Temple P-day

How are you?!  I'm doing great!  You guessed right; today was Temple P-Day!  It was such a good day.  In earlier letters, I believe, I've mentioned how I've really been wanting to go to the temple.  After having that blessing every week before and during the MTC, I've noticed a major difference in my life when I don't regularly attend. It's so much easier to feel down, turn inward, and lose confidence in just about every aspect of life.  Obviously I have no control over it, I'm only allowed to make the 2 hour trip once every 6 weeks, but the temple is such a huge blessing.  You should all visit it as much as you can: I think that if you met one of the members here who regularly spend $30 in train fair just to go to the temple, you would never make excuses to drive 5-10 minutes at least once a week ever again. Whether you're only old enough to perform baptisms for the dead, or even if you can only walk around outside the temple and enjoy its grounds, I promise it will be such a blessing to you if you never take it for granted.  Not to mention, the work you can perform there now or in the future is the exact same work I'm doing now, so, as a fellow missionary, I think you should "thrust in the sickle." (;

Where to begin . . . Eh, I got no idea.  No notes!  I'm gonna look at my pictures I took this week real fast . . . . HA!  Lots happened this week!  So many spiritual things, so many ridiculous things . . .

Nabrotzky Chourou makes eggs on toast with ketchup, like every other morning for breakfast.  I'm pretty sure its Canadian, cuz I've never seen it before.  But it is SO good.  Just like his Canadian Maple syrup he got recently!!  That stuff is so beyond good.  If I had the choice, I would never go back to sweet sweet grammy Butterworth's. But I'm American.  Anyway, I got side-tracked, but instead of getting on track, I just want to get side-tracked down another track! 

Elder Nabrotzky is an amazing missionary.  He's so kind and genuine.  You can just see it in someone's eye when they're striving to be Christlike because they love our Heavenly Father and not for any personal gain, and that describes him really well.  We went on our official split this week (he's district leader, and those Elders go on splits with everyone throughout the transfer,) and it was a great experience.  He taught me so much about caring for the members: little things like writing them notes and giving them brief but helpful messages from time to time.  I truly believe--and I'll have you know that every one of our prophets also believes--that missionary work is most effective when the members are involved.  Here in Narita we see amazing success and its because the members truly live the things that they come to church to learn.  I hope that when I'm released as a full-time missionary that I will be able to remain the kind of daily missionary that they are.  Anyway, I got side-tracked again.

NABROTZKY.  During our split, he had me knock on doors all by myself. Up until this point, I kinda liked knocking doors.  It was actually really easy.  Elder Hibino would knock and I would stand by and smile into the house camera while they rejected him.  But OH NO.  My first real experience with housing was the same one that you hear at every homecoming talk: It was so hard. I couldn't understand the people and they couldn't understand me.  After three houses I was on the verge of tears.  Some man who thought his English was conversational yelled at me because he couldn't understand anything I said and definitely thought he did.  A lady came outside, cut us off mid-sentence and spent 10 minutes explaining her view of religion which was, condensed into a sentence, "Truth for me may not be truth for you." and then left promptly when it was our turn to talk.

Suddenly I understand why Elder Hibino's shoulders get real low and his feet slap the pavement loudly sometimes.  Elder Nabrotzky was the best about it.  He was so uplifting.  Also we ate ice cream together cuz it’s his birthday, and that definitely helped. And luckily, that night, we had a lesson, which I had prepared for and feared I would totally bomb because I felt so hopeless and couldn't think straight... but then surprise!  I remembered that last night I invited one of the sisters in our ward to come "doseki" or help teach, and she said yes!

Chika shimai is a recent convert and one of my favorite people on the planet.  Every time I stumbled through a sentence, she'd give me a thumbs-up when the man we were teaching wasn't looking.  Then, she would contribute at all the right times.  Nabrotzky Chourou spoke simply and let me in whenever in whenever I wanted to say something, and I was able to say everything that I needed to say!!!  I still don't feel like I've made hardly any improvement in Japanese, but apparently I've made some.  Having the gift of tongues certainly makes things easier in any case. (: That experience was amazing.  Because all I'm able to do is tell him what I know instead of trying to prove it, the spirit was so strong.  Well, not to mention, this man is just amazing.  He tries so hard. (:  That turned out to be a great split even though I felt absolutely horrible at parts.... Anyway, the picture is a variation of Elder Nabrotzky's creation: I think I'd call it scrambled french toast with Salsa.  It tastes way good, so I've had it several times!  Sorry, I got way off topic (;

Hahahahahaha!!  Mama, I went to Sister Sugimoto's again for dinner, and she showed me more pictures of you!!  They were THE BEST.  I'd never seen these before, but I thought you'd appreciate them: honestly, if you had told me that as a missionary you wore fluorescent pink tights for a talent show, I wouldn't have believed it, but... BEHOLD!

Anyway, once again, thinking that this is the same island where you served always brings me so much strength.  We've had some amazing missionaries in the family, and quite a few came here, so I hope to be able to live up to the family name

Engrish.  It kills me.  It’s all over the place.  These poor people study English their ENTIRE lives, and none of them can speak it unless they watch WAY too much TV or have been to America... Whatever the case, this bread... man, it is THE BREAD.  100% The Bread.  Real genuine... bread.  Tastes just about like bread, but I bet there's more to it than that.  Cuz it's The Bread.  And it's always 20 cents cheaper than any other bread, so we buy lots of it (;

I saw Elder Clark at the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He is seriously the best.  I don't know how many times I've written this in my journal and said it to other missionaries, but he's going to be the most powerful missionary Japan has ever had (until his sons serve here,) as soon as he's just a little more conversant in Japanese.  He has so much to share, and just can't share it yet and it drives him nuts, but he takes it like a champ and I know the gift of tongues has been and will be growing exponentially inside of him.  Be a missionary like him!  He just cares about others. Oh, that leads me to a good point: I've learned recently that one of the best ways to become better--if you find that your life is slipping into a monotonous routine and you don't know how to become more Christlike--think about the lessons you'd teach to a 4 year old, and then live by them.  When there's nothing I can say to someone to help them when they look super sad on the train, offering them a mint and then "slipping" and giving them 4 or 5 just makes them smile.  And when you share like that, you feel like a little kid, but in a really good way.  We should never grow out of the little acts of kindness that children are capable of.  (:

These sister missionary toys are adorable!  They are also modeled after cavemen methinks.  Or Tarzan.  I want to buy them for my nieces.

So, I just used up all of my super short email time (temple p-day) on this letter, but I have no regrets. I hope the family's good!  I love getting pictures of everyone!!!!!!  Those who have served missions, remember the joy that comes from this work! (: I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!  THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!

We had a baptism tonight! (After I wrote my other email.) I didn't have a whole lot to do with his conversion, but he's such an awesome person.  We're so proud of him!

-Elder Stout