On the road to Calvary

Hi Everyone!

So, it`s been another week in Japan!

Kolton doesn't really tell us what stuff is, but I think that this is the view from his apartment

I`m terrible at introductions, so I will just jump right into it.

I loved hearing about the Lodge.  Hopefully, I can see some more pictures of everybody soon.  I would really love that.  It must have been a much quieter time at the Lodge this time around with so many people gone.   It sounds like it was fun, but I know that you must feel tired.  Every time I go to the Lodge, afterwards I feel really tired and beat.  Scot sounds like he had a little too much fun during rafting and I laughed when you said that you bought a water gun from a kid with Sour Patch Kids.
 Anyways, I hope that you are feeling a little bit better Elizabeth... I worry about you sometimes.  It just comes with being a big brother, when your little sister is hurting you immediately want to help.

I`m glad that you talked to Quinn and passed along some words of wisdom, but we will save that for the end of my letter when I do the whole spill.

 Dad asked me a couple of questions about my area.  Yes, we have met with a lot of investigators.  I don`t think as much, though, as Elder Nelson wants us to.  I can`t give you too much information about them though....for their safety, some people here in Japan target them if they hear they have been meeting with the missionaries.  O. kyodai is my favorite investigator.  He is so close to Baptism and we only have 2 lessons until his interview.  He is a really amazing guy and he has been through a lot.  I can honestly say that his life sucks, he has been through so much, but to see him so happy, despite what is happening to him, is truly amazing.  We have met with quite a few investigators, but recently, we have started teaching the S. family.  The S. Family is really cool, there is one 1 mom, 1 dad, 1 little boy about 9, and 1 little girl about 10.  They are so cute together and they are a really young family.  I think teaching families is by far my favorite thing to do.

The ward that I`m serving in is absolutely great!  They have been so kind to me and they seem to really care for the missionaries.  For dinner appointments...well....I had one... but that story comes later in the email.

My district is also really great.  There is only 6 people in my district - 2 Japanese Elders and 4 Foreign missionaries.  I love all of them a lot and they were really encouraging to me and helped me with some Japanese.

This week. I got to teach Eikaiwa for the first time.  Eikaiwa is the free English class that the missionaries teach at the church.  Anyone interested in learning English can come.  I really liked teaching Eikaiwa.  It was really scary before I was about to do it, but speaking in English is about the only thing here that I`m really good at.  There were a lot of people who came who could speak really good English.  I got to teach the beginner course, in which there was only two people, a old lady, and a old man (not related).

We went housing, a lot, this week.  For some reason, all of our appointments fell through and we had nothing else to do, but house and street.  Do you remember what Seth said about seeing old ladies? {note: Kolton's friend, Seth Haderlie, is on a mission in Virginia and talked about seeing old ladies in their underwear when he went tracting}  I will have you know that you see some pretty freaky stuff while housing.  I mean no one is home except for old people during week days.  The young people are at school and the working class is at work.  So, only older people are at home.  I have seen some pretty scary old ladies while housing. It's okay, though, they are pretty nice (or at least I think they are nice....I don`t really speak Japanese).

It has also been raining for a couple of days here in Japan.  I have got to bust out the rain suit twice now. Hurrah!

By the way, can you let me know if you sent me the right address for Andrew`s myldsmail.net acccount.  I got a response back and it looks like it isn`t him.  Or at least, he is joking and I can`t tell that he is joking.

 I haven`t had natto yet (fermented soybeans).  My companion apparently loves them, but I refused to have them.  So, as far as what I am eating is a lot of rice and toast.  Every morning, it looks like we have toast and then we have meals with a lot of rice the rest of the day.  Don`t worry though, I`m eating ok.  I found my favorite drink in Japan, though, its called Ume.  Elder Nelson says we have to be careful because sometimes people spike the Ume with Alcohol.

I haven`t had to buy a bike yet, I had one when I came into the Area.  Though the honbu (mission home) says that they subtract a bike fee every month.  Crazy.

About sending me stuff from {the Kobe} Costco to the mission home, I don`t know how it works.  You can if you want, and it might be really cool to have some type of American food, but don`t think that you have to.  The best thing that you can do for me is to just keeping writing great emails each week and send me some pictures in the emails.  I`m not joking when I say that looking forward to Pday and reading your emails and writing to you was the only thing that got me through the week.  I mean who can`t like that?  Especially since the internet cafe that I am writing in currently smells like tobacco and has all-you-can-drink (yes, all you can drink, apparently in Japan - they don`t like to give you free refills so when you see a place with free refills, they call it all you can drink).

One funny thing in Japan is that they have vending machines EVERYWHERE!  I am not kidding when I say that they have a vending machine on every corner!  Either a vending machine or these little convenience stores called either Family Mart or Lawsons.  It is so funny!

As for what I did for my last Pday, we went and visited some shrines.  It was way fun!  It was a really cool experience.  Even if Elder Nelson has seen so many shrines to make him feel sick.  I will send some pictures of it so you can see.

He's pretty cute!

Buddist Shrine in Otsu

Well, you are probably wondering why my email is called on the Road to Calvary.  It has to do with our dinner appointment with one of the member families yesterday.  We were supposed to meet them last Sunday (not yesterday, but my first Sunday in Japan) and have dinner and teach them a lesson.  So me and Elder Nelson prepared a lesson.  We prepared a lesson about 3 subjects that they wanted to hear about, The Atonement, Baptism, and the Godhead.  So, we prepared the best that we could.  Well, yesterday, it took us forever to get to their house.  I swear I have never been up so many hills in my entire life, it took us at least 1 hour to get there.  They lived on a hill, and as my dear sister Madisen would tell you, that spells out bad news.  So, we sit down.  This family is really big for Japan -10 people.  10!  We decide to do the lesson before we eat.  Me and Elder Nelson do our best to follow our teaching plan and the lesson took about 20~25 minutes.  We asked if they had any questions at the end.  Then, the flood gates opened up.

First, they didn`t want us to teach them as themselves, but rather as an investigator.  That is totally messed up.  We need to teach members as themselves as not as investigators, or else there is no point for us to be there.

Second, they hated that we had a lesson plan.  They hated how we taught the lesson.  They basically told us how bad we are as teachers and as missionaries.

Third, they railed on us about how bad our Japanese is.  They told both me and Elder Nelson that our Japanese is really bad and that they basically expected that our Japanese would be much better than how it was.

After they told us about how bad we were for an hour straight, we didn`t have any time left for dinner.  So, they packed up our portion of the dinner and sent us on our way.  Elder Nelson was really mad at them.  He said that members had no business on teaching us how to be missionaries.  That that is not within their responsibility.  I`ve never seen him so mad before.  To be honest, I was just feeling bad about myself the entire time and thought that the reason the lesson didn`t go well was because of me.  I told Elder Nelson `I didn`t expect that we were going to Calvary`.  After that,we decided, from now on, to call that hill 'Calvary' in commemeration of where we were tortured and afflicited for 2 hours.  I don`t think that I ever want to go to another dinner appointment again...

Well...the Japanese hasn`t been coming at all.  I`m glad that you talked with Quinn {Kolton's cousin, Quinn returned from the Kobe mission in April and offered some words of encouragement about learning Japanese} and he said those things.  It's just really hard to teach someone something in a language you can`t speak.  I`m trying all that I can to get better, but  I`m supposed to work on saying prayers in Japanese, I`m supposed to teach parts of the lesson, and I`m also supposed to be writing a talk that I will be giving in sacrament in a couple of weeks.  It is just a lot to do and I don`t have enough time to study each one of them individually.  I`ll keep trying though.  When I felt overwelmed this week, I tried singing a song to help me.  The Middle ~by Jimmy Eats World, it goes like,

It just takes sometime little girl/boy
Your in the middle of the ride
Everything, Everything will be just fine
Everything, Everything will be alright, alright

You can google the rest of it, but that song has helped me get through this last week.  I love to sing Gentile songs in the shower, too.  That and while riding my bike.  I think that the Japanese people think that I`m crazy for doing that sometimes, though.

Well, I think that is about it for this week.  I miss you all so very much, the little photo album was about the best gift ever.  I love it.  I love all of you and hope that you all are safe and you all have a great week.  Love you!

With Love,

Klein-choro