I'm starting to get the hang of it....kind of. It's really hard to understand the Japanese of some of the people here. Frequently we'll talk to someone and then when we leave I'll ask my native Japanese trainer what they said, and he'll say "I didn't understand a word they said." So that tells you a bit about how thick some of the dialects people speak with here....but I'm actually starting to understand the members a decent amount so that's great!
In the Book of Moses there's that part where Enoch gets called by God to preach the Gospel and he's like, "I'm but a lad and all the people hate me and I'm slow of speech." I honestly never felt like that while in the MTC. I was like sure missionary work is hard, but I can do it! And then when I got here in the field, I understood EXACTLY what Enoch was talking about. I don't think I've ever been humbled my whole life. But it really has forced me to rely on God in a way I don't think I ever have in my whole life so that's a blessing.
I love the members here! We have both an american military branch and a Nihonjin branch so I get to actually speak a language I know while doing missionary work sometimes! Yay! We actually have dinner tonight with the American Branch president so that's great! They really are some astounding branches. I learn new things every sunday with both of them. (We get to have 8 hours of church every sunday back to back. It's actually pretty awesome! But my blood flow isn't happy by the end haha."
One awesome member is named Brother Nakagawauchi. He's blind and mostly deaf and like 70 years old (he has a hearing aid though) every week the missionaries go visit him, because he's actually pretty lonely. The first time we went to visit him we walk up to his house and we just hear this ukele being played inside. And we walk in and here's this boss old Japanese grandpa strumming away on his ukelele. It was so awesome! And on Sunday he blessed the sacrament. He did it like he was calling down thunder from the heavens in this booming Japanese voice. It was so cool!
Also one member from the American branch named brother Graham took us fench/sword fighting for p-day (don't worry it was quite safe) we got all suited up in armor and had sword duels like pirates and a few big battles. It was awesome! I'll have to get some pictures next time!
Sometimes things are so hard I'm not sure what to do. But through relying on God I've always made it through to the sunshine on the end. Just keep praying!
Love you all!
Elder Walton
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