Life is Short and Chingis Han




Chapel

Dang! What a week?  This week just steamed by, which was surprising, and sad. I am slowly realizing the urgency of the work. These weeks seem to go by too quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was writing all of you. And now here I am again, writing to the family about what I did this past week. All in all, I am stoked for General Conference this week. I know it will be a spiritual feast, especially because I will hear it in English.   I love going to Sacrament Meeting and listening to all the teachers in classes but I don`t really understand what is being said. I’m happy knowing that I will be able to listen to the apostles in 2 weeks. We don`t get to listen to General Conference till a week after y’all do, because they spend a week translating it into Japanese. The ward will watch it all together the following Sunday,  as missionaries we will be in a different room, watching it in English. Please don`t spoil anything for me. Have patience and then we can talk about it once I hear it firsthand.

 

To answer your questions -each missionary has his own key to the church building. Most members have a key to the church building when you come to think of it. We come here every morning for personal study and leave the doors open, allowing people to walk in as they please. In our area we are the only missionaries, and each area has their own building. However in our zone leaders area, there are 8 missionaries, so they take turns throughout the day on their two computers. Some areas don’t have computers in their church so they go to an internet cafe and email from there. Most missionaries spend about 2 hours on their email. The older missionaries don’t feel as attached to email anymore, and they spend about 45 minutes tops. Then they just read articles on LDS.org. After emailing, we run and grab groceries and then clean the apartment. We have about 6 hours to do whatever, until we hop back into the trenches and go to work. Sometimes if there is something cool in the area, we go to that and take pictures however in Kakogawa there is nothing cool. It is kind of like Cedar Park, it’s a nice city but has nothing cool. So we just hang out in the apartment, write letters, sleep, study, listen to talks, or we will go out and shop and get other things done.

 

Cool stories of the week:




MTC Companion

I got my hair cut by one of our investigators. He is way awesome, and is from Chile. He speaks great Spanish but not very much Japanese or English. So teaching him is fun and challenging. He did a really good job! The next day, we went on a 2 hour train ride to Okayama to listen to the Mission President train the trainers and trainees. The train ride was soo cool, I got to see  a side of Japan, that I thought only existed in movies, like mountains with trees that grow off the side, that have huge vines hanging down. It was so beautiful, and I am sorry but the train was so packed that I wasn`t able to get any pictures. I got to see my MTC companion, and that was such an awesome treat. We compared pictures of us when we first got to the MTC and to pictures of us now.  In that short amount of time the mission has had an effect and we definitely look older. Later that day went to an all you can eat BBQ, with an investigator of ours who is Mongolian. HE is AWESOME!! He taught us about his culture, and that Genghis Khan is actually called Chingis Han. He is also way goofy, and couldn`t stop playing with the fire. I don`t think I have ever laughed so hard in my life. Other than that the work is going forward and I am having a blast and am super anxious for the cold weather to settle in.

 



This week during Sacrament meeting, when it was time the first speaker there was a bit of scuffling around, which piqued my curiosity. Chairs were moved, a microphone was brought out front, and the room went completely silent. Then an old man around the age of 86, wheels his wife (who is in a wheel chair) to the front of the room. He proceeds to pull a chair around and sits by her to hold the microphone while his wife gives her talk. She starts off with a huge smile, says good morning, asks how everyone is doing, and gives her talk with an enthusiastically, chipper attitude. It was then that I remembered that the husband is in my advanced English class and that he often talks about all that he had been through in his life. He said that he was reading the newspaper and that the average male dies at age 87 in Japan. He told me that his birthday was coming up, and that death is around the corner. Immediately the entire class, disagreed, telling him that he is very healthy and that he will live until he is 100. Of course he just sat there and smiled but said nothing. He and his wife, are always very happy and loving to everyone. He told me to take advantage of my life. He told me that it goes by sooo fast. He told me about when he was younger that he grew up with very little money on a farm. He said that his life experience made him who he is today. He taught himself English. He has done soo much!! We need to remember that life is short. That we need to cherish it. So many people here in Japan are old and super healthy. They take a lot of pride in that. However, they don`t understand, and some choose not to understand, that there is something after this life. This week especially I have realized the importance of my job as a missionary who can teach these people that there is something more. You can be happy and live with your family, and your hard work isn’t for nothing.  It all has meaning beyond this life.  I love being a missionary!

Care Package from home

 

- Elder Wilcox

 

  

"Do I know this place?"

 
 
 

Token photo of food