Speaking Spanish in Japan?

Elan here. I can't help but smile as I read Emily's emails and notice her English getting worse and worse! As my cousin says, she's speaking "Emilese" these days!

5-27-09
We are at the City Hall place at Takesaki, 3 train stops from our station. The e-mail place we use in Maebashi, we can only go to it 3 times in one month. I am in a section like a library that is run by the Takesaki International Relations Society. There is English and Spanish. Speaking of Spanish, I have a very neat experience with a Portuguese woman yesterday.

Two days ago, at night I was packing my bag. I decided to pack English, Portuguese (we had no Spanish), and Korean (we had no Chinese) pamphlets of Joseph Smith, Family Proclamation, and Lessons 1 2 and 3 pamphlets. I didn't quite have enough for all languages in each thing. I was thinking how we had two Phillipinos in our ward and we ran into Andrea. It is important to have Tagolog, English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean (although I have met only 1 or 2 Korean speakers), Spanish, and Portuguese. Right now our investigators are Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian, and Phillipino.

Anywho. I had those pamphlets packed, as much of the languages as I could find in our apartment. Yesterday we were going housing and turned off the main road. We passed a smallish building on the left. It had either Spanish or Portuguese on it. I couldn't tell which. We housed in an apartment right across the street. I said to Yamamoto Shimai that I bet we'd find a Portuguese speaker because that building was across the street.

Sure enough, we did. We started on the top floor (always start on the top and work our way down). Nobody was answering, but the last door on the top someone answered. It was a woman and her daughter. The daughter was in elementary school. I am not good with ages, maybe 1st grade? 2nd grade? I saw her and saw she did not look of Japanese descent. I couldn't quite place where her country of origin was, but I remembered that building with the Spanish or Portuguese. She was younger, in her 30s and she did not speak English or Japanese, only Portuguese. Well, she knew konnichiwa etc., but she did not even know the past tense of 'go' in English. She hardly knew either of the languages. I was then able to pull out that pamphlet. I thought about what would happen if I did not have that pamphlet. With my background in Spanish and the little bits of English and Japanese she knew, I could talk to her. Yamamoto Shimai knows English too, so we could communicate I am sure, but the pamphlet was really great.

She invited us in and gave us a glass of juice. She had a bright face and really, really loved her daughter. Would you have it, she had met the missionaries in Brazil. She had a Book of Mormon, but had left it in Brazil. She had a friend who was a member, back in Brazil. She had two necklaces on, one of Mary and the other of Jesus. She said she had faith. She had a dictionary out, a book one. I learned that esinar means 'to teach' in Portuguese. We taught her about God and family and scheduled a next appointment.

Isn't that fantastic? It feels funny to not use Japanese and to teach Chinese, Phillipino, Brazilian, and Japanese women. I also know, though, that my ability to speak English and my background in Spanish and knowledge of what it's like to be a foreigner in a strange land, helps to be able to connect with and understand people.

I also had another experience to recall my Spanish learning days. The bishop's wife took us to a less-active member's house on Sunday after church. They were from somewhere of other. I think Brazil too? They spoke Spanish. The mom's Japanese was little but ok and the dad's was little but better than the wife. They had 2 kids. They were struggling to find work. The dad was learning kanji to be able to get employed at a good job. The mom wanted to stay with the kids and was also having trouble finding a job as a foreigner and not knowing the language. They were struggling to find food they said. I shared the scripture about hope being an anchor. I learned from them and recalled that esparanza is hope in Spanish. The bishop's wife knew a few words in Spanish and used those whenever she could. She was really awesome. They gave us a real good drink. It tasted kinda like wassail. It was pineapple, black corn, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and, yeah...it was so good. I enjoyed hearing their little boy speak Spanish. I liked that I could pick up on the Spanish.

Just so you know, I probably will not email next week. We are going to the temple and it is a 3 hour train ride one way. So, 6 hours on a train and then the 2 hours at the temple.

I was reading from ch6 in PMG about charity and it reference 1 Peter 4:8. The footnote it says that charity PREVENTS sin, not COVERS it. I thought that was real interesting.

I was looking at some past notes and came across chapter 5 of Alma. I noticed that his questions start with:
Have you...
Do you...
Are you...
Can you...

We have a copy of "Marvelous Work and a Wonder" in our apartment and at the beginning of chapter 22 there is a quote by an unknown author. It says:

Nothing is more conducive to arriving nowhere than to be going nowhere. That's the spot where, with no guideposts, and little urge, one arrives with utmost certainty.

(note: To the left is a picture of Maebashi, the town where Emily lives)

This is just too funny. Like I said in a previous email, there were elders in our apartment before. Here are some actual stuff I found written in old records:

-She is not all there upstairs, probably better not to call.
-Couldn't find her for the life of me.
-The house is kind of not there anymore, but if you are looking for a fenced in field of weeds, this is the place.

I and gonna wrap this up now. I sent a package home today but because of language misunderstanding, I sent it fast style so you should get it soon.

I love you so much!
Sister McMahan