Erupting Volcano

As you might have heard, a giant dormant volcano erupted this past week. It is next to the city Miyakonjyo which is in the west part of Miyazaki Prefecture. It freaked out the members in Miyakonjyo and Miyazaki but we were relatively unshaken by the whole thing. We talked to the two Sisters in Miyazaki the day after it happened. They felt the earthquake and the one more easily scared Sister freaked out for about an hour. Ha Ha. With the wind, everything is going east, not west, so I don't even get the ash. But come Spring when the wind changes that will be all different. Anyway, everyone was really shocked about this volcano that hasn't erupted in any one's lifetime that's alive, so no one was really prepared. I was surprised to hear it made news in America. Nothing over here makes news in America.

Ha Ha. Anyway, this is nothing compared to the volcano that exploded in Iceland. With our very active volcano right off the bay of Kagoshima, I'm actually glad it erupts. That way it doesn't build pressure and may explode like the giant volcano that is apparently below Yellowstone.

Anyway, this talk made me and my companion go into all the doomsday talk you can think about. It was funny. Like if the Earth's magnetic pole switches again, like it is way overdue for one, then we may lose all our atmosphere for a while. Hmmm. That would make the whole world cook for a while... anyway, you shouldn't be worried about my safety. We are very careful on our bikes. My companion's biggest fear is getting hit by a car, so we take it really slow. When I got my "congrats, you're a senior companion" letter, in big bold letters it said to SLOW DOWN.

In other news, mom, thanks for buying me tights, but I FINALLY found some in a store here. I bought 8 pairs. Ha ha. They were about 30 dollars. So either send those tights too, or maybe I'll need some when I come back. Sorry for the hassle!  I should have just waited to ask to see what I could find at the other mall across town. We double up the tights everyday. And when it gets really bad, we triple them up. At stop lights we look at each other and say, "TRIPLE TIGHTS" as loud as we can. We got some funny stares.

I thought the looks were bad when it was just me as an American with a white helmet on a really scary looking mountain bike, but the looks are really getting funny with two of us. Today an old man that smelled of sake and tobacco tapped me really hard on the arm and just said "Amerika-jin????" Um, yes, why yes I am Mr. Obvious. It's always the creepy old men that do it too.

Speaking of, the Elders have this new investigator, who has the strongest smell of tobacco ever. I thought in Fujisaki with the convert that was a chain smoker for her entire life smelled bad, but I don't think this man ever showers, or leaves his tobacco house. I had to sit next to him during sacrament to be like "this is prayer" and "this is a hymn book" since the Elders were passing the sacrament. I happily gave up my chair after the sacrament. Between sacrament and Sunday School the Elders stepped outside and just breathed deeply for a few minutes. Ha Ha. Hope this guy can quit smoking.

Dad, good luck with all my school stuff. And taxes. Yucky. If I remember correctly, BYU holds on to the W2s for students to pick up until the 31st. Then they mail them. I think they probably have the Denver address.   But maybe I can go to school for free!  That would rock, huh?

Well, as for this week in Kagoshima, we finally got snow. This morning. I have a curse as a missionary that on P-day we get the worst weather. It makes riding my bike a pain. Luckily it's just snow and not snow-ash-slush-pollution. Yeah. It's bitter cold pretty much all the time. I bought gloves that said 熱い all over it. That means HOT HOT HOT. But the wind just takes it all away. Maybe I'll transfer down to the Okinawa Island and be warm. I hear people up in the Sapporo mission wear long sleeves even in the summer. I can't imagine it at all.

As for investigators, there really isn't anything to report. We dropped this one investigator, Satomi-san. The sisters last transfer pretty much hung out with her all the time, but that didn't change her view on converting. She said she's Baptist, she is content being Baptist, and that I was too strong of a personality, so to stop coming over.  I laughed.  I have softened up so much since coming to Japan.  She should have seen me before my mission. Ha Ha. Anyway, she wasn't progressing anyway, so she's a former investigator. Someone else in a few years will pick her up again. She just needs time... maybe?

The board from my English class. We spent an hour practicing the difference between L and R. It was like working with children - their attention span was WAY longer than mine.

The 4 Taniyama Branch missionaries. Me, Oshima, Barraclough, and Abe (pronounced Ah-beh). We spell out our Branch's theme for the year. The branch president really liked it.

The key to my apartment. No joke. This is the coolest apartment in the whole world. In Japan everyone takes baths. I did it once and now I can't stop. Well, I can set my bathtub to fill up to a certain level the stop. Then it tells me in a perfect Japanese woman voice that the bath is full. I can even set a different temperature for the tub than the shower water. I totally deserve this apartment after all the worst apartment ever in Miyazaki.

We black-thunder nametagged the Elder's apartment. Ha Ha. It was Barraclough Shimai's idea. It's like a heart attack, but with the black thunder candy bars that are 32 cents at the convenience stores on every corner. We also cut up black thunder (okay, so it's actually lightning) and put it on the door. We gave them new name tags that say Thunder instead of Elder. You only wish you were cool enough to eat the black thunder candy bars. Yummy.

Okay, well, that's it for me. I'd love to hear from you

(*coughhintcoughhint* to my favorite brothers)

Love,

The Favorite child