Saijo

I transferred! I’m currently in Saijo. Where is that? Well, I didn’t know either. Look at your lovely map of Japan. Okay, now go to the big island, and zoom in to Hiroshima. Now go to the east of Hiroshima and follow the normal train line or the Bullet train line until you see Saijo. It’s pretty much just a college town. This is the city the Hiroshima College is in. It’s HUGE. Besides the college there it's not much. Here is the real kicker. We don’t have a church. We don’t even have a branch. We had to go for about an hour train ride over to Hiroshima’s Hikari Ward to go to church. They stuck missionaries out here about 2 years ago, hoping to strengthen this area to start a branch. Well, there have been some great success here, we think, but not yet on the whole branch thing.

This area was an Elder area. My new companion, Sister Cruz, and I opened it as sisters. That means that once again I get to inherit an Elder’s apartment. I don’t know what happened in Miyazaki that I missed the fact that I have to go through all of this again. I cleaned the 2nd disgusting shower of my mission. We have been literally cleaning straight since Thursday. Thursday we bought new futons. Friday we cleaned out the closets in the sleeping/study room.   Saturday we moved on to the kitchen. Everything is just so gross!

This is how I imagine Jay’s apartment to be if there were two of him there straight for 2 years. I am so tired of cleaning. Seriously!

The greasy film over the wall above the stove took 2 hours of straight scrubbing, one tile at a time. There were mosquitoes breeding in the shower. Half of the food in the apartment was expired. I wanted to give up when I saw just the amount of stuff left over by old missionaries. We already threw out 7 bags of trash, and have 3+ more waiting for the next garbage day. And those bags don’t include our recyclables, glass/cans, and non-burnable, which are all in different trash bags in Japan. I don’t know how Elders live like this.

Seriously!

My companion is pretty cool. She is from Sacramento California. She is a missionary refugee from the Tokyo Mission. She was in Nagasaki for 4 weeks before coming here. She wasn’t too excited about transferring after only 4 weeks, then inheriting a dirty apartment, but now that our apartment isn’t too gross, she seems to be doing better. She said she was a little scarred from the earthquake. She feels like she feels little earthquakes all the time, and it freaks her out.

Thanks for the Easter package. I got it and ate it all right before transfers. Those little baby Snickers are the best to just pop in your mouth for a moment of happiness.

Since we are both new to this area, we are having fun just going around. But when we arrived on Thursday there was no one at the Eki to show us where our apartment was as the Elders said there would be.

Well, we had an address, and there was a map at the Eki, so we decided to walk it. We have the GPS in the phone, so maybe that would work? We stopped at the Post Office for my companion to get money and to check the phone. Ha ha. We were two pathetic gaijins together in Japan! So anyway, this lady stopped at us and freaked out. She saw our name tags, and said something in Japanese that I would translate into "what in the world?!"   It turns out that she is the Relief Society President, and felt like she needed to go to the post office right then. Miracle! She showed us to our apartment, and announced to everyone that we were here. Yep. Then the members in the area took us out to eat on Friday, and Saturday. I think God knew my companion wouldn't eat in our kitchen. Ha ha.

Let's see... what else happened this week? Not really much. See the pictures, they're pretty good.

Happy Easter



レモン姉妹



The apartment in middle of cleaning!

All this food, and more, was expired.  we threw it out.  No food poisoning for me.

The bathtub.  No joke.  I wanted to barf!



My new Companion Sister Cruz holding the Elder's name tag she found. 

7 Week Transfer

Since the new missionaries into Japan were delayed a week, this is a 7 week transfer, instead of the normal 6. Today for the rest of P-day we plan on going back to our apartment. I think I will either be transferring, or we will become a 3-some. My companion is now on her last transfer, so she will go back to America in 5 weeks. There is no way she is going to transfer now. So I might be leaving, so I need to pack half of my stuff now to make Wednesday not a day of Lucifer. Or we need to go back to the apartment and move stuff around to fit a 3rd desk and a third set of futons. Exciting! Or we might get a call tonight with President telling us that we are both transferring, which is unlikely. Anyway, come this Thursday, something BIG is going to happen. Where do you put 24ish new missionaries in a mission that is already bursting at the seams? We told the mission office that would could fit 4 Sisters in our apartment, but one would have to sleep in the closet. My current companion volunteered. Our closet is pretty big.
That's one that that I will miss if I transfer. I'm currently in the single nicest apartment in the mission. Seriously, it was probably brand new about a year ago. Oh well, I will go to some mold-infested tatami apartment if that is what I'm really supposed to do...

As for this past week... we passed out Eikaiwa fliers at the main eki in the city. There were 7 of us. As we finished we gathered - 6 foreigners together. Which naturally attracted other foreigners. One guy was in his 50s, was from England, and came to Japan to visit. He was up in Tokyo during the earthquake stuff and came down here to get away from it all. He didn't know a lick of Japanese and was just happy to just speak English. The other was a guy from America, who is a software engineer at Google and came to Japan to just visit, and probably blow some money. He looked at us, and said 'Mormons?' Yep.

He was the epitome of the nerd into video games and stuff. He heard that we couldn't go read manga and play video games here on our mission. He asked on of the Elders if it was worth it. 'Dude, of course! I've found way more happiness here on my mission doing God's work than I ever did playing video games' That kinda offended our otaku (look that word up) friend. The Elder finally ended up just testifying to this self-proclaimed atheist. "Dude, I know that God loves you, whether or not you believe in him." Simple. That offended our friend that quickly said bye. But then he talked to the other group of missionaries 3 steps away about to the same effect. I don't understand people like that - just going around pushing people's buttons and looking for an argument. He mentioned at the first part of the conversation, "I'm surprised that I we've been talking to me for 5 minutes and you haven't brought up religion." "Well, did you want us to?"  "No, not really."  "Well?"   Anyway, he was such a jerk of a person. That makes me scared to come home.

I'm also spending my Internet time today watching the Priesthood session of Conference. President Monson really whips the priesthood holders, huh? He has all the Elders trunky about marriage.

They say things now like 'President, how am I supposed to stay focused on my mission if you keep talking about marriage?!'

Really, nothing really happened this week. Sorry. See the next email for pictures!  (Editors note:  the next email said sorry, no pictures!)

Cherry Blossoms

Suddenly all of these trees that were boring green suddenly turned a light pink-white color. They are called Sakura, or cherry blossoms.
We have figured out where the best places are to see cherry blossoms and we take those roads when we are traveling around. It's so dang pretty. Just one is pretty, but when you have like 200000000 of them together, it's really pretty. On our way to General Conference at the infamous church on top of the hill, we made it to this beautiful park.

It had so many trees together. Really pretty. I took so many pictures. I'll see what I can mail you this week. The pedals are starting to fall down, so the roads are white. Now, I always thought cherry blossoms were pink. Apparently there are a million different species of cherry trees. I could try to explain them to you in words, but I'll just mail a picture.

After the two conference sessions on Saturday we had the senior missionary couple drive us down to the Eki, where we jumped on an express train to go to Miyazaki. This train was really cool - it was a Shinkanzen (bullet train) but on the normal tracks. It didn't have the super-intense bullet nose like you see in the pictures (that's the really really fast one) but you could tell it was a newer train and such. I spent the time (before I got too train sick) looking at all the food I could order if this was a real Shinkanzen. My dream is to transfer to Hiroshima. Because it's on Honshu and not Kyushu you have to take the Shinkanzen over the really really cool bridge. Anyway, transfers were delayed for a week. Here's why.

So, because of the giant massive earthquake that destroyed so many places, Tokyo and Sendai will probably not be open for a while. Our mission is PACKED. But we were planned to have 21 more missionaries come this week. They first decided to delay them a transfer in other missions or in the MTC, to make room for them in the other 4 missions of Japan. Well, the apostle meeting in the temple every week, they talked about what to do with Japan, and they decided to send the missionaries over anyway. We have room, maybe. But they are delayed a week... I think they probably canceled airplane tickets, and now they have to find them all again, but I'm not sure if that is true.

So now we have 24 more missionaries coming into our mission. The mission office has been trying to find apartments and such for people.

We think our apartment could become a 3-some. 4 would be impossible - one would have to sleep in the closet. So we got word of that Wednesday night. Then Thursday at lunch the mission president called.  When the mission president calls you know something is up. He never calls just to say hi. He talked to Shaver Shimai. She dies (goes home) in May.

He said that he got an email from his leaders saying that if he wants he can send people home a transfer early to make room. So he called everyone that is supposed to die in May, and gave them the option. My companion freaked out for about an hour. To go home a transfer early, or not to go home a transfer early.... that was the question. She finally decided to stay. I've heard of at least one person choosing to go home early. But he's in my zone, so that's why I heard. There are probably a few others. So now president and the APs are figuring out transfers. Transfer announcement is in a week and 2 days. This is the special 7 week transfer!

Anyway, so we went to Miyazaki on Sunday for a Junkai. That's code for I wanted to see the baptism of Hiragushi Takako Shimai - someone that me and Harada found in Miyazaki. Takako Shimai got baptized on Sunday right before conference. There were so many people there.  Probably like 60 or more. It was two branches.

Takako Shimai is a totally different person. When we first met her she was all sad and stuff. Now she is saying stuff like 'Why didn't I get baptized earlier. Then I could have found happiness faster.' and 'I think we met in the pre-existance'. Eh? What happened? Well, apparently when me and Harada Shimai left she really felt like something important was leaving from her life. How nice! Now she is chugging through the Book of Mormon, overcame the Isaiah wall in 2nd Nephi, and is in the first half of the book of Alma. I was so surprised to see how much she had changed. This gospel of peace and hope can really change a person from the inside out.

Nothing else really excited happened this week. Thanks for the Easter present in the mail. People here only know Easter as a flavor at Baskin Robbins. Even the Japanese members get mixed up. Isn't that when Jesus dies? Um, no, that's why he gets resurrected, my friends.

Ha ha. It's hardly a holiday here at all.

Until next week,

レモン姉妹



Surrounded by cherry blossoms



200000000000 blossoms



Hiragushi Mami Shimai, Me, Shaver, Nakano, Tomura



Hiragushi Mami Shimai, Tomura, Nakano, Hiragushi Takako Shimai, Me

The Baptism Happened!

After a series of long events, a total of 3 different baptismal dates, and a lot of prayer, the Kamikawa kids finally got baptized. It was like, "finally!" I wasn't there from the beginning, but it was close enough. I taught them all the commandments and there wasn't a problem with any one of them. It was funny when we were teaching the Word of Wisdom about not drinking coffee, and they totally tattled on their mom. "But mom, you drink coffee!" They were totally shocked at their perfect mother. She responded that she doesn't anymore. Ha ha.
Shion-chan, the 10 year old, got baptized first. She got out and just said "cold cold cold cold!" Then she said "meccha wakaranakatta" or "I had really no idea what in the world was going on when I was dunked into the water." Her little brother was next and since he already saw her going under it was pretty good. He came out and a little boy asked him how it was. "cold!" Now, the water wasn't that cold. It's just when you get out of the water that the air hits you then you are cold. You know?

So the Elders were on the phone with us the night before the baptism saying that they wanted to clean the font for us. Shaver Shimai won't let anyone do anything nice for her, so that was kinda a problem. I said we planned on cleaning it at 3. They said they would come to the church at 2, we claimed 1, then they said they were going to do it for morning exercise. Ha ha. Neither of us made it to the church at 6.30, but when we finally arrived at the church at 1.30 we caught the Elders shoe-less, sock-less, with their suit pants rolled up to their knees out on the side of the church where we put our bikes, playing with the hot water heater. Gotcha red handed! We really needed that extra time. We made message boards for the ward to sign, and handmade book covers for their new copies of the Book of Mormon.

We ironed their baptismal clothes. It was crazy what goes into a baptism. I don't know what they do in South America with baptisms almost every week. That's so much stress. After church on Sunday we both went home exhausted. Then we had to put our apartment back together. It was a disaster zone.

Let's see, other things in my top 5 this week:

Last P-day we went to this really awesome Rocket Park. It's the biggest park I've ever seen in my life. We climbed up a hill just to find a giant (fake) rocket. Then there are all these obstacle courses on the way down the mountain. We really want to come back with our district and try it again. There are also more normal playground equipment, and we got some good pictures. This week was basically a good picture week.

We also had Junkai (editor's note, I don't know what this means either!) this week after Zone Conference. The Miyazaki Sisters came to us and I got to go housing with a new sister. Her name is Tomura Shimai and she just came from Tokyo. After being in Tokyo for 2 weeks there was a giant earthquake and she was shipped out. How is that for scary? What if I was in Japan for only 2 weeks before this new huge earthquake thing happened. Anyway, she is Japanese, so it probably wasn't too scary or anything. At least not any scarier than normal. So when we dendoed together it was so fun.

I see now that even Japanese missionaries have problems when they are new. It's not just a language/culture thing, it's a "how do I talk to people about something I believe in" problem. It was funny going housing with her, and in the span of about an hour watching her just figure it out. People are so mean when we go housing sometimes. They open the door, look at us, and say "irenai". I haven't quite figured out what that is in English, but it means that they are not interested, in a very mean way. In Japanese you never say the subject of the sentence, so when one man said that, I replied "what don't you need?" If I had the guts I would have said "do you know what our message is? Please tell me what I have knocked on your door to tell you!" But I decided that was mean and walked away.

Dad, I'm glad you found out some stuff about Princess Tutu. And yeah, you probably shouldn't pick up a manga blindly and read it. The Japanese people don't have a rating system for their manga. They also sell porn all over the place, you have to be careful where you look.  I think at least America is good about keeping porn off the shelves in stores, unless you go to a special store or something. Japan is like Europe - it's all right there in the open. America just has other problems. Good luck with your job hunts.

Jay and John - do you even read these emails I mail you, or just look at the pictures. Ha ha. I'd like to hear from either of you, but I know that's impossible.

Mom, thanks for your email too. I want a pedicure when I get home. I don't know if I told you, but I stole your Callex stuff that eats the dead skin on your cracked heels. I've started using it and my poor pathetic feet have made a full 180. I have hope! Thanks for the stuff I stole. ;)

Okay, 'til next week.

レモン姉妹



the Elders, and the Ward Mission Leader beat us to cleaning the font.



Shaver Shimai is smart and brought an iron to iron their baptism clothes. 



The baptism.  This is the funny face pictures.  It's the best.