Konnichiwa!

Elder Sherrill and Elder Passey posing on the temple grounds.

Family photo albums!

 fresh MTC haircuts

The trio! Passey Choro, Morgan Choro, and Sherrill Choro

             This week has flown by so fast! First I want to start off by talking about the devotional we had Sunday night. Greg  Droubay came to talk to us and he is the man in charge of all the media for the church. So he is responsible for church videos that come out every Christmas and Easter, like the ones many have seen which are He Lives, He has Risen, and Because of Him. So this year the church is again planning on coming out with a new video for Christmas and we got to see it early! He told us that outside of the First Presidency of the Church we were the first group of people to see it! Which was kind of cool to think about haha. Anyways the video is planned to be released on November 29th and it is titled "A Savior is Born". I encourage everyone to see it when it releases and to share it with others. It is such a beautiful video that talks about the Savior and his birth. The Church is also planning on renting out a corner in Times Square New York that will advertise the video all throughout the month of December. As missionaries we will get these cool little pass along cards that share the web address to see the video so we can hand them out to people. I'm so excited I will be in Japan before Christmas that way I can share the video with everyone there!

That next day we had TRC as usual and it was probably our best TRC we have had so far! We taught two lessons as usual and our first lesson went pretty well. It was a set of two return missionaries from the Japan Sendai mission that are both currently going to BYU. We taught them the importance of continually reading the Book of Mormon each day and how that help them and bring forth blessings in their lives. Our next set of volunteers we taught were these two elderly woman who were both Nihonjin! One was currently living in Tokyo and the other was living in Brazil. They had came to the U.S. to go to BYU to study English. They spoke really fast and it was a little difficult to
understand them at times but my companion and I were still able to teach them thankfully. After we talked and got to know each other for a little while we asked if there was any way we could help them and one of the sisters had explained to us that a close friend of hers had stopped going to church and she wanted us to give her suggestions on what she could do to help him come back. As my companion and I gave her some counsel on what she could do we were going over the time limit and so the TRC Coordinator was motioning from outside to finish it up and the lady (her name was Sister Kawaai) noticed him signaling to us and put her finger to her mouth to tell him "shhhh" and then mouthed "I want to hear this" haha so that was pretty funny. Then after we told her what she could could do we asked what his name was and told her we would pray for him and she was so thankful to us and after our lesson told our teachers we really helped her. She said she was impressed with our Japanese too! It was so cool to teach them. It made me even more excited to get to Japan and have an impact on the lives of those we find and teach.

So on to the rest of the week, not much else happened outside of the usual class and studying. Last night however, I did have a cool experience during class. Passey Chōrō and I were doing mogi (role play) and the object was one of us was the missionary and the other one was the investigator. The missionary was supposed to ask if the
investigator read the assigned chapters in the Book of Mormon and then ask if they received any answers from reading. Then the investigator was supposed to say they read but didn't receive answers and then the missionary is supposed to explain how you can receive answers and help them. So as it was my turn to be the missionary I was a little nervous because my companion knows more Nihongo than I do so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to say all that I wanted to say. As we started out it was going good and all and then I couldn't think of a word so I went
to my notes to look it up and my sensei, Norawong kyōdai took my notes and said "dekimasu Sherrill chōrō, dekimasu" (which means you can do it). So I just sat there and took a second to think and thought of a different way to say it and then the mogi went on and I had a new found confidence and was able to continue teaching him and say more than I have ever said before. After the lesson Norawong kyōdai complimented me on my Japanese and said he had never heard me speak that well before.

That experience made me realize a couple of different things. I need to be more confident in my ability to speak the language and not fall back on my notes as a crutch like I usually do. It also taught me that the gift of tongues truly is real and helps missionaries just like myself who are struggling with the language. There should be no way I should be able to understand all the Japanese I already know and can understand. There should be no way that after just over a month I can somewhat effectively teach in Japanese and help others with problems and issues they are facing. The gift of tongues is real. It has helped me so much as I have been here and I know it will continue to help me learn the language and become fluent in Japan. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve and to help other come unto Christ. It is truly a wonderful blessing to be a missionary! Till next week!

Love, Elder Sherrill