Dear Family,
Well I think it will be hard to email this transfer. Elder Momose, my companion, is already done and I just finished reading the letters. This week was way hard. There are a lot of barriers with opening a new area and having a Japanese companion. We’ve made due though.
Tuesday I got up and went to Nagoya with most of my zone. We were way late because of mess ups on train times and lazy missionaries. We showed up a little late for the training but luckily it hadn’t started yet. So I ate at 7:00 am that morning and didn’t get to eat until about 8:00 that night. I assumed Elder Momose and I would be going to Fukui that night but unfortunately no one told us we would be staying in Nonami that night which is about 40 minutes away from Nagoya. We were there with a missionary that I knew in the MTC who is one transfer older than me and then my old MTC companion and the missionary that he is training (it was his area). They had no idea would be going back with them to their area (neither did we). Their area got a new apartment recently so they only have two futons. So we took the blankets and laid them across the floor so all five of us had something to lay on. To say the least no one really slept that night.
The next day we had to go back to Nagoya because we had to meet Elder Brown and Sister Tsukino so we could all go to Kanazawa (about an hour past Fukui, we went through Fukui to get there). We started our trek and found out that we had to wait two hours for a train to leave the Nagoya station that would go all the way to Kanazawa. I wanted to eat at someplace cheap like McDonalds but we ended up eating at a more expensive Roman place (it doesn’t fill you up). We took the train all the way to Kanazawa. I wanted to sit next to Sister Tsukino because her Japanese is so much easier to understand and I would have plenty of time to talk with Elder Momose over the length of a transfer. I also didn’t want to use up conversation topics too quickly. I ended up sitting with Elder Brown. There are two Elder Browns and he is referred to as, “the talking Brown.” He talks a ton and talks about stuff I don’t want to talk about either. I just didn’t have any interest in Japanese cartoons.
Anyway, we finally arrived and dropped them off and then went back to Fukui where we couldn’t find the apartment. I got directions from Elder Wilson before I left and it was “take a right and you’ll see a yellow building.” He was the only person to give me directions. We eventually found it and walked into a dump. Most of the appliances were broken (intentionally I think). We also didn’t have any gas. I started to clean up. We got a notice that they tried to drop off my luggage but we weren’t there. We called them and it turns out we were just barely too late to get it that night. We had the gas guy come so we had hot water and stuff and then we did a little planning and we were getting ready to get some sleep when the Ward Mission Leader called and dropped off some rice. He then left and came back and said the Bishop was in a meeting at the church which was close so we went and met him before finally going back to the apartment and going to sleep.
We tried to do work for the next couple of days but we live in the city and no member live around us and we didn’t get Elder Momose’s bike until yesterday afternoon so we couldn’t really do a whole lot except just walking. My Japanese is terrible by the way. One night we did meet with the Ward Mission Leader and he had a really bad “why even bother”* attitude. So our first objective is to get the members more excited. Now that we finally have bikes we are starting to visit them. We were also blessed with a referral from Tokyo and Elder Momose just got off the phone with her and it sounded alright. That was a huge blessing.
Things are going alright. I wish I could write more but I feel bad making Elder Momose stay here (and pay more) when he isn’t doing anything. Also, I guess we worked too hard yesterday because he slept in today and I was getting a little angry until he got up and went into the bathroom for a while and he was throwing up. I guess I need to slow it down a little. Things are going alright though. It will get dang cold here eventually. I’ll just have to endure though. I’m going to just have to call that good for this week. I’m doing well. Just keep praying for me. I’m starting to lose my hair I’m so stressed.
Everyone have a good week. I miss English a lot. Luckily in our four man district there is someone that speaks English. He was pretty annoying though. Oh well, I should be more positive. I love you all. Don’t worry about me just pray for me. Have a good week.
Love Tyler
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
September 12, 2010
Dear Family,
So I’m going back to Kanazawa Zone. That’s where Takaoka is. I will be in a district with Komatsu and that’s it. It really stinks being in a four man district. I’m not looking forward to that. Fukui get’s super cold during the winter. Elder Wilson left Fukui when I came to the mission. It was then closed when I left Takaoka because they had no investigators. So now Elder Momose and I get to go open it tomorrow night.
I will leave here tomorrow morning and go to the train station in Nagoya where we will meet most of the missionaries in the mission because a special trainer session is being held for missionaries that President Baird picked. We will go into the mission home and have a four hour special training session (mainly zone leaders, trainers, and people opening areas). I’ll probably leave the mission home around 7:00 pm and get to Fukui around 9:00 or 10:00 pm. It’s the second longest transfer possible in the mission from Fuji to Fukui. It’s going to cost me tons of money and I’m going to be exhausted.
Then I’ve got to deal with opening an area. I have to set up English class and meet with the ward mission leader each week and all that stuff. Geez I need better Japanese. It will be good though. I’m happy that I’ll be given a companion that’s motivated and an area that we can mold to what we want it to be. It’ll be nice to start from the ground up. Hopefully since I’m senior companion a lot of pressure will be put on me and it will force my Japanese to get better. Having a Japanese companion will help as well. I might write next week’s email through tears though. It will just be difficult because there isn’t a zone conference next transfer and I don’t think anyone is my district is a native English speaker. There is a Brazilian that is pretty good but not fluent. Oh well. My English will just have to suffer even more.
This week I officially became a normal Japanese missionary. I opened up the rice cooker and just started eating plain rice for a meal. I never thought I’d see the day. I realized a few good things this week. First, that someone that I housed into and I was the one that knocked on the door and talk to them, well they got baptized last transfer. It was in Kanazawa. He is Chinese (I swear the work will explode in China, those people are gold) and got baptized on the same day as someone that I taught a couple days later in Kanazawa. Elder Insch and I taught him lesson 3 and committed him to baptism when we were on a companion exchange. Also a man I taught in Shizuoka last transfer with our Zone Leader was baptized last week and confirmed yesterday. So I just need to work on people in my area now. I didn’t play a huge part at all but it was cool to participate in their conversion and see what it takes to get someone to be baptized.
This week I also learned the power and purpose of testimonies. It’s great to always back up what you say with a testimony. I think the real purpose of a testimony though is when an investigator has a bunch of little hang-ups they can’t get past then you just have to break things down very basic and explain the premise that if the Book Of Mormon is true then none of that matters because it testifies of the restoration which proves everything else.
We found a new investigator this week. I don’t know if he should be referred to as an investigator exactly but he’ll talk with us and listen a little. It’s funny because after we say something is always yells “uso!” which means lie. His main hang up is that he says he can’t believe that God created everything. We assured him that yes, God did create everything. We taught him some good things though and family is quite important to him. We tried to talk to him about how families can be together forever but we were cute off by his friend (we did the lesson in the lounge of a car repair shop with he and his two friends who were watching the baseball game on the TV next to me) who had a question about our church. The friends were alright. They had some good questions but not a ton of interest. It was awkward when some random woman walked in and said “ooh it Mormons.” She then started to list off the things from the word of wisdom which made us sound weird. Then the guy asked if we could get married. We said yes but after we finished our missions. He said, “you won’t be able to find anyone if you don’t drink coffee or beer.” I then said “uso!” to him and told him I’ve dated plenty of attractive women. It was an interesting conversation that only got more interesting because he then informed us that he once saw two UFOs in Japan. He then asked us what we thought about a scenario where our grandchildren visit us from the future in a time capsule. We played along for a while and then got back to the important stuff. He said that he’d read the introduction to the Book or Mormon and we explained the story a little bit. It all made for an interesting hour long lesson but for some reason Elder Wilson and I both have a fairly positive feeling about him even though he seems pretty.....well I don’t know the word in English but pretty muri. (Impossible maybe).
I don’t know what else to write about. We mainly did a lot of housing this week which I was happy about. We played Jenga in the big food court in the mall. We are Jenga pros now. We met this one guy who was stoked about our Jenga playing skills. He watched us for like a half an hour but he said he didn’t want to play with us. He and his wife and kid were pretty funny. Hopefully we house into him sometime. Other than that we just tried to meet people. Suzuki is going well. We really didn’t get to meet with her that much though. She is reading and stuff and will hopefully come to church this next week.
I spent most of today packing. It’s SUCH a pain. I hate it. I now have to go call the shipping place and wait around for them to come by the pick up my stuff. I found a contact case that I used probably the first month I was in Japan and I hadn’t opened it since. I was going to use it for when I transfer (so I don’t have to use the case that has the acid stuff in it) and I opened it up and the fluid was yellow. I then smelled it and it’s hands down the worst smell I’ve ever encountered. I felt sick for about an hour and a half after. I dumped it down the drain and left the water running and when we left the apartment it still smelled. I was amazed at how bad it smelled. Change your contact fluid regularly people!!
Well that’s all I’ve got. Maybe I’ll think of something in a bit. I’ve still got time, anyway. I love you all. Hopefully this coming week will go well and the work will pick up fast in Fukui. It should be nice and cool there until about October then it’ll start to get cold. Then again I come from Montana. Elder Wilson says he loves the cold and he said Fukui was way cold but he comes from Oregon where in the winter it gets down around the 30’s. That’s a joke compared to Montana. I’m used to super cold winters. I think I might be fine. It’ll just remind me of home. Anyway. Everyone have a great week. Love you all.
Elder Hooton
So I’m going back to Kanazawa Zone. That’s where Takaoka is. I will be in a district with Komatsu and that’s it. It really stinks being in a four man district. I’m not looking forward to that. Fukui get’s super cold during the winter. Elder Wilson left Fukui when I came to the mission. It was then closed when I left Takaoka because they had no investigators. So now Elder Momose and I get to go open it tomorrow night.
I will leave here tomorrow morning and go to the train station in Nagoya where we will meet most of the missionaries in the mission because a special trainer session is being held for missionaries that President Baird picked. We will go into the mission home and have a four hour special training session (mainly zone leaders, trainers, and people opening areas). I’ll probably leave the mission home around 7:00 pm and get to Fukui around 9:00 or 10:00 pm. It’s the second longest transfer possible in the mission from Fuji to Fukui. It’s going to cost me tons of money and I’m going to be exhausted.
Then I’ve got to deal with opening an area. I have to set up English class and meet with the ward mission leader each week and all that stuff. Geez I need better Japanese. It will be good though. I’m happy that I’ll be given a companion that’s motivated and an area that we can mold to what we want it to be. It’ll be nice to start from the ground up. Hopefully since I’m senior companion a lot of pressure will be put on me and it will force my Japanese to get better. Having a Japanese companion will help as well. I might write next week’s email through tears though. It will just be difficult because there isn’t a zone conference next transfer and I don’t think anyone is my district is a native English speaker. There is a Brazilian that is pretty good but not fluent. Oh well. My English will just have to suffer even more.
This week I officially became a normal Japanese missionary. I opened up the rice cooker and just started eating plain rice for a meal. I never thought I’d see the day. I realized a few good things this week. First, that someone that I housed into and I was the one that knocked on the door and talk to them, well they got baptized last transfer. It was in Kanazawa. He is Chinese (I swear the work will explode in China, those people are gold) and got baptized on the same day as someone that I taught a couple days later in Kanazawa. Elder Insch and I taught him lesson 3 and committed him to baptism when we were on a companion exchange. Also a man I taught in Shizuoka last transfer with our Zone Leader was baptized last week and confirmed yesterday. So I just need to work on people in my area now. I didn’t play a huge part at all but it was cool to participate in their conversion and see what it takes to get someone to be baptized.
This week I also learned the power and purpose of testimonies. It’s great to always back up what you say with a testimony. I think the real purpose of a testimony though is when an investigator has a bunch of little hang-ups they can’t get past then you just have to break things down very basic and explain the premise that if the Book Of Mormon is true then none of that matters because it testifies of the restoration which proves everything else.
We found a new investigator this week. I don’t know if he should be referred to as an investigator exactly but he’ll talk with us and listen a little. It’s funny because after we say something is always yells “uso!” which means lie. His main hang up is that he says he can’t believe that God created everything. We assured him that yes, God did create everything. We taught him some good things though and family is quite important to him. We tried to talk to him about how families can be together forever but we were cute off by his friend (we did the lesson in the lounge of a car repair shop with he and his two friends who were watching the baseball game on the TV next to me) who had a question about our church. The friends were alright. They had some good questions but not a ton of interest. It was awkward when some random woman walked in and said “ooh it Mormons.” She then started to list off the things from the word of wisdom which made us sound weird. Then the guy asked if we could get married. We said yes but after we finished our missions. He said, “you won’t be able to find anyone if you don’t drink coffee or beer.” I then said “uso!” to him and told him I’ve dated plenty of attractive women. It was an interesting conversation that only got more interesting because he then informed us that he once saw two UFOs in Japan. He then asked us what we thought about a scenario where our grandchildren visit us from the future in a time capsule. We played along for a while and then got back to the important stuff. He said that he’d read the introduction to the Book or Mormon and we explained the story a little bit. It all made for an interesting hour long lesson but for some reason Elder Wilson and I both have a fairly positive feeling about him even though he seems pretty.....well I don’t know the word in English but pretty muri. (Impossible maybe).
I don’t know what else to write about. We mainly did a lot of housing this week which I was happy about. We played Jenga in the big food court in the mall. We are Jenga pros now. We met this one guy who was stoked about our Jenga playing skills. He watched us for like a half an hour but he said he didn’t want to play with us. He and his wife and kid were pretty funny. Hopefully we house into him sometime. Other than that we just tried to meet people. Suzuki is going well. We really didn’t get to meet with her that much though. She is reading and stuff and will hopefully come to church this next week.
I spent most of today packing. It’s SUCH a pain. I hate it. I now have to go call the shipping place and wait around for them to come by the pick up my stuff. I found a contact case that I used probably the first month I was in Japan and I hadn’t opened it since. I was going to use it for when I transfer (so I don’t have to use the case that has the acid stuff in it) and I opened it up and the fluid was yellow. I then smelled it and it’s hands down the worst smell I’ve ever encountered. I felt sick for about an hour and a half after. I dumped it down the drain and left the water running and when we left the apartment it still smelled. I was amazed at how bad it smelled. Change your contact fluid regularly people!!
Well that’s all I’ve got. Maybe I’ll think of something in a bit. I’ve still got time, anyway. I love you all. Hopefully this coming week will go well and the work will pick up fast in Fukui. It should be nice and cool there until about October then it’ll start to get cold. Then again I come from Montana. Elder Wilson says he loves the cold and he said Fukui was way cold but he comes from Oregon where in the winter it gets down around the 30’s. That’s a joke compared to Montana. I’m used to super cold winters. I think I might be fine. It’ll just remind me of home. Anyway. Everyone have a great week. Love you all.
Elder Hooton
Tyler teaching
We were followed home by a praying mantis that stowed away on Elder Wilson:s bike so we took it as a sign and started to talk to him about our book.
Tyler teaching
We found a praying mantis so we decided to take it as a sign. So we showed him the Book or Mormon.
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