You are able to can. (Week 16)

Konnichiwa!

How is life in the hood? I hear my homies are back in town. I'm glad to hear that. I hope they are awesomer than ever.

So this week has been fun. I feel like time flies like you wouldn't believe here. Its crazy talk. Every day there is a giant speaker that plays a weird song and then someone talks. Kusakabe Choro says it is saying the kids are coming home so now make them study. And all the dogs howl. It is funny. Every day. At the same time.

There is this flavor of candy and juice and soda that is called shikuwasa or something. I don't know how you would spell it in english. And It is like a fruit that only grows in Okinawa and is something like a lemon and a lime. I think the candy and stuff tastes like pine trees. Its weird. But good. And the candy is really difficult to find. And that's here in Okinawa. So we'll see if it is even available in the rest of Japan.

So. I told Erika this in the letter I'm sending today but I'm telling it again. So Erika. Don't read this next part. Wait for it to come to you. I mean it. Don't even think about it. You may not read this. Kore o yonde mo ii dewa arimasen. So. We tried to go visit that girl again whose dog we followed to her door. But she wasn't home. Again. We still haven't seen her yet. So we went to her neighbor instead. And this old Okinawan man with absolutely no teeth answered the door. And I taught the short version of the restoration to him. And we talked about the Book of Mormon. And he asked if it taught good things. And we said yes. And he said he was excited to read it with his grandson who is like six years old. So that was cool. And his name is Mr. Miyagi. How cool is that? Did you read it Erika? I knew it! I told you not to. Well its your letter that's spoiled. Anyways. He's awesome.

And now to spoil Kate's letter. We taught a couple yesterday. The wife is LDS and hasn't been active since she was in high school and has forgotten most of the religion. And the husband is Catholic but wants to find a religion. Catholic doesn't seem to do what he needs and he is looking for something more. So we taught them. And the husband loved it. He was just eating up every word we said. He kept asking questions to clarify and he kept saying it made sense and asked us when he could get a Book of Mormon. And we gave one to each of them last night when they took us home. We didn't have any english ones on us. It was so cool. The spirit was strong and the people are just awesome. I'm excited for them. I hope you didn't read that kate.

So yeah. I have been having a good time. I can't really speak to Japanese people but there are a lot of Americans I can teach well. It has been fun. I don't really know what else to say about this week.

I love you all. I miss you. But life is good. I'm loving it. Have a nice day. You are all awesome.

Love Josh

I refuse to explain. (Week 15)

So. Elder Peterson met our drunk investigator with a possessed house. We are all fairly certain now that he may get possessed when he's really drunk. That's the way it feels when we meet him super drunk. So we are trying to get this taken care of. And I'm pretty sure that he is lying about going to Texas for alcohol rehab. He keeps saying he's leaving and then something gets in the way again and again. And I'd like to point out that no one really seems to grasp the fact that he is a scary man and that this is a scary experience for me. Evil spirits never were something I liked. But don't worry about me. I'll be just fine. I'll just be nervous every time we meet this man.

I had another scary experience this week. I woke up in the middle of the night one night and Elder Buckingham was laughing in his sleep. It was super creepy. He thought that was pretty funny. He doesn't remember anything about it. So only I got to experience that.

A while ago I saw something I never want to see again. I was riding my bike and some old man was walking on the sidewalk. And then that old man decided he wanted to relieve the pressure on his bladder right on the sidewalk as I rode past him. That was cool.

So the senior missionary that lives just above me named Elder Watson made me aware that Nephites are mentioned in the Old Testament. In Daniel 5:6. And they really are. I was surprised.

So here's a fun word. Fuafua. It means fluffy. That is my favorite Japanese word so far.

The other day I had sweet potato ice cream. It was pretty good. It was an ice cream cone. And they gave me a spoon to eat it with. And so I ate it with a spoon. I like sweet potato ice cream. It was at like a Kadena Air Base museum. I don't know if sweet potato ice cream is something special or something but it was the only flavor they had. Well that and vanilla but vanilla doesn't count as a flavor. Its more the lack of flavor. anyways. I just thought that was a weird flavor to have at that kind of museum.

So we go to the base twice or thrice a week I think. The groceries are cheaper there and we do a lot of stuff with members on base. And we decided to go to Chilis this past week. And it was so delicious. I really like that place. It was a tough decision to make because we don't really like paying that much for lunch. But we did it for a special thing. And then a guy next to us refused to let us pay for our food. He paid for it all. None of us know who he was and he didn't really seem like a member by anything he said or did. He didn't seem to know that we were missionaries. Anyways. He was just a really nice man. Eating out with his two little daughters.

There are a lot of members on base that we don't know. People drive past us and honk and wave all the time and none of us know who they are. And random people just walk past us and say hi elders. Its something I never expected in Japan.

I went on exchanges for my first time this week. The day we went to Chilis. With Elder Hill. And it lasted until sunday night. It is only supposed to be 24 hours. But this was like a day or two too long. But it was fun. I like Elder Hill. I also met a crazy old man that sounded like he was just making strange grunting noises for speech and I couldn't understand anything. But Elder Hill did. So I guess he was speaking.

And I thought this was interesting. I find it easier to say a few things in Japanese than in english. Its much simpler and clearer in Japanese every now and then and you would have to go on for a long time in a really weird way to be as clear about what you mean. And it would be awkward english.

So I got to watch conference this weekend. In english. Thank goodness. It was really cool. I really enjoyed it. Conference is so good. I can't wait for the next one now. It was so cool. Lots of good stuff. I can't wait for the conference ensign to come out. It was just so good. I want to watch it again but I can't. I have no time for such things. Anyways. I just got real excited. It was like I was watching something back in time. I had a Doctor Who moment. I was watching the past from the future. I'm a day ahead of you. So I'm pretty much Doctor Who. So how is home? Is life good? I'm glad to hear you found yourselves a car. And that you are getting the medical help you need. That's good. I'm glad to hear there is good news but I'm not glad that I have to wait to hear. I kind of wish I could know now. I better get that letter soon or so help me I will pray for you so hard.

I did tell Elder Buckingham to write kate. I just said hey write one of my sisters. Ok. and then he did. You don't have to write back or anything. Just whatever.

Well. I think I'm done for this week. Japan is still awesome. I'm still happy. I still can't understand these people. But someday I will. So farewell. Have a good week. Tell Kujo I love her. Tell the ward I love them all individually. Especially the Stephens. And Especially the other Liddles. And Especially the rest of the ward too. Anyways. Heian soto.

Love Elder Liddle.

Home and General Center of the Living (Week 14)

こんにちは！[Hello!]

I hope all is well in the Liddle house on the prairie. All is well here in California. I mean Japan. Sometimes I can't tell which one it is. Okinawa is like a Japanese California with a lot of Americans polluting the population with their whiteness. And on Kadena air base it is exactly like the base we stay at in San Diego only with different trees and everyone drives on the left side of the road. And yes I bought my bike at the base. Its totally hot stuff.

So I hear Jeff and Ben are home. Tell them I say hi. They are cool. I miss them and I'm sad that I won't get to see them for a long time. So Elder Peterson is one of the zone leaders. I live with him. And he said something that boosted my confidence in myself learning Japanese quickly so much it will make your ancestors dizzy. He said he is so glad he has Elder Kusakabe as his companion or he would lose all his Japanese being here in Okinawa where we are over three american military branches and one Japanese ward and spend most of our time working with american members and stuff. That made me feel real good about learning Japanese here. I also here the Japanese in Okinawa is weird. So if I do ever learn it then I'll have to relearn if I ever leave Okinawa. He also says this is very american Japan. The rest of Japan is even more Japanese than this.

I love Kusakabe Choro. He is so funny. He can't speak english very well so its hard to communicate with him. But he keeps learning the weirdest sentences and says them to me at random times. Like love me tender. And the black magician is cruising for a bruising. He is so funny. And it is our goal to speak each others languages only. So I speak to him in Japanese and he speaks in English. Its super hard. Japanese is so crazy.

We went around knocking on doors and found an old man that let us in. I couldn't understand him. And he couldn't understand me. His house was very Japanesey. That was cool. He said we could come back next week but not every week. We also tried to visit a guy that Elder Buckingham has met before but he wasn't home. And then we saw a dog but it would keep walking away when we tried to get near. And Elder Buckingham shook his finger at it and said Don't make me teach your family! And then the dog ran off. And Elder Buckingham said That's it! You asked for it! And we followed it home to a house with the door wide open. And talked to the girl there for a while about religion and anime and manga. She showed us a manga book she's reading about Jesus Christ and Buddha hanging out together on earth just having fun. It was a little weird and she was worried we would get mad about it. But it was kind of funny. I've never seen such a book. And she said we could come back sometime this week. So we'll see where that goes.

We are teaching a kid named A_____. We are teaching him in english so I can participate equally. And he's awesome. I love him. He needs to be baptized. And I think he's almost there. And I had a cool experience teaching him on Saturday. I think it was mostly just for me and not so much for him. But he said he was looking up the church on the internet and found stuff about tithing and asked about it and he said he likes to see where his money is going and I then said members of the church can see where there money is when another temple is announced and built. And people get so excited because the temple is so important to the church members and stuff. And I felt the spirit so strong when I said that. I almost cried right there. It was a really cool experience for me. I love temples so much. I am realizing more how important temples are. Its super cool.

So I found a smashed lizard on a door frame in my apartment. On the part where the door touches it when its closed. The side with the hinges. A lizard was there and then the door was closed on it. And I guess its been there for a really long time. I took a picture of it. I'll send it home sometime.

I get to watch general conference next week. So don't worry. I get to see it all. In english. Because of all the americans here. I'm excited for it.

I'm glad to hear you got a letter from President Margetts. He's super cool. I like him a lot. He's such a nice guy. I'll miss him when he changes into a different President. But the next president should be good.

We haven't been able to see our alcholic investigator having problems with evil spirits yet. We're pretty sure that when he gets really drunk he's being possessed and stuff. Its scary but the last couple times we talked to him on the phone he was sober and seems to be doing a little better. He leaves for america on wednesday. And he wants to have all four of us over on tuesday. So I think that will be the time we go into his room. And after he leaves we will hopefully still teach his family. So I think this story is going to conclude well.

Well I think that is life right now in Japan. Its weird. Its hard. But its fun. I'm really lucky to get to go somewhere this cool. And I tell myself I'm lucky to get to speak a really hard language. Maybe someday I'll believe that. Have yourselves a nice day. Don't crash any more cars. I don't enjoy hearing about the deaths occuring among our cars.

I love you. Don't forget that.

Love Josh

People who get paid to do this deserve money. (Week 13)

Konnichiwa!

Or Konbanwa. I think its night time for you. Its about noon for me. Whatevers. So. This week has been intersting. Awesome and freaky and weird and interesting. I'll start with the weirdest thing first. So we have an investigator. A retired Marine. And he's from Texas. I really haven't taught much in Japanese yet. We have lots of english speakers here. His name is J_____. So J_____ is interesting. He is an alcholic. I've only met him once but Buckingham Choro says he's pretty cool most of the time. But that time I met him I was afraid. He was drunk. I hear he's drunk a lot. And he was convinced Satan was in his bedroom. He said no one will go in his room and all his animals are afraid of it and he said his clock was thrown across the room. He made us take the clock with us. And he was very scary. He was obviously scared. And he was very angry. There were times when I actually feared for our physical safety. His wife wouldn't let us in the house because it was dirty. So we were outside. After we left we talked to Elder Watson the senior missionary. He said we should go into the room and see if we feel any evil spirits there and then go talk to this guy in the branch presidency and see if we will have to cast out devils. Its possible that J_____ was just way drunk. But Elder Buckingham says he wasn't acting in his normal drunk way. So this might be real. J_____ is also going to go to an alcoholic recovery place in Texas. So good for him. We haven't been able to go into his room yet. But we will this week sometime.

So I have a bike here. I haven't actually bought a bike yet. A missionary is selling me this bike and I haven't got his money to him yet. But as I use this bike which is supposedly like new I notice lots of issues with it. So I'm going to try to get a new bike today sometime. This bike so isn't a good one. I would hate to use it for two years. Even for such a low price.

I eat lots of good stuff here. I like almost all of the food I've had. I haven't eaten at any Japanese members houses yet. Just americans. And some japanese food places and Kusakabe choro makes stuff sometimes. The hardest thing I've eaten with chopsticks is Jello. They actually do that here. Its so hard. Chopsticks are just hard in general. Jello is the ultimate test. If you can do that you can do anything. And I have done it. But it takes twenty tries and I keep cutting the jello in half. Its so hard.

So I heard the word discotheque. I think it has something to do with disco. At church on Sunday I saw an old Japanese man with green hair. What is that about? I asked Kusakabe Choro and he just said crazy man. Kusakabe Choro is learning english. He's really good but its hard to communicate with him because he doesn't know that much english and I know no Japanese. But he's fun. He keeps coming to me with random phrases in english. One day I was expressing frustration with Japanese and then like three hours later he just walks in to my room and says be patient with yourself. I didn't know what he was talking about. And he has lots of other weird random english he keeps saying to me. He's pretty hilarious.

I learned something new about Japanese. I can understand the words Japanese people use but then not understand what they are saying. I guess there are weird ways of putting words together to mean something and it means nothing to me. That will be fun to figure out. I have had Japanese people tell me that my pronunciation is really good. And that I look like a really kind person. I said a prayer and they thought it sounded very Japanese. I get asked to say the prayer all the time. Just so you know.

So I love walking around the streets handing out eikaiwa fliers and talking to people about whatever. It is so fun. I especially love talking to teenagers. They actually take the time to sit and talk with you about whatever and about the gospel. I gave them Book of Mormons. But they didn't want to meet with me. Anyways. It is just super fun to try to talk to them on the streets.

Word of wisdom from the week. Don't be fooled by the science.

The toilet in my apartment is kind of scary. But I'll live. The toilets in the mission home are the bomb. They have heated seats! What?! That's the best thing ever. And they squirt water at you. Which I was very scared to try out for the first time. I was sitting there for like five minutes working up the courage to use the water feature. And it was amazing. I need a toilet like that in my house. The toilet paper here isn't awful. But its not the quality of my imported toilet paper.

The Fukuoka temple is cool. Its pretty small. And I couldn't go in. But maybe someday. That would be super cool. Japanese candy is really good. And in the mission home I had this super good cereal. It was the best I've ever had. It beats any american cereal. But It is so expensive. Like ten bucks a bag. So that made me sad. I'm not really willing to spend that much on cereal.

So we like to go visit members on the military base and its like a big deal to get us on the base because the member or less active member or whoever has to come take us on. And then Peterson Choro found out I have a military id. He said that can get us on. Is that true? He said he talked to a member about it and he said its true and I can like buy stuff on base and stuff for a better price. But I don't know these things.

I only found the one lizard in my apartment. I don't think it happens often. And Okinawa is pretty I guess. It is full of cement buildings. So that's not to best. And on the military base it is exactly like being on base in California except people drive on the wrong side of the road. And the trees are different. The Dr. Pepper here is absolutely delicious. I love it. It is so so good. And cheap. I plan on enjoying it for my stay here in Okinawa.

I found out that Buckingham Choro goes home in two transfers. I'll probably be his last companion. That made me sad. I like this guy. He's super funny. And I get along with him well.

And I was deeply saddened to hear about Kozmo. That is not good news. I hope things work out ok with the car. Don't be too sad dad. Life is still ok. Maybe you can get a better car. I don't know. Good luck. Ganbatte Kudasai.

Well I think I will go now. And enjoy the rest of my Monday. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Love Elder Who

Some Japan Pics from Elder Liddle

Throw out everything! We're going Nano Blocks! (Week 12)

So I'm in Japan. And I found something in the store. Nano Blocks. They are Legos. But like ten times as small. Its crazy cool. I want some. So I spent a coulple days in mission home under the temple. That was fun. I met an Elder Usui. He is just barely learning english on his mission. And people teach him to say the funniest things. He called me a lazy missionary on the first day because I rode in the van instead of a bike and he says you are so darling and lets go dogs. Its hilarious.

So my companion. His name is Elder Buckingham. He is from Australia. He has a cool accent. He is also the funniest guy I've ever met. I've met like three of those in the past few weeks. He's cool. I like him. We have a lot of fun together. Imagine the way we say the letter h. Something like atche. He says it hatche. It was way weird when I first heard that.

So I forgot to say that I'm in Okinawa. I got to ride one more plane here. Yay. I hate planes. I live close to Kadena air base. And at church yesterday I went to two wards. Both of them english military wards. I played soccer on saturday with a bunch of people from the english wards. I've met all kinds of americans. Not very many Japanese people. That's weird. And I've never been in such humidity. And I hear the summer gets worse. Its crazy. But on the brightside when I get thirsty all I have to do is breathe.

Elder Buckingham and I were asked on Saturday to teach the gospel principles class on sunday. About charity. It went real good I think. We live with the zone leaders. Elder Peterson and Elder Kusakabe. Kusakabe Choro doesn't really speak english. So I've met a little bit of Japanese.

Our apartment was basically really dirty and have been spending most of our time cleaning it up. Its taking a long time. We sleep on the floor in weird Japanese beds. They're pretty comfortable.

Every week we have eikaiwa. Which is teaching Japanese people to speak english. Thats fun. Another opportunity to not speak Japanese. I wonder if I'lll ever learn this language. Like half of our investigators are american. And this week I have to teach the advanced eikaiwa class by myself. but that will be easy because I just need to speak english.

On my first day in Japan I went out with an Elder Obayashi and I gave someone a Book of Mormon. That was scary. Very scary. But he took it and it was ok. I am kind of nervous about all this. But whatever. I'll be fine.

So my address is as follows:
Japan Fukuoka Mission
Fukuoka ken Fukuoka shi chuo ku
hirao josui machi 9-16
810-0029

I love japanese stores. They have so much and it is all so awesome. So far the food has been awesome. Chopsticks are hard. Every liquid I have had here is way better than the american version of whatever it is. Except cream soda. Jones is best. And I saw dr pepper here. I haven't tried it yet. Apparantly its only in Okinawa. Because of all the americans. I'm basically in america where everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. and I can't read anything.

The first couple days in Okinawa were hard for me. It was like leaving my home again. But I've adjusted. And I like it here. I'm excited to go teach people.

Well I'm a bit overwhelmed. I hope all is well at home. I love you all so much. I miss you but I'm coming home in a little while so I'll wait
to see you. Only like 21 months left or something. Don't die anyone. You are all too cool. I love you. Take care of Kujo. Don't tell her that I spent time with a small dog the other evening. It would only make her jealous.

Love Josh

A few MTC pics.