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