Fwd: Missing Dictionaries, 45 minutes of extra sleep, and a Remodel

かに痴話　個族　と　ともがち

Konichiwa kozoku to tomogachi

hello family and friends

This week has been a long one, but excellent none the less. 

目予備 Thursday

It was a relatively uneventful day, until my companion and I were to teach a lesson. And we forgot our dictionaries...that is a life line in those lessons. So our lesson turned into a bunch of waving arms and broken English and Japanese to communicate. WE LEARNED THAT LESSON PRETTY QUICKLY. Always, always have a dictionary on hand. 

着如美　Friday

I finally got a haircut since being here. It was a good break from studying to go and get a haircut. In Class we had two natives visit us. They were awesome! We had a question and answer session with them. I asked if they had ever ridden a roller coaster, they were pretty funny in their responses. They were really nice, and super helpful with our Japanese. The language started to click, it was amazing. I understood about 80% of the spoken language from the natives and about 90% of the spoken language by the teachers. 

度予備　Saturday

Our halfway point at the MTC has been reached! It is about time! 4.5 weeks in and 4.5 weeks left. The time really flew by. A teacher played a less active for us, they said we do a lot of less active work in Japan. I was pretty bold in my challenge and oddly enough he took it, other companionship's asked the same question but he accepted ours. It was awesome. 

日予備 Sunday

Sunday is a great day to recharge, it is a big look forward to day for me. I have meetings in the mornings now with the branch because of my calling, but otherwise it is a good day to get to know our branch/zone better. We have people from all over the world here, Hong Kong, Brazil, Canada, Australasia, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Hawaii, Wyoming, and you guessed it Utah. Our speaker was Elder Allen who helped write Preach my Gospel, his insight on the book was really interesting. We watched the John Tanner story that night as a district, it was really good, I hope I am able to emulate his life. 

下s強火　Monday

Gorski Choro's grandmother made cookies...like a lot of cookies...she made everyone in the district their own state cookies, turns out Ohio's is butterscotch chocolate chip? i had no idea, i thought it was the buckeye. I was exausted all day so I went to bed at 9:45 the extra sleep was amazing. While I slept my doryo and the other companionship in my room carved Styrofoam pumpkins they were pretty neat. 

気予備　Tuesday

Our devotionals speaker was Rosemary Wixom who is the Primary General President. She had some really great words of wisdom concerning our call. She highlighted the importance of whom we are serving, and how we need to have a strong foundation in Christ. 

　

すい呼び　Wednesday

I was able to host again! it was awesome! i hosted 4 elders, two are going to St. George, one to Minneapolis Hmong speaking, and one more to the Netherlands. They all were pretty shell shocked about being here or just beaming with happiness and excitement, they were awesome to help. When we host we take the missionaries to their dorms and classrooms, what we started noticing is that some dorms have different configurations. So, last night we decided to remodel our room. We moved all the beds into the corner of the room and then made this huge open area in the front. After throwing out ideas for what we would do with the room, Phillips Choro suggested a huge 4 square court. So we got a hold of glow-in-the-dark duct tape and made an awesome court. Then we wrapped the ball in tape and had the most awesome 4 square game ever in the dark. 

I can't believe that I only have a week left! Next week will probably be a pretty big one from what it sounds like can't wait to tell about it. They said that someone big is coming Tuesday night and that they will be broadcasting it on BYUtv. I may be on the screen for choir, I was last week. The broadcast will be 7:00 mst.  

藍　して　ます

with love, 

Another Week in the MTC Down! Here is the recap of my week;

Thursday

At the temple we met Jon Heder's grandfather!! Jon Heder was Napoleon Dynamite in the movie, and even better he served his mission in Tokyo, Japan too! That was pretty awesome!

Friday

I met two elders going to none other than the Columbus Ohio mission! We had a fantastic lesson this past week on why we are here. The video they showed was  http://easter.mormon.org/ it was entitled #BecuaseofHim. I am so thankful to have this opportunity to serve in this capacity. I also had a meeting with one of my teachers who related learning Japanese with me in a great way. He said that the language will come a lot quicker once I get to the field. 

Saturday

My companion and I taught a lesson in Japanese and the investigator asked us to share a experience. So with more frantic flipping through dictionaries we were able to convey what we wanted to say. It was nothing short of a tender mercy. Law Choro, who is from Hong Kong, had is sister send him some Japanese Candy which was amazing! I have never had candy and snacks taste so good. I WILL NOT STARVE IN JAPAN! I was even able to read the packaging! That was pretty cool too. 

Sunday

Someone in the room forgot to set the alarm so we woke up 45 minutes late, and frantically got dressed and ran to class. Where upon my arrival the Branch President was there waiting for me...he called me into a classroom and said nothing about being late. In fact he called me to be the new district leader. It was a big surprise. Within an hour of being called I took the district by the reigns. We went from 0 goals to 8 goals, and I had assigned everyone a job to help the district. WE instituted a district prayer as a dorm along with a spiritual thought. That alone has made a huge impact. It is amazing to see the growth that has come about in only the 4 days since establishing goals. That night we had Michelle and Chad Lewis come and speak. They were excellent she was a volleyball player for BYU and he was a NFL football player, he spoke about letting our light shine forth, and not being afraid. He is currently the NFL ambassador for China. It happens to turn out that Andy Reed who is the head coach for the KC Chiefs is also a member! Chad Lewis met him just the other week and shared some of the insight of the great coach. In fact the day after 9/11 he gave the football team he was coaching at the time a talk, which a lot of the players quoted in the news. It turns out that Andy Reed printed out one of Bruce R. McConkies old talks and memorized it, then gave it to the team. 

Monday

Grandma and Grandpa Townsley sent me cinnamon rolls which were amazing! They have to be the best thing I have eaten since arriving. The sempai (elders and sisters above us) left at 2 in the morning for Japan! They were all really excited they had been here since August 20th!

Tuesday

I sung in the choir again! We sung Prayer of our Fathers. It was a good arrangement. The speaker was Elder Godoy who spoke this past general conference in his native tongue of Portuguese. He spoke to us however in English, which was awesome. He kept turning to his tutor and asking him for words. He said "If i am 54 years old and am struggling with english feel no problem learning your language." Those were very comforting words to hear. He also spoke of become a tool in the Lord's hands. The scripture he shared was Alma 26:22 which is "Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forthgood works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such itis given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall begiven to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and itshall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance,even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance." IT was an excellent sripture of what we as missionaries must do in  order to help others. 

Wednesday

Grandpa Dunn sent me peppers in the mail! It was hilarious watching other people scream as they ate peppers. I think we went through an entire batch of chocolate milk...I will try to attach the videos to my blog. We got our new name tags! My new name is DAN CHORO. ダンチョレオ that is how you write it in katakana. We hosted the new missionaries coming in. It was bitter sweet watching them say goodbye to there families. WE SAW DAVID ARCHULETA! He works at the MTC! 

That is about it for this week!

love you all!

 ダンチョレオ

Paintings, 53 bowls of cereal, and lesson on prayer

Konichiwa tomagatchi to kozoku!

This week has been busy! i can't imagine that it is aready Thurdsay again. Here is my recap.

Thurday

After I finished emailing. We went to the Provo Temple again. We rented clothes and I go a size of pants that were too small so I had to trade them in. After getting the new pair we went to the session, I then realized I didn't have my locker key. I thought i had just left it in the locker. NOPE! it was in the washing machine. Thank goodness for master keys.

Friday

We went to the Togan building to do online Japanese study (the better version of Roseta Stone). We then found out that the Tongans get these really nice chairs. So we found an emty classroom and did a little switcherooo. We also found a lot of paintings in emty classrooms so we decided to beautify our rooom by adding 3 more paintings. Sadly our teacher made us return them becuase we "dont want to make everyone else jealous of our multile paintings"

Saturday

We were all pretty tired in class so our teacher had us race....I came in second to the runner, but in the process i pulled my hamstring. Needless to say Ibprophen has been my friend. 

Sunday

Our district has been joking about eating a bunch of cereal to set a record. The current record was 13 bowls of cereal by a sister (probably tongan). We couldn't let that happen. After 53 bowls of cereal between 6 of us we were all tasting cereal for a few hours. Reed choro ate 15 bowls by himself and has been sick recently (conection?). Church was good, the missionaries have to speak in nehongo which turns to me understanding about have of sacrement. We go on a lot of temple walks on Sunday to enjoy some fresh air. That my my doryo and I joined choir, Brother Edgett is the director. I knew he looked familiar and realized he is the chorister for the Mormon Tablernacle Choir sometimes. That night we had a devotional given by director of Media in the Church. IT WAS AMAZING! He showed us the imortance of Mormon.org, and how it is such a useful tool. He showed us the video #itwasmom. I would highly reccomend anyone reading this to watch it. 

Monday

That morning we decided to have a little fun in the showers so we blasted the "rubber ducky song" by voicemale with my companions seakers.IT was hilarious to walk around campus and hear others singing/humming along. My companion and I watched mormon messages in japanese! They are pretty cool! i can't wait to get there! We taught three lessons (one was to our teacher, then the other two were to volunteers from byu). We got to teach a native! Thank goodness people are patient as we flip through dicionaries frantically. 

Tuesday

I started learning piano again! It is a big help to stress, I hope to be decent by the time I get home. We went to choir again and sang "We are all enlisted". It was a really good arrangement. The devotional was given by a member of the seventy. He was a surgeon, and spoke on the temptations of the adversary. He compared the MTC to boot camp. 

Wednesday

We hung up the international flags around campus for service (they let another district do the leaves ((without the leaf blower)) ). They said we are the last group to do it as they will be tearing them out within the week. There is a lot of remodeling going on here. My companion and I taught a lesson again to Toshii (our teacher, he role plays someone he taught on his mission). I took the lesson by the reigns this time and taught him how to pray step by step. He was so impressed that he had me share it with the class. He even understood my Jaanese! Careful planning and listening is key!

Today
One of the elders in my room thought it would be funny to hit me with a pillow to wake me up this morning. After tackling him, I don't thing he will be doing that again. 

The work is moving fast! I can't wait to be in Japan!

Love you all,

Dunn Chourou

Dunn (cho-dough)

Conference, a dream, and a leafblower

Hey all!

Life at the MTC is good. Here is a recap of my week.

Wednesday

As soon as I arrived the whirlwind began of recieving a name tag, getting 15 pounds of books, and finding my dorm room. Then I was brought to my classroom where Fowers Kyodai (brother) began teaching in Japanese learning hellos and introductions. Thank goodness he speaks some english here and there. We then went to a meeting were we learned the ins and outs of the MTC. We unpacked and then went to bed.

Thursday

We sat around all day enjoying "additional study time" to its fullest. Which generally involves language study and when we arent doing that there is.....you guessed it more language study. We learned how to pray which was pretty neat, I feel like Henry praying but know that Ten O Otosama (Heavenly Father) understands.

Friday

We taught our first lesson. It went terrible...I felt locked in my own thoughts unable to say anything. I was pretty dejected after the lesson. That night I prayed that I would be able to communicate. That night I had a dream in nehogo (Japanese). I was flipping through flash cards and when I woke up I had the impression that learning Japanese will be a lot like when I learned how to swim competitively. At least this time I didn't get sick....

Saturday

General conference was amazing we met in a giant gym to have conference, they had 2 huge projectors and 6 flat screen t.v.s for us to watch. There was so much great inspiration that was given and I look forward to applying their counsel in my like and on my mission. I got really excited when I had I saw that Elder Carlson gave the opening prayer, if he only knew how influential he has been on out lives.

Sunday

Round 2 of Conference was Great! my favorite talk was given in the last session of conference by Elder Bednar, I kept thinking, "man, if i had Facebook, I would totally share this talk." The story of the sons reminded me of the boys. That night we had the privileged of listening to Via Sikahama who was on the BYU football team and played professional football as well, he currently works for nbc in the sports department. He spoke of tremendous missionary opportunities that he has had. It was truly inspiring. At the end he gave us counsel to marry someone "smart and pretty" because you cant do "dumb and ugly". He said we needed to improve our gene pools. It was pretty hilarious.

Monday

I had my second lesson with an investigator. This time is was completely different! I was able to communicate in broken Japanese. It was in no means perfect but I felt that I could speak and not be afraid. I also received my package which was a great moral booster before my lesson.

Tuesday

We have been working out every morning it the weight room which has been fun. It is nice to be able to work out. I weighed myself and found out i had already lost 5 pounds since arriving O.o. We taught again (it is becoming a normal thing). It went well we challenged him to be baptized and he said he would pray about it. My doryo (companion) was nervous about me extending the invitation but I was confident. The dream I had was inspiring.  I can truly do anything. We also go to hear from elder neilson of the seventy his words were inspiring he said, "Out of the 2000 missionaries at the MTC right now and in correlation with statistics we will baptize 10,000 people" WOW!!. His wife spoke of rosebushes and how we must cut them down in the spring so they may blossom again,and compared that to our own lives.

Wednesday

We had service in the morning. We were assigned to sweep leaves off of a huge sidewalk. I knew there had to be a better way, so after 5 minutes of the hour long service, I went back inside and found a leaf blower in a closet. It took 20 minutes to complete our service. I have learned there is almost always a better way to do something, we must seek it out though. That night a lot of the chorotachi (elders) in my district were suffering from home sickness. But thank goodness my doryo and I were able to teach and get our minds off of things.

Thursday

Today we went to the temple this morning, and now we are doing laundry, then we will go to a session this afternoon.

I am so happy to be involved in this blessed work. It truly is amazing. I have learned so much in this short time. I truly am starting to feel like a man. They say the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It is so true.

Love you all,

Dunn Choro