I like my district. They're all pretty cool (not like my BYU FHE family, but still). My companion is Budge Choro and he's from Mapleton, Utah (appro. 20 min. away from here). Most of the rest of my district is from Utah. The Elders are Durin, Malaska, Reagan, Kotter, Jensen and Teney Choro, and the Sisters are Colter, Donnely, Teney, Broadhead, Shifus? and Harris Shimai (Choro is Elder and Shimai is Sister in Nihongo).
I have learned Japanese is very difficult. The sentence structure is much different from ours, which means you have to think what you want to say before you even start speaking. In english you can start talking and decide what you want to talk about along the way. In Nihongo, the topic is first. So to say the church is true you would say, "church true is", or Kono Kyokai wa Shinjitsu desu.
Sundays are officially my favorite. I like most days, but the Spiritual upliftment from Sunday afternoons is fantastic. Priesthood is at 10ish, but then we have study time until Sacrament meeting at 3. It's odd how far apart they are. In the evening we have a devotional, which is very enlightening and great to hear. Afterwards there are a selection of missionary movies you can watch. This time we watched a talk by Elder Bednar that talked about how missionaries can't just expect for members to give them refferals, we have to gain the members trust first. He told us a lot of things we need to do to be respected as missionaries, first and foremost of which was to not just go on a mission, but become a missionary. I loved it.
I have gotten to see a couple of people that I know. One was from my ward at BYU, one was from our Stake, from Dixon, and the third was one of my BYU FHE sisters. I would compare my feelings to Alma's when he saw the Son's of Mosiah returning from their mission to the Lamanites (Alma 17:1-4).
I have been kept busy. Even on day one, they leave you no time to relax. You are immediatly sent to meetings and classes and such. We have an hour and half for personal study (ussually gospel study) and hour for language study, an hour for this computer program that helps you learn the language, and three or so hours where Black Sensei teaches us. The rest is for eating and additional study time. The other thing we do is teach. On our second day we were required to meet an investigator and teach him in Nihongo. It was so awkward. Thank goodness for our ninja (book with phrases and words, etc.). We have taught Narita-san Friday, Saturday and Monday. Monday we were not allowed to bring notes. I don't think we were able to teach him anything over our three lessons. I think I told him the Book of Mormon brings blessings, but honestly I have no idea what I said or if he understood any of it.
Cafeteria food is not that great. Most of the time it is room temperature, not warm like it is supposed to be. I have had some fruits and veggies, but they're not in over abundance here. Had a shepards pie yesterday that was pretty good.
Spend all my time with other Japanese missionaries, but mostly with my district. The senpai (more experienced missionaries) are all pretty nice and we learn some stuff from them.
Overall, have no complaints. Mitama (the Spirit) wa Chikara (strong) ga Koko desu (here). Kono Kyokai wa shinjistu desu.
Sincerely, Lee Choro
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