Where's that Bonding Strip?!?

This week was hard. EJ had a unfortunate happening and is no longer in Japan, and therefore not getting baptized anytime soon. None of our investigators came to stake conference because going to kobe takes too much time, and it just wasn`t a great week over all. Also today is elder wilsons birthday which is great and all but he took forever to email and wanted to buy himself birthday presents so my time is quite short today.

 

So EJ apparently was going to show his english class (he taught english at the middle school near our church) a video to learn english and accidently showed them the wrong video with what from what the ward members tell us they read in the newspaper had some pornographic content, and he has since lost his job and as far as we know has been deported to the philippines and so we are pretty upset about that. (and no we hadn`t taught him the law of chastity yet.) But it will all work out in the end. He had a testimony of the book of mormon and we hope he can meet with the missionaries again and turn to god in this time of trial.

 

Dad I liked your comment `those who were going English speaking would come home scriptorians, and that those who were speaking romance languages would come home fluent, and that those who were speaking Asian languages would come home humbled.` I asked my trainer who was on his second to last transfer at what time I would most likely start thinking in Japanese, and he told me never. But I am going to prove him wrong. But yes, you can become competant in Japanese as a missionary, but likely not truly fluent.

 

Mom I`m glad you liked my letter! I was kind of reluctant to write it, but as soon as I did I stopped having to play the piano in priesthood haha!

 

We had a nice experience of meeting Nakamae San this week who let us into his house immediately to hear our message, we rejected his typical offering to give us tea, and then also coffee, he was confused and seemed like as he continues to meet is willing and open enough for the spirit to enter his heart and build his faith. It`s the first time in my whole mission anyone has actually let us in to listen to us the first time we meet them.

 

It has been unusually warm here for february and i am not complaining one bit! Life is good here. I`m getting bugged with Elder Wilson and I kind of secretly want to train next transfer, but then again not really. I really am so glad to be a missionary and I love Japan! I bought a bunch of new pens for Christmas, they have a special ink that is erasable, but then also turns invisible if heated up enough and then if cooled down re-appears. I also bought myself a Japanese National Team soccer jersey to support my boys The Samurai Blue in Brazil this summer! Merry Christmas to me! I know myself so well don`t I? I hope to hear from you all soon. Andrew don`t let her feminine ways hide the fact that she played for murray max... Just reminding you haha I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

 

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

This week we started off by taking a trip up what among the missionaries in the zone is infamously called Mt. Fuji. It`s not worth biking up. Many of the members live up there and it`s a nice place (by the way it`s really called dojo ikuno but that`s lame) but people who have interest here, probably like most everywhere else, are few and far between. Our area boundaries are the Kitarokko Ward boundaries and they extend for about 2+ hours away by bike and so we can`t even go to most of our area. It is also hard because many people in Japan don`t own cars, but then on sunday they don`t want to take trains or the bus to get to church and so travel is hard. We currently have an investigator who was a referral from the Kobe Elders, he couldn`t afford to go to the Kobe ward anymore and since he lives in our ward boundaries technically he should come to our ward but can`t because our ward building is too far away from him as well! We`re working with the members on that one.

 

E.J. is doing well, we just hope he doesn`t have any issues with the commandments and he still needs to come to church twice before he can get baptized. We met with the Sakamoto Family again and they must really like us because they offered to take us and spend the day in Osaka sometime (which I really hope we get to!!) and they asked if after we return if their daughter could do a homestay in america for a short while.... She`s 12 William.... hahaha

 

We had interviews with the Mission President this week which were good. But now I`m scared I`ll be made senior companion next transfer! Worse things could happen.

 

So usually Japanese people say `I`m buddhist!, no thank you!` or something to that extent. People usually aren`t buddhist, or even religious at all, but that`s their excuse to get us to go away. They also love to use the excuses, `I`m about to leave` `We`re eating right now` `I`m Busy!` or sometimes they`ll just straight up say I`m not interested. but anyway this week we were housing and ran into something a little different, `I`m Christian!, No thanks!` We then talked to them about that and they mentioned they were 7th day adventists, we talked about sabbath day worship and what not and I told them that we worship on Sunday because of Christ`s Resurrection and they didn`t know what to say. The same thing happened a bit earlier with a Jehovah`s Witness who I asked what the Holy Ghost`s name was. Silence. HA GOTCHA! sadly these people still rejected us. We also ran into an american on the train on the way back from interviews and talked with him a little, no result.

 

One interesting thing I have noticed is that Japanese people DO NOT expect you to know their language at all! They are especially extremely surprised if you write anything. At a ward activity the ward was making cards for the members to invite their nonmember friends to church and so I made one for Yoshinaga to which he could not believe that I had written a note in Japanese. (I don`t get it, we have entire conversations 3 times a week and he didn`t think I could write him a note in the same language I talk to him in!?! Beats me) They are especially amazed if you can read Kanji. Japanese houses often have a name plate where the Family name is written sometimes in Kanji and often in Romanized Japanese. When we talk to the people at their houses and address them by their name (because `you` is too informal) they are like `how did you know my name?` and we are all `well it`s written right here isn`t it?` and they are all surprised like oh I didn`t think you could read that.

 

Anyway I hope all is well at home! I love and miss you all!

 

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

魅力的な男性‏

Family! This week has been good! We finally had more than just one lesson! I like hearing from other missionaries and all, but sometimes hearing from people whose mission experience is so drastically different from mine (especially regarding success) can be quite frustrating and bothersome when I feel like I am working just as hard if not harder here and seeing much, much less success. I mean in America or places where people have a Christian background it`s extremely different. I can`t walk into someone`s house and talk to them about God and Prophets and the Bible, They don`t know what those things are! The frustrating thing is maintaining the eternal perspective that God has a way, and a place, and a time, for each of his children to hear the gospel. People in Mexico or Europe or America (both North and South) already have a HUGE advantage on many of my investigators because they have a God-fearing Christian background. It`s hard to see the drastic difference in success and not think that God must love Latinos or Americans more than Nihonjin, but it`s not true! God loves us all the same and he wants ALL his children to receive the gospel.

 

Sorry for the rant on that but yeah, it is frustrating to not have the success that every missionary wants. I`m glad you got my letter with the passport and what not. I had a dream that night that I had to return to America because sending a passport via mail was a felony and I couldn`t get a job anywhere and my life was ruined because Eliza left her passport in my bag... Funny Dream.

 

I`m really enjoying being here and I feel like I`m progressing as a Japanese Speaker as well as a Missionary and just as a person in general. iPads aren`t needed for missionary work, we were the highest baptizing mission in the Asia North area without any of that. (Hahaha Tokyo who`s top dog now! haha just kidding)

 

So this week we had a really cool experience teaching EJ. We had talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how it connects everything in this gospel and it is god`s promise to us that through reading and praying about the book of mormon, that god will manifest the truth to us through the holy ghost. He had committed to read it before and hadn`t really read, he was busy with New Year`s and forgot... but this week at our lesson he talked to us about how he prayed to god to let him know if this was all true, and then the first verse he turned to was just like God was speaking directly to him. (mormon 9:27) and he is now scheduled to get baptized on February 16th. It was just a cool reminder to me that this is REAL. It`s not just something we tell people, it is the work of God. Heavenly Father knows us all perfectly, and I know that with all my heart.

 

We also had a dinner with Miyawaki this week where he talked to us and had questions about keeping the sabbath day holy, and the word of wisdom (as most people here do after they offer us a drink) and he tried to explain to us that he couldn`t believe that there was just one all powerful, all knowing god, and he shared his view that there is a mountain god, and a river god, and a tree god and a fire god (I`d heard all these before) and a KITCHEN GOD?!?!? I don`t think I will ever understand these people. The Japanese for the most part believe in the existence of A god, or gods, but they look for God in his creations, and struggle to understand the concept of a omniscient, omnipotent being with a body. If they only got that, then teaching would be a breeze, and baptisms would skyrocket. But for now we just are doing our best working hard day in and day out. And things seem to work out for our good.

 

I love and miss you all! Write soon!

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

Talent Show

Well not much happened as far as success this week. But this week we did have Eikaiwa after a two week drought because of Christmas and New Years. Our English Class is very structured, but at the same time not really at all. Anyway aside from that we walked in the rain all day on Wednesday, Planned and had a LONG weekly planning session on Thursday and then went out finding that night and Friday we had New Year`s Conference. For the Conference those who wanted to could come early and play dodgeball and ping-pong, and then the usual conference followed. We didn`t set goals for the year as a mission other that to find, teach and baptize those that the Lord has prepared. And watched a kind of year in review slideshow.

 

I`M SORRY WE HAD TO FILL OUT A BIG MISSION SURVEY DURING EMAIL TIME AND OUR WARD HAD A TALENT SHOW AND A MOCHI TSUKI THIS MORNING WE HAD TO GO TO ALONG WITH OUR OTHER PDAY STUFF AND SO I HAVE NO TIME!!!

 

The ward talent show was fun. I took some videos that you will see when I send my card home again. I have not too much to say but I don`t have time to write it or email today and basically I hate that Preparation day ends at 6:00 and that the whole morning is taken by stupid study time! I`m not in a good mood as I`m typing this as you might have thought. I hope you all are having a good time at home. In Yonago it was nice because there were two computers and so it took half the time to email but here there is only one for the four missionaries here. (mission iPads would be lovely)  Look up Momoiro Kuroba (Pink Clover) it`s a J-Pop band? that a group did a lip sync to for the talent show. I wish I had more time. I love and miss you all!

 

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

正月!‏

Happy New Year! or rather 明けましたおめでとうございます!

 

New Years was a big deal and so everything here was quite difficult as one might imagine. We did manage to get referrals from the meal appointments this week so that`s good.

 

I don`t remember a whole lot of what happened this week honestly. But I will share what I can.

 

So our investigator Kawakami, who is somewhat mentally ill, has it set in his mind that we can only meet with him on tuesday at 4. Good right? here`s the problem. He forgets. He also has a bad habit of turning his phone off. So that said we call him to confirm the appointment on Monday. Phone Off. We call again Tuesday. Phone Off. We go visit him, he says he forgot the appointment, and that we`ll meet next week. We make an appointment for next tuesday, we make sure he writes it down so he`ll remember. Next week, we call to confirm on Monday, same story... I am so bugged with him.

 

New Years was not super eventful. It`s largely celebrated in the families and so people are very busy, but not out and about busy. Missionary work this week was very uneventful other than appointments falling through and investigators dropping themselves.

 

We had lunch on New Years Day with the Tokuno Family and they served us a traditional Japanese new years meal. Shrimp (with the head and all of course) lots of Fish Eggs, Sushi, Anko, which is like a sweet bean paste with a great flavor but a pretty nasty texture, mochi, or rice that has been condensed so much that when you chew it is doesn`t get any smaller and is hard to swallow, and these little fish that you just eat whole and they have a very strange aftertaste. I don`t know the Japanese word for them.

 

I sent y`all a letter today including some items that you have been requesting (Eliza) hope it gets there soon! I have also enjoyed getting Christmas letters for 3 weeks because people in the USA have no idea how long mail takes to get here so a big thank you to everyone who wrote me! I`m trying to be better at writing back more. I also received the Olympus Missionary newsletter thing which was really fun to read and just good to hear from everyone out there! It`s a Small World After All!

 

I finally got my bike fixed! I now have working brakes, a light, and my knees don`t go above the handlebars anymore! Also Abby I got your package and I LOVED IT!

 

Oh! I also learned how to make Takoyaki this week! it`s like octupus corndog balls and is quite good, but is always served SUPER HOT, so someone always burns their tongue on it. I also did some calligraphy this week for new years and I was sad I didn`t know more Kanji, and that I don`t remember anything from Mrs. Wang`s Chinese Class HAHA.

 

I love and miss you all! Happy 2014!

 

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

Deck Za Harrs wis boughs of Horry FA-RA-RA-RA-RA....‏

So this week was crazy and I don`t know where to start. I LOVED TALKING TO YOU ALL ON *CHRISTMAS! (*26th) Probably the fastest hour of my mission yet. This week was great, the ward is so awesome here and I love them so much.

Monday I was not feeling well, everything seemed to just make me disappointed and sad and miss Christmas at home, but I really poured out my heart to heavenly father that day wishing that I could just stop feeling so down. (if this is a surprise to anyone yes there are times on your mission when you hate it, when you feel useless, stupid, worthless, and you want to come home). We had the ward Christmas party where the kids in the ward wrote a play of the Nightmare Before Christmas which I really didn`t understand because I haven`t seen the movie and it was a in Japanese. The ward had a very nice program about Christmas and had various songs, bell ringers, it was a very nice evening and Yoshinaga came too. Then at the ward party we met a very strange fellow from Abeno (in Osaka) he took a bus for 2 hours to come to the ward party and gave all the missionaries bread, and then told us a story about a sister on his mission that had a moustache. Anyway he looked ridiculous! I snapped and had to go the bathroom I was laughing so hard. He had maybe the world`s worst haircut, and had a hat that made him look like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I can`t adequately describe him but he was soo interesting.

Christmas eve we spent buying and assembling christmas presents to take to all of our investigators and it really did help the lack of Christmas Spirit to be wrapping presents and Shopping for others. That night we went to the Fujikawa Family`s for dinner and their family is so adorable! I really just felt like I was with my own family and it was so nice to be with them. I have started to think of more the Ward here as my family, to think in a grander sense of Family. I say this because as I was praying and wishing I was home and saying how much I miss my family and all, I felt as if Heavenly Father was saying to me, `I miss my family too` That has carried me through this week along with Jacob 4:7 and various other things. I just love everyone!

Christmas day the Ward gave us presents and were so nice to us I just love them so much. We delivered our Christmas presents to our investigators and it was great. Then that night we had a dinner with the Tanaka Family and Yoshinaga and it was great. A different Christmas, but it was cool to be a part of Christmas, to live the meaning of Christmas and not just celebrate it.

Since Christmas not much has happened. Everyone is gearing up for the New Year and so EVERYONE is busy! I am staying here in Kitarokko for next transfer as well along with Elder Wilson. This is hard, but there is a satisfaction that comes from doing the Lord`s work.

I love you all! I want to call again every day, but oh well. I miss all of you and wish you a Happy New Year! 2014? It can`t be. Anyway I love you all!

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

Knock on Wood

So you know how I said that bike wrecks seemed like a transferly thing, WRONG, two more this week, with two pairs of holy (holes in them) suit pants to go with! I am fine, the bicycle I was riding has been since deemed unsafe and I am now riding a different one until the dangerous one is either fixed or replaced. I really am just so done with bikes and hills but oh well.

Home life seems as hectick as it ever was in December. I have received both the Christmas packages you sent although the element of surprise has been ruined by customs declarations... I tried not to look I promise! haha anyway. Everyone here in Japan is really busy, or at least they love to tell the missionaries they are because it`s a super easy way to not be direct (which can also be interpreted as offensive in Japanese) and so everyone just claims `busy` as their cop-out excuse. Once on an exchange with Elder Kemp in Yonago we even had a gaggle of High School age kids ride past on their bikes in unison shouting at us in English, `I`M BUSY!` We were quite surprised to say the least, laughed about it for a bit and then chased them down and invited them to English Class. But yes everyone here is very busy, especially witht the semester ending for all those in the rigorous schools over here which aren`t quite as `user friendly` as American schools.

So details on the call home. I don`t call you family, you get to call me! And so you call me on YOUR Christmas Day so I will actually be talking to you on the 26th. (my exact 6th month mark) so about that I am either 15 or 16 hours ahead I`m not really sure which sadly, but you make an international call to the companionship cell phone and we can talk to each other! MERRY CHRISTMAS, hee-haw, -Sam.  So yes I don`t know how that works with Abby but no I cannot skype and a 3 way call would be almost impossible so sorry Abby I can`t talk to you til next year.

This week being Papa`s Birthday and the christmas season and other significant days and memories running through my mind I really had more trouble with homesickness this week than I have had for a while but I am fine don`t worry.

My companion has started a bad habit of pulling out food so it looks like he is going to cook for the both of us (like I do for him when I cook) but then he eats it all and doesn`t tell me he isn`t going to share! lame, lame, lame, lame, LAME! but anyway I am doing fine. My companion has one of those `know it all` attitudes which doesn`t exactly help him personally or as a missionary. Although I do love doctrinally proving him wrong as terrible as that may be. (Just because I may not seem like it in Japanese I am not stupid pal!) He loves to think that his way is best and doesn`t take well to advice or correction from me or our mission leaders. 

I BEAT A REAL JAPANESE PERSON AT PING-PONG!!! I`m so proud of myself. They all hold the paddle upside down like it`s chopsticks and it`s not a paddle its a `ラケットraketto` Every church here in Japan has at least two ping pong tables. It`s the equivalent of a ward gym in the USA. But yeah every Saturday the ward has a sports activity which is usually Baseball (Boo) but it became too cold so now it is Ping Pong which is more fun anyway.

Abby that`s awesome with Roberto! I laughed when I read about `Roberto the Beautiful` because basically all Japanese names have a direct meaning from their Kanji which is sometimes quite interesting. For example Elder Sekiguchi`s name, Sekiguchi means `mouth relationship` and he didn`t think it was very funny when I called him elder kiss once haha.

Yoshinaga San this week we taught about focusing on the spiritual aspects of life because he understands all the doctrine perfectly, and he understands the Gospel logically, but doesn`t really believe it and so he doesn`t really want to be baptized and yeah. So we talked to him about how we are half spirit and no matter how smart we might be, if we don`t accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, that we can`t progress to know the mysteries of God. He likes meeting with us and realizes that we have something of value for him, but he is too blind to notice that it`s just right in front of him. He always comes to chruch but he comes late (after the sacrament) wearing some warm up suit type thing and studies mechanical physics during sacrament meeting! GRR, he missed the entire purpose of the lesson! People just don`t get that if it`s true they should get baptized and follow Christ`s example. We`re working with Yoshinaga so he can gain that confirmation, but it`s a process.

People here in Japan just don`t have a concept of truth regarding religion. They don`t see a need for it and so whether or not our church is true has no importance to them. They just don`t see the big picture. And they often don`t care to which breaks my heart. I just want to be like don`t you get it?! but sadly it is a completely foreign concept to these people and we have to start from square -1. We can`t teach lesson one straight off because they don`t have any idea who god is, they probably think he`s a rock for all we know, so to them returning to live with god and our families forever doesn`t make any sense. They don`t know who Jesus Christ is, they`ve never heard of scriptures before and even if they have they probably have never read them. This is hard for these people to accept. But nonetheless it is the truth.

I am excited to talk with y`all in a few short days! Have a Merry Christmas!

Love,