Your Ishigaki are continually before me. (Week 22)

Ishigaki is in the Book of Mormon! Read 1 Nephi 21:16. Ishigaki means stone wall. Don't ask why the Japanese one says stone in it.

So this week we went to Naha for zone conference. I got to meet new missionaries and make new friends and go on junkai with Elder Kusakabe! I love that man. And Junkai means companion exchanges. Basically. Anyways. I love Kusakabe Choro. He is my zone leader again but in a different zone. He is so cool. Anyways. I also got to see president again and meet with him. That wonderful blessed man. He goes home at the end of June. And I'm really going to miss him. I got a Japanese Book of Mormon that is really nice and pretty and small like my english ones. And a Japanese bible to match. Reading the Book of Mormon is fun because there is a lot I understand now and that I can figure out because I already know the stories and stuff. Its hard but fun. And slow. I've read like 4 chapters in a few days. And this last trip to Naha and back to Ishigaki were my 8th and 9th airplanes! On my mission. I love flying. It's so much fun. except that on flight to Tokyo. I still haven't recovered from that one. That was way too long.

So yeah. I gave a talk yesterday about family. That was way hard. It was like 4 minutes long and most of the time was filled with me stumbling over my words until I found the right ones. It was quite the experience. But it went kind of ok and I was able to say that I love my family very much and that I left them so I can help other families be together forever too.

I'm glad to hear school is about out. That's fun. I just thought about that yesterday. It hit me that you are all celebrating school being out and I just barely realized it was May. But now May is gone and its about June. And today marks the 5 months on my mission! I can't believe how much time is flying. Its crazy.

I saw Elder Buckingham for the last time last week at zone conference. He goes home after this transfer. This transfer ends on June 7. That's sad to me. But I'm happy for him. He's a good man.

Elder Munro and I are getting along great. We are going to call President Margetts and tell him that we have a plan for Ishigaki but that it takes six months to accomplish so neither of us can transfer until then. And the I will have to transfer back for the last six months of my mission to make sure nothing in ishigaki falls apart or anything. So I like Elder Munro enough to be ok being his companion for six months. He's pretty cool.
We are trying to get [our investigator] to progress but she wants to write to a leader of the catholic church in Nagoya first. Before she agrees to be baptized. So we'll see how that goes. If he says yes to converting then she will convert. If he says no then she will study and pray more. So pray that she will get the answer she needs from God. She is really close though. We are pretty excited.

We found a new guy to teach kind of. He wants us to go to his house to teach him English. And then we said at the end we like to share a spiritual message and stuff. And he said yes please do. So we met him for the first time yesterday. He is such a nice wonderful man. And we had a great time teaching him English and then we shared a good message about the restoration. He has a friend in our branch. So he already knew about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and so that was cool. And he seemed to think everything was pretty good with what we taught. And he prayed at the end of our appointment. So he could really go places. I hope things work for him. We can't consider him an investigator yet. But soon.

We are also making a little bit of progress with a family that speaks perfect english. The kids are progressing really slowly but I think they are progressing. And I don't think the mom is progressing. But we are going to change that. I think we have a good chance at getting at least the kids to church this next week. We will see. That wonderful blessed family. I love them.

Well I'm going to head out. I love you. My saiwai de aru kazoku. Good luck translating that. I had to learn it from a Japanese missionary. And the Book of Mormon. De aru is plain form desu. See if you can figure the rest out. I love you very much. And I love this tiny little island. Pray that they don't transfer me next week. Or Elder Munro either. Peace out.

Love, リドル長老

Maternity on Board. I am safety driver. (Week 21)

So this week was pretty good. We flew to another island called Miyako to go on companion exchanges with the district leader and his companion. We flew there on Tuesday and flew back on Wednesday in a tiny plane that holds like less than 40 people. A propeller plane. It was fun. That brings me up to 7 planes on my mission. Its crazy. I like flying. And in a couple days I fly to Naha on Okinawa island for zone conference. When I was on Miyako I was with Elder Ogita. Not the district leader. And he doesn't speak english very well at all. So we struggled communicating. But it was ok. And scary. He made me speak Japanese to people. It was hard but I do it a lot these days so its not as scary as it once was. Elder Ogita is super funny. He would tell me things like every companion he has had who had a girlfriend got dear johned and then he said because we were companions for a day it will happen to me too. He said its his power to curse missionaries with girlfriends. He is hilarious. I love that man.

We went to the immigration office this week because Elder Munro's visa was only for one year and he just hit a year on his mission so we had to take care of it. And when we walked into the building no one was there and I said this feels like we just walked into the ministry of magic at night. And as we walked through hallways lights were turning on and I expected to look in an office and see a bunch of goblins or something arguing in a language I can't speak. Which pretty much happened. And then when we found the office we were looking for a guy there had a shirt on that said Ministry of Justice. How's that for weird.

We've been teaching this lady and she is Catholic. But she really doesn't like the Catholic church she goes to anymore and she loves that we have the priesthood and stuff and she is totally going to get baptized. We just need to giver her some more time. I can't understand her at all and elder Munro can barely understand her because she just speaks really sloppily. But we get by somehow. She is also probably trying to become a nun. We may have misunderstood that but we're pretty sure that's right. But we are still confident she will get baptized soon. She is just loving our religion.

I conducted sacrament meeting on sunday. And that went horribly wrong. I couldn't understand any of the Japanese I was using so I just said what Elder Munro said to say and I put the names where he said. But he told me wrong. I said sister Izumi was conducting. And that Elder Munro was doing something else that I didn't understand. And it all went crashing down in flames. But then I used my limited japanese to pull it back together and corrected the problems. And it was all good. What a good experience.

Its been really hot and humid here. So humid that I really can't even comprehend it. And so hot. Except when we go outside. Then it starts raining. And that is completely true. It happened today. And it happened a couple days ago twice. It really only rains when we go outside. This place is really small. There are a lot of businesses and stuff and a lot of houses. And its all close together. Its like no tall buildings. Just like two story buildings that just keep going for a while until you finally make it to houses then to nothingness. If that makes sense. we live close to the middle of the city. Which seems small. But that's because everyone is spread out evenly until you just reach wilderness. So its kind of big. But not nearly as big as like cities in Utah. Anyways. That was really confusing.

I do remember the Northridge 3k with you mom. I was just thinking about that the other day. That was fun. The good old days. I miss my cane. Take good care of it for me. And maybe I'll be able to do another 3k with you when I get home.

I hope you all don't get too sick back home. I hope you get better and stuff. Sick isn't too fun. And I do have the ward newsletters mailed to me already. So that's ok if you don't mail them to me. But I would like Laurel's stuff. It would be nice to hear how things are going down in that part of the hood.
Take care of Kujo for me. I miss her. That little blessed puppy. Saiwai de aru koinu. And at least touch my car every once in a while so it too knows that it is loved. I would appreciate that.

I love it here. I am having a great time. Japanese is kicking my trash but I'm ok. Ishigaki is the best place on earth. I love it here. I can't transfer from here. Time is flying so fast here. We are already over half way through this transfer. I better not transfer soon. I need a good six more months here to finish my work. And then I need to spend the last six months of my mission. Anyways. I love you.

Bye bye.

Love リドル長老

P.S. I went in for vegetable juice and I came out with peanut butter cup.

Let's Value a Sea Indefinitely (Week 20)

So this week was so busy and I'm still exhausted but we didn't do like any dendo stuff. Dendo is like missionary work or mission or stuff. Its a universal word. We spent all week decorating the church for the open house we had and for branch council and stuff and it took forever. Elder Munro made a room dedicated to the plan of salvation that was super cool. And I made one for the restoration. I even made the first vision out of paper. And everyone loved it. Crazy Japanese people. It was a lot of fun. I love our branch.

I'm glad to hear everyone is leaving on their missons and stuff. It is so awesome. I've already learned so much from mine. And I still have 19 months to go. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to come home pretty awesome. Tell everyone that I love them for going on missions. It really is an amazing experience.

Yesterday I was talking to this Japanese lady for like an hour and it was just funny because she would speak to me in Japanese and I would understand her and I would speak in english because I didn't know the Japanese to express myself but she understood the english. It was just kind of funny. She is super cool.

One of the branch presidents daughters taught me how to use a Harry Potter spell in Japanese that they actually translated because it wasn't like made up words. When Ron says to Malfoy Eat Slugs! it is english. So they translated it into Japanese. Namekuji Kurae!

By the way it was super fun to talk to you this morning. Or last night to you. It was exciting. I hope you are having a wonderful Mother's Day, Mom. Haha no Hi Omedeto!

So I don't really have much else to say. I love you all. 愛しているよ。 Have a wonderful evening and sleep well tonight. Now I must dendo.

Love リドル長老

I've got nothing to write here this week. (Week 19)

Well it has already been another week. I hope you are all doing well. I know I am doing pretty well. Life in Ishigaki is exciting and busy. So yeah. It sounds in your emails like you are doing alright these days. I'm happy to hear that.

So I'm getting to know some of the members here more. That's nice. They are wonderful people. I love them. Only they don't speak english. But I'm kind of learning japanese so maybe it will turn out ok. I was sharing a scripture with a member yesterday and she said that she really likes how I speak slowly because it gives every word meaning and she likes how I speak very politely and she felt the spirit because of that. So that's good. People can feel the spirit when I speak. And that's all that really matters I guess. It was cool to hear that she appreciated my japanese.

The other day some van pulled over next to us and the lady asked if we teach english. And we said yes and gave her a flier and she showed up to class that night with her son. It was super cool. People don't just pull over and and ask where they can go to take another step closer to the gospel. And they came on our saturday class too. So that's cool.

Every morning except sunday we do rajio taiso with an old Japanese man. They are like weird stretches and stuff. Its super weird. But I'm liking it. I have fun with it.

As a branch activity this week we climbed a mountain to this big rock on the top and ate lunch up there and stuff. And it was beautiful. Ishigaki is so beautiful. There was an amazing view of the ocean from there. The ocean on both sides of the island. We had a great time up there. Elder Munro brought his ukelele and we played and sang. And then we all got on the rock and danced to the ukelele and someone filmed it. So there is a video out there of me dancing like a fool with a bunch of japanese people. And I was asked if I was a dancer before my mission. That was a surprising question. They thought I was good. But they are crazy Japanese people. So they probably don't know what real dancing is. The branch is tiny. One family makes up like half of the branch. More than half. There are like 14 people or something. And after the mountain we went to see a lighthouse with more beautiful ocean. It was so beautiful. I loved it. Ishigaki is so beautiful. I have seen the ocean a couple times already. We ride our bikes past it sometimes. its super cool.

So every week we have district meeting with skype. And before I forget I'm pretty sure you need to call me on skype next sunday for you at 6 pm. it will be monday morning for me. so. If that doesn't work then try 7. we'll see how it goes. Anyways. District meeting. That is fun. We do it with the tiny island Miyako and the tiny island Naze. Naze isn't in our district but the islands get together because its more convenient that way. And Elder Amor is on Naze right now. so I get to have district meeting with him every week. That was fun. I love that man.

And last week I ate something horrible. It was like pounded rice into something sticky and weird and it had a weird wheat flavor to it like it was solid ish tea and it was so hard to eat and it was huge and you had to chew thoroughly so it didn't stick to your throat and make you gag and stuff. It was awful. That was the worst thing I have eaten in Japan. I hope I never have to repeat it. The pounded rice with bean paste in the middle is super delicious. But this thing was just horrible. But I ganbarued. And we got a potential investigator out of it. The second worst thing I've eaten was something in Okinawa that tasted like peanuts but it was the texture of snot. And I had to eat it with chopsticks. That was just a bad experience. But whatever. I also had tea the other day. The bad kind. My bad. I thought it was mugicha which is ok. The wheat tea. But I knew once I tasted it that it was not. So I stopped. Mugicha is actually kind of good. Though some people say it tastes like an ash tray. but I like it.

So. That is my week I think. I must go now. I love you all. Be happy. And pray that I will learn this alien language.

Love Elder Liddle

Two down one to go. (Week 18)

So. I have big news. I transfered! It caught me totally by surprise. I always heard people who go to Okinawa stay for a while. Especially if they go there first. Elder Buckingham thought he was going to get transfered but he didn't. And on the phone after they said he wasn't transfering I thought for sure I wasn't going to. But then He said I would. And the next day I got on a plane to Ishigaki. That is a tiny island further south than Okinawa. My new companion is Elder Munro. He is also Australian. There are three Australians in the mission. His accent is stronger than Elder Buckingham's. I am second counselor in the branch presidency down here. The branch is tiny. Most of it is one family. This place is tiny. Every morning we get up to do weird stretch things in a park with an old man. That is weird. I would feel awkward if it was america. But its normal in Japan.

When I met Elder Munro we immediately began speaking and laughing and stuff. He's great. I love that man. We are going to have a good time I think. He's a funny person. And he swears every now and then. Elder Buckingham said that there are a couple words that would be perfectly acceptable to say in church and stuff in Australia. He never said them. But Elder Munro does. And its weird. It doesn't offend me or anything so don't worry about that. Its just weird. Usually that would offend me but with him it doesn't.

So I really miss Okinawa. There is no base here. And I feel like I was torn away from people that I love and really want to teach and see where they go. We just taught a family where the mom and dad were very religious and told us ours was wrong and the dad even said "let me correct you" and stuff and where the son about our age was all interested and asking questions. And Mr. Miyagi with his toothless humble heart. I miss them. And all the members. And that guy who really wants religion and is just seeing which one is right. I miss them all.

I met a fair few of the members here on my first day here. On Thursday. And they are so nice. They are wonderful people. The best members in the whole world. And the little girls love talking to me even though I can't understand. We accidentally dropped in on one of their birthday parties and they invited us in and made us eat Japanese pizza and have cake and Taco Rice and stuff. They are so nice.

So when I got to the plane to Ishigaki I almost missed it. There was a lot of traffic and then we had to run through the airport and the lady typed into the computer as fast as her hands could go and then I beeped at security so they had to search me and then I ran to the plane and got on like two minutes before it started moving. And I was alone. No companion. That was weird.

We were housing the other day and we knocked on this lady's door. And she answered and was way nice. And then she showed us her religious book and told us to come to church with her and stuff. And I could understand her saying things like God absolutely doesn't exist and she just does not believe. And then Elder Munro said she said a lot more than that against our religion. But in a fairly polite way. So that was weird. But fun. I enjoyed it. Elder Munro said it was scary.

My knee is ok and I can bike fine. For now. It really is ok. Just a little soreness here and there.

My rain suit is amazing. The only water on the inside of it is my own sweat. Chopsticks are getting easier to use. Still hard. But getting better.

I'm really glad to hear that things are going well for you all at home. I was very happy to hear that. Pray for me. This place is harder than Okinawa. I struggle a bit with things here. Keep being happy at home. I love you. You are all the best. Keep telling me about how awesome life is at home. I like to hear about that.

Love Elder Liddle.

District P Day! (Week 17)

Today is district p day. We all went bowling together. I didn't do too bad this time. I'm learning how to do it. Julie may remember one time I went bowling with her. I did much better this time. Don't worry. And I'll probably send a couple pictures.

So my right knee is getting worse in the crackly noise area the way my left one was before my surgery. That's good news. I love getting surgery. Maybe I'll get it on my other knee when I come home. Then I can use a cane again.

So my stomach has been pretty good. I had no problems at all in the mtc and here in Japan until this week. We ate at three people's houses. All americans. And we all had an ice cream related desert. And it destroyed me every night we ate. Wow. I sure wish that didn't happen. I love ice cream. Oh well.

This week has been ok I guess. We didn't teach very many people and no one was ever home so I basically just wandered the streets of Japan all week. It rained a lot. The rain here is nuts. It rains here more in one hour than Utah gets all year. And the rain comes out of nowhere so I have to take my rain jacket everywhere just in case. And the cherry blossoms happen in okinawa earlier than the rest of Japan. And I missed it. So I have seen none.

This week we decided to leave goodies and a happy note and scripture on a lady's door that we have met and who the sisters are teaching. And I hear that she was so grateful for that that she just opened up to the sisters and they can better help her now. That was good.

We eat at members houses maybe two or three times a week but its always american members. No Japanese yet. The members here are super cool. Church is long every week. We stay for two wards. One at nine and one at one. Its long. But its good. Mostly english. But some Japanese. Japanese is super crazy intense. I don't understand how people can speak this language and understand it. It just is so weird. But I'm learning. Just a little at a time. But I'm learning.

I'm very glad to hear Kate has a job. That made me a little teary eyed to hear she finally has a good job where she doesn't get slapped in the face all the time.

I'm not exactly sure how the mothers day thing works. Kusakabe choro said I can skype you but I don't really know. I don't even know where that can happen. So maybe its just a phone call. We'll see.

Well I should go. Have a good day. Or night. Sleep well. Peace.

Love me

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