Hello Amerikajin!
I am not really sure where to start. Since I left the MTC it has been one awesome experience after another. But I suppose I'll start with the travel.
We left Portland at around one thirty and then followed the sun all the way across the Pacific Ocean. That was interesting. Oh! I should probably begin with the flight from SLC. I sat next to a very kind man named Gary who was from a small town in Montana. He was the good kind of old fashioned hunting fishing Christian American that aren't as common these days. We talked about how when he was the mayor of his town, Japan invited him to come have a seminar with local government leadership on how they run towns in the US and then adopt it into their legislature. Really cool. He was a very kind guy and was really impressed that the mission was for two years. I gave him a pass along card with the articles of faith in them and explained a little about the church. He then said his daughter was actually investigating the Mormons and took the card. He said he would remember me by it and pray for me to change lives. Good man.
The flight from Portland as I said, was interesting haha. First off whoever thought airplane food was a good idea needs to be beaten. I thought it didn't get worse than the MTC no tabemono (food) but I was wrong. Holy "ew." For those of you who have seen the "ew" video by Jimmy Fallon. It was awful hahah, but I ate it all! I sat next to a very kind woman from a small town in China outside of Beijing who ran a business for teaching mandarin classes to schools in the Portland area. She talked about how her son was at Purdue studying accounting, her husband was in China, and she was in Portland. We talked about how that was hard at times and how excited she was to be going to China because her son was there on break. She too was impressed with me seving a mission, and after we talked for a while we quieted down and settled in. She then randomly reached into her bag and gave me a business card. No explanation or anything. I reached in my pocket and gave her a pass along with the articles of faith hah! She read through them and then asked more about what we believe. She has had a Christian friend teach her some of the Bible and really liked the history in there. So I introduced the Book of Mormon and told her a little about that, but we still had seven hours so I didn't push it. Of course EVERYONE was watching movies and stuff so I got a lot of reading done hahah. I pulled out my Book of Mormon and began reading that. She looked over and asked why I had marked it and written all over in it, and I said it was personal impressions and important things I wanted to remember, to which she nodded and went back to her movie. It was funny because she kept on acting nonchalant but kept on asking more questions. It finally got to the point where I had to just give her the Book of Mormon and have her read the intro. She started to read and thought it was very interesting. I offered to read some of the book with her, but she said the writing was so small she couldn't read it....after just reading and talking about the whole Intro, yeah nice excuse hahahaha. So I left it at that. But the spirit was there, and she kept switching her tv around pulling out books and putting them away, looking at me as if to ask a question then turning away. I think she felt something. When we landed at Narita she said she enjoyed talking, which I did too, and we parted. But I still have her card and am going to send it in to the referrals office, maybe they can do something with it. Cool experience.
That night we got to the honbu (mission home) and met Budge kaicho and sister Budge. They both are awesome and the APs there were great too. Since we followed the sun we didn't really sleep much and actually felt tired at night. I slept all night just fine. Never slept better actually. The next day we woke up and played dodgeball wih the leadership missionaries which was awesome, and sister Budge had bacon, French toast, fruit, yogurt and the accursed NATO waiting for us for breakfast. It was soooo good. The breakfast food like pancakes and waffles in the MTC are more like particle board than anything edible. So that was awesome. Then they had us try nato. Please, don't ever eat this food. It's so bad ha hahahaha, but I powered through and ate a few bites. For those who don't know it is fermented soy beans. Gross hah!
We then had a short orientation and then were introduced to our new companions. My companion is Tsuchida Choro. He is from the Fukuoka area and is an awesome senkyoshi (missionary). I am actually glad I have a native as my trainer because it will push me to speak more Nihongo. But, in case of emergency he does speak fairly good English. From there we were given a Book of Mormon and told to go find and contact someone in the next twenty five minutes....uuuhh huh? Hahaha, we went out into the streets right around the honbu and began contacting. I tried several times but the Japanese people just kind of looked up at me with big confused eyes. We had one good conversation with a man, which I did not understand, but I bore a little testimony. It was a good learning experience, nice little crucible.
Then I went to my first area. It is called Kamagaya and is part of the Matsudou south zone. It is about an hour by train from the honbu so it's not right in the city which I am actually grateful for. But there are still apartment buildings and houses EVERYWHERE. It's a good little area and needs A LOT of work. Once there I began to experience a little culture shock, but it was brief and I soon became very excited for the work.
The next day we got my Jitensha (bicycle) and we actually had a dinner appointment with the Matsumoto family. They had friends visiting from America and live in our ward so they called us up and invited us to a restaurant with them. I have NEVER eaten food so good in all my life. They brought out these trays with this burning mini stove thing that had some big leaves over the grill with pieces of beef on it that cooked in front of you. There was also a bowl of cold noodles which I have no idea what it was, a bunch of raw fish which was AMAZING. One was red, the other was brownish and the outside had been seared with flavor and seasoning while the inside was raw. There was a seaweed salad that was awesome, these small sea critters that were delicious and tender that I don't know what they were, and Mochi (more)! I about died and went to heaven. Sooooooo gooooood. Nice intro to Japanese food.
The next several days have been filled with a lot of contacting. Our teaching pool is pretty small and we don't have many kyudoshas (investigators). So we go housing and to the Eki (train station) for finding. I t's pretty unsuccessful for me but I try anyway, say whatever broken Japanese comes to mind. We did teach one lesson to an old ogichan (elderly man) that was okay, he kept going off on crazy religious tangents, his wife died recently so he likes to talk a lot. He has a handicapped son who is about forty so he was a little loud, but not bad. I didn't understand anything hahahah but it's all good. I still taught a few principals and he was really deeply moved by my decision to do this. At least that is what Tsuchida Choro told me hahaha.
Then church came. I thought got my head would explode, so much Japanese. They are such funny people. In every class they always ask me to stand and introduce myself. It is always the same things. How many people are in your family? Where is your hometown? What is your name? (The family number and name always give them a good time) what are your hobbies? And what is your favorite food? Every time without fail hahaha. So quirky. And they LOVE IT. They love that I can speak horrible offensive nihongo. Actually they all complement me on my pronunciation, but I am sure that is just because they are too polite to ever dream to do otherwise. So I introduced myself about fifty times and had some basic rudimentary conversations about fifty times. By that night I was pretty tired mentally, but it's all good. I love it.
Oh I forgot! Saturday night at the Eki I gave out my first Book of Mormon on my own. I found that I get people's attention when I ask if they speak English, they then apologize profusely and then I say it's okay! I speak Japanese! Can we practice a little? Haha..tricky. So I stopped a high school student who was very polite and also very confused at this tall white American speaking japanenglish to him. But he took the Book of Mormon and my testimony with it. Good experience. Who knows what he will do with it, but at least for that night he had it with him.
But back to church, it was awesome. Sacrament meeting( seisan Kai) was so special. I felt a very strong presence of the spirit there and loved it very much.
That pretty much sums up the first half week I Japan. No earthquakes yet, which I am bummed about. I wanna experience one soon. Tsuchida Choro is awesome. He is so patient and works very hard, and he cooks all meals for me! I clean up. Things are good here five hours and miles away. Love you all and love the support.
Viewed Choro
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