March 9, 2010

Dear Family,

Well I'm using a gmail interface now which means I can fit in more email addresses so I hope I got everyone's right. There is a rumor that they are trying out laptops for missionaries in Japan. We were told by a teacher that just got back. That'd be so cool. They say you can communicate with investigators easier through email in Japan. It sounds like they are trying to be more efficient. It makes sense but I'm sure it will be abused in someway by missionaries. Sad.
I am going to change my emails so they aren't so boring. To answer most questions I think I'm just going to write letters so and try to make these emails more exciting by telling more stories or something.

First, thank you Grandma and Grandpa Hooton for the DearElders they are great. Thanks always to the family for being so great with answering all my requests for pictures and stuff like that. Dad I love the things that you've sent me to ponder from stake conference and the stuff that Lyle sent you. I appreciate it along with your DearElder letter everyday. It helps a lot. Jason thanks for your letters. I can never pass up on a good fiberone story. Dad that's super exciting about New York and debate. I'm glad the whole debate thing is going well.
So things are going well with my companion except for the fact that he has freaked out a couple of times over stupid things like one of our teachers teaching us the Japanese phrase for dang. Like when you drop something. He says as missionaries we shouldn't be saying it. Even though my native teacher who is super up on missionary appearance said it was fine. My companion like threw a fit. We get along really well though.

My favorite meal here is probably the Sloppy Joes. I don't know though. It's hit and miss here. I did have seven pieces of cake for dinner last night by the way. Yeah I'm fat. I'm on 13 pounds gained right now and that was after I fasted.

So here is the coolest fact of anything that I've heard since I got here and this might appeal to Jason and Quincy. Because Nagoya has so many car factories there was a huge Brazilian immigration to Japan. They say that most missionaries that go to Nagoya pick up a lot of Portuguese and that some are set apart to learn the language. I would love learning it so much. I may be a little behind with Japanese but I'm not afraid of doing more. I figure with the Lord's help I can do anything so why not accept more responsibility.

The new transfer of missionaries scare me. One left the second day. One has three Tattoos and finally shaved his huge chops yesterday. He seems nice though. Also, all of them look like they can bench 300 pounds and snap me in half. They aren't very friendly either. We keep offering to help them and they are like borderline mean when they turn us down. We are a little weirded out by it. It's kind of funny how tightly wound we all are here. We all speak Japanese in our sleep because it's all we think about all day. I feel like a part of a Jason Bourne movie. We are all trained so hard that we have dreams about it. I feel like if someone tried to rigorously wake me from my sleep I would suddenly wake up and grab the Book of Mormon next to my bed and try to give it to them (just like they grab their guns in movies when they wake up....oh my jokes are getting worse...it hurts me a little).

Hey! We can shake hands now in the MTC. I don't know how I feel about it though. I know how Dad feels about it. So I had an interesting experience last night. There is this Elder in my district that always has to go to the bathroom. So we went to start a teaching activity and he had to go. So my sensei tells us to just follow him and his companion and act like we are contacting them in their house. So we knocked on the bathroom door and did the whole exercise. So I shared a spiritual though in a men’s bathroom for the first time in my life. Maybe it will come in handy in Japan.

Real quick, I want to share a thought with all of you. Alma 43:24-25. I would encourage you to read it. It shows to me that God gives us blessings but we have to make our own extra preparations just like Moroni had to. He did things that the Lord didn't mention. It means to me that we have to try as hard as we can even when we receive advice from prophets and the Lord. Quincy may have read this in his Middle East class but there is a quote from Mohammad where a man says to him, "If I tie up my mule, am I not trusting in Allah?" Mohammad replies, "First tie up your mule and then trust in Allah". I think that we need to show the Lord how much things mean to us by continually trying to fix our own problems and ask for his help while we do it. It was just a thought. I'm not trying to condemn anyone. I just thought I could apply it to my life.

So I love you all. I hope you have a good week. Send suggestions on how my emails and letters could be better. Yours are all great. I love you all.

Love, Elder Hooton