DD 11.55 ... I've made so many of these ...

How are your suitcases for transfers? Do they go on the train with ease or are they awkward?

... We're allowed to ship two bags ... so I just carry my bike and a small bag ... I think the wheel actually broke on one of them ... like not bad, but it's like a shell over a smaller wheel, and the shell cracked and broke to pieces ... I feel really bad about it, but I don't know what I can do about it. The pieces are all over Tokyo.

How was your Halloween? Did anyone invite you in and let you share your message?We weren't in our apartment all day ... it was pretty fun day of dendo though.

Did you make the box maze? It looks like something you would engineer. And did, when you were a boy.

A member from Matsudo ward did it.

Are you being transferred? Where to? Oops, forgot, that should be next week's question.

Nope, this week, see below.

How are your futon mats? Still sleeping OK?

I'm fine...

Did you throw away the shoulder bag you took or is it just stored in your luggage?

I use it to go shopping for groceries... It's nice and big!

Do you ever wish you had more ties or do yo have enough?

I have sufficient. They also sell dollar ties here which are pretty nice as well.

Do any of your companions cut their own hair or do you guys all go somewhere to get it cut?

Not yet, we all go to hair cutting places.

Do you ever play rugby with your investigators?

Nope... Too dangerous.

Do you have FHE every week with people from your ward?

We might be starting one with Brother I, but we aren't sure, so far it's been every week for the last two weeks

Do you ever have zone P-Day activities? or is there not enough time? Is you do, what is your favorite activity? or activities?

Once a transfer. My favorite game is quidditch.... I wreck everyone with my snitch game, and I never lose... 

Have you been to any member's houses for dinner (other than the Tongan who plays rugby)??

Miyashita kyoudais house for lunch today. We went and weeded his house, and then had lunch and discussed the ward.

What are your interviews like with President Budge? What kind of questions do you ask him?

Well I go in, and he asked me what I wanna talk about, and then I read some questions that I've thought of before hand and prayed over, for example, why am I with the certain companion? What about this investigator? What is it I should be teaching others?

Do you have an interview with Sister Budge? Or like a training? about food, or hygiene or shopping??

Yeah, she's mainly just asks us about our spiritual progression, deep questions like what does faith mean to you? How have you acted on your faith more as a missionary? She asks a lot about our families too.

How are your investigators? Brother K? Brother Y?

Good. K is hesitant still, but he thinks he will get baptized, just doesn't know when yet. He wants to live life a little more without the viewpoint of  God in his life ... Y is good, we've have to refer him over to the elders in Narita soon.

Father. Thanks for all the updates on everything. I love it when we win! As for the Halloween party, I would say that that's the norm for the whole country of Japan ... year round. As for your Halloween getting busier than you expected, I see it, sorry that it wasn't as decorated as you would have hoped, next year, I'll come join, and help you deck out the house, I've been wanting to since I was way little ... we'll have the scariest house on the whole block ... I mean like the Dean's house! Way scary!

Mom, I too have heard that I'm here to find specific people and to be with this Mission President ... pretty crazy stuff I know right? I think it's really cool though, Budge Kaichou is a legit genius, and every three months we get to spend twenty minutes with him ... it's just so cool!! Thanks for sending me my shoes, I haven't quite had time to use my new card, yet, but I was going to use it to buy some new shoes ... but now I won't! What should I buy?

JanDee! Your kids are so adorable! I love Axton's costume! They're so adorable!! I'm so proud of Axton's choice in costumes ... pure genius (Axton dressed up as a dead Elk), did he really get dragged around in a wagon the whole night? Cuz that would be fantastic!!!

Smash, I couldn't resist sugar cookies either ... they're my weakness ... oh, so good!! Yes, I have heard of tinder ... a surprising amount of people I know use tinder ... like surprisingly all of my friends use tinder ... okay, well not all, but I hear some stories over email each week. To be honest, it sounds like a chat room  ... or a dating service ... or Russian roulette ... I'm all for not signing up for it, but then again I'm on the other side of the planet. I feel good about writing other people's profiles for them in an iambic pentameter verse or maybe even iambic tetrameter to mix things up a bit ... sounds fun!

Storm of darkness ... I'm glad that Halloween went well for you and your kiddies. It was never a productive day for me in school either. Your witch costumes sounds pretty legit, sad I didn't get any pictures from anyone this week ... except JanDee, thanks btw! But it sounds like the rest of your week was good, thanks for not watching said movie, I feel good about standing up for what's right! It's like that mormon message about President Monson in the navy, and how he had to stand alone and be a Mormon!

So this week is transfers. Sabat Choro is leaving. So is Phillips Choro. My old companion, Yoshino Choro is coming to be with Turley Choro. I'm not transferring, I'm staying in Abiko, and I'm training again. I don't know who my new companion is, I'll meet him on Thursday, and let you know next week, but I'm pretty terrified. I think that it should be okay. I don't know, I've learned a lot from the last time I was a trainer, but I'm still scared to train, I hope that he thinks I'm a decent human being and doesn't hate me ... that's my greatest fear.

Other than that, this week was pretty good. Right now our apartment is not so clean, so we gotta go clean it before transfers happen, hence the reason this is so short, but nothing to big happened this week. I went on splits with Chun Choro, and he blew my mind all day long, he's amazing, he's half Korean, and he's way hard core in everything he does. He taught me so much about goals and how to teach and about the gospel in general, it was so amazing. I haven't been with a companion whose as old as me in the mission, he made me stretch so much. It was so nice to be able to go and learn and grow. I really miss those opportunities.

This brings me to my spiritual thought for the week. Learning is a part of life. Ideally we're always learning how to become more Christ like. But we're all in different spots along the way. It's like a sphere around Christ, and although I may be on one side, others might be on the opposite side, but closer to Christ in some ways than I'm not, so although we should look at others and try to be motivated by them, we shouldn't be motivated to become them, we should take that motivation and try to become more like Christ. We should try to motivate those around us, and be motivated by those around us as well. Sometimes it's hard, and we lose sight of our real goal because we think so and so is so great, and we want to be like them, or we want to do the things that they can do, but in reality, the traits that we admire are all traits that Christ possesses, we just have to see Him in them, and then were able to be motivated by them and not to become them!

Well I gotta go, got's to clean ... not gonna be super fun, but it must be done!

Love you all, and thanks for so much that you all do for me!
Griffiths Choro!
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DD 11.52 ... Shibuya Street Party ... Happy Halloween ...

DD 11.46 ... Halloween Party ... Family Home Evening ... Urgency ...

How is your hand doing? did the magic bandaids heal it completely? Never got a picture of your hand btw!

It's fine, now it's just a scratch.

What are on each of the seven floors of your church building? Seems awfully big!

First floor is the entry way, the second and the third floor are one, it's the chapel, four and five are classrooms, and six and seven are a gym!

Who created your plan of salvation pictures? or where did they come from? they were awesome!!

Various missionaries!

Why was temple P-Day so early?

Not sure.

Does your knee hurt at all? Are you running?

Not running, and it just feels like I need to pop it sometimes ... not to bad.

Are your clothes holding out? Anything you need?

They should be good, could use some shirts if you're sending a something something in the mail. 

Is it annoying not to have a watch when you dendo? How do you know what time it is?

I have a cell phone!

How cold was it been in Abiko?

Not very cold ... I'm hot in a long sleeve shirt right know, so there's that.

Do you ever dendo outside the gambling place by the church?

It's not in our area, so no, but in Inage my first area, we dendod right outside it all the time.

How is your district doing this week?

Pretty good. We're going to have a training on urgency in district meeting this week.

Any new investigators?

One named Brother Y, he got sick and couldn't come to church this week, but we're meeting him tonight, and he just apologized for forgetting to wear a suit ... he's amazing ... it'll be my second time meeting him, but Sabat Choro said that he was way prepared, he's already progressing!!

It is nearing day light savings time here, do they have day light savings in Japan?

We don't!!

Dad! Happy birthday!! I hope that you have a great day ... whatever's left of it!! I'm glad the the girls and the family were so good to you in your birthday! It sounds like Sam is trying to cut out sugar, so maybe you can ask mom to make carrot cake all the time instead of normal cake ... worth a shot ... I think Sam would even be on board.!! Don't worry about the package! I honesty don't have a whole lot of time to eat of candy these days anyways! Love you so much though!!

Mother thank you so much for the reminder about all the prayers of all the people who want us to succeed!!  It really is amazing that the only people who are more prayed for then the missionaries right now is the prophet and apostles!! I love it!  I'm so glad that doing sealings at temple was so good!!

TeJay! The boys costumes sound adorable!! Scarecrows!! I want pictures! Ones that would be okay to show to people and say they are my nephews, aren't they adorable!?!? And then talk about eternal families with them ... if you don't have time, I understand, but if you do, I'd love it!!

Sam!! I'm quitting sugar during November, and I think that if no one picks up on my intake, the the universe might explode ... I think that you need to take my month of November off of your fast, I'll pick right up again in December, but for the next month ... for the sake of the rest of human life ... please eat some sweets for me!! I'll feel so bad if all the calories and pure joy that I would normally eat doesn't get eaten!!!  They would be so sad, not fulfilling their life's purpose like that, just sitting on the shelf!! Eat them! Sam! Eat them All!!!

Shmabbi I fully support buying a bear ... actually I fully support going hunting with Jaden and getting my self a nine foot grizzly bear, stuffing it, and having it in my living room as a table or a couch ... that would be so cool!!! I'm for it, I love bears!! Don't worry about being a helicopter sister ... I plan on being a helicopter brother when I get home ... I'll need lots of attention from you and Sam all the time, and I'll probably bug you guys constantly!!!

So this week I have an request!! I just sent it to Sam and dad!! Thanks for helping me out with this!!

Box maze for church Halloween Party!!

This week we met with Brother K a lot, he came to the Halloween party and then to church, he said that it was all really good. Then on Monday night we went to a members house for FHE with him. Brother I, he's Tongan and plays professional rugby ... he's pretty big, and we ate a decent amount of food there ... it was so good, and then Brother I threw down spiritually, in only the way that Tongans can do ... It was amazing!!!

Brother K, Sabat Choro, Griffiths Choro, Turley Choro, Phillips Choro, Brother I

This week was really good. I loved it a lot, we got a lot of stuff done, and I'm way excited for everything else to keep coming!!

So this week I'm learning about urgency. I only have sevenish months left as a missionary, and we only have eight weeks until Christmas ... so we need one hundred more baptisms by then too!! Some people look at life and think that they have a lot of time left, they can put off decisions until later, or put off doing things until later ... like getting baptized. What I realized this week is that we definitely can do that, but there's a drawback. It's like getting a membership at Costco. You have to pay a price for it right? Life's not easy, it's complex.  You save so much money from shopping at Costco, but you have to enter into this agreement. Same with membership, we do things now so we can have blessings into eternity. We want the cheaper prices, we want to enjoy the huge muffins and gallons of mango nectar, we want to save money, but there is this membership fee.  We can put off baptism, but if we do, we miss out on so many blessings, that we don't even know!  Since I only have like seven months left, I'm resolving now to work like I only have seven days left! It's such a short time, that I don't have anyto waste time, no time for unfocused actions, no time for things that I can put off till I get home. I only have so much time to do what I have been sent here to do, and I'm way excited to do it!!

Thanks for all the love and support that you have all giving me all the time!!

Love ya!

Griffiths Choro!

DD 3.15 ... The Howl @ USU ... The Streets of Shibuya ...

What are the names of your new companions, where are they from? (Dad would like a picture as well.)

Asato Choro and Dunbar Choro. Photo is courtesy of Asato Choro

Asato Choro, Dunbar Choro, Griffiths Choro

Explain how transfers work, they leave, what do you do? How long before the new companions arrive.

We all leave on Thursdays and work with someone while they are transferring.

How is the new companionship working?

We are really busy.

Is Halloween a normal holiday to celebrate in Japan? Or did you just celebrate because you're American? Do they trick or treat?

There are a lot of parties ... that we avoided because, well Japan is not exactly Utah county, or even Utah, the rest of the year; so imagine The Howl at USU; but now in The Streets of Shibuya ...

Do they really not have Thanksgiving at all over there? (We realize this is incredibly arrogant to assume that the whole world should celebrate American holidays, but they are just so great!)

Nope, they sure don’t

Do you volunteer at the mental disability hospital every week? As well as English class?

We used to, don’t know what’s going to happen now.

Who is teaching in your English class with you now that Christensen Shimai is gone?

The other English speaking Missionaries

Did Williams Choro teach English with you?

Yes he did.

Have you worn your sweater yet? Do you need more warm clothes to layer with?

Yes, I’m all right!

Internet in your apartment now you have ZL comps?

Still no, maybe next week though!

Has it snowed yet?

Nope, short sleeves today.

Let's talk about your shower. How is it? Hot water? Do you have to bath? Do you wear shower shoes???

Instant hot water, and yes I wear the flip-flops

Most importantly, is the shower tall enough for you? Or is it Japan size?

It’s all good.

How is your hair gel holding up? Do you use it every day?

maamaa and yeah, that’s Japanese

How are your contacts holding up? Changing them every month or every 6 weeks?

Every six weeks; They are fine but I change them earlier if they’re bad.

Are you done with your twelve week language training program now?

I’m done with twelve weeks, but that has nothing to do with the language, so no, still learning Nihongo every day!

If you have finished the twelve week training, do you dendo all day now instead of staying at your apartment all the morning?

Yeah, well now we are mostly getting organized with the ZL’s.

We stole this picture from another missionary's blog who is serving in Japan.  Can you fill in the names and tell us why you were all together, was it a District Meeting?

Back: Griffiths Choro, Bischoff Choro, Burgin Choro, Watanabe Choro, Williams Choro, Hamada Choro;
Front: Christensen Shimai, Willden Shimai, Kondo Choro (District Leader)

So this week was really good, we have a lot of fun with the ZL’s, they are not as scary as I thought, I got a package from my Pine View crew this week! It was full of peanut butter and letters from them, I need to send them an email when I finish here.

This week was transfers, it was crazy, well, not much other than that happened, sorry, I don’t have much time this week.

Mom and Dad: I love that you scared the turkeys from the roof ... that's hilarious! Mom, maybe you should dress up a little more next year, really rabbit ears with matching shirts ;-) I’m sure that your costume was awesome!!!

Sam: I’m sorry that people keep hitting on you and that you are losing to your nemesis at work, that’s no fun ever. I hope that you are able to conquer and overcome. I hope that you are at least able to sneak in some more TV while pretending to email me ... the headphones were a rookie mistake ... and you have long hair. You need some Bluetooth headphones, ones without the cords. Then you’ll be really sneaky!

Abi: sorry that math is really hard. I hope that it’s all going well! Also don’t be stressed, it does weird things to your bowel movements ... I know from experience ... anyways, thank you for the image of dad on the roof, I got the same one as you, at least, I think. I hope that all is going well for you ...

Nothing too exciting happened this week, we have spent a lot of time at the church lately planning meetings and splits to do, now that it is all done I hope that we get to dendo more ... I’m way pumped to work with them, we busted out member presented lessons and all sorts of finding stuff over the last couple days ... we usually sprint back to the apartment ... literally sprint … one night we didn't have our bikes so we literally ran. The other night we just hauled on our bikes ... which is actually a lot of fun!!! It’s probably the best part of the day, except for the whole sharing the gospel part. Well, not to many stories this week … only the one.

So we are teaching a lesson in a park and this black guy that Dunbar Choro saw earlier comes up to us and asks us what we are doing ... yeah, he’s a new investigator, his name is Brother N. He was way interested!!! Miracle!!! That’s all.Love you all and hope that you are all doing wonderful!!!!

I gotta go write to my P-Veiw kids and tell them thanks really fast for the peanut butter, Its pure Skippy!!!

PS. Sam, those peanut butter things were way good, remember when I used to buy Great Value, Smucker’s is way better. I do like the GV though. All natsukahi, there ya go dad, so me nihongo for ya!

Love you all so much!!!

Elder Gjrfkelg;jfd
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DD 2.56 ... "Yes, you will do just fine." ... then yeah ... this happened ...

T-Day this week. The week before Transfers, our P-Day moves to Tuesday, then all who are close enough, go to the Temple ... so ... sorry there was no letter on Monday; here it is on Tuesday:  T-Day.

What do Japanese toothbrushes look like? Why are they not as good as American ones?

They are all right, they are just small and expensive ... and they wear out really easily, also I got the package today, thank you so much!!! I haven’t really looked through it yet!

It sounds like you are stopping more people on the street to talk to them, are you feeling more comfortable w/ the language? Do you understand what they are saying more?

YES, I do all my phone calls in Japanese, and I talked to some people on the train today.

Is your neck still hurting? Shoulders? Stomach?

Nope, I feel completely fine!

What kind of book bag/back pack did you buy? Was it the blue plaid bag in your picture last week?

Yes ... right! Its way sweet.

Does the new bag make your shoulders/neck hurt?

Nope, again, I must be cured!!

How was the typhoon on Tues/Wed? Did you go out while it was storming?

We slept through most of it that night, but like five minutes after it ended we went housing, and met a Jehovah’s Witness.

Did your power go out during/before mentioned typhoon?

Nope, the biggest typhoon in fifty years and Japan kept on running smooth. They are pretty prepared.

How bad was the wind? Rain?

Not too bad, just like a rainstorm in Utah, but without the lightning and we had to pull our laundry inside.

Did the package get there? If so, what was in it? (It might have been delayed due to the storm).

It arrived here on Tuesday! Along with Abi’s letter!

Does your ward do a primary program for sacrament meeting?

Yes, it was a couple weeks ago, it was adorable!!

Are you currently in transfer 2 or 3? What week will the next transfer occur in?

I am currently in Transfer number 2; and this will be week six; transfers will be next week.

Do they celebrate Halloween in Japan? Are you guys having a Halloween party?

Our ward had a Halloween party. See pictures and details below.

Did the Sister Missionary, who taught English with you (Christensen Shimai) get transferred or does she still teach with you guys?

Both of the sisters which are here now are from America, Willden Shimai has some Japanese family background, they are both still here, for now, and both help teach.

Did Dad find your apartment building?

      

Yes ... kinda creepy, but really cool, I definitely want to catch the replay of that in heaven, he even got the right room too, Go Dad!!

Dad said last weeks subject read, "This one's for father. You must really like Japanese. Please Enjoy." How close did he get?  He says he could not find a the translation for "tmasu."
Dad, the last part of the Japanese was to shittemasu it means that “I know” what ever comes before it tatoeba “my dad loves Japanese shittemasu,” or with English grammar, “I know my dad loves Japanese.”

Do you still write people regularly? If so, who? (Ben? Rachel? Lizzie? Paige? Jon?) I'm nosy and am wondering. =)

I write to Ben, Lizzy, and Rachel every week or so, and some random people every once in a while.

So yeah, this week was a typhoon, a Halloween party, and temple day!!! The typhoon was pretty intense, but afterwards we went housing and found a Jehovah’s Witness, having never met one before I wasn't sure what they believed, but now I know a little more, namely they are not allowed to study other religions! Right? But yea freedom to choose, we pretty much left with a box full of pamphlets about how Halloween is Satan’s holiday and how bad we are for teaching people about other religions ... Oh, the things that we see.

Skyline view of Chiba; from the deck of our Jehovah's Witness investigator

... this happened ...

Next up, the Halloween party, I walk in and Brother K. just looked at me and said, “Yes, you will do just fine;” and then yeah, this happened:

Brother O. has a better picture of me doing seiza and looking all dignified, but I don’t have it, it may be on the Chiba Ward Website / Facebook page, maybe dad can find it; it might be on Brother O’s page. This is the game that we made for the Halloween party, we throw cotton balls at the web and they stick to it ... it’s made of tape.

Halloween Party Game

Temple today was very great!!! I love it so much!!! Transfers are coming up and so last Friday I went on splits with Williams Choro, my bean, but it was just the two of us, and we actually found two new people, one of them fell through, but the other said that he loves soccer and after that he loves to read ... so yeah me being the outgoing American that I am said; well then brother, have we got a book for you; and yeah, we’re meeting with him next Friday, introduce him to the gospel more fully, and then set a baptismal date. Should be good, right?

Who knew … the same rule for meeting girls applies to getting investigators, you always wait three days to call ... except in Japan, you call them that night to say that it was nice to meet them and make sure they got home safely; and then you wait three days, call them back, and then make an appointment with them ... who knew? Right?

Thank you for all the eMail and the letter, more eMail, I love them all, today I don’t have very much time and I want to send some emails to Sam’s eMail really fast so that she can send them to y’all!!!!!

Melonpan

Love you all, don’t worry about you letters distracting me too much … Ahhhh … Should I get a flu shot? So really fast, they have this bread called Melonpan, and it is so good!!!!! It’s pretty cheap to. Try and find it in America, if you can’t find it, I’ll probably never come home ... it is so good!!! I highly recommend it. JK; I will still come home.  I really do love doing missionary work!!!! WHOO!!!!

Today I started doing train dendo, we sit next to random people and talk to them, extra points if you can get to the gospel in six sentences or less ... it took me like twelve, but I was playing with some other zone leaders ...　so you could say that they are pretty good, they only have like two and four transfers left...

Yeah, that’s almost all I have this week, love you all and thank you for the stories, sorry about Jayli’s throat/mouth, and when i get back I want/would like to take Porter rock climbing ... think about it and let me know if that would be okay ... I promise we will be safe.

PS … Abi … only four ... bummer, challenge extended To ... fourTEEEEEEENNNNN!!!!!!!!!!! bum bum bum ...
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