WE GOT THE ROCK!

Okay so this week has been full of rain, rain, frustration, disappointment, and more rain. I really just am doing fine and all my `whining` is just the dullness of life which will always exist. This week was wet every single day. It is getting colder here but we haven`t seen any snow yet. But the thing I am worried about is when it is cold, and wet. The day is not far off. And I will freeze indefinitely.

Miyake was supposed to be baptized this week but he has a hard situation with his job and church and so we have to move his baptismal date back until he can come to church 2 more times. In Japan people have crazy work hours! Honda Kazuya (my first baptism) had work everyday but sunday from 8 AM until 8 PM or something close to that. People in Japan are such hard workers and almost to the point where they become robotic. Also tonight Sekiguchi and George Chourou are going to Kobe for Mission Leadership Conference which means Kemp Chourou and I have two lessons to teach  on our own two 2nd transfer missionaries who can`t speak Japanese... Well that will be interesting. I really wish I could get emails everyday like letters and just respond once a week, that way I wouldn`t have to spend all my time on P-Day reading everyone`s emails and I could better respond. As much as letters are slow and inconvinient, I LOVE GETTING LETTERS. So please either continue to write me, or begin to write me hahaha. I am trying to convince the other Missionaries in Yonago to let me teach `Big Pumpkin` at our English Class on Halloween. I am like the only person excited for Halloween and it`s great. I am determined to celebrate every holiday. So I know people are probably wondering if I have lots of cool Japanese Maple leaves and if it`s just super beautiful here in the Fall. From what I hear, that is mostly in Kyoto, but maybe I will get to be there next year this time. But for now I love Yonago. (It literally means Rice Child) but it`s not the coolest place, but the people here are amazing.

I love our English Class Students. (We give all of our English Class students American names and it`s really fun!)

• Nancy, she was Baptized in July and is a sweet little quiet lady and suffered a stroke a few years back and has clearly slowed down. 
• Rick, (Yasui Kyoudai) he is one of our investigators and is a guardman for his job. He loves american things and always wears a shirt that either says California in big letters, or something to that same extent. He looks like he is a man who never grew out of the 70s 80s and occasionally wear the shorts of that decade. to complete the ensemble he usually has some sort of sparkly sunglasses which usually look very feminine. He is so funny, He loves music and so he has lots of interesting english words he has picked up from his music listening which are fun to explain...
• Tony, He is awesome and hilarious, he is a big Philadelphia Eagles fan and so he will talk to us about the NFL sometimes randomly and he HATES the New England Patriots like I hate Manchester United. (I contacted into a high school age kid and talked to him about soccer because he was going home from practice, he told me he was a Manchester United fan and I told him we couldn`t be friends anymore-somewhat jokingly) 
• Luke, He has only been coming for a week or so (Honda Kazuya) and his english isn`t there but he had fun.
• Joe, the class clown who is the member running English Class. He is very funny and always tries to make jokes in English that just don`t really work and are awkward.
• Elvis, He is older, and has impossible to understand Japanese and from what I can understand he`s usually talking about space or something with America and Russia and World peace or something. He always cries when we sing, and his favorite word is FIGHT, I don`t know why.
• Matt, is Tony`s son. He`s a priest in the ward and one of the coolest kids I have met in Japan.
• Ken, Looks like Ghandi and is always super concerned about my happiness and the pronunciation of the words, he is so funny and I am his favorite teacher.
• Stacey, she speaks this jibberish that isn`t even Japanese and then she is always laughing to herself and none of us know what about, but she also will drop anything to be a member at our lessons and is super great as a member misisonary.

Oh man there is so much I want to say but I never have time.

WE GOT THE ROCK! (Well that`s nothing new, but hey!) 

I miss sports. As Andrew put it yeah sports are fun and all but it`s the gospel that saves us. The whole thing with twitter and the student section just brought back so many memories of high school sports. Hail Olympus!

I`ve completed 1/6th of my mission. That is weird. 5 more of those and I`ll be home. Sad. It`s interesting because you always think of going on a mission as a someday thing when you`re growing up, and then when it becomes a TODAY thing it messes with your mind.

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

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

大会 (taikai)

So this week has brought challenges and what not but really I am always frustrated emailing because I 1) don`t have near enough time to say everything I want to say and 2) because I want to do things outside and experience Japan but I don`t ever have time! solution: make preparation day go until 9 o`clock! it`d be brilliant! I could accomplish so much more!

anyway so this week I had some interesting experiences. So my companion makes me do all the phone calls. and it is helping my Japanese, but it is so weird! so when Japanese people use the phone they answer and say `moshi moshi ______ desu` but it`s weird because they never use moshi moshi anywhere else but on the phone! they also take forever to say goodbye, and it`s courteous to wait for the other person to hang up so phone calls usually end in an awkward silence of neither person hanging up and it`s weird. Also Japanese people take forever to say goodbye. I don`t know why but they are just really awkward about leaving or something. My Japanese is improving, but I feel like I don`t know enough to really take advantage of having a native companion and sometimes it just makes it difficult. Also, no one in my Apartment writes letters but me and I get bothered because they don`t want to write and I do so it`s an issue.

MISSION GOAL:

Do not become a freak. You may laugh at this, but I am not going to become weird(er than I must to be effective in this culture) which isn`t hard. I just can`t stand when people tell me that I need to repent for having Halloween stickers in my planner, or that I was humming a worldly song, or that I should be studying during lunch and not reading the letter that I got from my sister. I have a firm belief that you can fully represent The Lord, and consecrate these two years of your life to him without being a psycho robot misisonary! It`s okay to have fun on your mission! Missionary work should be fun! Elder George is basically my example of what not to be, he does yoga every morning to a cd that drives away the spirit becuase of the flamer on the recording, he eats all of our food, he plays the ukelele ALL DAY and basically just annoys me to death. I refuse to be like that.

I want a couch. we don`t have any chairs in our apartment but the desk chairs, which are usually taken by george choro and sekiguchi choro doing zone leader things, but then there are just folding chairs from the church which are extremely uncomfortable and basically I want a comfortable chair. at stake conference this week, I sat in a comfy auditorium chair and it was wonderful! 

Things here in yonago aren`t cold yet, today is actually very nice weather. but it is supposed to be one of the coldest areas in the mission and it is expected to get about a foot or two of snow during the winter! so I went out and bought some sweaters, scarves and gloves to hopefully deal with it.

I cut my hair today, by myself, for the first and last time. it doesn`t look that bad, but I think it is worth it to pay the 1500¥ and save myself the humiliation. I could cut someone elses hair very well though I feel. 

Andrew thank you for an update from the real world! The local soccer team here is Gainare Tottori from the J-League, I don`t know if they`re any good or not but you could look them up if you want. I almost bought a Japan national team jersey the other day, but it was really not my size, and I figured I would wait until the world cup anyway! I wish I could see it. Our ward mission leader played soccer in brazil and so we talked about that as much as I can talk which isn`t a lot.

I really wish I could write individual letters to everyone everyday because so much is happening and I want to share the experiences I`m having with all of you.

This week my experience is about being bold. So Brother Tanaka (my investigator) has been very frustrating in the past and he has a problem where he has lots of confidence, but nothing to back it up really. this week we reviewed prayer with him because he wasn`t praying effectively/at all/correctly (in the name of Jesus Christ) anyway so after a frustrating discussion, I stopped him and asked him as directly as I could with all the spirit and Japanese I could muster `why he even met with us if he didn`t believe what we have to say` he sat for a second and said that he wanted to learn doctrine, to which I replied, `if you don`t believe the doctrine, why do you want to learn? will you apply in your own life the doctrine we teach you? will you pray everyday to your heavenly father?` to which he was touched by the spirit and the boldness of the message and accepted the commitment. This experience showed me that sometimes we wait for the spirit to do the teaching when really we need to follow it`s promptings, but not just be bashful, this is salvation we`re talking about! Basically I felt like for me to teach with the spirit, I had to reach beyond myself, and step outside of my comfort zone to rely on the Lord. That`s what this work is all about. 

Okay so the coolest thing about Japan this week is that their dollar stores have ties! What missionary wouldn`t love that?! It`s awesome! super cheap ties! and Japan has more pens, stationery, etc. than anywhere I have ever seen! it`s great for the pen lover like me! 

THINGS I MISS:

being able to contact anyone, anytime, anywhere.

doing something for myself, (selfish I know but hey, I need to be honest)

TAYLOR SWIFT, `Love Story` came on while I was buying my sweaters and gloves and what not and as much as you may laugh I felt like that was God just reminding me that he knows I`m here and is aware of me.

Family interaction. I feel like that one will be with me my whole mission, but I love all of you!

games, we never play any games at english class or ever really. I want to play a game! there is a cool Japanese Chess kind of game I have seen but I don`t know what it is really.

I love and miss all of you! All your examples, support, and prayers lift me every single day. I just want you to know that I can`t wait to be together forever with you!

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

Sekiguchi‏

Okay so transfers happened, and so far neither my companion nor I have killed each other. I am learning A LOT of Japanese, or rather I`m getting better at what I already know. He grew up about 20 minutes from Disney Tokyo (which isn`t actually in Tokyo!) and we`ve talked about that. We`re both the organized type and we get along pretty well so far. Conference was great! send me a english and a japanese Ensign when you get the chance! I loved the Halloween package mom! I`m trying to figure out how we`ll make sugar cookies in our lack of oven (toaster oven) so we`ll see how that goes. Next package you send it would be cool if you could compile a bunch of letters for me! That would be awesome! 

So Conference was Amazing!!! it never ceases to amaze me when these elderly men who some of which have trouble to walk, or get up while skiing, deliver these messages directly from God himself. Elder Oaks, Holland and Uchtdorf`s talks really struck me and pierced my soul it seemed. I have been reading a conference talk every day for a while and it has really blessed me. Oh I wish I could watch it again and again.

The night of conference we had the elders from Matsue and Kurayoshi staying at our apartment so we had eight elders in one apartment. It was fun until we had to clean up today. I missed our family so much during conference. Priesthood meeting especially! William I wish I could`ve been there with you! I hope conference was as powerful to all of you as it was to me.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat or however the quote goes, but If looked at that way I now have nothing left to give. I got in a bit of a bike accident and it tore a large chunk of skin off my right hand and it isn`t the most pleasant thing but it could have been much worse so I`m very grateful. The members were very kind and bandaged me up when I arrived to the saturday session and they acted as if I was dying when really I just had a hand with substantially missing skin and a fairly gruesome amount of road rash and blood. sadly I didn`t take a picture sorry. It did look pretty nasty.

I`ve developed a problem with feeling lonely lately not because I am literally alone, but just because I feel like sometimes as long as nothing terrible happens, that people aren`t overly concerned with my well being and just me in general. From this I have learned to turn outward and be concerned about others. In turn, you will get the desired care and attention you wanted in the first place. basically the golden rule, but it`s true. It is true in all things. If you are lonely, reach out. If you are shy, approach people, etc. We don`t solve our problems by hiding or running from them. You just have to go through it as Mom would likely say. Well I have so much to say and so little time, I always wish I could share more with you! It`s pretty crazy how much happens when you are busy ALL THE TIME! but it`s good, I`m progressing a lot. I`m still me, just a wiser me. And I also really like stickers now and I have to be careful so I don`t waste my money on all the cool things that Japan has to offer! I`m starting into some origami so we`ll see how that goes... 

Mom, Congrats on the `Mom of the Year` award. Dad, I`m still waiting for that letter. Andrew, I almost bought a Japan National Team jersey, but they didn`t have my size, I`ll find it eventually. Abby, Eat some good pasta and convert a catholic. Rebecca, I wish I could respond to all the emails and letters you send me more, I`m working on it. (She`s the best at writing me btw.) Eliza, don`t get destroyed by the Musical(s) William, you wouldn`t be so fast if I didn`t beat on you. Caroline, I see some cool frogs everyday by my apartment. We named one Yoshi the other day.

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL! 

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

P.S. To all of you who said you would write me all the time and haven`t... do so.

First Transfer Down

Okay, so I have been in Japan for an entire transfer. Does it feel like it, not at all. But I am staying in Yonago for at the remainder of my training, but Elder Baker is being transferred. My new companion will be Elder Sekiguchi, who is native Japanese. I am terrified. I will find out more about him and let you know.

Dad, you requested that I give you my investigators names, here they are:

Miyake - he is 24 and golden, he researches everything, we gave him the restoration pamphlet and he read it 10 times the night before we taught it. he says his greatest desire in life is to find the truth. he works on sundays and we`ve been fasting that he can get sundays off from work. his baptismal date is 11/3

Kajiyama - He is 26 and pretty trendy (wears crocs... somehow some people in Japan think those are cool...) He came to church for the first time yesterday and seemed to like it. his baptismal date is 11/17

Tanaka (Sister) - she came to church last week and stayed all 3 hours, she is pretty involved with buddhism and doesn`t know how to handle the religious differences.

Tanaka (Brother) - he thinks he is really smart and always tries to get us to join Amway when we meet and we always refuse obviously.

Yasui - he is 55 he comes to english class every week and LOVES American stuff especially music. he knows weird movie quotes and said he loves British english music. I talked to him about One Direction of all things and we have an appointment with him next week, who knew that One Direction could be used to spread the work of god? 

Yamaguchi - he is like 79 years old and can`t walk, he sits seza all day and is too scared to come to church.

Sakamoto - I don`t really remember or understand him very well...

There are more but I don`t have time to talk about everyone.

I always love the reaction I get when I tell people I`m 18. In Japan people often wait until they are finished with college to go on a mission because differing is difficult, so to them an 18 year old missionary is crazy! also, Elder Baker turns 22 and is basically 4 years older than me. that`s weird. I have lots of issues with him but we won`t discuss them.

This week Elders George and Baker went to Kobe for Mission Training thingy and Elder Kemp and I were companions for a day. two 1st transfer missionaries roaming the streets of Yonago... but we found 6 potential investigators! well I found 5 and he found 1, but hey, we did something useful! One man named Kenya Hamamoto, I biked alongside him for about 15 minutes and I felt decently competent in what I was saying! We still haven`t met with him, but I feel like it was The Lord patting me on the back and saying `you can do this` it really seemed like a simple miracle to me.

So last week was bad and I was feeling down, so I decided that I needed to be happier, I bought some cool pens, some Halloween stickers, and then some chocolate to lift my spirits and it has helped throughout the week for sure. I also now have my own stamps so writing real letters will be easier because I won`t have to go to the post office every time anymore.

In Japan they have MILLIONS of pens, the favorite seems to be the multi-color pens where there are like 3 or 4 colors in one pen and the little slide-y thing on the side to switch colors. But yes, they love their pens over here, and there are lots of them.

Andrew and Rebecca, thank you for all the loving advice you gave me last week when I was feeling a bit more down than usual. Mom I got your letter, Rebecca you too. Letters take longer to get here than I thought, because of forwarding and all that, but I DO GET THEM EVENTUALLY! I am really excited for conference this week!!! But I will definitely miss the Priesthood Meeting outing with the Paces, that was one of my favorite times each year. It is always great to hear from family so please don`t hesitate to write me.

I have great challenges ahead of me and I`m really scared, excited and every emotion in between at least once every day. I don`t think I have ever cried so often as I do on a mission. I am being blessed though everyday, I can feel the prayers and support of everyone. I love and miss you all!

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

I WANT MORE TIME!

SO basically my companion is bothering me right now because as a missionary the precious p-day time you have is like gold and so what does he do? he schedules an appointment at 12 with a guy who I told him wasnt interested in the gospel, and then he had to register in Kobe instead o Yonago and that took 3 HOURS THIS MORNING! and we were supposed to do it on friday! Lame, Lame, Lame, Lame, LAME! also he tells me I can`t listen to my music because he can`t feel the spirit and I want to say to him, GO RUB A MONKEYS TUMMY WITH YOUR HEAD! okay so that is the mood I am in right now. Pretty frustrating. Oh, and to add to it all, He is going to Kobe at 4:25 so my p-day is cut like 2 hours short! Basically my favorite thing to do all week is to talk to everyone that I care about, and he just tells me that he would rather watch the district at the apartment. He is Lame and Anti-Fun. I try to joke and make the most of this super depressing time out here and all he does is chastise me for things that arent rules that bug him, well you know what, he is more disobedient than I am! and he is always burping and passing fancies and it is disgusting!

anyway a lot actually happened this week but i don`t know if I`ll have time to share it thanks to my lack of time management skills companion. Anyhow. So aside from being in a state of endless depression and frustration, I actually had a pretty decent week. we 3 investigators with a baptismal date, and we taught 6 lessons yesterday. None of you are allowed to spoil general conference for me because I get to see it a week later than you do, but I still get to see it in English thank goodness! 

so I think the real source of my problems is that I desire too much. (for that moment at least) I don`t want to improve a tiny bit each day, I want to become fluent TODAY! even though I know I can`t do it, I still want to and it turn hold myself responsible for it. I am not satisfied unless I think something couldn`t have been better, I get frustrated if it`s not good enough for my own standards, which means I am going to be frustrated for quite a while it seems. I just feel like patience is so difficult for me. sometimes I think oh if I could speak Japanese then I will be effective and I`ll have fun then, but then I realize that even if I spoke fluent Japanese I would find something else to become bothered with. I am just that way, I have too much ambition for my own good. I`m driven, and not just to the point where I feel like I work hard, I`m going to work hard whatever I am doing, But I just am not easily satisfied with myself. I am too much of a perfectionist. 

The highlight of this week is the Trainer, Trainee, Training Meeting. It was just cool to see the rest of my MTC group and to talk about our different experiences so far and such. President Zinke is great, I`m sad I only get him until May, but then I get to see two different takes on the work which is cool. Keep an eye out for my next Mission President. Also, pray that the Kansai region (basically my mission area) of Japan will get a Temple. I pray for that every single day. 

We had a Pizza Party on Saturday for our English Class `Students` and Investigators and Members and everyone, and it is so funny because Japanese people don`t like it that much. They don`t like the cheese, and they don`t have pepperoni and if it were up to them they would put raw fish on it, or corn, they love corn on pizza I am not really sure why, it tastes pretty good actually, but it is just weird. But the party was a success and it led to more investigators coming to church sunday which was good!

Thursday there was a problem because once again my companion scheduled two appointments at the same time, so we got two members and I had to teach 安い  Yasui, by myself. I handled it fine and the Lord really helped me. I haven`t felt that much power from the Lord before it was a cool experience. Earlier that day however my companion during weekly planning decided to chastise me for rules that don`t exist... anyway There is a man in our english class named 高川 (takagawa) who we call Ken at English Class, and he seems to really like me.

so I was really stressed on Thursday during English Class because I was really worried about the Lesson with Yasui after English Class, anyway. On Sunday, Ken came to church to check on how I was doing and to invite us to dinner at his house, and the best part is he is a non-member! so basically all of you who got mad at me and told me that stress doesn`t help, I was able to find an Investigator through it and help him come to christ, it was really the first time I felt like I specifically was needed in this mission at this time! cool huh!!! Takagawa/Ken is my favorite person I`ve met, He looks like Ghandi and is hilarious in his cute little old man way. one week he gave us all rubber band guns made with chopsticks at english class for his show and tell! I love that man. Anyhow my time is up. I`ll talk to y`all next week.

Love,

Elder Pace

Yakiniku!‏

Okay, the one word that everyone understands and uses frequently even in japan even though they have their own word for it. there are lots of japanese words that get overrun by the english word which is cool and all, but they dont say it right! in english when we take a foreign word we pronounce it the same, but they take self, and make is se-ru-fu. and stuff like that, and its just weird and causes further language confusion.

anyway here is what happened this week. so we discovered the mcdonalds in yonago and since they had a buy one get one free deal, elder baker and i both got 4 big macs and possibly regretted it later... but mcdonalds is like classy over here compared to the USA. it is like the cool american place to eat. and yes we proved every american stereotype when we went there by ordering 4 sandwiches each... I just find it so funny when they try to be americans or do things the american way.

so here is what is going on with our investigators, well some of them, Ikeda is a man we met on the street and he contacted us after we gave him a flyer which was cool. Miyake we found just on the street and he told us at our first lesson with him that he thinks his purpose in life is to find the truth, he is super cool and I have a really good feeling about him. Tanaka is super weird and I think he is autistic, he is like a 24 year old smart alack (sp?) and he twists words of the scriptures and loves to be difficult. He doesnt get it basically but he still wants to meet. Nobu is 35 and he is really heavy, which is much more rare in Japan than in the USA. some of the chairs in Japan, Americans would not fit in it`s kind of sad. Nobu is pretty open to the message and is just super nice.

I went on an exchange to Matsue this week and that was good, that night we taught a less active family and their son asked me when I decided to come on a mission, I had not really thought of that before. I came to the conclusion that I didn`t, Rather, I decided to keep the commandments when I was baptized, and that I came on a mission because The Lord has asked that I go on a mission. I didnt go because I thought it would be cool, or that I wanted to learn a new language or travel to Japan, but because The Lord has asked me to go, and every other worthy young man in the church. I said this to try and touch the family`s son who was a few months older than me. it was a cool experience.

Also on my exchange, the Matsue elders have films of every general conference since 2004 and they watch them during lunch, dinner, any free time they have really, and I love it! I am so excited for conference! (and secretly wishing they extend the length of sister`s missions to 2 years...) I really can`t wait to hear the words of the prophets! but don`t spoil it for me because I think I get conference a week later than you all do in the states.

After district meeting on Friday we went to the Yakiniku, it is a rodizio grill kind of thing with all kinds of meat and sushi and stuff and in the middle of the table is a big grill and you just cook all of your own food and it`s all you can eat so we all just went crazy and ate way to much. I also had Takoyaki, which is Octopus in like a hush-puppy kind of breading and isnt bad, along with all sorts of meat, sushi and ice cream.

There is an elder in our district who we call `the sage` because he has been in the area FOREVER, and he is interesting, he memorized the testaments in Japanese and is always quoting it. he also wears biking gloves whenever he bikes, and has a disgusting glove tan line which is kind of yucky. 

anyway all is good here I guess, I am still struggling with Japanese, and what else, but I am good.

I Love and Miss you all!

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace

Yo yo yo it's LUNCHTIME!

As always it was fantastic to hear from home!!! I really miss all of you so much and I am really really homesick sometimes. I miss home, it`s just like the whole atmosphere of  home and everything. I feel like I know I`m doing the right thing here, but I struggle with missing our family. probably because you`re all so amazing and I love you so much! 

So this week was great statistically I had my first baptism! Honda Kyoudai was baptized and confirmed and I was able to participate in the confirmation. It was awesome to see how he changed and his outlook and how much confidence and how proud he was of himself. It reminded me of when I was baptized and how that week in primary I was so set on being perfect and being the best little 8 year old boy I could, and I looked at Honda Kyoudai and that he had that same transformation. 

I look up to my trainer for his Japanese ability and such, but he makes me worried that I`ll become weird while I`m out here. I hope I remain normal and personable.

So a few interesting things about Japan. They never toss things to each other. They like super humbly hand things to one another and it`s interesting. Also, when buying something, you don`t hand money to one another, you set it down and they pick it up. it`s a bit odd. There are a lot of interesting things, but I can never remember them all when I am trying to email. 

Eliza the gala sounded like it was really fun and a cool experience for everyone, good luck in a christmas carol! William, Congrats on cross-country that`s awesome! Soccer sounds rough, nice to see Toby is still the same old ..... Andrew, good luck in Chicago! I know you`ll be the best! I`m praying for you! Mom and Dad, you never say much about yourselves but I hope you`re doing great! Mimi and Papa, today is Respect Elders Day in Japan, a national holiday, so I want you to know that from 5,000 miles away I am respecting you!

Andrew and Dad, I want to thank you for the great examples you have been to me. Sometimes when things get really hard, I just think to myself, `What would Andrew do? or What would Dad have done?` and I work even harder after that. The Lord just wants me to give him my all, and there`s nothing more that I can give him. I`m so blessed to have such great examples in my life, I love you so much!

One thing that I have come to appreciate out here is that there`s always tomorrow. Even if I have the worst day I have ever had, that in less than 24 hours, It`ll be a new day, and I can try again! Each day is an opportunity to learn and grow. The problem I have is patience! Waiting for that new day is really hard sometimes. I really want to learn this language, and accomplish a lot, but I have to wait because it can`t come all at once. Line upon line, precept upon precept. 

I miss you and Love you all!

Love,

Jonathan, Elder Pace