Miracles!

Updates updates updates!!!

Chris Choro San is first up (I know this is Jekka's blog, but he's her sister!!)
Rain and temperatures are falling in Toyooka and waking up early is definitely not his thing. (HA HA!) After some spiritual insight, him and his companion went over to a little neighborhood by the oceanside and had a wonderful time with two potential investigators. Hopefully the baptisms will grow and the people won't mind cold water. The church building doesn't have a font, so baptisms take place right in the ocean! He and his companion are making great progress and hope to have a baptism soon. According to records, there hasn't been a baptism for over a year! So I hope they have luck there.

Jekka Shimai San!!
Important "fyi" if you ever find yourself in Japan... Sunglasses are looked down upon there. It gives the impression of "you're up to no good and you're a hoodlum". So don't wear them. Course from foreigners, they are more lenient, but people are more willing to speak to you if they can see your eyes.

With this in mind, Jekka had miracle! And it's best if she explains, so I will let her do the talking....
"So, we were challenged by one of the other Chourou in Tokyo to get 40 conversations in one day. Normally, we are supposed to get 10. A conversation is where you share a
brief principle, testify, and then invite the person to come to church. If possible, you try to set up an appointment to have them come to church or have a lesson (that is called a contact). Well, we took him up on that and ganbatti (did our best) the next day. We did it! We didn't get any contacts, but we had forty conversations. It was amazing, and what was more was that I had been feeling a little homesick but as soon as I was stopping people and talking to them, I forgot about it and became focused on the work. It was awesome. I wanted to talk to people. It was fun stopping people. When someone said 'kekkou desu' (no thank you) I bid them a good day and sought out my next victim. Really, I became a missionary on a mission. I learned why these eighteen months are called a mission. It really was a mission. A mission to stop people and find that elect that God has been preparing. Since we've been trying to have forty conversations, we've had a lot more contacts and people say that they want to come to church. It's been awesome.

"So, with that in mind, here's the miracle. Last night, we had finished with a lesson and we had two different routes we could take to get home: the one we took that day or another one that went by a member's house. Kawano Shimai asked me what I thought, and I said the way past the members house, but I wasn't sure. She thought differently so we pedaled a little ways and stopped by a hotel to say a quick prayer. As I was pedaling, I had the thought to go today's way but I was still unsure. Kawano shimai said the prayer, and as she prayed I could only think of the way we had come today. Afterwards, I told her that. She agreed, and we took off. We stopped at a combini (convenience store) to use a toilet and buy a few snacks, and because it was really late we decided to only stop young people. Well, we stopped some Philippine girls heading off to work and gave them chirashi's. After them, there was no one. No one whatsoever (except for danseitachi but we are only supposed to stop joseitachi-women). We started praying for one person. Just one person to talk to. Well, we got to the turn off for our apartment but had to wait because it was a *don't walk* light. On a bike next to us was a girl reading a text on her cell phone. Well, I said 'konbanwa' (Good Evening) to her and she replied with 'good evening'. I was surprised and asked if she spoke some English. She said she did, but only a little so Kawano Shimai started talking to her. We found out that she goes to a christian school and so we told her about our church. Then, Kawano Shimai decided to take a leaf out of Bertagnole Shimai's book (a something she had learned from our last recent exchange) and asked her if she would like to come to church on Sunday. She said she wanted to, so we set an appointment to meet her at 10:00 on Sunday and got her phone. It was great! It was awesome! Had we gone the other way, we would have ridden past her, AND if there were people for us to talk to, we wouldn't have talked to her! Honto ni, Kamisama wa inori wo kotaete kudasaimasu yo! Honto! It's awesome! God is amazing! It was great!"

Jekka has now visited the tallest tower in Japan, the Landmark Tower. Standing 296 meters, it holds offices, a hotel, restaurants, a shopping center and other community space. Apparently you can see Fujisama from the tower, but Jekka couldn't tell cause it was so hazy up there.

She's gotten her bike finally to which she plans on taking a picture of. She would like if possible people to write her letters. There are addresses in the previous post and I'm pretty sure that's how you write it... I'm going to check tomorrow with a friend in the branch who served his mission in Japan as well. I'll also be checking on a few words in here that I'm not sure of the meaning and freetranslation sucks when it comes to Romanji. -.- Dumb. Well, until next time! Write Jekka and Chris!! Any HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Jones Shimai

"Man, this computer is weird! Holy cow! I keep hitting a key that makes it into Japanese so everything goes all weird, but I'll manage somehow.

So, yes, I am alive. And It's going great. Well, mainly riding our bikes around and knocking on doors because we don't have any progressing investigators so far. We did teach three Chinese college students on Monday and we'll most likely see them tonight at Eikaiwa (English class) and may try to set up another appointment so we can teach them some more. Also, two days ago while we were tracting, we stopped a Korean girl and we got talking with her (Well, Sister Kawano, I just stood there and interjected with my limited Nihongo). The conversation got really intense to the point where Kawano Shimai was teaching the first lesson, the restoration, and I was whipping out pictures of Joseph Smith and President Monson. It was awesome. We also gave her a Book of Mormon and I'm really hoping that she'll call us sometime and come with us to general conference this Sunday. I really hope she does. It was so cool and so exciting. so, yeah, on your part, please pray for her! Her name is Aki San (she's from Korea).

So, other than experiencing riding my bike in the rain, eating REAL Ramen, Octopus and killing my first gokiburi (cockroach) it's been going good. It really has been an interesting experience. NO, I'm not fluent yet. Far from it actually, but yesterday was a really fruitful day in that I stopped a lot of people and I talked to a few people today. I find that especially when tracting I get more and more confident with stopping and talking to people. But, I have far to go. My current goal is to try to have somewhat of a conversation even if I don't get around to the gospel. I just need to talk to people.



A quick spiritual thing: because Kawano Shimai is trying to learn English, she passes off the lessons to me. well, yesterday she did lesson three which is the gospel of Jesus Christ and she shared a couple scriptures about faith and that was when it really hit me of what faith really is. It's seeing with your heart rather than your eyes. This statement makes a lot of sense when you think about why some people don't think there's a God. How can you believe in something you can't see? So, with that in mind, faith is seeing with your heart. When you feel warm inside, that's your heart catching a little glimpse of what God is like. It was a very insightful thing to me.

So, my companion. You probably want to know more about her. She's so freaking awesome!!! She's so pimp! I say it that way because freaking and pimp are her favorite words. She says them all the time and it's so funny. She'll be practicing teaching a lesson and she'll say, I want to share a freaking good scripture. It's so funny! She's so awesome and she loves taking pictures. Yeah, it's great fun.



It really is hard to say how missionary work feels. It doesn't feel very strenuous right not but I can expect it will be. My current frustration is that I want to talk to people but I get only so far and then I don't know how to say anymore. Yeah, I need to just talk and slaughter the language but I'm trying. And one thing that holds me back is that they are so polite and I don't want to offend them. Even though I'm a gaigokujin (foreigner) and can get away with it, I don't want to. Especially in Yamate where there's an international school and so gaigokujin's are somewhat of a common sight. But, I'll keep trying! Don't worry! And I'll try to keep you posted on more things that are going on. Hopefully this next week we'll be able to teach more lessons and get some people to come to church. That would be very nice. So, I'll keep you posted.

Conference is this week due to translation, but I'll still be able to watch it in English. So that's nice.

Until next week, I love you all! So, yeah, that's about all! I love you! The church is true and we can all do a little something to become more like Christ and make the world a better place! Love you!

Jekka Jones/Ba-da-bug!"





CONCERNING ADDRESSES:
If you'd like to write to Jones Choro Chris, his address is as below-
Japan Kobe Mission
4-6-28 Shinohara-Honmachi Nada-Ku
Kobe-Shi, Hyogo 657-0067
Japan

As for Jones Shimai Jekka-
Japan Tokyo Mission
4-25-12 Nishi Ochiai
Shinjiku-ku
Tokyo-to 161-0031
Japan

Jones Choro

From the Chrisser Bear himself:

"I am in Japan now using a computer in the city hall. It is the only computer in Toyooka that has a computer with accessible internet to the public. We are lucky to have email because ldsmail is the only thing that works. Soshite, Toyooka is a small rural town in the Kyoto region on the other side of the coast from Kobe.



I got to Japan, crashed from jet lag, woke up at 5:45, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with our Mission President and mom. She is an awesome cook and they are really, really neat. We stayed there for two days receiving a lot of training. Then we got our trainers. My new companion is named Kunihiro Choro, he is from Fukuoka and is a Nihonjin. He speaks rough English so there is a communication barrier, but he is still an incredible person. He is diligent in his work and knows the area very well.

Toyooka is very fun, we`re working very hard. My bike comes in tomorrow and will cost about 40,000 yen. that`s about 400$. So here bikes are a little expensive because of the rurual area, the main area of Toyooka has only about 90,000 people here. Our branch is very small, there are only 30 people in the ward and all are super amazing, they are so happy and their faith is so so strong. We have two investigators right now, Yamaguchi san and Oike san. We plan to atleast baptize Yamaguchi san by the end of this transfer. This may be a little challenging because she is having a lot of family problems, but God will help her.

Kunihiro choro is an awesome companion, I`ve learned so much Japanese from him because that`s really all I can speak to get my point across to him. There are four of us here in Toyooka, and when we introduced our selves to the members they were so excited to have four missionaries in the area, it`s the first time they ever had this many missionaries here in Toyooka. Of the four of us I`m the only one who doesn`t know Japanese at all, but that`s alright, I can slowly hear the Japanese make sense, I can get the rough meaning out of the conversations. Like yesterday, Kunihiro taught this woman that we housed and taught her the whole first lesson and a bit of the second. That was really cool because at first she wasn`t interested but as we talked the spirit practically punched her in the stomach. If she shows up to Eikaiwa (English lessons) tonight I think we`ll have a new investigator and maybe a baptism she was that interested.

Toyooka is wonderful, its nestled in the mountains with plenty of rice fields and a major river flowing through called Murayama. This place is so wonderful, I love Japan so much and the work is so hard but so much fun. We get kindly rejected everyday, but occasionally we`ll find someone who will listen to our message and we pray that they`ll listen to more. We have to dig to find those few elect individuals, and some times it takes some witty words, but it`s still a wonderful challenge. I have no idea what people are saying, but when I speak I try to give it power because I know I`m slaughtering the language. This place is wonderful, not only is the food delicious but the people are so nice and the kids, who don`t know who we are, scream and run up to their parents saying something about a special gaijin is here (gaijin is foreigner). Sometimes I catch a lot of peoples attention. I apologize if this is terrible typing, I`m still trying to adjust to the keyboards here.

The adventures have been great, right now I`m using an old missionaries bike until I get mine tomorrow that this falling apart mile by mile. Japan is so wonderful, my companion is a pro cook, and there are so many wonders here. If only I could bring people these lessons, they all hide behind several different reasons the two most common are that they are Buddhist and busy. Most of the people probably don`t even know what they worship through Buddhism, but that`s what they say when they don`t want to hear the message. The one girl that we talked to yesterday and placed a book of Mormon and two lesson pamphlets started with that, "Oh I`m Buddhist, not interested", but I replied "That`s okay, because this message is for anyone, it does not matter what you believe, it`ll make you happy" (remind you it was in very, very, very broken Japanese. When she asked me how long I`d been studying I told her two and a half months and she freaked out. When she found out that I was only 19 she was even more astonished, then she was willing to let Kunihiro teach her. Somehow, I have good hopes in this lady.

Well, family, I love you very, very much but I don`t have time to saunter around in daydreams of America so I`ll send a letter telling a few more stories if I have time today because I really want to take a nap. I`m exhausted. P-Days are great no? Anyways, my companion is sleeping on the seat next to me so I better wake him and go. The work is great, challenging, but worth it when you see the Japanese smile. These people are so nice, sometime getting politely rejected is a little let down. I hope some old man chases me through a forest or something so that I can get the "missionary rejected experience". Well, be very careful in your works, tell mike to be good that he`s doing the right thing because this work is wonderful.

Have a Good Day, love your Toyooka faring missionary.

Christopher Michael Jones Choro"