Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Hola!

 

How's it going over there? The New Year's craziness is finally starting to slow down over here.  Honestly, I don't like New Year's in Japan. Everyone is even busier and we had a lot of appointments cancel on us.  It was way frustrating, but we found some new investigators and made the best of our situation. 

 

Yesterday, we had lunch at the greatest place on the planet.  It's called Stamina, it's an all you can eat BBQ and Sushi and desert and salad buffet for $11!  We went there with the sisters in our area and the Member named Chiba that always hangs out with us.  He is leaving for the Sapporo Japan mission in two weeks and we don't know what we are going to do without him.  He is the best member in the world. 

 

I wrote quite a few letters to people, but still need the grandparents address! Onegaishimasu! I love speaking Japanese to you and you having no idea what I said :)  Es muy bueno.  Like, my plan is that when I get home, when you ask me to do the dishes or something I can just say whatever I want in Japanese, talk back or something, but then go do them of course, like I always do :)

There is still so much Japanese that I do not know.  At this point, it's just like random vocab and advanced grammar.  I understand significantly more than I can say, but If I don't know a word, it's hard to figure out what it is.  It's not like Spanish where it has a Latin root.  BTW, I am the only missionary in the area right now that can speak any Spanish so I am teaching like 4-5 lessons per week in Spanish by myself, haha.  I can't say much, but I mix in a lot of English and Japanese to make a Frankenstein of a language which they understand, haha.  But, that being said, we set up another baptismal date with Ninoska on the 20th and she expressed some old concerns that she has that kept her from baptism and we were able to resolve those with her and she is feeling a lot better.  She has much more "Fe" than she had last month :)

 

I feel like there isn't a whole lot to write about on my end either, haha.  Elder Clark is great! We get along great.  He knows like 1300 kanji, which is about the same as the average 9th grader, which is really good for a foreigner.  He has been teaching me and I learned like 130 kanji last week.  It's not so hard really.  It's just like memorizing lots of little pictures :)

 

I don't know how long I will stay in Yachiyo.  I get a feeling that this will be my last transfer here.  I feel like I've learned so much form this place and I need to spread that knowledge forth to other areas that don't do so hot in the dendo.  It's been a great humbling experience and has really defined me as a missionary and really helped me understand what my dendo style is.  I rely a lot on the Preach My Gospel and kind of newish dendo styles to find people and teach the gospel.  The missionaries older than me are very old fashioned and follow an older dendo style that is very Christian focused and to be honest I don't believe it to be effective.  If it was the most effective way then the mission would be seeing significantly more investigators.  Japanese people as a whole are very scared of Christianity because they are generally Buddhist.  They don't want to learn or even hear about a Christian message.  My focus is on getting them into the church building so that they can see what it is like, judge for themselves, and then punch them with the message of the restoration.  Lower their guard and then teach them. 

 

Idk, to each his own and the Lord will work through us depending on our abilities and such.  I testify that He does. 

 

I love you all so much! Have a great week and talk to you later!!

 

Love,

 

Elder Crandall