Transfers and Skyler Must Be Hungry

8/25

 

I am being transferred and our area is being whitewashed (which is when both missionaries are taken out of an area and a new set of missionaries are put in their place.  Usually, when there is a transfer one of the missionaries will remain in the area.)  I am moving to Kakogawa, which is near Kobe. We are on the water, and I am way excited. I am sad that I have to leave this area, because I was just starting to figure out where everything was in the apartment and how to find my way around town, and most importantly the best places to stop for ice cream during the day. However, I get to go figure that all out in Kakogawa now. My trainer is moving and becoming a trainer and Zone Leader. And my new trainer is becoming district leader. We will be getting three new missionaries in our district. A couple missionaries from the group before are now training. Crazy, right?!? They just finished their training and now they have to train. Best part about that is you know that it was inspired from Heavenly Father and that Heavenly Father is going to make sure that these missionaries receive the training that they need.

This week`s miracles:

We had planned to have 13 lessons and had 20 prospects who we were hoping to teach those lessons to. However, they just kept falling through, they either said they were too busy or they didn`t have any interest. It was tough being rejected over and over again. And by Saturday we only had 5 lessons. It was seriously a tough week! However, on Sunday we had the opportunity to meet with an investigator three times, and teach him a lesson each time. He had so many questions, and after we taught him to pray he wanted to pray right then. We hope to see him continue to receive the lessons and hopefully receive baptism. That`s the wonderful thing about trials, is that Heavenly Father will always bless us if we push through the hard parts and not get discouraged.

 The other miracle was Bishop had us over for a BBQ, it was awesome. I ate soooo much food. And the BBQ in Japan is a little different than Texas. They have plates of meat and a pit in the middle, and everyone just keeps throwing on meat and vegetables and you dip it in your bowl of sauce and eat. And of course because we are in Japan, we are using chopsticks. 

 

As you will see, I have uploaded a few pictures. First is of a man burning his dead vegetables and plants. In Japan their garbage disposal is a little different and in the end it is just easier to burn everything. It becomes a problem if you are drying your clothes outside, because they don`t really have clothes dryers in Japan either. So this entire week, all of my clothes have smelt like smoke, so I always get this feeling that I am camping. The next picture is yes, McDonalds! I was sitting at the kitchen table the other night studying and I looked out and saw, way out in the distance, two golden arches, and couldn`t believe my eyes. Of course the next day we went to McDonalds and that`s why there is the picture of all those wrappers. The picture of the night sky I was just playing with my camera and took that picture around 9:45pm. It is in black and white, isn`t it cool? Finally my biggest victory, was finding Krispy Kreme donuts. My companion and I walked by the booth, stopped and quickly turned back around, to buy some. However $20 later we were walking away with a dozen donuts. Kind of expensive but it was worth it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8/18

This week has been a week of adventure. For preparation day, our district went to a tabehodai for one of the sisters birthdays. Tabehodai is probably a missionaries’, favorite word. It means, "all you can eat buffet"! I literally ate all I could eat. Including an entire cake!!! I have learned that if you can remember that you don`t really have a lot of time to make meals, and then remember that you really only eat breakfast and lunch every day, you eat everything you can when you are at a tabehodai. I seriously at so much food that it hurt to exist. My entire body ached. However afterwards I got back on my bike and rode really fast to get home within 45 minutes so we could get back to the apato and look over lessons again before we went out proselyting. 

 

Gross story of the week: We have been teaching this older man, the one I told you about that is missing 1/4 of his teeth and only has half of his tongue.  This week when we visited him he offered to give us drinks, and of course it’s brutally hot outside, so I accepted and was pleasantly surprised when he came walking back out his house with what looked like two strawberry smoothies. To our great disappointment it was a 21 vegetable juice, and it was thick and heavy. We did our best to give him a big smile and show our gratitude. Bringing the glass to my lips I knew I was going to have to chug it to get it all down. My companion kept gagging as we both drank our entire glasses of the nastiest juice I had ever tasted.

 

Yesterday we decided to go visit one of our new investigators. Within 5 minutes of our visit which was in the doorway like most of our visits here in Japan. He was handing us two large cans of beer and as much as we tried to decline, he was determined to have us take them. Then he disappeared back into his house because he wanted to go shopping and buy us dinner. And of course you can`t really tell a 90 year old man, no; especially if he is blind in one eye. My companion and I saw this opportunity as a time to get rid of the beer. We considered chucking it off the side of the railing but he lived on the 10th floor and thought that would cause too much commotion. My companion decided he would hide the cans. So he sprints to a place that he could hide them and sprints back. Upon my realization that this man is 90 years old, blind in one eye and will not be taking the stairs, but rather the elevator which is on the other side of the apartment complex near the hidden beer, my companion spun around, ran back to the beers picked them up and went to the complete other end and set them in a place the man wouldn`t see them. This entire time I was dying laughing because... well I am not really sure why, but at the time it was really funny the amount of effort we were putting in to get rid of these two cans of beer. But of course it was worth it because we always want to avoid the appearance of evil at all costs. 

 

Also, we got to see the diamond-ji. It takes place every year, and basically it is a bunch of piles of wood up on the side of a mountain that create symbols/ kanji. And they light these many stacks of wood on fire and it`s extremely beautiful. It is amazing what the Japanese can do! The patterns are almost perfect and space between each pile of wood is very similar, you can tell that they put a lot of work into this. 

 

I really am having a great time and next week will be my first transfer. I think my trainer will be leaving to a new area and I will be staying in Katsura. My trainer has been in this area for I think 4 transfers now, and the members really love him. His birthday was this last week and he got so many little gifts from everyone in the ward and even some investigators. I hope everything is going well and always remember, "Wherefore, I am in your midst, and I am the good Sheperd, and the stone of Israel. He that buildeth upon this rock shall never fall." - Jesus Christ. I know this is true, if you continue to build what you believe upon the rock of our Savior, he will never let you fall. The best way to do this is to read your Book of Mormon every day and to always have a prayer in your heart. President Harold B. Lee said, "The most important thing you can do is talk to God." You are always in my prayers.

 

Love,

Elder Wilcox

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love squid!

Life Lessons on a Bike

Logan - the toilet seats have a built in heater that you can turn on when you are going to the bathroom, it is kind of like the navigator`s front seat heaters. I don`t really use them yet, because it is so hot here. And my companion and I are on separate bikes. I wish we had a big bike though.

Speaking of bikes, there are really no sidewalks in Japan, mostly just a lot of mounds of asphalt.  We were in a rush the other day and while going down a hill and my bike took to one of these mounds with great speed. I am pretty sure me and my companion, who also was hit the mound at top speed got about 2 to 3 feet of air. It was awesome and luckily our bikes are fine.  Also, all of this time on a bike has taught me a very valuable lesson. The other day we were on our way home.  It had been a long day and I was exhausted. On the way home we had many hills and going up those hills was absolutely excruciating.  We were a little late and wanted to be on time so we were giving it everything we had, flying up and down these hills. And I, like every missionary, tried to tie my "hill trail" back to the gospel. Heavenly Father is going to give us big trials and small trials, big hills and small hills, and from those hills we can become stronger. If we are trying to be 100% obedient and are giving it everything we have, we will be able to see more blessings and faster improvements, for example our legs becoming stronger, or our faith strengthening. However if we go slowly, not giving it our all, we may not be panting as hard but we’re probably not growing as much.   On the way down the hill, we may feel the intensity lighten, in actuality it`s another blessing from our Heavenly Father giving us a boost, as we pedal as fast as we can to get a head start on the approaching hill. Today, I think we hit about 50 mph coming down, the wind was literally screaming in my ear. Always see hills as blessings and look for the blessings that come with the hills. 

Zone conference was crazy!! I saw several kids from my MTC group and they all look sooo much older. Recently I found that if I don`t shave for three days which I did once, because I kept forgetting, I can grow a pretty nice shadow of a beard. Seriously, this work matures a person quickly and you can tell from the attitudes and personalities of everyone I was with at the MTC. At zone conference we talked a lot about how missionaries in the past were able to figure things out in 5 to 7 transfers. The mission president looked at us and said I am giving you 2 transfers, now go to work. And we are definitely working. Every day we push for excellence and we follow the mission training plan and it is bringing so much success. My companion and I found 5 new investigators last week because we really started to focus and role-play a lot more. I love this work.

After Zone conference I got the opportunity to go on splits with our District Leader who is native Japanese and barely knows English. Talk about the best experience of my life. I could only speak in Japanese and it was awesome to see how much I knew and how much harder I need to work. I decided that it is a good idea to continue to wake up at 5 am so that I can learn as quickly as possible. While on this transfer we taught a lesson and I got to do the baptismal invite, our investigator is a little unsure but that`s okay because I know that he will eventually come through.

After I got back my companion informed me that the bishop had called making sure that I remembered I had a talk on Sunday. It was Saturday and I had no idea. Supposedly someone had come up to me the week before, said a few things to me in Japanese which I thought meant "Elder Wilcox, you are so cool" so of course, I nodded my head  It turns out what they really meant was, "Elder Wilcox, will you give a talk next week? "  I wrote my 10 minute talk in English and spent two hours translating and got up early the next morning to practice. And I must say that it was a success. I talked about my role as a missionary and my goals. And then I proceeded to say that every member is a missionary and that I needed their help. It was awesome!!

Goof ups of the week:

1. Trying to be cool like my companion: my companion can ride his bike with no hands and I thought I could too. Bad idea, I went careening into the rail guard on the side of the road and got my pants covered in white paint that I was luckily able to get out by instantly washing them when we got home.

2. Which sauce to choose?: I love to make curry because it is quick and easy and isn`t too bad on the digestive system. However, when I made it for myself the other day, my companion who usually picks the curry wasn`t hungry so it was up to me to find the curry bag. Well, I grabbed the bag that looked like the curry bag (remember everything is in Nihongo) heated it up and poured it on my rice. The smell gave it away instantly.  I had just substituted tomato sauce as my curry sauce. I was devastated! Nevertheless I didn`t want to waste food so I made the most of it and scarfed it down because we had a lesson to teach.

3. If you don`t have time or money for a haircut... do it yourself! : This one isn`t really a goof up because it actually turned out okay. But I gave myself a haircut. Cool right!!! We take a folding chair, fit ourselves into the hole at the back of the chair, put a guard on the buzzers and go to town on our heads. It`s quick, efficient and free. I will send pictures of this experience as well. 

 

I love you all, the work is moving forward here and I always keep you in my prayers.

愛しています

ウィルコックス長老

Orange Arches and Thoughts on Service

Howdy y`all,

I don`t know where to begin, so much has happened this past week. I guess I will start with our activities for last preparation day. We went to Fushimi Inari, which I must say was absolutely beautiful, it`s a huge trail that has that is covered in orange arches. We walked on it for about an hour and half.  It was pouring rain.  By the time we got to the top of the mountain the rain stopped but we couldn`t actually see anything because the fog was so dense.

 

Every time we sit down to prepare for a lesson, it requires a lot of reading of Preach My Gospel and scriptures. Recently I have been focused on preparing to teach, how the gospel blesses families. While preparing I came across a quote by President Harold B. Lee, "The most important of the Lord`s work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home." This is so true. We will be with our families for all of eternity and so who is else better to serve than those you serve than those you love the most. Richard G. Scott states it best, "Pure love is an incomparable, potent power for good." By serving those around you, you will create this pure love. I have found this to be true on my mission as I go out and willingly WANT to serve, I feel so much more love for the Japanese people. I know that you can feel that way too, if you just step up and be the first to rise above the natural man and serve even when times are the toughest. It`s when times are tough that we grow the most. My companion continues to tell me that trials are merely mercy in disguise. 

 

I love this gospel and the opportunity that I have, to be able to share it with everyone I come into contact with. Well actually, I don`t really get to share very much of it because of the language barrier I am scrambling to climb over, but when I do I am bearing my testimony and radiating as much faith as I can possibly muster. I want everyone to be baptized, and I know that they see through our volunteer service that we know this is true.

 

One of this week`s miracles:

 

On Tuesday, we went back to a house to see a man who wanted to hear more about the Gospel but he didn`t have time. When we went back he told us he didn`t have interest. As soon as he hung up from the intercom, two young men walked out of the door. It was the man`s son and a friend. The friend could speak a little English because he spent four years in Canada for college. He was interested in Christianity and we invited him to church this past Sunday, he accepted and came. After church, he said I have a lot of questions, and you wouldn`t believe what his questions were…Who is God? Why am I here on Earth? Why are there so many religions? Where do we go after this life? We are going to commit him to baptism next lesson.

 

This week’s culture experiences: First, we talked to a lady who literally had no teeth. She was all gums, and it was so funny. I didn`t laugh but my smile got really big when I noticed that her entire mouth was pink. Until recently, Japanese people didn`t really see the point in dental care so, many of the older folks that we talk to don`t have many teeth, and if they do they are really yellow. We actually teach a man who is missing all the teeth only on the bottom right side of his mouth and has half a tongue, he showed us many times to make sure that we knew. We also taught a gentleman that we refer to as old potter because he has retired from his job and just makes pottery all day. I have a picture of that too, some of his pieces go for about $300 and they are really good. My favorite part is that he calls his wife mama san, san is like a title for Mrs. or Mr.. His wife is awesome she only wears kimonos. 

 

Please read your scriptures everyday! The scriptures are the standard of distinguishing truth and error. They make the day so much better. Always remember every member is a missionary.

 

ごんばちましょ、

ウィルコックス長老