Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Nose Hairs, Tree Lady and more Old People

Date: 4/17/2017
Place: Ise
Companion: Elder Buchanan

Sorry folks, I got myself sick again so this week's mail might be kinda all over. 
Haha I've reached the "ripe old age" of mission life where your body just starts falling apart. And also all of you gear starts falling apart and all of your clothes are destroyed. 

Our public relations activities in Ise are really starting to take off and get us some traction. We went and did service in the rain at Tree Lady's place. It was kinda cold so all of us huddled around a wood burning stove under a plastic/wooden shelter they had built while we carved branches into wooden mallets. It was way fun! Some of the guys there are deaf and it's really fun to try communicating with gestures and stuff. I love our Tree Guys :). 

The next day we had a curry party at our hotel Eikaiwa! But they didn't bring a Tachiai (we've been talking about this to them for a bit) so we still need to get that worked out. Afterwards we went to the church and had another intense round of ping pong with Shinji. Then we ate the best ramen in the world and made it back to the church in under thirty minutes, in time for Eikaiwa! Our Eikaiwa continues to grow. And by that I mean that all of our moms keep inviting more moms. We need sister missionaries here so bad! 

On Thursday we went to Nagoya for Zone Conference. Since it was a combined conference with Yokkaichi and Fukutoku zones, I got to see a lot of old friends. Sometimes in Ise, you forget that the rest of the mission exists. It was really good to see everyone and to hear from our leaders. Our leaders truly are, "mighty men of God." On Friday we got to go help the Yamazakis move a bed down the stairs and then did a bunch of work out in their rice field! It was way way fun and it felt good to be back out in the dirt again. My mom told me several years ago that I'd be dumb enough to get sunburned really bad at least once a year before I would remember to wear sunscreen. So far she has proved to be prophetic on all accounts and this year was no exception. So after getting roasted at the Yamazakis we ran home, showered, and then turned around and booked it out to a far away FI and invited them to next months stake 運動会(athletic meet). It's going to be epic. Then we went to Oyaji band (Old guys band) practice. 

The next day we went to the city hall and one of the oyajis (old guys) picked us up and took us out to the old folk's center where we got to perform with the band! It was so so fun! This is definitely the hand of the Lord. The Oyaji band is simply a band of random musically talented peeps who just get together and put together concerts so they can go perform for residents at old people homes. We had a great performance and, since Elder Buchanan and I are foreigners, they LOVED us and we made some friends. Turns out that one of the workers at the old folks center used to be an Eikaiwa student! She asked us for our flier so she could come this week. Also one of the band members took the missionary lessons twenty five years ago! We'll see what we can do;). All in all we have made a lot of connections and those connections are making more connections and we are starting to get our faces, and the church, out in the open. 

And then we had a good jam session with Tou Kyodai. 
And then we got sick and had to stay inside for a whole day :(. We didn't even get to go to church on Easter! And we had to cancel our appointment with the Dejis and with Hayashi Kyodai. It's ok, we'll make up for it later in the week. There is so much to do! 

I seriously love being a missionary! This is the funnest, most rewarding thing I've ever done. The Lord has changed me and rescued me time and time again. I'm grateful for a loving, merciful God that lets us keep trying over and over again. 

Ok love y'all! 

Elder Johnson 

Ps: they sell these jelly sodas in the vending machines here and I'm totally addicted to them. 
Aight love y'all
Peace 

Oh hey random funny experience! Last week after emailing, we went to get hair cuts. While we were there, I saw a sign advertising their nose hair service (where they rip out all of your nose hairs. Yeah. That one.). This is Elder Buchanan's first haircut in Japan so he didn't really know what was going on. So I ordered a nose hair service for him without him knowing 🤣. And because it was cheap I got one too. It scared him so bad! Haha seriously the greatest haircut I've ever had. Elder Buchanan forgave me afterwards haha. I love this kid. 

Ok sorry I'll shut up now 

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