Top 5

Well, I don't really know where to start about this week, so I got a tip from my companion. She writes home the TOP 5 of the week. So, I figure that's what I'll do. Oh, but first - Dad, about school, That IT stuff you found was from major #3, and I'm on major #4. Sorry I keep switching around. Please register me for ISYS Junior Core, and then don't worry about the Japanese class. I'll add that class when I come in the fall. There are always people dropping and adding, and then there is always the thing where you show up the first day of class with a card that the teacher signs and you're in!

Oh, and I did get a letter from my friend that I wanted to live with in the Fall.  She is going to try to do an internship in DC for that semester, so I'm out of luck. If you feel like you have time, you can research apartments over on the west side of campus, close to the building that I'll be living in, but like I said I'm not worried about it. There are always people getting married and have to sell their contract.

Anyway, let me know if there is a problem with me registering. We have a zone conference this week, so I'll ask president for permission to research the BYU website. I asked him in a letter, but that was right when the earthquake stuff happened, so I think it left his mind.

Okay, top 5

Tunnel of DOOM

So my area is made up of a lot of hills, and mountains, and stuff, right? Well, I looked at the map to this Less Active member we wanted to visit, and I thought I could take a slightly longer way and go around the mountain. So, we get to this place on the map where this giant mountain starts. Well, according to my map skills (which were a little off this day) we just had to go a little farther. Well, we walked up that part. When the slope gets above 45 degrees, it's called impossible. Then we stop, and we see this tunnel. It's called Chuzan Tunnel, which is the name of the mountain we're trying to get around, so I was like, I guess we have to go through. This was the single scariest tunnel in the world. There was only a sidewalk on this one side, and it was too narrow to ride our bikes, so we walked our bikes up. We thought it was going to be a short tunnel, but after a while of walking (and wondering if another earthquake was coming where we would be completely destroyed in this tunnel) we popped out at the other end. I kept thinking, wow, this is a really long steep tunnel for this mountain that we're supposed to be going around. Then I looked at the addresses that are marked. It said Sakuragaoka.

That's the name of the MOUNTAIN OF DOOM. It's famous here in Taniyama. No one goes to the MOUNTAIN OF DOOM (the all caps is required) without good cause. Only Less Active members live up there - no one is active - probably because no one wants to go all the way up there to visit them. Anyway, how did we get to Sakuragaoka?! I looked at the map still really confused. When we entered that tunnel we entered a space-time warp that popped us on top of the MOUNTAIN OF DOOM. Well, we weren't about to go through the tunnel again, so we went the safer really really steep road that we normally take. Weird.

We did eventually visit this LA, and she happily talked to us. We're going to start the missionary lessons over with her and help her read the Book of Mormon from the beginning since she has never really read it as an investigator or new member. If I looked at the map now I could tell you exactly where I messed up, but the TUNNEL OF DOOM is way more fun. My companion claimed that she saw ponies and magical creatures inside, but I missed them because I closed my eyes because of the ash the cars were sending in our direction.

STRONG WIND

So, on that same day, the wind was ridiculously strong. It was crazy.

We were coming down from the MOUNTAIN OF DOOM, where we normally had to use brakes so we don't die. Well, that's hard when you're trying to stay modest in a skirt, but luckily the wind was helping. I didn't use my brakes and I had to pedal to go downhill. No joke. This is about a 45 degree incline. At least it is in my memory. We went home exhausted after the Tunnel of DOOM, the MOUNTAIN OF DOOM, and the ridiculous wind.

BAPTISM

....is this Saturday. On Sunday they passed the mensetsu... which in English is.... interview, yeah, that's it. They were all embarrassed and stuff because being interviewed is way scary right? Shion-chan came out and was like, they said I could get baptized. Then Hiroki-kun was like "me too"! When the interviewer asked Hiroki-kun why he wanted to get baptized, he said his mom is, and his sister is going to, and he would be all alone if he didn't get baptized. Ha ha. Well, that's good enough to pass the mensetsu at least.

MOVERS

It's not in our call packet, but missionaries are official help-people-move people. So yeah, we helped a sister move this past day. She is a member and just married this other member. They are both border-line Less Active, and their marital status is a little gray right now, but they are happy together. She and her little boy were living is special housing because of domestic violence, and men can't enter the apartment.

Now she lives in this guy bachelor's pad.  It has the biggest TV I've ever seen, and like a balcony loft place.  It is a bachelor's pad. She'll probably girl it up pretty soon.

STORY TELLING

My companion and I have run out of things to talk about. yep. She ends her mission next transfer, so maybe I'll be her last companion?

To keep talking about going home to a minimum, we have started telling each other stories. I tell her fairy tales from the books that I have read, and she tells me about anime. She was into ALL anime and manga before her mission. It's true. So she just spent some days telling me about Princess Tutu. It's an anime about people in a story, and when they transform and fight each other they turn into ballet dancers. Duck, the main character (who was a duck, but has this magical necklace that makes her human) transforms into a prima ballerina. The prince and his knight transform into profession dancers. The evil villan is a giant crow that wants the prince's heart for power. The crow has a human daughter that dances... like a crow. Her hands are all evil beasty-like. Anyway, you should see what you can find out about Princess Tutu. My companion seems to really like it.

Okay, that's my top 5. I will send pictures now.





The Kamikawa kids that are getting baptized this Saturday.  We play Jenga with them to talk to focus their attention on something so we can talk. We learn most about them during Jenga.



My companion and I played jenga too!  As you can see, my hair is really long and I cut side swoop bangs.  I have long hair for the first time in my life!



for Eikaiwa, our game was call "Make the sound of ---". It involved being blind-folded and you point your stick at someone, who grabs it, then makes the sound that you say. Then you guess who it was. I think the best part was the mask.

レモン姉妹

Chaos in Japan

So Japan is kinda crazy right now. As you heard, they took all the missionaries out of the Sendai and Tokyo Missions. We got a call on Wednesday around emergency transfers. We got 42 missionaries from the Tokyo and Sendai missions. And we have plans to get about that many more in 4 weeks when real transfers happen. We have all the areas open, and some area are being doubled up. Shaver Shimai and I stayed the same (yay!) but the Elders here in Taniyama got a new companion.

Crazy! So President got the phone call Wednesday afternoon, then suddenly had to decide where these new missionaries were going to go and what to do. The office elders, the APs, and President stayed up all night figuring it all out. It finally got figured all out Thursday night. Wow, I don't know how they got that done. Usually they have 2 weeks to think it all through, you know. It all happened in about 30 hours. I heard they pulled an all-nighter.

So yeah, all the missionaries were taken from the dangerous areas.

From what I had heard, I thought it would be the Sendai mission only, but from the new Elder I heard about the nuclear power meltdown.

Those missionaries were the first ones evacuated. Japan is pretty well protected for an earthquake, but how do you guard against a 9.0 earthquake? In church on Sunday, they brought everyone together during Sunday School, and we talked about preparing for a natural disaster, especially with the water. Apparently the people affected by the tsunami really need clean water. The branch president asked everyone to donate to their fast offerings, and all that money is going to go help them right now. As far as the nuclear meltdown....

I'm not sure if Japan knows how to fix that either. A lot of foreign companies flew in special planes to take all their people out. People in the church wards down here are gathering to go up and help put people's lives back together, but how do you get there if you don't want radiation all over you?

Anyway, that's pretty much all I know. I'm just glad I'm here next to my giant active volcano. My companion and I spent a companion study putting food and water into our 72-hour kit. Then we joked about a 6 month kit. That's a lot of water. I'm reminded of the book/movie Dune how they had all the water in secret caverns under the desert planet. Anyway, thank you dad for the earthquake statistics. 4th biggest in the world's recorded history. 20,000 people died.

Affecting the biggest city in the world (Tokyo). Wow, I guess this is a bigger deal than I thought it was last week. I really do live in a giant bubble.

So new Elder is here from Tokyo with all his stuff, but no bike.

There seems to be a bike shortage for about 250 missionaries. So what about all the missionaries that have finished their mission before and left their bike? Well, there was a fundraiser for the Single Adults Convention a couple of transfers ago, where they sold all the old missionaries' bikes. Hind-sight is 20-20. So now we're taking turns with our bikes. 4 bikes. 5 missionaries. We're not sure how that is going to get worked out. The Elders have been taking a lot of public transportation, which is starting to eat their wallets.

I think that's it for the bad news this week. I just wonder how Japan will recover....? But for the good news.

The Kamikawa family kids will be baptized on the 2nd. This is going to happen! They have the baptismal interview next week after church.  We just need to find another baptismal jumper for them to wear.  Usually baptisms are one at a time in Japan, so this branch doesn't have another small white jumper to get into. This better happen.

Ha ha.

Okay, more bad news. Yamaguchi Shimai, who has come to church consistently for 2 months, suddenly stopped coming. Why? Because her daughter passed the test to get into the college she wanted, so now her reason to come to church has disappeared. At least she has a testimony of coming to church...?

Izumi-san, the bipolar investigator, still has a desire to get baptized, but doesn't want to follow the God's commandments to do that. It seems like black and white to me, but she is having problems grasping that. *head-palm*

Sorry my email is so whiny. I am doing great here in Taniyama, where we go out housing for 1 hour and get 3 lessons taught at the door.  That's miracle work right there. Then again, the next day we went out for 4 hours and got nothing. I feel like I am a fisher of man.

Oh, Dad, I know I said that I would register, but it seems my day isn't P-day. Also, I don't remember what classes I wanted. If you can, could you maybe try to find that on my external hard drive. I think I have a graduation plan saved on there somewhere. I want to take the ISYS junior core classes, which is an envelope of classes.  My options are either all morning classes, or all afternoon classes.  The thing is I don't remember which Japanese class I wanted to take.

I wanted to go for a Japanese minor, and I think I test out of 101, 102, 201, 202 for learning my language here. Could you research that better for me? Maybe you'll have to email the Japanese office people and ask them. Sorry, I don't have enough email time to figure that all out. Anyway, what ever class I'm taking it is probably only offered in one class. So, I'll take the ISYS core classes when I'm not taking Japanese. Is it okay if I humbly receive of you honorificaly registering for me as a favor? (that's how I would translate that Japanese sentence into English. Don't worry, it still blows my head too).

Okay, I think that's all. I'll do pictures now.

wレモン姉妹





Waiting for transfer call......

My companion and I were waiting for the transfer call... that didn't come for another 15+ hours

The friendly neighborhood active volcano - this view is from my
new favorite mountain we climbed this week. It was called Hinooka, or
hill of the day. I thought it was an appropriate name.

In our neighborhood we have about 8 cats that eat food from our neighbor lady. She leaves a bowl of food out for the stray cats. We have taken to naming all of these cats. This one is Lynx. There is also Scraggly, Princess, etc. I named Kevin. Kevin is a girl. I decided to name all the black cats with white bellies Kevin, but according to my companion they are all different cats. I can't tell the difference, so we have 3 Kevins.

so, maybe you've heard...

So, maybe you have all heard about the GIANT EARTHQUAKE THAT SURPRISED JAPAN! We heard about it at a church activity, when the teacher, Sister Adachi, who is a senior couple missionary, got a phone call from her children watching her house while they're down here serving their mission. Everything in their house toppled to the ground. They live just north of Tokyo, so fairly close. As you can imagine she was freaking out and making plans to go back home... but the problem is the densha... which is train in English... has been stopped up there.


Anyway, we weren't quite sure how big it was until later that night we visited a member and she had the news on. It was advertised as 8.8, which I'm guessing is the size of the earthquake on the Richter scale?

Maybe? Anyway, this is by far the biggest earthquake Japan has had in recent history. As I was trying not to look at the TV I saw buildings swaying side to side pretty strongly. Clips of office people diving under their desks, etc. And then the big nuclear whatever thing that blew up and might still be burning. Who knows.

My favorite part was the news anchors that started wearing helmets.
Yeah, like that little dinky helmet is really going to save your life if the roof falls down on you. That was soooo Japanese. We also saw houses that weren't really stuck onto their foundation that shook their way into the middle of the road.... how are you going to get that back onto the foundation, friend?

We got a call from the mission office on Friday to see if we were all okay.... which was silly because we didn't even feel a tremor. Mom, don't freak out, but I kinda came to Japan with the image of feeling an earthquake. Just a little one - I don't want to be picky or anything - just so I can say I know what an earthquake feels like.

But with such a big earthquake, we didn't feel anything! I was really disappointed. Is that really insensitive to the 3000 people that lost their lives in the earthquake - oh, you bet it is. But being completely insensitive is how I roll. Anyway, the missionaries with family up in Japan got to call home to make sure everyone was okay.

One of the Elders in my district said that his little brother was stuck at school for a whole extra day because the public transportation was all closed since the tracks fell apart and such.  That sounds like a nightmare to me - stuck in a super strict Japanese school for a whole extra day!?

We also got a call from our district leader to tell us that they still couldn't find 4 of the missionaries in Sendai so we were asked to pray for them. As a missionary I pray like 10,000 times a day, so that was a really good idea. I don't know if they were hurt or not, the issue is just that all the phone lines went out and the cellphone satellites were really full of other people calling. I'm glad to hear that they were all found, since we haven't heard from the mission office since then. Isn't that typical... to announce the bad news, then forget to tell everyone that they've been found? So yeah.

My companion and I then spent the whole dinner time talking about all the natural disasters that are supposed to happen before the 2nd Coming...and which would be the worst. So, there is this whole thing of living next to a giant active volcano that could super-explode then cover us in ash. That would kinda stink hard core. But you know when you build your house next to a giant active volcano that you are taking that chance. Same with fire... just don't live next to a giant nuclear reactor, okay? But an earthquake is totally unpredictable...

I think? At least this one wasn't predicted at all. A tsunami kinda sticks, but you can predict that. An earthquake is just a hit or miss thing. Well, I guess all of Japan is sitting on top of several tectonic plates, so you know some earthquakes are going to be a problem, but not a 8.8 GIANT EARTHQUAKE. The cleanup is probably pretty bad, and expensive. At least Japan isn't Haiti and is at least kinda prepared for this sort of thing.

As far as my missionary life... just the normal. We had an old investigator come back to church yesterday, so we were able to teach her a lesson on the spot. The Kamikawa children will be baptized on the 2nd. This is for real this time.. I'm tired of changing their date. Izumi-san, the ultra depressed girl that wouldn't meet with us before, finally met with us because she started a new job that is lower stress. So we're all just chugging along. The Tabata family promised to try to pray on their own without us calling everyday. We found a new investigator this week - a mom with 4 boys under 8. If anyone needs to hear some good news it is her.

Well, I don't know what else to say here on this end. I'll just send some good pictures I think.

レモン姉妹


Add cthe map of where we went on Saturday. All the lines indicate
the mountain lines. We followed the yellow/red line from the east to
the west, over the Japanese version of the freeway (the purple thing)
then did the little right turn, with the loopy-loop, down the hill to
visit Otsubo Shimai. Going down the hill took us about 5 minutes. It
took about 30 to go up.

 





our faith plant that we planted with the two kids who are going
to get baptized on the 2nd.



my companion walking up the hill. <3 It wasn't even that bad
of a hill. She just came from a really flat area.





English Conversation class, on the last day before transfers.
Maybe I've mailed this one before. The one in the middle with the
yellow hat is 'Pineapple'. We are fruit friends.



Transfers

I am still in Taniyama with a new companion. Her name is Sister Shaver. She is really really awesome. We are co-seniors. In the olden days that used to mean you failed as a Senpai, but right now all the sisters are so old. There are only 4 or 5 kohai sisters in the mission, so of course we are co-seniors.

It is way nice because the kohai seems to always have the *you're senpai so you should know what to do and tell me what you want me to do* complex. Now there are two of us working as equals, which means I don't have to tell her to write records for her to start writing records. It's great. She is from West Valley, Utah. Before her mission she studied at Salt Lake Community College.. and get this, she doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. Haha, her and the rest of the world. She does know she wants a lot of cats. Her nickname is Neko Shimai, or Sister Cat.


That's a new name the Less Active Family we are working with came up with. This is the first time she has been called that. Haha. She is really tall, 6 foot I think, but feels short because she is the shortest in her family. I feel short again. She towers over all these short Japanese people.

Sakurajima has continued to be genki. The real problem isn't ash from the sky, as much as cars just bring it all back up. But on Saturday there was a Kagoshima District activity where everyone went to Miyakonojyo to help clean up after the other active volcano over there. It was sponsored by Helping Hands, so we all got yellow vests.

Sweeping up ash is kinda ridiculous. Half of it blows into the air just to fall again. That's why cleaning up ash is such a pain. We got so many bags. I'm going to send pictures. In the parking lot at the church we realized that we could write things on the cement, because the ash underneath is slightly more gray. That's why I wrote my name. The S in a circle means Sister. That's how they abbreviate it in Japan. :) The ash got into everything we own. But it was fun.

We went to visit this old grandma who couldn't clean it up herself.  We got about 20 bags. It's just unbelievable. And we're just picking up the tail end... it was way worse. I wore a white hygienic mask, and goggles since I have contacts.

That same evening, I came home and got in the shower for the ward activity called Fun Night. A few minutes later my companion knocked on the door. The senior missionary couple called and wanted us to come to the church to dress us up in kimonos. There is this member that studied it (because she didn't think she was going to get married... but then she did, so now she has all this stuff and a lot of free time to dress up random foreigners that come to Japan). So I hurried out of the shower and we rushed to the church. This Fun Night had two parts - a laughing contest, and a fashion show. Obviously we were in the fashion show. I have a ton of pictures. I'll see how many I can send. Last time I was forced into a kimono it was kinda hard because it was a hideous shade of bright green, and the lady dressing me was used to only do it on herself and didn't know how to dress someone with curves. But this time the member was trained in dressing other people and she did it well. Everyone thought we looked great. I thought we looked ridiculous. There was a line to take pictures at the end. My companion, who has a bit of stage fright was having a hard time because she didn't know anyone. This was before her first Sacrament Meeting even. Haha.

We have been calling this family, the Tabata Family. The kids love church, but the dad doesn't like to come. We're not sure why.  Sometimes he comes to sacrament meeting but sleeps upstairs since he can't take the sacrament and claims that he is too embarrassed to come.  I think there is more to that story. The mom lives elsewhere....Okinawa I think.

We have called them everyday this week at 9:30 to tell them to gather for family prayer, then we pray with them over the phone. The dad, as usual, picks someone else to say the prayer and he just listens. On Tuesday, he picked his 14 year old son, Yuya to prayer. As the prayer started, my companion and I looked at each other. That was a very manly 14 year old voice. Then it hit us - Tabata Kyodai was praying! After the initial shock we listened. It was a real prayer straight from his heart. He thanked God for his family, and for the missionaries that have helped his family. He sincerely asked God to bless everyone individually in their lives.

After our amens we started cheering over the phone. Haha, I think he liked that. We found out the next day when we saw the two teenage kids that that was the first time they had ever heard their dad pray.

On Sunday, for testimony meeting Anna, the 16 year old daughter bore testimony that for the first time in her life when she prays she thinks that someone is actually there. When she says amen, she pauses before she continues what she was doing before. So yeah, through several transfers of missionaries working with this family, starting from Family Home Evenings of just games, to slowly having a small message, to teaching actual doctrine, to inviting them to pray as a family, to hearing the father say a prayer for the first time in who knows how long, I think the past 6 months of missionaries should all pat themselves on the back. We are continuing to call them everyday at 9:30. Our goal is to slowly have them do it without the missionaries.

Well, that's all I have time for this week, but now I'll send some pictures.



レモン姉妹