Takaoka!

Hola Family!!

So... yes I was transferred, and I am now in Takaoka! It is great! my new companions name is Elder De Oliviera, he is from Braziland was in the MTC when I was there just the transfer before me! so we are both still learning japanese, but that is kind of secondary because the area where we are has the largest population of brazilian members in the mission, so my companion is loving it, almost all the members speak portugues so he can talk to them all just fine, and all of our invetigators are also portuguese speakers haha! so I am starting to learn a little portugese along with my japanese! In the apartement there are two other elders including us, so it is a real party haha, one of the other elders in Brazilian as well. My companion absolutely loves cooking and singing portuguese opera! so I have been getting fat and listening to my MP3 player a lot lately... haha just kidding he is really good and I enjoy hearing it. I was happy and sad to leave my last area, I will miss the members and of course Sister Yuri, but it is good to have a change, and the atmosphere here with the brazilian members and companion has been so much happier! I love it! and the members just want to feed us all the time!! it is hilarious. but we arent just partying, that is only half the story, since I got here to the time I am writing this letter about four days we have had 9 lessons two investigators came to church on sunday we found two more investigators and had a family home evening with one of the members family! I am exhausted! haha going from barely any lessons to about 2-3 a day is sort of hard on the body haha, but I am getting used to it really quick! and I love it! it feels so good to be able to have so many lessons and meetings. So that is the new area I will hopefully have a lot to tell each week! umm as for my bday, poptarts would be awesome, I havent had those forever! and maybe some sweedish fish, but really I am okay with just some letters wishing me happy birthday I am getting plenty of food(pic next week) and I dont need anything in particular, thank you though! umm lets see I think that is everything for this week, OH! not quite I had forgotten to tell you this for a few weeks! so I went to a restaraunt last transfer with my companion and two less active members, and there we had a soup that was amazing and I think Mom will find it hilarious, so that best way that I can describe it is.. it tasted as if they got a handful of freshly rained on dirt, with mushrooms and stuff, then put that in a strainer that was over a bunch of gravel and stones, then ran hot rain water through that mixture to create the soup! I am not kidding at all, and it was probably the best soup I had ever eaten, well drank they gave us a little cup to pour it into, then they brought out rocks that were super heated by a kiln in the kitchen and raw meat, and we grabbed out chopsticks and cooked the meat on the heated rocks! it was so fun! And also one more thing, we were at the supermarket a little while ago and I saw in the yogurt isle a yogurt that was made from aloe! I didnt know they could do that, anyway those are the interesting things that happened recently. I hope everything is going well back at home! cheer for the Aggies when they play Utah,

                                                  love you guys! -Jones Choro 

Konnichiwa kazoku!

Hey fam! we don't have too much time today but I wanted to send you a quick e-mail letting you know I am fine haha, these last few days have been super busy and we have been running well riding all over the place! we hardly have anytime to even study! but we are having lots of fun while we work. So we visited an oyasumi kyokaiin(less active member) who hadn't been to church in about 8 years, because she had lost her husband and it was kind of complicated, but we had a nice visit, we shared a simple message and she gave us some treats as we left, then yesterday at church she came!!! we were standing by the door and she walked in, we were so surprised! one of the members (Sister Yamada) saw her and came running over with tears in her eyes and she sat and cried with her for about 5 mins. and she basically just went around talking to all the people that she hadnt seen for a very long time. It was a wonderful miracle to witness and I am very glad to have been able to participate. Our investigators have been progressing and they have been reading and praying, I am hoping the Spirit is with them always. Thank you again for the snacks! haha they were super good, and Ikeda Choro only liked about half of them, same with the members who tried them haha! oh speaking of Ikeda Choro, he was telling me that he went to Figi before the mission and he met a lot of the missionaries there, maybe Tanner will know some of them? their names were Elder Finch, Elder Brown, Elder Fisher, Elder Matthew. and the couple missionaries Elder and Sister Borthwell. so check with him and get back to me, onigaishimasu! (please) haha. I hope things have been going well, it is starting to become the rainy season here in Japan which means it rains about everyother day and tomorrow there is supposed to be a really big sorm with lots of rain, when the members were telling me about it, they first asked if it had rained while I had been here, I told them of course, and they said no "honto ame" which means literally "real rain" haha and they were telling me tomorrow it is going to really rain! so I am pretty excited for that!                       haha anyway, lots of love! talk to you next week! -Jones Choro

No Jet Lag!!

Family!!!! hey! So I'm sorry that it has been so long since I have emailed you! it has been really crazy here and the scedual is really busy. and there is so much that I want to tell you it's really crazy! so they had us proselyting the moment that we got off the plane on the trains to the mission home. and after that we got to sleep which was much needed, so far jet lag hasnt happened and I think I'll be alright. umm after that we got our new companions and mine is from Tokyo yes he is Nihonjin! his name is Elder Ikeda and he is soooo awesome! we get along great, he speaks a lot of english but japanese is his first language so I help him with his english and he helps me with my japanese, which is still incredibly hard haha. and here everyone basically only speaks japanese, there are actually a lot of portuguese speakers too. but it just means that my language is hopefully getting better. Japan is exactly how I thought it would be absolutely awesome I am having a blast, there are literally shrines all over the city where I am serving(Kariya) and rice fields and city! I love it! the members here are so great there is a pretty good sized ward here. we went food shopping one time since we got here, all the members think that we are always hungry so all they do is feed us at there houses or give us food to eat at our apartment, which for Japanese standards is huge! even for american standards its pretty big. I got a bike and we have been proselyting like crazy! right now we have 5 progressing investigators and one of them came to church yesterday and also we have been trying to share messages with less active members. our mission president really wants us to focus on the members and finding refferals from them, so we have tried exactly that. it has been going good! the door approaches are so scary, not because the people are mean or anything, but I can hardly speak the language! in fact the people if they dont want to hear the message they will wait until we ask them if we can share one and then apologize about 15 times and excuse themselves. hahahaha! so awesome! so about the call the phone number is (1 800 you wish:)  I will be calling on monday for me but it will still be sunday for you。I will call at 900am here which will be 600pm on sunday for you guys. I'm pretty sure that ill call dad's cell and then we have about 45 mins to talk so I'll be able to go into more detail on the goings on and stuff. I love you guys very much!

                                                                                                                                                   -Jones choro, p.s. word of the week is: jisho, which means dictionary haha I have been using one everyday

(Phone number altered for the Elders anonymity) 

FLIGHT PLANS!!

Hey kazoku! aishitemasu yo! o-genki desu ka? watashi wa subarashii desu! nihongo ga muzukashii desu demo watashi wa ganbattemasu! So I have some pretty big news! we just got our flight plans yesterday! I fly out on the 23rd. The mission Pres. sent a letter that told us we will be proselyting from the airport to the mission home! I am very excited but also incredibly nervous! I hope that I know more japanese than I think I do, anyway it has been pretty fun recently we got to host new missionaries on wednesday and get to do it again next week which is exciting, we just got back from the temple which is such an incredible blessing, I have really come to enjoy the simpleness of it. I'm not sure what you guys want to know haha, it's really just the same ol' stuff we study, read the scriptures, teach lessons, and study some more all in Nihongo, so basically I love it haha! the schedualing of the day is such a great thing, I love knowing exactly what I am going to do and where I need to be at any givin time of the day. I hope that everyone is doing great, I sure do love you guys. Me and my companion have three lessons tomorrow which is pretty crazy we feel like we can do it, but it will take some serious preparing, I'm not sure when though haha. the food is still great, sort of getting repititious but it's good, I don't think I have gained any more fat weight, but I have been gaining a lot of muscle I do pull ups and sit ups everynight which is awesome, and it helps relieve stress, hopefully I will be able to beat grams in an arm wrestle when I get home haha! this weeks word of the day is: tonikaku (とにかく) which means: anyway                                                                                                                                                   lots of ai, ジョンズ　長老　わたしのかぞくわすばらしいです！

 Here is the full district: (from left to right) Price Choro, Gibb Choro, Carver Choro, Sanderson Choro, Me, Koch Choro, Williams Choro (my comp.), Galliguillow Choro, Petersen Choro, Akau Choro, Rivers Shimai, Brotherson Shimai, Davis Shimai

-ｼﾞｮﾝｽﾞ ちょうろう

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 10:26 AM

Kazoku! i love you guys so much! this week has been really interesting we moved classrooms on monday, and then we got about 25 japanese elders and speaking to them is a lot of fun, still difficult but a blast. and then on wednesday we got a bunch of american elders going to japan, so far the count was 10 going to Nagoya now there is 13 i think, so that is pretty awesome! I am so glad that you were able to sell the car, and now your down in So Cal!! oh man, I just walked back from the shinden in the snow wishing it was nice and sunny like I bet So Cal was (haha) anyway I hope things are getting more colorful in Logan, the flowers were blooming here, but now with the snow I dont know what will happen. being DL is still pretty stressful but I am kind of getting the hang of it... and the District is really awesome which helps. this sunday we are having a special sacrament meeting with three... count 'em three! General Authorities, the rumor that is going around here is that it will be the first presidency! I'm not sure if thats true but I am exctremely excited! the lessons are getting fairly easier, but so is the language, i think I can finally understand how to use some of the grammer now, since the beginning it has been super easy for me to understand but to speak is a lot harder, and my companion is the exact opposite which makes for a really good team, I tell him what they said and he gives an answer back haha. thank you so much for the wonderful package I was craving swedish fish for some reason and they were delicious! I shared most of the candy and stuff with the district cuz I am already gaining too much weight. so next week we are going to be hosts and pick up the new missionaries! I cant wait! and then hopefully by thursday next week we will have travel plans! I cannot beleive that the time here in the MTC has gone by so fast it is absolutely incredible! So I will hopefully know my exact schedual for when I leave next week which is exciting and also quite scary haha. Thank you kelli for writing me, I will send a proper E-mail or letter next week for sure, and Happy Easter to you too Grams, I love and miss you guys! anyway I am just about out of time here but I am doing alright I was sort of sick a few days ago but nothing to worry about. Aishitemasu!                                                                                                                          -ｼﾞｮﾝｽﾞ ちょうろう（Jonzu Chõrõ)　

p.s. word of the day! Sukuinushi (savior) :) love you abbs 

District Leader

Hey kazoku! aishitemasu! I hope things are going well! things here have been incredibly stressful, we have to teach everyday and prepare lessons, but with my District leader responsibilities it has been hard to balance everything but I will ganbattemasu! I got a letter from the Calls and Tammy said that she wasnt able to see anything on the blog, so I dont know if she has the wrong address or what. Anyway The Shinden was today! it is a highlight of the week for sure! and not to mention general conference! I am so excited! and then next week is easter sunday and the branch presidency said that what the MTC has planned has not been done since they have been here!!!(My district has been crossing their fingers that it's the Prophet coming, but idk) and guess who came into the MTC this last wednesday.... David Archuleta! haha I hope Abby gets a kick out of that! the language is still a big barrier but I am ganbattemasu(ing) as well. and I cant beleive that I only have 3 more weeks here and then I go to Nippon, that isnt a for sure date yet, we arent sure what the passport situation is just yet, but the date that they are telling us that we will leave is the 23rd of April, and my sensei has said that the Sakura may be perfectly in bloom when we get there! I am so excited!! but other than all of that stuff the MTC has been awesome i have been doing a good workout routine at nights and I am pretty much getting cut haha only jodan(ing), but I have only gained two more pounds since the big 13, I have been really healthy and only my back has been hurting but I think it is because of the chairs and the bed, but on monday we are switching to a bigger more comfy classroom because we are getting kohai next week! and I may be a host(the ones who pick up the atarashi senkyoshi at the curb) which would be really fun, anyway i am just about out of time, tell the family I love them and miss them tons!!            -Jones Choro