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.