YOU ARE WEAK

December 13, 2015

So first, I forgot to make a quick list of things I did to put in my email, so I'm just going to write about what stuck out most.

For the most part the snow has melted. Kind of sad to be honest. I'm learning to love the snow, especially for a California kid. Every day I look out my window and think "oh there's no snow, it can't be that cold." Then I go outside not wearing warm clothes, and every time I regret it. Of course the only logically thing to do the next day is do the same thing right? Yeah I'm pretty stupid ha.

This week I went on splits with a 2nd transfer Named Elder Romney in his area (Atsubetsu). Yeah he's related to Mitt Romney. Very close actually.... He's his 2nd cousin twice removed. No he's not that close lol. Anyway, Yep that's right a 3rd transfer with a 2nd transfer. His companion is on transfer 16, and mine is on 11. Yeah we didn't understand why we they went on splits together, and us left out to dry. We did see success though

On splits we taught a Shuwa lesson to start off our day. Shuwa is Japanese sign language, and is pretty different from ASL. I don't know any Shuwa and he barely knew any so we knew we were in for a fun visit. We were asked by his companion to teach the law of tithing, so we knew we were screwed right from the start. Luckily, we had a member team up that would just sign things to the guy when we didn't know the Shuwa for it. The only problem being that we didn't know the Japanese for it either. It was super frustrating because he would ask a question and sign in to the team up, who would ask us the question in Japanese. We would both look at each other and ask if the other person understood, but we never understood haha. We then talked about Joseph smith, and the guy thought Elder Romney was Joseph Smith. It sounds funny, but it was really bad because this guy is already baptized. These are his after baptism lessons. I think he has some mental memory problems because he asked who I was 4 or 5 times.

We also did a lot of housing door to door, but it was amazing how many people talked to us. Elder Romney kind of just stood there really nervous, so I had to do most of the talking with my garbage Japanese. We ended up teaching 2 lessons that night in just 2 hours. It really strengthened my testimony about God making weak things strong. We were two nervous, inept at Japanese, young missionaries, but still fulfilled our duty for that day. Awesome experience.

We had our Christmas party this last Saturday and it was way fun. We had a quiz for everyone about common questions about Christmas. Japanese people don't know anything haha. They all thought Santa was from Greenland. I thought that was freaking hilarious. We also had a ward member dress up as Santa and give out presents to little kids. They attacked him and he kept yelling "agenai" translating to "I will not give" haha It was a super cool party and Elder Rees and I sang a Christmas hymn with some wards members. A lot of the members brought non member friends, so I got to meet a lot of people.

Yesterday we had a meal at a members house. He's the one from the Sapporo temple video. I mentioned this last week, but he's my bishop. He put the angel Moroni on the Sapporo temple. He's a super funny guy, and he has 3 sons who are super hilarious. They're always causing some tension with another brother haha. The bishop always messes with Elder Rees and I. I'll show you what I mean in one of my attached pictures. In this picture elder Rees was actually nervous okay? The smile was out of fear! Ha

That's all. This week was pretty normal, but still awesome. There really aren't boring weeks on the mission, you always feel good about what you're doing, so it's hard to feel boring. 

I know this church is true. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and the Book of Mormon is The word of God. Don't believe me? Read it and pray about it. It will change your life. You'll feel a happiness you have never experienced before. Kk shenanigans pics are coming soon

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)