Dear Family,
Well I’m with my zone leader in a church in
Preachy time. Every day I continually tell people that their lives will become easier and their loving Heavenly Father will be able to bless them if they keep the commandments. The ones that help us the most (besides the obvious ones of not killing and so forth) are reading and praying. I’ve come to realize that it is really quite simple. If we do those things then we will become better in all aspects of our lives. Heavenly Father wants to bless us and the only way he can do that is if we are obedient. So please, I beg of all of you, even the ones at camp to please pray at least every night. It’s something so easy but I know we are blessed for it. Please read the Book of Mormon as well. I know that it’s something that will please the Lord. I’m not assuming that people aren’t already doing this. I’m just testifying that I know that it is one of the best things we can do to show the Lord our love.
So I made a couple mistakes this last week. First of all I mixed up two people we met at roughly the same time (they live in the same apartment complex). One was an inactive member that we housed into and are trying to get her to come to church. The other is a lady that has interest in coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon (we are kind of excited about her). But you know how I’m a little forgetful sometimes? Well I was with one of the Japanese Elders from
The next mistake I made was that I didn’t take my parents advice. This one is a huge blessing because nothing bad came of it but I view it as a warning shot from Heaven to tell me to listen to my parents. I essentially got a get out of jail free card. Well last Wednesday we went up to that inactive member’s house that told us not to visit him. We wanted to drop off a note. Well we did it and then found a new investigator, taught lesson one and it was all really good. We were riding down the GIANT hill and I wasn’t exactly going slowly. In fact, I was gaining on this group of cars. I was about 20 yards behind Elder Wilson. He was passing a Miata (small little Mazada sports car). Right as he passed him (I was gaining on it), the car signaled to go onto a way small road. I could have gone to the left and cut in front of the car (where it was turning) but I decided if I did I would get t-boned by it and that would be pretty bad. I decided I would go right and swerve around it. But then I decided against that because I would come close to on-coming traffic. So I quickly decided to see how well my brakes work. I pulled really hard and about 10 feet before that car I realized this was one of those oh crap moments in life. I couldn’t believe I was really going to hit the car. Then I continued to sink my front tire into the back bumper of the car (I think I’ll write a descriptive essay on this some day). I saw the fiber glass bend in and then I went up into the air and then slammed my bike back down. I went to the left side of the car and the driver rolled down the window. I was scared because my companion was gone by this point. He had no idea that something had happened. I told him I was really sorry. He asked if I was okay. I said yes and he said are you sure and I said I was. He then drove off. He was a really nice, 20 year old guy. I then continued down the hill and said I’d never complain about Japanese people in my life. They are so nice. In
Yeah, yakisoba is just a type of fried roman. yaki 焼 which is one of the only kanji that I know means to fry something. So we had 焼肉 which is also another kanji that I know. It means fried meat, so yaki means to fry something.
I just had to meet a
Oh man so everyone is at debate camp; Brett, Danyon, Pam, and Tiffany? They all came back? Wow. That’s way hisashiburi (I think in English it means it’s been a long time or it means like oh I really miss that a lot. We say it when we eat American food). It was way good seeing pictures. I miss all of them a lot. Is Brett still the man? Is Danyon still great? I miss them a lot. I wish I was there. Is Jacob not shaving? Tell him to shave. What the crap is on Andy’s face?
Well this week was all right. We tried hard. We just couldn’t get appointments with people. They are so hard to meet with. We went for 15 lessons on Sunday. That’s unheard of. A good day is 3 lessons. We just hadn’t met with anyone during the week and so we went all out. We had it planned perfectly. People just weren’t home when they say they are going to be. We ended up only getting six. It was too bad. We were going to set a record. We figure that we rode over 20 miles the whole day. It was non-stop. It took a ton of planning and stuff but we visited every house and had a good unique message for each person.
Thanks everyone. Have a good week. Please pray and read. I know that it will help you improve. I’m not just saying that. The hardest part is just having the humility after you do it so that you can recognize the blessings you’ve received. Have fun at debate camp, Jacob. Love you all.
Alec, I’m sorry I missed your birthday your birthday a while ago. I’m just trying to find the crowning thing that will make your present great. Right now It’s just okay but if I can find the right thing it will be epic.
Follow up Letter on the following day
July 27, 2010
Dear Family,
Since we had to go do an interview on our P-day yesterday we are emailing now. I already emailed a letter yesterday so I’m mainly just waiting for Elder Wilson. Since I’m paying money to sit next to him, I decided I might as well use the computer a little bit more since I didn’t get much time to email yesterday.
I almost got hit by a car yesterday again. Stupid Miata pulled out of a side road while I was crossing a sidewalk. She was looking the other way and pulling forward at the same time. She probably came within a couple inches of my right pedal. I think she wet herself when she saw me. The Japanese are so scared of hitting people on bikes, especially an American. In
We taught a good lesson today. It was with this old woman that’s been taught forever. That seems to be what the majority of our investigators are, Just old people that don’t really want to progress. We brought a member who is pretty good. We decided we wanted to teach her about the importance of coming to church. She too scared to attend. I don’t blame her. I’ve noticed that she has a lot of misconceptions about church and the obligations she will have if she goes. She thinks she has to get baptized or that she will have to bear her testimony or fast if it’s on a fast Sunday. These seem like simple things that missionaries should tell investigators to reassure them that we are normal people. Last time we gave her the new church DVD that introduces us. In Japanese it’s called “gozonji desu ka?” but I don’t know what it is in English. It is something like, “do you know us?” She didn’t watch it though.
We tried to clear up some stuff today and then she asked if ancestors were important to us. Luckily the member we brought is gung ho about church history and genealogy. The next hour was them talking about that. It was going in a good direction so we just agreed and gave our input (I mainly just said yes and nodded my head). The cool thing was that I followed the whole conversation. Not each sentence perfectly, I can understand when other people are talking but the second someone looks at me and asks me a question I swear they change thing about their speech. I think they try to dumb down their speech for me and try to talk to me like I’m a child or something. I was only taught polite Japanese though so I just don’t know what’s going on.
I had a good conversation with the member on the way home though so I feel alright about my Japanese. Its times like this that I feel like I’m back at square one though. Anyway, we committed her to come to church in two weeks because she is busy this Sunday. We told her our mission president is coming so in two weeks and it will be really good and he is fluent in Japanese. She said yes and was even a little excited. So that was good.
Love,
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