Still in Fujisaki!!

So I finished reading Daddy's letter and read the part where the computer is packed so she didn't send a letter. Oh well, I guess I'll get over it. Luckily I did get a letter from Jay, who managed a whole two sentences in his email. Haha. That's Jay. So he:s still alive, as of last week. John must be busy with Stacey, because I still haven't heard from him. My guess is you don't hear from him much either. They'll change later... maybe?

So I'm still in Fukuoka. The transfer call came and my companion handed me the phone. I was like, oh no, I'm being transfered! How is that possible? I just barely got here, you know? But the call was just to say that my new companion is Sister Lindsay. She is a gaijin, do you remember that means foreigner?, from Texas. She is what I imagined my trainer would be like. You know? When I left the MTC, I believed that my trainer would be 100% obedient, love to do missionary work, and would show me how to do everything. Now I realize that I didn't get any of that. But now I get that with Lindsay Shimai. She likes to obey the rules. And I think we all know how bad I feel if I break a rule. So this is going to work.

My trainer would do things like stay up on the phone talking to her investigator/friend until 11 pm. Bed is at 10.30, and I couldn't go to sleep without praying with her first. It was the most frusterating thing. My trainer would do things like plan *activities* with investigators, that would last 3 or 5 hours, then share one scripture at the very end that was loosely related to what we were doing. That frusterated me too, but I guess I just kinda thought that was how missionary life was.

Now I have Lindsay Shimai who is all about teaching the doctrine, not the warm and fuzzies. We don't teach warm fuzzies - that's what the Spirit is for. Also, I felt like my trainer put the investigators first in her life. Lindsay Shimai puts our companionship first so that we can work together to teach the lessons. Basically what I'm saying is Lindsay Shimai is what I pictured my trainer to be, but wasn't. Motegi Shimai was great and had her strengths, but wasn't what I needed right off when I got to Japan. I'm so much happier now without even knowing that I was sad before.

Lindsay Shimai is teaching me how to cook in Japan. See, I can cook in America, where I know what the cans say, and I know what vegetables look like, but in the Japanese grocery store even the cucumbers look different. So I'm learning. When I return I think I will be able to cook anything. Japanese people are funny when they cook. Most Japanese people don't understand the difference between Baking Powder and Baking Soda. They really just use Baking Powder for their breads and such. So when I asked about Baking Soda, they directed me to Baking Powder. How do you explain that it's totally different? So Lindsay Shimai promised we can find some today. She has been in Japan for almost a year now. Her first 4 companions were Japanese, so she understands how I really don't know anything. Do you know you need to wash the preservative off the rice before you cook it? Yeah, I kinda knew that, but not really.

So Lindsay Shimai came by bus, and she had all 3 of her suitcases.
And they were definitely really really heavy. I guess that's what happens when you've been in Japan forever. Which reminded me that my big suitcase is broken. The wheel bolt broke, so the wheel won:t stay attached to the suitcase. When I (eventually) get transfered that:s going to be a real pain. I'm going to look into getting it fixed -- one way or another -- before I get transfered. If I can't I might need to buy a new suitcase. Suitcases are one thing that are not sold at the dollar stores.

I guess I should also mention that one of our investigators got baptized this past weekend. Yep. I'll send you a picture some time.
Her name is Kamishima san. Kami is God, and Shima is island -- not to be confused with Shimai which means sister. She is about 50 years old, and has lived alone her whole life. She doesn't have a husband, boyfriend, or children. She's way lonely. But now she has the ward family. She's the one I think I mentioned that really needed to quit smoking. 2 boxes a day is just too much for anyone. Once she stopped smoking she was baptized a week after. It was crazy, because that was just during transfers. So I had to watch Motegi Shimai pack, get my new companion at the bus station, watch my new companion unpack, call a dozen people to announce the new missionary. Then we sat down on Friday and pretty much called the whole ward to come to her baptism. We just went right down the line and told everyone.

Now that she is a member, she wants to actually understand what she believes. Haha. We taught her all the lessons before, and she knew it was true, but she didn:t really understand it. So now she wants to understand and has all sorts of questions. It doesn't help that she:s not really literate. The Kanji in the normal study brochures are hard for her, nonetheless the Book of Mormon with old Japanese words. But that's the first baptism I've seen.

Notice my wording - the first baptism that I've seen. I realize now that a missionary can't really count how many baptisms they've had. I feel like a lot of the time, there is someone that did the finding and the teaching, but they aren't there for the baptizing, you know? So who knows how many people I will touch that will get baptized. Who knows how many baptisms I will see. It's hard to measure.

In other news, there is a package in the mail for father:s day. I mailed it to Grandpa:s house, just to be safe. I don't know how long it will take to get there. The gifts are small - literally - because they had to fit in an envelope. I wish it was mother's day because there's so much more stuff for mother's day in the dollar store that are high quality. What am I going to do when I return and the dollar stores are no good? Go to Walmart? It's just not the same!

Also, I really didn't leave that　much stuff in the basement. I don't know what you're talking about. Dad has 30 book boxes, and Mom has 30 basket boxes. So what if I have about 10 boxes. You had 2 tons of stuff last time, remember? Don't forget to weigh it this time - I want to know the number. Thanks for the updates on the jobs. Maybe you could work for a company in Europe. I think that would be pretty cool.

Sarah