Dear Family,
First, a real quick response to some of your emails. That’s great about Blake’s call. It’s super exciting. Tell him not to worry about Spanish. They give him enough time in the MTC. Also English class is all right. It’s hard enough that most people in America can’t understand me. I tried talking like dad does. I was enunciating really well but then I realized I was speaking super fast and I asked if I was speaking too fast and the member of the bishopric that understands English perfectly was nodding his head. It’s super awkward and I would never go if I was a regular person in Japan because I don’t think they learn a whole lot. Maybe they just love our spiritual messages at the end.
So to complete the story to my advice of having to swallow food you don’t like... It’s actually embarrassing because it was a really fancy dessert at a French restaurant that was essentially all cream, which I’m not a fan of. So that’s me complaining about food that’s too good for me. I’m continuing to eat really well. We made tacos again today and it was delicious. Brother Arisawa still takes care of us more than we deserve. He does everything for us. He is the most charitable person I think I’ve ever met in my life. I haven’t bought the electronic dictionary yet by the way. Thanks for the updates on tennis. You sound like you are doing well for a sophomore Jacob. I’m proud of you. I’ve knocked on maybe 10 doors. At this rate I might break 100 by the end of my mission. I would like to do it more.
So this week was very difficult and it was hard to focus but that’s all right. Things are hard but I just trust that I’m in the right place at the right time. I am not learning a whole lot of Japanese so I take advantage of every opportunity I get to speak with someone that speaks Japanese. I still feel like a lot of our time is wasted. We did give Flavione a Book of Mormon yesterday though. She is someone that works at Brother Arisawa’s company. We were just in the car with her and Arisawa and Renato (another investigator that has been one forever but no one has ever tried to get him to keep a commitment). He is a co-owner in the company and is super rich. It was funny because Flavione and Renato were in the big van with us and they on the ground trying to tickle and poke each other. This country is so weird. Someone said, you are acting like children, and right as it was said Arisawa asked if anyone wanted ice cream. They both cheered and the four of us got out of the car and Arisawa handed us a senyen and we went and got ice cream. Well maybe you had to be there.
So Sunday was incredibly long. We started our meetings at 8:30. Then we had regular church. Then right after that we sat in on a visiting teaching lesson because they needed a translator between Portuguese and Japanese. Then we were late for Ward Council. Elder Insch spoke for 2 minutes and then we sat there for 2 and a half hours! It was crazy. Bishopric members would take turns taking naps so one of them could always be talking. I didn’t even get to sit next to my companion. The lady next to me was asleep for the first hour and then moved and it scared the heck out of me. It was the bishop’s wife. The guy across from me had a medical mask on. He had to be at least 120 years old. I thought he was dead. The 1st councilor kept stopping the meeting so they could yell Daijobu desu Ka at him which means “are you okay?” He was muttering something and then we would continue on. He looked like Darth Vader in return of the Jedi after Luke takes the mask off. When we had the closing prayer (most longed for prayer of my life) he actually sounded like Darth Vader. He kept on hacking stuff up. I didn’t catch one word of Japanese because it was so similar to a car engine trying to turn over.
So I finally turned to reading the schedule I was given. The first thing I noticed was that they spelled PMG lesson wrong. They wanted a Preach My Gospel lesson from us but turns out they replaced gospel with something that started with an S. So it was a PMS lesson. I giggled a little. I envied everyone in the room that had a cell phone because after my first two naps I wasn’t tired any more and had nothing to do but study a vocab card in my planner. Most everyone else was on a cell phone. At one point there was about a 10 second silence where I really wanted someone to speak because my stomach was building up and right in the middle of the silence it growled. The guy next to me laughed and so did Elder Insch. I’m pretty sure everyone heard. I kept saying to myself that I was going to be angry when I found out they were arguing over Man vs. Wild and Survivorman. Turns out they were just complaining about different things, mainly members. So we finally got out of the meeting close for 4:00 pm and then didn’t eat until about 5:00. So it was quite the Sunday. Instead of going and teaching and trying to do something good with my time we played Uno at a recent convert’s house until 9:00. Life in Takaoka. I might miss it someday.
Things are really going well though so don’t worry. I enjoy my time here and just want to use my time a little bit better. I’m trying to right down the stuff I do each week that everyone might care about but I’m having a hard time thinking of things. The Japanese language is going better. I’m trying to study a lot harder and praying a lot more for opportunities to talk. I have one request. Since most semesters are changing I don’t know how to write to Brittany Irion, Alec, Amanda Hales, or Aly and I need Jordan’s mission home address. Thank you very much. If you can think of anyone else at college or someone that receives this email that I didn’t list then have them send me their latest address as well. I have Shelby’s home address from her DearElders.
I love everyone and I am doing well and trying to work hard. I hope everyone has a great week. I will to attach a couple of pictures real quick. Oh yeah that reminds me, this week I had to go on exchanges with a missionary that came to Japan at the exact same time as me. We had to spend over 24 hours together and I was in charge. We almost died a couple of times and got lost several times. The people at Arisawa’s company asked if I was sick. Then they asked what you say in English when someone has blue under their eyes. They thought I was going to die. It probably did take several years off my life. I stayed alive though right. So maybe I can speak a little Japanese.
Love you all
Elder Tyler Hooton
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