¡Hola mi familia!
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| Raking leaves and cleaning up the Sanchez's backyard. I love the Sanchez fam! |
One thing that I may have mentioned before is how many cops and car accidents there are where I'm at. Anyways, this week we saw one that topped them all (so far). A huge semi truck crossed 4 lanes of traffic and then plowed itself into a group of pretty big trees and dug itself into the ground. It looked crazy. We didn't actually see it happen - only the after math. But by the looks of how far it got into the ditch and the trees it crushed, I can only assume it was going super dang fast. We said a quick prayer for the driver and hopefully they are okay and nobody else was injured. There were so many tow trucks and police cars there. They even had a few bobcats and crane type machines. Oh, also we saw a car accident where the car had flipped over and rolled a few times on the way home from church on Sunday. Utah drivers are insane. Sorry idk how many of you care about that but it was pretty insane so I had to share.
To start off this week's email I want to say how thankful I am for each of you. I think about all of you guys all the time and love you all.
Okay back to stories that actually involve me:
Teaching Kotatsu:
I promised last week that I would talk a bit about our friend Kotatsu. Kotatsu is from Fukuoka Japan and came to the US for college. He has come to church quite a few times now with his friend and we started meeting with him last week. We were able to meet with him after church yesterday and talked a bit about God and how much He loves us. It was a super awesome lesson and I love getting to teach (mostly listen haha) Japanese lessons. Even though my Japanese skill level is like unto poop, I have felt the spirit and I have even been able to say a few things during the lessons. He's so awesome. We also are hoping to play some ping pong with him this week, so that is dope. Although he did say that he played in lots of tournaments back in Japan so he might whip my butt. Pray for my table tennis skills to increase this week😀
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| Live Frogs for sale. I didn't think I would find anything weird like this until I actually got to Japan but I guess the local Chinese market has some good stuff too! |
Kevin's Trap House:
Okay so a few months ago Elder Leon and Elder Seachriest got a referral (When someone meets someone else and they say they want to have missionaries come visit them, talk, read the scriptures together, or have the missionaries share a message) for this guy named Kevin. Anyways, they had been trying to get a hold of him and visit him for the past many months but hadn't even met him until like our 8th time trying with me. Sadly, we caught him at a bad time and he was working on some of his cars. He said he is super busy but we should try to stop by again so we could talk. Since then we have tried 15+ more times and have yet to talk with him. But it's always fun because every time we knock on his door we never know who will answer. One time we had a good talk with one of his buddies who just barely moved to SLC from Guam to get away from drugs and going to jail. He was rad and we gave him our number but haven't heard back from him yet either. There are also always at least five cars in his driveway and tons of random people there. We are convinced he runs a trap house. We keep praying for Kevin and his friends and hope that soon we can actually talk to him and become friends. Pray for my man Kev.
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| Trying natto for the first time. |
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| Natto |
This week I ate 納豆 (natto = fermented soybeans). Basically everyone in Japan loves it. I did not. It was a super weird experience just because of the weird stringy-ness and smelly-ness and also taste thereof. Hopefully I start to like them though.
Honestly this week has been a pretty hard week. Probably the hardest one yet. It's hard living with people that you didn't pick to, it's hard living a different lifestyle, it's hard always being positive, it's hard not being able to speak the language I am trying to learn etc. I could go on and on haha. One thing that has helped me when I feel sad, frustrated, miss my family and friends, or anything else is praying and reading the scriptures. It helps me feel Jesus Christ's love for me and I can always find something in The Book of Mormon that helps me.
Life is hard. But life is good.🤙
Speaking of life being hard... this week the modern day prophet and President of the church, President Nelson, shared this amazing video about Gratitude. If you haven't watched it yet (regardless of what you believe in or what faith you are), then WATCH IT! The video was seriously so awesome. He said so many things that have helped me feel comfort and peace as I have been implementing that into my life. He's such a smart guy too, so it's always cool to hear from him. I could really feel God's love for me as he was speaking in the short video.
Here is the link for the video: https://www.youtube.
Scripture of the week:
2 Nephi 4:21
I love how Christ loves us so much and we can feel his love as we study more about him and pray.
私は私の救い主イエス・キリストが大好きです。
I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I have felt his love for me all throughout my life, and especially while I have been serving a mission for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that out Heavenly Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live on this earth and minister to his brothers and sisters. Life is so much better because of Him!
イエス•キリストを愛しています！
Song(s) of the week:
- Whole Wide World by Mindy Gledhill.
Such a great song. I love listening to songs that I have never really thought about in a spiritual sense or in relation to God. There always seem to be a way to relate them to our lives.
- Thankful by Josh Groban.
Thanksgiving is this week so get stoked to really be thinking about what you are thankful for!
Much Love,
Elda D
I appreciate your honesty and understand a bit of what you are feeling. Poppy and I certainly had our tearful times too but you are finding the best source of comfort through Jesus Christ. These are uniquely difficult times to be serving a mission. We love you and will continue to pray for you.
ReplyDelete- Ami
Keep your chin up, Tyler. It's hard being a missionary. Even in Utah. I don't know if I ever told you, but I finished my mission in Utah after becoming very ill in Ecuador. I was in the original Salt Lake North mission. I was a zone leader over the language zone, which included Temple Square, and extended from Provo (for the sign language elders) to southern Idaho and Wyoming. Culture shock and isolation from those that you know and love is always a hard thing to deal with. In Ecuador, I was sent to a tiny city in the Amazon River basin that was crawling with spiders, snakes, wild dogs, and every other creepy, crawly animal you can think of. In those days, we were limited to once a month letters from our family and friends. I didn't receive a single letter for two months because of the delay in mail services to and from the United States. Linda was writing to me at that time, and she put together a remembrance book where she cut out portions of our letters to each other and pasted them into the book. She'd found a Precious Moments missionary cartoon book and included pictures there. I'd written her in my second month there, and I'd poured out my heart, telling her that even the night sky seemed strange and alien, and the Spanish that I'd understood and spoken so easily for the 3 days I'd been in the mission home in the mountain city of Quito was now completely alien in this jungle town, as the local dialect was nearly incomprehensible to my ears. I couldn't even understand my companion most of the time, and his patience was not great. I wanted so badly to just go home. Linda chose a scene from the cartoon missionary book with a missionary laying in bed, sobbing as he looked out the window. He sees what should be the moon, but instead, it is the earth that he sees, as if he's now on another planet. I can read from some of the things that you're experiencing that you are feeling many of the same things. I actually think that missions these days, in many ways, are more difficult than what I experienced. I wouldn't own a cell phone until 15 years following my mission, and I wouldn't own a smart phone until 24 years following my mission. There is so much more of the world that you have been exposed to than I was at your age, and so there is so much more to miss when you give those things up for your mission. But one thing never changes: The love of your family, your friends, and your Heavenly Father. Hold to that love, and if you endure for a short time, soon, you'll find that your homesickness will have gone down, your language skills will roll from your tongue nearly as quickly as you can think, and your heart will be strengthened by your Heavenly Father, and you'll feel the Spirit in ways that you never have before. We're praying for you.
ReplyDeleteShane