Something you might find interesting is that once you get decent at one language it's really easy to pick up on other languages. I'm teaching myself Tagalog and Chinese. Now the crazy part is that Chinese is waaaay easier for me. Kanji and everything. I just can't do the Tagalog thing very well. It's even written using our alphabet and should be the far easier one to learn. I mean Chinese has like 9 tones! But to me Chinese is actually easier. The grammar structure is the same as English so I just have to memorize words and how to say them. I think despite what everyone says about Chinese, it's probably in reality easier to learn than Japanese. Now I'm not sure, that's just what I think. Anyway, the reason why I'm trying to learn these additional languages is because I am now teaching a few people from both groups, Chinese and Filipino people. There's some cool stories behind that that I'll get to later.
So from the top, last P-day Jonivar came back from Saitama. We went out to lunch with him and a member for his birthday. At the restaurant we went to there was this group of middle school girls staring at me. Now that's not unusual, I'm white, so I just kind of ignored it but then one of them was like, "Do you remember us?" No. I see so many Japanese schoolgirls everyday there's no way I can keep track of them all. Then she's like, "we met over there and I showed you how to get to a park." Then I remembered. Elder Purba and I had met them like 3 months ago while we were lost and they gave us directions. They go to the same school as Moe and we talked to their principal about volunteering there. Unfortunately the principal didn't need our help for anything and we couldn't start volunteering at the school. Oh well. Maybe next time.
We had a conference with Elder Bednar and all of the missionaries in Tokyo and Tokyo South came. There were like 300 odd missionaries there. Actually not odd, we come in twos. Anyway it was really awesome and Elder Bednar can read minds. He's also really funny when he doesn't have to behave the same as at General Conference. He told jokes and messed with some of the missionaries and it was funny. He didn't make any missionaries do anything but he looked at one Elder and was like, "Elder, what is you're name?" Then he said, "Ok, so I just asked this Elder his name. I haven't even asked him to do anything hard or to even do anything and he's already shaky and sweating a little bit!" So Elder Bednar knew it made people uncomfortable to be called on so he never called on anyone in the conference. Lots of missionaries asked good questions and got feedback from him and other missionaries and it was really cool.
We had Splits this week with the Chosei Elders and Elder Johnson and I went down to Kamogawa. That's where Yi lives and we taught her a lesson with the Branch President's family. It was really good. Yi's testimony is so strong now. She said, "I used to be confused and not know why I was here. But now I've learned and prayed and I KNOW that what they've taught me is true. I KNOW God loves me and I KNOW what my purpose is." She said it in Japanese though. She's super cool. She's my new best friend because I've never met anyone as prepared as her. No one I know of in our entire mission is as amazing as her. We taught her all of the lessons in 3 days! She's reading the Book of Mormon with me (we're racing) and she always wins. Since I'm staying for at least one more transfer I get to baptize her too! How sweet is that!
This Sunday Iwasaki Kyoudai, Jonivar, and Sanae all came to church. Iwasaki is semi less active but comes when we remind him. Jonivar just barely got back from Saitama but made it to church. Sanae has only ever been to church 1 time before but wants to start coming regularly! Amazing! Things are just working out great here in Kisarazu and I'm so blessed to be here right now. I'm getting real close to my year mark now. It's amazing how fast it's gone by. I can already tell it's going to be over before I know it. I love this work. I know I'm exactly where I need to be. I know that what I'm doing as a servant of the Lord can and is changing people's lives for the better. I've seen the power that comes from being faithful and obeying God's commandments. I know that doing so is the only way to find true happiness. I've seen the change this gospel brings into people's lives as they come to know the truth. I love being a missionary.
Elder Rogers
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| Yi is in the middle. On the left is Liu and we will be teaching her soon. |
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| Cutting my hair at Jonivar's house. |
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