Week 11: October 17, 2016 - Yamaguchi: Week 2

Hey everyone,

How are things going? Things out here in Japan are going great, and
can only get better once I learn this language! This Sunday was the
first time that I was able to go to church, because last week was
General Conference. But, conference is in English, and normal church
is not. Suffice it to say that I understood less than I had thought I
would, and I had low expectations going in. But, I did know how to
sing, and when they were praying, so it was still a great meeting, and
even with the language barrier I could feel the Spirit and reverence
of what was being said. Now, I just need to work in the understanding,
but that will come with time.

As I've been here, I've seen that my individual language skills aren't
as important as I'd thought they would be. It's a hard truth taught in
the MTC that it's not us, but the Spirit that converts people, but it
wasn't necessarily something I had seen until now. But even without
knowing much Japanese, I can stop people and start conversations, and
smile as Elder Welch teaches them. Between adding my small parts, I
can just beam joy and genuine honesty, and it will help. Now, of
course, that's not to say that I don't feel a need to learn Japanese,
but just that it's not as important as I thought it would be.

Now on to the fun parts, the food and the kids. For the first time, I
have now been chased by a mob of small children! We were housing in a
younger neighborhood, and about 10 kids come up to us, kinda just
seeing what we were doing. Elder Welch and I talk with them for a
little, and then try to knock on some more doors, but the kids aren't
having any of it. They love seeing two gajin talking in Japanese and
English, and so we walk back to our bikes to move on. But the kids
keep coming! Even after we get on bikes, some of them have bikes, and
they keep coming until we get out of the neighborhood. Not an everyday
experience, but it was pretty hectic. And to cap it off, shortly
thereafter, we street contact a man for Massachusetts who is in town
to teach English. Pretty fun day!

For food, I have now had real sushi! Last Thursday was zone meeting,
and afterwards the entire zone went out (pictured below). It's
amazing! And, different than American rolls. I forgot to get pictures,
but instead of a roll, it's just rice with fish (or octopus, squid,
duck, or nato). I'm glad to get some, and hopefully we go back for
more next meeting! Also in the food category for this week is Nato, or
fermented soybeans. Most people aren't the biggest fan, because of the
snotty texture they can have, but it's dirt cheap for breakfast so...
I tried some! Not the best thing in the world, but if eating nato
means I can drink more melon Fanta and eat more chocolate fries, then
it might be something I go for.

I think that that's the big news from last week, so I'll just describe
he pictures real quick. First is Macdonalds, crazier in Japan than
America (see chocolate Halloween fries). The next two are my
apartment, complete with a futon rolled in the corner. Next comes zone
sushi, and you can almost see the conveyor belts we ordered from.
Lastly for this week is the view from our balcony, out over the city,
and the church in the morning. As I said, things are going great, and
I'm glad to have this chance to work in the service of the Lord.

With love from 山口,
Elder Mitchell Woodhouse

Week 10: Oct 10, 2016 - First Letter from Japan

Konnichiwa Minasan!

I'm in Japan! We landed last Tuesday at about 8 pm in Fukuoka, which I
think is 7 am on the east coast back home. For the first two nights,
we stayed in the mission home with president and sister Egan, and the
home is literally right underneath the Fukuoka temple. It was really
cool. While we were in Fukuoka, we got to learn more about the
mission, and meet all of the missionaries who serve in Honbu (the
mission home) right now. We also got our first real Japanese meal,
which was... Pork! I wish I remembered the Japanese name for it, but
it was some type of pork, fried in panko, served with rice, miso, and
a cabbage salad. It was all really good. Since then, which was
Wednesday night, I think I have had rice at least once a day, but it's
a pretty solid staple food, so things are going great. As a whole, I
think the diet here is going to be fun to get used to, but thus far I
haven't seen anything that I don't think I could eat.

Moving on from food, we got to meet our trainers Wednesday night, and
everyone left to their area Thursday morning. Elder Nukaya, my MTC
companion, was jumping right on another plane, and flying south to
start his mission on Okinawa! However, I went the other way, and am
now living in a city called Yamaguchi, which translates to mouth of
the mountain. It's tucked in a green valley, but the "mountains" would
probably be a bit more like hills back home. I'm not complaining,
because it's beautiful. I forgot to get a picture from the back of the
apartment, but you can look out and just see green mountains in the
distance while eating breakfast, and it's really peaceful.

My trainer for the next two transfers is named Elder Welch, and he's
from West Point, UT. President Egan has asked that people don't share
transfer numbers, to keep people from counting down, but Elder Welch
has been in Japan for over a year, and seems to me at least to be
fairly fluent in the language. In contrast to the MTC, wheee everyone
was learning together, it's clear now that there is a skill
differential. But language is besides the point, and it's really just
a tool that he can use to help spread the word. We've only been
together for a few days, but he feels really devoted to this gospel,
and willing to go out of his comfort zone to share it. The other
Elders in my apartment both seem pretty cool as well. Elder West is
from Tokyo, and speaks both English and Japanese, even though Japanese
is his first language. It makes group study interesting, because he
reads from the scriptures in Japanese, and I get to try and follow.
Elder West and Welch are also zone leaders for the Yamaguchi Zone, so
they work together a lot, leaving me on splits with the last elder,
Elder Gatherum. He has also been in Japan for a while, though not
quite a year. As with the others, I feel like I can really get along
with him, especially because I'll be on splits with him fairly often.
For next week I will try to send a picture of us all together.

In other news, due to the time difference, I got to watch conference
again this week, in English thankfully. I thought all the talks were
great, but I really like Elder Stevensons, about he power of reading
the Book of Mormon everyday. I know that as I have been doing this on
my mission, it's helped me, and I think that Garrett and Brad would
love his challenge to read for even 10-15 minutes a day, because it
really isn't that long.

This weeks pictures are from the front of my apartment, and of me and
Elder Welch. In the top one you can just barely see the church, the
white building in the background with a spire. It's a blessing to have
the church so close, because we can walk to it fairly quickly, whether
for English class, lessons, or church. As I said about Elder Welch,
he's a great guy, and actually gave me a tie like the one he's
wearing. They were the mission wide Christmas present last year, but
somehow he got an extra, so I'll look like I've been here longer than
I have whenever I wear it. We also have almost identical suits, so of
all people I might end up twining with my companion if I'm not
careful.

That's all for this week, thanks for all the emails and love! I love
you all, but can't wait to continue the work in Japan.

With Love,
Elder Mitchell Woodhouse

P.S. Happy birthday Dad! Sorry I won't be able to email you closer to
it. I'll get a picture of our dinner for you on Sunday

Week 9: Oct 4, 2016 - Arrived in Japan!

After 20 hours Mitch arrived a the mission office in Japan. We received this brief message from him:

Hey guys!

Landed safely in Japan last night. Everything is going fine, ill figure out my first area tonight. Pdays are on Mondays, except for every 6 weeks when it’s on Tuesday. Ill email Monday with more information on how everything is going.

Love you!

Elder Mitchell Woodhouse

We received this letter from his mission president's wife:

Dear Sister and Brother Woodhouse,

We wanted you to have this picture, so you could see for yourself that your son arrived safe and sound!  He is such a good young man! His faith, desire and testimony will be a great blessing to the Mission. Thank you for helping him prepare so well! We love him and are so grateful for the blessing of serving with him! We will do our best to help him reach his full potential and have a wonderful mission! We are excited to see how the Lord will use his many talents!

If you ever have any questions or concerns, you now have my email address, don't hesitate to contact me. I will do our best to get back to you as quickly as possible.

Thank you again for sharing your wonderful son with us!   

Sincerely,

Sister Egan

Japan Fukuoka Mission​

Week 8: September 28, 2016 - Last Email from the MTC

Hey guys!

Just a heads up, this is going to be a shorter email than usual. We
haven't had that much new news, and mostly have spent the last week
working on getting ready to leave. For class, this has meant a lot
more teaching, and more full Japanese lessons. It also has meant that
we get to learn about the culture, so in theory we will hit the ground
and be able to start off fine. In practice, I think it will help, but
we have so much new information coming in I think we might be slightly
overloaded.

The most exciting thing from last week was getting flight plans on
Friday! When we pulled them out of the mailbox, it sent the entire
zone into chaos, not really because we didn't expect them, but because
it made the trip get real really fast. In total, I think we have about
70 missionaries leaving for Japan on Monday, so it's going to be
really fun. It's also going to be about 20 hours of flying, so more
fun there.

Last thing from last week is an update on our song. As of now, we
didn't get asked to perform for anything, so most likely we aren't
going to perform for the entire MTC. But, we might sing for our
Branch, and I'll try to send a recording one of the other guys got. It
was fun to learn, even though I don't sign great, but it felt like a
great use of time.

It sounds like everything is going great at home. I'll think of you
guys as we watch all 10 hours of conference. Hopefully I get to email
next week, and the next time you hear from me I should be in Japan!

Love,
Elder Mitchell Woodhouse

Week 7: September 21, 2016 - Getting Closer to Leaving the MTC

Hey Mom and Dad!

It sounds like things are really picking up with school and driving back home! Its crazy to think that Becca will be driving the Beige around in only a week, but I'm sure it will be a big help to have another driver again. I'm sure she would love to pick up Garrett when he is really sweaty right after soccer some weeks. Things here at the MTC have cooled down after last weeks three apostles in a row, but its starting to get crazy again with us leaving in less than 2 weeks.

Before I get into all of that though, I have a Sienfield story from last week (and a bit before). The MTC serves food like any standard cafeteria, and like you might guess, on occasion, maybe once or twice a week, we get hamburgers. This week, as we were eating, I looked over at one of the other elders in my district, and he wasn't picking the burger up, but instead was sitting there, cutting it into nice bite sized pieces, separating the meat from the bun, and eating the entire thing in that manner. It made me think of the Sienfield where they start eating the Snickers with a fork, and the memory made me crack up. I think that it was a great gift for Dad, and I'll have to catch up on them when I get home. 

In other news of the MTC ramping things up, the picked a choir to go to conference last week.To select who would go, because you can't take the 1000+ person MTC choir, they passed out forms to 'collect data' on the choir for history. What really happened is that they took people that circled 5 (out of 5) for singing ability and sight reading ability. I both didn't realize and felt like I wasn't the best, so I'm not going to conference, but, I know people and I will actually be able to pick people out during the Saturday Afternoon session, besides Larry and Sally and whoever else dad knows. 

Even though I didn't make the Conference Choir, I will be auditioning to perform at devotionals tomorrow. A lot of our Kohai sing, and they were getting together a group of people to an 8 person Acappella arrangement of Abide with Me. Because our classroom is right next to theirs, they asked us first, and now I am part of the group. I think I might be in a bit over my head, but thus far it sounds fine, and so I will tell you next week how the audition goes. 

Last thing for this week is that our Branch Presidency got rearranged, and our second counselor, Brother Turpin, has been transferred to a different Japanese Branch. But, what is both really cool and sad about this is that he actually will be out of town until we leave, giving the Aaronic Priesthood to his oldest grandson. When he was telling us this it made me realize how thankful I was to have Grandpa come out and do that for me, and how great it is that I can still remember it. 

I think that's all the news I have for this week. We have two devotionals left, and then a weekend of General Conference until we get to Japan! Sending a phone sounds like a great idea, but I don't think there is anything else I need. Maybe a new yellow or green tie to go with my blue suit, as one of mine got spilled on, but I can easily dry clean my tie with money from my MTC card or just get some cheap ones when I get to Japan. For sure don't send any food, because for once in my away from home life we have way too much of it. 

Thanks for the email! 

Love,

Elder Mitchell Woodhouse

Week 6: Sept 14, 2016 - Guess What?

Hey Guys!

I think I'll start out with the big news from last week, which is that we got to hear from not just one, but two more apostles! M. Russel Ballard came to the MTC on Sunday in a surprise visit, and Quentin L. Cook came last night. Cook was almost more unexpected though, because Dallin H. Oaks talked at BYU that morning, so everyone thought he would just come over here afterwards. But, everything worked out great, and we got to hear two great talks, as well as sing in the choir, so it was pretty fun. Both of them talked a lot about our calling as missionaries, and the important work we carry on our back. This is the one time in life that we are able to spend 24/7 working for the Lord, and its up to us to make the most of it. I know its going to be difficult, but this is one of the times that you need faith before you will see any results. Between their talks and some of the other messages I have heard, that is one thing that I can testify of for sure. 

On a less spiritual note, the MTC is still holding up to par. I've mentioned before how much I love it here, but I think I'm now at the point I can say I'll miss it a little. Not much, because I'll be replacing it with Japan, and Japanese food, but a little. I think everyone I knew outside of my district has left now (Sister Goold was the last, yesterday morning), so it will be easier to leave, but we will be leaving our kouhai, and the new kouhai that are coming in today. We'll also be leaving a pure learning environment. As odd as it sounds, I have loved learning Japanese all day long. It can get difficult, but even after 6 weeks I can already see dividends paying off. Once we get in country, we lose that little safety bubble. I look forward to being in Japan, but popping that bubble will be an entry to a whole new world, and its going to hurt.  

As a district nothing really crazy happened last week. Lessons have been crazy and nonstop, but everyone is picking Japanese up. I guess the worst thing that we've got ourselves up to is speaking 90% in Japanese for lunches. Its a great idea in principle, but in practice, we all know so little that it can be both quite and hectic, as we try to figure out what was said. We also figured out that I seem to have a bone to pick with my pillow, because the last few nights I've woken up in the morning and its on the floor. Supposedly I've also started talking after throwing it over, because Elder Nukaya says that he heard me ask for another one. I don't remember any of this, but I can completely see this happening, just like senior year where I could wake up, turn off my alarm, and get back to bed without ever waking up or remembering it. But if that's the worst that's happening, I think things are going pretty good. 

As a last note, I'm sorry that I don't have a good picture for this week. I've been trying to figure out how to connect my camera, but I think I might need the usb cord for the first time using it. Really I just left everything but the camera in my room, so I'll look into it and sent more next week. Thanks for all the pictures and notes though! It sounds like Becca is set up for a really good season!

Love you all,

Elder Mitchell Woodhouse

Week 5: September 7, 2016 - Kickball Champions

Hey Mom and Dad,

First off, I think that Mom can take the fall for Dad not receiving emails. I thought this entire time that you guys were sharing responses, and that it was a one email per household type of thing. I have been getting all of dads emails, and I am glad that you both have taken the time to email me. I also really enjoyed the JST version of John 13:34, and I'll keep it in mind as I go around.

With that out of the way, it sounds like everyone is having a great time! I can see that I've already been replaced by Jackson, as you have a nice family picture of 4 people at Harpers Ferry, but at least its someone that I know. Things here have been going really swell, and there are just a couple big items from the last week that stand out. 

First, last Friday they called all the Japanese missionaries to a special devotional. We were in a room with one other zone, and the last zone was in a different room. When we got in, we learned that the speaker was named NoguokiIrie, and he was a returned missionary, mission president, BYU grad currently on vacation from his home in Japan, and that he wanted to share his conversion story with some of the missionaries about to leave. The amazing thing was that the meeting was about an hour long, and he talked the first half-hour in 95% straight Japanese. You could tell that he had tailored his experience to MTC level Japanese, but it was still amazing to understand his testimony and conversion in a language that I have only been studying for 5 weeks. I know that part of the was the gift of tongues, and I look forward to when I will be able to understand fluent full native speakers. His conversion also showed all of us that miracles occur in Japan, and that as we search, we will find people that want to talk to us. 

Second, our district is just a touch athletic and bored, so we challenged on of the other districts that came in with us a a kickball game last Friday. The final score was 20-4, with us winning. It was fun to play, and it was also fun to see how athletic everyone at the MTC is as a general rule. I guess that as you prepare to bike for 10k per day, you have to think that you are in good shape. We might be challenging another district to volleyball or kickball, and it has made all of exercise time really fun.   

Last thing for this week was our devotional last night. We were luck enough to hear Elder D. Todd Christofferson give the address, which meant that the room was absolutely packed. It made me glad that we have been singing in the choir, because we get both the spirit of the choir director, and the seats are guaranteed! The address was about our purpose as missionaries, which has now been summed up into 5 words. "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts". With this motto in mind, we are working to shift our approach to teaching, and to really focus on what repentance is in personal study. It was a good address, but it is something that we have heard a lot already in theMTC, so I'll see what other aspects I can pull from the talk. One that stuck out was his quote "As missionaries, we carry eternal salvation in our hands as we knock doors" I really look forward to having this chance, because I know that I have enjoyed my time learning here, and other people can enjoy the gospel for eternity.

Thats really all I have for the last week. 5 down, 4 more until Japan,

Thanks,

Elder Mitchell Woodhouse