Samurai swords and cat like reflexes

Hey mom!

Next week is the Sakura season! We are going to koku koen for it. Look koku koen Tokorozawa Japan up on Google. It is going to rock!!!

I LOVE Tokorozawa!!! I love the apartment, which I power organized and cleaned yesterday during lunch. I found I am much happier and I can feel the spirit more when the place and my desk and everything is organized. I love Elder Kaesler and Elder Molen and Elder Uemura and the ward is amazing and the youth are amazing! Just yesterday we went to visit a referral but he wasn't home so we housed for an hour and then we found one kid who had interest. Then we decided to visit a member close by. They are Peruvian but the kids mostly speak Japanese. The mom reminds me SO much of Carmen. By the way how is she? Tell her I said hi and Te quieres. But we went to share a 5 minute message and it turned out to be a 1 hour long meal! IT was fantastic! He said right before we showed up he had the impression to cook extra ribs and then we knocked on the door about 10 minutes later! It was like the best meal I have had in a while. As a missionary in Japan almost every meal consists of rice, potatoes, peppers, onions, and maybe an egg. Always some mixture of that.

I saw Krue at the dentist! He is so cute and brave!

We pass temples and Buddha’s all the time. ( we have requested some temple and Buddha pictures) They have kind of gotten old. Especially since everybody worships them and it is so wrong and they are cool but they just have a bad feeling around them. But I will take some pictures! I don't even notice them actually when I walk past them anymore. But ya I will definitely send home a box this transfer! I'll try to find some souvenirs too! I'm not in a huge touristy spot so it may be a bit difficult but I will try!

This week it got way warm! It is officially spring in Japan I think. The Sakura will bloom, actually they are already starting to open a little, and so we decided to go to Koku Koen. It is a MASSIVE park and it is gorgeous! We were able to talk to a lot of people. I love just talking to people and sharing the gospel with them. Even though most of them say they have no interest or belief in God, I know that we are making a difference. Every good thing is of God and everything little good thing will bring someone a little bit closer to God that they were before.

Actually just this week I got told, for the first time, To go back to America! He was a nice old man. I said Konnichiwa! And he said back to me"Konnichiwa ja nai yo! Kaette Kure omae wa!" Which literally means
basically, "don't say Konnichiwa to me! Go home!" Omae is the absolute rudest way to address someone as "you." There is gojibun which is "honorific self" it can be said for yourself or others if you don't know their name, but if you use it for yourself, that's way rude. You can use "Anata" Which is ok if you talking to someone but if you know their name you should use their name even if the situation would be appropriate to use "you" and then there is "kiki" which is just a very intimate "you" and missionaries aren't allowed to use it. Then there is "omae" which literally means the person honorificly in my presence.
It used to be way honorable but it was turned into a super mean way to  call someone.

Also this week my English has plummeted and my reflexes have sky rocketed! I couldn't remember so many words in English  this week haha. But also something I have noticed is that I have really good reflexes for whatever reason . I drop so many things and they never reach the ground, I just somehow catch them just in time. Completely unrelated I'm sure.

But ya I love you so much!!!

Elder Draper

Oh ya I play the piano a lot! I'm actually getting pretty good at hearing music and then being able to play it! I'm making an arrangement of If you Could Hie to Kolob right now! But I have about an hour and a half tonight to practice stuff I want too. We have a kids Eikaiwa and I am the piano player for that! I play primary songs! It rocks!  

ドレーパー長老

(Some fun facts that he wrote to Allie and Nate) I'm just sitting in the bishops office emailing and eating melon pan! In Japanese there is a section of the language which is called katakana which is where they take words from other languages and just make it their own. It's literally like 20 percent of the entire Japanese language. The word for door is doa and bread is pan, like in Spanish. But ya melon pan rocks! There is a place where you get ice cream in it too!  

(Nate requested a Samurai sword) Samurai swords are SO expensive! And to be honest I don't know if I'm allowed to buy one. But if I have the opportunity I will try it! But guns are illegal here so literally everybody has a samurai sword. IT wasn't until after the war that they stopped carrying them around everywhere. We talked to a guy the other day and he told us how he found his father’s samurai sword and how there was evidence of blood and stuff on it. Pretty crazy right! I have also learned that a really sharp samurai sword can cut through like 3 people before it gets too dull and then they use it as a beating stick basically. But that puts it into perspective with Ammon!