Kakogawa week 4

Yeah so another week down. The Zoo was lots of fun. It was elder bennion and me and elder Kobe and Elder Jackson there and we had good times. it was actually a pretty ghetto zoo. we were super close up to all the animals. i could have touched the polar bears if i wanted to. i think ill send some pictures of that.

Since Elder Bennion is district leader, we're going to be going on lots of exchanges with other companionships. we went on two this last week and we're going on two more this next week. This week I spent a day hanging out in Himeji again with Elder Kobe. For a nihonjin who is only on his 3rd transfer, he actually has pretty good english. but its nowhere near good enough to hold a conversation or even express too many thoughts. So i spent that whole time speaking only japanese with him. I think he speaks a little slower to make it easier for me but for the most part we were able to communicate well enough. even had some fun conversations. And with him on that exchange, we did service at this basilian resturant. and they hooked us up with some free basilian food for breakfast. it was super greasy and i almost threw up because they gave us so much but i managed. In America i would have thrown half my sandwich away but here, everyone always finishes all the food theyre given. so i just go with the crowd but it hurts sometimes. But that was the first time i had basilian food other than when pedros mom made random weird things. then on thursday after district meeting, i had sushi for the first time. it was weird but i didnt hate it. its something i could get used to. i imagine it wont be the last time i have it. then i went on an exchange with Elder neider who is one of our zone leaders and we did some good dendoing. we get stuck inside this crazy guys house for like 2 hours. he had tons of questions but wasnt interested at all. it was a not good time. Then saturday, our ward had an "outreach" activity. which was basically just a few games and a talent show. i didnt do anything for the talent show because i dont have any missionary-appropriate talents. But we did provide one of the games. which was basically just a scavenger hunt in english that might be too easy to give a 5-year-old american kid but they had a blast with it. so that was good. and we had our investigator, Marione, there so she got to get to know the ward members better. which was good. well ima wrap this up now.

till next week

Love,

Elder Horton

これは意味がない。

Week Three- in Himeji

I say Kakogawa week 3 but i really spent a good part of the week in Himeji. which was pretty legit. the elders there are cool guys even though talking to elder kobe is difficult since english is pretty むりmuri for him. I took some pictures of the castle from a distance but I'm going to the zoo there right after we're done emailing and shopping and apparently the zoo is right next to the castle so ill get some better ones today and send those next week or some time. Im going to try and send some other pictures though. three are the view from our balcony. then the other two are from when we went to go and try to dendo at this seaside park place but there was supposed to be a typhoon or something so nobody was there. nobody told us about the typhoon but the weather was nice enough to take some pictures.

So yeah last week. On monday, as we were emailing, Elder Bennion got dear John'd. so he was pretty depressed that day and we didnt get much dendoing done. i spent most of the day listening him talk about his feelings. it was really special. then the next day for english class, nobody showed up again besides a different crazy lady this time. though the other one showed up again after we finished. so basically only crazy ladies come to our eikaiwa. woo! then wednesday through friday i was in Himeji. which was crazy hot. really really hot. i sweat through my planner. which is probly a solid 60 pages. But we did get to meet with this awesome brother who played professional soccer from nigeria. his name is Justice. so yeah we call him justice-kyoudai. but in english it would be Brother Justice. Sick right? well his name is actually really ironic because he spent 7 years in jail for a crime he didnt commit. basically they knew a black person did it, and Jusitice-kyoudai is black so he got charged with it. there arent many black people in japan. But yeah Justice-kyoudai is one of the coolest people ive ever met. The whole time in prison he read the scriptures, especially stuff about forgiveness and the stuff about when joseph smith was in jail and god talks about that. D&C 122 or something. but yeah he has a really cool nigerian accent that was really hard to understand even though we were both speaking english. but yeah hes just about the nicest guy ive met. really glad i had a chance to do so. other than that we didnt do anything epecially awesome in himeji other than walking around the giant shotengai (kind of outdoor shopping malls), though when we were housing over there they got a new investigator who talked to us for 2 solid hours before we were about to give her our message and get out of there. she was nice but talked a TON. oh yeah and for a bike in Himeji, they borrowed a mamochatti(sp?) which is a super japanese bike that lots of people here like for some reason. old grandmas especially. so i was cruisin with my mamochatti and was super legit. i miss my mamochatti-chan. But yeah thats all i can think of for now i guess. not much happened this week since we werent in kakogawa. ill write next week a bit about the zoo and all my adventures there maybe. hope everyone is still genki in the states

love

elder horton

ホートン長老

僕は男らしすぎる。

Second Week

Lets see, what happened last week... Well i was able to get my electionic dictionary for a bargain. it was marked down from 13000 to 7900 yen. I got a canon WORDTANK c36. I didnt know much about it but with a name like that, how could have have refused? but im still in need of a name for my wordtank. and my bike for that matter. elder bennion's bike is shadowfaux so i have to get one cooler than that which a thinker. but yeah so i expect everyone to send in suggestions. my bike is some sort of olive green(or brown if youre preston) and my wordtank is silver.

then on tuesday we had our eikaiwa (english conversation class) but nobody except araki kyoudai, his fanny pack, and his wife showed up. atleast until the end when michiko showed up when we had 10 minutes left. she is completely out of her mind though so she definitely doesnt count. i dont need to speak japanese to know she is crazy. but yeah we're going to have to work on getting more people to eikaiwa. from what i hear there are areas where they get lik 20-30 people every week. so i guess kakogawa just kind of struggles there. hopefully ill eventually get to work somewhere with a decent program.

we met with tanaka-san on wednesday. i dont really know what went on or what we talked about but i had to sit on the floor for like an hour and a half and my legs really hurt. hopefully i can start picking up more of what is being said when people are rambling for extended periods of time. because it happens a lot when youre with araki-kyoudai. lets see. thursday we had district meeting in himeji and i got to ride the train. it was sweet. i ate indian food for the first time it was weird. i even got to see himeji castle from a distance which is being renovated right now and Elder Kobe said its going to take 50 years if i understood his japanese right. but its still an incredible sight. And actually, Elder Bennion has some sort of leader training so he is going to be gone for three days for that. (our zone leaders decided Elder wilcox and i couldnt have handled dendoing by ourselves for three days since we're both beans but i got to go out with him for an hour on friday and i think we could have handled it.) im going to be spending three days in a threesome with the elders in himeji. maybe ill get to see the castle better. guess ill have that to write about next week.

We also got to meet with Marione-chan this week. she still doesnt understand a lot of stuff, but shes keeping her commitments and trying to understand so im happy. also she wants to learn english so elder bennion and i have been teaching her english while she teaches me japanese and elder bennion wants to learn spanish for some reason so she is teaching him that. though i wish she would come to eikaiwa

So yeah i feel like im starting to get into the swing of things. its hard work and usually not a lot of fun. and im still working hard to learn the language, but i think im getting there.

hope everyone's genki in the states.

Love,

Elder Horton

ホートン長老より

僕はカルピスが大好きだ。　なぜアメリカでカルピスがないか全然分からないよ。

I am in Japan-First week in Nihon

Yup so we landed in Japan I guess last night but its hard to tell when you lose a day off your life in the plane. I stayed awake pretty much the entire plane ride and passed out pretty hard at 10:30. Then we woke up and they made us a pretty delicious breakfast of mostly americanish food, though the melon bread is pretty nihonteki (japaneseish)and quite delicious. I plan on eating a bunch more of the stuff. then we had some orientation stuff and we went to a really nice Chinese restaurant. I ate too much and threw up. it was awesome. then they made us walk back from the restaurant to the mission home and dendo(do missionary work) on the way. it was pretty good. The AP did most the talking and I didnt understand quite a bit of it. but we at least gave out a book of mormon and a bunch of fliers. My P-Day is going to be on Monday from now on so look forward to getting stuff from me on that day. And I'm not going to be able to do individual emails today. you'll have to wait till monday for those. but yeah I'm in Japan. Its pretty crazy and it feels really unreal. also its hot and the higurashi are loud. Hopefully, I'll find out what area ill be dendoing in soon. I'm pretty excited. well ja ne

-Elder Horton

So I'm a little worried about my regularity with all this japanese food. but I have thrown up twice. the first time was at the chinese place and the second was at the bishops house. they were feeding us tons of food and i didnt know what most of it was and didnt want to ask. also didnt really know how. but anyways i guess i ate too much. so i asked where the toilet was and i was off. so i threw up a bunch into this toilet. and it was a nice toilet. really new and top of the line stuff as the japanese seem to like so much. most toilets have a lever or something to flush, but not the new ones apparently. they just have tons of buttons everywhere with kanji all over them which makes it really difficult for gaijin (forigners). so i didnt know how to flush. but i couldnt let them see that i had just thrown up all the food they gave me. so i just pressed all the buttons. i still dont know what happened, but i guess it worked. anyways yeah. Im serving in a city called Kakogawa. I dont know what the population is or anything and i would actually be curious to know. my compainion is an Elder Bennion and he has been in the field for i think 8 months. I met a lot of the member of the ward on sunday and they had be come up in sacrament meeting and introduce myself. which was a little scary but i think i did alright. I probly spent more that mom would have liked on my bike. 409,000 yen. but its a sweet bike. it has a basket and a light on the front and 21 speeds and it even has a bell. i look so cool riding around with my helmet and everything. also im about to take out some more money so i can buy an electronic dictionary because this out-dated paper thing is holding me back. but yeah walking around, being a red head, i stand out pretty bad. every time we pass little kids they all practice their english on me and say "hello" and it still takes me a while to realize theyre talking to me and that hello is a weird thing to hear in japan. but its pretty fun for me. its really hot. and they dont believe in insulation in japan so its even hot inside. sometimes even hotter. i dont really understand how they can have SUCH ADVANCED TOILETS but no insulation. makes no sense. but their toilets really are amazing. they make america seem like a third world country. but yeah we have already been getting out and working. i feel like my japanese is still far too inadequate and i found out that since elder bennion has some district meeting, Im going to be going on exchanges with an Elder Wilcox who has been in Japan for as long as me. so thats going to be an adventure. we gonna be lost. Im not used to having this much time to email. hope everything is good in the states. our ward mission leader is an old japanese man who wears a brightly colored fanny pack. its pretty legit. his name is araki-kyodai. hes going to help us teach the crazy guy who believes that everything is true on wednesday. should be good times. tomorrow im teaking english classes for the first time. i have no idea how im supposed to do that. but i guess it should be entertaining at the least. I'll post the address for mailing me stuff in case anyone wants to spend a whole bunch of moneys on postage and whatnot. but yeah i guess thats about all for now.

to mail me send stuff here:

JAPAN KOBE MISSION
4-6-28 SHINOHARA HONMACHI
NADA-KU, KOBE-SHI, HYOGO-KEN
JAPAN 657-0067

Love,

Elder Horton

ホートン長老

this keyboard is really a pain to type on

Well hello hello everyone from the MTC.

6/1/10 Well hello hello everyone from the MTC.

I have 8 minutes before time runs out so lets see what I can tell about. Things are going pretty well here so far. The elders in my district are really cool for the most part and ive become quick friends with many of them. Japanese is hard. But I'm working hard and seeing pretty big improvements each week. It helps that my sensei are all really cool and good at their jobs, which is pretty incredible considering they have no training but serving missions themselves. I'm already super excited to get out into Japan. Its not that I hate it here or anything but I'm getting sick of it a bit. but i still have like 9-10 weeks so I'll endure.

All the Elders and my sensei tell me I'm competitive. I was winning the "which elder gets the least mail and is thus the least loved game" until mom sent me another letter. but im sure ill make a comeback and get back on top. also I destroyed grammar golf. I guess there isn't much to say. not much goes on here. the food is pretty good i guess. better than expected. oh and a bunch of japanese missionaries who don't speak english came this week so thats pretty excited to practice japanese with them. But I'm just about out of time, so that will be all for this week.

love,

Elder Horton

mom, send this to everyone in the family and preston and see if you can get matt to get preston to get aj's email and maybe send it to pedro

6/8 10 ok i have 6 minutes go.

Um its been a pretty normal week. im starting to get the hang of things at get comfortable here which is a good thing because it will make time go by faster. and it cant go buy fast enough. i really want to get to japan already. and ill probly say that every week. ive become really good friends with some of the guys in my district, though some of them still bug me a bit. But we're all doing our best at learning and understanding the sounds that come from the mouth known as japanese. for a week now and for the next two weeks, we've had nihonjin (japanese people) in the mtc. they speak about as much english as we do japanese so communicating is difficult at times but it definitely is educational and good experience. its crazy how quickly i came to love all of them. they're really awesome people. its going to be sad to see them go in two weeks. but yeah theres not much to share about this place. it doesnt really change much. I like my sensei a bunch. one of them in particular, wilkes-sensei is really good. i like his views and his way of teaching. pretty similar to my own. so hopefully i can learn a lot from him before i go to japan. because after having a conversation with the nihonjin, i realize how much i have to learn still.

well im out of time so until next week,

love,

Elder Horton.

From: Marcus Horton
Date: Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Subject: MTC week 5

So our sempai and the nihonjin left for japan on monday and its pretty empty around the residence halls and such. at the same time though, its pretty nice because our sempai were pretty loud and annoying a lot of the time. and next wednesday, we'll get kohai of our own and we'll be the sempai. ooh we're going to have fun with them. I'm probably only going to speak japanese to them just to freak them out... plus its good practice. but I suppose things are good here.. its still very normal but i guess thats good... next week is the one week per year that they train all the new mission presidents and all the first presidency and the apostles are going to be here walking around so that should be pretty interesting.. everyone here is going to freak out. Seriously. going to a devotional is like being in the crowd of a show everyone is irrationally trying to push their way through the crowd to get a good seat. it makes a lot of people really angry but i mostly just think its hilarious. the Nihongo is coming along well.. some of the other elders in my district and I are starting days of the week that are nihongo dake, or only japanese. So hopefully we'll start to get a better grasp on the language before the next set of nihonjin get here in 3 weeks.. it would be really awesome to be able to have a normal conversation with them. our sempai definitely couldnt so its basically our goal to be better than they were.. but it really should be all that hard.. also this keyboard types two periods at a time in case you were confused about that.. So yeah things are what they are, and im ever-excited to go to japan and get out of here.. guess ill just practice my patience.... this keyboard also doesnt have a working enter button so, Love, Elder Horton

6 weeks in.. which means that tomorrow we'll be getting our kohai.. pretty exciting.. i guess ill let everyone know how they are next week .. but yeah not much to say and not much time to say it as usual, but i feel like im showing first signs of understanding japanese a little.. which is pretty exciting i must say.. hmm what else.. well we had a friday devotional thing where Elder Oaks talked and a bunch of other apostles were there.. and apparently president monson and the whole first presidency were here on sunday but we didnt get to see them since they were only talking to the mission presidents.. but yeah things are pretty good and boring here.. i did laundry this morning it was aight.. i used this shout! stuff to make my clothes extra clean.. so yeah its been an exciting day.. oh yeah did you send me with shoe shining stuff, mom? me shoes are scuffed.. Love, Elder Horton

yeah things are pretty good around here i suppose. we'll be getting nihonjin elders this week so we're all excited for that. i usually always find myself bored in my spare time. and i used to think dad was a huge nerd for reading the dictionary and he still is. but i find great joy in reading my japanese dictionary and writing down all the awesome words i find. like the word for eating by stealth. or the word for killing someone who is seeking revenge. ill use that one someday for sure. but yeah reading the dictionary would never have been fun if i had a computer. also i already wrote this in my letter to mom, but we have a grammar book we call pikachu and ive pretty much read the whole thing and i want the next version. which is blue. and apparently theres a last version which is supposedly red. but many believe that charizard is only a legend. but yeah we're starting to get excited as we see that the time we'll finally leave this place comes closer. we should be getting our travel plans in a week or so. so i guess its about as good as times get in the mtc. though really this week was about the same as any other. well till next week everyone.

love

elder Horton

yeah so last week at the MTC. im super excited. but this stupid timer is telling me i only have two minutes to write this. but anyways next week or whenever, ill be emailing from japan. so look forward to that. i might actually have something excited to say. other than how bored i am here. reading the dictionary can only hold my attention for so long. though i did fit three books in my shirt pocket and that was pretty exciting. but im out of time. send me anything you need to before i leave through dearelder.

love you all,

elder Horton