Monday, February 21, 2011
February 21, 2011
Dear Family,
I don’t know if I’ve been this relaxed in a long time. Our awesome member Fujimoto Shimai works at a hospital in a children’s wing and it has two computers. So first, it solved our problem of emailing at a good place and second, it’s dead quiet which is so nice I can’t describe it (except my keyboard is super loud). Third, I love being around a member like this. She is the nicest woman in the world. And fourth, who doesn’t love emailing somewhere free?
Happy Birthday on Tuesday, Mom. I love you so much. This last week my love for the whole family has grown so much. I can’t wait to sit and talk with mom and maybe fix something or just talk. I can’t want to go fishing with dad and just stand their in the river looking stupid. I hope you have a great birthday.
So the Elder Holland thing was really good. I wish I took better notes. I was super, super good at taking notes in the MTC because I wasn’t too far removed from debate so I could flow it all. But this week I had some troubles balancing focusing, feeling the spirit, and taking notes. I feel like I mainly just listened and tried to just feel the spirit. It was pretty life changing. Elder Holland always talks about Preach My Gospel and how much his mission changed his life. He explained both of those in depth. He explained how he had nothing in life and didn’t even know what a mission was. He said it made him who he is today. He was also very sympathetic and said he knows that we feel like we have the weight of world on our shoulders. But then he said it’s because we do have the weight of the world on our shoulders. He said we would be stunned to know how much responsibility we actually have. It wasn’t scary though it was actually motivating to hear that. I actually forgot my notes today but I think I’ll just mail them home. I have to fax a copy to the mission home today. That’s a little weird but oh well. Elder Rasband, President Stevenson (area president), and Elder Ishii (his son lives in my ward and I’ve met him several times) all came. It was pretty incredible. I got to shake President Rasband’s hand twice because he forgot he did already after he leaned over to say something to his wife.
I will never forget when Elder Holland stepped off the stage and as he was attaching a portable mic to his suit he said, “I’ll get down here so that I can get RIGHT IN YOUR FACE,” (as he grabbed elder Brown’s face and shook it). Everyone laughed really hard and then sat up a little straighter. Then he said he was just trying to be funny and like lightly slapped Elder Valentine on the cheek. I was laughing pretty hard at this point. He is a powerful man. We all took a picture together and right after the flashes went off he got up from his chair and turned around and started giving us instructions. He made things completely comfortable and he gave the meeting very quick direction.
The story about Preach My Gospel changed the way I look at missionary work. Preach My Gospel was thought up because President Hinckley saw the incredible number of returned missionaries that were inactive. So he made an announcement in front of all the general authorities that we had to improve the way we do missionary work. The primary purpose of Preach My Gospel is to actually convert the missionary. To that point, the discussions were memorized and uniform and so they were ineffective at teaching to people’s needs. It didn’t actually require a missionary to do it. Anyone could do it. The missionaries’ testimonies weren’t used at all so it was completely leaving out the advantages of the missionaries. I found this all very interesting. I’ll write more about that when I get my notes.
Two weeks ago right as sacrament meeting was starting I was asked to translate for Kato Shimai, a Philippine woman. I wasn’t translating for her because she could speak Japanese. I was translating the talk that sister Wixon gave at the last General Conference. I want to hunt her down and tell her what I think about her huge vocabulary. Kato Shimai read the first sentence of the paragraph that she had chosen to read and I just looked wide eyed at the audience. There was no way I could translate that type of English. It ended up being really messy and a pretty bad experience for me, but at least it’s over.
Dad is like Jack Bauer. In the first season he saved Skyview debate. Then the next day he saved all of Billings’s high school debate. This season he is saving Montana high school debate. Next he’ll be saving debate from an invasion from china.
I went out to meet with inactives with Kondo Kyoudai. He always randomly tells people about us (people he doesn’t even know) and tells them to listen to us. I always thought it was weird but this time I wanted to embrace it because at least he is trying to help. So he says he has two people that he kind of knows from back in the day. He said he wants us to give them Book of Mormons. He didn’t go to the door with us though. He stayed around the corner and once they said no to my super energetic offer he would slip out of the shadows and say “good evening....” It was really creepy. We had a hard time not laughing. In the end neither of them took a Book of Mormon but that’s okay. It would be much easier if we did that with all of our members (in a less creepy way).
Well that’s it for now. I’m just trying hard and trying to get stuff done. Thiago is still doing well but he’s slowing down. Next week is transfer calls. I hope I don’t leave but its okay if I do. Love you all. Have a great week. Thanks for working hard and reading your scriptures.
Love you.
Tyler
I don’t know if I’ve been this relaxed in a long time. Our awesome member Fujimoto Shimai works at a hospital in a children’s wing and it has two computers. So first, it solved our problem of emailing at a good place and second, it’s dead quiet which is so nice I can’t describe it (except my keyboard is super loud). Third, I love being around a member like this. She is the nicest woman in the world. And fourth, who doesn’t love emailing somewhere free?
Happy Birthday on Tuesday, Mom. I love you so much. This last week my love for the whole family has grown so much. I can’t wait to sit and talk with mom and maybe fix something or just talk. I can’t want to go fishing with dad and just stand their in the river looking stupid. I hope you have a great birthday.
So the Elder Holland thing was really good. I wish I took better notes. I was super, super good at taking notes in the MTC because I wasn’t too far removed from debate so I could flow it all. But this week I had some troubles balancing focusing, feeling the spirit, and taking notes. I feel like I mainly just listened and tried to just feel the spirit. It was pretty life changing. Elder Holland always talks about Preach My Gospel and how much his mission changed his life. He explained both of those in depth. He explained how he had nothing in life and didn’t even know what a mission was. He said it made him who he is today. He was also very sympathetic and said he knows that we feel like we have the weight of world on our shoulders. But then he said it’s because we do have the weight of the world on our shoulders. He said we would be stunned to know how much responsibility we actually have. It wasn’t scary though it was actually motivating to hear that. I actually forgot my notes today but I think I’ll just mail them home. I have to fax a copy to the mission home today. That’s a little weird but oh well. Elder Rasband, President Stevenson (area president), and Elder Ishii (his son lives in my ward and I’ve met him several times) all came. It was pretty incredible. I got to shake President Rasband’s hand twice because he forgot he did already after he leaned over to say something to his wife.
I will never forget when Elder Holland stepped off the stage and as he was attaching a portable mic to his suit he said, “I’ll get down here so that I can get RIGHT IN YOUR FACE,” (as he grabbed elder Brown’s face and shook it). Everyone laughed really hard and then sat up a little straighter. Then he said he was just trying to be funny and like lightly slapped Elder Valentine on the cheek. I was laughing pretty hard at this point. He is a powerful man. We all took a picture together and right after the flashes went off he got up from his chair and turned around and started giving us instructions. He made things completely comfortable and he gave the meeting very quick direction.
The story about Preach My Gospel changed the way I look at missionary work. Preach My Gospel was thought up because President Hinckley saw the incredible number of returned missionaries that were inactive. So he made an announcement in front of all the general authorities that we had to improve the way we do missionary work. The primary purpose of Preach My Gospel is to actually convert the missionary. To that point, the discussions were memorized and uniform and so they were ineffective at teaching to people’s needs. It didn’t actually require a missionary to do it. Anyone could do it. The missionaries’ testimonies weren’t used at all so it was completely leaving out the advantages of the missionaries. I found this all very interesting. I’ll write more about that when I get my notes.
Two weeks ago right as sacrament meeting was starting I was asked to translate for Kato Shimai, a Philippine woman. I wasn’t translating for her because she could speak Japanese. I was translating the talk that sister Wixon gave at the last General Conference. I want to hunt her down and tell her what I think about her huge vocabulary. Kato Shimai read the first sentence of the paragraph that she had chosen to read and I just looked wide eyed at the audience. There was no way I could translate that type of English. It ended up being really messy and a pretty bad experience for me, but at least it’s over.
Dad is like Jack Bauer. In the first season he saved Skyview debate. Then the next day he saved all of Billings’s high school debate. This season he is saving Montana high school debate. Next he’ll be saving debate from an invasion from china.
I went out to meet with inactives with Kondo Kyoudai. He always randomly tells people about us (people he doesn’t even know) and tells them to listen to us. I always thought it was weird but this time I wanted to embrace it because at least he is trying to help. So he says he has two people that he kind of knows from back in the day. He said he wants us to give them Book of Mormons. He didn’t go to the door with us though. He stayed around the corner and once they said no to my super energetic offer he would slip out of the shadows and say “good evening....” It was really creepy. We had a hard time not laughing. In the end neither of them took a Book of Mormon but that’s okay. It would be much easier if we did that with all of our members (in a less creepy way).
Well that’s it for now. I’m just trying hard and trying to get stuff done. Thiago is still doing well but he’s slowing down. Next week is transfer calls. I hope I don’t leave but its okay if I do. Love you all. Have a great week. Thanks for working hard and reading your scriptures.
Love you.
Tyler
February 13, 2011
Dear Family,
There is no use for Valentines Day. I’m just bitter about it because I’m a blonde haired blued eyed American in Japan but have to ignore every girl that talks to me. Elder Nelson who also shares the same attributes as me was proposed to by a girl on the train the other day. Another girl later that day asked him on a date. Why won’t these people just listen to the gospel instead! I’m really okay with it though. Luckily Japan is really bad about stealing stuff from America so Valentines Day here is mainly between friends of any gender. It’s not even a girlfriend boyfriend thing. It’s just like anyone. In fact, at work here on Valentines Day you are suppose to give everyone chocolates, or so I hear from my English class students.
I’m convinced that it’s spring already even though it’s not. I told my body it’s spring so I’m just going to keep going with it. I already started sweating a lot. I don’t wear a coat anymore. I started suggesting that we have ward barbeques. I think they think I’m delusional. It’s still hovering around freezing and it snowed this morning. I refuse to change my mind though. I’m going to endure until it actually does become spring. You know me. I’d rather wait for it to get warm than go inside and put on a coat.
I had a pretty classic Jason experience today. I have been told that if at all possible we should go to free places (not internet cafes) to do email. I’ve been working hard and asking everyone if they know of such a place. Finally I got the idea of going to another city in my area and seeing if we could email at their library. I got even smarter and decided that I would call ahead to just to make sure. I called and the woman was very nice but made it sound like I was stupid for even asking if we could email. She said of course we can. I decided it was the best plan. It would be a 35 min train ride each way and about $4 each way but I decided it would be the best.
We got there and walked to the library. The people were really nice and they even let me switch computers so that we could see each other’s monitors. Then we tried to sign in to our emails. We were both really excited. Then we found out that the email was blocked. I went to the front desk and asked if the email was bad. The guy said it was. I was so angry I had all of the angry from every customer service representative that I’ve ever talked with on the phone rush back into my body. I started to think. “What would Jason do?” I decided most of those gestures were inappropriate. I then tried pushing that vocabulary out of my head and repented and finally explained that I had called earlier and they said it was fine. By this point my face was probably showing signs of hurting someone so the woman at the next desk over looked down like she was doing some busy work. The guy said that was incorrect. I walked away and grabbed my stuff and started to walk out. I said so that they could hear, “I guess we’ll go all the way back to Fukui. The guy said sorry. I was nice and said its okay. I wasn’t mean to them. I just showed that it was very frustrating for us. First, I just can’t believe that they won’t let you email. Second, I was told on the phone it was okay. It’s quite annoying. So now I’ve spent well over $10 on TRYING to do email. I didn’t want to go there in the first place because it would mean that it would take us 3 hours to email, including travel time. But now it’s almost 2:30 and I still have to do shopping. I wanted to end P-day early and go visit people but we don’t have enough time. So it’s been a super frustrating day.
Anyway, I’m fine. This week was pretty good. Thiago, our Brazilian champ said he’d get baptized. We didn’t want to set a date because he freaks out about dates so we just got the commitment for now. He is working on getting an answer. We are going to slowly go through the commandments. He needs a testimony before we tell him he has to get married.
Not a ton actually happened this week. We just visited a bunch of inactive members and we are trying to find some that we can meet with on a regular basis and work with them to get them back to church. So far we are doing all right. We have found a couple. Some people tell us that they are Buddhist and have never seen the missionaries but we know that not true.
Elder Nelson in Komatsu met some guys from Siberia the other day. He asked them how the Fukui/Komatsu weather was compared to Siberia (expecting Siberia to be worse). They said they hated the weather here. They said, “at least you see the sun every once in a while in Siberia. This place is terrible.” I thought that was funny and pretty good proof that I’m not making up how terrible the winters are here. I have verbal hearsay from a man from Siberia.
Well sorry this is so short. I’ll be going to Nagoya on Friday to see Elder Holland. Hopefully next week’s email will be more action packed and full of interesting things. I love you all. Thanks for the emails, they are great. That’s the main reason I do email now days because my life is so boring right now that I don’t have a lot to talk about. Have a great week
Love, Tyler
There is no use for Valentines Day. I’m just bitter about it because I’m a blonde haired blued eyed American in Japan but have to ignore every girl that talks to me. Elder Nelson who also shares the same attributes as me was proposed to by a girl on the train the other day. Another girl later that day asked him on a date. Why won’t these people just listen to the gospel instead! I’m really okay with it though. Luckily Japan is really bad about stealing stuff from America so Valentines Day here is mainly between friends of any gender. It’s not even a girlfriend boyfriend thing. It’s just like anyone. In fact, at work here on Valentines Day you are suppose to give everyone chocolates, or so I hear from my English class students.
I’m convinced that it’s spring already even though it’s not. I told my body it’s spring so I’m just going to keep going with it. I already started sweating a lot. I don’t wear a coat anymore. I started suggesting that we have ward barbeques. I think they think I’m delusional. It’s still hovering around freezing and it snowed this morning. I refuse to change my mind though. I’m going to endure until it actually does become spring. You know me. I’d rather wait for it to get warm than go inside and put on a coat.
I had a pretty classic Jason experience today. I have been told that if at all possible we should go to free places (not internet cafes) to do email. I’ve been working hard and asking everyone if they know of such a place. Finally I got the idea of going to another city in my area and seeing if we could email at their library. I got even smarter and decided that I would call ahead to just to make sure. I called and the woman was very nice but made it sound like I was stupid for even asking if we could email. She said of course we can. I decided it was the best plan. It would be a 35 min train ride each way and about $4 each way but I decided it would be the best.
We got there and walked to the library. The people were really nice and they even let me switch computers so that we could see each other’s monitors. Then we tried to sign in to our emails. We were both really excited. Then we found out that the email was blocked. I went to the front desk and asked if the email was bad. The guy said it was. I was so angry I had all of the angry from every customer service representative that I’ve ever talked with on the phone rush back into my body. I started to think. “What would Jason do?” I decided most of those gestures were inappropriate. I then tried pushing that vocabulary out of my head and repented and finally explained that I had called earlier and they said it was fine. By this point my face was probably showing signs of hurting someone so the woman at the next desk over looked down like she was doing some busy work. The guy said that was incorrect. I walked away and grabbed my stuff and started to walk out. I said so that they could hear, “I guess we’ll go all the way back to Fukui. The guy said sorry. I was nice and said its okay. I wasn’t mean to them. I just showed that it was very frustrating for us. First, I just can’t believe that they won’t let you email. Second, I was told on the phone it was okay. It’s quite annoying. So now I’ve spent well over $10 on TRYING to do email. I didn’t want to go there in the first place because it would mean that it would take us 3 hours to email, including travel time. But now it’s almost 2:30 and I still have to do shopping. I wanted to end P-day early and go visit people but we don’t have enough time. So it’s been a super frustrating day.
Anyway, I’m fine. This week was pretty good. Thiago, our Brazilian champ said he’d get baptized. We didn’t want to set a date because he freaks out about dates so we just got the commitment for now. He is working on getting an answer. We are going to slowly go through the commandments. He needs a testimony before we tell him he has to get married.
Not a ton actually happened this week. We just visited a bunch of inactive members and we are trying to find some that we can meet with on a regular basis and work with them to get them back to church. So far we are doing all right. We have found a couple. Some people tell us that they are Buddhist and have never seen the missionaries but we know that not true.
Elder Nelson in Komatsu met some guys from Siberia the other day. He asked them how the Fukui/Komatsu weather was compared to Siberia (expecting Siberia to be worse). They said they hated the weather here. They said, “at least you see the sun every once in a while in Siberia. This place is terrible.” I thought that was funny and pretty good proof that I’m not making up how terrible the winters are here. I have verbal hearsay from a man from Siberia.
Well sorry this is so short. I’ll be going to Nagoya on Friday to see Elder Holland. Hopefully next week’s email will be more action packed and full of interesting things. I love you all. Thanks for the emails, they are great. That’s the main reason I do email now days because my life is so boring right now that I don’t have a lot to talk about. Have a great week
Love, Tyler
February 6, 2011
Dear Family,
This week was good. I’m sorry that I spent most of my emailing time reading emails. That’s kind of how I wanted to do it today because I don’t: have a ton to say. It was just a regular week. The snow was absolutely incredible for the first two days of the week. We went to Katsuyama Shi again to shovel for my investigator. It took us 6 hours and there were four of us again. I’m working on getting pictures from this last week but Elder Nelson has the pictures. He is trying to email them to me but it doesn’t seem to be working. To say the least it was about 12 feet of snow that we were shoveling. I will explain the pictures if I ever send them. It was probably the most ridiculous thing of my mission. It was fun though.
Thiago came to church this week with his girlfriend and daughter. It was really fun. We took them back to the train station and their little girl was adorable. It was a nice sunny day and they were taking pictures of their daughter the whole way. They are just such a nice happy family. Aida san’s son got pink eye (imagine that Jason) so we can’t meet with her this week. It was tough trying to figure out what pink eye was over the phone in Japanese. We have an appointment tomorrow with an former investigator who is getting married soon so now his interest in the church is rekindled. We are also teaching his parents...kind of. His sister is a member in Osaka so I’ve now decided it’s my purpose to bring their family together through the gospel so that’s what my goal is right now. I’m hoping it goes well with him tomorrow.
My talk went well. I told everyone that I was really busy that week and didn’t have time to prepare so on Friday I just started to pray for snow and on Saturday morning I got a call from brother Jotoku saying that church was cancelled so I felt pretty good about my faith. Then later that night he called and said that we were having church after all. So then I started to prepare my talk. They were laughing pretty hard at that point (my timing was pretty good). Then I apologized for all of the snow being my fault. Brother Nozaki fell out of his chair he was laughing so hard. He doesn’t even like me. His reaction reminded me of when I tell a joke to brother Fike. That man just loves my jokes. I miss that. Anyway, I then talked about how I emailed my dad the week before about the talk so that they knew that I actually did prepare. I told the story of Pat Tucker’s conversion and then talked about the ward’s example and thanked them for being such great examples. It went well I think.
Hey can Grandpa Miller send me the names of the people in Komatsu again and tell me which members he baptized and which he knew when he served? I might go there next week so I want to see if we can meet any of them.
I decided to contact an old investigator from about a year and a half ago the other night. He was a very talkative college kid. We taught him lessons 1-3 in an hour and a half at his door. He seems pretty promising. He was way cool to talk to. He was a little loud but it just made it funny.
Sorry I don’t: have a lot to talk about this week. Hopefully next week will be better. Thanks for all of the great emails. I love reading about everyone. I hope Jason can get over the plague.
If you need me I’ll be cleansing my soul for Elder Holland’s visit. We had a 45 minute conference call this morning with President Baird about how we need to prepare. I’m quite scared.
Love, Tyler
This week was good. I’m sorry that I spent most of my emailing time reading emails. That’s kind of how I wanted to do it today because I don’t: have a ton to say. It was just a regular week. The snow was absolutely incredible for the first two days of the week. We went to Katsuyama Shi again to shovel for my investigator. It took us 6 hours and there were four of us again. I’m working on getting pictures from this last week but Elder Nelson has the pictures. He is trying to email them to me but it doesn’t seem to be working. To say the least it was about 12 feet of snow that we were shoveling. I will explain the pictures if I ever send them. It was probably the most ridiculous thing of my mission. It was fun though.
Thiago came to church this week with his girlfriend and daughter. It was really fun. We took them back to the train station and their little girl was adorable. It was a nice sunny day and they were taking pictures of their daughter the whole way. They are just such a nice happy family. Aida san’s son got pink eye (imagine that Jason) so we can’t meet with her this week. It was tough trying to figure out what pink eye was over the phone in Japanese. We have an appointment tomorrow with an former investigator who is getting married soon so now his interest in the church is rekindled. We are also teaching his parents...kind of. His sister is a member in Osaka so I’ve now decided it’s my purpose to bring their family together through the gospel so that’s what my goal is right now. I’m hoping it goes well with him tomorrow.
My talk went well. I told everyone that I was really busy that week and didn’t have time to prepare so on Friday I just started to pray for snow and on Saturday morning I got a call from brother Jotoku saying that church was cancelled so I felt pretty good about my faith. Then later that night he called and said that we were having church after all. So then I started to prepare my talk. They were laughing pretty hard at that point (my timing was pretty good). Then I apologized for all of the snow being my fault. Brother Nozaki fell out of his chair he was laughing so hard. He doesn’t even like me. His reaction reminded me of when I tell a joke to brother Fike. That man just loves my jokes. I miss that. Anyway, I then talked about how I emailed my dad the week before about the talk so that they knew that I actually did prepare. I told the story of Pat Tucker’s conversion and then talked about the ward’s example and thanked them for being such great examples. It went well I think.
Hey can Grandpa Miller send me the names of the people in Komatsu again and tell me which members he baptized and which he knew when he served? I might go there next week so I want to see if we can meet any of them.
I decided to contact an old investigator from about a year and a half ago the other night. He was a very talkative college kid. We taught him lessons 1-3 in an hour and a half at his door. He seems pretty promising. He was way cool to talk to. He was a little loud but it just made it funny.
Sorry I don’t: have a lot to talk about this week. Hopefully next week will be better. Thanks for all of the great emails. I love reading about everyone. I hope Jason can get over the plague.
If you need me I’ll be cleansing my soul for Elder Holland’s visit. We had a 45 minute conference call this morning with President Baird about how we need to prepare. I’m quite scared.
Love, Tyler
January 2, 2011
Dear Family,
I got off the phone with you and realized how much of a bum I was (does bum have two *m*s or one?) I wish I could have been more upbeat. It takes so much to be upbeat and happy, especially with a new missionary because I have to always been teaching and trying to tactfully explain things in a funny non-direct way. I’m going to go forward though with a renewed effort to be happier. I learned from Elder Soliai reading a part of his journal to me that I actually do have quite a few funny/interesting experiences each week that are worthy sharing. Also, because I was essentially alone for the holidays, I now know how much more I should appreciate my family now that I sort of don’t have one close by (just like I totally appreciate the cold weather here after being in Fuji for the summer). Also, living in Montana for a big chunk of my life, I know that this place has nothing on Big Sky country.
First, I would like to share what I call the “devil pot” experience. I share this first just incase you never get a letter from me again and I’m found dead in my apartment with pot burns all over me. When Elder Soliai and I came home from district meeting in Komatsu last week we decided to make romen. So he took the pot off the stove and turned on the cold water to fill it. When the water touch the pot it started to steam and make a hissing noise. The stove wasn’t on. The water wasn’t hot. We have no idea why the water started to boil. My only conclusion is that super hot water came out of the spout but I immediately touched the metal part of the facet to see if it was hot and it was cold. So I was fairly freaked out. Anyway, so that’s that story. I still can’t figure it out. I think it was Satan trying to burn Elder Soliai but really the jokes on him because it just cooked the roman faster.
Next is that I’ve never seen lighting in a snow storm but I guess it happens (in Fukui). It’s actually pretty cold. It was like a blizzard outside (is that how you spell blizzard because it just reminds me a DQ) and then the sky would light up with lightning. It was pretty sweet.
President Baird called me this week just to tell me that everything in my mission is aligning for me and it doesn’t happen often so he told me to take advantage of it. It kind of scared me and now that I’m not seeing a much success after the call, I feel like I’m failing. I also feel like it was Mrs. Pomeroy my 8th grade English teacher when she called mom at home and dad at work to tell them how great of a student I was (jokes on her I read the cliff notes of The Hobbit).
I’m worried that my shoes are going to die. I had a pair die this week (they actually exploded). I walked about 5 miles one night and my feet started to bleed (the heels). I looked in the shoe and the sole was ruined and the heel part had exploded. Don’t worry it was my cheap pair and my Eccos are still doing well. They are like walking on air. It’s just now that they will become my primary pair. I hope they don’t get worn through very fast. Don’t get too worried though. I’ll keep you posted and right now I’m wearing boots most of the time anyway.
I forgot to mention how much I loved that fact that I opened up my box of graham crackers and saw the chocolate bars jammed in there and I was reminded how brilliant, cheap, and good at Tetris my whole family is.
I used a plunder for the first time this week...
Thanks to Katie for teaching me that phrase over the phone. I’m still trying to find a time to use it.
Before it got too cold I tried turning up the temperature on our heated toilet seat and then came back later to sit on it and I swear it gave me 2nd degree burns on my bum. But I tried it again the other day and I swear it produces more heat that our regular heater. I want to sleep on the toilet. It’s like magic (not the same type of magic that warms the pot...or is it?). I want to bring one back to Montana (Dad would never leave the bathroom though).
The acid contact solution sucks by the way. My zone leader convinced me to stop using it for a while and I stopped it this week and realized I get fewer headaches from my eyes and my contacts go in a lot easier now. They just feel better when I don’t: use it. So I’m going to use it every so often just to clean my contacts and then go back to regular solution (his dad is an eye doctor).
Finally I got the complement of my life this week. Elder Soliai and I were late for a really important train (due to a long game a jenga with an investigator...I won). I told him we’d have to run for about 3, 2 minute segments to make it (it was suppose to be a 45 minute walk). Half way through Elder Soliai said, “when I was in my interview with president Baird right before I met you, he was telling me about you. The last thing he said to me was that Elder Hooton is a very physically powerful missionary....now I understand.” Frankly I was flattered. Physically powerful is exactly how I would want to be described. I almost started crying on the spot (but the tears would have frozen to my face and I didn’t want to risk it). My question is why does he think that? I’m worried that Elder Momose’s letters to the president were just him complaining about me pushing him too hard. In conclusion I’m flattered and it beats the heck out of, “your giant nose makes you look kingly.” We made it to the eki in 23 minutes. Heck yes!
I love you all. I’d just like to say that I finished the Book or Mormon last week while marking all of the references to Christ. It’s the activity Elder Holland did with Elder Anderson or Cook (I forgot). It changed my life it was a great experience. I’ll explain it more next week. Sorry I’m kind of out of time and I just got another email. I love you all. Keep working hard and getting along. Nothing makes me happier that that.
Love Tyler
I got off the phone with you and realized how much of a bum I was (does bum have two *m*s or one?) I wish I could have been more upbeat. It takes so much to be upbeat and happy, especially with a new missionary because I have to always been teaching and trying to tactfully explain things in a funny non-direct way. I’m going to go forward though with a renewed effort to be happier. I learned from Elder Soliai reading a part of his journal to me that I actually do have quite a few funny/interesting experiences each week that are worthy sharing. Also, because I was essentially alone for the holidays, I now know how much more I should appreciate my family now that I sort of don’t have one close by (just like I totally appreciate the cold weather here after being in Fuji for the summer). Also, living in Montana for a big chunk of my life, I know that this place has nothing on Big Sky country.
First, I would like to share what I call the “devil pot” experience. I share this first just incase you never get a letter from me again and I’m found dead in my apartment with pot burns all over me. When Elder Soliai and I came home from district meeting in Komatsu last week we decided to make romen. So he took the pot off the stove and turned on the cold water to fill it. When the water touch the pot it started to steam and make a hissing noise. The stove wasn’t on. The water wasn’t hot. We have no idea why the water started to boil. My only conclusion is that super hot water came out of the spout but I immediately touched the metal part of the facet to see if it was hot and it was cold. So I was fairly freaked out. Anyway, so that’s that story. I still can’t figure it out. I think it was Satan trying to burn Elder Soliai but really the jokes on him because it just cooked the roman faster.
Next is that I’ve never seen lighting in a snow storm but I guess it happens (in Fukui). It’s actually pretty cold. It was like a blizzard outside (is that how you spell blizzard because it just reminds me a DQ) and then the sky would light up with lightning. It was pretty sweet.
President Baird called me this week just to tell me that everything in my mission is aligning for me and it doesn’t happen often so he told me to take advantage of it. It kind of scared me and now that I’m not seeing a much success after the call, I feel like I’m failing. I also feel like it was Mrs. Pomeroy my 8th grade English teacher when she called mom at home and dad at work to tell them how great of a student I was (jokes on her I read the cliff notes of The Hobbit).
I’m worried that my shoes are going to die. I had a pair die this week (they actually exploded). I walked about 5 miles one night and my feet started to bleed (the heels). I looked in the shoe and the sole was ruined and the heel part had exploded. Don’t worry it was my cheap pair and my Eccos are still doing well. They are like walking on air. It’s just now that they will become my primary pair. I hope they don’t get worn through very fast. Don’t get too worried though. I’ll keep you posted and right now I’m wearing boots most of the time anyway.
I forgot to mention how much I loved that fact that I opened up my box of graham crackers and saw the chocolate bars jammed in there and I was reminded how brilliant, cheap, and good at Tetris my whole family is.
I used a plunder for the first time this week...
Thanks to Katie for teaching me that phrase over the phone. I’m still trying to find a time to use it.
Before it got too cold I tried turning up the temperature on our heated toilet seat and then came back later to sit on it and I swear it gave me 2nd degree burns on my bum. But I tried it again the other day and I swear it produces more heat that our regular heater. I want to sleep on the toilet. It’s like magic (not the same type of magic that warms the pot...or is it?). I want to bring one back to Montana (Dad would never leave the bathroom though).
The acid contact solution sucks by the way. My zone leader convinced me to stop using it for a while and I stopped it this week and realized I get fewer headaches from my eyes and my contacts go in a lot easier now. They just feel better when I don’t: use it. So I’m going to use it every so often just to clean my contacts and then go back to regular solution (his dad is an eye doctor).
Finally I got the complement of my life this week. Elder Soliai and I were late for a really important train (due to a long game a jenga with an investigator...I won). I told him we’d have to run for about 3, 2 minute segments to make it (it was suppose to be a 45 minute walk). Half way through Elder Soliai said, “when I was in my interview with president Baird right before I met you, he was telling me about you. The last thing he said to me was that Elder Hooton is a very physically powerful missionary....now I understand.” Frankly I was flattered. Physically powerful is exactly how I would want to be described. I almost started crying on the spot (but the tears would have frozen to my face and I didn’t want to risk it). My question is why does he think that? I’m worried that Elder Momose’s letters to the president were just him complaining about me pushing him too hard. In conclusion I’m flattered and it beats the heck out of, “your giant nose makes you look kingly.” We made it to the eki in 23 minutes. Heck yes!
I love you all. I’d just like to say that I finished the Book or Mormon last week while marking all of the references to Christ. It’s the activity Elder Holland did with Elder Anderson or Cook (I forgot). It changed my life it was a great experience. I’ll explain it more next week. Sorry I’m kind of out of time and I just got another email. I love you all. Keep working hard and getting along. Nothing makes me happier that that.
Love Tyler
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