22nd week in Japan
1/11/2016
Talk with everyone!

Family and Friends,

How is everyone doing? I hope we have all started off the new year
well. This past week has been a bunch of fun. I have learned so many
different things about having fun and enjoying everything while out on
my mission. Japan truly is an incredible place. Even though it is
often hard being turned down by so many people, trying hard to spread
the gospel brings so much joy. Another thing that I have really grown
to understand on my mission is that Heavenly Father truly does love
each and every one of us more than we can even imagine. I love this
gospel!

On our P day last week we went to a very famous place in Japan called
the Fushimi Inari. Because it was during the New Years time the place
was packed with people. It is a very famous shrine that many people go
to during the New Years for their Buddhist culture. I did not take any
pictures because we are not supposed to take pictures in shrines as
missionaries, but it was a very interesting place. There was a bunch
of vendors and some strange Buddhist cultural things to do. We also
got to see the 1000 gates, which was pretty interesting.

We had a fun Eikaiwa class on Monday. Because the New Years time has
finished, a lot more people showed up to Eikaiwa. We usually just have
different conversations in the class, but this week we tried to teach
something on pronunciation. In the Japanese language they don't have a
pronunciation for the letters Th, V, and L. We wrote some words on the
board and tried to teach them how to pronounce these different
letters. It was pretty funny trying to practice together with them and
realizing that English is a pretty difficult language. Yes, we don't
have 20 thousand kanji characters, but we do have some pretty strange
things that we say in the language.

I was also able to have an awesome companion exchange with the one of
the zone leaders last week. The zone leader who I exchanged with last
week really taught me the meaning of talking to everyone. His name is
Goff choro and he talks to everyone that he sees! He is a really funny
guy, and because he is 16th transfer he is very good at Japanese.
Every time we finished teaching to someone we would turn around and be
teaching someone else. Heavenly Father really blessed us that day to
be able to teach many of his children about the gospel. We were able
to teach 13 lessons in one day. That is by far the most people I have
ever taught in a day. Goff choro really taught me how to talk to
everyone and have fun while doing it.

My ponderizing scripture for last week was Jacob 7:25. Last week I
invited everyone to try to show charity. I have really been trying to
show charity to all of those that I have been teaching. I love these
people so much, and even more importantly I know that Heavenly Father
loves them so much. If we continual show charity to those around us we
will be more blessed in our lives.

Questions:

1. Yes, the music flash drive works in my new apartment. My companion also has a
lot of music so it is nice while we are eating and when we have time
to listen to it at the apartment. I think I am good on music thanks.

2.We just changed the apartment recently so some things get sent to the other

 apartment. We are working on fixing that sorry. Next transfer calls are on the

25th of January. I cannot believe it is coming so fast.

3. Yes, we still teach English every Wednesday. It is so much fun. I love the
Eikaiwa students here. There is an old guy that comes every week named
Shouji. He is hilarious.

4. We are going to start doing ping pong every Friday at 6:30.
We actually got to play some last week on Friday too, but not too many
people showed up. It was still a lot of fun anyways with those who did
come. It has not snowed yet. It is pretty cold though. I think I have
heard that the coldest month here is actually February. I am thinking
that it will not snow though.

5. We don't get to see the missionaries in Osaka really, but we did
have a Zone Conference on Friday last week. We met with all the Kyoto
missionaries. It was a lot of fun. We also learned about having fun
there too.

6. My companion has 4 brothers and an older sister. He played football in
high school and likes to do a lot of different things. He is actually
really good at ping pong too. He has a crazy spin that I can't stop.
He also likes ballroom, juggling, soccer, a lot of various things.

7. I am doing great! Thanks tons though. You are awesome!

I know that we are all sons and daughters of Heavenly Father. He loves
each of us. Love you all,

Hirschi 長老