01 February 2012

Email from Matlock 30 January 2012


Dear 家族

     We passed out all the tissues! Went through 363 in one hour. 686 total. Plus about 2 that I used myself makes 688. The most intense hour of my mission. It was pouring rain, dark, cold, wet, clammy and we were just passing out these tissues left and right. Pure insanity, I thought to myself a few times that surely this was the end I was sacrificing myself to free English class in Japan with no more than 50 people in attendance. In the end I made it out alive, though my nametag didn't. Lost in action, may it rest in peace. It’s all just premature preparation for going home that’s all. I still have to order a new one actually, I keep forgetting. If I don't order it now...
     Right after our hour of insanity I decided we were going out to eat at this place near the station. I deserved it after all. While we were eating the rain turned into snow. Really intense snow. So once we finished our extreme dinner we headed out into the intensely radical snow blizzard and had a precariously insane ride home. No I'm not exaggerating.
     In the end all our efforts got us three new people at eikaiwa. All of whom came from different sources. Of course. I'm waiting on bated breath for this week, and if no one shows up with a tissue packet in hand then I'm bagging the tissue idea.
     We didn't find any great people on the street but we did hang up some eikaiwa posters. Hoping that will prove to be more effective that passing out 1,000 tissues in a week. One place we went was a dollar store and the girl working there said we could hang one up outside. We didn't have any tape but luckily we were already at a dollar store. Then when we went to staple the map to the poster we realized we were all out of staples. But luckily we were already at a dollar store. Then I got kind of thirsty, but luckily...
     There was a special conference this week for all the new missionaries and their trainers so I we ended up going to that. It was held in the morning at Nakano which meant Tokyo morning traffic. Ugh... The first stretch we crammed in to what would be the equivalent of a mash pit except everyone’s still half asleep and not excited to be there. You couldn't fall over if you wanted to. Upon elbowing our way out the door for our first transfer my companion wryly commented that it was so crowded that someone stole my tie. I laughed and said yeah it was terrible. Then ten minutes later I realized that I was in fact not wearing a tie! Oh goodness! Disaster! I'm not sure if the mission president’s long suffering extends quite that far! I kept my coat zipped up, put on my neck warmer and snagged an elder from the mission home and had him get me a spare tie from the apartment conveniently located right above the mission home. He'll never let me live it down either...
     The conference went ok. Afterwards I went on splits with a Japanese member who is actually due to enter the MTC in about 3 more weeks destined for the Seattle Mission. Kirkland is just outside his mission boundaries! I taught him a bunch of useful English phrases like "speak of the devil" "out of sight out of mind," distance makes the heart grow fonder," and how TP is a noun AND a verb. It was a blast. While on splits it was the day before my birthday so we all went out to sushi. Can't go wrong there. The next day at district meeting they all made a big card and the sisters made a cake, so it was a really great birthday. Best one I think I'm going to have all year.
     Back when my former companion was here, he called someone that was found by some other missionaries trying to set up an appointment. The appointment he set up was for two months in advance on the 28th of January. I called to confirm the appointment and it was still ok. He actually showed up! We taught him a lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. His name is Yamashita and he is a college student. He's not super interested but he also doesn't know anything. For the first time on my mission I met someone who hadn't heard of the bible before. I was so taken aback I hardly knew how to explain it to him. Perhaps he will turn out to be really good.
     We got transfer calls and everything, and one of the Sister missionaries is transferring out and another Japanese Sister is coming to Kichijoji. That’s great and all but it throws a wrench into eikaiwa since we have two native speakers and three classes. I'm thinking it'll work out ok, we'll just need to borrow missionaries from surrounding areas. Definitely mixes things up for the next 6 weeks at least. Now if I end up getting replaced by a Japanese missionary then they're really in trouble.
     Toodle-Oo everyone
Love you all!
--Wyman Choro

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