Finally Time to Email June 30, 2009
Well, looks like I will finally have more than five minutes to actually send out an email. I’m quite excited about that.
Anyway, important news first… Michael Jackson died!? We heard it the day of from one of our investigators, and I thought for sure she was kidding, but then they showed us the news report on his iPhone (I was so proud he had one). Way crazy. I don’t think I have heard more Michael Jackson coming out of car stereos on the street in my entire life. I have had Thriller stuck in my head for the last four days. Ah well, RIP MJ.
Ok, so that really wasn’t the important news. The real important news is: We have two baptisms in Ina on the 18th of July! Annie Ogawa (40s) and Kouta Katou (12) are both ready to baptized already, but they have to come to church three times before we can do it for them. I’m so excited! The other good news is, July 18th is four days before transfers, so I will likely actually get to see the baptisms. I’m quite excited for it! I have pictures, but I forgot my camera this week so I will send them next week. Oh, and if you didn’t get the email, I guess Sister LeeAnne Lowry has two baptisms that date too, if they get married. That would be pretty neat to baptize them together on the same day. I hope it goes through.
Anyway, our zone is exploding right now - we have 12 investigators with a date to be baptized in our zone before the 22nd. As a comparison, last transfer one person was baptized, and the one before that two people were baptized. At the beginning of this transfer we set a goal as a zone for 16, and when the Zone Leaders called the Assistants to tell them about the goal, they got laughed at by one of the assistants. It was mostly because no zone in Japan sees 16 baptisms in six weeks, but we had names behind every number, so we were pretty offended. We have been working hard and smart to achieve the goal, and it seems to be well on the way.
President called us specially and congratulated us for having two in Ina, and for the other stats we have been getting, and talked about us for almost a week at various staff and stake meetings and everything. I was surprised and actually kind of embarrassed. He said we were an inspiration to the mission. Weird, but good I guess.
Elder Warner is doing well. Japanese is a bit hard, and before the mission he had never eaten shrimp, any sushi, and actually had never even had asparagus. I was shocked. The food is a bit of a hard adjustment for him, but he is a champion and sticking it out. I have been wearing him half to death with all the work we have been doing. He fell asleep during our prayer before nightly planning last night… I have been able to man him up a little though, and there have been no more roleplaying invitations during dinner. He still uses his feminine voice alot, but that is actually kind of funny, so I don’t mind it. We are getting along pretty well, he just needed to adjust to being around men who aren’t into drama all day long instead of drama girls. He seems to be making a lot of progress actually, and we have a good relationship.
Yes, the reason why Ina has become bearable is probably that we are finally seeing success, and that the members are finally helping out in the work. Both of our baptisms are referrals from members, and we are getting fed and more referrals extremely often. We are even planning a branch activity, which would have been unheard of just a month ago. This week we had 17 people at church, 16 of which stayed both hours (compare that to six when I first got here). Also, I think it helps to be a trainer, because you have to keep a good attitude 100% of the time in order to show a good example. When you are with regular companions, sometimes you are too used to the work and kind of slump a bit. Either way, now is good, and I actually don’t want to transfer, but I likely will. We will find out on the 21st!
Let’s see, other things… Well, I’m doing a lot better about President Wood, and it sounds like he is doing better too. It hit me kind of hard that first day, but it seemed to fade away a little bit. I hope his condition continues to improve.
Since we actually had time this week on Pday, I have some letters (to the two Sister Lowrys as well, sorry it has been so long, I haven’t forgotten you!) and a package of stuff to send home all ready to go. I have been getting a number of Dear Elders from Karen that have really been pick me ups. Unfortunately, one came that was intended to have Japanese in it, but DearElder and Japanese don’t play along, so it just came out as a mix of random numbers and symbols. Bummer! Oh well, maybe next time. Sorry again for getting so few letters out in the past month, I’ll repent and improve.
I have finally stopped using my English scriptures for study, and I’m now doing 100% Japanese (and an occasional dictionary). It feels pretty good. Doing that in Japanese after only the first year is pretty good, and it is really helping my language skills increase.
Well, I can’t think of much else. All is going well. If you send the Papers Project books, throw a small bottle of maple extract in there please - we want to make some homemade maple syrup since it is about three times as expensive to buy here as in the US. Please! Other than that, I think I am ok. I’ll let you know again if there is anything I need.
Thanks for the emails this week, talk to you soon!
Elder B.
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan
