Word of the week: 親知らずーWisdom Teeth

 

This is my companion Elder Wharton.  We realized that we didn't have a picture together yet, so we took one.

Dear Everyone

This was an eventful week! Let's start with explaining the title. The word of the week is Oyashirazu which means "Wisdom Teeth." Why is that the word of the week? Because for some reason, my companion who is from California, didn't get his wisdom teeth out before the mission because his dentist said it was okay. Well, flash forward to Monday. He says that his wisdom teeth are coming in and they are starting to hurt him! We then call Sister Welch who is in charge of helping missionaries with their health issues and what not. She says to go to the dentist and get it checked out. So, on Tuesday, we go to the dentist and they take an x-ray of his mouth. Apparently, they are coming in and causing problems. He has to get them taken out! We set up an appointment to take them out on Friday the 13th. (I just now realized that was Friday the 13th!! Woah!) He and I were both pretty worried because Wisdom Teeth surgery is horrible and we thought he would be out for at least a few days. But, Japan does it differently than America... First off, they only take wisdom teeth out one by one. Second, they don't put you to sleep. And Third, you can just go to a regular dentist and get it done. So, we went, not knowing the outcomes of this horrendous looking procedure.

Well, he was in and out in 15 minutes... They just numbed him, dug their tools in there, pulled the tooth out and that was it. No stitches, no gauze, no nothing. They gave him a couple pain pills and that was it. We were both stunned. It was also just 30 dollars. It made me wonder, "is Japan doing it wrong or is America just trying to get our money?" He only needs to get his top wisdom teeth out, so we will be back there later this week to take the second one out. There you are folks, the Japanese word of the week: 親知らず。

Anyways, that was one of our adventures this week. Other cool things that happened were as follows...

Eikaiwa was really fun! How it works in Higashi Osaka is that the Elders teach the "advanced class" and the sisters teach the "beginners class". The advanced class is basically a bunch of fluent (or almost fluent) old Japanese men. So, we just talk to them for an hour in English. Because it was my first time here, it was basically a get to know you kind of class. They would ask questions and I would answer. They asked me a lot of questions; it almost felt like an interrogation because they are insanely good at English. Let me just tell you a few funny things they said. 

First, I showed them a picture of my family and told them that my mom was older than my dad. One of them raised his hand and said "because your mom is older, does she wear the pants in the relationship?" I didn't answer because I was laughing too hard.

Next, I told them them that my dream was to be a sports announcer and one of them spake unto me, "you know, I can see you doing that because your voice is nice to listen to, calm, natural, easy to understand and rather sexy." Speechless on that one...

They also asked weird questions like "what type of girls do you like?" (Didn't answer that one.. #imamissionaryyo) "if you were in a very hard financial situation and you had to choose between a really beautiful girl who was poor and a homely girl who was filthy rich, which would you choose and why?" So, basically, my Eikaiwa class is a bunch of old perverted Japanese men who are very, very good at English.. Super fun!

We had 3 investigators come to church yesterday which was awesome!! One of them was the man who owns a bicycle shop who battled me in doing a Rubick's cube. (I think I spelled it right this time. [update on the match: I won this week so now we are tied]). He came and was sitting with a member. He was asking questions like "what do you have to do in order to be called to speak in front of everyone?" The member answered, "they are baptized, members of the church" and whatever else he said. Our investigator then said, "ah that's cool. You know, I'll probably do that baptism thing sometime." When the member told us that, we were like "やった〜！！"  (an expression of "heck yeah!") we had just talked about baptism the day before. That was pretty exciting to experience.

There are 3 investigators here that I really feel could get baptized soon. They have a lot of potential and if they had just a little bit more desire and willingness to act, they could get baptized this month. We are now trying to be more bold with them and courageously extend a baptismal invite. We'll see how that happens. Prayers would be appreciated.

We had the first District Meeting of the transfer this week! My district is awesome! They are all great missionaries who are excited about missionary work. We talked about trusting in the Lord and allowing him to mold us and to change our hearts. More about that in a little bit.. It went way well. After DM, we went to a really good crepe shop where I tried a "Pizza Crepe". Super good!! I miss pizza and will do anything for a nice slice of Papa-whatever pizza. And a burrito.... Dang the things Japan needs. Also I want an oven and a crockpot and a clothes dryer.... 

The crepe place after DM.  This is Elder Brailsford.  (Elder Bateman's son [Bateman trained him]).  Eating a Pizza crepe!

On Saturday, I get a call from the second councilor in the bishopric asking me to give a 7 minute talk the next day. So I just did a talk on the things that I talked about in District Meeting. It went pretty well. Japanese is getting there, slowly but surely.

I am ending this rather long email with a scripture; Helaman 3:35. "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." The part that I love is the last part. As we yield ourselves to God, we can be changed and we can be sanctified. To yield means to give up to, or to give in. As we put God's will in front of ours, we can be molded into the person God wants us to become. Please allow Him to do that in your life.

I hope you have a great week!! Things are going well here and everything is looking up. I love you all! Keep up the faith! Keep smiling and give 'em heaven!

Love,

Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老

Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部

This is one of our investigators who runs a Takoyaki stand.  So, so, so good!!  I love Takoyaki and this guy is super cool.  He and his store was actually on TV at one point.

We met this guy who apparently makes cars that appear in movies,
including the Batmobile. Yeah, he was cool.