For all the missionaries who came here with me, this email should answer some soul questions such as: what does straight woof mean? how well known is Opipi? do all Nigerians really do the handshake? Be prepared.
So this week was pretty awesome everybody.
We've gotten 3 awesome referrals and it is really fun trying to teach them. I'll explain the "try" part in a second. On Sunday we met with one of our referrals and she set up a time when we could meet her husband(nonmember). She wants us to teach them and convert the husband so he can baptize his son who is turning 8 soon. No pressure. I think it's an awesome opportunity to see a really cool miracle. The only problem is, she lives outside our area. Like waaaay out of our area. Outside of the area next to us almost. So that presents a little struggle of getting special permission to go there and biking really hard and fast. We'll sort it out soon, probably.
We met our new investigator on Monday and he is really interested in family history. Yay! He drew his family tree back to samurai times from memory! I have it at home but I didn't take a picture. It's quite impressive actually because he knows stories about each and every one of the people on that tree. Another thing to mention about him is that he doesn't speak English. No surprise there, but he doesn't speak Japanese either. That was a fun little thing we weren't told. He speaks Spanish and literally only 3 words in Japanese. No joke, mom, dad, and friend. So it was a struggle to say the least. I actually understood most of what he was saying though! Gift of tongues! I even understood when he was talking about his pet snails! But that's beside the point, I understood enough to talk to him in the most broken 2nd grade Spanish/Japanese/English mash-up ever heard. And he understood me! Craziness. I really like going over and talking to him even though I have to really work for the Spanish. A lot of our lessons have involved Spanish recently. Huh, weird. They should've put that on my call.
We went to splits with the zone leaders in Urawa and it was awesome! We met a lot of really prepared people and it was so much fun talking to them. Now, on to the part everyone's been waiting for: I learned what straight woof means. Straight woof - a phrase to be used at times of extreme displeasure. For example, if someone farts really bad you would say it was straight woof. This phrase comes from Home Alone when the kid sees a picture of his brother's girlfriend. He calls her, "woof." Now you know. I also met a Nigerian guy while on splits. His name is Amo. I asked him where he was from and when he said Nigeria I did the handshake. It worked! He instantly friend requested me and we were best buds after that. Note to all missionaries: If you see a black guy try to do the handshake and see what happens.
On Wednesday we met with our Spanish speaking friend again and committed him to read the Book of Mormon with his family and participate in Family Home Evening. That was awesome. Then we taught Eikaiwa that night and I taught e advanced class. It was really fun and I talked to them about American and Japanese culture a little bit. They are so good at English! Excuse me, they all speak English so well.
On Thursday I accidentally set up 2 appointments overlapping so we went on member splits, which actually turned out to be a really good thing. We found a new investigator and he's pretty golden. I went and visited one of our previous investigators and she has committed to reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and coming to church for the first hour! After that we taught a mogi lesson to the Hirai Kazoku(family) and it went really well. They are the ones who gave us the bottle that got the cap cut off 1minute away from our apartment. Sad day. I was covered in soda and so was my bike and so was the road, but we didn't get to drink any of it. I told the other elders that the soda didn't make it all the way back and they thought I drank it until I showed them the nonsense of the cut cap.
We didn't do much on Friday but I did get my package and the other elders helped me enjoy it. (I told them I needed help eating all of it, the other elders aren't picking on me.) At ping pong and music night I brought my ocarina and played some sweet music...for about 30 seconds. The little kid that always comes wanted to play ping pong with me so I did that for a while instead. It was really fun and I think he likes me a little more now. I can understand him now! It just happened all of the sudden. He started talking, and I started talking back! And we both understood!
On Saturday we did some mogis and a real lesson. All were really good. One of our less active's has been pulling away from us a little bit but we roped him back in with this last lesson. He's starting g to keep commitments again and he may come to church soon. We'll see. We also met the Furugawa family and I love them! They have an 8yr old girl, a 5yr old boy, and another 2yr old boy. They are very energetic and love to play. They kept playing with their Ultraman action figures and playing with us. They were so cool! They had Miyazaki movie posters on the wall that were so natsukashii(nostalgic). They had Totoro, Kiki's delivery service, and Castle in the sky. I don't remember anything about the movies but I remember I liked them. So that was something that helped me bond with the kids. I also showed them my picture book of me and my family. They played 'where's Rogers Choro' the whole time I was showing them. I'm also in a magazine apparently! They pulled out a magazine and flipped through it and it had my face in it! I was like, "ゆめいですか？" (Am I famous?). And they told me, sort of. I will take it!
All in all, this week has been really good for me, just meeting and bonding with new people is so great. It's also cool to go visit other missionaries and do splits with them. Other areas of Japan are pretty cool. Alright, I've committed a few people this week to do good things and they're Japanese and have no Christian background, so you all should be able to start doing this or continue doing this pretty easily. I want everyone who reads this email to start reading the Book of Mormon everyday. You don't have to dedicate a full hour to it or anything or read a whole chapter everyday, but just read a little everyday. As you read it, you'll feel better throughout the day, your problems won't seem as bad, you'll be able to see the good all around you. I promise that taking the time to read the Book of Mormon for even just 5 minutes everyday will bring blessings. No matter how busy you feel I promise there are at least 5 minutes everyone can spend coming closer to their Savior. Also, if you already do this, great. If you don't do this, Start! Everyone should participate in some kind of Family Home Evening each week. We should all teach our families to love each other and live the way God wants us to. If you do, you're families will grow closer to each other and to God. So just do it. :)
I love you all. Be good people and do what's right.
Elder Rogers
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| We went to the zoo (pet store) |
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| "Some members gave us a huge bottle of our favorite drink to take home. It was in a bag on my handlebars and nicked my spokes and this happened. It squirted soda everywhere!" |
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| "Some more packages (Gratefully received by the whole apartment)" |
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