Sherwood Chourou - Week 38 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

We are back to the slowish days once more. We've been dendoing and teaching plenty, but nothing outstanding has arisen as of the last week. With that in mind, I will be sending some more study thoughts as substitution for this email. Do enjoy, and have a good week everyone!

Personal Heaven

 While reading in the book of Alma, I found myself reflecting on a conversation I had with a young man from Idaho while I was in Iwamizawa. We had been talking about the afterlife when he disclosed his belief in "personalized heavens", or the belief that each person goes to an afterlife tailored to be whatever would make them happiest. His reasoning for this was that he wouldn't be happy in a place filled with clouds and harps and nothing but righteousness (as the stereotypical image of heaven goes), but rather in a place where swearing would be permissible, likely among other differences that went unmentioned. We believe in the similar concept of different degrees of "heaven" and that each person will be most comfortable in the place they end up, but there is one point that we diverge on: the idea that the happiness in each "heaven" is the same.

 Please consider the following: there are two people. The one finds joy in helping others around them and abounding in good works. The other prefers to tear others down, to beat others according to their pleasure. One day, the two of them each do the things they most enjoy. At this point, as one might guess, their enjoyment is at least nigh unto equivalent. However, afterward, they spend a whole year without another chance to do what they each like. By the end of that year, are they equally happy? Additionally, once that time is finally spent, they each get to do what they like one more time. How does their current happiness compare to the end of the break, or to the first time they did what they liked? Though they were about equally "happy" in the first situation, after the year of inactivity, the one who was good looked back satisfied in what they'd done the year before, while the one who was wicked looked back dissatisfied and hoping to be able to relive the thrill again. Furthermore, once they do get their second chances, while the wicked one was momentarily restored to their previous pleasure, the good one found his joy inflated.

 That's the interesting thing about it all. The happiness produced by goodness is of a lasting, growing variety, while the pleasure from wickedness is of limited and transient nature. While it is possible to enjoy a place where wickedness is permissible, only so much joy can be found in it, which joy must be constantly maintained rather than increased. Yes, each person will be most comfortable in whatever degree of glory they end up in. However, should they end up in a lower degree, they will not be able to be as happy as they would've been had they changed themselves to be worthy of a higher degree. Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us all become the kinds of people who are worthy to live with our Father in Heaven, together in the highest and happiest of the glories for all eternity.

A Wicked Purpose

 While reading the outline of the 3rd lesson in the PMG, I once again found myself pondering over an experience I had in Iwamizawa. My companion and I were out proselytizing when we knocked on the door of a certain individual's home. I hadn't understood the conversation at the time, but my companion informed me afterward that they had told us that not only did they not believe in God, but that their life purpose was to let others know that there is no God. As usual, I shall proceed to my thoughts on this matter.

 First off, the idea that this person didn't simply disbelieve in God, but rather claimed to know that God did not exist, for that is what they implied, if not outright stated. If I had a chance to speak with this person again, I would like to ask them something like this: "Have you checked your attic? Perhaps He's been hiding in there. Or maybe He's in your neighbor's house and they just haven't told you yet. Could He be in a nearby city? Who knows, He just may be on a vacation in Hawaii right now. Oh, perhaps He's on the bottom of the ocean helping some scientists with their work. Have you looked for Him on the moon? Or maybe he's on Pluto and will be coming to visit in a few weeks. What about the Andromeda galaxy? Have you checked there? And who knows, maybe He moved to the first place you looked just as you left." As many of you probably already caught on, here lies the issue in claiming you know that pretty much any one thing doesn't exist. More particularly, God is a uniquely difficult one to disprove, since to know whether He exists or not, one would have to be able to simultaneously observe every single point of time-space in the entire universe, a feat which would require the doer to essentially be a god, and would render the whole inquery self-defeated. On the other hand, to know whether any given thing exists or not, a person needs only one affirmative encounter to prove it true. As representatives of the church, we can say for a surety that we have witnessed evidences of God in our own lives, and we invite others to obtain their own personal witnesses to the truth of our message.

 The second issue I have is that this person said that sharing their "knowledge" of this is their life purpose. There is nothing preventing someone from making that their purpose, and my thoughts aren't directed to claiming otherwise. I would however like to discuss how I view such a self-constructed purpose. What that message is, in all essentiality, is a message of sadness, of hopelessness, and of destruction. Trying to convert others to that belief is not a positive effort. It is to remove the comfort of belief in a loving creator, to dash the hope another has that they can be saved from a dark fate, to take the dreams of fragile hearts and call them pointless and empty. Even if such a thing was true, that there was no God nor ever would be, what good would it do to tear others down for the sake of knowing such a sorrowful thing? I say unto you, it would be better to let them live on dreaming in a temporary mote of happiness than to wound them with such an awful belief. If someone really does believe that to be their purpose, I plead with them for the sake of all things good in the world that they do not attempt to follow it, for it is no purpose worth accomplishing. I make an end.

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Weeks 9 & 10

 Konnichiwa again!

We have a wonderful announcement this week: we're getting a new companion! This time it's an reassigned Elder from Japan (language study buddy!) We're picking him up tomorrow, so the Limited Edition Fun Times (tm) will soon begin!

Also! We talked with Greg this week about the commandments after sending him the pamphlet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In hindsight, we haven't been able to properly teach him up to this point, as our lessons have just been Q&A sessions in all honesty. However, he has made it known to us that he wants to have faith like we do, and inviting him to keep the commandments put us in a unique position to greatly help him grow his faith! Hopefully, this means he will really start to progress in the coming weeks!

That's all I have to share for now, I guess. Hope you all are staying healthy and have a good week! Please keep Greg in your prayers, and matta ne!

Pic

 - Squirrel!... Hi there!

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Weeks 7 & 8

 Konnichiwa!

We're back again! This week has been pretty busy. I've been training Elder Schneider for the last two weeks thereabouts, and I think I've been doing it right! Probably. Hopefully. He seems like he's doing well, so I can't be doing anything that wrong, right?

We've done a decent amount of work these two weeks, as well. Not long after my second email, we were moved out of the Isolation Phase into Phase 1 of reopening, meaning we can meet some people in person now! We got to teach a family who moved in recently in person just last week, which was a great experience for Elder Schneider! Since then, we had many other lessons over phone and text messaging, and some of the people we taught show great progress! In summary, it's been pretty good lately.

Lastly, we got our transfer calls, announcing that Elder Mousser will be transferring out... and that apparently I'm about to be the new district leader!? I'm getting whiplash from the escalation of responsibility here, especially considering we're probably getting another companion in a couple weeks! We'll be seeing how this'll go over the next few weeks.

Anyways, that's me for now. Hope you all had a good two weeks, and wish you all another good round! Matta ne!

Photos

 - I've got 3 names now.

 - Elder Schneider, some weirdo, and Elder Mousser.

 - 3 trios of weirdos in our district.

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Weeks 5 & 6

 Konnichiwa, Mina-san!

I have returned with another semi-weekly email. We've been doing some good work lately, as far as I can tell. Our teaching has been steadily growing and progressing as the days have gone by, so we're starting to really fill up our daily schedules! We actually just got 2 referrals yesterday, and one of them already made an appointment with us! I think I can safely say that exciting tines are coming my way.

In other news, I'm about to become a trainer! We're getting a brand-new missionary this Wednesday, fresh out of the online MTC! I don't know how I'm going to do it, but it seems God has finally deemed me competent enough to prepare another of His servants for the work ahead. Hope I don't screw up!

And that's about it. I've thrown a couple more cartoons onto my page, with more to come of course, but that's everything. I hope you're all still doing well, and have a good week! Matta ne!

Photo:

So Elder Mousser and I did a trust fall vido for a Facebook post. He caught me. With his knee. I still have the bruise.

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Transfer 2 (Weeks 3 & 4)

 Konnichiwa Mina-san!

So unfortunately, as I anticipated, it took 2 weeks to get enough to talk about for an email, but here I am.

As the subject says, this is my 2nd transfer in DC, as I got here 4 weeks into the previous transfer. Elder Longhurst has left to another area while Elder Mousser and I remain in Bethesda. Things got just a little quieter overall, now that there's only the two of us, but the work is going along just fine.

We actually started finding a good handful of people to talk to on Facebook, so the work is picking up a bit! I have gotten a couple opportunities to realize how rusty I am with teaching, what with self isolation and my two month break from service. Hopefully I'll be back in shape by the time we get some real lessons going!

That's pretty much all I've got to share these two weeks. As some of you may have noticed, I put up my complete cartoon I showed off last time on my Facebook page. I'll be putting up another one tomorrow (if nothing gets in the way), and I'll try to make it a weekly thing. Please check them out and share them; it just might help us reach someone in need! Besides that, I hope you all have a good week! Matta ne!

Pictures:

So there's this dessert in Japan called a bonbon (if I remember correctly), which is essentially just a balloon filled with ice cream. After some struggling and make-shift tool building, we managed to make one. These pics should give you a basic idea of what they're like.

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Week 2

 Konnichiwa!

Unfortunately, this week has gone roughly as expected: low in events or excitement in general. Some people responded to our friend requests, which means potential invedtigators, and 2 of our friends joined our sacrament meeting zoom call! Besides that, though, there's not a lot to talk about. I'm thinking I may switch to doing emails every other week to make sure I have some semblance of content each time. Anyways, I hope y'all are doing great back home! Matta ne!

Photo:

 - I'm probably going to start making little cartoons and posting them on Facebook. This is a sample of what they'll probably look like, though I intend to color them. Please share your thoughts on this idea!

 - I made some yakisoba (noodle stir fry), but ran out of lunch time, so I had to store it as leftovers. This is the result. (It was still tasty)

Reverse Exodus: Year of the Zombie Missionaries (Transfer 1 Week 1)

Konnichiwa, Mina-san!

Wow, it's been a while since I've sent one of these! Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I've been reassigned to the Washington DC North mission and have been out for a week now (sadly, we're still in isolation, so no proselytizing). It's definitely not Japan, but that's okay. It turns out that the mission president served in Sapporo, too, back in his day, so that's cool. I'm in a trio with two red-headed elders, Elder Mouzer and Elder Longhurst. It turns out that Elder Mouzer is from Gilbert as well, and even has the same birthday as me (he's two years older, but still)! I got a chance to help out with a lesson over the phone, which went fairly well, considering how rusty I probably am. Besides that, though, not a lot has been happening out here, but I hope everyone's alright back home! Have a good week! Matta ne!

**Mom is attaching some photos from Elder Sherwood's return home from Sapporo and his departure to Washington, DC.

1-2. Leaving Sapporo
3. Arriving in Arizona
4. Driving to the airport to fly to DC
5-6. Saying goodbye to Dad
7-9. Saying goodbye to Mom

Another Exodus: Get Ye Out Of The Japan (Week 46 in Japan)

Konnichiwa!

We have a special email this week, so it will be in a special format: scripture language. Here we go!

I, Joshua, having been born of goodly parents, and having been taught in the ways of righteousness, was commanded of the Lord to leave my home and family in the third year of the reign of the Trump, that I might serve His children in the land of Sapporo. For the space of ten months, I labored diligently among the Nihonites, who dwelt in that land, and received many blessings and saw many miracles. Though at times my gaze shifted to the wonders of the world around me, I did always repent and keep my single to the work of the Lord.

And it came to pass, at the end of the third month of the fourth year, the Lord came unto the prophet in Utah, saying that His servants in the lands of Japan must speedily return to their respective homes. My brethren and sistren and I were exceedingly sorrowful, so that many of them watered their pillows with their tears in the night. Nevertheless, we took strength in our faith in the Lord and prepared ourselves that we might be ready to depart in the vessels that would be sent, filling our suitcases with our coats and our books and all manner of things that we desired to bring with us, such that they were filled near unto bursting, but they did not burst, for they were made to endure, and were tight like unto a dish. Yea, having all our belongings ready to depart, we await the call of the captain to return home.

I, Joshua, will soon depart from Sapporo, the land of the people I love. Though I have not been granted that I may see what the future holds for me, I know that the Lord will have use of me wherever He may send me to go.

And now, I write a few words unto the people who will receive this record. I would that ye would remember that God governs all things, both on the earth and in the heavens, and that no earthquakes, no plagues, no wars, yea, not any unhallowed thing can frustrate the plan that He prepared from the beginning of the world. Peace be unto thee, my brethren and sistren, and remember that God is God, and that He knows the thoughts of thine hearts, and thine trials, and thine sufferings, and He will not leave thou comfortless. With these few words, I leave you, in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pic: Elder Kaga and I (I owe you lot a pic, so here you go)

Sherwood Chourou ~ Week 45 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

I'm gonna be totally frank with everyone, I've got nothing to talk about this week. We're still in isolation, still working to the best of our ability, and still trying to figure out what to do. We did manage to get a new potential investigator with high prospects (in my opinion, at least), but it sounds like we won't be able to contact him for another month, by which time I may not even be here anymore.

However, I do have another scribbling of thoughts to share, so hopefully I'll have enough of those to hold out until I can get other stuff to share. Anyways, enjoy, stay healthy, and have a good week! Matta ne!

***

Week 45 Study Thoughts

The Law of Estates

God has made it clear to us that those who have bodies have power over those who don't. However, we weren't provided with much of an explanation why that is. After all, spirits have the ability to enter into a body and even manipulate the body they have possessed, as seen in the records of the Bible. Furthermore, when certain unrighteous individuals, ones which had bodies themselves, attempted to cast devils out of the afflicted, the devils turned and attacked them, resisting the power that they supposedly should have held. So what is the explanation for all this? What is the power that we who have bodies have over those who don't? If my interpretation is correct, I believe that it is simply legal power.

Imagine this parable for a moment: a number of individuals were brought to trial for not upholding the terms which were requisite for them to own their respective houses. The verdict of this case was that all of the accused were stripped of their homes and left to live on the streets for the rest of their lives, for they had not the money to purchase new ones. Bitter and desirous of a place to call home, some of these persons began to steal into the homes of others. In their greed, they ran the houses they snuck into like their own, eating the owner's food, using their appliances, even spending their money on occasion! Whenever the owner of a house detected one of these trespassers, some would try to drive them out on their own. In natural response, the evil person would fight back, even attempt to bind the owner and force them to do their bidding. However, there were yet other wiser persons who, upon detecting the trespassers, contacted the law enforcement as soon as they were able, testifying to their legal ownership of their house and demanding the banishment of their unwelcome guests. The law enforcement came, seized the evil persons, and cast them back out into the streets.

For those who weren't able to follow this example, the people who had their homes stripped from them represent the devil and his angels, whereas the rest of the homeowners represent all of us who have bodies, with the houses acting as symbols of our respective tabernacles. As the parable showed, there is no noteworthy difference in the physical strength of those who had bodies compared to those who didn't. In fact, on account of their desperation, those who hadn't were more likely to succeed in one-on-one struggles than those who had. However, those who had bodies had one trump card up their sleeves: the legal right to their property. Regardless of the strength of either individual, should one who owns a body call on the law, or Christ Himself, to have their intruders banished from their property, the intruders will be forced to leave. Now on the other hand, though not mentioned in the parable, should someone come to cast out a trespasser, but not as one having the authority of the law behind them, the trespasser would be able to resist and fight back just as they could with the owner of the house they were occupying.

So there is my understanding of things. I hope this was as enlightening for all of you as it was for me.

Sherwood Chourou ~ Week 44 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Sorry guys, we're still in self-isolation, so not much to report this week. I'll do what I can though.

As some of you may know, the missionaries is Korea were pulled out and reassigned new missions due to the Corona virus. There are currently no plans to do anything like that with the Japanese missions, so I'm probably going to be here through the whole ride!

This week, we managed to throw another video up on Facebook, so if any of you haven't seen it yet, you can find it on my Facebook page (please share it!). We hope we'll be able to keep posting a variety of videos each week, but artist's block applies to videos too, so no promises.

We managed to find a new friend during Phone Dendou (finding via calling old contacts on our phone), so we're excited about that! Wish us luck!

That's about all I've got for this week, news wise (sorry, no pics). I did have a couple thoughts during study that I'll be sending after this, so do enjoy those. Anyways, I hope everyone's staying safe and healthy back home, and have a good one! Matta ne!

***

Week 44 Study Thoughts

A Word on Wine

 The Lord has commanded His Latter Day Saints that they should not partake of strong drink, such as wine. It has likely been argued by a number of individuals that drinking wine is permissible because Christ himself drank it. Before you excuse yourself into alcoholism, I would like to share a few points as to potential reasons for why Christ drank wine and why we don't.

 0: Christ is the Son of God, and has the powers of heaven at His disposal. He exercised this power at one time in transmuting ordinary water into the best of wine. I don't think it would be entirely unreasonable to assume that any wine He drank or shared with others could have been similarly transformed. Now, as for why I'm mentioning this, I'd like the reader to consider the following idea: what would make the best wine the best? There's of course the simple answer of "it tastes the best", which is almost definitely an accurate answer in this case, but I think one less considered aspect would be the lack of intoxicating elements within the brew. Personally, I think any drink that doesn't give me hangover is significantly better than any that would, so in order for the wine to truly be the best, it would need to lack the alcohol normally present in wine. And if Christ could create non-alcoholic wine on one occasion, why not do it on all subsequent occasions where wine was used? If this is a correct guess, then Christ never really did drink alcoholic wine, thus resolving any arguments immediately. Naturally, however, this is merely a practically-baseless guess, and to use this as the sole explanation would be utter foolishness, therefore I shall provide other more factual arguments.

 1: Jesus lived in a time long before much of the technology we enjoy today, such as the cooling technology that would prevent grape juice from fermenting into wine. While this fact is normally used to support that Christ definitely drank wine, it does have one other aspect that goes relatively unnoticed: the fact that there was no water purification technology back then either. It is commonly understood that drinking unpurified water is dangerous to one's health, often in the form of water-borne diseases. Still water is almost certainly diseased, and it's not always guaranteed that river water is safe either, therefore there are only a select few ways to obtain natural drinkable water. With this in mind, we can pretty well assume that drinking water was a very scarce commodity in Christ's time. But people need water to live, so how did they survive? By drinking wine. While the fermented fruit of the vine isn't the healthiest of things to consume in it's own right, it is far safer than the diseases that other water sources may have contained. Therefore, Christ didn't drink wine because it was okay in general, but because there wasn't a better option in his time.

 2: Anyone who's read the majority of Christ's teachings know that He compared His blood to wine on many occasions, since they are both red liquids, and in such symbolism included it in the Sacrament. Nowadays, we use water instead. Some may be tempted to argue that water isn't a proper symbol of His blood, but this argument is entirely false. While Christ did often compare His blood to wine, He also compared it and Himself to water, or "living water" as he usually put it. Considering that blood is mostly composed of water and is required for us to live, using water as a symbol for His blood in the Sacrament is anything but improper. Additionally, as the Lord told Joseph Smith, substitutes may be used for the bread and wine as long as it is partaken with an eye single to His glory. Christ used wine in His time because of the visible symbolism, and we use water now on behalf of the metaphorical and scientific symbolism.

 3: "But Christ said it's okay then, so therefore it is okay now. But Christ is the same yesterday and forever, so the Sacrament can't be changed." If you hold to this sort of argument, I've got some news for you. We believe that Christ is the Jehovah of the Old Testament (and for ye who don't, for the purposes of this argument, please remember that God and Christ have the same objectives and Christ doesn't do anything God doesn't want Him to do) and that He was the one who gave the ancient Israelites the Law of Moses. We also believe that He fulfilled the Law and both commanded His disciples to cease certain practices of the law and "raise the bar" on some other standards therein. For example, He commanded in the Law of Moses that we shouldn't murder, and during His ministry added that we shouldn't get angry either. This was because the ancient Israelites weren't as prepared to follow the higher law as they were, while the disciples of Christ were more prepared. Therefore, if we in this time have proved that we can follow His commandments as far as His previous disciples did, could He not ask us to hold a Sacrament more in accordance to the higher law than was followed in His time? Of course He can, and He did, so we'd best follow that higher law as truly as we can.

 I hope that settles any concerns anyone has concerning Christ and the Word of Wisdom.

Sherwood Chourou ~ Week 43 in Japan

Konnichiwa, Mina-san!

I have a number of announcements for this week. First off, I'm not dead. The Japan Sapporo Mission and a number of others have their missionaries under self-isolation with respect to the Corona virus. This is not the same as quarantine, since we do not have the virus ourselves (we don't think, at least), and we are allowed to leave our apartments to go to the church for online dendou (missionary work) and to the store for shopping (as long as we wear special filter masks). Second, I'm no longer in Wakkanai. In fact, I'm back down in southern Hokkaido in a city named Muroran, which happens to be in the same district as Hakodate, my area from before Wakkanai! Third, to go with number 2, I am now companions with Elder Kaga, another Japanese companion. Something tells me that God's trying to make sure I become fluent in these two years, and it's working.

Due to our previously-established circumstances, there is not much in the way for us to do besides make videos and post things on social media to invite others to learn about the gospel, so I probably won't have much to say in these emails for an indeterminate amount of time. However, let the record show that we are doing all we can out here to be a light on a hill to those wandering in the darkness of these difficult times. I hope that everyone back home will join us in our efforts, so please, pray for the missionaries to be able to help God's children and that everyone will be able to heal and be healthy! You all stay healthy, too, and have a good week! Matta ne!

Photos:

 - I don't got a lot in the way of pictures rn, but I had a crepe!

Sherwood Chourou - week 42 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

IT'S HAPPENING AGAAAAIN!!! For those who haven't been keeping track of the math, it's transfer week, and I'm about to officially become a middle-aged missionary! It's still weirding me out. I've been away from home almost a year now, and only one more until I'm back. *shudders*

Anyways (let's see how many times I can start my paragraphs with that before I think of a better transition word), we've had one more mild week in Japan... Except people are dying of a DEADLY VIRUS! I'm betting everyone back home has better access to the news than I do, so you're probably aware of the Corona Virus epidemic going on in Asia. Fortunately for us, Japan has been slower about catching the virus than other contries, but two weeks behind isn't quite as cozy of a buffer as we could hope for. Worry not, dear friends, for as far as we know, none of the missionaries in our mission have been infected, and should we contract it, we have special masks for quarantine. In my utmost simplicity, we're fine (at least for now).

As for dendou, we got to teach an FFEP (Free Family English Program) lesson to a half-Japanese, half-Romanian family (a rare combination, as far as I'm aware). This was my first time teaching this kind of lesson, consisting of 30 minutes of English learning tailored to the students' level, followed by 30 minutes of gospel learning, but I think we pulled it off pretty well. I'm making pictures of the alphabet letters to help the next missionaries (or me, if I stick around against all odds), ones which I'd be lying about if I claimed they weren't heavily based on the Letter Factory video by LeapFrog. So yeah, that's probably going somewhere good.

That's all I can think of in particular, but I do have a couple pictures to send from assorted miscellany. Do enjoy, have a good week, and stay healthy everyone! Matta ne!

Pics:

 - Hehe...there's no "L" in Japanese...heheheh.

 - We went up to the northern point again today. The member taking the picture didn't wait for me to get up there, but I'm not complaining.

Sherwood Chourou - Week 41 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Wow, this transfer is blowing by! To start things off, this week was Zone Conference week. Last Wednesday, we took a 6 hour bus ride to Iwamizawa, where I had the privilege of serving in my bean area (a missionary's first area) for about a day's time! We actually managed to find an old english-class member who stopped coming because of scheduling conflicts, and were able to introduce her to our Free Family English Program (or FFEP for short), through which the Iwamizawa Elders will be able to teach her family English alongside some gospel lessons! I also got to hand out a Book of Mormon that same day, which I haven't gotten to do in a while!

After our stay in Iwamizawa, we went down a bit further to Sapporo for the actual conference. While I don't remember most of what we talked about, I did get a decent amount of inspiration for how to serve better up here. We also discussed some safety points, primarily our emergency backpacks and the Corona virus that everyone's been talking about lately. Missionaries actually have very strict rules for interaction now because of the virus, such that we can't shake hands and are asked to just touch elbows if that sort of greeting seems requisite. But hey, I'm healthy and will likely continue to be, so all is well. Hope everyone back home is healthy too!

Anyways, after Zone Conference, we took our bus back to Wakkanai. Unfortunately, timing meant we were unable to hold English class, but we should be able this week. After that, not much of note happened, except Nakagawa Chourou and I accidentally missed our stop on a local bus, meaning we had to take a half-hour trip around the western shore of Wakkanai before getting back to our stop, and still had to pay the extra 5 dollars for it! That really killed my mood, but now I've begun making a point of paying better attention to the bus stops, so there's that.

That's all for this week! I remembered to take a couple photos this week, including one of the Iwamizawa church and an amusing typo at a bus rest stop. Hope you all are doing well, and have a good week! Matta ne!

Pics:

 - A display for the Japanese Doll Festival

 - Hehe, smorking :)

 - Iwamizawa church building (ah, nostalgia)

Sherwood Chourou - Week 40 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

It's been another simple week, this round. We had many appointments, some of which fell through, others of which resulted in droppings, and a handful more which went pretty well, all things considered. Bit by bit, we're finding out the ripe wheat from among the tender stalks of the Wakkanai people. I find that this takes up a majority of the work effort in Japan, another heavy portion being simply searching for people to teach. While it's difficult to see the results, I'm glad I have the opportunity to do the Lord's work in such a wonderful place! 

That's all I really have to say as for dendou today. In other news, there was a mini snow festival this weekend! Lots of people made these things called ice candles, which is just a sort of pot made of ice in which a candle is placed. They are very pretty, and I have many pictures to share, so do enjoy!

Welp, that's my week. Hope everyone's doing great back home, and have a good week! Matta ne!

Photos:

 - Various ice candle displays,some of which have bonus snowmen (technically ice-men, but it's okay)

 - Someone used LEDs instead of candles. Cheater.

 - Only the mightiest of the frozen chosen may sit upon the penguin's glorious throne

 - An igloo. The inside had an ambience similar to that of a cultist demon summoning ritual, or a Dungeons and Dragons session. I may have chanted.

 - A pokemon manhole and balloons

 - We ate pizza and takoyaki (fried dough balls with octopus)

Sherwood Chourou - Week 39 in Japan

Konnichiwa Mina-san!

It's already been half a transfer with Elder Nakagawa, what the huh? Time really does start speeding up after a couple transfers on a mission, I can safely say this much is true. Anyways, we've had a bit of success this week! We got two new interested friends, one of which came to our English class and the other which may start doing our one-on-one English and gospel lessons, all of which is just generally awesome! It's difficult to say how far any of this will go as of now, but our hopes and spirits are high. Besides that, we've been freezing our tails off in a blizzard this weekend and will likely do it again this week. Nevertheless, we will press on with faith in our hearts and the rest of us bundled up in three layers of insulation!

That's about all I've got for this week. I have some pics this time to redeem the lack from the week previous. Enjoy, and have a good week!

Pics:

 - We ate food today. Surprising, I know.

 - Me in a blizzard

Sherwood Chourou - Week 37 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Another transfer, another round of Wakkanai...except this time with a new companion! Just last week, Elder Nakagawa traveled from the Morimori Zone (on the northernmost part of the island south of Hokkaido) with everything he needed for winter except boots! Apparently Morimori winters aren't particularly winter-y, so he wasn't quite expecting to walk through snow any time soon. Luckily, his bags arrived in a few days, and his boots along with them.

Thus far, dendou has been a lot better since he got here. He's a walking fireball! I don't think Elder Murakami and I were bad missionaries per se, but we probably didn't have enough of the energy Elder Nakagawa has been utilizing so well. We actually managed to get a new investigator yesterday, so I have high hopes for this transfer!

Besides that, it's been another pretty simple week. I'm guessing that for the most part, these emails will start having less temporal interesting things and more spiritually awesome stuff, for which I've got no complaints. Hope you all are still doing great, and have a good week! Matta ne!

Pics

 - We were loved by a cat

 - Heh heheh, grammar

 - Us at "MakuDonarudo", home of *deep breath* "Ronarudo MakuDonarudo" (well, at the sign, anyways)

Sherwood Chourou - Week 36 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

It's the last few days of the transfer and I've got nothing to talk about. Yeah. Things have been pretty chill once again. We're doing plenty of dendou and are plenty happy through it all, but not a lot of note is going on. With that in mind, I'll just provide an encouraging thought.

In the Parable of the Talents from the New Testament (which at least most of you are probably familiar with), three servants were entrusted with varying amounts of money, or talents as the particular currency was called, which they were expected to invest and barter with for profit. The two who did as expected and put their funds to use were able to double their original values, whereas the third hid his trust rather than making use of it. One common interpretation of this parable is that when we use our talents, we gain more through our efforts. I can testify to the truth of this interpretation, as it has been actively happening while I've been out here. For example, as I've used my talent for drawing each day, not only has that talent itself improved, but I'm also learning how to utilize my art in missionary work, or in other words, I've begun to develop the talent of teaching. I promise that as we put our own several abilities to use, and more specifically good use, we can gain more talents and become able to do more good in the life we've been given.

Anyways, that's that. Hope you've all had a good week! Matta ne!

Sherwood Chourou - Week 35 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Sorry, this email will be a little shorter than usual. This week was New Years (and I do mean week, it's longer here), and everyone left Wakkanai for the holiday, so dendou wasn't very fruitful. We did get to meet with one of our returning members a lot, though, and he's coming to church a lot more, so yay! Also, Fun was baptized last Saturday, so more yay!

Today was district pday. We played UNO and charades. Twas fun.

Anyways, that's all I got. Hope you all had a fun New Years! Matta ne!

Pictures:

 - It's winter out here, for those who didn't know

Sherwood Chourou - Week 34 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Okay, so we've got an announcement this week: Fun is getting baptized! For those of you who were following my mail from Iwamizawa, I had been teaching a Vietnamese man named Fun for pretty much my entire stay there. We'd gotten him to an interview, but he wasn't as ready as we'd thought, and so he remained dry when I was transfered to Hakodate. But now, thanks to the hard work of my successors, he is now scheduled to enter the waters of baptism this saturday (friday for everyone in America)! Moral of the story is, it may take a long time, but no effort for good is wasted in the Lord's work!

In other news, we just yesterday found a third young man to teach. We have been finding young men oddly frequently this last month, almost like the Spirit is trying to help us get Wakkanai some new priesthood quorums. If so, no complaints here.

Today, one of the member couples took us up to the northernmost point in Japan. Normally, you can see Russia from there, but it was a bit too cloudy for that, unfortunately. On the way back, we spotted a hawk sitting imposingly on a lamppost, which warranted a quick photo. These and more are included with this email.

I think that's the bulk of the interests of the week. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year! Matta ne!

P.S. I got the Christmas banner, thank you everyone!

Photos:

 - Our beautiful Christmas tree and our many presents

 - A big bird, but not the Big Bird

 - I got a little purple friend

 - Us at the northernmost point in Japan

 - Biggest. Icicle. Ever. And in a fun shape, too (Pew pew!)

 - A photo of Murakami Chourou's present from his ward (at least, that's what he thought I was taking a picture of)

Sherwood Chourou - Week 33 Study Thoughts (Episode 2)

Historical Jesus Christ

I have heard time to time of persons claiming to believe in Jesus Christ as a "historical figure", or as a person who existed in history, but do not believe in Him as the Son of God or as the Savior of the world. I would like to take a moment to vent my frustrations with this claim.

The whole of my issue is this: there is no such thing as a "historical" Jesus Christ. To convey this, I have split the idea into 3 main concepts, the first of which is the belief that the Bible is fiction, but was based on a real person named Jesus Christ who taught about religion some two thousand years ago. For those who wish to argue this point, let me ask you, what historical record do you have that refers to Christ besides the Holy Scriptures or an artifact referencing said scriptures? There is none. To believe in Jesus Christ as a person separate from the Bible is simply impossible, for never was he recorded as anything else. Therefore, if the Bible is fiction, then there is no basis on which to believe that a man named Jesus Christ even existed back then.

Now, what if one claims to believe in the Jesus Christ by the Bible, but disbelieves that the miracles surrounding him actually occured. This is the most tolerable stance of those I'll be discussing, but I also think it's also the most dead of them. If you take out all the miracles, you're left with a man walking around teaching utter blasphemy with no authority or power backing him at all. In other words, you've decided to believe that there was a crazy person in the past whom lots of people believed was the literal Son of God, and this based on naught but his own claims. For those who would acclaim to this belief, here's my question to you: why would multitudes of people, including a number of which who practically watched his every move, testify before the world and God Himself that Jesus was the Christ if they had no evidence for such? They wouldn't, just as no one else would, unless every member of those multitudes were as crazy as this belief assumes him to be.

Lastly, I will speak a moment on the claim of believing in Jesus Christ of the Bible, worker of miracles, yet denying that he is the Son of God. Oh ye fools. If you have read even an hundredth of what was written of him, you'd know plenty well that there is no power by which he could've done what he did except that of our Heavenly Father, who would never bestow his power on one who claimed to be his Only Begotten unless it were true. Furthermore, any claim that his power came from something other than God is hardly worth mentioning, as for something to be able to bestow such power would require that said thing be a god, thus negating the entire objective of the thought.

Thank you for bearing with my little rant. I hope that whoever reads this can use it to strengthen their confidence in the divinity of Christ. See you next time!