June 29 2014
A Full Week of Akita
The Strangest Experience
I've just been in Akita this week but it has been a pretty normal week, with the exception of yesterday; probably the strangest experience I have had on my mission thus far, we were leaving an area after a few hours of knocking on doors, and then some guy starts yelling at us, I looked at my companion and said maybe we should hurry and get out of here, then he said well it looks like he wants us to come talk to him. Then we noticed that he was actually talking in English, but he obviously didn't know more that just hello and come here. As we started walking towards him my companion said, at least we are in public so if he is crazy and tries to do something we can just run away, then he started speaking to us in Japanese and said I want to show you my house. So we followed him to his house, he had us come in, his poor wife looked extremely surprised to see 2 tall Americans walk into her house, he told us to sit down, then he said you guys cant drink beer huh? Let me get you some coffee. Then we said, we cant drink coffee sorry. Then he said oh, let me get you guys some tea, then we said sorry we cant drink that either. Then he said, can you drink water? And we said yes.
Then he went on and on about himself, saying he was part of the Japanese military, showing us his pictures and awards and his house and his dogs. And talking on and on, for almost 2 hours, then he said so you guys are missionaries right? and we said yes, then he said ok teach me about your religion, so my companion just looked at me and said what the heck do we say? And I said well I have the lesson pamphlets, so I pulled out the Restoration pamphlet and started talking about the basic stuff like we believe in God and we have a heavenly father. Then he stopped me and said put the pamphlet down! so I did, and he said wow this is amazing you guys speak fluent Japanese, and we said no not at all. And he said how do you speak Japanese so good? And I said well I got here last December and study it everyday, and he said yeah but that's not why you speak it so good, and I said no its not, its because I pray for help from God everyday to speak Japanese and its through his help that I am able to speak it.
And he said I will read the pamphlet. Then he said he wanted to take us to get dinner sometime, we told him we had to go and gave him our number, he gave us his and told us to call him, tomorrow we leave to Morioka for the Meet The New President conference and then we get back on Wednesday and on Thursday we move into our new apartment but after that we are going to give him a call back to see if we can meet with him again.
It was a pretty crazy experience, we came to the conclusion that he wasn't crazy, just really friendly with people.
A connection To Home
Also yesterday me and my companion got to teach the 2 Tongan boys, they are from Tonga but only speak English and a little Japanese. Believe it or not they actually have a lot of family in the Tongan ward in Sacramento, their mother said they go on trips there every once in a while. One of them is getting baptized soon because he is about to turn 8 so we are teaching him the lessons during church.
The World Cup
The world cup is huge in Japan. Stuff is promoting the Japanese team everywhere, and of course Pokemon is really big in this country so there is lots of stuff everywhere with Pokemon in the Japanese uniform. In stores lots of the employees wear the uniform.
. I talk to you guys next week.
-Elder Canepari
Same Story From Earl Choro's email:
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| Earl Choro and Canepari Choro |
Also, as we were putting fliers in people`s mailboxes (perfectly legal in Japan, at least), a man yelled out to us and told us to come to his house. We went in and "san (his name) gave us milk and pickled shallots and showed us all his pictures and stuff from his army experience. He was very impressed that we put our lives on hold for two years and come out here to volunteer and teach people about Christ. He told us that he wasn't planning on joining the church, but that`s what everybody says at first! He said he`ll pay for us to go to yakiniku if we want, (Yakiniku is like grilled meats and veggies with yummy dipping sauce. You usually grill them on a table top.) so we`ll definitely follow up with him after this crazy week of zone conferences, parties, and moving finishes."
I don't think this happens often. He was pretty excited to have someone so interested in talking with them!
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| View From New Apartment |
July 6 2014
Moving and New President
Last week I had the opportunity to meet with the new mission president. President and Sister Smith seem like really great people. We also finally moved into our new apartment which is right in the middle of the city: Its a lot smaller then our last apartment, of course there is only 2 of us, but its nice being right next door to the church.
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| Zone Conference with President Smith |
New Companion
We also got the transfer call last night, every companionship is changing and my new companion is named Elder Moffat. He is the new district leader but oddly enough I am senior companion, he has been in the mission longer than me though, but usually when you are senior companion for the district leader it means you are going to become district leader but we will see what happens.
I seem to get a new companion every transfer, Elder Akiyama is the only companion I have had for more than 1 transfer.
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| Singing Patriotic Songs |
We also had a 4th of July party. All of the American missionaries sang patriotic songs and talked a little bit about American history. We also put together a BBQ and did a water balloon fight. It was a lot of fun, but us missionaries had to put together and organize the entire thing by ourselves. There is no such thing as activity committees in these small Japanese branches.
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| Robertson Sumisi and Canepari Choro with Sparklers |
We haven't met with the guy we met last week yet, but we are hoping to be able to meet with him before Elder Earl leaves on Wednesday.
Thats basically it for this week, I just had one more picture to show, you guys should like it, Japanese English is pretty funny:
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