Christmas Phone Call information

My  favorite parents,

Attached is the email about Christmas Phone calls. I think it's pretty easy to understand. My phone number is xxx-xxxx-xxxx. So you will call 011- xx-xx-xxxx-xxxx. I don't know if you've ever done an international call, besides to Canada, so good luck. So Christmas is P-day for us. I was thinking I would wake up Christmas morning and open presents and get ready, so maybe a phone call around 9am my time would be good. That would be 5pm your time on Christmas Eve. I hope that's okay, because there really isn't a way for you to tell me it's not okay. Ha ha. I'm glad Jay and John will be there. I get an occasional email from John about his life, but rarely from Jay - probably because there isn't much to it, eh?

(my favorite part is that we got this Christmas phone call letter in the mail too, and it says 2009 rules on it. This email is 2010 so they at least caught that rule. However, it seems a typo has escaped two years of APs. (Assistants to the Mission President) Can you find it? It's a punctuation error.)

I liked your story about the Christmas party in Utah. Christmas really isn't a big deal here. Two days before is the emperor's birthday, and that's the holiday everyone celebrates. So the branch Christmas Party is on the 23rd. There is still no snow in Miyazaki, and I often walk around without a coat. The nights get pretty cold though. I'll have pictures next week of the great Christmas Party that the ward is spending more than half of their budget for the year on. No joke.

I got my Christmas presents. That poor box was so full it was bursting, neh? The cookies were delicious. They were a little crumbly but for the most part they held together. I finally worked my way down to the chocolate peanut butter cup things this morning.

They're delicious too. (Using) the Green Stamps envelope was a good touch. I set up the Charlie Brown Christmas tree and laid out the presents on the small cabinet thing in our genkan. I'll send a picture. I read the Customs Declaration but that wasn't helpful at all, was it. It's like it's written in code, but it's still honest enough to make it through customs.

I wish I could tell you what I want for my birthday, but I don't know what's in the Christmas presents, right? I have a pretty good guess about two shirts and two tights, but after that I don't know. This is the problem about a birthday in January, right dad? 2 weeks after my birthday is transfers, so who knows what I'll need to get rid of if I transfer. My companion has close to no stuff. She fit everything in one big suitcase and then one medium sized (Japanese sized medium) box to herself. That's it. She has inspired me to purge. I feel like I need a good transfer to throw stuff away, you know. Oh, I didn't think of something for my birthday. I think I can buy nylons here in Japan.

But it would be easier if you just mailed me a few. All my nylons died. I wear black tights everyday. Sometimes when it's not freezing cold I like to have normal colored legs. Just 3 or so pairs would be good.

Before I forget, I sent your Christmas box, but it came back to me because I mailed the iPod. American rules are way strict right now.

And what else is new? So the iPod battery is potentially dangerous or something. Anyway, I don't think America is strict about what you mail out of the country. So maybe you can get John's old iPod or something and mail me that we a bunch of songs or something? I donno what else we could do. The post office worker told me if I wrote iPad that that battery would have been okay. If only I lied! Ha ha.

Mom, the picture you sent is a Facebook picture. I can't log into Facebook to see it! Ha ha, did you forget that? And Dad, is that picture of the Provo tabernacle real? It looks like it could be fake... and I wouldn't put that past you. I had Stake Conference at BYU in the tabernacle. I also sang in a choir there once (with a music director that didn't know what she was doing).

Until Christmas, well, your Christmas Eve.

Lemmon Shimai

Eikaiwa (English Conversation Class) last week. It was HUGE.  We aren't quite sure why, but it was.

 
Heiwa. I think that's what they're called. They are normally placed in tombs to keep dead kings company, but I found this little guy in a random garden.

Christmastime in Miyazaki

Christmas time in Miyazaki is a series of things that contradict each other. For example, we went home last night without a coat on. Don't worry, I still had a long sleeve shirt on. I heard from members that last year it snowed once for about 2 hours. All the neighborhood kids ran outside. Ha ha. There is Christmas music but where is the snow?


I would have mentioned the perfect weather to you earlier but I didn't want to rub it in your face. Ha ha. I do still get cold, but there's a slightly too big coat for that. It keeps me warm.

So yes, I'm still in Miyazaki. My new companion is Sister Harada. We had the same trainer! We're sisters. Ha ha. Sorry, mission joke. I have decided that my companions are always the exact opposite from the companion I had before. Harada shimai is no different. She actually wants to go out and do finding. She is happy to cook for me as long as I keep her company. She doesn't have to do things her way and no one else's way, like my past companion. I see a happy future here in Miyazaki.

On transfer day Takahama Shimai left at 8am and Harada Shimai didn't make it here until 3pm. So I hung out for over 6 hours with the Elders.

We headed to the Sister's apartment. 3 elders ago, the elders threw away a futon. It was way gross. But the garbage men didn't take it.

Crazy huh? It wasn't placed in the correct garbage bag. Gosh! I don't know what to do with all of these garbage rules. So we attacked the futon with scissors to fit it in the garbage bag. Anyway, when I pulled the futon out of the small gated garbage area I unearthed the biggest cockroach I've ever seen. And it was alive. I dropped everything and literally had the creeps. At least the bugs in Jay's Murray house were small! One of the Elders was like "ahhh, come here little guy". I was so grossed out. I took a picture though. I will be the next email of pictures. Then the Elder picked it up with his hand and threw it over the fence. He said he was a plumber for 6 months so no bugs like that phase him anymore.

(Montes Choro with his friend, the giant cockroach.  The cockroach was found under the futon we were cutting up to fit in a bag to throw away following all the Japanese trash rules.  After this picture he picked up the little bug by his hands and threw it over the fence.)

As I mentioned in my email to daddy, I sent you all a Christmas present today. It cost 7000 yen to mail (US $70). The lady said that America suddenly got more 厳しい or strict, so it might take longer than 10 days to get there. Go figure America! I hope the presents get there in time. I also mailed you both birthday presents. I was sick of transferring with them. Ha ha. I think I'm done mailing things to America. It's a pain in the butt. I had to be honest on the customs declaration without letting you know what it was. Ha ha. No peeking!

I also mailed the iPod if you could put some stuff on it. I'm really really really tired of the same 3 CDs. Plus, all the missionaries have the exact same 3 CDs.

About your emails- Dad, if you use my external HD be careful. If you delete all of it I would be very sad. That's my life! But good luck.  I don't think they even make FAT 32 cables anymore. Also, you joked about me being AP (Assistant to the mission president). Well, we heard that up in Sapporo, the most north Japanese mission, that there are sister APs. The Sapporo mission is the most liberal mission in Japan by far. All the funny stories come from there.

As for the phone call, I haven't gotten information on it yet. But how it worked last year was you will actually call me. That way it costs you money and not the church. They encourage 30-40 minute phone calls to not put a financial strain on my family. Well, I'll leave it up to you how long. Though I don't think I'll have much to say. I either need 3 weeks to explain my mission in detail, or it's so vague that it's short. I don't know if there is anything in between.

Last thing. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell you this or not, but right now I am fasting for dad to find a job. Yep. I have zero, ZERO testimony of fasting, but I do have a testimony of following the commandments of God to see blessings. So it hit me yesterday in church that it's the last thing I can do to help. It's frustrating because there is nothing I can do. And I HATE fasting. I mean who likes to go without food for 24 hours? It's not like my body likes being hungry. But it's the last thing I can do. After this I'm out of ideas. Anyway, because fasting is the biggest sacrifice I can make I bet you are going to find a job this week. Yep. Salina? Ha ha.  Middle of nowhere, but equal distance between Utah and Kentucky. Ha ha.

Okay, we're going to head home now with our basket full of shopping today. We got new bike breaks, and a really cheap sweater. Yay!

 
The Elders have this investigator family, the Hayashi family.  They teach them family English once a week. We go too. This picture is where the kids are jumping up and down with their hands in the hair waiting to be called on. The sister is my new companion, Sister Harada. The adult in the picture is the dad of these crazy little kids.
 
 

 My Miyazaki district.  Well, only half of us are left.  (the other half were transferred to other areas).
 
Until next week,

Your favorite daughter

New phone, sick in Japan, fixing computers...

My email time today started with fixing the two computers. There are two computers here in the copy room for Family Search, but we use it for emails. The computers have been sick the last few days. The one on the left has an incompatible monitor so sometimes it doesn't realize the computer is actually sending information. Yep, so I played around with that one. The other computer was taken and reformatted, so it was supposed to be working. But the user name I used to log in didn't have Internet privileges, which took me a while to figure out since everything is in Japanese. I told my computer to read it, and then I clicked on things. We were a good team. I ended up figuring out the other user name. These passwords aren't very secure if I could do it all in Japanese. Actually, there is a post-it with the user name and password right on the printer next to the monitor. My college teachers would have had a fit. But it was good to see that I can still fix computers even in Japanese.


The big news of the week is that we all got new phones! Yes, I think I mentioned it before. It's way cool looking. Then a few days later we got a text from the Japan Area office that told us to download this application. It's a GPS map for our phones. Well, we found out a few days after that that we aren't allowed to use it, until they can work it all out and stuff, but before that I spent two language studies and
1 1/2 lunches translating it all into English. It really brushed up on my Japanese Kanji writing skills. Good think my electronic dictionary has a kanji pad, huh? That is a good 200 dollars right there. Anyway, now all my work is for naught, but I plan on still giving it to the mission president when I see him next transfer at Zone Conference.

Speaking of, Transfer calls is Wednesday, so please send my Christmas package to the mission office. I have a feeling I will transfer.  Here's my thinking, which isn't really based on much. My companion and I have learned how to get along with each other but it's still really hard. We need a change I think. This past transfer pushed Takahama Shimai into depression, so I don't think she can handle another transfer. Therefore I think I will transfer. Anyway, if I'm with her for a whole other 6 weeks I will have to re-humble myself and start praying for more charity. Phew. We'll see if my personal revelation is true or not the day after tomorrow.

In other news, I would like to know world news. I heard that North Korea shot a missile. But that's all I know. How's the American economy? Anymore car companies die? Are there still troops in the Middle East? I honestly think that the 2nd coming could happen and I would be totally oblivious. No joke. Also, could you log into my Facebook and make it so people can search for me. Still block that other people can't read my wall and stuff, but I want to be searchable so these Japanese people can find me. Okay, thanks.

Mom, here are my measurements. Please don't put them on the web.  That would be embarrassing, even for me.

(redacted for national security and personal embarrassment issues)

let me know if I forgot to measure something. Ha ha.

Dad, I can't believe you took over someone's practice. (editor's note:  only for about 3 minutes) But then again I'm not surprised. Yesterday after church there was a music practice for the ward Christmas party. We are singing some song I've never heard of before. The lady in charge doesn't really know what she's doing, but she does it with a smile and with love. Then there is this one sister who was visiting from some other ward way up north. She walked into the room and claimed privilege that she is the stake music chairman back from where ever she is from. Then she just kinda took over, in the Japanese way that I wish I could explain. After the short rehearsal I gave the sister that was supposed to be in charge a big hug and just said, I just wanted to tell you that you're wonderful. I hope you at least took over with more tact than this sister who was visiting. It was ridiculous.

This week I caught a cold. Which isn't a huge deal if you're in America, but is like the end of the world in Japan. Everyone is like 'Are you okay?' in the most concerned face. It's flattering the first hundred times, it's the second hundred I have a problem with. Anyway, I wasn't feeling well on Saturday, so I laid down for a nap. When I woke up an hour later my throat was so tight I could hardly swallow.

So we went to the nearby drug store to get some medicine. I told them my symptoms and they recommended me some drugs. I read the ingredients the best I could (it's weird Japanese). It's ibuprofen, and vitamin B1, vitamin C, and such. So I bought it. Later in the apartment I translated the other 7 ingredients. Japanese people really have a magic pill complex. And here I thought American was bad. As I was translating I stumbled across 'Dihyro codiene'. Yes, there is codeine in their cold medication! No wonder it made me a little bit drowsy. Ha ha. I also wore a sanitary mask around the apartment since my companion thought I was contagious. But since I'm American and think the sanitary mask is a little bit silly, I drew a face on it. Ha ha. I will send a picture soon.

Okay, I think that's it for now. I plan on buying Christmas stuff today. We're going to Daiso. Yay! I wonder if they take credit card at the dollar store.

Other pictures...

the smallest apple I've ever seen.  Try not to focus on me in that picture.  I was not having a pretty day.

Saiya-chan.  Or should I say Lemmon Shimai.  She's the daughter of our new investigator.

The random structure at Heiwadai park.  I couldn't find any information on what the building was, but maybe a tomb for some old emperor or something?  Anyway, we went with our new investigator.

Love,

Your favorite daughter

Thanksgiving in Miyazaki

I got the package this morning! I was so excited. The thing was I didn't know if I was more excited for the bras, the peanut butter, or the mouthwash. Seriously! My mouthwash is down to the end. I have been trying to cut back and preserve it all. Ha ha. I had peanut butter, but I left it at the church and one of the old grandmas thought it was trash. Trash? How could peanut butter ever be trash!

So Miyazaki is the hottest part of Kyushu. It's right by the ocean so we get the warm ocean breeze. I haven't seen snow yet and I don't think I will here in Miyazaki. The mornings and evenings are bitter cold, but the afternoons aren't too bad because the sun is really strong.

Our laundry still dries outsides, and doesn't freeze like I heard it does up in Hokkaido Island. Ha ha.

For Thanksgiving we got a call from the Relief Society President, Sister Petersen. She is Japanese, but she married an American. In their household the mom speaks Japanese to their kids, and the dad only speaks English to their kids. Therefore, their kids are fluent in both languages. Crazy huh? The kids are older, the youngest being 14, the oldest married and has a kid.

Julie Petersen just got back from her mission in Hawaii (when I asked her about it, she said she didn't know what she did right to get sent there). She reminds me of Hannah Shepard. We're instantly best friends. There is Shane who is leaving on his mission this month. There is also Aileen who lives in America and will be getting married in December. As expected the mom is freaking out, about as much as mom was when I left on my mission.  Ha ha. Basically they are an almost normal American family in the middle of Japan.

They invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. I was so happy! Real turkey and mashed potatoes. Yeah! The family runs an American Kindergarten in the 1st floor of their house. It's for ages 2-6. The kids come and play around, but everything is in English, and since they're kids they pick up English, with proper pronunciation right away. It's amazing. Anyway, they are by far my favorite family. And the fact that they fed 6 missionaries Thanksgiving Dinner was a miracle. There were even extras.

My companion went crazy Monday night. She was on another low and this time told me that she blames me for all of it. Well, I told her to get over it. I'm stuck with a companion that doesn't want to leave the apartment and yet I'm not choosing to be angry or sad. I told her to take time that night to decide to serve her mission or leave. The choice is hers. The door is open. Go ahead and go home. She isn't helping anyone in the state she's in. Was that harsh? Yes, but as I laid awake in bed that night (making sure she didn't actually leave) I felt full justification for my words from the Spirit. I knew my words were guided at that moment because my Japanese conjugations flowed easily. So, that night she decided to just open her scriptures and read wherever they fell open. It fell open to Alma 5:27. Are you stripped of pride? Are you following the good shepherd? Because if not, you are following Satan. I don't think there is a more in-you-face fire-and-brimstone chapter in all of the Book of Mormon.

So I guess my harsh words were followed up by a harsh scripture. She told me later she was sorry and she's been emotionally stable since.  Wow. now, of course by emotionally stable I mean back to the normal ups and downs she was doing before, but at least that is manageable.

This week in our mission we have good news. We're all getting new phones! All the phones for the missionaries in Japan are all done together. We were going through Docomo telephone services, but now we're going through Au.  Docomo and Au probably don't mean anything to you. But think of switching from AT&T to Sprint or something like that. So we got awesomely stylish new phones. Now we can text whoever we want. That's a big deal in Japan, where everyone is on the bus or subway where they can't talk on the phone, so everyone texts.

I will have to learn to text in Japanese soon. Gross.  Anyway, everyone in Japan got their new phone except us. Our phone right now is from Miyakonojyo, so maybe they sent it to the wrong area. oops.

Anyway, I'm sad it's not an iPhone but I'm excited it's a new phone.

Yeah! A new toy to play with!

For Christmas, I would like to add to my list. I would like the most ridiculous leg warmers you can find. Yes, Dad, that is permission.  For our morning study we have to wear skirts, but I don't want to put on tights yet. Not that tights are warm enough. I won't be wearing the leg warmers outside, so they can be whatever you want. My poor little calves are freezing!

Okay, I wish I had more to say, but I don't.
Your Favorite Daughter

The photo below is me with my hump camel.  I laughed, Thanks!

Thanksgiving Week

Before I forget,


- My camera is a micro SD, but I have a regular SD card adapter for my camera. The camera people are really smart and made the micro SD cards and the regular SD cards the same size, and the micro ones come with an adapter. I expect that sooner rather than later all the cameras will switch to micro SD. Anyway, my camera can handle either one of those. I don't think there's a limit on the length of the movie or anything, but I haven't actually done it. If it's a problem, I can load it onto the church computers and watch it on P-day.

- Thanks for the gift in the mail! I'm exited for new bras.

Seriously. I want to see if my weight will hold still long enough for me to buy new clothes, but I don't want to buy new clothes if I'm going to change size again, you know? Maybe for Christmas I will need a new winter coat though. These are kinda big. I wonder if they'll get bigger.

- My companion has continued to go up and down, but it's the regular up and down she was doing back in Sendai, which is still a lot more than the normal person. I very much think her depression is situational and not medical. She is the one making these decisions to be sad. At least that's how I look at it. I don't think I am in danger of being seriously depressed. I just choose not to be. It's weird because I am watching my companion choose to be depressed. At least that's what it looks like to me.

- I realized today that I don't know how to get personal money from the credit card. For whatever weird reason in Japan, everyone uses cash. So I want to go to the post-office and pull out money from my credit card like a debit card. Is there a pin number for my credit card? I know that kind of defeats the purpose of a credit card, but I thought it would be good to know.

This past week we haven't done anything worthwhile. But funny story of the week. It involves how Japanese addresses make no sense at all.

Seriously. So we were on companion exchanges this week, and Yoha Shimai and I were trying to find the address minamihanakashimacho (yes, that's a name of a neighborhood) 310-12. Well, thanks to our one map with the index, we found minamihanakashimacho no problem. 310 was also on the map, so we found that. After looking through people's mailboxes to find the addresses we found 310-1 through 11. Yes, looking through mailboxes is illegal in Japan. One stands guard and the other reads the address. We could not find 12 for the life of us.

We housed that whole area, asking for Souma-sama. Nope, no one knew of that family. So we finally gave up and went home. At home we have this super detailed map that lists every house and the name of the family that lives there as of 2004. Yeah, the map is kinda old. So after a few minutes of looking, we found it. It was across the street. But this wasn't just a normal street. This is one of the biggest roads in all of Miyazaki. Seriously. It's the Japanese equivalent of a freeway, only there are stop lights still. What was it doing way over there? Crazy! These addresses are ridiculous. It wouldn't be that bad if the places were at least labeled, like they were in Fujisaki. Sendai was even better than Miyazaki.

So back in Sendai, in my weekly report to my mission president, I asked him for an iPhone so we could look up addresses.  At Zone Conference I again asked him about it (in a joking way) and he said he read it. He even talked to Richard Heaton, head of all the MTCs and in charge of that kind of thing.

Bro. Heaton said 'don't think we're not thinking about it. Woot! I doubt I will see missionaries with google maps on their phone in my mission lifetime, but in my new letter to the mission president I volunteered to pilot the program. Haha. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, for other Christmas presents, I would like nylons and tights. I have enough black tights, but I'm getting really sick of black.  Really really sick of black.  How about gray or a conservative pattern? That would be great. As for Jay and John, I would just like an August Christmas Present instead to get ready for school and stuff.

For your Christmas presents, you will just have to wait and see.

Okay, my companion wants to go home to sleep, because she is depressed I think. I kinda hinted at the mission president for a transfer. I told him my patience and faith was running thin. We'll see what happens.

Okay, bu-bye! Happy Thanksgiving.

Your Favorite Daughter

Oh, some new photos. 

what I ate on Sunday.  Gross. My companion ate an eyeball.  It was so gross!

my desk is the clean one

the Single Adults pie-faced all the missionaries.  This is my after shot.  Ha ha.

Myazaki week 3

Come next summer I may need new clothes as all my clothes are too big, but my winter clothes still work, because the bigger they are the warmer they are. I can't wait to get home and put on my jeans. That's when I will really see/feel the difference.

So this week my companion has continued to be very depressed. Like clinical depression. She sleeps in until noon at least twice a week, and just about anything I say her to makes her cry. It's really running me (and her) down. We ended up talking to the mission president about it. She even talked to a professional. He is in one of the quorums of the seventy. Anyway, so she feels good about it for about 30 minutes, then we try to leave the apartment to do some work and she gets all depressed again.
But I've learned that you have to do something really stupid or really want to go home to get sent home from a mission. Just because you don't feel like working for a day or two doesn't mean you get sent home. You have to do something really stupid like break the law of chastity, or walk away. So here we are in Miyazaki. But the work goes on. Any potential investigator the Elders find they refer to us, so suddenly it looks like we might have some investigators soon.

Funny story for the week. Takahama Shimai made me some really tasty pasta on Friday night. She got it all ready, then decided the flavor.

She pulled out this one sauce from the fridge. It tasted really good. About 20 minutes later she said her stomach hurt. I didn't think anything about it because her stomach has hurt almost everyday since I met her 2 months ago. But then a few minutes later my stomach really hurt too. After taking a few turns in the bathroom, she realized it was the sauce. When we moved in we found it on top of the fridge, but we put it in the fridge, so we thought it was okay. But apparently it was one of the sauces that is supposed to be refrigerated. Oops. Yeah, we threw it out really fast. That night we called the Elders and told them the story. One was like 'was it the sauce on top of the fridge?' Um, yes. Well, apparently, he needed a sauce, used it, got sick, and thought it was probably the sauce. We asked, 'Why in the world didn't you throw it away?' Well, it just didn't occur to him. After that we threw out everything perishable that was in the apartment when we moved in.

I have been introduced to the Kotatsu Table. At people's houses I've noticed these short tables (since there are no chairs) where the tops come off. I couldn't figure out why in the world that would be useful. But now that it's cold my companion pulled out the special Kotatsu Futon. It's a blanket that goes over the table, under the table top, then there is a heater you can plug in underneath. Now our feet are warm when we have planning sessions and such. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. My feet get really cold. For some reason this apartment doesn't have any tatami mats. It's weird. But that also means it's really really cold.

Mom, I'm glad you got the quilt thing done. I bet Dad is too. Ha ha.

Dad, I hope you get a job soon. Probably around Thanksgiving - since that's when it has happened before. I'm voting for Seattle since I like the rain, but you said that might not work out. Darn. Toronto wouldn't be bad, because then I can tell everyone that I'll be Canadian when I get back. ha ha. Glad to hear the family will come together for Thanksgiving. John wrote me an email and told me that so that Mom won't get sad, he will be both himself and me. ha ha, good luck there J-man.  Jay's airplane story was priceless.  Dad, you should never sing in a Japanese choir.  There is no such thing as original music.  I don't think there is a copyright law in Japan.  At least no one follows it. Everyone uses copied music. I mean everyone. I don't think there are originals anyway.  It would drive you crazy.  And Mom shouldn't drive in Japan. Ever. It's too narrow.  I have seen so many miracles in Japanese driving. I don't understand why they aren't all dead yet.  They know exactly how big their car is, including the side mirrors.

This week we were housing and found a 93 year old man. He was still up and walking, and he cooks and cleans for himself. 

Okay, so for Christmas, I have attached a picture of the dental products I need. Once again, here is my Christmas list:

-Deodorant x3
-Toothpaste x3
-Mouthwash x1 (it's big, so I'll have to go one at a time) -new bras (yeah!)
-Crunchy Peanut Butter (Skippy of course)
-a new cork insole for my nice shoes. Naot 37 L6 is what the shoe insole says. It's totally worn out. I mean totally. That would be great! I could probably find it in Japan, but I don't have the time.


Special note to Skyler Ferrin:

Skyler no tame ni:

Konnichiwa. Skyler-kun wa gakko ga suki desu ka? Watashi mo gakko ga suku desu. benkyou wa ii desu ne.

こんにちわ。スカイラくんはがっこがすきですか？わたしもがっこがすきです。べんきょうはいいですね。

Translation, but don't send to Skyler unless he asks;

 ************************************************************************
(redacted by editor due to national security issues)

Sister Lemmon

Still hot in Miyazaki

So here in Miyazaki it is still about 70 degrees. I think it's the hottest place in mainland Japan (of course Okinawa is still in the 80s). Since it's close to the Pacific ocean it stays pretty warm.

It's the same latitude as Satsuma Sendai-shi, but way warmer. I'm wearing short sleeves today. At night it gets pretty bitter-cold, but we have new futons to wrap ourselves up in. Yay! Miyazaki is a good fit for me. As in there are people here I can talk to. I will always remember poor little Sendai Branch, but my work there was done.

This week we haven't done much, which has taught me a lot of patience.

Remember in my setting-apart blessing how I was blessed with patience to work with companions that are not on the same spiritual plane as me? Well, I think that was talking about this companion. Takahama Shimai is great, but she doesn't want to leave the apartment. She is very skilled at finding other things to do. This week we photocopied a huge map. Let me explain this map to you a little better. There is the normal map of the city with the roads and stuff, then there is this map which is so detailed that you can see any house. Then in each house the name of the family that lives there is also written.

Cool, eh? Well, this map is called Zenrin. In Miyazaki it's so big that it's split into north and south. We spent a whole day photocopying the Zenrin into a binder for us to use. But we only did the north so far. South is for next week. We also spent a day trying to find the right sized binder for the Less Active Book. There are 500 less actives in this area, so the binder is pretty big. Anyway, that gives you an idea of what we have been doing. I want to go see the recent converts, the investigators, and such like that. But my senior wants to just sit at home. We have fun together, but it's not what I want to do. I can't wait for the day that my Japanese is good enough that I get to call the shots, you know?

Okay, so Christmas. yay! So the thing is I don't need a lot of stuff, because I don't want to transfer with it. Yet there are a few things I need. They are listed below.

- crunchy peanut butter! I'm all out!
- Crest toothpaste
- Crest mouthwash (not the night stuff, that's gross, just the normal blue stuff)
- a new rubber tip thing for my gums. Ha ha. I'm not joking. The one I have now is slowly dying.
- new music! The rule in this mission is anything goes as long as you can feel the spirit and there aren't romantic lyrics. I think I will mail you my iPod, then you can add what you want on it, then send it back. In the mean time I have my companion's music.
- you can also put General Conference talks on the iPod. Those are pretty cool.

Sorry, I was going to take a picture of my toothpaste and mouthwash, so you get the right stuff, but I forgot. And I forgot the SD Card thingy. I'll try to remember for next week.

That's actually all I want right now. But when I get back I would like an iPhone, a computer, and a car. :) And maybe an apartment, and tuition. Ha ha. How much of your money can I spent on Christmas for you, and which card should I use? Ha ha.

I'm going to send Grandpa an email, so make sure he checks it!

We need to go pack for our zone conference today, so I'm out of time.

Sorry! Until next week.


Your Favorite Daughter.

Miyazaki

We can do email on the Family Search Computers here in the Miyazaki Branch, so I have more time for email. Therefore, I will try to do a week at a glance a little more justice. There just wasn't enough time to do it all!


Monday

After email we brought the old Halloween stuff to the Taniyama Church where we watched the Elders make fools of themselves with Twister. We stayed the night at the Taniyama Sisters Apartment because district meeting was the next morning, so we went on Junkais (switching companions).

I was with Endo Shimai, who finished her mission this past week. The other two went back to the apartment where they made a real cake. My companion, Takahama Shimai, went to school for baking, so she made an awesome wedding cake worthy cake.

Tuesday

In the morning we had to leave early, sneaking the cake out so Endo Shimai wouldn't notice. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up some cream, and wipped it at the church for the frosting. This was a 3 layer cake with Hershey Syrup as one layer because Endo Shimai loves chocolate. It was delicious. After District Meeting we ate at the church, where the Adachi Couple (senior missionary couple) fed us tacos. The cake was desert. Takahama Shimai and I knew that we were closing the Sendai area as Sisters, so we tried to hurry up the last goodbyes and such, but that was nearly impossible. There were dishes for about 15 people to wash. That was crazy! We do it every week, but this week people were a little bit lagging. So, we made it to the train station just in time to go back to Sendai.

It was about an hour train ride of torture. I do not miss that train. When we got back, we had just enough time to pack a tiny bit before our appointment with a Sister. She was baptized about 10 years ago, but recently returned to church. We taught her a lesson on the importance of the priesthood.

There are only about 4 strong priesthood holders in Sendai Branch, but we knew there were two Elders coming, so we were like "If there were Elders here, you could get a priesthood blessing from them too".

Haha. I bet she was surprised on Sunday to see Elders. The Sisters had a revelation! It's called an early transfer call. haha.

Afterwards we tried to pack as much as possible. Takahama Shimai was a fast packer, but a slow un- packer. I was the opposite. Anyway, it takes about 3 hours to pack, then the last hour for things like bed sheets, shower stuff, and such.

Wednesday

The transfer was official. So we called Miyazak Elders and told them Sisters were coming. I was so excited thinking that we were getting a new apartment, but I learned that because there are 4 Elders, they had to get the new (bigger) apartment, and we were stuck with the old Elders Apartment. Yucky! So as we were visiting members and investigators, the Miyazaki Elders were cleaning their old apartment. We visited Kamezawa-san, which I recently learned means Turtle Swamp. Did I type that in an previous email? Anyway, Mr. Turtle Swamp has had problems with prayer recently. I mean, he doesn't pray in the name of Jesus Christ, so he has been studying prayer for about 3 hours a day for a week. As a goodbye present we tried to get him to pray. It took about 10 minutes of encouragement, then he prayed, from his heart, in the name of Jesus Christ. Totally worth it. He really needs Elders. We also said goodbye to Miura Shimai and her daughter Yukiko-chan.  Sendai turned Sisters in the first place for Miura Shimai and her daughter. That is a fact. But now that she has good ward relations and such, it's time to switch back to Elders. She was way sad to hear that we were leaving. But I know she'll stay true. She met the missionaries in her life about 3 times before she finally was ready to hear the message and get baptized. She is going to the temple this month to do baptisms for her mom and dad. And others too, I think. It's pretty cool.

Thursday

We woke up at 5.30 to finish packing. We had written everything out for the new Elders, like people info, and what map page the grocery store is on, and such, so we laid that all out prettily on the desk. We left the apartment at 7.30 to catch our train at 8.03.

That train took us all the way to Miyazaki. It took about 3 and a half hours. It was terrible. I will not miss that train. I will NOT miss that train. I really want to ride the Shinkansen, which you probably know as the bullet train. Recently they put in the train track to go down to Kagoshima. It's a different track, because it doesn't form to the landscape as much as just cut through the middle of mountains and stuff. The regular train follows the landscape, which is why it's so terrible (but beautiful). Missionaries don't have the money to ride the Shinkansen. How sad! But now you can ride from Kagoshima all the way up to Tokyo or even farther north. Cool, eh? It's way fast. In Miyazaki the Elders were there with a ward member (with a car) to take our suitcases to the apartment. By the way, I mailed one of the suitcases to myself. It cost about 14 dollars, so that's not bad.

The Elder's apartment looked pretty good, until the Elders left and we opened the closet where the futons were stored. The smell! I cannot explain to you the stench. I don't think they use deodorant, just body spray. Yuck! So we called the Relief Society President and got her to drive us to get new futons. Totally worth it. We were pretty exhausted by this point, and crashed.

Friday

We re-arranged the apartment, tried to make sense of all the records and such. I have decided one thing. When I'm the senior companion, I am going to keep perfect records. That is going to be my thing. And address of 'the apartment next to the Shiromizu Hospital' is not an address, even in Japan. There wasn't even an apartment number written down. When we asked the Elders they said it was the door with all the little kid bikes. I did an eye roll so big that I didn't know it was possible. haha. And member records with nothing written on them are not helpful. It's frusterating! And keeping good records was a project I was working on in the MTC when I worked there. If you transfer and your information is gone, then it's totally worthless that you learned that. Anyway, that's my soap-box speech for my mission, I think.

Saturday

In the morning we continued to do apartment things, and find things on the map and call the Elders for better directions for their non-addresses. That night was the ward Halloween party. We met the Miyazaki Branch.  I was shocked. This branch is very, very strong and really understands missionary work. It's crazy. There are about 13 branch missionaries. There are about 60 or 70 that come to sacrament meeting. The idea in putting 6 missionaries here is that if we strengthen this branch, we can split it. And soon this District will become a Stake, then two stakes, then maybe we can get a temple.

Cool, eh? So, that's why the District President wants to strenthen the already strong areas. So this branch has children, YSA (young single adults), and therefore has a ton of energy. This is definitely not little Sendai Branch. At the Halloween party, it was totally done by the branch, which means we could go around and meet people. Everyone is shocked that there are Sisters. Yep. Here we are. So give us referrals because we don't have investigators. haha.

Sunday

Church. Dendo Coordination Meeting was in the morning, with a ward mission leader that actually does his job. Yep, that might be a first for me. Okay, not really, but he really goes above and beyond his assignment (in a good way). I don't know if this branch even needs missionaries to do more than just do the teaching and interviewing for baptisms. Now that I know what a functioning branch looks like, I want to go back to Sendai because I can see Sendai's future.

Well, that's this week. I don't think I can do this kind of email every week, because it makes my head hurt. Just the highlights for next week. Hope Dad gets a job soon, and I hope that Mom got rid of all the quilts. Glad Grandpa is still alive. And John sent me an email. Jay might be dead. That's that! Until next week.

Your favorite daughter

I'm going to Miyazaki!

Hello from Sendai. But not for much longer.

We got a call from the Assistants to the President last night at about 10pm. He said that Sendai is changing together and that both me and Takahama Shimai are going to Miyazaki on Thursday. Miyazaki is turning into a 6 missionary area. 4 Elders and 2 Sisters. That's really rare for a branch. I'll still be in the Kagoshima Zone. So basically that call was poorly timed. We couldn't sleep at all that night. When you are closing an area as sisters, there is a lot of work to do. You have to hang out with all your sister recent converts and let them know they're awesome, without telling them that we're transferring and two maybe-immature boys are coming. Yeah, we can't tell anyone until Wednesday, so if you could not put this paragraph on the blog until Wednesday in Japan, that would be great. Thanks.

So sisters have a reputation of having clean apartments. So we have to make sure the apartment is clean for the two Elders. This Sister image is very important! Then we have to make sure all of our records are up-to-date with lessons taught, and what we think such-and-such a person needs. Phew. The reason this area is changing to Elders is because the men are pretty few in number. And as Sisters we can't really contact men on the street. It's part of that same Sister's image, you know? Then we have to put the phone and key in the mailbox and just hope for the best!

In Miyazaki, we think we'll be getting a new apartment. There haven't been sisters in that area for as long as anyone can remember, so we are really hoping we get a new apartment.  Next week I'll have the address for you and such. They usually don't tell us early, but when you're closing an area they let you know so you don't buy too much food and such.

This week was our Halloween Party. Friday night. Somehow the missionaries got put in charge of it because last year and the year before it was an Eikaiwa event, so now the members expect the missionaries to do it. I somehow managed to make a Twister board out of a green lawn tarp and some paint markers. It was so cool. Now the Elders in Kagoshima want to use it for their Halloween Party this coming week. I've made missionary history! Yeah. The other games included bobbing for apples (haha) and that game where you throw rings onto water bottles for a prize. It was more like a carnival than a Halloween Party, but it was fun. It was also a lot of work for two Sisters. We asked the Relief Society to bring food and man did they bring food. In America, they would have brought a bag of chips, or some pop, but here they brought different kinds of sushi, and little chicken wings and wrapped up nicely so you can eat it without getting dirty. Haha. It was tasty. There was also a costume contest, but no one really dressed up. So we gave the cutest award to the 9 year old girl, who is the cutest because she is 9.

Our favorite investigator, Kamezawa-san, has not been praying in the name of Jesus Christ. He's been praying in the name of the two cute angels that come visit him almost everyday. Haha. This area definitely needs to be Elders. Anyway, we keep trying to tell him how to pray, and what's important to pray about, but he is stubborn and wants to find the answer himself in the scriptures so he's studied every part of the Standard Works about prayer. He's the king of hard work. I keep trying to tell him to pray, then he'll understand, but he wants to understand before he prays. Okay, so that would be great, but that's not how God works. You have to show faith in him first, through actions like prayer, then he proves to you that you did the right thing. I've had my share of stubborn old men. I wonder how you and Grandpa are doing.... (haha, just kidding Grandpa. You're the best! And you do the things that matter, like pray and pay tithing.  Good job!)

A little side note. It's interesting to see how different your emails are. You both live the same boring life right now, but your views are totally different. Dad writes me poems (as it looks from the email I haven't read yet) and Mom writes all the warm fuzzies. It's funny, but greatly appreciated at the same time. Keep up the good work there!

Anyway, I don't really have much time to write today because we're headed to Taniyama for a District P-day. We are going to play Twister I think. Of course, the Elders and the Sisters can't play together.  Haha. Luckily I brought pajama pants. You can't really play Twister in a skirt.

The picture is of Takahama Shimai petting a turtle we randomly found on the sidewalk. It was pitch black outside, so the picture isn't very good. My hand isn't steady enough for a slow exposure. This turtle was going to die, so we spent the next 10 minutes trying to pick up the turtle and walk with it 50 meters to a nearby lake/river thing. The issue was it gave us the creeps. It's little legs came up around and started scrapping our hands. Gross! But we saved it.

Love always,

Your favorite daughter.

Week at a glance

Wow Mom, you're really not diligent on this whole writing your favorite missionary thing are you? Ha ha, I guess I can't complain.  (Editor's note:  The Mom is on a road trip to Colorado with her sister Karen so she gets a bye on not writing this week.)

My companion hasn't talked to her mom since she left on her mission.  She writes her a postcard every week, but she never gets anything back. She emails her sister every week, and according to her sister, her mom is doing well.

BTW, I haven't gotten the toothbrushes yet. From the mission office things take about a day, as long as I live on Kyushu, and about 2 if I'm on Honshu Island or Okinawa Island. So I expect them tomorrow, maybe.

So you've both begged me for what a typical day is like for me. Well, there is no typical day. Every day is different, but here is a week at a glance.

Last Monday

For P-day we went shopping for food, I power washed my clothes. My whites aren't exactly white any more. But we found some really awesome color bleach stuff that is magic if you soak the clothes in it for 2 hours. ha ha. The power! P-day ends at 6 so we visited Sagara Kyodai, who is a less active that was baptized about 7 years ago. His day off on work changed from Sunday to Monday, so he can't come to church anymore. He would like to go to a church activity if there was one on Monday, but since the single adults here in Sendai Branch are few and far between, there is no YSA (Young Single Adult) Family Home Evening. Then we visited Isshiki-san. She got married about a year ago. She works at a beauty salon and teaches people how to wear make-up and such. I thought she was kinda a make-up freak and told me my face was so red it looked like it hurt. Yeah, I don't really like her much. Ha ha. Japanese concept of beautiful is all white, with no blush or anything. Well, if you do wear blush, it is basically white.

As for my make-up, that pretty much died during the summer when I would sweat it off in about 20 seconds after putting it on. Now that I don't sweat the moment I put it on, I've been known to do a little for church and stuff. Anyway, Takahama Shimai likes Isshiki-san so we have an appointment with her tomorrow. Maybe then we can actually teach her something, instead of just listening to her talk and talk about how her friends and her get drunk and do silly things.

Tuesday

District Meeting. That means all the missionaries in Kagoshima, Taniyama, and Sendai (me!) get together and have a weekly training, and eat lunch together. Since we're so far away, we leave the apartment at 7:30am, to get to the train station train by 8am. It's crowded with all kinds of school kids. If we get there early enough we can sit down. There are commuters that come from Sendai to Kagoshima for work everyday. It's about an hour train ride, and it's way bumpy. I mean there is no part of Japan that is flat, I think.  At least not on Kyushu.

So if we come a little late, then we just have to stand for the whole hour. About 3/4 of the way through the train ride all the school kids leave for the school, but then more commuters appear, so if you want a seat you have to be really aggressive. Luckily, I'm American so I have no problem with that. At least it's not packed like the trains in Tokyo, where they have hired people with white gloves that shove you into the train like sardines.

Yeah, that would really stink. So we get to Kagoshima and transfer trains to go to the Taniyama Church building. Remember, the Kagoshima Church building is on top of the Hill of Faith, so the meeting is at the Taniyama church building. So, there are 10 missionaries. We talk about how to be better missionaries, then the senior couple feeds us (this is the best food) and drive us to the train station in Kagoshima to save us some time and money. Then we take the hour train ride back. Phew. But this week was companion exchanges, so the sisters in Taniyama came to Sendai! With Endo Shimai we visited some old PIs (potential investigators), and found an interesting house. In Japan, all the houses have the name posted outside are really cool looking plaques. We saw日日which is an really interesting name. It means Sun Sun, or whatever. (Editor's note:  According to Babblefish it means everyday life.)

So Endo Shimai and I knocked on the door and did our contact. She wasn't interested but Endo Shimai asked her for her name. See, Japanese characters can be pronounced many ways - especially the common ones like Sun. It was Hibi-san. Ha ha.

Wednesday

I worked with the other Japanese sister, Yoha Shimai. We came to Japanese together and I remember talking to her in the MTC (Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT).  Well, trying to.

We decided to take the bikes to a really far away place. It probably took and hour, and it was slightly uphill the whole way. Well, the map in Sendai is a little difficult. We have a really big map of Kagoshima-ken (the whole prefecture or state), and a really detailed map of Sendai-shi, but not any in between map. The really detailed map is about 16,000 yen (US$160.00), and it can't leave the apartment, so we have a photocopied book and we take the parts of the map we need with us.

But I realized Sendai is so pretty! Really it is! And really country. The rice is being harvested. Then when they are done, they burn their fields. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe it's because they want to fertilize the soil? I really have no idea. So there was smoke in the air. It smelled like camping. Ha ha. We couldn't find the less active member, but we found her mom, and she talked to us for a while. Then the Taniyama Shimai left to go back to Taniyama. All it all it was way fun.

Thursday

I pretty much died. I was so exhausted from the bike ride on Wednesday we both ended up taking a 3 hour nap. My body was just worn out. One thing I've learned is that a sister missionary's body is not an Elder's body. We can't just do whatever. Today I read 1 Nephi 17:2 about how the wives of the Lehites were made strong. Yeah, I'm still waiting for that. Thursday night was Eikaiwa. We tried to teach Morio-san, one of the students, but he ended up giving back the Book of Mormon to us, telling us that it's too hard to understand.

Well, there goes that potential investigator.

Friday

Weekly Planning Session. We planned all of this week. It was intense. It took about 5 hours. That night we visited Kamezawa san (see below)

Saturday

Nagatoshi Dendo. We found a new neighborhood that isn't on our maps, so we housed it.

Sunday

We sang in church! During practice it was really bad, but isn't that what church is all about - bad musical numbers? Ha ha, anyway, during sacrament meeting it wasn't too bad. And we made some of the more sensitive ward members cry. That's how you know it's good.

Anyway, I'm running out of time, but I wanted to talk about Kamezawa san. I mentioned him before. He has lung cancer, and will probably die this year. He studies the Book of Mormon for like 3 hours everyday, but he hasn't be progressing. But this week he said he's thinking about it. He is really old, like Grandpa old. And stubborn too. His pace of learning is that of a snail. I will try to learn more patience.

Anyway, there are no pictures this week, because I didn't take any, but this Friday is the Halloween party, so I'll have pictures.

Hope you are doing well!

Your favorite daughter.

Thanks for the Toothbrushes!

Thanks for sending me a toothbrush. It will be happily received.

When I did companion exchange with the sisters is Taniyama (just south of Kagoshima, but still in Kagoshima city) one of the Japanese sisters mentioned that my toothbrush was real big. I just smiled. 'It's American sized. You should see the toothbrushes in Texas.' She didn't get it.

Yes, I can read your emails in full on my camera. I just take a picture of the computer screen and read it later. My P-Days are actually quite uneventful. It doesn't take us that long to do email and buy food, because it's all really close together, so I just sit at home. Actually, your emails from last week I couldn't read because my camera focus was off, but I figured it out, and I'll read your emails later today. I also re-took pictures of your emails from last week.

So don't worry about sending hard copies of the emails. I don't have room to transfer with any more stuff!

Okay, so the suitcases. We'll see what happens, but I'm pretty sure I'm staying in Sendai for a while, so I don't need to worry about that any time soon. Oh, and next time I will definitely mail one of my suitcases. It's only about 20 bucks to mail myself a suitcase. Japan is cheap in many ways - and that's one of them. You can mail things relatively cheap. Unless it's international to America. That's just a nightmare. Speaking of which, now is a good time for you to start telling me what you want for Christmas from Japan. There's all sorts of good stuff here.

My address in Sendai is:

(Removed)

You just kinda make that last line fit where ever you have room.

'fureguranse' in the address is Japanese for Fragrance. Ha ha. I laugh every time I see it. And Kami Maru is God Circle. Ha ha. In Sendai we've seen other Fragrance Apartments, and we always house them. We haven't found anyone yet. However, don't put that address on my blog or anything. I've been told not to make my address publicly known.

There is an Elder in this mission who had an issue with a stalker, and keeps getting transferred. Anyway, he won't talk about it much, as you can imagine.

If you made a video for me for Christmas/Thanksgiving or whatever you said, this is how I could watch it. You would have to send it to me on a SD or micro SD (I have an adapter) card. Then I would plug it in my camera to watch it. I trust in your computer skills to be able to do that. I would be so happy to see everyone!

I wish I could tell you more about Sendai, but we don't really have very many investigators right now, and those we do have aren't really progressing. 1st is Kamezawa. He is 79 years old, and will die soon from lung cancer. He's been a heavy smoker his entire life. He's been an investigator for about 6 months, but won't do anything about it, like get baptized. When we bring up baptism he basically explodes into Japanese I can't understand (think like Grandpa, only in Japanese). So we decided to take a different approach and just show him love by visiting him often. Like 3 times a week, and we don't mention baptism anymore. He knows this is true, but he has his agency. We were reading in 3rd Nephi together, when Christ comes, and we talked about how the people had to hear the voice 3 times to understand it. Then he turned the page and the scripture 'those that aren't baptized will be damned' instantly caught his attention. He knows what he needs to do, but just won't do it.

We also have Sako san, who loves to smoke but declares he is still healthy. There is Sayaka san who is recently married and wants to learn more but can't find the time. There's Ikumi san who is a daughter of a really strong church member, but she is 25 and doesn't have time for more than a casual look into what her mom believes.

Basically, we spend all day housing (and streeting anytime we see someone one the street). The Sendai Branch is really great, but there are only about 4 active priesthood holders. There was an incident about 5 years back and half the branch went inactive. Anyway, we're trying to find men to bring to church to strengthen the branch, but it's hard when we can't really talk to men. Something about two missionaries targeting men is kinda sending the wrong picture.

For general conference we went to the Kagoshima church building at the top of this massive mountain. We had to walk from the train station because people don't really go to the Saturday session here. It is called the mountain of faith. The church is at the top. Then they had an English room upstairs. It was great to listen to conference.

As per usual, I enjoyed Elder Holland, Eyring, Uchtdorf, and Monson.

I really want to get the Liahona edition soon and study it. There is only so much you can get from watching it once. I thought the theme of conference was faith, gratitude, following the prophet, and agency.

Okay, so that's 4, but each was touched on more than once! Ha ha.

Okay, that's all for this week. The pictures are of

- Curves. I found on in Sendai! And I ride my bike by it almost everyday.

- a scarecrow in the middle of some rice fields (tombo). I see them all over the place.

Until next week!



Sister Lemmon

Week 3 in Sendai

I figure the two of you are watching General Conference today, or yesterday - I'm never quite sure what time it is over there.  Either way, it works a little different in Japan.  Everything is delayed a week. So two days ago was the Relief Society Broadcast, but I couldn't go because an investigator wasn't going. But we go to all 4 sessions of conference this next weekend.  So all the members in my little branch go to the district center in Kagoshima.  It's like a stake center, but it's not as this isn't a stake, it's a district.

That church is way cool because it's on a hill.  A giant hill. From the top of that hill you can see Sakurajima (the giant active volcano next to the city) and all of Kagoshima.  I'm convinced that the church is conserving that land to build a temple there some day.  But it's a total beast for the Elders that are in Kagoshima.  It's insane.  The vanimal, as it is called, could barely make it to the top.  The vanimal is the mission vehicle the president and his wife and the APs (Assistants to the President) came down in.  It's pretty much the biggest vehicle you can own in Japan.  Watching the APs drive that is crazy.  They have to actively look at every mirror, and they have learned to know exactly how big the vanimal is.  If they can drive that beast in Japan, they could do anything.  Maybe their future is as an Ice Road Trucker. Ha ha.

Anyway, so this week we'll go to the district center and watch General Conference. I think they will have an English room for all the missionaries and such. Yay! If not I'll probably take a nap or try to read the apostles lips. BTW, is the Ensign this month like the Liahona, all about temples?  I thought it was way cool, because of the pictures of course.  We get the Liahona in English also for each apartment, but I really just look at the pictures.

I do have a request for the two of you.  Okay, so I came to Japan prepared with my toothpaste and my deodorant, and I'm still going good with those.  Maybe by Christmas I'll need some more.  But the thing I forgot was a nice American toothbrush.  Yes, it's true.  Even the toothbrushes here are different!  They are baby sized.  I like my nice American toothbrush. I really don't have room for a whole bunch of toothbrushes in my suitcase, but could you send me one?  I want a nice high-quality American toothbrush, with the different strength bristles on the sides to dig into my gums, and the little plastic things on the sides to stimulate my gums.  Could you mail me the best American toothbrush on the market right now?  Please! I've turned my Japanese toothbrush into a tongue scrapper. That's all it's good for.

From my mission, I've learned that you should not listen to any Japanese person about dental care. All of their teeth are coming out.  I've seen more dentures in Japan this past few weeks than in my entire life combined. Ha ha.

Also, since it's October now, I have to wear 'stockings' as my companion calls it. That means I can't wear the short socks I've been wearing all summer.  I still have the pairs you sent me at the MTC, and there is an infinite supply of knee-highs where ever you go, so I think I'll be fine for now, but in the future, I may need a shipment.

Ha ha. Recently I was reading about the 2000 stripling warriors, and how they had their dads bring in supplies for them and the rest of the army. I feel like one of those warriors that needs the shipments of food and stuff. Ha ha.

I've been settling into Sendai.  We have our P-day routine.  Before email we go to this bread place and eat some special bread.  The Japanese people have really taken bread and made it into their own.  I think I've told you about Melon Pan.  Delicious!  Then there's Tuna Bread (not so good) and Apples Cheese Bread (so-so) and Strawberry stuffed french toast. Yummy.  Anyway, today I noticed that the people that work at that bread store are.. different.  In my limited Japanese I asked my companion if the people that work in the bread store are 'special'.  She said yes.  They work there together and live above the store. Ha ha, 3 p-days and I had no idea.

Attached is a picture of the view off of our balcony in our apartment, and the group picture from Zone Conference. Enjoy!

Sendai

Hello! I'm still alive in Sendai. Time flies by a lot faster when you (1) can kinda understand the gist of what people are saying (2) you have no idea where you're going and who you're visiting (3) you spend time with a hilarious companion who is cute and trying to learn English. She studied English for 6 years in school so she knows a ton of pronunciation and grammar, but she doesn't quite know how to pronounce the words. I think it's a secret, but she's secretly completely fluent in English but is too embarrassed to speak it. When I speak English she almost always understands. Haha.

So this week in our lovely town of Sendai, there was a tug-of-war festival. Actually, it's called Tsunahiki Matsuri, because we're in Japan, but it's basically a giant game of tug-of-war. The rope is absolutely HUGE. I mean it's probably a couple of meters in diameter (that's right, I think in metric now). And it's probably about a football field, okay so maybe half a football field, long.

There are two teams of men dressed in those sumo wrestler diapers you've seen, who have obviously been drinking way too much sake (that's alcohol by the way) and they do tug of war. There are about zero people on the streets in Sendai, but on the day of the Matsuri, the roads were packed. It was crazy. It's like everyone came out of their little holes and appeared. Plus people come in from all over Japan to see it. As missionaries, that festival is kinda not allowed. Something about half-naked men, too much alcohol, and it's late. But we rode our bikes down the road for the festival before it started, and I took a picture of the rope.

It's so big that people were just sitting on it. Last year's rope is in the Eki (train station) and I took a picture of it too. Only Japanese people would get a giant rope to play tug of war. They're crazy.

In our apartment, we have this extra spare room off the kitchen. We had a similar room in Fujisaki, but this one is a little different.

See, this one is full of trash. Japan culture is pretty much based off their trash system. They have burnable trash, non-burnable trash, and recyclables. When I tell my English class that in America we bury a lot of our garbage, they were shocked. Japan really is small and compact. So, the burnable trash goes out twice a week. You can't take it out early - that's way bad Japanese manners. If you have a lot of trash before that then you have to store it somewhere. Twice a week isn't too bad with just two of us. We just fill about a bag each time, so we take it out. However, the non-burnable trash and the recyclables just go out once a month. So in this spare room, that we have named Outer Darkness, we have non-burnable trash (like metals) and recyclables (like plastic bottles, milk cartons, etc) filling the whole room. See with once a month you forget, especially with transfers and new missionaries, so it just sits for another month.

There is probably 3 months of garbage in Outer Darkness. In the middle of Outer Darkness we have a box of Japanese Book of Mormons.

My goal today is to organize that room. Haha. You know how much I love to organize. But don't worry, I took a really awesome video of Outer Darkness. But I don't think Gmail can handle a video, so you will have to wait about a year.

The BUGS in Japan are a totally different breed of HOLY COW THAT IS HUGE. I have about 20 pictures already of big bugs. I just can't help it, you know. They're just so massive. Outside our front door is about 1000 of Charlotte's children. I got a broom (at the dollar store) and whacked them all down, until I got to the light. There is this light outside, with a little pull string on the bottom. However, the pull string is defying the power of gravity and is at more than an angle. It is now part of a spider's web. It's too soon to tell if I can whack those all down with my 100 yen broom, but I will try later today.

I've noticed a lot of cars in Japan that are the most interesting color. I think maybe the 2011 cars just got released. Everyone has about the same style car, but in a dozen different 1970s colors. We have burnt pink, orange-pink, burnt orange, sea-foam green, the brightest green you have ever seen, golden yellow (that one's not bad), and brown. Have you seen funny colored cars in America? Maybe it's just Japan. And I've learned about Japanese license plates.

There are yellow and white. The yellow are for light-weight vehicles, and there are certain limitations about the free-way and speed and such. Everyone here has yellow license plates.

P.S. I hope this email sends.


Sarah

SORRY!

Sorry that I didn't write an email last week! It was zone P-day, so we didn't have time. I was a little sad, but when you have two Sendai that didn't really care, I didn't want to make a fuss about it.

For P-day we went to Momochi Beach on the north shore of Fukuoka. It was way fun. The elders played sand American football, and I made a sand castle with the Japanese girls that didn't want to play football. We named it Fukuoka Castle, and took a picture with Fukuoka Tower in the background. I'm sorry but I forgot the SD Card reader today, so there is no picture this week. Sorry!

So then Wednesday morning came. Well, actually Tuesday night. The mission president called. I am now in Sendai, which is a small branch in Kagoshima Ken, on the southern part of Kyushu. I wish I had time to tell you in detail about my first transfer experience, but there isn't enough time in the world.

The worst part was when I was stuck in the middle of downtown Fukuoka between Tenjin Subway and Tenjin Bus Center, with a thousand of Japanese people that are really skilled at never making eye contact with anyone.  See, my suitcases broke when I pulled them off the subway. So, I have three suitcases, right? Well, that's not a big deal because they all hook together, right? Remember those cords that wrap around?  So, I had two suitcases hooked together, but the suitcase was too heavy.  It was way sad.  So it broke, but that wasn't a big deal, because I could still hook it to my other suitcase, but then that broke too.  So I carried my suitcases up the stairs of the subway one by one, but then I couldn't pull all three together.  It was a nightmare.  I looked at my watch.  My bus would leave in 20 minutes.  I was relatively close, and if I could move with my suitcases then I would have been okay, but I couldn't.

So I was like, "well, God, you want me to go to Sendai, and I think I've done everything I could possible do, so I think it's your turn to help me out".  Shortly there after, a cute high school girl, who ironically is the only fat Japanese school girl I've ever seen, gave me some help, and pulled one of my suitcases to the bus center.  I was so thankful!  Then I got the suitcases on the bus, took a great 4 hour nap, and got dropped off in Kagoshima Chuo Eki.  But then my new companion, Takahama Shimai, was there to help carry one of the suitcases. It was great.

So now I am in Sendai. I wish I could draw you a map on this email. On Kyushu, find Kagoshima, there at the bottom. Then go an hour train ride to the north west. That's Sendai. 




It's one of the most country places in our mission, and I love it. A new companion, new investigators, new church members, new roads. I really needed change in my life. I was plateauing in Fujisaki.

The church members here are hilarious.  In church on Sunday there were about 15 people.  It was hilarious.  Usually it was closer to 25, but there was a sports festival for the school, so most people took the day off.  Haha.  I love the ward because I feel like it's like The Office, the TV show.  Everyone is totally different.  You have your typical super righteous strong family, but then the crazy social reject that always says things that are a little off... etc.  Haha.

Anyway, in Sendai, the email is free on P-days, but I can only email for a half hour. So, sorry that this email is short. Next week, I will take a picture of your email on my camera, and read it later.  So if you every have any exciting news to tell me, you should put it on the top of the email... like if Dad every got a job. I pray every day that dad will find a job. I like the idea of California right by Jay, again. Wouldn't that be great? Move to Kentucky to follow him, then move to California? I would laugh so hard. And so would he - after he had a few words to say about it of course.

I sent John a birthday present, but I realize just how expensive it is to send things internationally. So I'll probably send one big package for Christmas, with birthday presents for you two, then just have one suitcase full of presents for when I come home. Oh, btw, thanks for the sunscreen. I've been using it! The Neutrogena stuff is definitely nice stuff, but I can't believe it was 10 dollars a bottle! Oh well, not having skin cancer is worth it.

The hotness is starting to die a little, but the UV is still just as strong, you know? The breeze is real nice when we are on our bikes. Oh, in case your wondering, the moving companies are really good in Japan. You just give them a call, and they just pick up your stuff and drop it off. So, when I transferred, I put my new address on my bike, and the mission office has a deal with a travel company to ship the bikes. So on Saturday my bike magically appeared in my new office. Next time I transfer I will get rid of a lot of stuff and ship one suitcase. Haha, life is a learning experience I guess.

Okay, I'm out of time! Sorry this email isn't as long, but next week I will write for the whole half hour and send pictures. Oh, and thanks for dealing with my Gmail account. I can't believe I was hacked?!  Or did you make that up. See, now I don't know what's real or not in your emails!

Sister Lemmon

Hey, it's not so hot that I want to die anymore!

So in this past week it has rained a few times, but we haven't really been soaked through since that last picture I sent you. But that makes me happy because each time it rains it cools down just a little bit more, but it also gets more humid.

We got on our bikes to get here, and with the wind as we're pedaling I thought it was quite pleasant. Oh, and the sky was overcast today, so I didn't have the burning sun. As for my nice leather shoes, I have them water protected for the light rain showers, but there is no amount of water protection for some of the things I ride my bike in. Ha ha.  But I wear those shoes because my brown ones are too nice to wear when it rains, and the other ones that I bought at Easy Spirit don't dry as fast because the insoles don't come out. So each night we get soaked and set out shoes, and the stuff in our dendo bag (have you figured out the word dendo yet - I'm sick of defining it) in front of the fan.

The big fan we named Kaminari-sama, which translates into Mr. (super honorific) Thunder. He really helps us out. One of my companions put her shoes in the shower room (for it truly is a small room) but we forgot to open the window so her shoes started growing fuzzy things.  Since it's near the end of her mission, she just threw them away. I think my three shoes will make it. I try to clean and polish them when I think about it.

I can't believe Grandpa is almost 89. But he looks a lot older than Japanese 89 year olds. See, the Japanese people are super healthy.

They protect their skin with protective clothing instead of sunscreen (which by the way works much better, but I wear sunscreen and protective clothing on my arms because I'm so white), and they eat healthy. They also exercise on their bike because everyone has a bike. Pretty cool, eh. So, we saw this guy and he said that 50 was young, but we were shocked because he looked 50. So he made us guess his age. We were thinking like 60 if he thought 50 was young. But then he said he was 75! He's still up and going around. It's crazy.

So I've learned to guess Japanese people's age, then add about 15 to get it about right.

When Japanese people go to the doctor, the doctor prescribes them about 20 different medications, in the hope that one of them would work. That would never fly in America. People would be like, "why are you making me spend that much money?" and "what is this going to fix?"  Or even "Doc, I just want to know what's wrong with me."  So hearing that Grandpa came home with a dozen pills and inhalers made me think about that.

Um, Labor Day is definitely not celebrated in Japan. I had no idea it was Labor Day. Oh, what is Labor Day for anyway? I forgot! Well, happy late Labor Day! Is that one of the holidays I got off school for? That's probably all that I know about it. School has started in America and Japan. I see all the Japanese girls in the cute school uniforms (the guys just look like corporate soldiers in a while shirt and dark slacks) and I'm reminded of Sailor Moon. The girls here really do look like that!

So when I come back home, I want to read all the Sailor Moon manga again, in Japanese. I mentioned that to one of the Japanese sisters in the mission, and she basically told me to cut my losses and start watching One Piece. Apparently it's just like a new anime/manga series that may or may not be bigger than Pokemon.  Let me know if you've heard about it.

I sent Jay his present and he even sent an email back saying thank you. I got him the Tabi shoes, that the ninja turtle foot soldiers wear. I can't tell if he thought they were cool or stupid, because his email was one like said he is the envy of his office. Ha ha.

I have John's present ready to send, but I need to destroy a box to make it the right size today. I don't know when it will make it into the mail, but hopefully soon. Then I'll need to start Christmas shopping. Oh, and Grandpa's birthday! What does he want? I could send him Japanese candy, or a Kimono. Ha ha. Grandpa in a guy kimono (they're called something different, but I forget) is a great image.  Any ideas?

This week was really fun because we had a big Sisters Training. All the sisters from the mission came up to Fukuoka, including the sisters down in Okinawa. It was way fun to see my MTC companion again. She was saying things in Japanese, and they made sense, and I understood them. I looked at her, and I was like, when did you get so good at Japanese? Ha ha, then she said the same. It's funny because I'd say our Japanese is about even, but it just seems like so much more when you're talking with someone when you weren't there for their growth.

Yoha Shimai, who was in the MTC with us, but was a Japanese Missionary, said the same thing. She really helped us in the MTC because her English is a little better than normal. It was great to see her again. They taught us the new curriculum. I remember the people in the MTC working on a new curriculum. See, PMG (Preach My Gospel) is great, but sometimes people focus on the wrong things, so the new way to teach PMG is to focus on 8 things. That's what the training is about. The 8 things are things like 'teach people, not lessons', 'receiving revelation through church attendance' and 'Your purpose'. I learned a lot, but I also like to think of it as an excuse to get us all together.

Last Monday, we went with the Stake President and his wife to COSTCO!!! I ate pizza. I can't believe I ate pizza, it was that good. I also ate a Costco hot dog. Yummy. Then we shopped around and got a cream filled cake that was sooo good.

Then they took us river walking, and we found this really old school Shinto Shrine. They are called Jinja, which if you say it just right it sounds like Ginger, but I couldn't find that in my Japanese dictionary. Only this shrine was a little different. It was built in 200 AD to Kami-sama, or God.

Not like some different Shinto God in the nature named Kami, but to what we would think of as God. And it was kinda shaped like Moses's Tabernacle. There was the place to wash your hands in the beginning, two Chisa (Okinawan Guardians) that are like the cherubim, and there are different places for the different parts of the tabernacle, like the Holy Place. The Holy of Holies was at the very top (it was kinda graduated up a mountain side, which each level being like one place in the Tabernacle) and was destroyed awhile ago, but you can tell there was some building there. There wasn't a wall around it, but rather giant guardian trees that were marked with paper to show that they are God's trees. All the place was really cool.

The Stake President knew it was there, but had never been inside it before. He thought it was probably the coolest thing on the face of the planet.  He's also the institute teacher for the stake, so he has a TON of knowledge, but it's all in Japanese. Trying to figure out when he meant by cherubim in Japanese was way hard. But we got it.

A three-some really isn't that bad. Well, my two seniors kinda do a lot of talking, so I just kinda sit back and watch, and that's a little unfortunate, but I think it's my time to watch and learn. I have a feeling that I will be transferred at the next transfer, so I've started cleaning out my desk (I have crazy things that I keep finding that don't mean anything to me anymore). Transfer calls are on the 15th. Then transfers are on the 16th.

I'm glad you sent the sunscreen to the hombu, but I bet it will make it to me before then.  I sure hope so, because my sunscreen had to be banged a few times this morning. Please don't make me use Japanese sunscreen. It's like milk that keeps me from the sun about as much as milk would. Yep.

So, I attached a few pictures of the Jinja. Enjoy!

1st - what is left of the Holy of Holies

2nd - the entrance to the temple. We did a lot of stairs that day.  Good thing I'm in shape.

3rd - the Chisa (cherubim) biting me. It hurt! P.S. This is the same shirt I got soaked in. Look at the color difference! It's way sun bleached.

 
Sister Lemmon