The Missionary that was Returned: New Year

Yea! New Year! For Christmas we didn't do anything that special. We bought my companion a coat because she lost her first one. She really doesn't have that much stuff. She has inspired me to clean out my closet and desk. I will fit everything into two suitcases next time! I think.... maybe?

Anyway, then we went to the dollar store and just looked around. Then.... I don't remember actually. New Years is a pretty big deal here. It's called Shogatsu. Typically they celebrate it by watching the sun rise. This morning was an Elder's birthday, so we rode our bikes at a un-holy hour in the bitter cold this morning to heart attack his bike. We heart attacked their door a few weeks ago, so now it was time for their bikes. Only, their bikes were all gone!

They went to the beach to watch the sunrise. So we moved all the hearts on the door up and did it again. ha ha. Then we rode the 30 minutes back to our apartment.

In the mission president interview a few weeks ago I told him our apartment was terrible. It's the smallest apartment in the mission. And it's old. The kitchen makes Grandpa's kitchen look big. No joke.

He was like, yeah, sure. So now when we go housing, we are really housing to find us an apartment. It brings a whole new meaning to housing. We want one between the church and the eki (editor's note: this word is not translatable, it's not my fault!). So, that's where we're looking. We found this ridiculous yellow apartment building, and my companion said that that's what we should do. Then everyone will know that Lemmon Shimai found the apartment. Anyway, the apartment building looked full. Also, one of the office elders is doing work on his end on Google. Oh, by the way, Google in Japanese is Guuu- ga- lu. Try saying that 3 times fast.

The weather here is crazy cold. It was warm for so long too! Well, the real issue is the unbearable wind. There is a big river in Miyazaki that goes right through the middle. When we ride our bikes across the bridges then we have to hold down our skirts. I attached a clothes pin to my bike that I clip my skirt with. The things sister missionaries have to do! My gloves are useless right now, so we're going to go shopping to buy new gloves. Then I think I want to clean our super tiny apartment. It's really small.

Thanks for my birthday emails. You even made Jay and John do it. How nice. I haven't gotten a birthday package yet. Maybe today or tomorrow. The office elders are both sick, so the APs (Assistants to the Mission President) are trying to do their jobs also. Maybe the package is hung up at the hombu (editor's note: I have no idea what hombu is, do you?). But I'm excited. Right now my plans for my birthday include district meeting in the morning, a little housing to find a new apartment, and then a meal appointment at a member's house. I think she knows it my birthday because my companion flashed her calendar at the sister.

Yep. I can't wait to see what happens there.

In other news, our investigators all disappeared. Maya-san went to Tokyo for New Year's and won't be back until February. Urushiyama-san stopped returning our calls. But we have a lot of people that could quickly become investigators. There is a part-member family.

Hiragushi shimai wants us to teach her sister. Then there are about 20 billion awesome people at Eikaiwa. Then we went housing and talked to a really great mom who is lonely because she moves every year or so. Good thing for her the church is in every major city in Japan.

And even some of the non-main cities. It's at least in every prefecture. Like Miyazaki-ken, Fukuoka-ken, Oita-ken, Hiroshima-ken, etc. Since I opened this area as sisters I don't think I will see the fruits of my labors, as they're called, for a while yet.

My email seems disjointed because I'm making it up as I go. I can't summarize a whole week of dendo. That's just impossible.