The wind has changed

After a pleasant winter, after we came back from the temple on Saturday night, we realized that something was different. The winds had changed. It literally happened all at once. As we were riding our bikes around town to find seeds for our faith-is-like-a-seed lesson, we noticed something different. Rain is normal (we're right next to an ocean) but this rain hurt when it got into your eyes. And it turned our clothes gray. And it tasted like dirt, but it never dissolved in our mouths. GROSS.

The ash has come.

Sakurajima explodes several times a day, sending tons of ash into the air that the air now pushes towards us. Suddenly I'm a lot more aware of Sakurajima, or when you can't see it because of the immense ash in the air. Crazy! Anyway, it washes off pretty easily, but it's just on everything. Even when Sakurajima isn't exploding, the ash is still in the air because the cars and such push it all back up. It just makes everything gray. In Japanese, ash is *hai* and color is *iro* and the color gray is called *haiiro*. Suddenly it makes so much sense now!

My contacts have proved to be impossible and I've been wearing my glasses when I can stand it. I really hate glasses. It just makes the world all curvy and such. And my ears hurt from holding them in place. Ha ha.

Anyway, I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but it really is just too cool. Think about it. There is ASH falling on me EVERYDAY. It gets on my bike, so I have to wipe down the bike seat and such even if I only leave it for a quick trip into a store.

That's so cool! And in a few more weeks the winds will even bring the ash over from the big volcano that just popped up in Miyakonojyo. I haven't quite heard the name of that volcano yet, but I hear the ash is darker or something. And probably tastes different when it flies into your mouth. Gross!

Besides that, this week we went to Miyazaki on a companion exchange thing. I got to see a lot of my old investigators and such. It was fun, because some of them aren't any different, and some are getting baptized in a couple of weeks. Yep, I was a part of that... then I transferred before I can see their baptism. That is the life of a missionary right there.  My favorite was visiting this member, Kamemaru Shimai. Her son is really active and always helps the elders, but she only comes to church sometimes. It's just the two of them living in the smallest house you've ever seen in your life.

Once before I asked her if she can remember when she has felt the spirit.  She said that she honestly couldn't recollect a time. So we made her a Spiritual Journal and told her to use it. I followed-up at the Stake Conference and she just kinda laughed and didn't say if she had used it or not. Well, when I visited her this past week I just asked right out, in a way she couldn't avoid. She has been using it, and she has been remembering when she felt the spirit, etc. Yeah! One more soul saved.

The Kamikawa kids are doing okay. We have plans to visit them tonight. I think I explained last time, maybe?, about the test Shion-chan has to take to get into middle school. Depending on how she does at this test, it will depend which middle school she goes to, which will better prepare her for a better high-school, then college, etc. So she may just be 10, but this test may start a series of choices that will decide her life. So basically, because of that I don't think she will be prepared for the baptism date that was set, but she will definitely be baptized in March.

What I have learned is that all children are Golden Investigators. You tell them *this is God.  Believe in him. This is Jesus Christ. Believe in him too* and they just simply believe. Then you say *this is tithing. Will you follow this law* and they're like *sure, no problem*. Now I finally get the scripture that says be more like little children, or you can't go to God's Kingdom.

Think of all the other stuff that has been put into our heads by other people who don't really know what they're talking about (hintJayhint). <3

There is also Yamaguchi san, who is the sister of a member. Every time we invite her to do things like pray and read scriptures, she simply says *oh, I've already been doing that*. Well, great! So get baptized! She doesn't like all the 'little rules' that we have. I don't know what the big deal is about our rules. They're just basically saying *will you be a good person and not kill, or steal, or be dishonest?*

I guess it's the other rules like tithing, no coffee or tea (everyone knows tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs are evil - don't even get me started on how there is nothing good in the world about tobacco or alcohol and it's stupid... that's a soap box you don't want me started on) that are the problem, maybe? You know, the ones that take a good person and make them a great person.

Anyway, so Yamaguchi-san said in Gospel Principles class (which was about prayer) *well, I haven't gotten baptized yet, but I think prayer is important because...* She said yet. She's totally thinking about it. It's just a matter or time now.

She also started bringing her mother to church, to whom we have to explain that the little objects she prays to in her shrine in her house can't help her in her life, but God can, so she should pray to him.

By the way, Japanese grandmothers are the single cutest thing in the world. Recent medical researchers have discovered that the stuff in green tea can cause serious osteoporosis (thank you spell checker for that one), which is why these grandmothers are practically in a fetal position as they walk down the road. The mother, Higashikawa Shimai, has definitely been drinking green tea.

This week is transfers, so I don't know where I'll be next email.

Considering we have 3 baptism dates, they probably won't bring in two new sisters. And considering my companion has been here for 3 transfers, she's probably leaving, or we're staying the same. I don't want to transfer now because we just got a whole bunch of stuff from a widow in the branch who is too old to live by herself, so she's going to go live with her son. There is a giant wooden bear, carved from a single piece of wood. Then a Okinawan girl playing the traditional instrument that looks like a banjo. There are also two big sewing things that are two sided. The fabric is transparent, so you can see through it. Then you turn it and it's still beautiful. Those are going to be hard to transfer with. Anyway, if I can figure out how, I want to mail that sort of stuff to America by boat. I think I can do that, but I'm not sure how yet.

Okay, well, until next week!

 レモン姉妹


one of the toys I got from that widow I talked about.  If it wasn't made of paper, and was super fragile, I would probably try to take it home.  It might just stay in the apartment.



found this while housing.  I don't quite know what it is.

Yuya-kun.  He's 14.  We visit him, his sister (16) and the dad (Tabata Kyodai, of a indeterminable age) every week for Family Home Evening.  He thinks the missionaries are the bomb.

Brownie Eikaiwa, Birthday Parties and Toothbrushes

This week at Eikaiwa (English conversation class) we had Brownie Eikaiwa. I taught everyone how to make brownies in their rice cookers. See, we can't use the church for more than preparing food, or whatever the rule is, so we cooked it in rice cookers. And everyone has a rice cooker, and nobody has ovens. Oh, and steamed food definitely tastes better. It's like you're pressuring the flavor back into the food. It's way awesome. :) As we were cooking, we were learning words like "to cream the butter" and "to grease the bowl". Then, as it was cooking, we were playing a memory game with the new vocabulary we learned. It was way fun. And now they know how to make brownies in Japan. I feel like my mission purpose has been fulfilled. I can come home now.

Did I mention that earlier this transfer I got my death call (returning home)? That's where the mission office calls and says "this is when you are dying (leaving)".

My date is 8/19. I would like to tell them where to get me a plane ticket to, so let me know when you know. They haven't asked yet, so no pressure! Think about how different real life would be if you knew when you were going to die. Cool, eh?

This week was also a birthday week. On Thursday we threw a party for one of our investigators... who isn't an investigator because she is content being Baptist, but still comes to activities and such because she likes the members. Anyway, it was a surprise, and she said she hasn't had a party since middle school. She was really touched. That was a good party that was nice and stuff, but on Friday night we had a birthday party for Tabata Anna (yes, that is a Japanese name too).  She is 16, and we do Family Home Evening with her family every week.

She and her brother, Yuya, live with their dad. The mom got a divorce and just kinda left. Not sure what happened there. Anyway, the family was border-line inactive before the missionaries started coming over. The dad wants his kids to come to church, but he comes and sleeps in the upstairs room on a couch during sacrament meeting.  Anyway, for Anna's birthday we just kinda showed up with the Elders that night with cake.

On one cake was written something that translates to something close to "I own you". Then we pied her in the face. Anyway, it turned into a great pie in the face party in a super small Japanese apartment.

Ha ha. That was way fun. I think I'll send a picture.

Oshima Choro holding Abe Choro's head while Anna-chan pies him in the face.

Anna-chan's birthday party.  Sorry, I didn't quite make it into the picture.  I'm the hand on the far right

On Thursday night, my companion asked me, "Have you seen my toothbrush". No, I don't think so. Wait! Is it the one by the sink?  "Hey look, I found it!" Don't use it! ----

I had used her toothbrush to clean all sorts of gross things in the apartment. For example, the little corners in the rice cooker, the fridge butter stuff that was getting dirty and leaving a line on the fridge, and the sink garbage basket that catches all of our food since there are no such things as garbage disposals in Japan. The grossest things ever!  I had asked her if I could use that toothbrush, but she didn't look, thought I was talking of another one, and gave me the okay. Anyway, I took her to my suitcase in my closet which has a lifetime supply of toiletries.

Deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes... and gave her a toothbrush.

Ha ha. I felt really bad, but we both laughed really really hard.

Well, there really isn't much to report from my end either. I'll send pictures next.

Sakurajima is exploding!  This is pretty much normal.

 

 

This is how my companion cleans her desk!

 

This is half way.  It took her a total of 5 hours.

Happy Valentines's Day

Happy Valentine's Day all the way from Japan. In Japan the girls give boys they like chocolates and such. The boys don't give anything.   But in about a month on girl's day, the boys have to give stuff to girls that gave them stuff on V-day. It's all very complicated.

Anyway, we had mission conference for Valentine's day. My companion and I handed out chocolate kisses to the Elders. As I walked away they would all say something along the lines of "I just got kissed from a sister". 　The infinitely cuter Japanese sisters all made little hand-made choclates. That's just how cool they are.

For Mission Conference Elder Rasband and Elder Stevenson got stuck in Korea because of a snow storm. Their flight was canceled. We were all bummed. but at least we all got together. I drove up with the Adachi Couple, the senior missionary couple in Kagoshima. Elder Adachi is 70, and is the worst driver I know of. I'm surprised we made it there safely. Seriously. We popped out of a ridiculously long tunnel right before we hit Kumamoto and suddenly everything was white and snowing. I looked at my companion and simply said "I'm going to die".

In Japan, drivers that are over 60 or so have to wear a special sticker on their car. It's yellow and orange, and kinda tear-dropped shaped. It's like an idiot mark that says "watch out! I'm old". New drivers, for the 1st year after getting their license, have to have a green and yellow tear-dropped shaped sticker. A different type of idiot mark. Anyway, Elder Adachi totally redeemed himself when he took us to Costco! Yeah! Both me and my companion got giant jars of peanut butter. I got chunky and she got creamy. Each is 1.81kg.  I'll let you do that conversion into pounds.

The Taniyama Elders wanted root beer, so we grabbed a case of that. We also grabbed 12 cinnamon-raisin bagels. Oh yeah. This is true happiness... in Japan.

There wasn't a lot of room for all this food, so we sat the whole way home with the peanut butter in our laps. We sang the peanut butter song on the way home. It was great. Sister Adachi laughed at us.

Now there is no place to put the peanut butter away in our apartment. They have a place of honor on top of the table in the corner right now.

I got the package you sent. Thank you. I picked it up yesterday at the hombu when we went to Fukuoka. Good timing! I was so happy for John's iPod. Mr. Cool's Music box is great. We set a snooze and woke up to "Hello, Sunshine, what a beautiful day" that we found on it. We actually gave it a really bad look when we woke up this morning. Yep.  Wasn't as funny early in the morning. Not at all.

I don't know who's more excited for new music, me or my companion. 412 songs.  Totally worth it.

And I'm wearing the new blouse. Thank you. Mom, you're right - it is nothing I would wear before my mission, but right now I'm so desperate for anything different in my wardrobe. I look at the closet and stand there deciding between that one thing I wore last week, or that other thing I wore last week.

Our investigator family, Kamikawa family, is still getting baptized, but their date got moved to the 12th of March. Shion-chan, the 10 year old girl, has to take an entrance test to get into middle school.

It's that time of the year. Depending on how she does on that test, she will be placed in an appropriate middle school. They don't actually live in Kagoshima, but in Minami-Satsuma. They live too far away to visit so we write letters and call. Because of that test, and their karate tournament, they had to push the baptism date back to the 12th.

They're coming to church this Sunday where we will teach them more of the commandments, like prayer and scripture study. The mom is a member, so they have a home teacher, Brother Hayashi,which translates as Brother Forest.  I asked Brother Forest to do the actual baptizing of the kids, since they don't have any father priesthood holder. It took him off guard. "Me?" Yes, you. So he's coming to the next lesson to get to know them a little better. Haha.

Izumi-san also had a baptismal date, but I haven't even talked to her since coming to Taniyama. We finally got a text from her where she explained that her bunny died and she is in too much pain to meet us right now. I've had it. I don't get people. She also wrote that she is too sad to read, or pray... the list goes on. I laughed out loud then felt bad. Then I had to call the elders to figure out how to say "I'm sorry your rabbit died" in Japanese. お悔やみ申し上げます means I'm sorry for your loss. Yep, I'll know that one for a while now. She's basically a dropped investigator.

After that.... a member's sister has come to church 5 times in a row, but we weren't able to get her to hear the lessons. I was really confused by that. It's usually the opposite in my experience. We finally grabbed her before church for a quick lesson. I asked her why she comes to church. "Because it feels good". Well, you can have that feeling all the time if you get baptized. "Yeah, but then I have to follow all the rules". Haha, well, from there we will continue teaching her before church every week.

I think that's it for this week. I'll try to send my pictures in another email, smaller so that Dad's inferior hotmail account can handle them. Haha. :)

レモン姉妹

Barraclough Shimai holding up Mt. Sakurajima.

This is a giant Japanese shaved ice food.  The elders weren't quite sure how to eat it all.  Abe is on the left and Oshima is on the right.  They finally did eat the whole thing.  Me and Barraclough Shimai ate ours too.  It was really really good.

Mt. Sakurajima. It was finally clear enough to take a picture.

Usually this random mountain is steaming ash from the right side, but Mt. Sakurajima had some indigestion today and is taking the day off.

A day late, but......

So yesterday we had a special leadership conference where all the missionaries from Kagoshima and Miyazaki Prefecture came and learned how to be a better missionary. We had the Miyazaki Sisters in our apartment and they enjoyed all the space in it. We have hard-wood-like floors so they put on slippery socks and went ice-skating in our kitchen/dining/study room. Ha ha. Then they did some interpretive dance in all the space. They then practiced sliding to a stop right before the dinner table.

Then today was zone p-day, so all 14 missionaries in the zone went to Round 1, which is a giant fun sports place, and goofed off for a couple of hours. It was fun to wear REAL PANTS. I would spend the money every week if it meant I could wear pants! Yay! Too bad I don't fit into my jeans very well anymore.

Well, my companion got a Valentines present from her mom and gave me some chocolate to help me fit in my pants better. Ha ha. (Mom, that was not a hint for you to mail me a valentines' present.)

So with the Sisters from Miyazaki, we had 2 companionships running around Taniyama. In 2 days of dendo we got 6 on-the-spot, at-the-front-door lessons. Yeah, that was pretty awesome. We also got the baptism dates out of 9 and 10 year old kids in the Kamikawa family. The mom is the one that just decided to be active one day and wanted her kids to be baptized. Anyway, if all goes well, they will be baptized on the 26th of February, and their confirmation is on the 27th.  It is all based on the mom coming to church on the 27th. She has made lasting changes in her work to come to church every Sunday but that doesn't take effect until March. If she can't come on the 27th then we will push it back a week. But my companion REALLY REALLY REALLY wants to be here for their baptism, as she thinks she will transfer. Transfers are the first week in March.

What else.... next Monday Elder Rasband (in the Presidency of the 70) and Elder Stevenson in the Area Authority over Japan and Korea, are coming to Fukuoka.  Everyone (except the poor missionaries down in Okinawa) will come to Fukuoka to meet and listen from them. That means next week my P-day will be on Tuesday. Just a heads up. Wonder what they are going to tell us.

The giant volcano people forgot about in Miyakonojyo is still spitting ash, but it's all going 東so that's really not a problem. Have fun looking up that kanji. I believe in you and the power of the Internet. Ash is actually really good for the soil, so I don't know what the big deal is about this volcano. There is the biggest volcano I've ever seen right next to us and Kagoshima is the 3rd biggest city in Kyushu. I think. Maybe 4th. Anyway, it really isn't a big deal.

What is making news about it in America? I don't think anyone died or anything.

My companion is doing well. She forced herself to wake up on time when the Miyazaki sisters were here because she didn't want them to know. One was her trainer, "mom" and the other was her 2nd companion.  When they left she told me it was the hardest thing she had ever done.  Anyway, from here on out she is going to try harder to get out of bed at a decent time.

My companion's trainer is Japanese but it totally fluent in English. She studied at Snow College. She also served in Okinawa with the 3 military branches down there. Her Japanese has turned into foreign-Japanese. She talks like an American when speaking her own language. It's actually kinda funny. Anyway, I realized that my companion has the same accent as her trainer. I was trying to correct some of it out of her but then I realized this week that her trainer, who is Japanese, does it too. Ha ha.

Mom & Dad, I'm glad to hear grandpa has finally turned down his TV.  Saving grace, huh? What's next? Did the bathroom every get finished?

Jay - did you ever eat those little fish I mailed you?  I heard they're actually supposed to be put into hot soup, then they get less crunchy, but you can totally eat them just like that.

John - what classes are you taking? Are you just the same as ever?

My companion - Her faces are epic!




The four of us in the Taniyama apartment

One of the Kamikawa kids. Her name is Shion-chan and she is 10. We played Jenga before the lesson, but it quickly became building towers out of the blocks.

Kamikawa shimai attempting the jenga tower. The Japanese girl in the back was my companion for the day.