Weekly Nihongo Suru Mail

Final week of my first transfer in Ishigaki, Okinawa, Japan! The weather is getting pretty hot, it is only barely Spring, and we are sleeping with the sliding doors open with the air con on and everything (sounds like a stupid idea, but its worth it, trust me). 

 

We had to drop our main progressing investigator this week because he stopped progressing which means we had to drop our baptisimal date for him, but in goes his progress record in to the area book, for missionaries to find him again sometime later, and I know that since he was enjoying learning and growing closer to God now that he will again when he overcomes the problems he is facing now which stopped him from progressing, or when he remembers how great the Lord's help was, that initial time he aimed for a life in Christ.

 

We met up with a former investigator who we set a baptisimal date for, and she wants to learn and change which is wonderful, I hope as we continue to teach and testify to her that the Spirit bears witness to her that these things are true and the truthfulness of Christ's Gospel has been restored on the earth in these latter-days.

 

This week we had a record of 3 people at our weekly English class! We have a lot of fun and this week we had an exercise called 'speak like a ___' so Elder Rogers stood up and taught everyone how to speak like an American by saying 'I hate ___' and 'I love ___.' Then I got up and taught everyone how to speak like an Australian by teaching them 'G'day Mate' and 'Cheers Cobba.' Then for the final one we taught them how to speak like a New Zealander, by getting them to say 'churr ayee boo ayouuwaae!' (I had some NZ friends who used to incorporate weird noises into their sentences which somehow gained meeting, so we were just making fun of them really). And the Japanese people loved it. Hopefully some day when they meet a New Zealander they have an opportunity to use that one. 

 

We also met a lady who spoke in tongues (scary), and I also told someone in Japanese that Jesus killed their sins.

 

Fun in Ishigaki! As always I appreciate hearing from all of you, take care.

Love Elder Wheeler

 

Weekly Language Crisis Mail

Another amazing week in Ishigaki, this week we went to zone conference up in Naha which is on the main island of Okinawa and I got to catch up with one of my MTC companions Elder Inagaki! It's awesome to see just how much we have changed in only a month, I think it's same to say we both have a greater insight of service which I know for myself has in turn boosted my confidence in being bold in sharing what I know to be true. Because how else will people know of this greatness we have if we are too shy to share it? So to every one out there - let's be bold and courageous together!

 

Another short email this week, I really need to get better at using my email time wisely.

But! Our Stake President came to Ishigaki for the first time this week and he is awesome, couldn't ask for a better President. We have some ideas to try and get the missionary work moving a bit quicker so I am excited to see what we can do this week with hard work and prayer.

 

While in Naha, Elder Rogers heard some people speaking Chinese, so we walks over to a group of people and says some missionary phrases in Mandarin, and in perfect English one replies 'we are Korean.' Even though we are in Japan, the trick is to not expect people to speak either of the two languages you think they speak. And that's my deep thought for the day!

 

Love you all! 

Elder Wheeler

 

Elder Inagaki

 

Weekly Cow Tongue Mail

Jen was set apart as a missionary so I spent waaay too much time writing to her saying how proud of her I was, SO, I have just a few minutes left of the clock just to remind everyone that I am still alive and kicking and that Ishigaki is the best place on Earth.

 

This week has seen the reactivation of a sister in our small yet cosy branch (we average about 17 people every week at church); our investigator being knocked down and has jumped right back up, testifying to us the strength of the atonement and how the desire to change gives strength from our loving God who wants us to do our best; we met a bunch of amazing potential investigators, one of which said in our first meeting with her that she believed our teachings to be true and is super excited to start studying the Book of Mormon for herself; a random man on the street stopped us and bought us lunch one day when I was hungry; we cut grass with scythes; I gave my first cohesive lesson; and we ate at a place called 'Gasto' where I unknowingly ate cow tongue.

 

This week has brought so many blessings and I have seen some wonderful miracles because of the service to the Lord. No matter what situation we are in or what our beliefs are - service is the greatest thing we can do for anyone, because love is what makes us human.

 

Love Elder Wheeler

 

Sugoimail

Super short weekly email today! Yesterday we were walking to Church and saw the first gaijin (foreigner) I have seen in a week on the way who was all `I guess Im going the wrong way` which we thought at first he was mocking us, but nope, he was from Idaho, just backpacking and camping his way around asia, from Taiwan to Ishigaki. So this meant that I wasn`t the only one at church that day who didn`t understand everything! He didnt speak Japanese. And to all my friends in Australia, I was looking at him all day wondering who he reminded me of.. then it hit me! He is the doppleganger of James/Clint, the `just waiting for a mate` guy! I almost burst out laughing in priesthood meeting when I realised. 

 

We visited the coolest family ever who talk to me in crazy Japanese that I may never understand and are cool when I just smile and make bad japanese jokes in bad japanese. I had a few awkward door approach moments when I forgot what I was saying because Im just that much of an awkward guy who forgets what language he is speaking. we met an awesome investigator who has the craziest kid ever who followed us like hundreds of metres away from her house, we were like those ex-millitary guys in movies who get stuck looking after some little kid. but we got her back safe haha.

 

Elder Rogers my companion is red headed, and you know what that means? It means japanese people asking for photos, makes us feel like superstars! we had this group of kids run after us yelling `photo! photo!` and so we were like `eh what the heck` haha so somewhere on facebook theres probably a photo of a bunch of Japanese kids with two gaijin giving peace signs haha. 

 

this week in lost in translation, this old dude was saying this long thing while chuckling, and I had no idea what he said so I smiled and said `ahh sugoi` (meaning `cool`) and after an awkward silence my companion whispered in english `no, not sugoi, his family died`

 

Thanks for reading and thanks for your emails! My awesome girlfriend is going to the MTC next week, serving the temple square mission, so I spent all my email time telling her to find all my friends there haha, which is why this is so short and all over the place! 

 

Love you all, Elder Wheeler

 

Ishigakimail week 2

Konnichiwa! I didnt get a chance to email everyone last week so for those of you who I couldnt get to, Im in Ishigaki which is a small island about an hours flight from Okinawa, its closer to Taiwan than to mainland Japan, with a population of 48,000 amazing people and you can get to pretty much any populated area within an hour or less bike ride. Its already pretty hot here already, but the food is amazing and the people are so polite. Everyone will talk to you and only rarely do people not listen to our message or allow us to introduce ourselves, every school kid ever tries to talk to us in English, and there isnt much of a city here, its more just like a big town without a central hub with lots of rural suburbia. My companion Elder Rogers is from Texas and he is the coolest and most patient person ever (he has to be if he is training me haha), and we have two other Elders in this area, and we have the whole island to ourselves! I was really hoping I would get called to an island some point in my mission and the fact that its my first area is so cool! I dont want to waste a single second here. Unless its p-day. 

 

We have already seen wonderful blessings since being here. Here are the highlights of the week

 

Tuesday we were let into a guys house and he asked us about evolution, fire worshipping and obama.. so we gave him a book of mormon. Friday we got our first bible bash! someone read to us interesting scriptures from the bible and took them out of context.. so we shared the message of the restoration with him, oh and got some candy from a random guy who smiled at us then walked off. Saturday we met a guy who first said he was Usain Bolt, then after we shared a little bit about the gospel with him, he said he was Jesus before walking off. But! We had three lessons that day (which is a lot here) and invited two investigators (also a lot) to be baptised, and continued to work with our third investigator who is absolutely loving church and loving what he learns from the scriptures and the gospel, and loves the peaceful feelings he has when he prays, reads the scriptures, and lives Gods commandments. His baptisimal date is later in March, and the baptisimal font here is the beach which is cool! Church yesterday was awesome, we had 19 people there, including 2 investigators! our numbers really are increasing, which is awesome. 

 

I love Ishigaki and I love serving this mission. Ive only been out for a week and a half but already my testimony on dilligence and hard work has increased. Last night when we were talking to people, sharing the gospel, we werent seeming to find anyone who was ready to hear it, until the last two people we visited who were happy to set up appointments and accept a book of mormon each, and we made two new investigators and I fully believe its because we kept pressing on with faith even though we werent finding success at the time. the blessing comes after the trial of faith.

 

Life is beautiful. Love you all,

Elder Wheeler

First week, first area

Well, Im in Ishigaki! Its one of the Okinawan islands, its closer to Taiwan to mainland Japan. If Okinawa is like Tasmania (which is saying a lot, right?) then Ishigaki is like Bridport. Its just this awesome beachtown full of japanese culture! every one here is so cool, like everyone talks to you! We have already seen the miracles of sacrifice and hard work, my driving force has been the words of our teacher, Brother Fowers, his MTC teacher from before his mission who said "the days you want to work the least are the days you need to work the hardest" so Im trying as hard as I can to do everything I can, to just constantly move forward, smash through any obstacles, and I have already seen the rewards of the sacrifice, through helping people come closer to Christ in whichever way they are ready to do. And sometimes all that is, is sharing our beliefs and inviting them to read the Book of Mormon, or to pray. Its beautiful and my testimony of missionary work has increased so much this week.

 

If you have my address I'd love to hear from you in a physical letter, because I dont really have much time to email here, but I appreciate everyones time!

 

Love from Elder Wheeler

 

Elder Wheeler and Elder Rogers

rooms in their flat

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Last week at the MTC

This week has gone so fast, it's crazy! This is my last e-mail from the MTC in Utah, because this weekend I'll be going to Japan! Monday 4:30am we need to check in to the front desk, and we're flying from Salt Lake City to LA, then to Narita, Japan and then to Fukuoka, Japan! I'm so excited but a little nervous. Flying here (on my own too) was a piece of cake, because I spent so much time preparing for it. But I totally forgot to prepare myself for leaving! I've made so many awesome friends, it's going to be sad to say goodbye to them, like Elder Moua and Lewis going to Tokyo South and Elder Barr going to Kobe. And all our Kohai and what we call our Dai Kohai, who will be here for a while after we leave. I've made sure our Kohai know what Jen looks like so when she gets here they can say hi and put a good word in for me.

Last week I went to Jen's mission, salt lake city temple square mission. She doesn't get there for another almost 2 months (after the MTC) but we met some really nice Sisters who showed us a few things and bore their testimonies and it was really great. We saw the conference center, didn't get to do a session at the temple because it was closed for renovations, but instead did a service project at the humanatarian center - we made blankets. 

 

Today we have been packing but we've all had a blast together just chilling out. I totally said a nek minute joke the other day and everyone just looked at me funny. I'm just about over all the attention I get from being Australian (okay no really I love it) so I'm excited to go to Japan and get attention for being blonde with blue eyes instead of just saying things *normally.* (see what I did there?)

 

It was our last week with our kyudosha (role played by our teachers) which was pretty sad but we left them both on a high note with a strong spirit. Even though they're role plays, anyone's relationship with God can be strengthened and it's great for that to happen with both myself and my companions, and our teacher. I'd love to work at the MTC.

 

So just a few more days until I'm in Japan (like I've been saying for the last few weeks haha) but next time I'll be able to email will probably be not this week but the week after, not too sure. But I'm excited and I'm thankful for all your emails this week! And, again, harass Slackson Corona for not emailing me ever. Thank you!

 

Aishite Imasu!

ウイーラー長老