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!

Sherwood Chourou - Week 33 in Japan

Konnichiwa, Mina-san!

This transfer is going even faster than the last one and it's freaking me out! I must be getting old. Before you know it, I'll be serving a senior couple mission! Jokes aside, it's continuing to be a great experience working with Murakami Chourou.

This week, we did a lot of knocking doors, since no one really steps outside here unless they have no other option. There were a lot of "Bukkyo desu"s (I'm Buddhist) and "kekko desu"s (I'm good), but after a lot if work, we were able to find a good handful of people we may be able to teach! Its been a while since I mentioned getting a new friend, but I think we've been finding more people here than in my previous areas. Guess I'm finally starting to understand how to be a missionary!

Just 2 days ago, our branch had a little Christmas meeting/party. Lots of people we invited showed up, and we all had lots of fun! We had a ridiculous amount of refreshments, so we were well fed. We also played a makeshift golf ball-based curling game (if that makes no sense, just google curling stones amd hope for the best). My team won by 5 points in the first round and proceeded to lose by the same in the second round (somehow outstanding, pitiful, and average at the same time). Afterward, we went on emergency splits with Santa, so I went up to bring the gospel to the polar bears while Murakami Chourou spent the rest of the party with Santa as his companion. Lucky. He sent me a picture het took with him after I got back. Santa is awful skinny in person.

Yesterday, we had our special Sacrament Meeting, and a handful of the people we invited came there too! It was pretty great. We also got a ton of sushi from one of our friends, so our lunch was taken care of. After that, we went around and dropped off goody bags at some of our friends' houses. Hope they like them!

Today, we're heading down to Sapporo again for a Christmas-themed Zone Conference. Not positive what all that entails, but there will be a little talent show that all the missionaries will participate in (probably, some of us might not, I dunno). Murakami Chourou and I have decided to do a comedy skit to serve as a break from all the musicians. If I can get a video of it, I'll be sure to send it in my next email.

Anyways, that's my week! I've got another episode of Study Thoughts, so please enjoy it! Have a good week! Matta ne!

Photos:

 - Sushi, yum!

 - Murakami Chourou, Tomoki Dai-sensei (Murakami Chourou calls him that. It basically means headmaster.), and Santa Claus

Sherwood Chourou - Week 32 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

We've had a pretty busy week. We went down to Sapporo for a mission conference with Elder Wada, the area president. He gave us a lot of great advice for helping our friends progress, so I think dendou will be going a lot better from here on out! This last Monday, we met with Iglesias, our Texan friend, and introduced him to the Book of Mormon videos. He seemed really interested, so we're hoping it will help him get around to reading the actual book!

That's about it for dendou stuff. In other news, Murakami Chourou and I went to a museum today. One part was a little exhibit for old toys, posters, appliances and stuff (I felt obligated to take a picture of the Mothra vs Godzilla poster. You're welcome.). There was also a Russian museum, but apparently it's closed on Mondays from November to March (quite upsetting). I took a pic of the sign, though. We're having ramen with one of the members tonight, so that should be fun!

Anyways, I hope everyone's doing great back home! Have a good week! Matta ne!

Photos:

 - Mothra vs Godzilla!!! Coming to theaters near you a few eons ago! 

 - Russian museum (or the lack thereof)