Dear Family,
I do email in a library in a hospital. Now that there are four of us there is some time to kill while I wait for the computer. I didn’t get on the computer first so I went to sit down to wait. I’m pretty tired and I noticed a couch and then remembered that I haven’t sat on a couch in like 6 months. I was really excited as I walked over to the couch with my arms spread in joy. As I got closer I realized that right next to the couch in the same direction that I was walking was a big poster about breast cancer which wasn’t afraid to depict with real pictures. As I figured out what was on the poster I quickly dropped my arms and sadly returned to a table where Elder Soliai and Elder Furugen were sitting. Elder Soliai couldn’t stop laughing and all the old people wouldn’t stop giving me weird looks.
Last week after emailing we went to a, all you can eat meat place (I mainly eat pineapple though). We went with the Komatsu Elders so there were 8 of us. When we got there, we stuffed ourselves and then we got ready to leave. As we were leaving there was a huge group of teenagers that came in to eat. Seeing a large group of Americans (7) and a Japanese person from Okinawa (they don’t look Japanese at all) they started to freak out. I was pretty embarrassed because they all started to yell the little English they knew. I’m just not an outgoing type of person but I decided to just go with the situation. So we all ran through the group with our hands up and they gave us high fives. Elder Furugen is a good sport about it. Poor guy. He gets a lot of crap for betraying his country’s religion. Americans are adored and loved. To say the least, it will be tough going back to being a no one in America.
Our Brazilian investigator and I watched the same TV shows when we were young. We talked about Mighty Max for a while the other day. He still won’t accept a baptism date but he is doing well. I’m just stalling until we have to talk about marriage. Unfortunately, there is nothing left to talk about now.
This week was alright. We are doing a lot of finding but planning is going a lot easier. We are trying to do fun activities to get people to come out. President Baird wants us to act a lot like advertisers. He says we should act like we are selling something, but it’s free. I feel like I’m Vince (the Sham Wow guy) but with more morals. Our streeting approaches sound kind of weird but he promises us it will be more effective. I’ve sensed a difference but it still just feels weird to be so abrupt when telling people that the Book or Mormon help us get rid of our unsightly sins.
Things are going really well. I’m glad I have so much work to do and I love being here in Fukui. President Baird just keeps telling me that I will leave a legacy here but I don’t see that happening any time soon. The members in Japan look at missionaries to solve all of their problems. It gets really stressful. I like stress though so I guess it’s okay. Thanks for all the emails and letters. I’m excited beyond belief for my new shoes and taco seasoning. I am getting a tortilla maker from my trainer on Wednesday. It will make life so much greater. I love you all. Have a great week. Bye
Tyler
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
March 28, 2011
Dear Family,
This week went by really fast but I didn’t think I was going to make it past Saturday. I had a really bad experience with English class and some parents getting angry that their teenage daughters came to our church. It just made me really angry because it’s not like that in the United States. I went to Harvest all the time for lunch but it wasn’t a big deal. It seems like religion in America is much more civil believe it or not. There are people here that won’t even talk with me when I asked them questions. I asked an old woman for help and she said, “No I’m good.” I was just trying to figure out where we were on a map. Another time it was really late and rainy and I was trying to ask a man what the address was so that I could find where we were on a map. He wouldn’t even speak to me. He just waved his hand back and forth. It’s really frustrating and makes me angry but at least in the end I decided not to throw the eggs at their house. I just happened to eat a lot of French toast every week.
I’m glad that everyone is doing well, besides Monica being sick and BYU losing. I found out Monday last week right before I was suppose to go to Nagoya that I actually wasn’t suppose to go. It was a mix up on the Assistant’s part. So maybe I should have bought food on p-day last week. It was good though because I just used it as an opportunity to clean out all the cans of soup and older food that we were just kind of ignoring.
I feel like I deserve to be called an adult after this week. I’ve never had so much need for mental discipline. I was stressed out of my mind this week as I was having to worry about people at church and teaching people lessons during church and taking care of their children’s problems because they don’t: speak any Japanese or English. I can ignore huge problems and not be super stressed about them anymore.
I like our two new missionaries a lot. I don’t know if I told you their names last week. Elder Bednar who is Elder Bednar:s grand-nephew, and Elder Furugen. Elder Furugen is like the Japanese companion I’ve always wanted. He is way cool and willing to put up with crappy Japanese (at least for the time being). He also is a hard worker and a good teacher.
They were in the parts of Tokyo that weren’t too affected by the earthquake but they still saw some devastation. I know the news in America is saying that people are being really patient about it and stuff, which they are. They aren’t rioting or looting. It seems like the rest of the country isn’t too upset about it though. People here don’t: really care. They are donating stuff (especially church members) but I feel like people in America pay closer attention to it.
Oh tell Grandpa Miller I visited Azechi Shimai this week. I will try to write him a letter about it but tell him that I visited her and she was genki. She was very happy to see me and we talked a lot about him. I felt really bad though because her door frame was really low so I had to bend down a little bit. At one point it hurt too bad so I leaned in the apartment a little to stretched my neck out and my hair caught hold of some loose paint on the ceiling and tore it off. I felt bad but I guess that’s what I get for being tall. She sure loves grandpa a lot and everyone here remembers him and says he was a very handsome and suteki guy. Also his Japanese was better than his companions’. I have to go now. I’ll write you next week. I love you all. Bye.
Tyler
This week went by really fast but I didn’t think I was going to make it past Saturday. I had a really bad experience with English class and some parents getting angry that their teenage daughters came to our church. It just made me really angry because it’s not like that in the United States. I went to Harvest all the time for lunch but it wasn’t a big deal. It seems like religion in America is much more civil believe it or not. There are people here that won’t even talk with me when I asked them questions. I asked an old woman for help and she said, “No I’m good.” I was just trying to figure out where we were on a map. Another time it was really late and rainy and I was trying to ask a man what the address was so that I could find where we were on a map. He wouldn’t even speak to me. He just waved his hand back and forth. It’s really frustrating and makes me angry but at least in the end I decided not to throw the eggs at their house. I just happened to eat a lot of French toast every week.
I’m glad that everyone is doing well, besides Monica being sick and BYU losing. I found out Monday last week right before I was suppose to go to Nagoya that I actually wasn’t suppose to go. It was a mix up on the Assistant’s part. So maybe I should have bought food on p-day last week. It was good though because I just used it as an opportunity to clean out all the cans of soup and older food that we were just kind of ignoring.
I feel like I deserve to be called an adult after this week. I’ve never had so much need for mental discipline. I was stressed out of my mind this week as I was having to worry about people at church and teaching people lessons during church and taking care of their children’s problems because they don’t: speak any Japanese or English. I can ignore huge problems and not be super stressed about them anymore.
I like our two new missionaries a lot. I don’t know if I told you their names last week. Elder Bednar who is Elder Bednar:s grand-nephew, and Elder Furugen. Elder Furugen is like the Japanese companion I’ve always wanted. He is way cool and willing to put up with crappy Japanese (at least for the time being). He also is a hard worker and a good teacher.
They were in the parts of Tokyo that weren’t too affected by the earthquake but they still saw some devastation. I know the news in America is saying that people are being really patient about it and stuff, which they are. They aren’t rioting or looting. It seems like the rest of the country isn’t too upset about it though. People here don’t: really care. They are donating stuff (especially church members) but I feel like people in America pay closer attention to it.
Oh tell Grandpa Miller I visited Azechi Shimai this week. I will try to write him a letter about it but tell him that I visited her and she was genki. She was very happy to see me and we talked a lot about him. I felt really bad though because her door frame was really low so I had to bend down a little bit. At one point it hurt too bad so I leaned in the apartment a little to stretched my neck out and my hair caught hold of some loose paint on the ceiling and tore it off. I felt bad but I guess that’s what I get for being tall. She sure loves grandpa a lot and everyone here remembers him and says he was a very handsome and suteki guy. Also his Japanese was better than his companions’. I have to go now. I’ll write you next week. I love you all. Bye.
Tyler
March 14, 2011
Dear Family,
Well now I feel bad because I’m hearing so much about the earthquake from you. I didn’t know it was that big of a deal. We were in Nagoya in the middle of our training meeting and President Baird was having us write down our impressions on the topic we had just finished. I of course being the sensitive guy that I am felt the earthquake first. We all kind of stopped and stood still. We waited. President Baird was writing on the board and turned around. After about 30 seconds (not an exaggeration) he said, “This is a long one.” The Elder Dasilva yelled. “it’s revelation!” Then it went for about another 30 seconds and we started to get worried.
The dividers that are used to separate the parts of the room that we were in were all up against the walls so that the room was as big as possible. They started to rock back and forth and hit the walls. I thought for sure it would start to settle down but it got a little stronger and just kept going. People were getting sick and had to lean up against the wall. Also President Baird had to lean on the stage because he couldn’t keep his balance standing. It lasted probably 2 minutes. I was shocked at how long it was. President Baird then said, “we don’t have a lot of time so let’s get back to writing and we’ll move on.” We just kept going with the meeting.
About 30 minutes later we had an aftershock while Elder Otahara was reading. He just kept reading and no one said anything for the 15 seconds that it was shaking. We didn’t stop the meeting at all. Oh I forgot to mention that during the first one after about a minute or so elder Dasilva got really scared so he yelled, “under the tables!” He jumped under a table we all kind of laughed and I said, “That’s how you get killed.” It really is. You are supposed to make triangles of safety. Never go under something. Look up triangles of safety online. Elder Valentine got on his knees and started praying. We can probably thank him for the building not coming down. I wasn’t scared at all. If the building started to come down I felt like President Baird would just rebuke the ceiling as it was falling and it would stop. Also, if the ceiling did start to come down I think I’m fast enough to not get hit. I’d be out the window pretty fast.
We finished the meeting and sister Baird walked in and said in her cheerful voice, “that earthquake was a 8.9. I made cookies for everyone, you can take 2.” The sisters started to cry (but they still took the cookies, darn it). I don’t think sister Baird understood how big an 8.9 earthquake was. I turned to Elder Howells my old companion who I knew would know what that meant and I said that an 8.9 is incredible and it must have happened way out in the ocean for us to feel it that weak here in Nagoya.
No one in Fukui felt it. Fukui was too far away. We couldn’t call my cell phone though so we couldn’t contact my companion. We started to worry about that. We took the subway to the big train station and found out that the mission was evacuating all areas touching the ocean and one tsunami had already hit and another one was maybe coming. Luckily my whole zone was on the other side of the island so once we got the okay from the mission home, we started to head home. We had to take a really slow train thought because they weren’t running the express trains and they were too scared to run the shinkansen. On the train we were trying to look over people’s shoulders and see the news because they were all watching it on their cell phones. We didn’t realize the destruction was so bad. We then asked someone where the epicenter was and found it was actually just off the coast of Sendai. I didn’t think people were freaking out as much as they should be but I guess it was because we were on the safe side of the island.
I called a member who was visiting in Tokyo for her break from college. She said that they felt an after shock a couple times each hour. It’s pretty crazy. I think the mail system is still going. I had to send an email address to the mission home so that they could email you. I’m obviously fine and safe. I don’t think anywhere in our mission was too damaged so I don’t think we will be doing a lot of that type of service, especially in my zone. No one even felt it.
That was pretty much the only thing that happened to me this week. I went to the training all week. It was from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm for three days. Then my assigned companion and I would do some streeting until 9:30 pm. We only had one break for lunch (I lost six pounds). It was pretty intense. I learned a ton though. I’m okay so don’t worry about me. Life is pretty much the same but people keep asking why God would let so many people die. Other than that I’m just doing the same old same old. But missionary work will change forever after this meeting that we had. The President of the Quorum of the Seventy is watching our mission very closely now. We have over 1000 referrals in the Nagoya zone alone. I have about 20 right now which I bet Quincy, Jason, or Dad never saw on their missions and I have a lot more that I need to get. I love you all. Have a great week. Remember triangles of safety and keep praying for the people here please.
Love,
Tyler
Well now I feel bad because I’m hearing so much about the earthquake from you. I didn’t know it was that big of a deal. We were in Nagoya in the middle of our training meeting and President Baird was having us write down our impressions on the topic we had just finished. I of course being the sensitive guy that I am felt the earthquake first. We all kind of stopped and stood still. We waited. President Baird was writing on the board and turned around. After about 30 seconds (not an exaggeration) he said, “This is a long one.” The Elder Dasilva yelled. “it’s revelation!” Then it went for about another 30 seconds and we started to get worried.
The dividers that are used to separate the parts of the room that we were in were all up against the walls so that the room was as big as possible. They started to rock back and forth and hit the walls. I thought for sure it would start to settle down but it got a little stronger and just kept going. People were getting sick and had to lean up against the wall. Also President Baird had to lean on the stage because he couldn’t keep his balance standing. It lasted probably 2 minutes. I was shocked at how long it was. President Baird then said, “we don’t have a lot of time so let’s get back to writing and we’ll move on.” We just kept going with the meeting.
About 30 minutes later we had an aftershock while Elder Otahara was reading. He just kept reading and no one said anything for the 15 seconds that it was shaking. We didn’t stop the meeting at all. Oh I forgot to mention that during the first one after about a minute or so elder Dasilva got really scared so he yelled, “under the tables!” He jumped under a table we all kind of laughed and I said, “That’s how you get killed.” It really is. You are supposed to make triangles of safety. Never go under something. Look up triangles of safety online. Elder Valentine got on his knees and started praying. We can probably thank him for the building not coming down. I wasn’t scared at all. If the building started to come down I felt like President Baird would just rebuke the ceiling as it was falling and it would stop. Also, if the ceiling did start to come down I think I’m fast enough to not get hit. I’d be out the window pretty fast.
We finished the meeting and sister Baird walked in and said in her cheerful voice, “that earthquake was a 8.9. I made cookies for everyone, you can take 2.” The sisters started to cry (but they still took the cookies, darn it). I don’t think sister Baird understood how big an 8.9 earthquake was. I turned to Elder Howells my old companion who I knew would know what that meant and I said that an 8.9 is incredible and it must have happened way out in the ocean for us to feel it that weak here in Nagoya.
No one in Fukui felt it. Fukui was too far away. We couldn’t call my cell phone though so we couldn’t contact my companion. We started to worry about that. We took the subway to the big train station and found out that the mission was evacuating all areas touching the ocean and one tsunami had already hit and another one was maybe coming. Luckily my whole zone was on the other side of the island so once we got the okay from the mission home, we started to head home. We had to take a really slow train thought because they weren’t running the express trains and they were too scared to run the shinkansen. On the train we were trying to look over people’s shoulders and see the news because they were all watching it on their cell phones. We didn’t realize the destruction was so bad. We then asked someone where the epicenter was and found it was actually just off the coast of Sendai. I didn’t think people were freaking out as much as they should be but I guess it was because we were on the safe side of the island.
I called a member who was visiting in Tokyo for her break from college. She said that they felt an after shock a couple times each hour. It’s pretty crazy. I think the mail system is still going. I had to send an email address to the mission home so that they could email you. I’m obviously fine and safe. I don’t think anywhere in our mission was too damaged so I don’t think we will be doing a lot of that type of service, especially in my zone. No one even felt it.
That was pretty much the only thing that happened to me this week. I went to the training all week. It was from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm for three days. Then my assigned companion and I would do some streeting until 9:30 pm. We only had one break for lunch (I lost six pounds). It was pretty intense. I learned a ton though. I’m okay so don’t worry about me. Life is pretty much the same but people keep asking why God would let so many people die. Other than that I’m just doing the same old same old. But missionary work will change forever after this meeting that we had. The President of the Quorum of the Seventy is watching our mission very closely now. We have over 1000 referrals in the Nagoya zone alone. I have about 20 right now which I bet Quincy, Jason, or Dad never saw on their missions and I have a lot more that I need to get. I love you all. Have a great week. Remember triangles of safety and keep praying for the people here please.
Love,
Tyler
March 7, 2011
Dear Family,
First, I need to know if it’s bad to begin writing with my right hand. I’m left handed but I write Chinese characters with my right hand. I had an English student tell me that it’s terrible for my brain and I need to stop because it will make it so I can’t log new things in my brain. Can you just check on that? I’m going to preliminarily call it bogus but I’d like something to back that up.
I really don’t have a whole lot to talk about this week. I like being in Fukui for another transfer but it’s hard to be with someone for this long. I’m sure I’m getting annoying to Elder Soliai but we are doing pretty well. I also found out that I will have to go to Nagoya for two weeks this transfer for training.
I mainly visited inactives this whole week until Friday when I had to teach my first District Meeting. It’s weird because I have two missionaries that are about to go home that I teach so I feel inadequate about that. There is also a brand new missionary that just came in so I felt like he was watching me closely the whole time. Since Elder Soliai was no longer the youngest missionary he got a boost of confidence and became a kind of mentor for the new missionary. I felt like I had to keep my jokes to a minimum and keep everyone focused. It went okay I guess.
Right after that I had to do an exchange where I stayed in Komatsu with the new missionary. I wasn’t too happy about it. I don’t know the area, I hate leaving my own area because I feel like it will be on fire when I come back. So we just visited the Kitano couple again and got a picture with them and tried to do some housing. It was pretty bad so I just cut bait and had the new missionary get to sleep a little early since he was still recovering from jet lag. This week was pretty slow and we didn’t have a lot of success but I’m working on it. I’m leaving for Nagoya tomorrow night and I get back on Friday night so it’s another week I won’t be in my area. I’m sure I will learn lots of good stuff though.
I’m sorry that I had such a boring week. I went and visited two inactives that live next to the ocean. I felt like I was with 30 year old children. The member showed me his airsoft gun and then Elder Soliai wanted to take pictures wearing his army stuff. Of course you know me so it’s a picture of them wearing helmets and holding bb guns and I’m wearing my regular clothes. He asked us if we wanted to watch a movie with him. We had to explain that we can’t. He asked if music videos were okay. I said that was probably worse. It’s pretty stressful having to crush people’s hopes of being able to hang out with Americans but it’s okay.
Sorry this is so lame. I’m doing well. I’m pretty healthy this week. I have a lot more energy today than usual. I love you all. Have a good week.
Tyler
First, I need to know if it’s bad to begin writing with my right hand. I’m left handed but I write Chinese characters with my right hand. I had an English student tell me that it’s terrible for my brain and I need to stop because it will make it so I can’t log new things in my brain. Can you just check on that? I’m going to preliminarily call it bogus but I’d like something to back that up.
I really don’t have a whole lot to talk about this week. I like being in Fukui for another transfer but it’s hard to be with someone for this long. I’m sure I’m getting annoying to Elder Soliai but we are doing pretty well. I also found out that I will have to go to Nagoya for two weeks this transfer for training.
I mainly visited inactives this whole week until Friday when I had to teach my first District Meeting. It’s weird because I have two missionaries that are about to go home that I teach so I feel inadequate about that. There is also a brand new missionary that just came in so I felt like he was watching me closely the whole time. Since Elder Soliai was no longer the youngest missionary he got a boost of confidence and became a kind of mentor for the new missionary. I felt like I had to keep my jokes to a minimum and keep everyone focused. It went okay I guess.
Right after that I had to do an exchange where I stayed in Komatsu with the new missionary. I wasn’t too happy about it. I don’t know the area, I hate leaving my own area because I feel like it will be on fire when I come back. So we just visited the Kitano couple again and got a picture with them and tried to do some housing. It was pretty bad so I just cut bait and had the new missionary get to sleep a little early since he was still recovering from jet lag. This week was pretty slow and we didn’t have a lot of success but I’m working on it. I’m leaving for Nagoya tomorrow night and I get back on Friday night so it’s another week I won’t be in my area. I’m sure I will learn lots of good stuff though.
I’m sorry that I had such a boring week. I went and visited two inactives that live next to the ocean. I felt like I was with 30 year old children. The member showed me his airsoft gun and then Elder Soliai wanted to take pictures wearing his army stuff. Of course you know me so it’s a picture of them wearing helmets and holding bb guns and I’m wearing my regular clothes. He asked us if we wanted to watch a movie with him. We had to explain that we can’t. He asked if music videos were okay. I said that was probably worse. It’s pretty stressful having to crush people’s hopes of being able to hang out with Americans but it’s okay.
Sorry this is so lame. I’m doing well. I’m pretty healthy this week. I have a lot more energy today than usual. I love you all. Have a good week.
Tyler
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)