Land of the Rising Son: weekly email

Here we are on Halloween!

We ate at a cute little restaurant up in the city for lunch Monday. It was a quaint Italian pasta, pizza, and cakes restaurant. We were concerned when the prices started pretty high, then found the catch: all you can eat. Those little shopkeepers didn't know what was coming. Japanese people, as a culture, don't eat very much. We cleared six plates of salads/breads/delicacies each--and finished two 10" pizzas. Free drinks, too. Felt we got our money's worth.

I tried Mister Donuts in the same day (just some samples). Definitely good, but not near Krispy Kreme. There's a fundamental difference in the mix. The chocolate with crunches and creme donuts were the best.

Also toured Ueda Castle Ruins; pretty legit.

I made a thank you card out of an old Halloween printed square tissue box for a Dendou (mission) fire member. It was the bomb-diggety. Go recycling!

Elder Smith had me report to the district leader Wednesday night. It was surprisingly difficult because the phone kept breaking up, the DL had that speakerphone removed voice thing going on, and I don't know all the statistics or names of the people we talk to. I told the district leader, "That's great!!" when he informed me he had caught a cold and wasn't feeling so well that day.

We met with a less active member who had totally forgotten about the church since he was baptized during the Tokyo rush. The only thing he had remembered when we first met him was the name Joseph Smith; he also had a copy of the old hardback BOM first given to him almost 30 years ago. When we talked to him tonight (Wednesday), we wanted to discuss the restoration and explain God a bit. It started off great and we were able to address some good questions of his; it got a bit off track, talking about languages of the Jews and Egyptians and translating and stuff. However, even though I got a bit lost amongst it all, at the end I said to Satou-san that I had felt a feeling of peace as we'd talked, and God's love for Satou-san. I testified that the words of the BOM were given by God, and written by prophets, and that we can always feel peace, guidance, and love by reading them. I recommended the passage 2 NE 31-33, and promised him that he could feel the same things I was currently feeling. Afterwards, Satou-san grew quiet, and asked to turn towards the passage in his BOM. He held the book with a ginger reverence I'd not seen in him before (or hardly ever), and as I pointed the passage out to him he could hardly take his eyes off it. Since coming to Japan, this has been one of the most powerful testimonies of the Spirit and God's love for His children I've felt.

I now know the horrors of being caught in a torrential downpour unexpectedly. Happened on Friday night; good thing I had my Mr. Mac special to tough me through, eh? The only part of me that remained dry was my socks, surprisingly. Thanks, HushPuppies.

Japanese are SO smart; I'm still blown away by some of the things they put into everyday life. You can only use plastic bags at the grocery store if you buy them (save the environment!) and escalators only operate when people are actually on them (save energy!)

Halloween party day was the best!! Which pumpkin did I help with, can you tell?

We met a man on the street named Wakabayashi who reads the bible and was interested in studying with us. We planned to meet him Sunday afternoon in front of a local grocery store. We bike out there and wait; sure enough, within 5 minutes he shows up. However, he brought a friend. We start talking and the friend is a super friendly, interesting guy who was more into the conversation than Wakabayashi himself. I thought to myself, "What a blessing from heaven! This guy is going to be baptized!"

The friend actually reminded a lot of my cousin Brandon. They say that within the world's population, you have approximately 7 look alikes. Well, I found Brandon Cardon's and he's Japanese, 40 years old but looks 28, and lives in Tokyo. He had every good thing I've ever admired about Brandon in a 10 min conversation; intriguing questions, soft laugh, very agreeable, uber polite--characteristics and habits were the spitting image. He was so good, I didn't realize until 10 minutes after they had left that he had rejected us twice and we wouldn't be meeting them again! Ah, sad day. But at least we left a good impression.

(Wakabayashi is on the right; Yamaguchi Brandon Twin is left)