Taniyama!

I'm glad you got the Facebook message from my friends in Miyazaki.

Ha ha. She said she wrote it when she drove me and my companion to the eki. That's right, we both transferred. Two Japanese Sisters are coming to Miyzaki. They're going to do great. So yeah, here I am in Taniyama Branch. No one where really knows what "Taniyama" is besides the end of the Japanese Railroad line which is a 1 min walk from the church. It's really just Kagoshima City. It's kinda like when I was in Fujisaki, but that's really just Fukuoka. Anyway, yes, I live next to a giant active volcano named Sakurajima, which means cherry blossom island. I don't see any cherry blossoms, but I'll let you know when Spring comes. With the wind right now the ash that billows out of it everyday is going to the east, so we don't get any of it. It should stay like that all winter. Then in the Spring the ash will come to the east and cover our bikes with gray ash. We are allowed to wear sunglasses when there's ash to keep it out of our eyes. I'm kinda excited.

My companion is Sister Barraclough from northern Virginia right next to DC. She has not had a foreign companion her whole mission. I told that to president last interview because she seemed to be having a really really hard time. Well, I guess he thought I was volunteering so here we are. Ha ha. She's really genki (I'll let you look that one up - it's a good Japanese word). She also has had sleeping problems due to *stress* as the doctor she has been talking to in Tokyo said.

Why do I always get the broken companions? Her Japanese is fairly good, but she turns all sad and stuff when she speaks Japanese. It's hard to explain unless you've learned another language, but that's totally normal. You get a different personality. I wonder what my Japanese personality is. She is also pay back for back when I was a bad junior companion. She doesn't actively listen in lessons, she doesn't write appointments down herself, and she insists on coloring in her coloring book when I'm making stuff for dendo. (I hope you've learned that Japanese word because I don't know what it means in English anymore. No joke.) But I love her to death and I hope to show her the way it's done. We've all enjoyed our Japanese companions that take 30 seconds to make a birthday card with Japanese kanji.

Well, it takes me a lot longer, but it's coming along. Becoming senior companion didn't really change much for me because I was already the one helping when I was a junior companion. Apparently everyone doesn't have that same idea.

As you might have noticed in the paragraph above, we actually have lessons to teach. We even have baptismal dates. Kamikawa Shimai recently came back to church after years and years of inactivity. She just one day decided to reactive herself. So she showed up. And yesterday she brought her kids (age 10 and 9) to church too. They will be baptized in April. The mom still has work and she can't bring the kids herself because of it. Well, they'll fit in perfectly with the branch that is half kids under the age of 14. The primary is HUGE. Then there is Izumi-san who also wants to get baptized in April. She is bipolar and totally shy. Her record sounds really sketchy. Seriously. I might drop her, but I'd like to meet her first. I texted her, then this week I'll call her, then I'll meet her.... then get transferred? I don't plan on wasting a lot of time on her. Then there is Satomi san with her 3 year old son, Shori (which means Victory). She's been coming to church now for about a year, and is thinking about baptism. She studied the protestant church for 7 years, so she believes in the bible, but not the book of Mormon. That's what we want to focus on with her. Tonight we have a lesson where we're going to prove the the book and Mormon and bible support each other. The issue is that the Japanese bible is SOOOOOOoooo hard to read. It's not like our newly translated book of Mormon. Then there is also a few other investigators I haven't met yet, but I'm way excited to.

My favorite investigator gets her own paragraph. She is Eiko Shimai and she just popped out of the woodwork. She is a referral from Nishimaniwa Shimai (try saying that name 3 times fast). We watched a 10 minute video we have in Japan that is an introduction on how the church came to Japan and how it expanded. Then we answered her questions and gave her a lesson 1 pamphlet (restoration). At our next lesson we taught that, and we realized that she read in the pamphlet about prayer and prayed, before we even invited her to, about if what she is learning is true. Yep, awesome huh. I was there from the first lesson, so I feel like she is all mine. At the 2nd lesson she gave the closing prayer. At first she was all scared and stuff, but it was probably the most heart-felt prayer I've ever heard. She asked to know if the things we are teaching her are truth, and if she should continue studying from us. Well, that made her friend cry which made her cry. I butted in and was like "wabam, that's the Spirit my friend." Okay, so I didn't explain it like that. Anyway, I felt like it was a lesson from the videos we watch in training to teach us how to be better teachers. We have a 3rd lesson with her on Wednesday.

Awesome, huh?

Hmm, what else? I have the single nicest apartment in the whole mission. No joke. I just took a picture of my key, as a representation of my apartment, but I forgot my camera thing for the computer. My apartment is so big I don't know how to deal with my bed and desk and kitchen being in different rooms. Ha ha. I walked in and said, "I totally deserve this apartment". I dealt with one of the worst for 2 transfers I totally deserve this. Oh yeah! The shower room can turn into a giant dryer for my clothes (something about ash falling on anything you put outside).

Classical music is okay for my iPod. Actually, anything is okay. For the Lane Bryant thing, could I get more black tights if they have them? I know it's silly. But the stores here already went to Spring but my black tights might not make it until then. Seriously. Also, my size is a little rare. I need to loose about 10 more pounds to fit into Japanese sizes, I think. Why black? Well, they just simply work the best. Weird, eh? Maybe light brown tights would work too, but I don't think they have those in America.

Also, I think I transfer about average. (Those with) 1 transfer areas are rare; 2 or 3 are normal, 5 is the the longest I've heard of.  I die (return home) in 5 transfers. I could die in Taniyama! That would be funny because I've been in the Kagoshima zone for more than half of my mission. I told the Mission President that if the other two areas that I haven't been to in the zone open as sisters, that I would like to volunteer to go. ha ha.

Anymore, I think I got 1 more area left in me. But what I'm really excited for is District Conference in 2 weeks where I get to meet members from three branches I've been in. Ha ha. I feel like a celebrity. A Kagoshima District celebrity. I'll take what I can get.