Konnichi wa (May 17, 2010)

Konnichi wa

Wow i am in Japan... Amazing right. first things first. The toilets are awesome here we found one that washes, massages and dries your bottom while you are using the toilet. awesome right.

so i am serving in the area Inuyama...which translates into dog mountain. there is a cool temple here. Japanese is still very hard for me to understand, but on top of that about half the members speak Portuguese. i really can't speak Portuguese. My companion can speak very little. it is challenging for us because we want to speak to them but we can't. There are also Phillipinos in our ward. it is easier to communicate with them because they can speak English. they are form Bagio so that's cool.

My companion is Elder Witt. he is from Minnesota and does not like the Vikings so we are good friends. he is on transfer number 12. he has been out a while.

We have a few progressing investigators, but none with a baptismal date. We are working on it. The other day we went to one of the investigators houses and she wasn't home. i think her brother was home but he only speaks tagalog. we really couldn't communicate with him. It was a really awkward situation. We just stared at each other for a while. At first he thought we were from the fbi or something because he ran and got his green card...here it is called a geijin card. It was funny. It was sad we could not talk to him.

Also right now we are teaching this guy that only speaks English...I enjoy teaching him because i can understand what is happening. His wife only speaks Japanese which is a little weird but he told us love is blind. He is from Nigeria and he is way awesome. Last night we taught him about the plan of salvation. After he said that he believes it all which is a good thing. He said he believes anything that comes from God which is really awesome. He drinks a lot of tea but so does everyone in Japan. He has already stopped drinking beer and smoking. He stopped before we started teaching him. He told us that he didn't think God wanted him to do that. He is way awesome.

It is pretty hot and humid here. I love it so far. I wish i knew how to speak Portuguese so that we could talk with some of our investigators and our members. It is tough. I will start working on that language once I get Japanese down.

The members are great here. A Brazilian invited us over for tacos on Saturday I think. My companion and I are not sure but we are hoping so. Tacos sound delicious.

The food here is so expensive. Way more than in America. It is ridiculous. Everything is more expensive. I will be living on rice for the next two years. They also love mushrooms. I don't know why but they do. I have been eating them and I still do not like them.

Have a great week. I love Japan and i love this work. Keep working hard. As we say in Japan otsukaresama desu...which means you are the king of the tired people.

Elder Nelson