Just Dendoing (Week 97)

Hello. I am writing you for the second to last time. How weird is that? I'm about done with this gig. It feels weird. But more on how I feel later. Firstly I'll try to reply to what emails I received from base camp this week.

 

As far as where I want to live for school, I wanted to live at home for a bit but was too afraid to say it. So that is chodo ii. That works out just right. I would love to work with Jon again if he would be willing to work with me again. I know I was probably just annoying to him and the rest of the crew. And now I have school which will make me even more annoying. But if his heart is going to be filled with compassion towards me then I gladly want to work with him again.

 

I'm sorry to hear about the bug. But reliable transportation is important these days I guess.

I don't know everything about my classes yet. I need to go to the orientation thing now (which I scheduled as a date with my mother the monday after I get home, よろしく) and I need to take some stupid test that I will do quite horribly on before I can sign up for math and english classes and so I need to talk to my advisor after I do those things and then I will know about all of my classes.

Mom, you asked a bunch of questions in a row. Here are your answers. My week was fine. Two investigators made progress this week, more on that later. The work is unstoppable. I'm very happy, and sad, and stressed, and complicated. More on that later. Of course I'm not cooking. Who do you think I am? My companion and I get along great. I love Elder Eckman. He's the man. I sleep on a futon. Its like a mattress that is two inches thick if you're lucky. I have two. And you just fold them up in the morning. Which I forgot to do today. Good heavens I can't remember my waist size. I still wear some jeans I brought with me that do kind of slightly ok ish on the few days that I need them. But good heavens I have gotten fatter.

 

That's nice that dad got a new car. I hope he really enjoys it. I have felt bad ever since the mercedes was taken out by that ruthless nameless villain. I know what its like to have a car you love dearly be out of commission. And now I've known twice.

 

So this past week was good. Do you remember H___ san? Yeah. We meant to call him to see if we could meet with him on Saturday. And then he beat us to it and called us! What? No one ever does that. He is so cool. And the lesson went so awesome. That was just a really good day. He is a super cool dude. I love that man. And then the next day he gave me a heart attack by not showing up to church. For five minutes. And then he came and had a good time and it was the primary program week so everyone was getting slapped in the face with the Spirit the whole time and it just rocked. And H___2 san came to church as well. Which no one expected. She won't ever commit to going to church. And after she said things like I'm glad I came and it was fun and stuff. So as far as investigators go this week we had some success with them. So I am happy. And H___ san is just way sick. He's teaching me some Vietnamese. Its way hard. Japanese is way easier. He's sick.

Dad. Hurry and reply and tell me what you want from Japan. I've got something for mom and Erika and I will get something for Kate today but I just don't know what to do for you. So tell me. This is not an option.

 

Well I am nearing the end of my mission. And everyone asks me how it feels to be so close to the end. How it feels to be going home. And all of the members, who I know pretty well after ten months in the same ward, all make jokes about how I am leaving. That was weird when that started. I feel nervous for going home. Really nervous. To be honest for a while I was getting super homesick and was losing motivation to work but now that's over. I just love dendo and I love the mission and I want to keep going. I now tell people if I could extend for another year and not have to worry about anything at home then I would extend. I love Japan. I love the Japanese people. I don't want to leave here. I love it so much. You have no idea what its like being in this extremely foreign country and then growing so accustomed to it and loving the people so much that it really just becomes home. I don't want to leave this country. But I am also so excited to go home and see my mom and my dad and my little sisters. And Kujo. And I am so excited to play the cello again. I am excited to go to school and start moving forward in life. I am excited that I kind of have a plan and a goal in sight after the mission. I'm excited to figure out now how to be a member missionary. And I am excited for a country that has wide roads and proper air conditioning. Its all really confusing. I feel mixed emotions. But at the same time it hasn't quite hit me that I am going home. I just feel like I want to dendo every day and then the day I go home will sneak up on me. Or it will just feel like a normal transfer or something. Well maybe not. I never really had a normal transfer. But it just hasn't hit me. I know I'm leaving in less than two weeks now. But just how short that time is hasn't connected.

So there you go. That's how I feel these days. I'll keep working hard right to the very end. Don't you worry about that. Nothing could quench the dendo fire I feel right now. 最後まで楽しく頑張ろう！

 

I hope you are all doing well. I love you so much.

 

Love Elder Liddle Cholo.

Very fast week (Week 97)

Good morning yall in Utah. I hope you are all doing well. I am doing pretty well I suppose. Life is crazy. And its still hard. But I'll keep fighting through to the end. Dad said he didn't understand the subject to my last email. It says happy halloween but spelled in Japanese. Happi harouin. Erika should be able to read this stuff by now. Ask her.

 

I have just about everything taken care of for school. There are things that I need to do when I get home and I was wondering when we were going to be gone so I know which day to sign up for. If there is any important information in the stuff in the mail you can just tell me but I don't think there is anything I don't already know. I register for classes today and then it will all be done until I can get home. And as far as where I'm living I haven't really done much thinking about that. Elder Trane may or may not be able to go to UVU this time around so living with him won't be possible. He's from Colorado. They messed up his flight plans so he has to fly to Salt Lake and then to Colorado instead of straight to Colorado from wherever we land in America first. So anyways. I don't know what to do about where I live. I don't really care either.

 

Not very much happened in my week either. H___ was not able to come to church. He is really busy this week with preparing for some interview he will have in Japanese. But this coming weekend we will probably be able to meet him. M_____ chan is not answering her phone or texts. And we went all the way to her house on the mountain far away and only spoke to her sister. I don't know how she's doing. The only investigator we were able to meet was H___ san and she just isn't moving forward very much. We hope to change that. But until then its kind of frustrating.

 

In other news a few weeks ago we knocked on the door of this young family and talked to the father who was very kind and kind of interested so we gave him a Book of Mormon. And he said he was too busy to set a return appointment so we couldn't quite rope him in. And then we visited him again on Saturday but this time met his wife and two small super cute little Japanese children. And she was very nice. We had a nice little talk. And asked if we could come another time to share our message. And she said yes but she wants to listen with her husband. Which no Japanese woman ever says. The biggest problem in Japanese families is that the dad and the rest of the family are not very connected. But this family seems to be doing very well. And we will meet them on Friday morning. These are my first new investigators in a really long time. So I am really excited about that.

 

Is there anything you want from Japan? I took the money out but am having trouble spending it. I got some cool stuff for you but now I don't know what to get except for stuff I just want to take home. So if you want something tell me. Asap. Like right after you read this email.

 

Well I have only two and a half weeks left. I never thought I would get this close to the end. Its kind of scary. I don't know what to do with myself. I will probably just continue working hard. I have done a lot of thinking about missionaries I have known that just kind of shut down at the end of their missions. I've known a few. And I really don't want to be like that. So I will tanoshiku ganbaru. And work until the very last second. Maybe I'll still dendo people in America until I get released.

 

Anyway. I love you all so much. Have a good week.

 

Love Elder Liddle 長老

ハッピーハロウィーン！(Week 96)

I'm going to Miyajima again for the last time today and I'll make sure to get you guys some good stuff. Its the best place to go to get just a bunch of cool stuff. Like swords. :) If you have any requests for anything cool from Japan please let me know but odds are I won't get that email today and you will probably end up not getting it. Unless its easy to find in a normal store. Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu.

 

So you said something about a car and the lumina not working and stuff. There is a really nice beetle next to our house I think. It might not work either but I'm sure it could if there was but a little love thrown its way. よろしくおねがいいたします。

 

If Jon thinks I can work for him and go to school then I think that is what I would want to do. But I don't really know much about my schedule yet. Up until today I have been working every week with UVU to be able to just get in. There are a lot of things that I need to have them let me postpone in order to go. And there is just one more thing I need to do and then everything will be in the clear to register for classes at the beginning of November. And then the lady also told me to go meet her when I get home to see if I can't start some math and english as well after I get some test taken. So we'll see how that all works out in the end. I don't really know whats going on.

 

I saw that picture of some girl I don't recognize and the missionaries from Nathan and Sadie. That one was pretty funny. I actually did have my first dangerous encounter with a dog this past week. That dog wanted to kill me. But I got out of there before he could even touch me.

 

Japanese people don't really celebrate Halloween. They do get a bunch of decorations out in the stores and stuff but none of them even know what day Halloween is. They all know its probably at the end of October but that's it. Our ward just had a Halloween party this week and it was pretty good. A lot of nonmembers came. And it was just pretty fun. I didn't really have any costume. I was boring. But Halloween in Japan is not nearly as good as Halloween in America. American Halloween isn't that awesome either but at least the candy is good. There was no good candy at our party.

We did meet with H___ again. And he is going to be our investigator. It was an awesome lesson with him. He said over and over that he wants to believe and we told him what to do in order to believe and he said he was going to do it. And it was legit. But he didn't end up coming to church and we don't know why. I hope he is ok. We can't meet him again until the weekend because he is so busy with work through the week. I hope all is ok. He's awesome.

 

M_____ chan にも we met her. We went with the sisters to see her. And it was really good. A really good little meeting. And Sister Nihei asked M_____ chan what she wanted from God as far as help goes. And she said she wanted help with her sickness. And she just about started crying as she said that. And then Nihei shimai came in with the testimony and promise of God being able to help her and it was awesome. Sister missionaries are so awesome. We also learned that M_____ will be leaving her hospital to go live with grandma at some point. As to when she is leaving for grandma's house that is kind of unclear at this point. But she is no longer in the hospital. I also don't know how long she will be at grandma's. But I hope its forever. I always walk away from her lessons thinking that I just want to bring her home and let her join my family and see how a real family is. Its so sad. Thank you for being such a wonderful family. I don't think you realize how awesome your family is when you are just hanging around in Utah until you get out and see what families are like out in places like Japan. So thanks for being so awesome. I love you.

 

There was a lot of rain and bad weather this week so dendo was really difficult. I got super soaked and it was cold. Its been getting colder here finally. Japan is too hot. And too humid. So even when its cold its not really fun.

 

I'm just a 普通 missionary. Don't go around telling people I'm awesome or anything. I'm just the regular diggedy. But I do plan to work hard until the very end. The very last day. The very last hour. I sure don't want to leave my mission. I love being a missionary. I love Japan so much. Well for these last few weeks 楽しく頑張りましょう！

 

Love Liddle 長老

言いたいことはない (Week 95)

It has been yet another week. And it has been really fast. I don't really know where the time goes. I can't really remember what I did. But I know I was busy. I do remember that we went to Fukuoka for MLC again. That was fun. I only get one more of those. I love being in the mission home with President. It was also really interesting this time because we went to Fukuoka the night before without any real permission to do so and met up with 4 other zone leaders and went to all talk to President about a problem that we were all having. I was nervous to go without permission to leave early and talk about what we talked about but it really had to be done for the good of the mission. And so we did it. And President was just so full of understanding and love. And I just love that guy. So it went really well and I think things here will run a lot more smoothly for the whole mission. I am excited to work to the end of my last transfer.

 

Everyone keeps treating me weird now. They all make jokes about how I am going home soon and stuff. The problem with being in the same ward for almost a whole year is that they all get to know you really well and then they just make fun of you the whole time. Even President was talking about how I am about done. I just don't think that is something I want to think about right now. I just want to fight to the end. But I am excited to go home and see everyone.

 

We were able to meet M_____ chan again. This time we only biked most of the way and took a bus the rest of the way up the mountain. She is doing ok. She seems pretty genki when we meet her. I don't really think she needs to be in this hospital anymore. I think she is ok now. It seems like she is only here so that her mother can get rid of her. And she said that she and her mother were going to go to Okayama ken over the weekend to talk to her grandmother about having her go live with her grandmother in Okayama until who knows when. That is not in our mission so I don't want her to leave but I also think that it would be much better for her to live with grandma. It sounds like she is actually nice. So I don't know what will happen. But I hope things work out ok. I just don't know what to do for her. Its hard. But I guess we will just keep sharing the gospel.

 

Yesterday the Hikari sisters had us go with them to meet a potential investigator they had who is a man named H___. That is how you spell it in Japanese. It might be Juan in English. Anyways he is from Vietnam. And he is really cool. He really has a lot of interest in the gospel and he wants to come to church and listen to our message. And it sounds like he really wants to learn to pray. He was concerned that prayer might only be possible in Japanese. But we told him Vietnamese is ok too. So we don't know if he is going to be our investigator or the sisters investigator or both. But he is cool. And I think is ready to receive the gospel.

 

When I first went zone leader my zone was like 24 missionaries. And now my zone is 34 missionaries. It is a lot of people to keep track of. The mission is getting huge. And missionaries just keep getting dumped into my zone where you don't think there would be room for them. Its awesome. I'm sad I have to go home right as things are getting crazy.

 

Well I feel like I didn't really say anything this week. Sorry about that. I love you all. And I can't wait to see you. But until then tanoshiku ganbaro!

 

And by the way the word for hello in Vietnamese sounds like the Japanese word for unfortunately

die. Just so you know.

 

Love Elder Liddle