Still in Fujisaki, with 3!

My dear parents who are living in a cave,

So transfers have come and gone. My companion stayed the same too, but now we have a third. That's right, we are a threesome. Which suddenly changes everything up. At least it's new and exciting. The apartment is made for 3 people, but we had to pull out the other desk from the spare room, try to find room for it in our study room, shake out the extra futons, and find another kitchen chair. But all is good. Her name is Sis. Hobson. I think that's how it's spelled in English at least. She is from Idaho. So, that means we have 3 gaijin shimai together in the same place. Let me take a moment and tell you how absolutely statistically impossible that is. Most of the sisters in the mission are either Japanese or half Japanese. Anyway, my two companions were in the MTC at the same time - and were companions!

They were in a threesome in the MTC too, and their other companion was my MTC companion's trainer. It all gets into this giant connection web thing really fast. Anyway, so as they go off and talk about past places and investigators that they've had, I just listen. Then me and my old companion talk about things and the other one gets excluded.

There is just no way to not do that. But things are leveling off now as we make new memories together. I'm way excited for this next 6 weeks. This is the hottest time in Japan. It's just hot. I'm telling you this because in a year, when you maybe have a house, a job, and are not living with Grandpa, you may want to visit me. I'm just warning you, that it's really hot. And humid. Yet I love it. I wish I could explain that.

So about my bike. I have named it Dame-kun. Dame is Japanese for bad, and -kun is a suffix for a boy name. He has been having some problems with the brakes. All the older missionaries with that bike said that it has been bad for them their whole mission. So, I went through the channels and got a dead (returned) missionary's bike. It's a better maker. Today I plan on transferring over my tires, and putting on my squishy bike seat. Then I will have a new bike! I know that you may be worried, that I'm just using an old bike, but this brand of bike is well known as a bike with good bones. My companion, Lindsay Shimai, got her bike from a dead missionary and it's still going. That means almost 4 years, and she thinks it's still good for another go. So, the bike just needs a little love, and it will be good to go. I will let you know next week what I've named it.

Remember that Jesus cross-stitch I was working on? Well, one lady in the ward, Shiki Shimai, loves it. She took me to the craft store to buy her all the right fabric and colors of embroidery floss. Then I copied the pattern to it, and here she goes! Now it has filtered through the ward grape vine (which even exists in Japan) and now everyone wants to see it. The thing is that it's not done yet! But I'm really close. I let you know when I finish it.

You know, I don't think I've ever had an apricot, even though they seem to be multiplying in Grandpa's backyard. The squishy ones on the ground sound especially gross. I like dad's idea of making an apricot snowman sculpture for Carter to mow over. Hehe.

Glad to hear Drake is back. I wrote him and Jessica a letter, knowing that they would be back in America soon. I told Drake he would be weird for a while, but that now I totally understand why. You don't go to another country for 2 years just to be the same after. That's just not possible.

The 'kimono' I bought is not a kimono, it's a yukata. Apparently they are totally different, but I don't exactly know why. I think a yukata is just different fabric, so you can wear it in the summer and not die. A kimono is almost always silk, and is really delicate. One of the ward members told us about a recycle shop, where you can get really old kimonos for cheap. We are excited. We would do that today, but we have to go buy curtains for our apartment. The curtains don't quite reach the bottom, which means there is about a 6 inch crack where the really early sun peaks though. There's no day light savings in Japan, so the sun is rising really early, right onto my face. Remember that I sleep on the floor. So we got permission to go buy new ones. yeah! We're going to get the good stuff.

Thanks for Jay's shoe size. But now I got different numbers. Jay and Dad said 26.5, but mom said that's 27.5 in Japanese shoe size. Either way, I have the 10 1/2 American shoe size, and I will tell the people at the store. We'll get it figured out. Either way, I think the present is pretty cool. I'll probably buy them next week and get them in the mail. Wish me luck! I think I finally figured out the Japanese postal service. You go to the counter and look like a stupid foreigner, and they will help you out with a smile. Yep, I got this down.

Sorry your bored in Grandpa's basement. Here are ideas of what to do-

- play Monopoly, but Mom don't win or Dad will be a sore loser,
- make apricot snowman in the back
- see if you can switch Grandpa's chairs. See if he'll notice.
- go hike to the "B". it can be done!
- crochet a blanket
- experiment with how to cook things like sushi, yakisoba, and gyoza.
-  try to buy a whole fish and figure out how to debone it. Gross.
- write a love poem. haha, good luck with that one.
- write a novel. Dad, you've read enough to know what's good and bad
- erase all of Grandpa's genealogy work and see what happens