Koriyama is Zion!

T. & sugar cookies

Ok another random assortment of details because this computer is super slow.

I cooked my thanksgiving pumpkin bread in a rice cooker, kinda super proud of that.

So I met with the area doctor. He of course was up on his high horse the whole time and wouldn:t let me ask the real questions. Basically told me what I already knew and then counseled me to in a few years start watching my cholesterol closer and being healthy because that can be a reason for small blood clots which could, not necessarily going to happen, but could happen to my right ear basically messing me more up. He was concerned about me not having the results with me from my old test but I think that will get resolved by me faxing results to America. So really not anything new. Interesting talk but not a whole lot of information.

We have a person in our mission presidency that helped translate the Book of Mormon into Japanese and the Liahona each month. I think thats kinda cool although without knowing it I have cursed his translations at times.

Zone conference was this week. It was really fun. I got your letters that you sent in November. Saw a movie of all the missionaries, received a personalized Sendai mission temple recommend cover holder. Ha. Only missionaries would jump up and down for that but oh well. It is pretty awesome. Then a white elephant exchange which was super fun. I was pretty proud of what I gave and I am now the proud owner of a new statue of liberty figurine.

Saturday we went to the Relief Society activity and made sugar cookies! Oh it was amazing to be back in the cookie making business. Even if it was with a bunch of older women! And goodness were they delicious!

First snow of the year, fun.

So back awhile ago I talked about our blind investigator T. We invited her to come to the relief society activity and she came! So did Y! It was pretty sweet. I thought she might kinda feel like an outsider with her disability and it being a physical thing of making cookies, but the Aizu women are awesome and accepted her with open arms. Our only problem in the end was we couldn:t teach her a lesson because they were all having too much fun talking to her. Although before the activity the relief society president shared a message and what happened after? T. bore her testimony! Ha. That woman can feel the spirit so easy!!!! Sigh. It might be hard to teach her but if we can, she has a lot of potential! It was also good for Y. but eh, she:s old news (joke ;-) )

We had splits again this week. Again with Kano choro and then one day with Fukata choro. You don:t quite realize how much you appreciate your old companion until you get a new one. The Fukata choro day was one of the longest days of a mission in my life. He is a great missionary but he is kinda boring to work with. Oh well, learned some good things from him too.

So yesterday Shinno choro and I went to Koriyama to continue our zone wide attack on kinjins (golden investigators). We got there and even though they had the elders there last week, they were like people that have just walked through the desert and we were cups of water! Ha. If I ever feel unappreciated I will just have to go to Koriyama. So the first non-member we meet is this kinda strange man. After talking with him for a little bit it becomes quite obvious that he is mentally sick and really doesn:t know where he just walked into. Which brings me to another point. There are a ton of mentally sick people in Japan! I don:t know why but its so true. Hm. Google it, there has to be a reason. But as a mission we talk about them quite often because we aren:t to spend our time teaching them because they are under the same umbrella as children in being pure to the Lord.

Anyway the next person we meet is a 40 year old woman named S. Really she is the reason we came to Koriyama. She had been taught two years back and had a baptism date but because she keeps moving between Aizu and Koriyama it never has worked. Well it just so happens we work in both those areas! So we taught her and started asking questions and oh my is she quite ready. Again we asked if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes on the 25th. Why? Because I really feel its what I need to do ... (all the perfect reasons). Do you believe in God? ...I don:t understand him, how can I find out about him? (Drool begins coming down my face at this point) and the rest of the lesson goes along these lines. Not sure she will be able to make it to the 25th baptism date but if she is as willing as she acts she will easily be baptized. Yay!

So after this President Rassmussen is there so he wants to talk to us about Y. So before in specialized training interview with Shinno choro, he said that she needed more knowledge and we had kinda complained to him the day before about this so I:m expecting him to kinda straighten us out. We get in there and he starts whipping out all the scriptures of what the qualifications of baptism are. After that he looks at us and says, "I need to repent for what I said before. She doesn:t need the knowledge to be baptized, that can come later. She needs to obey commandments and have a desire. We have confirmed that she keeps the commandments. So, check her desire and if possible meet with her family and if those check out I will clear her to get baptized as early as the 24th." Say what?! Took me totally off guard. Doesn:t mean she will get baptized then because we still aren:t quite sure her desires but at least I now know I wasn:t incorrect in my thinking before. Maybe she just needed these last few weeks of more shelter by us in order to truly be prepared. We still aren:t sure but we are moving forward. Finally we get out of that interview and Sister Rasmussen walks up to us and says *Here is a nonmember I want you to meet*. Koriyama is Zion I tell you!!!!! Ha. So we taught her which was super hard because she is from China so she speaks Japanese with a Chinese accent but she could really be a great investigator too! After that watched the Christmas Devotional from the first presidency to top off a tiring but awesome day.

Anyway thats pretty much it. Recently I have begun to notice how much you guys did to make our Christmases extra special and this Knex story just reaffirms it. I will try to pass on a little bit of that love of the season onto the people of Japan. Anyway. All for now. Love You.

Ok here we go.

1 Note. Not that I looked at my blog or anything but possibly a little Japanese lesson is in order. So names are interesting here. For example they have the Shirai. But you can:t just call them that so you add something to the end. Normally -san which is like Mr. or Ms. But if they are a member it will be -kyodai (brother) -shimai (sister). So when you edit out names just have this in mind. I noticed you missing one.

Fun thing. From the *News of the Church* in this last Ensign Sister Rasmussen (Mission presidents wife) is quoted.

Next week the area doctor is coming to zone conference and Sister Rasmussen wants me to talk to him and then after that I will probably talk to the branch members and find a doctor and then finally get this ear test done. Figured you should now. Church pays for it so not really anything you need to worry about but I will tell you when it happens and you can follow up with the Americans.

Something I have noticed in this mission is people always have big plans but little follow through as missionaries. Kinda frustrating. Why do I share this, no idea.

Ok so all these areas are closed in what used to be the zone that Aizu belonged to, and they will be probably closed for a long time (this week they started pulling the furniture out so that they could break the leases on them I believe). President wants the Aizu Choros to visit these areas once on Sunday each month, so that means soon I will be going to Koriyama, Iwaki, and Fukushima ward. As part of the build up for this, yesterday the two senpais (Fukuta Choro and Shinno Choro) needed to get everything set up in Koriyama because thats the biggest hurdle and has the most investigators.

Anyway so what does that mean for Aizu?.....Kano choro and I had to run the area yesterday. I have decided I never want to be the senior companion! Running back and forth in church. Members running up to you asking you questions in really hard Japanese. Taking phone calls from who knows who. Running dendo(proselyting) meetings with the Branch president and auxiallary leaders! Tiring. On top of that we have the two companionship's investigators to babysit. Actually none of Shinno choro and I:s showed up so that was probably a good thing. So I was the senior companion. Fun stuff. Anyway. So we taught Kano choro:s *golden investigator* (basically just wanted to be baptized and follows everything whole heartedly from the beginning) which was easy. Then we get to Shinno choro and I:s. Since we white washed we kinda picked up the scraps of Aizu sometimes. So we visited one of them. Super annoying. We are at his door first thing he says is *Only 10 minutes right*
Well yeah if thats all you have. Ok go. Can we come in. Can:t we just do it here. Ok, so what do you think of the pamphlet we left for you, did you get a chance to read it? Eh. Basically answered *eh* to everything. *Beautiful family you have* *Eh* *What image of God do you have?* *Eh* *Can we come back at a more convenient time* *Eh.* Finally I just told him I would come back next week even though he said he was busy. Oh well. Americans can ignore what they say.

So next we bike to H and U. He had called me that morning and basically all I understand is he won:t come to church because of a cough. So I don:t even know if they want to be taught but whatever. So we go and get in there. They are their good happy selves but they I ask if they have any questions or concerns up until this point. Bad idea. U then goes on for like 30 minutes (not at one time but throughout the lesson) about Europe, Through the name of Christ destroying people, Our message isn:t so unique, blah blah blah. I was getting a little frustrated honestly. Finally I basically I picked up my Book of Mormon, hold it up to his face, and say something alone the lines of, *This is it, we may believe in the same Christ but we have the authority restored through Joseph Smith, they don:t. This book was translated by the power of God and is a true word of God. You just need to figure that out. Either this was translated by the power of God, God:s authority is on the earth today or we are liars. We are here to invite you to decide which, but you have to put it to the test.* And at this point I about pee my pants. Didn:t really do much but shut him up but that was good with me. And it was super fun. Ha. Always kinda wanted to do that. Then I finally had a chance to flip over to H and give the death punch. She committed to be baptized once she knew it was true. And then when I told her that she could be prepared by 1/27 she just right way accepted. It was like the most exhilarating experience of my life and I don:t know where it came from. Definitely wasn:t all me too. Spirit was strong with the Kano choro too. Our japanese stunk but oh well. The point got across. Yay! If she comes to church she can easily do it.

Ok now about Y. I don:t even know. Talked to President about her during our interviews and he wants the members to take over teaching her and thinks she needs more help with knowledge so finally we have a direction to go with her which we didn:t quite get from Ikeda Choro but all is well. I don:t really actually see her getting baptized while I:m here in Aizu but she could I guess. It will come.

Ok so I don:t know what packages I can open. You should ask Lyssa too. Not that it really matters because by the time I get the answer it will be almost the 13th and her package says 12 days of christmas.



Other than the written about stuff, this week was really chillaxed. We had Service Monday and Tuesday. Friday was specialized training, and Saturday was our sports activity where one of our members broke her finger. Ha. So not a whole lot of normal missionary work this last week.

Ok so I have cleared the time of 2pm here or 10pm (on the 24th) for you. As for a plan B I would say plan b would be to try to use not Google Voice although as said earlier that could be expensive. Also calling the mission home could be helpful maybe. If I get transferred I:m in trouble because my number will change and the open time could collide with my companion so that would stink. And I:m a little scared because when Shinno choro saw how much money I had in my account he laughed and said, *Normally that happens right before you get transferred* I hope its just because they reimbursed me for all the busses I need to take soon. Anyway. Sigh. Yeah. I can:t call you. That was specifically prohibited and I think that would reverse the charge too so it would charge our phone company here too. If you have questions or concerns I would say email president. Also you should be able to maybe call them to test your calling internationally. Although I also am concerned with google voice and it seems in japan land line and cell phones are super different on the system they run on because a lot of times Shinno choro will ask if it is ok to call a company from a cell phone. Not sure the reason but yeah. Hm. And the hombu number you have is a landline so....yeah. Maybe that wouldn:t help. Not sure they want to you to do that anyway. So yeah. Super helpful.

I think that is all for this week. Love you all. Thanks for all your support. Talk to you next week.

All I Want for Christmas

Elder Carter and "Y"

Broken pedal

From the top of the Aizu castle

Hello Family.

So nice full kinda frustrating week.


Ok so first things first, Y.

So Friday and Saturday we had splits with the Zone Leaders and since our District Leader is Fukata Choro and he has taught Y before he can:t interview her. Anyway. Worked nicely so that he could do the interview. Of course she has to walk and had some other things so she was like an hour late. Not a good sign. So it was during FHE so I couldn:t really focus the whole time but anyway like an hour and a half after it starts the interview finally finished. Y comes down the stairs and she is laughing away. Yes! Success! But then I see Shinno choro who doesn:t look so thrilled and pulls the ZL into the kitchen. I quickly follow. So heres the gist. He felt like she needed more time. Which to be honest I don:t have a big problem with. But the problem comes in the *Why?* The answer we get is. *Well I want her to stay active after she gets baptized and I think she needs more fellowshipping by members* Pretty frustrating to say the least. Yes I need to respect his authority but and I will. Of course she is not perfect. She could improve in a lot of ways but personally I think she is keeping a higher standard of worthiness right now then many members of the church. So basically we are just going to make him interview her again when he comes for Fukata choro:s investigator and just continue to help her grow. She has the desire, she is worthy, she just needs to do it.

Pretty slow week otherwise. Had splits, that was interesting and actually quite helpful. U and H are good. Probably will be committing H to baptism next week. She can easily do it if she comes to church and is willing to go against her.....boyfriend, and probably would have to move out.... sigh. Ok she has a ways to go but she has the desire to follow Christ and seems to be willing to do a lot for it.

Kinda spent a lot of time with Y so not a whole lot more time to email.

Sounds like all was fun with the holidays. Have yet to eat most of the package you sent but I will get to it. Just try to savor it as much as possible. Hope the holidays are good with you.

Ok homework people, anyone that reads this letter here is what I want for Christmas:
Tell me what my talents I can use when contacting people are. I have no idea what they are and it would be useful to know.
If possible by letter, conversion stories, how you gained a testimony about a specific commandment, etc (Pizza man hitting the car with tithing for example)
Stories are helpful but I:m realizing I don:t have a lot. Shinno choro is always trying to milk them out of me but I haven:t been challenged much with those.

Thats it. Simple.

Love you all. Enjoy you Christmas! Ha.

Progress in teaching

Another email! Yay. I always look forward to these. Lets see, I guess I will just give a random assortment of stuff.

Y. She is doing good. We have taught her all the commandments but fasting and the 10 commandments but those should be easy. She is keeping all the other ones. Came to church and FHE again this week. I really do think she enjoys it greatly. We pushed her baptism back a week because we were a little scared and that will be fine. She still will have her interview this Friday when I have splits with the zone leaders (our district leader can:t interview her because he has taught her before) so hopefully all goes well there. I really hope he:s easy on her, she really is like a 8 year old. We used to joke around that she was just too *pure* (they say pure in japanese, there are a lot of words that people say that are english here) but the more I meet with her the more I actually think it is true. She just kinda has a slow mind when it comes to these things but she seems to really desire to do the right thing. Recently I haven:t even been sure she has realize that she really does have a baptism date and it really will happen until yesterday when she text us saying she was worried about getting baptized. Of course our hearts sink at this point. So we call her up and start having this serious talk about how she can tell us whats wrong and we just want to help so finally she is tells us. She is worried about her make up running when she is immerssed in water. Good old Shinno choro did his best to hold back his laughter as I rolled on the ground laughing in the other room. Her biggest issue is makeup.....I can deal with this. Ha. She:s a frustrating lady but we love her so. Sometimes I have to remind myself that she is actually older than me. Anyway, moving on.

Next S san the person in the eating pictures on the other table is Cannon choro and Fukata choros investigator (I don:t really count him as Kano choros because he came in after basically everything had been taught). Anyway he got baptized yesterday and is basically a stud. He will be a good member but anyway. After he got confirmed we had sacrament meeting and then there was a pretty good earthquake (we aren:t sure if it was actually a really bad one somewhere else) and I didn:t think of it at the time but Fukata choro talks about it as Hell shaking at Shiraikyodai (brother Shirai):s baptism. I:m good with this explanation.

So you may remember right at the beginning of Aizu we had a Vietnamese investigator by the name of T. Well he came to church yesterday and it was super fun. He knows english so I could communicate a lot better with him. Anyway so after we taught him the first time we had the Homebu (mission office) send us all the vietnamese stuff they had and it was so fun to give them too him because he was so excited to get a Book of Mormon in Vietnamese and then it got even more fun when we had a lesson after and we talked to him in English and Japanese and he read the scriptures in Vietnamese. Oh dear. He is super busy so we will see where it goes but good stuff.

Also you may remember our blind appointment T. We met with her this week. A whole new experience teaching her. She is pretty vocal so its hard to teach her but also a good person.

U and H we met with a gain. Taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation. They had read the Book of the Mormon but hadn:t prayed. That was too bad and also we found out they are 11 years apart in age and just live together. Sigh. That makes it a lot more weird. He is such a big obstacle for her. Anyway we will keep meeting with them.

We had a few other lessons but once they become more I will add to them to the emails.

Random shoutout to anyone that reads this. If anyone has ideas for how to Run and English Class, what kind of words to teach, games, themes etc let me know. Like Christmas ideas would be cool.

Something that bothers me about missions is the temporal side. It just feels so unnecessary but is so annoying. Clothes, food, money, health, bikes, etc. Such annoying stuff that really doesn:t matter to these people:s salvation but really is annoying and bugs me. Anyway. Just thought I would quickly vent that.

There is actually a lot of Christmas preparations here but I think this will be the limit of it but it was nice to go to the stores today and hear English Christmas songs. Sigh. Long time no see (that makes more sense in Japanese).

Anyway. Too long. I know there was another thing I wanted to talk about but oh well. Love you all. Talk to you next week.

Japan Pictures

Elder Carter in Japan

Service Lunch

Tsunami

Sweet Potato Vendor

Service Day

All you can eat ramen

So our list is going to get shorter of investigators. We dropped a bunch of them this week because they either wanted to be dropped or won:t answer calls and missed a bunch of appointments. Sigh. Oh well. We will keep in touch but not Qs (investigators) anymore.

"Y" is our little ray of brainless sunshine. Ha. We met her like three times this week (also I think the train station that you have the web camera at is where I went to for the first time on Saturday, not where we teach) (we teach at Nishi-Wakamatsu) Anyway. Not bad. Still don:t understand her at all. We committed her to obey the laws of the land (in my mind a throw away commandment that even though you probably aren:t suppose to think of it this way, really you just have to check it off the list) and her response is. (translated of course)*well........hm......yes?* So that was concerning but she said yes so we push forward and teach word of wisdom. And when we commit her to that (even though she said it would be hard like 30 seconds ago) we get a *Yes.* without hesitation. I:m still trying to figure it out. Anyway this week my big push with her has been praying sincerely and more specifically praying for something, asking. I don:t know if Mandy or you Dad had this problem but she only expresses thanks and never asks for anything. Then yesterday (we will ignore that we urged her to again) She just pauses in the middle of her prayer (common occurrence because she either gets embarrassed or forgets how so she has to read the cue card) and then.....*Help me follow this...Word of Wisdom* Oh my goodness. It was so simple but I could of kissed her at that moment (of course I:m a missionary and there are couple of other problems with that (no worries Lyssa)). She did it! Ha. What joy fills the heart. Also during the nightly call to her to remind her to pray and stuff she expressed some concerns about some stuff and Shinno choro told her that she could pray about it and this morning when we asked how her reading went this morning she said she prayed last night like we suggested and she had made a decision (not sure if it was a decision from the spirit but hey at least she realizes the two are connected). She might just be able to do it! Ha. Still really slow, still really frustrating but possible.

"H" and "U" called yesterday and said he had to work so he couldn:t meet so that was a bummer but he called ahead and wanted to make another appointment so I:m not too worried about them right now. Thats basically it for investigators.

Yesterday we had a 8 year olds baptism which was sweet for our investigators to see. Also any baptism is cool especially in these tiny branches where everyone attends and is super excited and the little girl was so cute and shy. Pretty sweet. Another cool thing is next Sunday we have Fukata choros investigators baptism, then half way through next week probably another 8 year old baptism then the next sunday Yoshimisan is scheduled for baptism! Aizu is growing!

Ok so the new missionary here is named Kano Choro. He is half nihonjin (Japanese) but knew no japanese before coming. He wasn:t in my district but I did know of him before i left. Been kinda fun to lead him through the little parts of missionary work. Fukata choro has been pushing him real hard in not speaking a lot of English to him. Its been pretty funny. I:ll have to keep working hard to keep my language better than his. ;-) Good stuff. Its kinda fun to see his dendo fire as we call it (talk to everyone, everywhere, all the time and baptize two people a week!). I don:t want to say we are trying to break him but....ok we kinda are. Too much dendo fire singes people, especially the members and if we bother them we are in deep trouble. Also think that its bothered Fukata choro a little after explaining their current investigators Kano choro answers *Thats all?* or with the RC (recent converts) that went LA (less active) he always wants to meet her but she doesn:t want to meet us.

Lets see. Saturday I rode my first train to Iwashirio (Look it up I probably spelled it wrong, its the name of the lake by Aizu). Pretty beautiful place. Also dendoed this couple on the train and left them a book of mormon which was sweet. Ate at an all you can eat Ramen place which was super expensive. Also had some Koriyama members there which was fun.

Eikaiwa (English class) was really fun this week so I think we will be ok. We are trying to make some big changes to help the effectiveness of Eikaiwas so we will see how these effect things in the coming weeks. Shall be interesting.

Psh. There is no daylight savings here, robbed!

Hm. Not a whole lot else to say. I sent my camera card with my letter to Lyssa last week so that should be coming this week soon so hold your horses. :-) Also I attached some pictures. Probably not what you were looking for but its basically all I have taken for the last week. One is our *no name referral box* (actually the box that Lyssa sent cookies in) where members can put friends that they think would be good with the gospel and we won:t use the members name (kinda wimpy but oh well). Then a picture of my muffin cake baked for the newest little member of Aizu branch. My baking skills are coming in handy. Then the last one is all the people when we went and ate ramen.

First transfer, I'm staying put

A little proselyting

Something is funny!

Pondering in the field?

Hi Family,

Random facts: They mix the salt and pepper together in one shaker. How lazy is that///?

Another random dendo thing, so we will ask people if we can meet on a certain day again and they tell us, *well thats my day off* First time I heard this I thought *perfect* although apparently they don:t do anything but sleep on days off!
We have run into this strange religion a few times. Not sure the name but basically it is made of two things. (1)In order to be saved all you have to say is this phrase which is super hard to say so to be funny Shinno choro always asks them why I (Carter Choro) can:t be saved because I:m american and can:t pronounce it. (2) And then to die with a smile on your face. Super weird. We don:t really fight with them but after so much rejection and slammed doors its kinda nice to just discuss religion. Ha.

Restaurants here along with being super expensive are also strange in that a lot of them have you cook your own food. There is just this big grill in the middle of the table and you cook your food on it that they bring to you, very interesting.

Today we found out about transfers! Of course Shinno Choro and I are staying but Cannon Choro is leaving (can:t remember where) and Fukata Choro is training and becoming DL. Crazy. So we will be getting a new bean in our apartment! I feel like he is already going to be better than me. Lucky boy is also going to be walking into a baptism like 2 weeks after he comes (Cannon Choro isn:t so thrilled about that either). To be honest Cannon Choro is not happy at all with this transfer. He really wanted to stay in Aizu to tie some lose ends up (this baptism and his baptism from a month ago already went LA (less active) so he wan:ts to work with her) and he really wanted to be a trainer. It shall be super interesting to see which one of my kohai (greenies from the MTC) it is. Exciting! This also means I am the *language expert* for my apartment. Sigh. No way I:m ready for that. Also means I will be running Eikaiwa (English class) from now on. Stressful!

Ok onto things that actually kinda matter. This week have been kinda a weirdish one. We had service on Tuesday so that was fun. Then wednesday we were suppose to meet R san again (or endosan can:t remember which name I told you last time, same person (kinda annoying that they go both by first name and last name here) ). But he spoked (didn:t show) so that was concerning. We also had had a member lined up to help us teach so we felt bad about that too. Then on sunday we set another appointment with him and he spoked that too. We really don:t know whats wrong. When we call he sounds super excited to me. As I expressed last time he seemed so prepared. Sigh!!!!.

Ssan didn:t come to church but that may be because we couldn:t meet with him this week because his wife answered the door and was quite opposed to us talking with him (if she even knew). Y is interesting. We had like 3 lessons with her this week and we are pretty sure she has a learning disability therefore she forgets a lot so that has slowed down her teaching alot but she is still keeping commitments. Made it through page 5 of the Book of Mormon she came to FHE friday and dinner after. Came to church yesterday. She is doing quite well. We also set a baptism date with her (really weak date but still a date). So right now possibly our best investigator. Finally the couple that we taught last sunday we taught again yesterday. We taught the restoration. Last time we had left a book of mormon and strangely the man read the title page and the woman didn:t read it but read our pamphlet again. We hadn:t committed them to either so we were good with both these answers. Then she starts asking about the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and who Joseph Smith is. Ha. I had to bite my lip to help from laughing at how wonderfully she just set us up for a lesson. The man didn:t actually have a problem with the first vision strangely because he thinks a lot of people have visions. She had a little problem but still was accepting. There is a lot I could say about them. Our biggest obstacle with her (H san) is this man who we don:t know if he is her husband or dad. Ha. Well I guess I will have more info next week. So lets see. Today we are having a sports activity because our whole branch is basically over the age of 30 or younger than 15 so getting investigators fellowshippers is difficult so we are bringing them all together in a common liked thing of sports, should be fun. Hope it is well attended. Well out of time.

Love you all. Hope all is well at home. Send my love to little abs and A. Talk to you again next week.