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