The Flu Strikes Again...

Yes, Elder Bronner got the flu. . . No, I haven't caught it (or at least if I did catch it, I've been drinking enough water to fill Deer Creek. . . maybe even twice over!). But it turns out that he probably did have the Swine Flu.  Sixteen church members from the Halloween party we were at a few weeks ago caught the swine flu. Elder Bronner contracted it at the same time, and even though the doctors didn't confirm whether it was the new type or not for Elder Bronner, we think it was. Maybe it's what I got back in Izumo with Elder Kajiuchi. . .

We were in the Apartment A LOT last week. Yes, I did get some good study done. And hey, Lacey and Mom would be proud of my desk, I got it all cleaned and organized (I promise I will be better about keeping my room clean when I get back!)

There isn't too much to report on this week due to sick time, BUT. . . If we hadn't been grounded for a few days, we could have had 50 hours of working time, and over 10 lessons. We had to cancel seven appointments. Yes, it can be nice to take a break once in a while, but being quarantined stinks. A member of the bishopric even stopped by (the Bishop and his family caught the flu too) to give us food (I LOVE this ward), and ask/tell us not to come to church. I guess numbers were pretty small this week, but one of our Brazilian investigators came with his Recent Convert mother!

Elder Bronner and I are very greatful for the food items and recipes you have sent so far. Thank you very much! I love and apreciate you SO much!

Well, in spite of the whole flu epidemic, I am doing quite well. I continue to learn a lot, especially through interacting with Elder Bronner. He's been helping me to realize that I can lighten up a bit, and not over-worry.

Love you!
Elder Peterson

Where Did The Week Go?

Kurashiki is WONDERFUL! Life in the city is great. However, on Wednesday, we went to Fukuyama city (in Hiroshima Prefecture) for District Meeting, then I stayed there for an exchange with Elder Packer from Layton, UT (he went to the same high school as Chris Escalante and knows his family, cool). Fukuyama was even bigger than Kurashiki, the city kept going. . .
Oh, I forgot to mention how fabulous the apartment is in Kurashiki. It's got two floors, a sofa . . . AND a massage chair! Wonderful! I've got so much space here compared to my last apartment!

Our investigators are doing pretty well. We met with our Brazilian investigators on Friday night. Bishop Yamada and his wife (Sis. Yamada happens to be Brazilian and fluent in English, Japanese, and Portuguese!) taught our recent convert while Elder Daimler and I ganbaru'd with Sis. Oliveira's friend and son (the son translated for us, BUT I got to recite the first vision in Portuguese, memorized it in Izumo!)

I get to meet our Chinese investigator tonight. He lives a few hours north, but he's coming into town to have dinner with us, and then attend a family's sports activity. This should be good. We're still trying to figure out if he's a member or not. I guess he remembers being baptized a while ago, and loves the church, reading the Book of Mormon, and keeps the commandments... but they can't find his record. We'll see.

Yesterday was one of the best experiences I have ever had. Stake conference. We took a two hour drive up north to Nimi for Stake Conference. It was at a performance hall. I got to be reunited with former companions (Elder Kajiuchi and Elder Atkin), and former ward members (the YSA from Izumo Branch). I got to see Umetani San and her daughter Haruna briefly, they had to leave quickly after, but wow, Umetani san was BEAMING! The Baptism will be on the 20th of September! I'm so excited for her. I finally have her address, so I can write to them! Kajiuchi choro let me know that Seki San (the protestant friend of our Brazillian member in Izumo) has started taking the lessons! I feel so blessed! He gave me a letter from my friend Lisa, where she talked a bit about the adversary trying to deceive us into thinking we're not working hard enough. The things that are happening in Izumo now made me feel that I really did do my part. It's all about the Lord's timeline, and I feel absolutely blessed!

I didn't understand everything that was said, but I loved being surrounded by so many of these wonderful people! I love Japan, I love the people! I want to get better at Japanese so that I can better communicate with them, and reach the hearts of more of these precious sons and daughters of God!　Life is great. Yes, there are still ups and downs, but we're overcoming the downs as they come.

Zone Conference is on Wednesday, and I'm excited! Every time I go with deep questions I need answered, and so far, they have been answered. This time, we'll see what happens!

Well, I love you all! I'm enjoying my stay here, and I'll try to get you some pictures soon. Ooh, I could use a little bottle of maple flavoring and that maple syrup recipe. I can get peanut butter here through the mission home, so you don't have to send any more of that. Thank you so much, you are so amazing! I really appreciate all your continued love and gifts and tastes of home. We made some bbq chicken sandwiches the other night. SO GOOD!

Praying for you, and loving you,
Elder Peterson

The Rainy Season

Well, I kept making fun of the rainy season and I think it took offense; it rained A LOT last week. It started to rain as we were riding home from Umetani san's house on Friday afternoon. It was just a little at first, but we stopped in one of the subterranean cross-the-street-tunnels to put on our rain coats. I was thinking "Oh, it's not raining too hard. Surely we won't need our rain pants as well!" . . .

. . . About 7 or so minutes later, the cats and dogs started coming down. It would have been useless to stop and try to put the rain pants on at that time, because we were already soaked. It poured and poured! Good thing I like rain. . .

Now, however, we are once again experiencing some hot and humid weather. I'm getting a little more used to it, but wow.

Oh, thank you thank you THANK YOU for the package with the Peanut Butter Pie ingredients. I had mentioned how much I loved Peanut Butter Pie to a missionary at Zone Conference and then low and behold: BOOM! Your package arrived! I made the pie for Elder Kajiuchi's birthday (July 3rd).

By the way, yet another beautiful 'Elder Peterson' moment: I followed a recipe in our trusty mission cookbook to make the pie crust. The good thing was that butter can indeed be substituted for a lack of shortening. However, I forgot all about that critical part of pie making where you flour a table top, and roll out the dough to flatten it. . . As I tried to hand-scoop the sticky dough and pat it down into the pie plate I was thinking, "There must be a better way of doing this!" Hee hee. . . About two minutes into the baking I realized with a gasp of horror what I had done. But alas, I was too late. . . However, it still turned out OKAY! So yeah, if you ever feel like sending more PB Pie ingredients, please do. ;)

An update on Umetani San: her interview is scheduled for this Friday. We've been reviewing and practicing with her, so I think it'll go just fine. If everything goes according to plan, the baptism will be held on Sunday the 19th (Sunday so her husband can attend). We met with both of them and the Branch President yesterday to ask for permission to baptize her. He's now deliberating, but we called her last night and looks like things might be okay. There's a chance her husband might even come to church on Sunday! So, we'll see what happens!

Well, to wrap up I figured I'd share a few tidbits of Izumo culture. There are cute little signs everywhere displaying cheerful puppies carrying bags and pooper-scoopers -- Japan seems to be very clean and hygeine-oriented. Ooh, and the post men are awesome, speeding around on these sleek red Vespa Scooters.

Happy Belated 4th of July! (Random: I saw a single, medium-small firework explode in the sky right before we returned home that night. . .)

A worry I've had is that I still don't feel very confident in my planning skills or ideas for effective activities, and sometimes I'll ask my companion what he wants to do or if he has any ideas. He'll often respond that he doesn't have any ideas. Thanks for the words of advice. I needed that and I'm going to start keeping those things in mind, and trying to connect with these people more.

Our district leader called this morning to follow up on goals and such. He complimented me on something and I expressed how I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing. . . in short I was being a bit hard on myself. I've realized that (thanks to your encouragement) and I'll work on it. My district leader gave me a piece of advice he heard at the MTC, "If you ever feel like you're not very good at teaching, at the language, or with something else remember: you ARE in the right place at the right time." I've been feeling a little down about not being able to understand these people I love and care about, but I'm just going to press forward, tell myself that I can, and do all I can to be worthy and deserving of all the blessings that have been promised to me. Sorry if I have sounded a little down. I actually am doing a lot better and the Zone Meeting and Interview this week will help a lot.

Transfers are on the 23rd of this month. I might or might not get transferred, but it would be a good idea to send snail mail letters to the mission home for the next couple of weeks.

{editor's note: the mission home address can be found toward the top-left of this page}

Thank you for all the ingredients, love, and recipes! I love you so much! I am learning so much while on this mission. I’ll keep trying to write everything down so I can share it with you.

It's All Good!

This week has been so wonderful. Not the least of which was getting to watch General Conference yesterday and the day before in English! I hope you paid special attention to Elder Holland's talk on the Savior and His atonement, what a power house. Oh and Dad, President Uchtdorf's and President Eyring's talks from the Priesthood Session were my favorites. I felt as if they were directed at me.

So this week has been filled with a lot of bugs in my eye, brought on by the recent increase in temperature. Along with the bugs, the local politicians got out and about, broadcasting their positions over loud speakers as they drove around town. Really, it was quite funny. I've never seen or heard anything like it in Utah. I don't mean this in a negative way at all. I love Japan! The loud speakers did kind of remind me of Big Brother (from the book Nineteen Eighty-Four) though. Heh. . . And in some of the Politician Pictures the candidates had a fist along with their face, "determined" or something. I love it! I love these people! I love being in Japan! And when that adversary with his myriad of sinner's tricks tries to fool me into focusing on "burnt-out light bulbs" or think that I'm not good enough to be here, I just say a prayer, look around and remember where I am, and why I'm here.

Miracles. So remember how I wanted to start talking to more people? Well, Tuesday I set a goal. I had just been passing by a lot of people, so I decided to try and stop just two people who would have been difficult to try and talk to. So I did it, and no, they didn't talk to us. But then we found Tony - yes, it was in the night, and might be seen as unconnected, but I think it might be because I started making more of an effort. Tony is from China, here at the local Shimane University working on some doctorate research. He speaks English really well, and just about as much Japanese as I do, so we talked in English. Looks like he remembers some missionaries from about two years before. He was really friendly, and seemed to be interested in what we had to say. He said they had given him a book, but he couldn't find it. So we went last night to give him a new copy of the book of Mormon. . . And it looks like he's moving. . . BUT! The good new is, that it's only about 30 minutes away by bike. And, he seemed interested in coming to church! So who knows!

The next day I upped my goal to six people. Then BOOM. That night we were housing and spoke with Mr. Miura, a former investigator from six years ago. He had taken the discussions, loved the missionaries and ward parties, but upon being challenged to be baptized, stopped meeting with them for some reason. He was really nice, so we're going to try to meet with him some more. We went back to try and visit with him last night but he wasn't home. His wife came out, but didn't roll back the door (sliding doors in Japan by the way, usually). "Who is it?" Elder Kobayashi started to say, "We're Missionaries from the Church. . ." She responded with "Ii desu," which literally means "I'm good," but which can be translated to mean, "I'm not interested, please go away." So. .. we don't really know how this is all going to work out, but it will.

I fought a little bit with despair. Satan would love for me to give in to despair, but I won't. I know that if we do the best we can, the Lord will provide a way. These precious people will be able to come unto the Savior, if they are ready, and if they want to.

Tomorrow, we're taking a four-hour bus ride to Okayama for a Zone Conference on Wednesday. I'm excited, I love the meetings here! And I love President Isa. Every time I meet with him, he prays with such power. He prays in Japanese, so I can't always understand what he's saying, but he's always filled with the spirit and love for me and for this work.

I was having a problem with my debit card. . . hah. . . turns out the only problem was that I was inserting the card in upside down, because that's the way you do it in most machines. A big panic for nothing. . . . Heh, it's all good!

Oh, family, can you snail mail me some info about George Albert Smith? Some stories? Knowing some stories about ancestors is a big deal here. Ooh, and sometime in the future, send some taco seasoning packets?

Till next week, I hope you all have a wonderful time enjoying the spring that has sprung upon us (at least in Izumo anyway).

1st E-mail From Japan: Pinch Me

My Dearest family, loved ones, friends, and whoever else might read this:
こんいちは！！！　（Ｋｏｎｎｉｃｈｉ　ｗａ）
(sorry if there are repeats - writing English on this keyboard is a little tricky. Yes, it has English letters, but it's designed for Japanese.)
So much has happened in the last week, so many awesome and crazy Japanese adventures that it's hard for me to believe that this is real. Please, pinch me, I must still be dreaming.

Well, I'll start off with a request: Please write! Every letter I get is like a Christmas present. Family, you're exempt because of the email thing :).

Here's my current address:
Elder Paul Gregory Peterson
Izumo-shi, Watarihashi-cho,
469 Loftee KS 202
693-0004 Japan

So, we arrived at the Tokyo Narita airport a little after 3:00PM. We had a little layover before boarding the flight to Hiroshima. There were a lot of marines on our flight. I guess there's a military base near Iwakuni/Yanai. I'll let you know if I ever get transfered there.

I had my first contacting experience while we were waiting for the Hiroshima flight. There was a teenager sitting next to me, so I started up a conversation using my "Kikuchi Card" (they pick the most important item on the card, and we relate it to the gospel). It's still hard for me to express myself as much as I want to, but it was a good experience. I gave her a pamphlet for the Plan of Salvation. Sugoi!

So, we got to Hiroshima, and I smelled the poignant sea air as we walked from the plane to the airport's interior. I love that smell, it brings me back to those wonderful Ft. Monroe days.

We approached the baggage claim and saw our welcoming party - a group of Elders holding a "Welcome to the Japan Hiroshima Mission" sign. We couldn't talk to them because they were beyond the point-of-no-return glass doors, and we had point-of-no-return glass doors, and we had to wait for our luggage. That part was kind of awkward, but then all was good, and we proceeded. They were the Assistants to the Mission President. One who was heading home a couple of days later (whom I later found out was from Brazil) spoke almost no Japanese or English at the start of his mission, but then became fluent! The same will happen for Elder De Menezes! I know it!

President Isa is amazing. Wow, he is a spiritual rock. I wish you could meet him. I really am so lucky to be here. And to be here at this time. Everyone keeps saying that miracles are happening all over the mission. They don't know what it is, but that now is a good time to be here.

Sister Isa got your email mom, she told me to say Hello. Wow, she's like my new mom. My Japanese mom.

Ah! We got to go to the Hiroshima Peace Park. That hadn't been done with new missionaries before. Again, I got lucky! The feeling there was, wow ... It was very solemn. It made me think about the atonement in a different light. It made me think a bit more about how much Christ suffered for us, and how he felt all of the pain that those at Hiroshima felt.

Here's my spiritual thought portion: There is no pain, no fear, no worry, no grief, no heartache, and no struggle that the atonement cannot heal. Yes, some things might be more difficult to overcome, might take a little bit more time, but in the end, through Christ, all can be made whole.

That night we found out about our new areas and trainers. (After doing a little streeting, I went with one of the AP's - Elder Nielsen. We found two people who gave us numbers!!!! No way! One of them from me pulling out the kikuchi card semi-randomly, and then the other was a former investigator from a different area, but he moved to Hiroshima. AWESOME!

The next morning, I was accompanied to the station and rode the bus by myself to Izumo. Funny story: we took a pit stop somewhere. I thought the driver said that we would be taking a 33 minute break. It was actually that we'd be leaving at 9:33. haha good thing I went back to the bus anyway.

I talked with a nice man next to me. I was so afraid for some reason. It seemed like he would be kind of gruff or unfriendly. Nope, quite friendly. I gave him a pass-along card after talking a bit about families.

The Branch President was there (Yamane Kaicho - kaicho is the title for branch president) with Elder Kobayashi to pick me up! Elder Kobayashi is so cool! Sister Isa said he doesn't speak very much English, and yes, we mostly speak Japanese, and sometimes I understand ... but that's ok. I want to immerse myself! Even though I can't completely understand everything that's been said.

Yesterday at church, I felt as if I had come home. Wow, the people are so amazing. The branch is a little small, but the saints here are rock solid. They're all so familiar, and I feel their love. I'll try to send pictures of these beautiful people sometime: Hamamura, Sasaki, Sato, Kozumi, Maniwa, Maejima, Yoneda, they are all so warm and welcoming! (those are just a few names)

There's no way that I'll be able to tell you everything that's happening here. That'll have to wait for when I get back. But don't worry, I made a goal to write in my journal everyday, and I'll keep it!

Really, every day feels like a dream. I'm living in a Japanese apartment, sleeping on a futon on the floor, eating real Japanese food, seeing real Japanese scenery, and interacting with real Japanese people. I don't want this to end. I have never been happier. I am home.

Love, your son who just might be turning Japanese

P.S. Feel free to send packages of cookies or goodies to Elder De Menezes. He hardly ever got any mail, and he would love that!