Mission Impossible Japanese Style! 2/5 MTC

Hello all! This weeks had alot of ups and downs, but overall it's still been great :D We're getting our flight plans next Friday! Got a little over two weeks left!

So last weeks email I mostly talked about spiritual stuff I'm learning at the MTC...so I think this week, I'll talk about all the other stuff I've learned at the MTC haha.

This week on Monday our Sempai's left, (one of the districts in our zone) they're mostly headed to Sapporo. So it's been kinda weird being here without them. When they left me and my comp inherited all of the passed down junk from generations apon generation of MTC missionaries...There is alot. We've  got books of all kinds, a pumpkin dressed like an elder that's been here since Halloween, Christmas stuff from 2 years ago, lots of junk food and soda that people's family's have sent them, 7 white boards, at least 20 church pictures, homeopathic medication for any ailment...etc.. So that was fun sorting through, we through away all the crap and put the rest in one of our extra closets. Oh the one thing I was actually looking forward to getting was stolen by the MTC Brass. It was a memory foam mattress...It was going to be soooo good haha. We've had alot of Beef with the MTC brass over the weeks...they're just super bored so they get people in trouble for almost nothing.

Actually I probably should define some of those terms for you, haha that'd be kinda fun. So MTC Brass is like the military brass, except for at the MTC...duh. their leader is a Man named Angus kyodai (yes like the beef, oh and kyodai means brother) He's a giant hunk of a man, that's been in the MTC for forever, I'm pretty sure he's either one of the three nephites...or a physical form of the destroying angel...He's always angry and he thinks he's in a war zone all the time. A week or two ago an elder tried to go to the bathroom without his companion, and Angus grabbed him made him point out who his companion was...then he went down the stands and PICKED UP and elder who he thought he was pointing too haha It was the wrong kid! He was so scared it was great. Then the elder shook his head saying it was the wrong companion, so he went up a row, and grabbed the next kid. And carried him up the stairs to his companion! How crazy is that!? We've seen him in the background of old training videos, so he's been here a while. Yesterday when we we're setting district goals we decided the punishment for getting lazy the last week would be to take off your suit jacket at a devotional and stand up. And let Angus come get you haha. 

So that's Angus... 

We've had been with the Brass on a couple of different occasions. They stole my memory foam matress...Our sempai's left at 3:30 in the morning, and left it outside our room right before they left. Then when we woke up at 6:30 it was gone. The brass had a 3 hour window to get it...but they managed to. Then our district president got a security report about a defaced mattress fire hazard hahaha Which is pretty ridiculous.  

Oh actually I should explain the Beef cycle. I feel like I reference it alot in my emails but no one knows what I'm talking about haha. So we have some pretty creative elders in our group..and we've come up with what we call the Beef cycle. It's alot like the pride cycle, but it describes companionships. So quick review of the pride cycle.

Pride------->Punishment------>Repentance/humility-------->Prospering/Blessings/Stacks.

Everyone on the same page? K good. So the Beef cycle is pretty similar, You start with some Beef. You and you companion don't agree how to plan, one of you takes forever to get ready, one of you sings all the time and won't stop beatboxing...whatever the beef is..all companion ships have it. That leads to...Comp Inventory! That's how you're supposed to solve beef right? You talk it over, figure stuff out...get a couple bruises and you're good. Now you've got what we call a fresh start, you're working together, you can feel the spirit stuffs good. Now you get to the prosper stage. You get blessings, stacks if you will. You try and stay in the prosper stage as long as possible, but it's hard, eventually you end up with more beef, and the cycle restarts itself. Here's a diagram for ya. Beef----->Comp Inventory------>Fresh Start-------Prosper/Stacks/Gift of Tongues. Pretty simple right? We'll there's more too it, that's the primary version of the Beef Cycle, lets move on to Sunday school. So there's a couple different scenario that we've found, which are exceptions to the Beef cycle. For instance, what if your companionship is going great, your staking papes, feeling the spirit going well. Then you hit that Saturday night weekly planning session and mandatory comp inventory. Uh oh. Now you've got beef. Sometimes people will bring up old beef, that's already been settled, or maybe you bring up beef that really doesn't matter, things you don't like about their character, etc. just because that's what you do in comp inventory. Then all of a sudden you went from the prosper stage, back to the beef stage. And then the beef leads to more comp inventory, which leads to more beef and so on and so forth. That cycle is what we call the well done cycle. It's when the beef gets over cooked. Avoid that cycle at all costs, it's deadly to companionships. Another possibility you need to be aware of, is Subliminal Beef. That's when you have beef that hasn't been brought up yet, or completely settled by comp inventory. That's almost more dangerous than the well done cycle. Because at least then the beef was cooked. Subliminal beef just kinda sits out and rots, and gets nastier and nastier as time goes on. Then when you got to cook it. It can't be done. We've experienced a bit of subliminal beef in our companionship, it wasn't pretty. Haha the other companionship of elders taught the Beef Cycle as part of their district meeting lesson two weeks ago. It was great. Anyways, beware of beef. You might want to learn the beef cycle, and teach it to others, so they can be aware of what stage their in, and what actions have to be taken to avoid beef and get back into the prosper stage.

Hahaha....Recently most of the beef for our companionship has been why Pennington Choro hasn't seen any Disney/Pixar movies. I mean...just why!? He hasn't seen Hercules, or Tarzan, or Up, or Frozen or anything "praiseworthy and of Good report." haha 

Really I can't take credit for coming up with the beef cycle, it was the tripanionship of elders in our district. They know more about beef than anyone. We've just learned about it and used it.

I pretty much just spent my entire email time describing the beef cycle...hahahaha That's awesome and really sad. Like no one emails me, and nothing happens here so I had nothing else to do haha.

The only different thing this week was getting to be ZL. It's pretty cool because I get to worry about everyone else's problems instead of my own, sometimes I even forget I have problems! Haha it's one of the blessings of service I think, takes your mind off things. So that's lucky.

Here's the proverbs of the Day. This one's for Mom.

"ryouyaku wa kuchi ni nigashi" Which means "Difficult things can be good for us." (Or literally "Good medicine can be bitter to taste")

and on that I've been feeling lately..."Ishi no ue nimo sannen" Which means "perseverance brings blessings (lit. If you sit on a cold rock for three years, it will eventually warm up).

Aishtemasuyo!

Coleman Choro