Week 4

Hello again, its been another week and its been a fun one

Wednesday: instead of doing an endowment session like we normally do, we decided to an initiatory session. It was different but after that we got really food at the temple cafeteria. Every Wednesday is when new missionaries come in and this Wednesday my zone got a new district of Kohi. I haven't been able to interact much with them because I've been so busy.

Thursday: I may have gotten a little sick and I still have a bit of a cough. Everyday we have over 3 hours of study time, so me and Campbell Chōrō found a nice spot with couches.

I got one zone leader taking the picture and the other chilling by me. There weren't a ton of people in the gym during exercise time, so we started doing doubles on volleyball until more people showed up.

Friday: Man I wish my life was more exciting. Nothing really big happened to today. We doing a Zone Volleyball, where the whole zone heads out to the volleyball field every Friday. Actually, one of the shimai from a different zone came up to me a bore her testimony in Nihongo (Japanese), and that's crazy since she has only been here 3 days and I definitely didn't and probably wouldn't have done that on my third day.

Saturday: I have memorized the first vision in Eigo (English). That's all

Hahhahha joking, along with the first vision I got the Mokuteki down in Nihongo. I played sand volleyball today and was a blast, the sand was super cold too.

Sunday: Fast Sunday, yippy. It wasn't actually that bad but my throat was dying and I couldn't get a drink. We started the day with President Stevenson talking to use in depth about the Plan of Salvation. After that we study tell Priesthood, the lesson was on recognizing the Holy Ghost. Then we had our temple walk.

It was a nice day outside. After the walk, Arnold Chōrō taught us again in our district meeting then we had sacrament meeting, which did include testimony meeting. I was the last person to go up and bare my testimony but it was super cool. Normal we don't have choir on fast Sunday but we have someone important coming in for the Tuesday devotional, so we practiced Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer. We had the devotional given today by President Heaton, I can't think of the topic but there was a lot of crowd interaction and that was really cool. That didn't have a ton of movies going but I did see the new visitors' center film, which were super cool.

Monday: today Osmond Chōrō turned 19. He got a total of 7 packages today and he has been getting a package pretty much every other day since we got here. When we went back to the room we did a little birthday party for him

It was some good cake.


Tuesday: THANK YOU FAMILY FOR SENDING THAT PACKAGE!!!!!!

Yes, it is hanging on the door that goes to our room. 

Me and Campbell Chōrō taught our investigator named Nakahara today and it went pretty well. 

Now I'm sure you are all dieing to hear how the special speaker for the devotional was. It was David A Bednar and his wife. It was awesome. He talked about how he takes notes during conference and then gave some examples for us to try. This is how he takes notes, first he writes the speaker, then he writes what the doctrine or principle they talked about was, then the invitation to act and lastly the promised blessings. Start paying attention, those 3 things are in every talk. After the devotional was done we went back to the classroom to do our devotional review. 

Before I get to that, we had been trying to get the pocket sized Japanese hymn books but the were always out so President Stevenson offered to buy us some and inscribe it with our names.

I'm pretty happy with it. With the devotional review we had Brother Turpin, he gets distracted super easily but he has some cool stories

I'm doing good. The language isn't getting easier but its making more sense. Everyone in our district has been getting sick so hopefully it is over soon.

Miss you all but I am not coming for another 2 years  

Week 3 Oct 5 2016

Wednesday: after I had sent out my email, my district had gone to go
do exercise time. They have a room full of machines so I just hopped
on one of the bike ones. They were also playing Conference talks and
Mormon messages at the same time but, I did not have an earbuds to
listen. I didn't know what was being said but they seemed cool.

Osmond Chōrō for a picture on how to tie ties, except it was the different ones and before our temple trip I had gotten the Elderege  knot and I haven't been able to since
Thursday: thank you guys so much for the letters. I noticed some of them were dated the 18 and I sincerely hope that they we just sent later. I loved reading what you

I do love the Chocolate milk.
Friday: You get a lot of repetition at the MTC, though during Zone volleyball, as it sounds everyone in the zone goes outside and sand volleyball, one of the Shimai would do a cross between a growl and a grunt every time she hit the ball, I have actually super funny many because it didn't seem to help the ball go over the net.

I have found Elder Bates, I seem to be meeting everyone I know on Fridays.
Saturday: General Conference. That sums up my day.
I'm only partially joking. Between sessions my district just went back to our room, Winchester downloaded and started playing Meet the Mormons. During the Priesthood sessions I was hoping for Utchdorf's roast on the men again but it never came. I did really enjoy Elder Holland's talk during Priesthood though. I do miss watching General Conference at home, I had get into my Sunday clothes and sit in uncomfortable plastic chairs.

Meet Elder Brinkerhoff, I randomly saw him in line and don't know how we are related

I found this will exploring a little bit, I wasn't there when it was placed but I want to be around when they take it out
Sunday: started off by watching "music & the inspired word", it was pretty good and I liked it. Pretty much the same schedule as yesterday, though between the sessions I downloaded and started watching Meet the Mormons too. We still had our Sunday evening Devotional but this one was different.
Talley, Lauren, Emma and Emily get ready to be jealous.
BYU's Vocal Point gave us, the MTC, a little concert and it was super cool but, they asked for no pictures so I don't have any. After that awesomeness we watch a movie again because they do an inspirational movie every Sunday, this was 3 new segments of Meet the Mormons. They were The Artist, The Horseman and The Entertainers. My favorite was the Entertainers, it's about a musical group, all siblings, called bless4, they were a ton of fun to watch. I forgot to mention, they are in Tokyo and that made me super excited to get to Japan, also the youngest brother is serving his mission in California.

These out my Di Sendpi, the leave for Japan early tomorrow(Monday) morning. It was fun being around them.
Monday: I slept in a little this morning so that morning was a bit off. We had another Sub this morning, Rockwood Kyōdai, the cousin of my seminar teach Bro Rockwood, so that was fun to talk to him. For the first hour or so of class we walked up an art gallery of paintings of Jesus Christ which was pretty cool.

For all who didn't know, they're building a new MTC right next door and this is what it'll look like.

This is an bird's eye view of the current MTC, all the star shaped building, right next to the new MTC, the almost square of buildings.

I suppose some background is necessary, so ever classroom has one painting but as you can see we have 3, that is because all of the rooms that used to have Di Sendai are now empty and the paintings looked super lonely, so we took the them to our room to lighten it up.
Tuesday: Today started off with studying, tons of fun but, we did find this cool new spot that had a ton of soft chairs and better yet nobody was there.

Regretfully that didn't last, our Zone leader, Maines Chōrō and Warner Chōrō found us. Eyring Shimai was our sub again today and we helped set up for the devotional. Me, Campbell and Arnold participated in the choir again, it was super small today. We didn't have Brother Agett directing us today so it wasn't as fun and we sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace" good song but it was slow. Lynde K Burton and her husband spoke today, Brother Burton spoke first and started by calling up his granddaughter up to the podium. He place his suit coat on her and talked about how the Mantle of a missionary was like the oversized suit coat and how as we fulfilled our purpose as missionaries, we would begin to grow into it. Sister Burton talked about our purpose as well, she talked about each individual part of how we bring people to know of the gospel and she only got to repentance before she ran out of time. During the devotional review I was released  as District Leader and Osmond Chōrō was called, also my whole district has been wanting to buy mini Japanese hymn books but the bookstore has never been in stock, so our Branch President, President Stevens order one for everyone online so we could get one.

To answer a common question I get of "How is Japanese going?" Hard, very hard. For those who don't know much about it, they have three alphabets, their sentences sound like Yoda is talking and if you don't hold a vowel long enough, it's a completely different word but I've learned how to pray and I can understand a word here and there so I can get the general idea of what is being said.
I love it here at the MTC, my Dōryō is pretty cool, my district is basically my family, that's right since you guys didn't come with me I had to find a new one. Talk to you all next week.

Week 2.5 - Sept 28 2016

Elder Spencer sent me (Spencer3 the Elder) a letter answering some of my questions. I've decided to rewrite my questions to him and add his replies into a new post. So I'm going to pretend I'm Mormon and compile some of those records into a single concise record.  My writing is in RED and his responses are in BLUE.

Well, hello my boy! (Konnichwa musuko¹).

I hope that you are doing well and study Lots. It's fun to see you practicing your SYL². Be careful with the auto correct in your emails. I don't think that it knows what to do with Japanese language. ;-)

Not sure if Mom told you or not but her friend Tracy was scrolling through Facebook and found one of her friends posting a photo of you at the airport. And then the other day your Aunt Jennifer tags me on Instagram in a comment on Swap Choro's mom’s photo. So just keep up the good work and stay out of trouble because I have eyes and ears everywhere. ;-)

What vocabulary are you working on? Are you taking notes at these things or just soaking in the spirit?

Most of this week I've been working on the prayer vocab and I'm trying to memorize verbs too.

We have devotional twice a week and I take note on my iPad during the Devotionals so I can read them later. The notes are also cloud saved to my iCloud account so I can get them when I switch iPads in the mission.

It's totally easy for me to sit and dictate an email to you using the voice translator on my phone. I wonder if you can do the same thing on your iPad?

I can dictate but I feel there were a ton of grammar errors that I missed so I typed it out this time.

You mentioned that you were preparing to teach a lesson in Japanese. So how did it go?

The hardest part of teaching the investigator is I don't know enough Japanese but other than that its going well. I do have a Japanese dictionary app on the iPad called Imiwa, It’s a wonderful name for a dictionary because it’s a Japanese phrase that means, “What’s that mean?”

Are you sharing any LightSticks with anyone?

I haven't had time to mess with the LightSticks much, but the photos don't turn out super great on my camera and my iPad doesn't have a flash.

Remember next Wednesday when you send us your email that you have a whole week's worth of communication to catch up on. So make it juicy and full of details. I love your face and look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks Dad. Two more things, one of the Elders in my district is Osmond Chōrō. His dad is Jimmy Osmond from the Osmond Brothers if you know them and check out this picture of Samurai Jesus! 

1. こんにちは   息子

2. the MTC program encouraging missionaries to “Speak Your Language”

Our Sister Taylor

Shortly before I (Spencer3) was released as our Ward Mission leader Sister Anne Taylor transferred into our Ward (Sonoran Springs). She had grown up in the United States for the most part but was originally from Japan. So she speaks Japanese and at the conclusion of serving her Mission here in the Gilbert Mission she moved up to Provo and began teaching Japanese at the MTC.

We became Facebook friends and I stayed in contact with her to let her know is that our Spencer was heading to the Fukuoka mission. She said she'd keep an eye on him for us and posted this photo to Facebook today.

Week 2 - Sept 28 2016

Konnichwa

Wow, that was a fast week. This is what I've been up to this week

Wednesday: after me and Campbell Chōrō had finished with laundry we had went to the gym for an hour. I played volleyball while Campbell Chōrō played basketball. It was a ton of fun, after that we all got dressed and went to the Provo temple, which is just down the street, amazing experience. After we had finished up there we had gone to get lunch at the MTC, it was right before the cafeteria closed so we were almost alone and the staff wasn't to happy because they had to serve us. After that the Chōrōtachi went back to the room, I sat down for a little bit to plan our lesson with Makiko and when I had finished I took a nap. Not regretting that choice, after I woke up we got ready for dinner and went to class, during that time everyone in the class had a chance to teach Makiko

Thursday: today was cloudy, like by afternoon it looked like the sum was just coming up, and it stayed this cloudy until about Thursday afternoon.  I spent morning taught Japanese by William Shimai and Proctor Kyōdai in the afternoon, and then 3 hours of personal, companion and language study throughout the afternoon. Me and Campbell Chōrō decided to walk around the MTC studying Japanese flashcards for language study, it was chill but really cool. Here are some pictures I took

I do realize its a grainy picture, it was on my IPad. And before 9:30, the time we head from class to our rooms, it had started rainin and I had no coat or umbrella so I put my messenger bag over my head and ran. After we had gotten inside and almost to the room Wincester Chōrō realized that his ID badge and key where missing, we found them pretty close to the door so I threw on a coat and went looking for him, I didn't find him until I had almost reached the residence building, so that was exciting.

Friday: I don't believe I mentioned it but the MTC choir is going to be singing in the Saturday afternoon session of general conference but I'm not in it. The problem is the MTC choir is 12 hundred people and there are only about 300 seats but don't worry I'm in the MTC choir, though Osmond Chōrō, Arnold Chōrō and Torgenson Shimai made it. They lose a ton of study time to be in the choir, so I'm not terribly sad. During class today, William Shimai announced that today was the last day she was teaching us because she was moving to DC right after the class was over, that made it hard to concentrate the rest of class but she was a fun teacher.

Later that afternoon I was in the bookstore getting a scripture case when I hear "Spencer Brinkerhoff?" Which is highly unusual because I hadn't told anyone that my first name was actually Spencer and not Elder. So I turn around and low and behold its Colton Dayley, we swam together my sophomore and junior year. After a loud reunion I find out he had just soon up Wednesday, and he was going to Georgia, I can't remember what city. 

Mow for the third surprise, you guys remember my investigator Makiko? Turns out her real name was Grudvig Shimai and also that she is going to be our new teacher.  

Saturday: sadly this was a boring day. Nothing interesting, meaning we just studied an had class time, really happened until we were about to have lights out. Wincester Chōrō had asked Arnold Chōrō to tuck him in and Arnold Chōrō said "no" but his Doryō, Swapp Chōrō said he would, after he had wrapped him in his sheets, he used the extra sheets around his feet to tie his feet together and Campbell Chōrō had jumped off his bed, grabbed two charging cables and used them to tie him up, here is the evidence.

Sunday: we had a pretty busy day. 

This is Mayse Chōrō, this is picture of him consuming about 14 bowls of the BYU Creamery ice cream and he knows he is doing something stupid. After lunch we had a temple walk, where we walk to the Provo temple not a block away.

This is my branch president, President Stevens. After our temple walk we had a quick district meeting then went to sacrament meeting, which is mostly in Japanese. Then after dinner we had choir practice.

Yes, its packed but the devotional today was given by Steven Allen, he is in charge of all of the missionary training videos, about not going home when you don't want to be here.

Monday: it was pretty usual, study, eat, study and more eating. We did teach our new pretend investigator, Grudvig Shimai was pretend to be Yoko san. Nothing interesting happened tell we got back to the residency hall.

The idea of this fabulous game is to see who could go the longest, last I heard the record was 30 seconds.

Tuesday: we had a sub for class to day, Eyering Shimai. I know what your thinking, we asked and she is the the granddaughter of Henry B Eyering. Studying and eating until we had the devotional, Elder and Sister Schwitzer talked, Sister Schwitzer about leaving no regrets and Elder Schwitzer about the blessings of commandments. Then we finished off the day with a review back in the classroom.

Let me know how you guys are doing 

Letter From the President

It was totally cool to get this envelope in the mail

We received this letter from Spenci's mission president about a week after he left for the MTC. It made me cry a little bit. It was amazing to read about how they are excited to meet our boy, and how they are hoping that this will be a great experience for him. It helps me to realize they love him already and will take good care of him. We sure love our Spenci.

Week 1 - Sept 21, 2016

Konnichwa
Week one has gone by quickly, when I got here i got my name tag, room
key and Id card rhen I went straight to learning Japanese. After a
couple minutes of class my Sōryō all walked in Campbell chōrō. Food
here is not too bad but there is mass quantities so I'm not starving
also the Dōryōtachi in my district get care package is full of food
it's fantastic. We study for about 11 hours a day either language or
scripture and on the second day we start teaching our first
investigator Makiko. It's not too bad except for the fact that we had
to keep your teacher in Japanese and I'm below kindergarten level. Me
and Elder Campbell write out our script before hand and then we
teacher off of it, not too bad until she has questions. We had a
district meeting with the branch president and another district and I
was assigned to be the first district leader in my district. There are
five other chōrōtachi touches in my district and a ride to Shimaitachi
in my district as well. We have devotionals every Sunday and Tuesday
and Tuesday evening we usually get a general authority to come this
Tuesday we had L Whitney Clayton from the 70 come to teach us it was
pretty cool he talked about how the church is true. I suppose I
skipped over the total touchy and the Shimaitachi they are Winchester
Chōrō, Swap chōrō, Arnold chōrō and Osmond Chōrō and the Shimai are
Cowdell Shimai and Torgerson Shimai. Sunday afternoon we took a quick
walk to the temple it was pretty cool but we didn't get to stay long
because we had an extra long mean afterwards. I'm now going to explain
the Japanese words in my letter, we were challenged by Procter Kyōdai
to Speak Our Language (SYL) and to do that we incorporate words into
our vocabulary
Chōrō-Elder
Shimai-Sister
Dōryō-Compainion
-tachi- makes the noun plural
If I missed any other word, Google translate

Me Campbell Chōrō and Swapp Chōrō

Torgerson Shimai and Cowdell Shimai

Me and Dōryō

Winchister Chōrō is not amused

Me, Campbell, Winchester, Swapp, Arnold, Osmond, Cowdell and Torgenson in front of the Provo temple

Mason Chōrō, guy front and center on the selfie, got a care package with some face mustaches and he shared with me and Swapp Chōrō. Fun fact, he is from Arizona and played rugby with Ryan.