Aww Shiz

Good morning Sports Fans,

Right now I am writing you as I sit on a train headed for SHIZuoka.
Today we have a zone conference out there and afterwards our new
missionary musical group, ザ・モルモンショー (The Mormon Show, playing off the
word for Book of Mormon in Japanese) has a gig and then I will be
returning back to the 本部 tonight, so no P-Day for this guy (again). You
all maybe wondering, "Why are you taking the train and not driving
your van?" But that's a story for a little later.

Last Saturday "The Mormon Show" had their first concert in 名東 (Meito)
and it was a huge success. Around 177 people came from both stakes
here in the Nagoya. I got to see one and talk to one of my favorite
members from 豊田 (Toyota) named 三島兄弟 (Brother Mishima). He was one of
the first members I met here in Japan and we became really good
friends. We were talking before the concert and I told him how long
it's been since I was in 豊田 and then I told him that I was going home in
three weeks. He looked completely shocked and started to tear up. He
told me that all of the members in 豊田 thought that I was going to come
back and finish the last transfer of my mission over there. I was
surprised at his reaction of me going home and was kind of touched. I
didn't quite realize that the members there actually cared enough
about me to want me back. I mean I knew a couple of the members wanted
me to return, but not the majority. After the concert another 豊田
member came up to me and gave me a referral who came to the concert
with them who lives in my area who is his less active daughter's
boyfriend. We were able to discuss a time to meet and should start
lessons soon. I am so blessed to have served in that wonderful area
that I used to complain so much about.

On Sunday we tried to visit 椿 (Tsubaki) and see if we could get her to
talk to us again. I decided measures were drastic so I decided to make
pikelettes (pancake medallions with chocolate inside-I learned how to
make them from Anthony Butters) for her. We biked out to her apartment
in the pouring rain and when we got there she cracked the door open,
looked at us, and then just looked down crying shaking her head and
closed the door. I, not wanting to be defeated, tried writing a note
for her in polite Japanese and left the Tupperware of pikelettes at
her door. We still haven't heard from her.

This week we had two zone conferences, one on Tuesday and the other on
Thursday, in 福徳 (Fukutoku) and 四日市 (Yokkaichi). Both were really good
and I've worked a lot with those ZL's on my mission. In 福徳 I went
on a split with Elder Farias who finishes his mission on the same day
that I do. He's from São Paulo, Brazil and we have been friends
most of the mission. The highlight of that night was the four of us
(the ZLs and us) went to a churasco place in their area. Churasco is
skewered, Brazilian BBQ (like Rodizio Grill in SLC). It was way good
and expensive but so worth it. In 四日市 I was able to go on an exchange
with Elder Jenks from Hyde Park, UT in good old Cache Valley. We were
able to teach several lessons together which was a lot of fun and it
was a neat experience to teach with another guy from Cache Valley.

Yesterday we finished our exchange in 四日市 and we were asked if we
could go help move an old fridge out of 瀬戸 (Seto). Our plan was to
meet up with the 瀬戸 elders up at their district meeting in 中津川
(Nakatsugawa). 中津川 is up in the mountains and we had a great DTM and
afterwards started heading home in the van and I was driving. It was
lightly raining as we drove down out of the mountains. As I was
driving I saw in front of me a car cut in front of the car that was in front of
me. That car had to slow down rather unexpectedly and then I tried
pressing my brakes. That's when everything went completely wrong. When
I pressed my brakes, the pedal locked and I couldn't stop. I have
never hydroplaned before, but I went into a skid and I think I was
hydroplaning and couldn't stop. I told the other three in the car that
we weren't going to be able to stop and banged into the SUV in front
of us going probably 50 kph. To make a long story short, I totaled the
front end of my van, but surprisingly (and kind of scarily) our
airbags didn't go off. No one was hurt in either vehicle and the
vehicle I hit barely had a scratch on in. We got out of the vehicle
and the rain, of course, just started pouring and I started making all
the necessary phone calls after an accident. The worst part of the day
was dealing with a police officer who was rather impatient and
racist. He was telling me it was all my fault and was telling the
other cop I couldn't speak Japanese. After a while of talking to them
and explaining my situation he finally relaxed a little bit. In the
end my van was towed away and 石井 (Ishii) came and picked us up and
took us home. The biggest miracle of the day was that no one was hurt
and we all got home safe.

So that is why I'm on a train this morning. Since we lost our van and
the police told me I can't drive until their reports are done, there
wasn't room to ride in the car and I couldn't drive, so I woke up
early with Elder Graydon and we headed off on our adventure at 0600
this morning. It's super fun to talk with Elder Graydon because he's a
Geordie from Gateshead, UK and Dad served in his Ward when he was on
his mission. Graydon's been teaching me Geordie and been quizzing me
to see how much I learned from Dad. It's way fun.

That's about all the excitement for the week. I'm just going to try to
stay in one piece for these last two weeks. I've had way too many
close calls recently. Everyone stay safe out there!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Pictures

Pic 1- Churasco!