Everything isn't Bigger in Texas???

Yesterday we went out to house (tract). We have been praying to find someone who could be the stake president for the stake we are working so hard to build here on Shikoku. Not that there is any relationship with money and being a Stake President, but we saw a really nice house way up on a mountain and decided that our Stake President probably lived there. We made it our adventure to get there and along the way we would find his counselors. If we saw a house that looked as if there could be a counselor living in it with a great family that could really strengthen the stake we planned on housing (tracting) it. Well, on our adventure up this to this house way, way, wayyyy up in the mountain we had to cut through some rice fields. 

 

 

 

    

 Rice fields have narrow rows between them that are really peaceful and fun to walk through. They also usually have a great smell of fresh nature. But this time as we were riding through I smelt something that brought back many memories, there is a word for that in Japanese なつかしい (nat-sue-caw-shee). It was a blast of something that I hadn`t smelt in a long time!!! COW MANURE!! But my first thought was where in the world do they get their cow manure?  There are no cows in Japan. And if there was cows in Japan why didn`t I know about it? These thoughts were only in my mind for a little while as my focus went back to finding our counselors for the stake president.  But I was distracted once again, as my eye caught the large glassy eye of a beast on four legs scarfing down some dried corn. And at first I was scared and then hurt as I realized not everything is bigger in Texas. I was in the middle of Imabari, Japan and there standing before me with great posture and elegance was one of the biggest cows I had ever seen in my life. A COWWW!!!!!

 

I slammed on my brakes, almost causing my companion to go diving into the recently tilled rice field next to us. I told him our adventures needed a quick break because I needed to take a picture with these beasts that I had been proud to call friends, back in my cowboy days. As I entered into the barn, I noticed that this cow was not alone, he had his family and his mother in law, as well as the families of all his brothers and sisters. It was a herd of cows, probably the only one in Japan and I had found them!!! In triumph I decided to continue to my missionary service by introducing the Book of Mormon and bearing my testimony to the mama cow that I was told had given birth just 30 minutes prior to my arrival. I congratulated her and said that her family could live forever if they were willing to accept baptism. She showed quite a lot of interest. But her husband tried to stab me with his horns, when I asked what his view was. (Really it was kind of scary, the owner/farmer said be careful with that one it has horns, right as it threw its head at me, but I am all good). I believe we can baptize the whole cow family and that will be a great addition to the primary we so earnestly want to create. HAHA it truly was a fun little adventure. And now I know where my milk comes from that is titled Shikoku. Also it was impossible to get up that mountain, so we decided to use our time more effectively instead to just focus on his counselors for now.