Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 15 months 2 week-76

So it was the greatest day ever. I got to go see the Henmi Family during transfers and we learned how to break dance. I was so scared to hurt my head so they gave me a helmet to use. I was so cute. 

We did ugly faces before serious faces. Hahaha I love them so much 

My best friends. 

We had a great dinner with the Maeda family. I LOVE them. 

There were African Americans there!!!!!! It was almost as rare as seeing African Americans in Utah!!!! So refreshing. 

Lots of people. Lots of fun

We also went to a members english class party presentation thing. Yes. We learned about Taylor Swift. Hahahahahah too great. 

I also got to see the Tomita family. So much happiness. I love them. I also love how I look like an angel in this picture and Rio is looking at her mom hahaha They are the greatest. 

This picture makes no sense but has a great story. So we got back from transfers and we were soooo tired. I looked out the window of our apartment and I thought that I saw a man with a HUGE beard walk out of the door. I looked again and it was a grandma with a thick beard. I screamed and my companion looked and he saw a beard to. We were freaking out trying to grab our cameras when it walked back inside. So we never were able to get a picture of it, but it is a GRANDMA, a woman, with a beard. 

This is my new companion. 

We are really good friends. He doesn't know how to drink very well hahaha

Itaden

I did not transfer!! YAY!!! my lovely companion got a call on Sunday night saying that his services are now required in the mission office working as the recorder. He is super young (mission wise) to be going into Honbu, but he is super strong so that is why they need him. Get it gurrl! (sorry that was probably innappropriate... wow spelling..) I got my transfer call and I stayed in Chitose.Eniwa! My new companion is... Elder Sakamura!! YAY! Japanese! He was already in the apartment with me so it was just like switching companions. So happy. I love this man. I am also Zone Leader this transfer. Haha look our Hakodate zone!

This brings me to the word "Itaden". Itaden means to prank call somebody. I hate carrying the phone and I always made my companion do it. Well now that I am a Zone Leader I always have to have a phone on me so... I accident call a ton of people. I thought my mom was way bad at accidental calls but "wooo weee" I am way bad. (Family I love you and I hope you just got that "Wooo wee" inside joke) Last night I Itaden called 4 people. hahaha hopefully they live in Chitose.Eniwa and want to meet with a crazy Utard and a crazy Nihonjin.

So this transfer is going to be full of miracles. We already have seen a ton.

We met with Narita san and talked to her about baptism. She wants us to meet her whole family before baptism. Which is totally fine with us. Narita san also takes notes now. While she reads the Book of Mormon she takes notes. While we teach her she takes notes. I love her. She also made fun of kids going through puberty the other day, which made me love her even more.

Matsuda san is doing okay.. She doesnt really like Sakamura Choro due to some issues we had last transfer, so she was not very happy to hear the transfer call. We have been working with her to get over that. I think it worked though becasue she gave us the most amazing grapes I have ever eaten (OH and grapes are WAY expensive in Japan) and said she is okay with meeting with us still. Huge miracle and blessing.

Sakamura Choro and I have been making finding so much fun. We laugh at all of the hard times. Yesterday a lady literally screamed "I REJECT YOU!" The second she saw my white American face. Too cute. Then we met the Relief Society president for the Jehovah Witnesses. Then a young YOUNG dad. He is 21 and has a 1 year old kid. YES! youngest family ever and we are going to teach them.

We have set a lot of amazing goals this transfer. And tons of miracles are coming from them. One of my secret goals this transfer is to Itaden somebody and end up teaching them. I love you all so very much. Sorry my emails only get progressively shorter, but they get better in quality! #biggerorbetter I love you all so very much and I just typed that one sentence ago..

Be excellent to each other!

-Mecham Choro.

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 15 months 1 week-75

Badminton with the cute kids. 

Early morning baseball! 

New artsy style!! #YOLO 

This was a great Weekly Planning. 

walking all artsy in a place where this really funny old lady lived and told us her life story about... 6 times. She is the greatest. She lost her mind. but she is so sweet.

Obon.

This is going to be a very short email because there was no internet at the church today. 

So we came to the mission office to email. 

Obon was the greatest. Thank you so much for praying for us. I want to tell you all about it, but naturally I have no time. Not only did we not have internet connection, we had transfers. I don't know where I am going, but my companion is now in the mission office, so that is why we came all the way up here. 

I will give you a quick rundown of what happened this week. 

We had a party with Matsuda san and ate probably 3 pigs. We just ate meat for hours and talked about The Plan of Salvation. Matsuda san committed to pray and is trying to find out for herself if families are forever. Great fact is, THEY ARE! 

The weekend is the hardest for Obon because that is when everybody goes to their ancestors graves and pray in front of them. Then they are busy and don't want to talk to anyone. So instead we decided to party with members all day. We had softball in the morning at 5. Then Volleyball, badminton, and basketball at 2. Then we went and had a yaki niku party (Japanese BBQ, you just cook meat and only meat. It is amazing). Ending with classic, tiny fountain fireworks. 

This was an amazing week. We met a lot of people despite it being Obon (A Buddhist holiday) and made great new potential best friends. I love you all so very much.
I am so sorry this is so very short. 

Be excellent to each other. 

-Mecham Choro. 

PS. I did a lot of spaces to make it seem longer. I hope it worked. #yolo    

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 15 months-74 weeks

Aota Shimai visited. She is feeding me a banana apple. It is a banana mixed with an apple. say what?

Kawashima Shimai came to visit as well! I got to see my convert! I was so happy.

I MADE IT TO COSTCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEAVEN!

Last night was a little crazy. I wish I could send you videos of what we did. Just use your imagination.

The greatest bread on the planet.

We got to go see fireworks

So my shoes were really really bad. and a member saw that and hated it. She had to buy me new shoes. She bought me new shoes and made me throw those shoes away on the spot. This was the last picture I had with them. 

Elder Sunny Bunny.

what is this magic. My computer is being weird. Anyways this is weeding for Matsuda San.

Arsty glove picture.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Holy Warts of Israel

My companion has warts. It is pretty nasty. It is pretty bad too. I even made a song about it this week while he was in the bathroom trying to cut them off with a knife.

This week was pretty slow and tough. We are getting close to one of the most dreaded weeks, oh wait... It is here. Obon. I will talk about that next week, but please pray hard for us this week. We will need it.

First Miracle: We went to go visit Narita san this week. Right when we showed up at her house she comes driving down the street waving her white gloves out the window to get our attention. "If you came 1 minute earlier I would not have been here!" Funny story is that she went shopping at a store literally 2 minutes away from her house but she drove there for fun. She was really proud of that. Well we taught her a lesson and she was loving everything we said. We started to talk about baptism and she was listening so hard. Right when we were going to ask her to be baptized she said, "So I have to get ready for my English class that is coming tonight. I have 2 special guests that are coming and one is even from Kansas! AMERICA Kansas! I want both of you to come tonight. Then I can talk about what you guys do and maybe somebody will have interest in your church. Everybody needs to hear this message. I love it and I think that joining your church would be great." WHA.... Holy Warts of Israel.

We showed up that night and taught English with a girl from Kansas and her friend from Japan. Then Narita san went crazy and started telling everybody about what we do. The students are all in Jr. High so they were super interested. We had to leave because it was almost 9 and Narita san walked us to the door. "Thank you so much for coming. You helped a lot. I want you to come over next week and eat dinner with my Husband, Daughter and Son. Thanks! BYE" Thank you Narita san.

The rest of the week was really really dull. We housed A LOT. All of our investigators were busy, or not alive (because we only have 2 hahaha) I was feeling pretty down because we spent a lot of time finding, yet we made no appointments and almost nobody came to the door. It was a lot of walking and walking and walking.

Then our next Miracle. I was really tired after Church and my Housing fire was down to embers. I was not really feeling up to going to ping a door and have somebody look at my face then at my nametag and shut the door. We went to a far away area to visit some less active members who we have never met. We had 3 families to visit. The first house we got to was not there. It destroyed. The next house the Grandpa came out and saw us and ran away. Then we had one family left. The Ida family. We got to this really weird looking house with a hole in it that 3 crazy cats came running out of the second we got close to the door. Pinged the door and out came a solid looking guy. He looked confused like he has never met us before so we asked him if he has ever been to church or knows about our church. Right then I saw the parents peek their heads out and then hide once they saw who we were. I was way upset. The son didn't leave though. We started teaching him and turns out he is not a member. He has a hard time talking to people because he has depression (I think) but he loved talking to us. He is 37 and living with his parents because of a car accident he had a while back. He is totally fine, just struggling with the post traumatic stress. He told us to come back whenever we can because he really loved talking to us and felt that this message can help him. Holy Warts of Isreal. He lit our dying housing embers into a giant bonfire. 

I am sorry I am always out of time. I want to write more, but we are always busy. It is hard trying to email in one hour. It's a hard enough life for us!

Anyways I love you all so very much. Holy Warts of Israel the church is true. Be excellent to each other.

-Mecham Choro.

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 14 months 4 weeks-73

HUMID

I hate summer so much. I am so sick of sweating. I just stink everywhere I go and scare people because of how moisty I am. Seriously I look nasty all of the time. BUT I do attract 8 and 9 year old girls.

We were out housing in this nice looking area when we find out that the Jehovah Witnesses were there litterally an hour before we were. So we went to another block. About 3 houses into the block these 2 girls playing on their DS's see us and run out, "HELLO!! Do you speak Japanese?" They then followed us for 4 hours. No joke. Four hours. First we talked to them and tried to get their parents to come out and talk to us, but that didn't work. So then we said we had to go and tried to go to a different area. They followed us so instead I just asked them to take us to their friends house. They took us to this very very nice, new neighborhood. We told them that we have to do our "work" for a little bit and then we will come play. We pinged all of the houses on the block and towards the end the little girls came running back. They were impatient and I told them that we would come play with them at the park after we finished the block. "3 houses left and then we will be over!" "okay we will just watch you." So we pinged a house and a mom comes out. Talked to her and all of the sudden her 4 children come running out and start playing with our new friends. The kids were distracted by our friends so the Mom could focus on the lesson. It was great and she really wanted to hear more. We are going over in 3 days! After that lesson I said we could go play at the park, even though we had 2 more houses left. "NO! Go ping those houses. Then come play!" Our friends forced us to be dilligent. I loved it. We then played at the park with about 15 kids for 30 minutes then invited them all to Eikaiwa and said we had to go. So much fun. They led us to a great area and we saw lots of miracles there.

Matsuda san is doing great. We went and weeded her lawn and then had pizza together. It was so much fun. The four of us Elders went and taught a lesson together. The spirit was really strong and we pushed really hard, but now Matsuda san is working towards being baptized! She has a lot of doubts, but is working to find out.

I watched fireworks! Japan is amazing because they love having festivals every day, and we went to one and watched fireworks. I got some pretty cool pictures and stuff, but the best part was all of the people starring at us! White people really stand out here. And I was super sweaty and gross.

I want to write more and tell you more, but we are out of time because we are going to weed a members house now! Weeding is now my hobbie I guess.

Japan is moisty and humid, but amazing. We are seeing lots of miracles and having too much fun. I love you all so very much. Be excellent to each other!

 

ps... I left my camera adapter at the apartment. I am the worst.... sorry. Next week though! There will be great pictures.

 

I LOVE YOU!

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 14 months 3 weeks-72

It is only getting worse at night.

The crazy rain.

The cake Matsuda san gave us

Matsuda san.

Crazy sunset this week.

Kimazui (Japanese Spellcheck)

This week was a great one. Also a very awkward(Kimazui) one. We met with Matsuda san twice this week. First was at lunch. We went out to eat with her and then asked if we could visit her 2 hours after we finished doing some housing around her. She went home and took at nap then we went back to visit with her. We ended up being there for about 3 hours. We talked about nothing for awhile. Matsuda san is very lonely and likes to talk. Then it got serious. She started to laugh because she hates serious talks because she always cries. This is when she went into detail explaining what has happened in her life. about 5 years ago her husband commitied suicide. She walked in on him dead. She felt that it is her fault and she said she will live with that regret for the rest of her life. Matsuda san got married 19 years ago and really loved her husband. They were best friends. Just hearing the stories from her really shows how many memories they had together. They tried to have children, but Matsuda san is not able to. She also felt that this contributed to his suicide. Matsuda san went into deep depression for about 3 years and felt she had no worth in life. About one and a half years later we showed up at her door. The weather was really bad outside when we pinged her door and she said we looked hopeless so she decided to come out. The second we started talking about eternal families she cried and said we could come back another time. Matsuda san has a tough heart. She really wants to know and wants to believe, but thinking about it brings back memories and it hurts her. Her parents were both Alcoholics and abused her as a child. She hates both of her parents and has suffered physical and verbal abuse from them her whole life. So needless to say it is kind of hard for Matsuda san to talk about these things.

About 2 days after meeting with Matsuda san we met the Ofuji family. They are a couple in the ward here who were baptized about 8 years ago. The wife has suffered from depression because of abuse in her life as well. She had depression for about 10 years until she decided to go to church and it changed her life. It was a great conection and we felt they both needed to meet each other.

Little did we know, the Ofuji family struggles really hard with communication skills. We set up a dinner with them and Matsuda san for Sunday Night (last night) Matsuda san was way nervous because she has a hard time meeting new people. They did great and dinner was fun. They got along, but it was still a little awkward. Then it came time for the lesson. Matsuda san talked a little bit about her husband and turns out Ofuji Kyodai worked with him and they knew each other very well. That was hard for Matsuda san. She hasn't met anyone in 3 years that has known her husband. Then Ofuji Shimai goes straight into her story about her depression and how she changed her life around. Ofuji Shimai's intentions were great. She really wanted to help Matsuda san, but the way she communicated her story was a little awkward and really put Matsuda san off. Half way through Matsuda san says, "well I so glad it worked for you. I hate my mother and I can't even have children."

The air was super awkward and it got really quiet. Ofuji kyodai then says, lets eat cake! So we ate cake and saved the lesson by singing Nearer my God to Thee together. Matsuda san left happy and it turned out okay. It wasn't good and it wasn't bad, it was just awkward.

I looked back on it and remembered a point in the lesson were we testfied about how our Heavenly Father loves all of us no matter what. I remember looking at Matsuda san and she had little bit of a tear in her eye. She tried to hide it, but I know she felt the Sprit. She is really prrogression and loves meeting with us. I am excited to keep meeting with her and help her come to know it is true.

Wow this is a weird email. But it was a great and awkward week! I love you all. Also it rained so much. I got soaked alot.

Be excellent to each other!

-Mecham Choro.

Japan-Eniwa. Chitose 14 months 2 weeks-71

This is our apartment.

I went to the ocean again! Elder Mecham! The Dead Dolphin! hahahaha soo sad.

We got sooo artsy.

I love Japanese people

I have so many pictures just not time! I went back to Tomakomai for Eikaiwa last week! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!

The 75 split.

To explain this email I have to talk about swimming for a bit.

In the 100 Breastsroke (or backstroke, free or fly ect.) the 75 yard split is always the slowest. The splits are divided into 4 splits of 25 yards. The first 25 is really fast. You have the dive and the push to keep you going. The second 25 you are getting used to it, but you want to get you lead in front of others. The thrid 25 or the 75 split, is the slowest. You see others who are either behind you and you think they wont catch you, or you see others in front of you and you think there is no way to get where they are. It is the most tiring and depressing split. Your body and mind are very tired.

I was thinking about this while we were biking on our hour trip up to Matsuda san. For some reason this mission has been a little hard right now. I have been wondering why and then I realized I am on my 75 split. The first 25 I had the dive from the MTC and the rush of learning how to be a missionary. The second 25 I started to learn Japanese and got a little lead on knowing how to do things. Right now my body is tired. My mind is weak and sometimes it shows in my work. I hate this. I LOVE working hard. While we were biking up to Matsuda san, my mind and body just didn't want to go. I wanted to move so much faster. I wanted to talk to everybody around me, but nothing happened. I was just slowly pedalling and not saying anything. It was sad. It was weird.

Every contact I did lacked some energy. The people that rejected us seemed to reject just a little bit harder than normal. Our investigators seemed a little less interested and the work just felt slow. I would get back to the apartment and night and just not want to eat and go straight to bed. It was really weird! I hated this! This is the Lords time, not my time and I cannot afford to waste this time.

I felt like I prayed hard, but it just wasn't working. We had a lesson at church on work and how important our attitude is. I tried to change my attitude, but it still felt like the outcome didn't change at all. When we were housing yesterday a lady told me that my Japanese doesn't make any sense and the message we have to share can't benefit her. I was so mad. She was hiding behind her door. Not even talking to us face to face. Then she slowly walked away and left me talking to myself, getting angry to a wooden door.

Seriously this email sounds depressing, but in all reality this week was a little depressing. I don't know why.

Then I read a talk. It is by Elder Holland. The talk is called Urgency. He says how missionaries have a hard time when they go out and share what they hold most precious to their hearts and people tear apart what you love. It hurts. But Salvation isn't cheap.

When I read 'Salvation isn't cheap' it made sense. I am having a little down slope in the mission, but in reality it is not down at all. I am learning more about my Savior. I am experiencing what He did. It is only a TINY fraction of what He experienced, but I am still so grateful for that little piece I get to try.

In the 75 split of swimming, if you don't pick up the pace and work hard, your overall time will be bad. The 75 is just as important as the other splits, but if you slow down, it is over. My brain and Body wanted to slow down this week, but too bad. Ain't nobody got time for that. This is Eternal Salvation and requires all I have to give!

It was a great learning week. We didn't really do much, didn't see any amazing things, but I learned amazing things. This mission is the greatest and I am soooo grateful that I am here. I love you all soooo much. Be excellent to each other.

 

-Mecham Choro.

 

ps. I am totally fine now, I just like making my emails sound really dramatic. (Maybe I will get more followers on my blog that way. Then they will get baptized.)

Japan-Eniwa.Chitose-14 months 1 week-70

Hot Mess

I transferred. I was only in Abashiri for 5 weeks. And it was still super hard to leave. The members just freaked out when they heard I was transferring. They didn't understand. It's okay. I didn't either. But because of transfers I got to go to Sapporo with Elder Watabe. He had plans to visit the Sawaguchi family. The couple he baptized when he first got to Japan. I visited them a ton when I was a little missionary and didn't understand anything they were saying. We went back and they freaked out when they saw me. I was so happy to see them. They kept getting surprised when I spoke back to them in Japanese. They said my laugh hasn't changed though. I still sound like a woman. I love them so much. We ate 6 hand-burgers as well. Each person. Six. So nice.

I am now in Eniwa.Chitose. It is two cities that are one ward. It is probably the coolest area I have been in so far. There are only nice houses with beautiful people and young families here. Almost all of the investigators we have are families. The first day I got here we went out finding by the college. We only contacted about 10 people and 4 of them gave us their numbers so we can meet with them again. I really feel like I am back in College. We contact tons of young college students and our apartment has turned into a college dorm. Seriously it is ridiculous. When the mission leaders heard about who was in our apartment they said that they were very scared for us. Basically it is just a party every night. I have sooo many pictures, but I forgot the adapter.... So next week! Eniwa. Chitose has 6 missionaries in it right now as well. And only one computer. So we only get about half a second to email.

There was a really cool experience we had yesterday though.

We decided to go finding in an area that is about one hour away by bike. It was hot and sweaty. We heard that the area is just full of families and they have never met the missionaries before. (Finding Heaven) We got lost and by the time we got there we were a hot mess. We prayed and started pinging doors. The first 3 doors nobody answered. Then we pinged a bright orange house and a woman comes to the door. She was so funny and open with us. She started off by saying "My husband is catholic!" We talked about how she makes Tacos and loves food. Yes we talked about food for probably 30 minutes. Then we asked about her family. She got a little hesitant and said that her husband died 4 years ago and ever since then she has been struggling with depression. Her parents abused her and they also died recently. She was humbled and willing to listen. We addressed her concerns and questions, but she was really playful and kept trying to get religion out of the conversation. Finally we brought up eternal families. She turned away from us and said, "I want to believe. Everybody I want to see, is dead." She turned back and was a little teary eyed. The spirit just flew into our mouths and we testified of eternal families and how she can know for herself. She started crying. It was a really thick 30 seconds of just not saying anything and feeling the spirit. We gave her a Book of Mormon and are visiting her with tacos on Thursday.

It was an amazing miracle and we are seeing so many of these. I am so excited to be in Eniwa.Chitose with Elder Wilson. He is from Idaho and has been out on the mission for 4 transfers. Great Elder, and all we do is find, teach and baptize! I love my life. I love this gospel. I love YOU! Jesus is the Christ and because of Him we can live together forever.

Be excellent to each other.

 

-Mecham Choro.