The Missionary that was Returned: 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