Sherwood Chourou - Week 1

Konnichiwa mina-san!

I've just finished my first week of the MTC and I'm loving it more every day. My companion is Sabala Chourou and we've been getting along amazingly so far! We have a hard time keeping an eye on each other, though. Everyone in our district is loads of fun, and our senpaitachi have been very helpful to us (and just as goofy).

Our senseitachi have been absolutely wonderful in helping us learn Japanese and making it fun. I feel like I was able to learn about 10 times as much Japanese in the first 4 days than I learned from 3 years of French classes!

We got snowed on for the first few days, so I got to amuse myself by making tiny snowmen, or Chiisana Yuki Tomodachi (Little Snow Friend) as I've been calling them.

I actually got a chance to give a cool insight after last night's devotional! It was given by Brother Funk of the Seventy,  and he talked about how we won't be able to go back to the way we were before our missions. I shared how while the phrase "can't ever go back" usually sounds like a bad thing,  in this case it is the most wonderful thing for us missionaries, as by going on a mission, the Lord will shape us into better versions of ourselves without any chance of reverting back to our less impressive selves. After that, the District President told us about how he had missed the devotional because of an emergency appointment in his workplace, but even though he missed the devotional, he was still able to learn from it via all of our insights. When he finished that, I felt a prompting to talk about how the Spirit can not only help us discern goiid from evil, but also help us choose the more important of two goods, and by following that guidance, a way will be provided for us to receive the blessings of both choices. That was the first time I recognized a spiritual prompting so clearly, so I was very excited after that.

Sorry I can't think of much more to say and for sending this so late. I had a sore throat all night and have been exhausted all day, so I had to nap a lot. I'm already out of time to respond to any of your emails, but please email me anyways!

Elder Sherwood

1: My little snow friend

2: My companion and I

The Beginning of the End

Konnichiwa minasan! 

This week was way fun! It was transfer week and my last companion, beloved Tobler 姉妹, has come to join me in Yamatokoriyama. It's my last transfer here as a missionary. Time goes so fast! Only 5 and a half more weeks and then I die as to full time missionary service. But it's okay. We're gonna do our best until the very last! 

Anyway, so we stopped teaching Iwamoto san this week, which was sad, but she just said she didn't care to find out whether or not our message is true, so there's not much we can do at that point. She's sweet though, and I'm sure Heavenly Father has a plan for her. It's just not her time.

But at the same time we got an awesome appointment set up for this week with a student from Eikaiwa and we're really excited about it. Just goes to show that when one door closes, another door opens.

Also this week we had an awesome Culture Party with the ward because all of us missionaries were from different countries. It was super fun and we made different foods together. Also the nihonjins became a little more American that night by inventing brownie batter covered pretzels. It was truly a masterpiece. It was way fun too though because the members got to meet a bunch of our investigators who haven't been able to come to church, and some less active members even came as well! It was a really awesome night and I feel like it was way great for helping the ward feel more like a family.

We've also had a lot of awesome appointments with members this week, and we've been teaching a lot about family history and introducing more of the apps' features. Most of the members didn't know about the audio recording option and they all got way excited when we showed it to them. I'm just a real big fan of family history. I will testify all day every day that it's absolutely critical for dendo, and especially in Japan. We even got a referral out of it! We're super excited. This transfer is really looking up and I'm excited to see what happens. Tobler 姉妹 has all sorts of really awesome ideas to help out the ward and find new people to teach. It's going to be a miracle of a last transfer.

愛しています!💕
Sherwood 姉妹

Gomen I forgot to take pictures but I've got a fun set of me and Tobler 姉妹 and that's all that really matters lol

From the Ninth Circle of Hell to Blessed Celestial Light

Konnichiwa minasan! 

Well, many things have happened this week and I'm tired so it's probs not gonna be super detailed but hey I'll do my best.

Iwamoto san: We talked a lot about charity cos we asked her to read Moroni 7. It was an enlightening conversation, and in the process we discovered a really important flaw in her way of thinking. Basically, she's like King Lamoni where she's like "everything which we do is right". Everyone has charity because we hope they do. Everyone is close to God. We will all be saved without any effort just because God loves us. So we're planning on sitting down and really going through the plan of Salvation with her and helping her understand who God really is and what he expects of us.

On Wednesday we had a koukan with the Abeno sisters and it ended up being way busier than expected. Christensen Shimai and I were on foot and ended up walking really fast all over the place because we had to drop off an activity form to Uekubo Kyoudai and give brownies to Ejima Shimai before running back to visit Los Angela san with the elders cos she'd gotten hurt. We brought her curry (my idea; the elders' cooking) and it ended up being exactly what she needed, and she was so happy we had stopped by. It was a really precious few minutes with her. A true miracle. We went back on Friday and taught her daughters English as Taniguchi 長老 spoke with her in Portuguese and invited her to church. I think she's really staring to progress, and her daughters are super cute. (Side note: 11/10 doctors would recommend witnessing a 6'5" German man singing once there was a snowman with tiny children. It can cure cancer) 

Thursday we went ministering with Murae Shimai to Seto Shimai's house. It was way fun and Seto Shimai is super cute. We got to talk a lot about family history and it was really wonderful. I love family history. It's the best. And it's always fun telling people I'm related to Orson Pratt haha. She's doing really awesome though and her testimony is way strong. I've adopted her as my third grandmother. 

Saturday though was quite the wild ride. After eikaiwa, we went around Kashihara visiting less actives, and we ended up visiting this one lady for like an hour and 45 minutes because she talks twice as much as me (which as you all know is A LOT) and halfway through the conversation this Buddhist priest guy came to her house and proceeded to do this crazy exorcism on the house as Hayashi Shimai and I sat there both confused and concerned. It was wild. And then immediately after we managed to leave we had to race back home because (drum roll please) there was a baptism happening! 🎉🎉🎉 It was so wonderful. Like honestly Yatagawa Shimai's testimony was amazing. Like the story would be retold in zone conference all year kind of amazing. Both she and the elders were over the moon, literally leaping for joy. It was really pure. 

But yeah I'm kinda out of time, and that's the general Kanji of the week! 

愛していますよ！💕
Sherwood 姉妹

1) Cooper Chourou painted the district. It's beautiful. 
2-4) the fancy doll sets for Girl's Day in japan

General Authorities Are Objectively Funnier than Normal People

Konnichiwa minasan! 

Well this week sure has been crazy busy what with Wada 長老 being in town and all. I feel like I was out of my area more than in it! But that's okay because a lot was learned and I'm excited about it. I really loved how he focused on expanding our vision of teaching. As a missionary, my favorite part of the whole thing is being able to teach, so I loved all the training on being able to teach more frequently and better. I think it's going to help us really make every moment with every person a teaching moment, especially with members. Just this week we went out to visit some former investigators with one of the members, and over lunch we discussed the temple and were able to start her really considering going and receiving her endowment. We're super excited about it. She's really awesome and already really loves the temple, so it's cool to be able to see her make steps further along the Covenant Path.

As for investigators, we're still doing our best. Iwamoto san is really open to learn, but progression is a whole other ball game. We've been struggling to teach for understanding, but I'm not sure how we could possibly be teaching more simply. Cooper 長老 suggested we go over plan of Salvation again, so we're going to try that, but as it is I'm just very confused as to what the problem is. A puzzle of the ages indeed, but so it is when you work with people I guess. Any and all prayers would be much appreciated. 🙏

We also had a lot of fun this week teaching the Kitamoto family. We do 30/30 with them, but because the kids are small, the English usually becomes some sort of game or song. This week I introduced them to Pterodactyl, Ooga Booga, and Bunny Bunny, and let me tell you, there is nothing funnier than watching small Japanese children playing American camp games. We followed it up with a family history lesson and gave each of the kids a "my family" booklet and they worked on it with their moms. It was super fun and the kids really liked it. Hopefully through family history the mom will be more interested in the gospel.

We're also planning a really awesome culture party for right before we transfer so the ward can have more ways to meet and friendship our investigators, and also so the ward can be more unified and friends with each other. We're each gonna teach how to make a food from our country and I'm really excited about it. Everyone will learn to make real brownies lol.

But yeah that's the general kanji of the week! Tune in next time to hear Sherwood Shimai sing something probably.

愛しています！💕
Sherwood 姉妹

1.) got to see the MTC squad! 

2.) fun times at stake conference todayyy

Too Much Chocolate Has Been Eaten

Konnichiwa minasan! 

It's been a good week! We've been doing a lot of different things and had a surprising amount of appointments. Unfortunately, we've had to drop quite a few investigators after those appointments, but that's just a way to find new people to teach, I guess.

We've been working with a newly picked up investigator, Iwamoto-san. She's really sweet but she's got this problem where Satan keeps telling her that she doesn't need to be baptized, so that's annoying. We're planning on teaching her more about the understanding and recognizing the spirit, so hopefully that will help her to be able to realize that it's Satan who's telling her that baptism is unnecessary. I really feel like once she understands that baptism is personally critical for her, she'll progress fairly quickly. 

DCS this week went pretty well. Ejima 兄弟, our ward mission leader, brought us Costco pizza so that was super nice. He also went on a small rant about how we need to be using more psychological and emotional persuasive tools in our dendo. I can kinda see where he's coming from, and he's right that we need to be refining our teaching skills, but I'm more concerned about teaching by the Spirit. Thinking about it though has helped me in the PMG challenge for teaching in the Savior's way. I've really been considering how the Savior does teach and how he does not. It's really cool actually, considering how Christ was always straightforward when he taught doctrine. He used tatoes and object lessons, but he always gave the people he taught a clear choice.

This week we also had a koukan with the Hirakata shimai, and I spent the day with McCuen 姉妹. We didn't have any appointments scheduled, so we went and visited some less actives and potential investigators. The crazy thing though is there was this one guy, Oku 兄弟, who'd been baptized ages ago and remembered the church, but because of poor teaching on the part of the missionaries who baptized him, he didn't know anything about Jesus Christ. So we asked him if he wanted to learn about Jesus Christ and he straight up just said "yeah sure please teach me" and so we were able to set up an appointment with him and we even invited him to church. He said he might like to 久しぶり come back and visit. It was crazy. I've never seen a less active in Japan that open to hearing the gospel again. It was also valentine's day so we got to use that in contacting teenagers and kids. It was super fun. 

Other than that, we had a great eikaiwa on Saturday. Taniguchi 長老 and I were working with the more advanced learners' side of the room and we ended up teaching about the law of the fast and how strengthening the family strengthens society during the English part of the lesson. It was super great, and one of the students lined me later saying that she had shared what we taught with her daughter. It just goes to show that teaching how the core of the gospel solves the problems our students face sparks interest in them. I'm super excited about it. 

Also on Friday we have game night with this less active member, Q-chan, and we basically just play random board games with him and other members/investigators who join, followed up with a spiritual message at the end. This week was super great because the elders did a message on family history and they asked me to share an experience from my family history. So I got to share about my great grandfather and how his autobiography has helped me on my mission, and it was super great because Q-chan seemed really invested in the lesson, and the elders are going to try and start working with him to get him to the temple. 

But that's about the general main stuff of the week! Tune in next time to hear all of my probably many thoughts about the Wada 長老 taikai.

愛しています！💕

Sherwood 姉妹

1.) We hiked (and by biked I mean pushed my bike) up a hill and the view was great

2.) I'm 90% sure this tree has cancer

3.) I solved this rubiks cube all by myself

4.) game night! 

Ninja Van

Konnichiwa minasan! 

We went to Nabari this weekend, and it was very enlightening experience. So much so that I don't really remember what happened before Friday and I'm too lazy to go look at my journal. From what I remember, we mostly tried to visit less actives or people with potential interest and also Kitamura Shimai gave us a really yummy lemonade thingy that's like a goop made of lemon and sugar and water that you put in your glass and when you combine it with water it becomes lemonade. It's my treasure. 

But anyway when we got to the Nabari apartment at the end of the day on Saturday after spending the day with Imoto Shimai, I had a series of interesting discoveries/insights. (btw the level of clutter in the apartment is appalling and have decided that I am very grateful to be a shimai and would be glad never to have to step foot in an elder apartment again after my work here is done) Sitting on a swivel chair in the middle of the kitchen area is a little meishi book filled with meishis from leaving elders to incoming elders. It went from the elders of ancient times past (ie 2009) all the way up to, wait for it, Hatchett 長老! Yep! That's right my district leader last transfer used to serve in Nabari! It was really interesting reading the little messages, especially how they changed tone over the years. The beginning is really member fire, and then it changes to more of a "get ready to grind it out here" vibe until it settles with Hatchett 長老's last words, "This place needs joy."  I think that he's really spot on. I think it's true in Nabari and Yamatokoriyama and honestly the rest of the world too. I'm not really sure why people struggle to feel joy, considering that the gospel is the greatest source of joy, but it is a problem and one that I've been trying to figure out how to solve for ages now. I'm not 100% sure what the answer is, but I think I'm on the right track now.

Mom suggested last week that I read "Saints" and "Daughters in My Kingdom" to help with President Nelson's challenge to participate more fully in Relief Society, and little did she know that those books were just what I needed to figure out what to do to help the people here feel joy. As I was reading these histories of the women of the Church especially, I came to a profound realization of the sheer power that lies in the hands of the Relief Society. It seems to me that a major part of the change in the members that President Eyring was talking about is going to be headed by the Relief Society. I've been thinking about President Kimball's prophecy, “Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world … will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.” I really feel that this is a critical part of the changing of the hearts of the members. I'm not sure what will come of it yet, but I feel very impressed to begin working more closely with the Relief Society and helping them remember the heritage of their sisterhood, what Emma Smith foresaw. “We are going to do something extraordinary...We expect extraordinary occasions and pressing calls.” I feel that this heritage of charity, the pure love of Christ, when understood, will help lead the sisters here in Japan to reclaim the joy of the gospel.

So in accordance with this impression, we've come up with a bunch of ideas for how to minister more effectively to the members in Nabari through technology. We can't be there in person, but we can be there for them through LINE. We talked to the branch president and set up a group chat with him and the elders so we can hopefully have a LINE video call meeting with him this week about how we can help Nabari. We also asked him if we can join the Nabari Branch LINE group and post encouraging message/spiritual thoughts the weeks we aren't there so the members don't feel as far away from us. He agreed so we're going to start doing that, and also start seeing if we can't start working with the Relief Society and Elders Quorum over LINE. I really feel like if we as members understand our heritage and identity as Latter-Day Saints, we'll be able to access greater love and joy in the gospel. Through the blessings of the temple and eternal families, all the hardship in our lives is made not only worth it, but sweet in and of itself. As C. S. Lewis said, "[Mortals] say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. … The Blessed will say, ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven." And I feel that the understanding of this is going to come at least in part from hearing the stories of saints who have gone through much the same things as they are, and the vision that they worked so hard to leave us. We'll see where it leads, I guess.

As for Yamatokoriyama, we're doing good! We had dinner with Bishop yesterday and got a lot of awesome direction for where we need to go with the area, specifically with recent converts and family history. I am very excited. Other than that though I don't really remember what happened this week because it was all so eclipsed by the weekend. Slowly but surely the work of the Lord is rolling forward. It's a good time.

愛しています！💕

Sherwood 姉妹

1-3) We went to this castle sorta thing in the city of the origin of the ninja. I think it's just a fancy house made by an old rich guy though. I did not really understand the conversation

4.) ninja van 🗾

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Apostles

Konnichiwa minasan! 

It sure has been a crazy week what with MLC and zone taikai all in one go. I feel like I've been outside my area more than in it! But it's okay because a great many things were learned and a lot of good things happened.

We had a lovely lunch appointment with Hattori Shimai, and it was actually really awesome because I discovered that she is basically me if I were old and Japanese. She's got a lot of awesome insights about the gospel and cares a lot about whether or not people are truly converted to the Lord, or if they're being cold gravy disciples. We had an awesome conversation about what true faith and conversion really is and how to help other people along the covenant path. We're really feeling like the key to the members here is friendshipping them.

Also! We picked up an old investigator this week! Her name is Iwamoto san and she's really cute. We're not super sure how it's going to go or if she'll be ready this time, but I have faith in the guidance of the Spirit so whatever happens it'll be fine.

On Wednesday we taught Los Angela san and her family, and it went very well. Taniguchi 長老, having the superpower of Portuguese, was able to teach the mom and the rest of us were able to help out the kids with English and teach them how to pray. I really enjoy teaching children. They're so pure. So willing to listen. I wish more people were like that. Our problem is that the kids speak Japanese as their first language and the mom speaks Portuguese as her first language, so it's hard to teach all of them together. We're trying to figure out how to set it up to be most efficient, but ideas are slow-coming currently.

Also we had a great meeting with Hasegawa Kyoudai, the family history specialist of the ward. We talked about how to get people to start, and it turns out that most people just have no idea what they're doing and are too afraid to ask, so we've got a plan to start meeting with everyone and teaching them about FamilySearch. Also we learned about how to get the family registers from the government! Because Hayashi shimai is Japanese, she needs to go get hers, and we found out that you can send for it real easy by mail or the internet. Hashimoto Kyoudai gave us a whole guide on how to do it and I sent it to the tech elders because it's actually brilliant and really helpful when trying to help members get going on their family history.

We also had a meeting with the bishop and the elders and got the whole lowdown on the ward vision. We learned a lot about the general state of the ward and where bishop wants us to help move them to. We can tell he's been thinking about this a lot, so we're going to move forward there and try to focus on bringing the spark of the joy of the gospel into the members' lives.

愛しています!💕
Sherwood 姉妹

1.) the garland of Apostles in the abeno apartment and origin of today's title. I want one. 

2.) proof that Japan is stuck in the 90's