2017 04 16 Will you please put an end to my suffering

Konichiwa! Here’s the translation of the subject line for this week’s email. 私の苦しみを終えって下さい (Watkushi no Kurashime o Oette Kudasai - Will you please put an end to my suffering.) Ya, I'm not giving you a translate, have fun finding it. It's been an interesting week, we actually saw the sun for a couple days, it was weird but here is the week.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Normal, super rainy.

The Sakara (cherry blossoms) are now blooming

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

We went to Kagoshima for 面接 (mensetsu - interview) and then hung out the the district for a little bit. On the way back though we talked to these way cool people, this Japanese guy and his Chinese wife, both grew up in Australia and it was way cool to talk to them. We also had a some new students in Eikaiwa (English conversation class), a mom and her two kids.

more cherry blossoms

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

伝道した (Dendo shita- tracking (past tense)) all day and knocked on all day. For the evening though, Aoki 会長 (Choro - Elder) (He’s the branch president with the same last name as my first companion) took us to a place that was a bit further away and that was pretty cool.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

Weekly planning and Eikaiwa (English conversation class). Cool thing that happened with Eikaiwa was the new family from Tuesday came and also a new girl came, about high school age.

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

Normal day of all day 伝道 (Dendo - tracking).

scenic...

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

So, my knees were hurting a bit and when I talked with the mission doctor he told me to go to the Orthopedic and after going there we found out I have what is called Jumper's Knee, it's just an overuse injury and they just gave me pain meds and to take in easier. Cool thing that happened was Aoki 会長 (Choro - Elder) took us out to eat some Yakiniku (grilled meat) and we found some kids during the evening and had a way fun game of Basketball.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

Church was normal, no investigators came but we don't have any. We went back to an area we had began to 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) and 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) it some more and we came back way tired and not super happy and way tired.

2017 04 09 It's Rainy

Konichiwa! こにちわみ皆さん!!! (Konichiwa Minasan - Hellow everyone). As the title of this email said, it's Rainy and a lot more then back home.It's been a way fun week and we actually did a ton.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Pretty normal P-day but something's that were different is we nerded out a bit or I did and went a head and bought some ポケモン (Pokemon) cards, there pretty cheap ¥290 ($2.68) per pack.

Here's those Pokemon cards I mentioned

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

I rode the 新幹線 (Shinkansen - bullet train) to Kumamoto for a Zone conference, which was way cool and after the conference I got to visit with some people I know and the hopped and Shinked (missionary vocabulary - used the bullet train) back.

pal Barlow 長老 (choro) is in Kumamoto. We met in the MTC, but his dad and my dad lived in the same apartment during their mission in the Northern Sendai Japan.

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

We found these way cool people during 伝道 (Dendo - tracking), and we talked to them for like a half an hour and gave them both a Book of Mormon.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

Weekly planning and Eikaiwa (English conversation class). Eikaiwa was cool because a ton of people showed up that haven’t been there the past couple weeks.

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

I did a Mogi (practice or role play) lesson with a member at their house but it took us forever to get there for 2 reasons;

1. they live WAY out there

2. we got lost

BUT, when we got there we had a cool lesson and afterwards did some calligraphy and that was way cool. In the evening we went with Aoki会長 (Choro - Elder) (did I mention that the branch president had the same name as my trainer?) to go do some Home Teaching.

our "lovely" first couple tries at calligraphy

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

Basically just General Conference but we watched all 3 Saturday sessions straight with only a couple minutes of break, it was a bit rough.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

GC again but we also had a 食事 (Shokuji - meal) with the members, WAY good food. And we went out and 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) a new area for the 2 of us and it was a lot better than it thought.

My favorite talk from conference this year was my M Russell Ballard about setting goals, that is important to do if we wish to reach our highest potential, I would also recommend reading the goal setting part in PMG (Preach My Gospel), it's in chapter 8. For fact for Sendai right now, it's raining pretty hard right now and I have been informed that in rainy season you don't see the sun so, I'm looking forward to that.

2017 04 02 薩摩川内 (Satsuma Kawauchi)

Konichiwa! Hello again 皆さん (Minasan - everyone). It's been a 普通 (Futsū - ordinary) week.

Cool thing that happened this week is we found some Japanese Tanks, way cool! They did a paraded around the streets in 川内  (Sendai - the name of the city that he’s in. Fun fact, the Kanji or Japanese letters for Sendai can also be pronounced KawaUchi. If you translate that Japanese word it says “River Insides”).

us in front the tanks

The tank parade on Saturday was way cool. We also went down to 谷山  (TaniYama - another city name. The literal translation means Valley Mountain… that’s contradictory) for district meeting on Thursday and Campbell 長老 (Choro - Elder) is now in my district so, it was way cool seeing him, again. (NOTE Elder Campbell was Spencer’s MTC companion)

We got to 谷山 (TaniYama city) by 電車  (Densha - electric trail) and that was a WAY cool for a first time. 微妙 (Bimyō - subtle) moment of the week was Wednesday we were 伝道  (Dendo - proselytizing) in the rain, it rained about everyday last week. We started on this one apartment and we were working our way down and on the third floor from the top we knocked on the door, no answer, so we moving to the next one but before we knock on it we hear three massive thumps and the door we just knocked on opens up. We said こんばんわ  (Konbonwa - Good Evening) a couple times but no response. Then they started chanting in Japanese so, with all our wits we RAN….fast! We had no idea what was said but we figured it was a 神道  (Shintō - one of the main Japanese Religions) curse of some kind. (Shinto is a Japanese religion dating from the early 8th century and incorporating the worship of ancestors and nature spirits and a belief in sacred power (kami) in both animate and inanimate things. It was the state religion of Japan until 1945. The other main religion in Japan is Buddhism)

That's all I got for this week but, last Pday we visited a 神社 (Jinja - a temple or Shrine) that is nearby, it was pretty cool.

またね (Mata ne - See ya!)

way cool shrine with endless stairs		shrine
stairs		stairs
the arch you had to cross before getting to the bottom step

2017 03 26 It's Cold and Rainy

Konichiwa! New area, new adventures, and Rain

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Normal Pday, we did get a RA (Return Appointment) for Wednesday and that was way cool.

Salad from Rara(Indo curry place)

Mango Lashy

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

Well it's been an interesting week. Most of it has actually been pretty normal, except for the fact that it's been rainy like ALL WEEK! We have Eikaiwa (english conversation class) on Tuesday so we didn't でんどう (Dendo - tracking) a ton but we did play Ping-Pong because why not?

Fantastic Indo Curry with nan

A ton of jacket left behind by missionaries that we are trying to get rid of the member really didn't want to be in the picture

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

We spent a good amount of the afternoon cleaning out the Area Book because there were a TON of records in there that are useless.

trip to Joyful

trip to Joyful

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

We decided to stay in to do weekly planning and that was a BAD idea because we got bored and a bit antsy. We were inside ALL DAY and Eikaiwa was super small (probably because of the rain).

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

We had a lesson with a potential investigator BUUUUUUUT, she dropped us. So we went to a restaurant called Joyful to drown our sorrows, pretty good food.

Tonkatsu, WAY good

My Easter eggs

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

We had a RA (Return Appointment) at the church at like 10, but they were a no show.  We got a call from Aoki Kaichou (Kaichou is president) asking when we wanted to go down to Kushikino, and we were like, “Ummm, yeah, now is good”. So, we でんどう (Dendo - tracking) all day down there and it was pretty cool and Aoki Kaichou even bought us lunch and dinner.

The beach in Kushikino

The beach in Kushikino

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

Normal Sunday. I gave a bit of an introduction as my talk today and after church finished the branch started to do a family history class. We didn't stay because some members wanted us to help them visit some less active members. So, they gave us a ride to their house and then we went with them as they visited some Less Active members as part of Home/Visiting teaching. Then we helped with the Sister's English class and made some Easter eggs. Last Night, CRAZY storm. It hailed SO hard it woke me and Elder Voorhees up! And the thunder was just as bad, I think we are actually approach rainy season so, that is going to be a TON of fun.