Japan week #9

皆さん懇意痴話！

       I hope everyone is doing fine and dandy. :) Sorry to be emailing so early. :P Elder Harper and I got up at 5:00 am today because we're heading to the lighthouse today. It's supposed to be WAY cool, on the edge of a massive sea cliff, and you supposedly can see the curvature of the Earth from the top of it, so we're way excited, Elder Harper has never been to it. So we're up early so that we can have plenty of time to hang out there. I'm very excited, I'll take plenty of pictures. :) 

      So I totally forgot to mention that last week on Sunday, we sang in sacrament. The ward as a whole loves my voice, and they compliment me on it ALL the time, and so we got asked to sing. And so we did. We performed Because I Have Been Given Much. Elder Harper played the first verse with his clarinet, and then I came in on the second verse, and we killed it. Went so good. :) 

    Quick question: For the pizza dough recipes you sent us, how long should we cook them once they're all wonderfully assembled? Thanks!!

    So we've had a fun week, a very productive week too! I LOVE being healthy again, it's the greatest. This week we made a ton of appointments, like, 7. :P That's HUGE for us here in the Sapporo mission! ;) We went on splits with the zone leaders on Wednesday, and since I went with Elder Knighton last transfer, I went with Elder Kudo this time. Who is a Nihonjin. Who doesn't speak English. So all day I was using the Japanese, didn't speak a lick of English all day. And it ROCKED! Kudo Choro was way impressed with how much I could actually say. For me right now the listening comprehension is the hardest part. My pronunciation, and flow when I speak is really natural says a TON of people in the ward, and Japanese missionaries. So that's cool. :) But we had a crazy day of splits. It was WAY fun, you guys don't even know! We just had a ton of fun dendoing. We always have a ton of fun, but it was just extra fun being with a nihonjin companion, made things interesting. We made THREE appointments that one day, :D one from a guy we streeted, got his phone number, and one from a person we found housing, and one we also found housing, who is actually a former investigator. So that's way awesome. :) The guy we found streeting we taught a 30 minute what we call totsuzen lesson. That just means sudden, or unexpected. We taught about God, his nature and our relationship to him, and prayer. And he really liked it. We asked him if we could pray together and he said yes, (which is a big deal!) And he told us he felt really good after the prayer. We were flipping excited. :D Got all his contact info and we have an appointment to meet again next week to talk more about our message. Kudo Choro said that he thinks this Watanabe San, is a kinjin. A 'gold person'. Just means someone who is prepared and ready to except the gospel easily. So we're looking forward to teaching him more, and becoming his friends. :) That I guess was my biggest miracle this week. Other than that the rest of our week was pretty normal. We just did some standard dendo, visited some cool places we haven't been out to work in before, and it was great.

   On Saturday we were pinging a house, no one was home, and there was a Japanese dog chained up front that was freaking out at us. The Japanese dogs are WAY cute.They're like foxes and dogs fused together. WAY cute. But he was freaking out so we decided to just stare at him to see what he did. Over the course of ten minutes he stopped barking, sat down, laid down, and then started looking way bored. :P Lol!!! We were cracking up! We then started joking that he'd become our dog investigator and that he'd be way kinjin. Only missionaries man, would think that's funny, and we caught a kick out of it. :) We named him Kurotaro. 

   We also found a stash of hot chocolate in our apartment this week, and we've been making special drink. if you remember from Community, Abed's friend Pablo makes a cold hot chocolate, calls it special drink. We've been having cold hot chocolate, and it's actually WAY good. :P So I learned some funky stuff about Japan this week also. So you know how thirteen is a 'bad' number in America? Some hotels even don't have a thirteenth floor? Well four is that number here. Apartments and buildings don't have fourth floors or fourth rooms, and if one does, it's usually uninhabited because of the four. :P Elder Kudo told me I'd likely NEVER see a four in that capacity. Way crazy! And they also make this thing here called Kuroke Pan. It's basically mashed potatoes that have been breaded and deep fried, and it's DELICIOUS. Oh my goodness, it's wonderful. Also! A pizza here, from like Pizza Hut, is like $30!!! HOLY COW!!! O.O Making it homemade is the ONLY way I'm gonna get pizza for two years! 

     So anyways, that was my week. :) We also made epic sandwiches on last week's pday, but I sent videos of all that home. :) Love you all and hope you continue to do well!

        Love!

          Dialogue 長老

 P.S MOM!! DON'T HURT YOUR FOOT!!! IT'S NOT GOOD!! TRUUUUUUST ME!!!! Take it easy, and when you start to want to use it again in a working out crazy capacity, don't jump right into it, eeeeeaaaaaase into it, ok? Don't have to go to the doctor for it! Ne? 

P.P.S OH! By the way, a funny thing about me. :P The Japanese people have a grunt. They grunt or like make weird noises to show they understand, or are following a conversation. I'll make a video showing what I mean. :P BUT! I've picked it up! I'm grunting and making weird noises now!! :P Just thought you'd like to know. ;) LOVE YOU!

Week #8 videos

Burnt Water!

Pancakes!

Week #8 pictures

Japan week #8

FAMILY!!!

      I'm flipping out about about the weight loss! My body seems to be stabilizing at about 88.5 kilos, which is like 190ish pounds, so that's not too bad I suppose. Hopefully I don't lose anymore! I like being the big guy!! We haven't had a chance to make cookies yet, we're going to this week though I think. And we're very excited to try pizza and dough making, should be great. ;) We have a ton of fun cooking. They also make a burger here, that's like mashed potatoes and gravy, on a patty in between too buns!! I'm very excited to eat it, we're gonna try and make it today. ;) Haha! They have such crazy stuff over here, I love it. And they're 'american food' is rice and a hamburger patty, makes me laugh. :) The Japanese people are just absolutely the greatest. They're SO stinking nice, and they are very hard workers. 

   Wish I could see the play!! Sounds like it's a ton of fun. :) Megan has Walter's Scarecrow shoes to fill, so some pretty big ones. ;) Just kidding!! She's gonna be epic at it. 

  How's Rick doing? Happy being a married man again? Tell him I said congratz, and that I'm very happy for him. :) How are Jake's new siblings? I'm excited to meet them. In a few years. ;) 

     Oh, I guess I should update you about the health. I am doing MUCH better, We're working a normal schedule again which is getting rid of Elder Harper's stir crazy. ;) So yeah, and think we're all good on that front! No more fever, no more diarrhea, we're doing good. And YES! I did get a priesthood blessing! I got one the day before the first time I went to the hospital. And it was a great blessing. Really set my mind at ease. 

  By the way, I'm working on a list of things I want / need for the future. Christmas type stuff. I'm doing good for now stuff wise, I love music though. ;) So I might keep bumming stuff from you guys on that front. ;) I'll let you know as stuff comes up. The biggest thing I miss probably at the moment, CHEESE! They don't have cheese here! They do, but not like we do back at home. And the little cheese they do have, is CRAZY expensive. Like ten bucks for a thing of cheese I could eat in one bite. It's rough. But nothing you guys can do about that. :P 

   So, my week was great. We were finally back to a mostly normal schedule. Which feels great. At the beginning of this week we visited a man named Takuro, who is a former investigator of like six months. He stopped investigating because he wants to be responsible for his own sins and what not, and doesn't want to use the Atonement. WHAT the heck, right! Who has a problem with the atonement! He still likes the church, and the missionaries, so that's good. We're keeping up relationships with him in case he expresses interest in investigating again, as well as just being his friends, because having friends is ALWAYS nice. We also sanded our table, that was covered with an old gross bed sheet because the table was gross, so we can use it again now! Makes the fuinki of our apartment much better, plus the wood likes nice. :) 

  I've also been experimenting with some food stuffs I've found in the apartment, found some weird mac and cheese stuff that I decided to have at. Turned into mac and soup. :P But it tasted great so, it was ok!! 

  Wednesday was super crazy. We biked to Hakuchorai, which is an hour bike ride away. O.O We rode there in the pouring rain, along a road with no really safe sides, through construction, it was nuts. We made it there, and it is a GORGEOUS place. Small town, trees everywhere, and the rain made it all very pretty. We did lots of dendo, got a ton of contacts, and had a great time. I had a flippin scary contact though. A lady opened the door, and I got blasted in the face with smoke, like, a TON of smoke, it was bad. But that's not the worst. She was part nude. O.O She looked like she was mid breast feeding, she was holding a child, and her shirt was not where it was supposed to be. I was like. O.O Froze, and then went on and contacted her, it was the flipping most AWKWARD THING I've ever done in my life. Hanging out in the onsen with a ton of guys was WAY more comfortable than that. I can't believe she answered the door!! What the heck right!

    The day doesn't end there though. Our ride home was just as crazy. It's starting to get very cold here at night and in the mornings, and it gets dark fast. And so by the time we were riding home, it was pitch black. We decided to take a back road to cut off some travel time, and that was the scariest downhill road I've ever ridden. We were in the rain, in the dark, on a completely overgrown road more grass than road, getting smacked in the face by tree branches every few feet! We made it down and stopped,  because it dropped us right into the middle of the free way, which makes no sense. So we had to ride down the free way with cars whipping past us, and after all that we finally had a more normal ride home. We're not going to go back there without some better prep on our part. :P 

  We have a ton of crazy biking here in Muroran. Friday we road our favorite mountain road all the way down the hook of Muroran. And it was amazing. It's the most beautiful mountain road, and it's just as fast for us as the main road, so we take it all the time now. On the return trip from that day, Elder Harper and I got separated! :O He rounded a corner and took another turn real fast before I could see, so I stopped and just was like, what do I do. So for twenty minutes I just patrolled the area where I had last seen him, and in the middle of my prayer, I look up and see him. He was freaking out thinking I had gotten hit by a car or something, we had a joyous reunion and then continued on our way. We road down the mountain, and I thought I could feel something wonky with my front tire, but I was riding fine so I didn't think much of it. Once we got down this lightning fast road, we stopped to grab some ice cream, and when I parked my bike, the tire came off. O.O It had come unattached somehow on the ride home, and if it had come off on that downhill road, I would have been VERY badly injured. I had a long prayer that night thanking Heavenly Father for his divine protection. Miracles are incredibly real out here, I really know that now. 

    All of our bike riding isn't like this, we're pretty safe. I just like to share the crazy stories because they're fun. We are safe, and we have MANY MANY MANY uneventful bike riding days. So don't worry about it, these are rare situations, usually. :) 

     We also had a great service opportunity with an NA in our ward. We lifted her mattress to her second floor, with ropes and her roof. Japanese homes are pretty small, and they can't really fit a mattress up a flight of stairs, at all. So Elder Harper and I got on the roof after getting some ropes around the mattress, and we lifted it right up and through a window! We had a blast. :) 

     So that's what's been happening in my life. Japanese is coming, I'm getting better everyday. I just wish my hearing comprehension was way better! I can say tons of stuff, but I'm still working on the understanding what's said to him. I HATE having to have Harper translate for me occasionally. Oh well. Time and effort.

        LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

          Love, 

             Mike, The 会話長老 Kaiwa Choro, Dialogue Choro, literally. Kaiwa means Dialogue or converstaion. Lol! ;) 

Japan week #7

Dear Kazoku,

 This has been another trying week. I haven't had crazy fevers, but I've still been having mild fevers, diarrhea, and NO energy. So it's been rough. Still haven't been able to go out and do much regular work. But we've been doing what we can. 

    As you may have noticed in my pictures, my hair was getting a tad long. :P So we finally went and got haircuts last Monday. :D So that was nice! I can finally put my hair back up now! ;) That Monday night was awesome too. We went to go have a curry party / family home evening with a family in the ward, the Kamada's. They invited some non member friends over and we had a great time. Elder Harper and I made ALL the curry, it was nuts. I've never seen so much curry in my life before. We had a TON of fun. We taught a lesson on families for that family home evening with everyone there and that went really well. The friends they invited over are all young families, and the Spirit was definitely there, so that went very well. :) 

     Tuesday was also awesome. It was transfer call day. Elder Harper and I are staying in Muroran, big surprise ;), but one of our Tomokomai boys left us to go become a district leader up north in Asahikawa! :O We'll miss him a ton, he is such a cool nihonjin, I love him to death! After all that I spent some time resting, because I wasn't feeling well, and that evening we went and and decorated the new shimai's apartment. We got some garland, balloons, and poster material, and we spiffied up the place! Elder Harper made some posters to hang up, and it was glorious. :) The Shimai loved it. 

      Wednesday I was feeling good enough to go out and do some work so we made some NA visits, and visited the Sasahara's in the ward. They're strong members, but their health is declining rapidly. They're on the older side, and so it's sad but natural to see their health decline. Sasahara SHimai had recently burnt her hand rather severely while cooking, and she had to go to the hospital for it, and during our visit with them she asked us for a blessing. That was such a special blessing for me. I love being able to use my priesthood. Ever since becoming an Elder I've had quite a few opportunities to participate/ give blessings, and I love that I'm worthy and able to use that power to bless those around me. It's so special to me. Every time I use it, it makes me want to honor it even more so that I can always be worthy of it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I am able to use that power to help those around me.

     Thursday was the big day, the new sister's arrived! First shimai missionaries here in twenty years! O.O Crazy, right? We picked them up at the train station, got their stuff to their apartment, and wished them a good night, they arrived quite late at night. Elder Harper and I have felt impressed to do everything we can to help the shimai be as successful as possible. Obviously Muroran is ready for shimai, so we want to do all we can to help them. Our two new shimai are Kuroki Shimai Nihonjin, and Soderquist Shimai, gaijin. Soderquist Shimai just arrived from the MTC, and Kuroki shimai is training. It's quite a feat to open an area AND train at the same time, that's awesome for her. Kuroki shimai is really cool and awesome, very experienced missionary. Her bean is WAY quiet though, she seems very overwhelmed, so I hope she acclimates well. 

       Saturday was an awesome day as well. I was feeling pretty good, so we went and did service for the Muroran Library. They recently changed locations, and so they are still setting up the new place. We moved shelves, display cases, and a TON of boxes. We had a great time. :) I'm still not 100 percent, and the work killed what little energy I had. :P Came home and crashed. But it was awesome nonetheless. Was very nice to get out and do something. 

    At church yesterday we had a big like welcome party for the shimai. It was WAY big. Tons of food, great company, twas fun. The shimai here have probably gotten the greatest welcome a missionary has ever received in all history! It was quite the shindig! The ward is VERY excited to have shimai, so hopefully they do all they can to help the sisters be successful. 

 So yeah, that was my week. Still dealing with illness, but next week we're just going to do as much as I can everyday. Gotta do something! I'm down to 30 total pounds lost also, it's crazy. I only weigh like 187 now, i REALLY can't believe it. I'm afraid my pants won't fit soon! Gotta tighten those belts! Just for fun last night I wore those thorlo socks Mom sent me, and they are QUITE nice. Super comfy, I thoroughly enjoyed them. ;)

   I'm doing much better than I was before! Thanks for all your prayers! I can't wait to hear from you all!

            Love love love! 

                   Mike

So Dad, about the micro usb keyboard, I think that'd be awesome. The Japanese keyboards are very hard to use, and my accuracy and speed has taken quite a hit as I'm sure you've noticed.

Momma!! Could I also get your pizza dough recipe? ;) We wanna try pizza one p-day.

New address I think is working great! I've been getting letters from recent times, and the package took eight days to get to me, we were SO excited to get the jerky and music! We LOVE the lamb of god cd, it's epic. If you can still try and get the restoration one for us, that'd be great, thanks a ton. :) 

 Thanks for all your love!!! I miss you all. :) I think about you and pray for you all the time! Till next week!

Japan week #6

Kazoku!!

  I hope you've all had a glorious week!

I hope it's been better than mine! I'm not gonna lie... this week has been pretty rough. So remember how I said I was sick last Sunday? Yeah... I'm still sick. Turns out it was QUITE serious. :P I've had fevers averaging from 102.5-104.7 degrees ALL week. 104.7 was my all time high this week. Pretty bad, right? O.O I thought I was going to die. I've slept for almost this entire week, it's been bad. :P Wednesday we went to the hospital because my fever was lasting so long. 

   We went with the bishop, because we had NO knowledge of any medical words, so he was a lifesaver. We couldn't have done the paperwork either without him. He has really saved us this week. That first hospital trip was useless. They didn't investigate at all, and just gave me ibuprofen basically. >.> That was a useless visit. So we went back Friday, and got some real work done. Got some blood drawn, had an ultrasound done, the works. I've never had an ultrasound done on me before I don't think, so that was weird, and cold. :P They did the blood work immediately and lo and behold, bacterial!! Just like I thought it was. So I was prescribed some fever reducing meds that I drink, that are VILE tasting, ;), and some antibiotics. After the first dose I was feeling so much better. Finally on the mend I think!! 

  I've learned a lot from this though. Immediately I tried to think about what I needed to learn from this. And this week I've turned to the Lord, that's the lesson I think. I have been scared, worried, and unsure of what was going to happen. As I turned to Heavenly Father and Christ though, I received so much comfort and peace. I've been watched over this week by a loving Father, and I've felt your prayers. Thank you all so much! 

  This week wasn't all sick in bed time though! Monday, before we knew how bad I was, we went to the Onsen! And we ARE allowed to get in them, Momma. :) Weird, I'm sure to think since we can't swim, but we can! So we went to the world famous onsens in Noboribetsu about thirty minutes away. I cannot describe to you how amazing it was. There is something about that water that is just magical. Noboribetsu has 19 different onsen I think, a TON, and we went into a good lot of them. It's also like a public bath. So everyone is nude. It's split by gender, so we don't have to worry about that, but it's still just a bit different hanging out with a bunch of nude men in a hot spring. I never thought that'd be so much fun, but it was! :P It was a district activity too, so we went with our boys in Tomakomai, and we had a BLAST! This is the ONLY mission in Japan that allows the missionaries to visit the onsen. Evans Kaicho is really cool like that. He thinks the onsen is a great cultural experience, so he allows us to go. And boy are we grateful. I love you all family!!

  

   Just a few things:

      I just got your letters from the 14th and 28th of August, 14th got lost on it's way here haha! 

      The honbu just slaps a sticker with our Muroran address on it, that's how they forward the mail. ;) 

Couple requests:

    Could you send me the joseph smith concert cd you guys went to a long while ago? That'd be glorious. The one that has the really cool songs on it, and has the commentary in between songs? Thanks. :)

 And could you also send some Josh Groban music that is spiritually themed, obviously. Like The Prayer, for example. Music like that is fine, and we really want to hear the Prayer, since it's beautiful, and JG kills it!! So anything else from him too that's like that would be great also. :) thank you so much guys!! 

 That's all I have! Thanks so much for everything!! I love you!

       Love, Mike

week #5 pictures and videos (new)

A video clip about his gold tie and the MTC laundry workers

A video clip about the gifts he received at Zone Training Conference