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