My Basudae (Birthday) was so
awesome!! The gifts were a great treat and I can honestly say, I don't think I
have ever been wished happy birthday so many times in my life. I was even sang
to by the Nihongin (the missionaries from Japan). They are so small and they
love to wave and tell me how tall I am, it's awesome. In all honesty I didn't
think I would really seem that tall, but some of the Nihongin are about 4 feet
tall at age 20. Of the 6 elders in our district 4 of us are over 6 feet tall.
I'm the tallest and the skinniest. We have an Air Force Academy defensive lineman
in our zone.. Literally this elder was built for nothing but football. He is huge, but also the nicest elder you
will ever meet I am already great friends with him and refer to him as “frosty
choro”. I wish I could show you a picture but he is so big I don't know if I
would be able to squeeze myself into the picture.
I don't know if I told you my raw
shrimp story, anyway… it started one day in the MTC Cafeteria. As usual, all the Nihongo missionaries sit
together and we like to give ourselves little competitions to spice up the life
at the MTC. They were serving raw shrimp on this particular day and several
buddies of mine challenged me to see how much raw shrimp we could eat together.
Quick disclaimer, I like shrimp but I am not so sure that I have ever had raw
shrimp before, but because I am a man, I wasn't going to let anyone know that,
and because I am going to Japan, I have to get over being nervous to try
anything at least a little bimyo (sketchy). So, we start filling bowls of raw
shrimp. We probably had between 150
and 180 pieces of raw shrimp between the 5 of us and we just start going
to town. I take my first bite, the entire shrimp, and was surprised that it
wasn't actually bad at all. I, however, had already eaten two plates of food
and wasn't too hungry so I was only able to get to about 15 pieces. One of the elders eating with us, was a
swimmer and as you know, swimmers can put down food like nothing else. He and
some rugby player had 40 pieces of shrimp each, it was unbelievable. This
challenge did take a toll on their bodies and I think they're still on the
toilet after one week. I love being a missionary!!
Yes, it is true, everyday of your
mission, you are tired. I am already feeling that, I am always ready to take a
nice little nap but if I don't focus on it and enjoy my day and work as hard as
I can to get as much learning in as possible, or make the occasional joke with
my companion or if I am feeling really tired I will go bear my testimony to
someone and feel the power of the Spirit and continue to push through my day.
Thanks again for everything you do and have done to help make this easy for me.
I am going to share a quick little story of one of my sensei's first experience
of Japan.
This was about 5 years ago, Anderson
Choro had one day left until he got to Japan and his companion was being sent
home. This meant that he would have to travel all the way from the MTC to
Hiroshima alone. He had never been on an airplane before and he didn't have a
group of 30 missionaries to go with him, it was just him and the Lord. He
successfully makes it from Salt Lake City to Osaka where he needed to catch a
bus to Tokyo before he travels back South on the bullet train. His ticket says
to get onto cart 4 but the bus only has carts 7-11. He's already begun his
great journey. He finds someone who can't speak any English and they tell him to
just get on cart 8. As soon as he gets on, the doors close behind him. This
little experience scares him and he just keeps praying. His next stop is the
busiest train station in the world, and of course for his sake it's RUSH HOUR.
It's a shoulder to shoulder sea of Nihongin rushing around trying to get where
they need to be. He looks down at his next ticket and realizes he got off at
the wrong stop. He was supposed to get off at the stop before. He scrambles to
find someone to help him because he hears the bullet train for Hiroshima will
be departing in 20 minutes. After his long struggles of trying to figure out
where to go he is directed to the ticket office where the ticket agent doesn’t
speak any English, except for "switchy, switchy". My
sensei tells the lady, yes and she quickly switches out his ticket which he
takes and bolts for the bullet train praying aloud asking for help, because if
he doesn't make the train he will be stuck in Tokyo till the next day. He
arrives at a fork in the road and a sign says pointing in both directions
"Bullet train". Anderson Choro throws both of his hands in the air
and yells “why?!!” He sprints back to
the ticket lady and asks which way and she points and he takes off. When he
finally arrives at the bullet train he checks his ticket, "CART 2",
looks up at the train carts and sees "CART 50". This train seems to
be a mile long, and he knows he only has a few minutes, and worries that he
will get in trouble if he gets on any cart other than the cart number specified
on his card. He puts it into full gear and begins to run. Of course the Lord is
always blessing his missionaries and as soon as he steps onto the train the
doors close behind him. The train ride is 5 hours long and he is fatigued but
too shaken to be able to sleep. When he finally arrives in Hiroshima at 2am, he
exits the train is greeted by no one. His mission president isn't there... due
to exhaustion he humbly plops himself on a bench and falls asleep. 30 minutes
or so later he is greeted by a nihongin, who to his relief is wearing a
recognizable badge. He follows the missionary into a car and is taken back to
the mission home.
Well you don't have to worry about
me. I am in a group of 32 missionaries we have very good instructions of what
we must do and the mission president will be meeting us at the airport.
I have never been able to be a part
of so many blessings. The constant flow of the spirit that I am able to feel here,
is great and I can't wait for Thursday next week when I get to start
proselyting in Japan. I will walk with confidence and even though I can't
really speak very good Japanese, I will go door to door with a smile on my face
and say as much I can possibly utter out and then bear my testimony. I am not
always sure what the Niohongin say to me because they speak so fast but I know
through the power of the Spirit I will be able to understand and make myself
the missionary the Lord wants me to be.
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