Surviving Vongfong

So the 台風 (typhoon) killed a lot of time so i only really have things up until Thursday.

On Monday night we met this really cool lady. About 3 days before I learned the word for evolution theory. It proved to be helpful because she said she believed in evolution. This is the first time this has happened. She was so confused how we can be here and yet there are still monkeys. She thought "there must be something that made us." It turns out that she cuts hair for a living and one person that came in was an Jehovah Witness. They talked to her about the gospel for a bit while a haircut and she started the lessons.

Okay side step, this blew my mind. people of other faiths are doing better at member missionary work than we do. I don't want to be mean but we meet new people everyday. How many get the opportunity to hear what we have to say? We limit the Lord because we don't let people know. We don't know if people will be interested in the gospel if we don't try. Well this devote Jehovah Witness figured it out.

Anyways she has interest. But since she is studying with the JWs she doesn't want to betray them. We will try to work it out.

Tuesday was a weird day. We had district meeting and afterwards we met with E, who is doing great, and another member who's name is Miyagi. They are both awesome and doing well.

We didn't eat dinner at 5 but went to do service with this lady named W. Elder Bevan is good with working his way to gospel topics during things. I'm just blunt and go straight to it. Last week he asked her if she wanted to study the Book Of Mormon. She said sure. Huge miracle because she said she would never study. The Spirit works with people. We had a great lesson but when we showed her the pictures of the prophet, she was upset saying there were no girls. That was super hard to explain in Japanese. It was good at the end.

Monday night we had a good miracle happen during planning. I asked Elder Bevan who we should visit. At that moment I had a feeling to visit a person that we haven't visited in a while. Elder Bevan said that it wasn't a good idea because he isn't home all the time. I looked at him and said "lets pray about it" so we prayed. After the prayer he said we can visit him but on the way back home. Again I had a pressing feeling to visit him but with a exact time of 7 pm. I told him and we made a schedule around that. We went at 7 to visit him. He said he just had returned home.  We talked about general conference and he said he would come to priesthood. (Which was cancelled because of the typhoon but still awesome.) After we left we said a prayer of thanks. He came walking by about 3 minutes later saying he was going on a walk. If we had visited him at a different time, we wouldn't have met him. After that we prayed again to see where to go and we met this couple from Hong Kong. We found out the hard way how to speak to them. They look Japanese so we spoke Japanese back but they spoke broken Japanese with a hard accent. Then we asked in English if they spoke English. They did and fluently. It was super cool and we invited them to visit mormon.org to see how this message can help their life.

Wednesday was crazy. We went out early to dendo because we had a late lunch appointment, which also pushed dinner back and it became a weird day.

But we visited this lady named N. She is basically fluent in English but she has some past mistake that haunts her so she doesn't come to church. She was active for a long time. We are trying to think of ways to help her. We went to eat afterwards and we dendoed around. Things were sparse. We did meet a mom that was concerned for her life after this one. Maybe things will progress with that. We eventually were able to meet the high school student from the other week, M. We met outside McDonalds. He thought hard about the question of a perfect world. He said, "if I kill someone and get a good lesson from that, is that okay?" Not quite. We taught him about repentance and the Book of Mormon. Repentance through the Book of Mormon actually, and the Godhead. He is such a great kid and he is the top student and president of his class. A really smart kid. He invited us to an activity he is planning for the 25th. Maybe this will be good :).

Thursday was filled with weekly planning and visiting E. She has changed so much. It fills me with so much joy to see her changing. She even keeps a daily journal for the things she prays for. How many of us members do that?

Friday, stuck inside planning for things. Then the typhoon started. It wasn't raining and the winds weren't that strong so we got some work done, some return appointments. Yeah! If we don't die in the typhoon!!

Saturday and Sunday were spent in the apartment. A lot of time with Elder Bevan. A lot. It turned out well. Our relationship is great. We worked on the area book and less active book to organize it in a way to be helpful for other missionaries coming through this area.

Honestly being in a concrete apartment is awesome. The storm didn't do anything to us. Completely safe inside. The power went out for like an hour but that was at night.

That was our week. We need to still watch general conference. I'm still looking forward to it!

Daily doses of chocolate

This week was filled a little bit of disappointments just because we didn't get everything accomplished that we wanted to. A lot of appointments fell through and some new investigators dropped.But I would rather have them drop early than to see them go through the whole process and still reject it. Still, it hurts to see someone accept and then reject the teachings of the Savoir.

On Monday we got a text from the Korean saying that she got really sick from the EMF thing so she was sick allllll week. Nothing. Sad, but I'm in the process of sending her an email talking about general conference. I think she might like that.

Monday evening we also had an appointment with the boy from Friday. He was busy so therefore that appointment dropped. We did a lot of finding because of that. We met this man who met the missionaries before and has the Book of Mormon. He said we could come back but I'm not really sure if he has interest. We will visit him tonight.

Tuesday, we had 4 appointments fall through!!!! It was so frustrating! We tried super hard to find and make up the time but things weren't working out for us. Later that night the zone leaders came and we went out for about an hour and a half. Me and elder Wynn went and did some finding. Tuesday was just a rough day and people weren't very responsive.

Wednesday we had a day full of awesomeness, but we didn't follow the plan really at all. The first thing we did is we went to the member who is struggling with E. She came out and she was really happy. We talked and had a great meet. Then she apologized for being mean to me last week, but she has some hard feelings.

Then we had a lesson with a member that the Ward makes us teach because they fear he will go crazy. He is a little mental. He was baptized a year ago but the Ward makes him meet with the missionaries each week. When I say Ward, I mean the few members that got offended last time. But anyways, he has such a kind heart. The old lady completely racked on E but this man defended her and said so many nice things about her. It shows that the Branch accepts her, and only a few don't.

Afterwards we went and dendoed a bit. Going here and there, lead by the spirit talking to people. They either talked a lot or not at all. This old man said he was Christian but also that he did the island religion. It confuses me when people say they are Christian and another religion. They really don't understand what it means to follow Christ. That's why I'm so grateful for the restored gospel to give us direction.

After we talked to him he showed us a near by place to eat. Elder Wynn and I ate dolphin. It was like fish steak. Or as Wynn said "charcoal with bitterness." Literally the whole thing was black. No color.

After dinner we went and continued on, trying to make our way back home. We met this cool 19 year old name Y. Hopefully we can meet him soon. He has weekdays free.

Thursday we went down to Naha to get training. It was wonderful and I learned a lot. It was great to see the other missionaries and talk to them. Especially the ones from Miyako. Miyako is doing great and it makes me so happy!

Friday and Saturday were not the greatest again. We tried going to appointments but they all fell through. I felt so bad because I felt like we were wasting time almost. We spent some time though to think about our investigators and to better help them. We thought of two families who we can barely meet. "How can they feel the spirit without us being there?" We thought of one of those daily pill boxes for morning, lunch, and dinner pills. We put candy in some and scriptures in others. That way they can have incentive and a way to pray and read the scriptures as a family.

This weird selfie is for my sister, Kylie.

We were able to give them out on Sunday. But that's all the time we had to give. Hopefully we will be able to see some results from daily prayer and scripture study.

Sorry there isn't that much this week. Things were a little rough not only in dendo but with our relationships as well. I guess the Lord wants me to learn things and they are not fun lessons. But if the Lord wants me to learn them, I will follow His will.

Love you!

The Lord is blessing Nago

This week was pretty epic.

Monday, we got a call from this random Japanese lady who saw the free English classes sign outside our church. For some reason she thought we could reverse that and teach Japanese so she called to tell us a Korean lady was living with her and she needs help. The lady came on the phone and she is completely fluent in English and a hard core Christian. She wanted to study both Japanese and the bible with us. Pretty awesome. We also met this man who recently converted to a different religion. He said we could come back but he is still trying to find out if this religion is what he wants.

On Tuesday we had an awesome day. We were dendoing and found this lady who used to live in Idaho and took lessons from the Mormon missionaries. She is Japanese and her English is wonderful. She rejected to listen again mostly because she didn't have time but we asked her help in teaching the Korean. She said yes!

We met this family on the street and we asked them if they could receive help from God, would they want it. They said yes! We set up an appointment.

Later that night we had a random appointment come up and we taught this lady named J. She is awesome. Her and her friend N are from the Philippines. We can come back soon.

Wednesday we met this lady named T. She has such a pure heart and she asked us why there are so many bad things in the world. We shared Mosiah 23:21-22 ( 21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. 22 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.) and said we can become better people because of it.  We will meet her tomorrow.

Thursday we finally met the Korean. Holy Moly. I don't have the time to talk about the things she is in but just look up EMF. She talked to me about it for 40 minutes and how terrible it is. But basically she came to Japan to escape EMF and to get closer to God. She said that God is leading her where she needs to go and that she is praying more than ever. That sounded like a perfect intro into the gospel. She is hard core about health and asked if we had a health code..... why yes... yes we do. I taught her the word of wisdom and a little bit of the restoration. She said she wants to come to church and to learn what the church has to offer.

Friday we met this high school student on the street. He said "how can God exist? There are so many disasters in the world." Up until this point and because of the landslide in Hiroshima, I have heard this so many times. I just looked at the boy and said "look, if your life was perfect, would you believe God is real?" He sat there and kinda mumbled eventually saying "I don't know" We were able to teach him how God gives these things to us to grow and He will help us. He got super excited and we have an appointment with him tonight.

Saturday we met this old lady who was hard core into her religion and wouldn't move. But she talked about her daughter moving to America and converting to Christianity. I don't really remember how we got to prayer but we did. We said she can hear God through prayers. She freaked out. She said "that's what my daughter said too!" Eventually she wanted to talk to her daughter about church.

Stole this pic from Elder Bevan's email. Oh Jarom!

We met this guy named O. He is a college student and a super chill guy. We talked to him about God. He said "lots of people say there is a God but since I haven't seen him I don't know." I did the same thing that I did a while back and stood behind the door and asked him if he knew I was still there even though he could not see me. After that we asked him if he wanted to know if God is real. He said yes.

Sunday. The people offended by E completely blew me off. I went to shake one's hand and she looked at my hand and walked by. I'm tried of drama. Just get over it. She is baptized now. She is a different person now.

Last night we met this really nice old man. He said we could come back. He believes kind of in all religions but its something we can work with.

All in all this week has been awesome. I'm sorry I could write everything or put more detail but basically it was filled with the Spirit and the Lord is blessing this area.

Sweating like a man

Famiry I rooovvveee yoouu.

I'm getting pretty good at talking in English the way Japanese people do. I love it so much. It tickles my fancy beyond measure.

There has been a strange change inside of me this past week.

Granted my mom always says that she is sad that she doesn't get to see me become a man. The only thing that is manly about me is the overwhelming stench that comes off of me after a full day of Okinawan sun beating down of me. Like in all honesty, I should probably burn my clothes. Its that bad. That and the fact my once active body is slowing and becoming cranky. I try to move and my body hisses at me saying "fool why are you trying to move right now. You aren't as good as you once were."

From the blessings on high that were so graciously bestowed upon me, some how I was able to completely change with regards to my last area. I was feeling slightly awkward in Hiroshima. For that reason I know that it wasn't really the area for me. With the return to Okinawa it made me realize how much I love these people. They are some of the kindest people here. I was trying to become too business like in Hiroshima. That didn't work out. But now I'm in the comfortable island of Okinawa. I think really this may be the place I need to be.

This past week was full of drama with some members and the lady we are teaching to be baptized. (spoiler she was baptized) Apparently she told one of the members that she hated her... that didn't really play well. Another member was being very hard on her saying that she needed more time to repent of something she did over 20-30 years ago. All in all, it was a bunch of old women who couldn't let go of things. We had to talk to the Branch President one night and he was super amazing about it. He said "I want to believe in the power of the atonement. It may seem hard now but it will turn into a good experience for all of us." He is surely a blessed man with the mercy of heaven leading him.

All in all we tried hard and prayed hard to see if E could be baptized. Friday came around and it really seemed like there could be some problems. We prayed and felt that everything was going to be okay so we set up the baptismal interview and she passed and things went well. On the other hand, the offended members weren't very happy on Sunday. I went up and asked how one was doing and very sourly she responded "thanks" and stormed off. That didn't really answer my question.

Anyways we had some interesting experiences. There was a drunk guy on the street that called out to us. He kept condemning Christians because he thought they were directly connected with the American bases on Okinawa. After we told him that it wasn't, he asked "why are you here then?" We said, "to share this message." He responded, "well if you want to share it, come to my house and share it with my daughter." So we followed him to his house and met his daughter. We didn't have time to teach them but we will go back soon.

The spirit of the Lord was really resting with us this week. There were contacts that I don't know how  we found (other than from the guidance from the spirit) but people just listened. That doesn't mean that they accepted it, but the listened from their hearts.

One thing I have learned this week is that people here... actually people everywhere, want the blessings of the gospel: stronger families, more love, questions for the unknown. But they are freaked out with the gospel. Not really fair right? How can we make it so the change from not living the gospel to living the gospel is easier so that they can experience the blessings of this gospel?

As for Bevan and the area, it is a hard area but things can change. He hasn't talked much about it but he keeps telling me he is thankful for me because I have helped him.... but I don't know how I have helped him. He is a funny kid. He does everything as strictly as possible. He has such a kind heart and is willing to do what it takes to help people. I know he will a great missionary. He already is.

Have a great week!

Back on an island

I'm back in Okinawa. I'm in an area called Nago.

So I will be completely honest with the news of transfers. I'm actually kind of upset about it. I loved Yasufuruichi. The Ward was great. There was such a warm feeling there. The work was progressing. It was great to see how leaders work. But knowing all of that, I know it was only a passing period of things I needed to learn. There wasn't really anyway for me to continue to stay there. As it came to transfers, I knew that I was going to go, but as to where I was worried.

When I got my call I was really surprised and again worried about the new assignment. Nago. My trainer, and many of my friends within the mission have served there. I asked them all (this is in previous months) how their other areas have been. Not very many positive responses came from it. There were many struggles that made it not the greatest experience for them.

Knowing this, I was worried. But I am determined not to let it affect my work habits for this next transfer. I mean, if I let it get to me, and iIstay here for a long time... that long time is going to be a really long time.

I get here and my new companion is Elder Bevan. He is awesome. He is super majime and wants to get work done so I'm super glad that I have a comp who is willing to get the area changed. It would be really hard if I had one who didn't.

The ward has previous problems due to some contention. Lots of them went less active. In another case, one changed wards. The new ward is a 2 hour drive away.

We have an investigator whose name is E. She is 60 years old and she says she hears voices. Taken from the standpoint of the gospel, the bad voices are temptation and the good ones are the Spirit. I honestly think that's how it can be played off but right now she has a baptism date. Recently a member told us that she said "I want to get baptism so that these voices will go away." Me and Elder Bevan are talking a lot about this. It is not the easiest situation to figure out.

I would hate to bring sad news to you. The ward doesn't seem too excited. I said during sacrament that I was super excited to work here. One member came up to me and asked me, "why are you excited and think Nago is good? It is not really all that fun and not that good." Another member talked about how many people are less active.  A pretty long list of sadness.

This area doesn't seem like the best right now but I'm going to work until I either can't move or I get transferred. I am not sure how and why members give up. I am not sure why there are areas in a mission that are the "oh no" areas. I hope that soon this area can be the area people look forward to. I am going to do my best to help it change.

Jameson Choro

Baptism & the colorful words of Isaiah

SOOOO this week was super short but had a ton of stuff happen.

Tuesday we had a lesson with M. We taught tithing and he accepted it. He doesn't have any problems with anything so there isn't really much to explain about it. He just says yes.

We went on a 30 minute bike ride and a 20 minute train ride to visit a referral. She is from the Philippines and her family is Mormon. She is married to a Japanese man, so she can't really go places without his approval. She is scared to ask him to go to church. She looks like she has genuine interest.

Wednesday we taught M again. Last lesson. He got interviewed. Passed with flying colors. Things look good for Saturday.

Thursday we were able to meet A and L again. We asked them what they would do if they found out this message was true. They said they actually didn't know. We asked them why they want to listen, they said they wanted to know more about other`s opinion of God and wanted to learn more of the nature thereof. We taught the plan of salvation up to the atonement. They didn't believe in pre-mortal life. In the bible it doesn't really support that idea. One interesting thing I found is in Isaiah. It says the redeemed will return. I then thought, what is the meaning of return. It is to go back to a place where you once were. Yeah for the colorful words Isaiah uses.

We met with A afterwards. He is a struggle. He wants to learn but that's only it. Doesn't want to do anything. We may have to drop him.

Friday we didn't really do anything. Well we did work hard but that's all of the story with that.

Saturday we went to help one of the members who was affected by the mudslide. That involved going to the worst part. It was completely safe but we saw flipped cars that were completely destroyed. It is a different world there. The road is broken up by the giant boulders that rolled down the mountain. It's really sad.

Later we got to see M get baptized!!! It was so awesome! He is the best. I love him so much. Sunday M got the Holy Ghost!

After church we went to see A the Philippine人. She doesn;t look like she will progress unless she asks her husband. Nothing will happen if she won't.

Last week we found this college student named F. he is super kind and talks a lot. Sunday we met him and he may have some potential.

Yesterday we worked super hard. It is ridiculous how hot it is. I've never smelt so bad in my life. I never have felt so worn down  in my life. Not even with all those hard practices during swim. There is something else that is required when you work for the lord.

We worked super hard. Around 8:30 we didn't know what to do so we were trying to find something. As we were riding we found a man completely blasted out of his mind drunk. He was on the ground passed out. Some other guy came along and we called the police. We waited with him until the police came. Poor guy. I think he was drinking because he lives alone. The other man asked if there was anyone we could call. The old drunk said "I live alone. I'm so lonely"

I felt so bad for him. If he realized he was never alone, i don't think he would damage himself. Frankly, we are never alone. I wish I could have told him that but I'm not sure how much he would have understood.

Love,

Jameson Choro

Moving forward

I've had a rough week of being unlucky, but luckily it wasn't worse. I don't know why, but my bike was being funny this week and I had some slips on curbs since it was raining. But thanks to my cat like reflexes I ninja-ed my way to safety. My foot slipped when I knocked on this ladies house. My falling foot landed in her huge pot that she set on her front step. Totally smashing the poor thing to bits. Not the smoothest week of my life.

We went to the atom bomb exhibit. (Lots of pictures at the end.) The detail of that place basically scarred me for life. They had these dolls of people walking like zombies and their skin was melting/dripping off of their bodies. Ehhh yup. That's stuck in my head. It doesn't help that there is also a disaster here in the area. Those two things just are freaking and grossing me out.

Over this week we worked hard trying to help the area. Wednesday was service. We walked by this old woman and she kept saying "please help us" over and over again. My jeans are pretty messy.

Thursday we had a lesson with A and L. Yup, two Americans from South Carolina. A is this huge black guy who loves sports and is super goofy. L is this white girl who is super funny. The lesson went well and they thought the things we taught were good. They have a super Christian background. It made it easy to teach and the concepts really sank in. They accepted to pray and read the Book of Mormon.

Friday it was another junkai with Urakami. He is super kind and polite.

I love working with Ootani. He is crazy about missionary work. I love that. It makes it easy to work.

Saturday all the missionaries got really upset. Tokyo said that if we didn't have insurance from the government, we couldn't do service. well... we don't have insurance. In order to do it we have to go through this other agency that will take a lengthy time and has a crazy amount of restrictions. The work we are doing, the only way to really hurt yourself is if you don't drink water. But again, we need to obey what we are told.

Sunday we went to the the near by couple missionary's fireside. It is crazy the amount of things they have seen in their life. I gained a greater respect for them. We returned home and we worked super hard. We were able to meet this really awesome college student who is studying to be a teacher for children. He basically told us his life story with regards to why he wants to do so. He seems like a great new investigator. We will meet him tonight.

This work is moving along. We have some great chances to get some great lessons in this week. I know the Lord will provide and He will let us move forward.

Ling's baptism!

A tree that survived the atomic bomb

This was a huge plate of food. I could barely finish it! it took an hour to eat.