No email today just pictures!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
week 57
You only get this small email today since I'll be seeing you on Christmas! Well,
Christmas Eve I guess. That sounds fine though! Christmas morning, 8:00am.
As far as who I want there... I can't play favorites or nothing but if you could fit my car in the living room id love to talk to her for a minute ;).
BTW. Got a new companion but I'm still in Nakatsu. He's 19, been out 4 months, and just loves life and smiling and laughing. He's a comical cross between Napoleon dynamite and Ricky Bobby. He's also 195cm tall so he's huge!
See you on Christmas!
As far as who I want there... I can't play favorites or nothing but if you could fit my car in the living room id love to talk to her for a minute ;).
BTW. Got a new companion but I'm still in Nakatsu. He's 19, been out 4 months, and just loves life and smiling and laughing. He's a comical cross between Napoleon dynamite and Ricky Bobby. He's also 195cm tall so he's huge!
See you on Christmas!
week 56
This is
from my journal
December 13th, 2015
December 13th, 2015
These
things are simple. But they are divine. We have been in the right place at the
right time too many times for it to be coincidence. It doesn't come through
strong impressions. It isn't some giant miracle. But these things are real. And
we've been working at being better. And it is through those small things that we
are seeing these miracles. I feel good when I do good things. And I feel good.
It's hard. But it's taking worries and stress and discouragement away. Even if
nothing miraculous happened, I know that I'm doing what I'm supposed to and
experiencing what God has to give me
Alright! Well, I don:t know where to start. But, I:ve got to start
somewhere.
I:m still in Nakatsu, Japan. A VERY small place with the majority of the
land being used for rice fields. As far as the eye can see. It;s great! It:s too
bad I didn:t get here a little bit earlier to see it all before it was
unharvested. However, I got to see some awesome rice fields in Yatsushiro as
well so i:m not complaining.Our church is... well, not an actual church building
but of course, still a church. The downstairs is the chapel. Next to that is a
little massage shop. The upstairs is the branch presidents office and other
rooms that we use for classes. And our apartment is on the upper floor on the
right. Yes, we live at the church. It:s very convenient!
I:m here in Nakatsu with my companion, Elder Houseknecht (had to check how
to spell his name just now... ha). He:s 18, half Japanese, and from Texas. We:re
having a good time here. Also on the "someone" category, the members here are
really great! They are like a big family. Everybody comes to church on sunday
morning and nobody really goes home after because they are talking and doing
home teaching and just chatting it up. It:s fun being part of this little
category.
Somewhere:
I:m still in Nakatsu, Japan. A VERY small place with the majority of the
land being used for rice fields. As far as the eye can see. It;s great! It:s too
bad I didn:t get here a little bit earlier to see it all before it was
unharvested. However, I got to see some awesome rice fields in Yatsushiro as
well so i:m not complaining.Our church is... well, not an actual church building
but of course, still a church. The downstairs is the chapel. Next to that is a
little massage shop. The upstairs is the branch presidents office and other
rooms that we use for classes. And our apartment is on the upper floor on the
right. Yes, we live at the church. It:s very convenient!
Alright, just a couple more pictures.
This is our church/apartment and
the chapel. And of course, it wouldn't be church in Japan if there
weren't slippers! :)
the chapel. And of course, it wouldn't be church in Japan if there
weren't slippers! :)
Someone:
I:m here in Nakatsu with my companion, Elder Houseknecht (had to check how
to spell his name just now... ha). He:s 18, half Japanese, and from Texas. We:re
having a good time here. Also on the "someone" category, the members here are
really great! They are like a big family. Everybody comes to church on sunday
morning and nobody really goes home after because they are talking and doing
home teaching and just chatting it up. It:s fun being part of this little
category.
Somehow:
Not really sure what i:m going for with this email or what would fall under
this category but my first thoughts are The Spirit. As I mentioned in my journal
entry, for me it is rarely anything spectacular. Just small things. But when you
do good and are following the commandments and finding joy in the church
(shoutout to President Uchtdorf and his talk "It works wonderfully!"), more
light and guidence is available. It:s just like anything else in life. If you
exercise, you will get stronger. If you practice a skill, you will get better.
If you exercise your faith, you will get better at having faith and feeling the
spirit. It also works in the negative as well: if you think bad thoughts, more
bad thoughts will come. If you don:t practice, you won:t get better. And if you
don:t exercise, you will probably get fat. Don:t get fat! And don:t get
depressed! think good things! Do good things! And good things will come.
That:s all I have to say about that. Love you all. Merry Christmas!
Brower Chourou
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
week 54
Mom thought this was interesting! The lettering is crazy!!
Thanksgiving was good actually! It was supposed to be a secret but our
whole zone showed up at the mission presidents house and we had a big feast and played a charades game
and then we had to go back because it took us like 2 hours to get
there and two hours to get back X). .
Subject: Things to Parents
Answers to some questions.Hey everyone we had to send out an email talking about the instructions on how to send Christmas packages. We got a lot of emails back saying that the emails were wrong or did not send so we need you guys to make sure that these get out to your parents! Thank you so much! Forward these attachments to your parents.ハロー皆さんクリスマスのパッケージの送り方についてのメールを両親に送りました。沢山のメールが帰ってきてメールアドレスが間違っているか送ることができない状態になってしまいました。なので確実に両親たちがこのメールの添付ファイルを見るように転送して下さい。ありがとうございます!みんな愛してますよ!ビア長老
Thanksgiving was good actually! It was supposed to be a secret but our
whole zone showed up at the mission presidents house and we had a big feast and played a charades game
and then we had to go back because it took us like 2 hours to get
there and two hours to get back X). .
The language is fine now. Well, there is unlimited improvement to make
but I'm able to say about anything that I want unless it's a very
specific conversation and I can understand for the most part what
people say as long as they aren't speaking crazy Japanese.
Yup, we bow
all the time. Now only when you greet people but when you say goodbye
and... All the time. It's less of a bow and more of just a head nod.
The apartment is fine. Kinda cold. But it is connected to the
church so that makes things easy. We have a funky toilet though...
We are having a zone Pday today and we are
going to the aquarium with the zone so it should be fun.
Elder Brower
but I'm able to say about anything that I want unless it's a very
specific conversation and I can understand for the most part what
people say as long as they aren't speaking crazy Japanese.
Yup, we bow
all the time. Now only when you greet people but when you say goodbye
and... All the time. It's less of a bow and more of just a head nod.
The apartment is fine. Kinda cold. But it is connected to the
church so that makes things easy. We have a funky toilet though...
We are having a zone Pday today and we are
going to the aquarium with the zone so it should be fun.
Elder Brower
week 53
I could give a recap of my week but...
Yesterday seems like last week
and last week seems like a year ago so I don't remember what happened
really! But, of course, every day on the mission is awesome. One
experience I had this week was talking with some members after church
on Sunday. A member had bought some "gourmet" bread that expired two
days earlier and wanted us to eat it before it "went bad" which... It
already did... But the bread was fine. But, either way, we ate the
bread but I gave them a lot of guff about eating two day old bread. :P
while we ate bread and talked, I showed them pictures of my family,
previous area, my car, my house, etc. Japanese people love that stuff!
But as they looked at the pictures, they made comments about how I
have some "aura" about me in the pictures. About how I looked
different than others because I have the knowledge that I am a child
of God and that I have a Savior. They said that now that "aura" is
even stronger but it got me thinking...
I'm so saddened when I see no happiness on other peoples' faces when
we ride trains, when we knock doors, etc. Simply, I believe that there
is a difference. There is a light that comes into our lives when we
actively believe that we are children of God. When we don't have that
knowledge, or I suppose even when we don't have the confidence that
that statement is true, that light isn't there. It can be gained no
other way. Gain that testimony that you are a child of God through
prayer, fasting, and studying the scriptures. It will brighten your
life. You will have purpose, you will have meaning, and you will have
a responsibility as well; to follow what our Heavenly Father wants us
to do.
ブラワー長老
and last week seems like a year ago so I don't remember what happened
really! But, of course, every day on the mission is awesome. One
experience I had this week was talking with some members after church
on Sunday. A member had bought some "gourmet" bread that expired two
days earlier and wanted us to eat it before it "went bad" which... It
already did... But the bread was fine. But, either way, we ate the
bread but I gave them a lot of guff about eating two day old bread. :P
while we ate bread and talked, I showed them pictures of my family,
previous area, my car, my house, etc. Japanese people love that stuff!
But as they looked at the pictures, they made comments about how I
have some "aura" about me in the pictures. About how I looked
different than others because I have the knowledge that I am a child
of God and that I have a Savior. They said that now that "aura" is
even stronger but it got me thinking...
I'm so saddened when I see no happiness on other peoples' faces when
we ride trains, when we knock doors, etc. Simply, I believe that there
is a difference. There is a light that comes into our lives when we
actively believe that we are children of God. When we don't have that
knowledge, or I suppose even when we don't have the confidence that
that statement is true, that light isn't there. It can be gained no
other way. Gain that testimony that you are a child of God through
prayer, fasting, and studying the scriptures. It will brighten your
life. You will have purpose, you will have meaning, and you will have
a responsibility as well; to follow what our Heavenly Father wants us
to do.
ブラワー長老
Week 52
I feel as though this week and the beginning of this transfer has beenspent in clean-up mode. I think my mission is maybe something like
that. I'm mr. Fix it! It feels good! I come into an area that is
unorganized and I organize everything, make it all pretty and
workable, and then I move on to the next place and do the same thing
there. Because of what I've done in the area, the missionaries can now
work smoother and see miracles. In my mind, it's kinda like weeding a
garden or something. You can continue to plant and try to grow things
in a garden with a ton of weeds (the elders in the area before me who
lived in a dirty apartment, kept bad records, and were unorganized) or
you can weed the garden before planting (get organized, clean, etc)
and then what you plant will be able to grow! It's different than my
image of missionary work but if that is what God needs me to do than I
will do it! And it makes the time go really fast too so that is good.
That is what I have been doing since I've gotten here, the apartment
looks completely different now; mostly clean and organized. The record
books and whatnot have been gone through and organized but need some
serious updating (our goal for this transfer), the area map is looking
a lot better and more organized, etc.
we haven't had a lot of opportunities to go out and talk to people
this last week because we thought it important to create a solid
foundation first and build from there rather than build on "bandaid
solutions" and a weak foundation. Elder Brower
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