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"

pffts...

So much writing... Maybe I should do this letter first so I feel more in the writing mood. 

President Tibbitts wanted to hear from all of the missionaries for MTM to help the guys there, and I remember when I was there and got a paper with stuff that Austin had said, and remembered feel proud because my brother was so awesome, but wishing that it was just a little bit longer.... 

So I took too much time with that. 

Anyway, talking about useless stuff. 

KUDO MASATO-san IS GETTING SOME BAPTISM!! 

I spewed out a ill worded question and said 

"You still want to get baptized, right?" 

"Ya, if I have the chance to." 

Oh Masato-kun, you've got the chance. 

He loves the atonement and the forgiveness of sins aspect of the gospel. He's amazing. 

We play guitar after our lessons and he's teaching me some cool things about guitars, like harmonics, and how to tune it better. He's so amazing. 

We, after our lesson, invited him into the other room (which we were having an activity in) so he could meet some people, and he got a little scared. "Hazukashii" is what he said. I'm shy. Pft... 

is what he said, that's Japanese. He said he was Hazukashii. Man, I everyone sorry am. 

Japanese my way of thinking changed has. you like this think are not able to. 

I realized my Japanese is good enough to the point that I can translate just about anything that I can say in English into Japanese. But when you speak Japanese there isn't any time to translate, you just have to speak and hope it works out. So a lot of times in Japanese I say a lot of stupid things that I wouldn't normally say in English because I've built the Japanese speaking side of my brain from scratch, from the point at which I used to have no grammar and words to the point where I am at now. Obviously, when I first arrived in the field, there was a need for me to speak so much more simpler in Japanese before than I do in English, but now that I have sufficient words and grammars, I've been working getting the way I speak and think in English into the way I speak and think in Japanese. Sort of combining the two. Breaking down that barrier between my languages so I can get my personality and my way of thinking into Japanese.... But... because I've been doing that, my Japanese is getting more normal... but my poor little English isn't even sure what it is anymore. 

Meh... I can relearn English when I get back to America. 

My companion and I have only been speaking Japanese to each other, and last night I started writing in my journal in half Japanese, and half English. 

Bla... You probably don't care too much about that. 

(I've already written the important stuff once in my journal and once in my letter to the President, so now you get this... YAY!) 

We went and got doughnuts with two of our English class students. 

They're both around 45-50's. Both males. 

It's kinda sad how the males relationship or role in the family is viewed. They're on business working in Iwaki, living in a hotel for half a year while their kids all live in a different town far away. 

They're both nice guys. Who if culturally were raised as Americans would spend time with their families all the time. But, they both talked about their families and you could tell they loved them, but the way that the man is supposed to show his love if to work to provide for his family. 

Dad talked about how he didn't like the Japanese, and the way they did things. 

I love these people so much that I'd be willing to punch anyone who said anything mean about these people. 

They have reasons for everything that they do. They don't tell their boss that his idea might be bad because they respect authority and respect their leaders. 

You will never find a nicer people on all the face of the earth. It's safe here. Everyone tells us to keep on working hard, and every single person, if asked would gladly help us out. 

.... yep. punching people in the face... don't be mean to my people. 

:) I love missions. 

This morning for breakfast (and a couple weeks ago for dinner) a man named Kohata-san invited us over. He's around 70, and lived in England for a long time, so his English is pretty good. His wife was Catholic and kind made him convert. His kids and grand-kids live all throughout Europe. After his wife's death he moved back to his hometown in Japan. 

His English comprehention is perfect.... His speaking is... kinda gone. 

He says "Oh wee-wli" after nearly everything we say. (It's suppoed to be "oh really?") 

It's super funny because he has a mix of Japanese and British style. He holds himself and speaks like a brittish person, but has... the aura of a Japanese man. It's difficult to explain. 

He's an amazing cook. 

He asked us a lot about our church and we turned it into an opportunity to teach him. 

It was so funny... When they was a pause in the conversation he said abruptly with his Japanese accent "see you again." 

It made me laugh. It was like "This conversation is over..." But in a funny way. I love him. 

He says he'll call us and invite us to eat at his house next time. The past two times he's made brittish food for us. Laugh.. What a funny guy. 

Anyways.. .I love you all!
Elder Wheelwright

Iwaki

Every third week is an odd one.

First-

We have hyogikai, or Branch Council.

We aren't like normal wards that do Ward Council every week. Nope, we save it for one day...

It was two and a half hours.

Oop, a random man just walked up to us and started talking to us in English. He wasn't bad. He'd studied well, but he just needed more speaking practice. His grammar was perfect.

Well that's the English teacher in me. I love our English class.

Second-

The normal place that we email from, on every third Monday doesn't allow us to use their computers, so we're in a giant library/mall/business (?) place. Hense the English speak Japanese man.

Pffft...

This week.

Welp, I had splits with the Zone Leaders, which was excellent. Cox Choro pretty much blew my mind about missionary work.

Let me give you some of his insight:

A missionary is called to invite people come unto Christ by helping them apply the Gospel.

His branch mission leader a couple transfers ago said at their first correlation meeting,

"I don't want my missionaries to find, I want them to teach."

Member's image of missionary work is a little skewed. They picture missionaries walking down the road talking to everyone and knocking on doors all day. Nope... Many missionaries do that, but that's not how it's supposed to be. President Gorden B. Hinkley talked about what he called

"The Better Way"

The PMG says that the ideal situation is for members to do the finding and to be present for the teaching.

Members' Strength: They are good at finding.

Missionaries' Strength: They are good at teaching.

PMG "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach."

The hardest part (sometimes the most fun) is building a relationship with the strangers that we meet, to get them to trust us. The hardest part is getting people to trust us.

We're weird Christians who don't have a smart phone, dress is suits (always), weird dorky helmets, and are from a different country....

A PI or Potential Investigator is when you know someone who you could teach, and you have their contact information.

Missionaries often work all day just to find that...

Members have lists of hundreds of them on their phone. And have a relationship with all of them.....

Do you see now why the Gorden B. Hinkley Daikaicho said that we could double the number of baptisms if we solely worked together as missionaries and members?

... Yep. So, now we're working on building the relationships with the members, and strengthening the members spiritually until they are willing to invite their friends to hear what we have to say.

Laugh... I love the members.

In church this week I sat by a sweet little lady named Sister Kowaguchi. (around 70 or 80) She kept falling asleep in sacrament meeting and would kind of curl up and lean against me. The top of her head only reached halfway down my upper arm. She would wake up quick, perk up again, and then in another two or three minutes sink back down. She did that all throughout the meeting.

We taught a lesson to another member named Hanawa Kyodai, (in case you guys haven't caught on, Kyodai is brother, and Shimai is sister. It comes after their name.)

He's a detective.

In priesthood I spaced out for a second (which is not a good thing to do when you're trying to understand Japanese, for they say the subject once, and then never mention it again.) and then I was in the middle of a story of which Hanawa Kyodai was explaining how there was blood and guts everywhere and that there was intestines stretched for thirty feet or more on the ground.

He's kind of bent over, and his hair looks like Hitlers. He's got beady eyes, and a kind of hooked nose... He looks just like you would picture a detective to look like. I love him so much.

He gave us a bunch of food, and explained to us all the similarities between Judaism and Shinto(ism?)

Man... Members are good!!

I love stop light conversations

with a 40 year old woman

me: "Hey!"

"hi..."

"how are you doing?"

"I'm doing so GOOD!" without a smile or change in her expression.

I laughed.

"Why are you doing so good?"

"Oh, your Christ people huh?"

"Yep."

She laughs "Good luck, ne" (ne is impossible to translate. It's like huh... or eh, but not really. Everybody uses it.)

I suppose it's not that funny of a story, because I thought it was funny how American of a personality she had... But... you guys are already American so...

THAT'S ALL!!!!!!!!

Life as a missionary

How is your District?

It's pretty good. Everyone is willing to help.

How is the area?

It's pretty big...

How big is your area?

Big... In a car going Japanese car speeds... It'd take three and a half hours to go from the north end to the south. And it's about a circle, so the same from the east to the west.

We have an ocean, but it's like a couple hours bike ride away.... Not like Ishinomaki, where it's 5 minutes away.

Radiation detector

Dear Everyone

So this week.... 

We went to visit some of our investigators, and it was super crazy. 

We road our bikes a little ways out of town went though a long tunnel, and found a house that had around twenty bikes parked outside the front door. 

The Nepal Jin.   Jin just means people. I just don know if they're call nepplaiese or something weird in English. So Nepal Jin it is. 

They all look like people from India, with dark skin and those sweet noses, but they're different... 

All of them speak a very rudimentary English, that I haven't gotten used to yet.

Ask me to do an example of how they speak when we skype next week. 

It seriously felt like we were in a different country. Milan, one of our investigators, when he saw that we were there yelled in Japanese upstairs "KINASAI!" 'Come!'. They are here. 

They all gathered around us and just talked and listened to us. 

Diness is our other investigator, and he's super funny. His English is so bad, but he feels like it is good. Laugh. So funny. 

It was only recently that Brienholt Choro found out that his name was Diness. They had been calling him Bokurell for some reason for the couple of months that they had been teaching them. 

Man... It was a different county in that house. It smelled different, everyone looked different, and they all acted different. It wasn't the Japanese way of having classy conversations, sitting around a table, drinking tea (mugicha, the OK tea) and eating rice crackers. 

Nope. Everyone just flopped on the floor, not in seiza (on their knees) but with their legs going every which way, some laying down some sitting. 

I think they call us 'God men'. And they all believe and listen to what we say. It's just difficult to get them to church because they work so often. 

We only met about six or seven of them, probably because the other ten were working or something. It was awesome. 

We visited this family that we'd gotten from a referral.... Yes, a referral.... In Iwaki, the members give referrals here. It's amazing. 

We visited them and talked about our church and religion for a while with the husband while the wife cooked dinner. We ate dinner, which was absolutely amazing.... I love Japanese food. We had Tonkatsu, breaded and fried pork.  

During dinner he told us, pretty bluntly for a Japanese person, that he didn't have any interest in our religion and that he really liked us. He said we could come over any time to "asobu" meaning "to play". Bla... It was kinda disappointing, and I felt like we had just wasted all of that time. Their house was in another town 45 minutes outside of the main town in Iwaki city. 

As we were leaving packing up our stuff, Brienholt Choro looked down at the Book of Mormon on the table, and reached down to scoop it in his bag, saying as a joke "It'd be funny if we left this." 

I looked at him earnestly and said "do it." So we did. 

Unfortunately as we were riding away, about fifteen minutes away from the house, on a freeway like road, a car sped past us, with a woman screaming holding something. "WASUREMONO!!" 

You forgot something! 

So... they pulled over and said that they were luck to catch us, so they could give us back this important book.... They got the important part right. 

It all seemed to kinda stick. We had to ride up hillish for around 45 minutes, on a pitch black road, with the wind blowing like crazy, and a light rain falling, me only wearing a short sleeve shirt. But for some reason I was still happy. 

I was shivering as I was riding, and prayed that God would keep me warm. Then a few minutes later I was warm as ever despite the wind and rain. Probably from going up the hills. 

Blessings!!!

Wheew... 

We visited this other investigator who lived, yep, forty five minutes away. Yosh... 

We showed up at their house and they practically pulled us in. 

The father and the son (our investigator) both smoke pretty heavily.  the father just went off rambling about all sorts of stuff.

He used to be an investigator, but then... well. He just wasn't progressing. Probably because the missionaries couldn't actually teach a lesson with him.  So now the key was to get his son to meet with us at the church, so that we could actually teach a lesson. 

We started teaching a lesson to both of them, then as I was teaching about the atonement I asked "Do you know what the atonement is?" The father screamed "YES! I can write it! Let me show you!" And went off for a good while. Brienholt Choro took one for the team and distracted him, as I taught Masato-Kun. I testified about Christ and how we can receive forgiveness from our sins though baptism, and his eyes filled up with tears. I got his phone number, set up an appointment, and committed him to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon all in about 10 minutes or so. 

Then his father made him show me his electric guitars. Masato-Kun is awesome... He's so good. 

I tried to play, but.... It's just different. I was trying to do a nice plucking song that I learned on the acoustic, and... well. It's just not the same. 

Hopefully that all works out. 

I love his mission. I love the Lord's work. 

I love you all!

Elder Wheelwright

Tyson's mad acting skills in a training