Japan 7 months 2 weeks-41

I am keeping this weeks letter shorter because 1. I am out of time and 2. I get to talk to home in two days... 

Well this week was a week. It was one of the first weeks that actually felt like a week. Most of the time it feels longer or shorter, but this week felt like 7 days. We tried to visit a lot of our investigators, but all except one were gone or busy. The one we were able to meet with was Fukuya san. She is really progressing. We found her about 3 weeks ago and this last Saturday when we met with her there was a big difference from the first time we met with her. When we showed up at her house she immediately let us in, we sat down in the Genkon and she ran into her room to grab her Book of Mormon. We taught her the plan of Salvation and she listened so closely the whole time. An awesome experience that we had during that lesson was when we began to explain the atonement. The word for atonement in Japanese is 'aganai' but it is a really hard kanji so most Japanese people don't understand it at all. We had to explain it as simply as we could. When we were explaining it to her simply, somehow the words we were saying seemed to be exactly what she needed to hear. It was one of those awesome moments when you can feel that what you are saying is exactly what they needed. #holyghost. Another awesome miracle we saw this week was when we biked way far out (yes we are still biking in the snow and ice that is everywhere and I fall almost everyday) to visit one of our Investigators. She was busy so she didn't even come to the door. So we housed around her block. When I turned down this one street to decide where to house I felt like there was a specific block we needed to go to. When we started pinging the doors I got really nervous. I don't know why, but I felt all of this pressure, like I was the first image they are going to have of the Church and I need to be the best I can. Most of the people we pinged have met us before and had no interest, but there was this one house and for some reason I felt like I needed to use really polite Japanese when I talked through the intercom. Somehow it worked and she quickly came to the door. We were able to teach a lesson to a mom who just had her first baby. She had a ton of interest and kept asking us a lot of questions. We ended the lesson by singing the ABC's to her daughter in English, and her saying, ' I want to know about eternal families. I want to believe. Come back next Thursday.' YES WE WILL. There are always miracles. Every week. Just be prepared and worthy to act upon the promptings. 

Oh also yesterday the members of the branch gave us Christmas presents. Seriously the most Christmas presents I have ever received. It was out of control. I wanted to send a picture, but my camera is being stupid and not letting me, but I will try next week. 

I love you all so very much. I love Christmas time when no matter who you are, you can feel the 'Christmas spirit' which is the love of Christ. He loves all of us and lets do our best to always remember Him and serve others to show our love for Him. Be excellent to each other! 

Japan 7 months 1 week-40

anus. 

I never got an MTC picture so I did one in Japan.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea sdpogihasdoglaas

I will forever ruin the sisters pictures! 

Please zoom up to the faces on this lovely picture. I was violated. 

I took my asian fotossss. 

We went to a lighthouse for our district activity. 

These things are everywhere and I love them. 

my favorite family. 

We set up a christmas tree with the Ikeda family! 

The view from the mountain we climbed at night. 

we are so arsty. 

JUST FOR YOU ALENA!!!!!! IT HAS GERMAN ON IT! 

I love Japanese Graffiti. 

Happy boy

Special

I got a little racist. 

We went to a burger place right by the mountain that plays christmas music all year long and has giant santas everywhere. It was amazing. 

The chrismas burger place. 'lucky pierrot' 

We all got the futocho burgers. They are so huge. They only make 25 a day and there were 6 of us that ordered them. When they bring them to us they have a bell that the ring and tell everyone that we are eating something extremely unhealthy. Then they pray for us. 

It hurt. 

 Sweet! I finished pictures! I hope you enjoyed them. Thank you very much.

I can't believe how fast time is going. We are almost to 2014?! What?!?! I guess I am trunky because I am so excited for the new year. Mostly because New Years in Japan is out of control (So I have heard) 'I am just so freakin' excited!' #kristinwiig They have this one festival thing here where they have these giant hammers and they smash rice until it turns into Mochi and we eat it for days. I am especially excited for that. Okay well here is the extremely anti-climactic news. I DIDN'T TRANSFER!!! YAY! Nothing changed at all. I am still in Tomakomai with the same companion. It was soooo funny. Our whole district tried to guess where everyone was going, but we were all so off. 

So for the next six weeks I will be in Tomakomai with Elder Galeria having a party until the 6 weeks ends and I kill my companion (kill him because he is going home). Well here is what has happened since the last email:

This week was full of dramatic events that overlapped each other and made it just feel like one long day. First, Sunday last week I was asked to sing a Solo in Sacrament meeting because they all thought I was going to transfer. I was also asked to wear a specific tie that a member bought me. She spent 200$ on my companion and I. Each of us got 2, 50$ ties... It was ridiculous. Well I chose to sing 'Abide with me Tis' Eve'n Tide'. My companion said that they only sing that songs at funerals so it would be so great to sing it right before I leave Tomakomai (WHICH I DID NOT!! YES!!!) So I was super nervous because it was my first solo ever and I suck at singing. I also did it in Japanese so I had to really focus on the words because most of the time I can just mumble vowel sounds if I can't read the words fast enough. Well I thought I did okay while I was singing. I refused to look at people because I was scared and couldn't look away from the words. I looked up right at the very end and messed up the words and almost laughed. I went and sat down and looked at everyone. Everyone in the room was crying. I was so confused. It took awhile for the next speaker to come up because he was crying. Woops.. Hahaha well it just got even more dramatic after that. Tons of members we way sad because they thought I was going to get transferred and texted us throughout the week asking us if we knew yet. Well yesterday at church when all of the members saw that neither of us changed they were so happy. It was so funny to see the members faces when they saw me. 

The biggest and most exciting thing that happened this week was with one of our new investigators, Fukuya san. We have been struggling so hard to get a baptismal date. My district had no baptismal dates for 3 transfers in a row. Elder Galeria and I worked so hard with a lot of our investigators this last transfer to make a baptismal date, but it didn't work. Well two days ago we met with Fukuya san and talked to her about baptism. We told her how much it would benefit her life and how many blessing she would receive. We asked her to be baptized and she said no. WHAT?! We felt the spirit so strong and thought she was going to say yes. All of the sudden she starts asking us a ton of random questions about our families and about America. We kept trying to refocus back onto baptism, but she was so distracted. 'So baptism is this great promise' 'How many siblings do you have?' '3 siblings, but baptism is great.' 'Do you like instant ramen?' 'I like baptism.' That was basically our conversation. Finally we got in control of the conversation and asked her one more time if she would be baptized when she knows that this is the true church. Somehow it all changed and she said yes. I was so shocked. It was amazing. That was our huge miracle for this week. Well I am WAY out of email time but I love you all so much. 

Be excellent to each other!

-Elder Jake Snow Mecham Choro. 

Japan 7 months-39 weeks

SAIYAKU!! I forgot my camera cord so send all of these amazing pictures I took, and there are A LOT. Saiyaku: a very strong word meaning, "the absolute worst" Opposite of saiyaku is Saiko. 

This week was saiko. First we had a Zone Training meeting in Hakodate. At that ZTM we had music practice, workshops and interviews with the Mission President. The workshops were really good and I learned a lot, but I got really distracted and couldn't focus. My companion was first to have interviews with the mission president and when he came out he said, "yeah have fun transferring!" My mind was freaking out. Then we had music practice and half way through that Sister Evans (the mission presidents wife) turns to me and says, "Okay Mecham Choro your turn. I am going to leave and you will guide the practice from here on out and then I will come back and we will see how it is." WHAAAA.... So there was even more pressure from that. Then right after music practice President Evans calls me in for my interview. "How are you doing Mecham Choro?" "Great! I love Tomakomai. The members are amazing, we are finding a lot of amazing people and the work is really moving here." "How do you feel about going Senior companion this next transfer?" That was when I knew I am going to be transferring. Well I am not 100% sure yet, I will know tomorrow when we get our transfer calls, but I am almost positive I am transferring back into the Sapporo area and going senior companion. I feel like I just barely got to Japan. I can still barely understand Japanese. During our last lesson with one of our investigators I thought she was talking about menopause, when in reality she was talking about getting discounts at stores when you pass age 50. I felt a ton of pressure and very very inadequate.  I had a lot of thoughts running through my head and I kept getting really discouraged this week. We wanted to visit our investigators, but almost all of them were not home or were busy. I kept thinking things like, "this is my fault we aren't meeting with them. If only I could speak better. If only they understood. My work isn't good enough. It's not working" These thought were attacking my brain and bugging the crap out of me. Satan is the worst. BUT I didn't let him when. We saw two major miracles this week. 

1. We went back and visited Iwai Shimai. She is the sister that is blind and really misses coming to church. We went and talked to her about members in the branch and she was talking about how much she misses them. She naturally began to share her conversion story. She said that when she got baptized she was very very unsure. She had a lot of doubts and wondered why Joseph Smith could see God, but not her. She wanted stronger faith. Well she definitely strengthened her faith. When I hear conversion stories I usually hear about how they overcame their challenges and just knew it was right. Well Iwai shimai said that her biggest test of faith was being baptized. Right after she was baptized (right after she proved her faith) she said she heard God's voice. She told us how God told her the answer to her prayers and she never doubted since. When we left she said, "it is weird how you always come right when my husband leaves or isn't here. If you came while he was here, I wouldn't be able to meet with you because he doesn't really like the missionaries. But please keep coming." 

2. We visited the Saito couple yesterday to ask about a less active member who they wanted us to visit. When we got there they said that they were very sick and now was not a good time, but they let us in and somehow we were there for an hour. Sister Saito began to share her conversion story and how she was baptized in the ocean. She told us how when she got married to Brother Saito he knew that she was a member, but he said he would never get baptized. Sister Saito tried for 28 years to get him baptized. He would take her to church, but would never come. Then one day he just woke up and knew he needed to get baptized. He was baptized three days later. A few months after he was baptized he said they needed to go on a mission. The prepared and exactly a year after he was baptized they went on a mission. A few months after they got back from their mission he had a heart attack. After his heart attack he told people while he knew he needed to get baptized and why he knew he needed to serve a mission. He said that in his dreams he would speak to angels and they told him what was going to happen and what he needed to do. 

Both of these Less active members want to come to church SO bad, but their sicknesses won't let them leave the house. Their faith is so strong to the point that they have head God and spoken to angels. Their stories were what I needed to hear this week. With the pressures of going Senior Companion and feeling inadequate, I somehow forgot about faith. Their stories reminded me that through faith miracles are possible, but you have to test your faith first. 

I am excited to see what happens tomorrow when I get my transfer call. I love you all and I am definitely going to have pictures next week! Be excellent to each other! 

-Mecham Choro. 

"First and forever more fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe." -Elder Holland. 

Japan 6 months 3 weeks-38

Thanksgiving Dinner.

It hurt. 

THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD! 

This was thanksgiving. It Snowed.

Happy Thanksgiving #2
This week we actually celebrated the right Thanksgiving. Actually we celebrated it about 5 times this week. First on Monday we went out to eat at an all you can eat yaki niku (fried meat? Cook it yourself BBQ place). Then Tuesday we had the biggest bowl of Curry Ramen I have ever seen. Then on Wednesday we made American Burritos with the amazing american food my mother sent me. (we soaked our burritos in ranch and salsa. It was heaven) Home can be a heaven on earth with it is filled with ranch and salsa. Then Thursday we ate a small lunch with mashed potatoes and something else I can't remember, so we could be hungry for Baby Face!! For Thanksgiving dinner we went out to Baby Face and got the biggest Omelette Rice (Spell check...) on the planet. It was amazing. Then Friday we had more burritos. Saturday we went out to eat again and Sunday we had stuffing!!!! It was incredible. And that was just our food! This week was amazing though!

We had a lot of appointments scheduled with our new investigators who we went to go meet. We saw almost every single on of them, except they all told us they were busy. So almost every single one of our appointments fell through. The only one that didn't fall through was last nights. We made a new investigator last night! Her name (yes all of our investigators are female. BUT we did find 2 awesome new guys this week and hopefully we meet with them again!) is Fukuya san. She is full of energy and has no shame. "Wanna see my daughter? She is kinda fat like me, but she is nice like me huh?!" She is really open to listening to us and so we gave her a Book of Mormon and prayed with her. She said she will read and is excited to try praying. Oh also this week we met this lady who used to go to church as a kid up in Sapporo. She said she loves the church, but just doesn't know right now and is studying everything. We gave her a Book of Mormon too. " I am addicted to reading. If I am not reading something I will start to read the phone book." So she said she will definitely read the Book of Mormon. Maybe she will be done before we see her next? 

My favorite part of this week was Saturday. We wanted to visit a less active member named Yamamoto Kyodai. We have visited with him before and he is WAY nice. We went over and knocked on his door and a lady came to the door. We asked if Yamamoto san was home and she said "NO! He is a professional gambler and he is making money right now." Oh... okay, cool. "Well do you know when he will be back?" "NO!." Oh... okay. "Are you his mother?" "EXCUSE ME?!?!! I AM NOT HIS MOTHER! How old do you think I am? How dare you!" I was terrified at this point. I though she was going to attack us. Well then out of nowhere she says, "It is cold. Come in. You look hopeless." She invited us in and turns out Yamamoto Kyodai lives with 3 other people. Basically it is a bunch of college friends that got old, never got married, and decided to live together. They are all about 60\70 years old. I don't know their names so there was, guy with white hair. Lady that was short and sat on the ground, and lady that yelled at us. They were all drunk and were incredibly funny. The lady that yelled at us invited us in and the guy with white hair made us sit on their couch. I was kinda freaking out. This is not normal. Well we introduced ourselves and then it just exploded. "They are Mormon!!! Stop making them coffee you idiot! They don't drink that!" The guy with white hair and the lady sitting on the ground just made fun of and yelled at the lady that yelled at us the whole time. It was so funny. They were all SO nice to us though. "Here, have some vegetable juice." "VEGETABLE JUICE!?! That is disgusting! Nobody likes that! Did you even ask them what they wanted?!" "Your right. I will get them beer." "NO THEY DON'T DRINK BEER!!" It was one of the funnest days on my mission. They just went off yelling at each other and loving us. We were there for about 45 minutes talking with them, then when we said we had to go they got so mad and tried to make us stay then eventually filled our backpacks with candy and made us promise we would come back. 

I am now out of time because we are leaving to go climb a mountain today. I love you all. Be excellent to each other! 

-Mecham Choro.