Update on Elder Roemer

Joshua's first day in Japan with President and Sister Hill. He got a new Mission President a month later, President and Sister Albrecht.


Joshua's first area in Kamakura

Just thought I would give a quick update on Josh. In November he was in Shibuya, which is a ward of Tokyo. It is the most densely populated area of Japan. He and his companion were over two English speaking wards there. Anyway enough from me, I will just type excerpts from his emails and letters.

Middle of November...

We had Theo’s baptism this Sunday! It was a really good experience. It’s cool to see how people can make a complete 180 in how they live because of the gospel. Yoshi got baptized this last Saturday too! I didn’t get to go but president Albrecht said it was really good. I wish I could have been there.....I took some pictures of Theo’s too don’t worry.
I loved the pictures of Abbey! She is getting so much bigger than she used to be! I wish I could hold her......Keep the pictures coming! And that’s really funny that dad fed her whipping cream. I can’t say that I’m surprised; it is dad’s favorite food. By the way thanks for the post cards dad! I’m going to try and get some more letters written today.
The new place I’m in is CRAZY. I’ve never seen so many people in my life it’s unbelievable. We are over two English wards too so people have us over for dinner all the time! It’s a nice change from the Japanese ward and American families are SO much more laid back. Tonight we’re having dinner with Elder Stevenson; He gave a talk at conference about how you’re never lost when you can see the temple so I’m pretty nervous about giving him a message tonight at his house! He’s the area president over all the Asian north missions. My new companion is really good and we get along great. Oh and this last Sunday I got to bear my testimony in English during fast and testimony meeting! It was so nice just being able to say what I wanted to. I am in Shibuya now! It’s the most populated part of Japan and probably the world (it’s seriously insane). But I’m living in the most expensive missionary apartment in the world! Pretty crazy eh? Next week is transfers and I’m hoping I stay here. One reason being I get along with my companion really well and the other being that it’s Christmas and thanksgiving next transfer and I want to be in the English wards for it .......but if I end up transferring that’s ok, I won't mind.
The next week….So I got transferred! To the farthest, biggest, most spread out, least English speaking area in the mission! Not only that but I got a Japanese companion that doesn’t speak English at all. It’s ok though I think it will be good even though it might be rough at times not being able to communicate properly or express myself. My area’s name is Utsunomiya, it’s HUGE and my companion’s name is Koja. He’s way nice and I get along great with him, I can’t understand half of what he’s saying but we get along fine.

I wrote you a short little letter today so it should get to you sometime next week. I’m really excited for the thanksgiving package! Oh and I might have got sick, quarantined for a few days and lost seven pounds. I’m really excited for thanksgiving and Christmas though! I’m not really sure what we’re going to do.......But I’m sure we’ll be able to find something.

Well that’s about all I have. I might have more next week cause I’ve only been in this area for a couple of days and emailing is basically the only chance I get to use English now. I love and miss you all though and I’m really looking forward to your letters!

Love,

Elder Roemer
(Josh)

End of November...

Dear family,

Well I'm on the train right now. I am on my way to my next area, Utsunomiya! It's basically the opposite of my last area in every way possible. It's the biggest area in the mission and also the most northern, so it's freezing! It snows there and it's way out in the middle of nowhere so no one speaks English. Seriously, not only that but my companion is Japanese and doesn't speak any English. So this should be good for my Japanese, I hope....It's gonna be A LOT different from my last two transfers though. I'm looking out the window right now and it's nothing but fields forever. I'm excited though, it will be a good experience. I'm not really sure how I'll be able to function with zero English and freezing ccold but I'm sure it will all be good. I'm really excited to get your package! I cna'te wait. Iv'e been sick for the past few days so this is the first day I've been out of the apartment for qute a while. The doctor quarentinted me...I just had a fever and some ofher stuff but I'm pretty much ok now. The sister called the doctor on me....Well I'm gonna be emailing you later and my new companion (Elder Koja) is talking to somone.

OK, I am in the apartment now. THe apartment hereis actually really nice and a lot bigger than my last one. It really is in the middle of no where thoug. There are houses all over, it's just REALLY spread out. Most members live over an hour away from church by car and we get to visit them by bike. My companion is super nice. I'm trying to teach him some English but it's hard cause I cna't really speak Japanese....We went to a theater thing last night that one of the members wrote the script for and it was really fun. I didn't understand much cause it was all in Japanese and I was the only gaijin (foreinger) in the whole building, but it was still pretty fun though. So right now I'm waiting forr Sagawa to bring my bike from my last area so we can go email. That is my life in a nutshell right now! I hope everything is going good at home and you got all my letters and pictures. Sorry about my horrible writing too.....My English is getting so bad. The other day I couldn't for the life of me think of the word encourage....The sad thing is I'm not making up for it with japanese! So hopefully I'll be able to re-learn English when I come back. Well my bike is here! I am gonna put it together then head out to go email. I love and miss you all very much and I am really excited to get your letters! I will do my best to reply to all of them.

Love, Elder Roemer

Dec. 10th 2009

Dear family,

Thank you for the letters! I'm glad to hear everything is going good and nothing has changed!

Things are going good in my area right now other than I'm in a Japanese prison...I'm still a little bit sick (if you can even call it that) so basically I'm trapped in my apartment cause the Japanese people are crazy when it comes to sickness. I'll go into more detail in the email I send but it has definitely been an interesting transfer so far.

It's starting to get really cold here, thank goodness. I'm in the coldest area in the mission. I might be able to get some cool pictures in the snow.
I gave a talk this last Sunday in church and I guess you could say that it went well...I made it through at least. I'm forgetting my English more and more but my Japanese is staying the same! I can understand it well enough but speaking it is still way hard. It's such a ridiculous language...I don't think they could have made a harder language if they tried. It would be one thing if we were aloud to speak in plain form, then it would be ok. We have to speak in polite form and kego though. The more I study it the harder it becomes. There is basically four different ways to speak in Japanese, plain form (the easiest), nsut desu, and kego (the hardest). I am glad I'm learning it, it will definately come in handy in the future. This is probably my favorite sentence. I used it all the time when I first got here. Uatashi va America kara kita bakari desukara wotash no nihongo wa warui desu. Which means I from America, came just barely therefore, I Japanese bad is.
Jacob if you do the Rosetta Stone you will be able to say that in no time.

Having a Japanese companion is helping a lot though I just had no idea how bad my Japanese was till I actually got one!

SO that is where I am right now. I love my new area though, it's really nice. Thanks for the package too. I'm actually eating the pine nuts right now.

Well I hope everything keeps on going good. I love and miss you all a ton! I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

Love, Elder Roemer
(Josh)

Dec. 14, 2009

Ok so this email is going to be pretty short! SORRY!!!!

We went to this temple thing today out in the mountains and it took quite a while.......
I got the package and stuff that everyone made, thank you so much! I:m going to try and write at least a small note to everyone and send it to you but it may not get to you till after Christmas. It really does mean so much though, thank you everyone. I:ll get those written as soon as I can.

Now mom I haven’t been that sick........and I finally did ask for help (going against ALL of my better judgment to not...) thinking "maybe they’re right and I really do need to get help". I should have stuck with my pride.......I:m going to give you the really short version of the story but "asking for help" led to the most insane Sunday of my mission. I woke up Sunday morning and told my companion that I was going to ask the doctor in the ward that day to see if he could check me out. keep in mind I have ONLY been coughing and its nothing serious at all just really annoying and i:d had it for about three weeks so I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong with me even though I was 99.999999999% sure there wasn’t. So I hop in the shower and while i:m in there my companion manages to call basically the whole ward and mission president. The next thing I know we can’t go to church. Then the zone leaders call and say we have to go to church. So we go. When we show up the ward members are NOT happy to see me (who knows what my companion told them) and I was instantly quarantined and locked in a room on the third floor. The doctor comes in with the bishop, I have to take off my shirt and have some test done on me and the bishop says we can’t leave the room till sacrament starts and we have to take the sacrament from the kitchen away from everyone THEN leave as soon as we’re done. So we sit in this room for almost two hours and go take the sacrament. I must have told everyone I was fine a thousand times by now but for some reason that only made them even more sure I was dying. After we’d been home for about a half hour the doctor shows up and I get a blessing. Which was really nice. He and my companion start talking a little bit after the blessing and suddenly i:m in his car on the way to the hospital. I get things stuck up my nose that i:m pretty sure touched my brain, get an x-ray, and get my blood drawn. After ALL of this they finally come to the conclusion..........that i:m ok! Imagine that.......But they still gave me a TON of medicine to take in one week and I feel like grandpa Wayne cause I have to think of all kinds of different ways to not take it (mom I can’t take it you seriously have no idea how much they gave me, it’s more than I:ve taken in my whole life combined and i:m not even joking). Pretty crazy huh? I:ve never felt so loved in my life(: I:m ok though and it was actually really funny so no worries! and now you can really know i:m not sick! I don’t know if there’s any other test they could do on me so I think i:m in the clear.

Ok sorry that took up pretty much my whole letter! I thought everyone might enjoy it though. I:m doing a lot better this week though and i:m doing just fine.

I:m really looking forward to calling! i:ll have to get you the number and everything next week........I forgot to bring it with me.......Thank you for the package and everything though! Don’t worry the Christmas tree is up and everything. Ok i:m out of time but i:ll be writing you later today.

I love you!

Love
Elder Roemer
(Josh)

I will keep you updated more often in the future so there aren't so many letters and emails at once. It has been such a blessing to have a missionary out in the field! I have never prayed so hard in my life. We have felt the blessings of him serving and have felt an added measure of the spirit in our family. We love you Josh!