold noodles. The food of the summer. 

So, nagashisomen, pretty much, you just take like a pipe that's sliced in half the long way, and put it up pretty high,, have some water slowly flowing though it, and put noodles down it, and you scoop it up with chopsticks and put it into your cup (which is a thicker cold soup made of tsuyu which is similar to soy sauce,) and just dig in. 

It's probably the greatest thing that ever happened ever. 

Okay. 

Here's our district 

Jones Choro: Our good old district leader. We're in the same transfer. 

He's amazing. He always laughing, and trying to do his best with everything. 

He's from Idaho- loves sports, and is a pro at Shuwa (Japanese Sign Language) 

Fox Choro: He looks like a fox. He's got sharper eye teeth, and flashing eyes that look like he's going to cause trouble. He's small and fast too. He's awesome. He's from North Carolina, which he tells everyone is the 'real south'. Jones Choro constantly reminds him that it's got North in it's name, so it can't be the south. 

Earl Choro: I've never heard a Japanese be able to say his name. So the just call him R choro. He's 6'4'' at least, and he's got the calmest lowest monotone voice. He's a stud. 

Then the four sisters: 

Morita Shiamai: She's... well. She's going to die after this transfer, so she's getting a little crazy. She wears these crazy contacts that turn her eyes completely black. She was a 'doll' or a 'plastic' before her mission. I'll explain that another day. 

Sakuma Shiamai: She's the same transfer as me too. She's halarious. She's almost fluent in english, and says some of the craziest things. 

Tuttle Shimai: She's from upstate new york, She's super nice. We were in the same zone. Her and her companion are going to die in two. 

Kushi Shimai: Super quiet, super funny. She always has the calmest voice even if something crazy is going on. Just monotone, "oh no. wow. that's great"

I love it here. I love you guys. 

You guys are great. 

if you've got questions, let me know. 

Peace. Elder Wheelwright

Here goes nothing!

Well everybodies,

It's time for another transfer.

I packed it all up this morning. My too little suitcase is going to explode, and it took laying on top of it and battling with the zipper for about twenty minutes (and a blister) to get it to close.

I'm headed to Aomori-Prefecture

Hachinohe City,

It's a port city on the north eastern part of my mission. (It's probably the closest city to home!)

It's got 8 missionaries. Sweet.

My companion is the district leader, who is the same transfer as me: Elder Jones.

I've met him a few times, and he has a spirit of peace about him. I'm excited.

I think I've learned the more in this transfer than I have in any other.

I understand what it means to work with the branch, and I understand better than ever how to strengthen LA, find investigators, and be a good missionary in general.

I asked a lot of questions to the Zone Leaders here, and Cox Choro answered a ton of my questions.

I even asked the President some of the more difficult questions.

Good stuff...

Well, this week ne.

We cleaned out the apartment of a Less Active Member who just got sent to prison of physically maiming someone (again).

It was pretty interesting. And it took about five hours.

It was nostalgic (they use the equivalent of nostalgic a ton in Japanese), and slightly new, looking at the out side (and then the inside) of the door that had been slammed in our face so many times.

Apparently he was an active member a little while before I arrived here, but then he got offended at church, started drinking, got sent to prison... got out of prison, ignored us every time we met, and then finally got sent to prison again.

We walked into his apartment and there were pictures of pro-Japanese wrestlers all over the walls. (That's probably why you never let us watch wrestling, Mom. We'd just keep breaking peoples' arms and go to prison.)

Pffft....

Well... It's about time for me to go.

I visited my favorite man here in Iwaki... Niki-san. He got a masters from Cambridge, and we talk about science in English, I got to bear testimony to him, but he just kinda laughed. Still love him though.

I want to come back and see him.

Mah... I'm not even sure if this email is blog, worthy. 

I love you.

Wheew.

Since Brandon, (Elder Wheelwright#2) has been writing me, it's been getting harder and harder to write everything that I feel like I need to. 

But that just comes down to time management. 

I was talking with my Zone Leader and I pointed out that our English is getting slower. We both have Japanese companions, and because we've got a new American missionary in the Zone, he did the announcements in English, and his companion in Japanese. There were some- "I think" 's put at the end of sentences and stuff. I was pretty funny. 

Jya. Just cause my English is getting worse doesn't mean my Japanese is getting better. 

I don't know if it's just because I'm American, cause I swear I'm saying the same things as them, but when ever I talk, everyone always "huhs?" or "What's?" 

But then other times it's like I'm native- 

Let me tell you what's been going on. 

We had zone training meeting in koriyama (the place missionaries can't go because the radiation is too high... yep. went there. I'm growing a 2nd head on my shoulder. I named him Goichi, because he was born in Japan.) (alright ignore that) and after we got back- I checked my pocket... guess what. No phone. 

Yep. A missionary with out a phone, is like a basketball player without arms. I mean you can still play the game, but you've gotta use your head (the pay phone) and it hurts (six dollars worth). 

It's an hour and a half ride to koriyama, and a thirty-minute walk to the church, which we weren't even sure it was there. 

We called our Zone Leader-sama, and he told us it was okay to go back and get it. I laughed.... 

I thought maybe I left it on the bus, so the next day we went to the bus station- and luckily I've got a Japanese companion- cause we were able to figure out if it was on the bus. Another six hundred yen and we got the phone on a return bus to Iwaki. yay! 

It's weird not having a phone. 

We were just about to eat on the day we didn't have the phone, where we hear someone pounding on our door. 

Sasaki Shimai was standing outside giving me the weirdest look. (she's 70 something, and kinda looks like grandma Dickson) 

"Are you guys okay?" She blurted. "I've been calling you all morning!"

"jya, we kinda lost our phone in Koriyama. Sorry." 

"Are you guys coming?" 

"coming to where?" 

"We're going to Yakiniku! We'll see you there in 15 minutes!" 

Yakiniku is where you have a grill in the middle of the table and you have all you can eat, thinly sliced meat of every type, and just stuff yourself. 

Of course we're going. 

It was glorious to get the phone back. 

This week we had a crazy festival called the Iwaki odori. Thousands of people gathered in the main street and did a crazy dance. it was crazy. 

I met an Irish guy and talked to him about the gospel. He made me laugh when he said, as we were watching a guy with a crazy white clothes vest thing, wave a five or six meter tall bamboo pole in the air with a giant flag, "Well that's something you don't see everyday." 

No awesome Irish man. That's not. 

One member wanted to go to the festival with us, and he showed us a bunch of random things. Then, I wasn't really sure what was going on, and we ended up at his friend's house, who has six computers that he build himself all hooked together to make a super computer. 

He started showing us anime  and I started at the floor for like thirty seconds then whispered to Igari kyodai (he's like 70.. same with his friend) "um we can't watch this as missionaries." He chuckled. and didn't do anything. I whispered to him again. "Um. Igari kyodai, is it like okay, if we leave and go and do missionary work." 

"iiyo" (Ya that's all cool.) 

So we did. 

Yokoyama-San is doing well, same with Red Man- We invited them both to come to church and they both said no. 

Yokoyama-San has work, and Red Man just laughed at my invitation. 

We started a second English class. We're doing one on Wednesday and one on Saturday as well. 

It's pretty great. The Saturday one is only conversation (i planned some sweet conversations. We told embarrassing stories, which somehow ended up turning into hearing about different high school relationship problems. I suppose it's just a universal thing. Since the Saturday English class isn't an official one, we can talk about God freely. So I just took a chance to tell people about the church's standards, and how we date for fun in Utah- and why that's better and stuff. It was pretty great. 

I'm teaching one of the students how to play guitar after class, and I hope we can start teaching him the gospel soon. 

Sweaty Elder Wheelwright

Japanese people wear a towel around their necks to wipe off the sweat

Happy Elder Wheelwright

I love missionary work here in Japan. 

 

Elder Wheelwright

えっ、時間がないね

Why is the time always gone. 

Here's a story: 

The morning of the split, I was filling my bag with dendo (missionary) supplies, and as I put in my kubareru(able to be passed out) Book of Mormon, I noticed that (even though it was in a case) that it had gotten pretty beaten up from being in my bag so long. I pondered for a moment. 
'I can't give out this Book of Mormon. It looks pretty trashed.' I reached for a new one and realized I had a problem. 
'If I just put a new one in, eventually it'll get beat up as well.' I've got to pass it out today. 
I was playing my guitar and singing while Cox Choro (elder) was passing out Eikaiwa (english class) Flyers- when I noticed three high school girls at the other end of the Eki (train station). I felt an impression that one of them was the ones that needed the book. 
"Cox Choro, It's been too long since I've passed out a Book of Mormon. They need this book." 
So we talked with them. I used one of my favorite analogies: 
"Companies, in their constant consideration of the customer, have given us manuals to solve any problems that occur with their product. If you car or phone breaks, you can look up a solution in the manual." Slight Pause. "What if I told you that there was a manual for life?" Pause. "-A manual that could solve all of life's problems. Would you like to read that book?" 
... One girl replied "No," her friend agreed. ... "Really?" I asked. Cox Choro tried to back me up, but to no avail. 
I asked them what they desired most in life, in hopes that one of them would say something that the Gospel could offer. 
I was a little disappointed with the first response. "I want to be a witch!" 
The third girl, who up to that point had been sitting quietly responded "I want eternal happiness." 
I testified to her that she could get it though the principals taught in this book. 
We told them it was free, but they won't take it. I felt like one of them needed it, so I was bold- "Okay, no one will take it. I want you to have it. So I'm just going to put it here." I set in next to the eternal happiness hoshishiteru (the girl who wanted eternal happiness) girl. And then we walked away. We went back a little later, and they had taken the book. Feeling the dendo fire, Cox Choro pulled out his Book of Mormon, which was far more beat up than the one I had taken out of my bag that morning- we gave it to a skater kid after starting a good conversation with him. 

Alright, here's some clarification on the story. - now the Japanese words... I'm sorry. The way I made some of my sentences was pretty Japanese, so I had to use Japanese words to make it fit with the grammar. I'll translate. Okay, hopefully that makes since. In Japanese, there are no words like that, which and who. 

The girl that wanted eternal happiness. 

The way we say it in Japanese is: 

The eternal happiness wanting girl. 

Like adjectives you the words before describe the girl. It's a pretty simple concept, but it takes some time to get used to. (years.... :( ) 

I'll expound on the skater kids. 

It's not against the rules to skateboard... (really it's not) 

Cox Choro and I were looking for someone to give the Book of Mormon to, and we saw a girl, but when we were almost to her, she whipped out her phone and started talking... Awkward.... I saw some guys at the Eki just messing around on skateboards- "Let's give it to them." 

"okay.." 

So I walked up to their leader. "Hey! I'm from America. Will you teach me how to skateboard?" 

He without looking (cause he was texting,) kicked his friends skateboard to me. 

Then sat up and started teach me. 

It was pretty much the same as a longboard so I shot off, and everyone started freaking out. Next he tried to teach me how to jump, which wasn't as easy. I've just got to practice a bit more. 

He asked why I was here, and I told him that I was spreading happiness and teaching people about who God is. I pulled out Cox Choro's book and told him to read it and I'd change his life. 

He laughed bowed super low, and took the book. saying "I humbly partake" 

Then he shot off on his board. 

Hopefully he reads it.  

We had to cancel an appoint that I'd make with Redman, cause we had to give a sister's father( who is confined to the hospital) a blessing. The normal thing to do is a situation like this is to just call the investigator up and reschedule- but Redman has no phone. 

We called up Kamiyo-kyodai, (the oldest member in the area and friend of RedMan) and asked him if he had an address for him. He said "no," and "even if you have an address it won't do you any good. His house is a gomiyashiki. [lit. Trash Mansion]. He's too embarrassed to come out.) 

We searched our area book and found an address and headed out. We climbed the biggest mountain in all of Iwaki (kamoshiranai- probably- again the grammar) and found it jammed in the middle of a Japanese subburb. 

It was easy to locate. 

We knocked. 

Nothing. 

We knocked. 

Nothing. 

I wrote him a note letting him know. 

Then we checked the tennis courts. Yappari he was at the tennis courts. (I can't translate it, ask for help) 

He invited us to play tennis today, so we're going to play tennis with him today. (that was an ill constructed sentence.) 

Had interviews with the President. 

I wrote down some of the big questions that I'd had. 

(What is the definition of a good missionary? What makes a good leader?) 

I got some answers. 

My definitions are not perfect yet. I think I'll write a book about them when I finally get them down. 

Yokoyama-san hasn't been meeting with us. he's "too busy". which might actually be true. We has a lesson appointment for Wednesday. 

The branch is good. I meeting with the Branch President and the Branch Mission Leader tomorrow so we can correlate our dendo visions. They've both got a kind of... 'I'm not to sure what's going on, so anything is good' kind of feel. So hopefully we can get some things worked out. Pray for my Japanese. 

I love you all. If you've got any questions let me know.

Elder Tyson Clark Wheelwright