Monday, August 18, 2014

7/28/14 email

I've made it all the way to transfer 10 now. I'm getting to be really old...plus with Mineta Choro getting ready to go home in a couple days, it's really starting to hit me. Kind of freaky.

I'm going to be companions with Eversole Choro again. He's coming to Shimogamo. I'm kinda disappointed because I love getting new companions, but at least we already know each other's style. In the mission email this week it had a spot that talked about areas and companions and positions are carefully prayed about then assigned, so we should find why we're in the situation we're in for that transfer. Pretty good timing on Kaicho's part.
Mom and Dad,

This week was kind of scary-not for me but for Mineta Choro. Tonight will be his final three hours of dendo time. I don't know exactly what's going on in his mind, but I'm pretty sure it's not the happiest place. He really likes being on a mission, and was really wanting to see a miracle this last transfer. But he's finished his mission--unfortunately we couldn't quite make that miracle happen.

Last week we took a big trip to Nara. Mineta Choro was actually there for a transfer, but was with a super trunky companion so they never did anything out of the apartment on prep day. He was way disappointed because there are so many cool things in Nara and he really liked it there. We went to Shika Koen--translated that means "Deer Park." Yes deer--tons of them. You can even buy these biscuits and feed them. Mineta Choro was super scared! Probably one of the funniest things I've seen: a little Japanese dude running away from a bunch of deer. We also went to a  unique temple net to the park. Inside are these HUGE statues of Buddha or some kind of Buddhist figure. The temple itself is huge. We ended up running into one of Mineta Choro's old companions there, as well as several other missionaries. Nara is definitely a popular spot. Way fun prep day.

The next day we met with the Catholic man and Hikari woman. We normally meet on Thursday but due to interviews we wouldn't have time then. It was kind of a last-minute thing, so like all the other times the Spirit made up the slack. It was definitely boosted by the Spirit.

On Wednesday we finally got to meet again with our shigansha. He has no way for us to contact him, so if he can't make it to a lesson, we just have to wait for him to show up, then decide if he'll be there or not. He's also very busy lately because of school, but we finally got to meet him again. That was a pretty good lesson. We had to think a lot about what it is we should teach him because he hasn't met regularly and the things he's been taught by previous missionaries are kinda bara bara--uh, that means all-over-the-place. Another Japanese word without a solid English counterpart. Anywho, we actually had to extend his baptismal date (August 31st) because he's going home for summer break, so he won't be back 'til the end of September.

Interviews went way well. Welch Kaicho is an incredible mission president too. His style and viewpoints are different from Zinke Kaicho, but everyone in the mission is on board with him 100%. He's really personable and talks quite a bit--which means some missionary's interviews go over 30 minutes. There are 250 missionaries, so you can do the math. Some zones have ended interviews at 11 at night, with 4 or 5 people not getting an interview! This zone is 26 people, the largest in the mission. The zone leaders made sure to stress to everyone to not take too much time. Still, they were all finished at about 10 at night. Since Interviews for Kyoto Zone are in Shimogamo, the Shimogamo missionaries are interviewed last. Mineta Choro and I got home right before 9:00pm.
Saturday we had another lesson with the guy from my first day here. Actually, we didn't get to talk much because he was way busy. He came mainly to get a business card from Mineta Choro. We wanted to teach about baptism then invite him to be baptized. It was going to especially cool because the shimai had a baptism scheduled that night for two of their investigators, so we wanted him to go to that, too. Unfortunately he was too busy!

We got two investigators to come to church (the Catholic and Hikari investigators). It's pretty tough to get investigators to church in Kyoto since every one is so "busy" and when they're not busy they're checking out the cool stuff to see.

I've seen twice as many roaches this transfer than in two transfers in Nishiwaki. We have this way awesome "Roach Jet" spray that kills them pretty much instantly.

I think I've explained "yabai" and "zannen" before, but for the sake of not looking through past emails: "yabai" can be good or bad depending on the context and how it's said, but is mainly used in the bad sense; "zannen" means something along the lines of 'that's too bad'.

Funny story about rain. We were at the church waiting for members and investigators to show up before Sacrament meeting. WE looked outside and the rain began to fall. Then it noticeably picked up more and more. From clear skies at one moment then rain-- we watched the rain get progressively stronger and stronger for 2 minutes to the point of what I described as "Mother Nature puking on Kyoto." Then as fast as it started it went away. Unfortunately any rain means that Nihonjin are going to do everything possible to not go outside. We had about 6 people say they'd come to church. Only two of them did--but, I'm so happy about those two! And the rain, of course!

That's all I have for this week. It's a big one! We decided this prep day would be a relaxing one since we're on edge over transfers and ending missions. Plenty of time to email! Thanks for all the time to write quite a few emails this week and last!
 
Love you all!
愛、
ウィルソン長老

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