After my roommate proposal from Meg, I just had to secure a job for the Fall. Well, I got an email from Daryl, my old boss, who cracked into the MTC system and figured out my email address. Okay, it's not that hard. It's my name. Ha ha. Of course the MTC department has changed since I was there last. He is the manager of IT Governance, which is more like product control. I'm just glad I don't have to answer the phone and solve people's problems. That is literally the bottom of the line of fun. Daryl was a ton of fun and the best boss I've ever had. The team is me and Bryan (the guy I interviewed, hired, and trained as a replacement for my position when I left). I had to laugh at that. There is one other girl there now that is graduating. I'm really excited. So, yep, I think that's my whole life for the Fall figured out. Dad, have you signed me up for classes yet? Jay, are you going to buy me a computer like I heard you might?
John, after you get unflooded from your apartment, do you think you'll have money to buy me a iPhone. Pweeeeeese? Remember, this is Christmas. Ha ha. I'll be sure to get you a really good present for Christmas.
The highlight of this week was helping a Less Active clean her house.
My last companion kinda talked to her, and she said that she might need some help cleaning. Well, with transfers we couldn't quite do it until this last week. Every time we visited the apartment we could smell... something. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. She lives in a danchi, which is a Japanese ghetto, only nicer. Well, at least all the other ones I've seen are nicer. This one was a little sketchy. They lived on the bottom floor. The less active is a mom with two girls, 5 and 3. The dad is almost never home. And when he does come home, he's drunk.
Well, to get to the point of this story, there is a mold problem.
Ever since the family moved in 6 years ago, the front two rooms kinda smelled like mold so they don't use it. The rooms just became trash rooms. Literally. We said we would like to help her, and she said that she would like us to break down the boxes in one of the front rooms. The boxes were empty, and literally packed to the ceiling. I don't think the mom has stepped into that room for years. As we started breaking down the boxes, we dug deeper and deeper into the room. The boxes started getting softer and softer, then they started turning black from mold. It was so gross. So gross! My companion turns out to have an allergy to mold, and her head started hurting.
It hurt for the rest of the day. Once we got into the room, it was so bad. My socks turned black. There was this one cardboard box in the corner that disintegrated when I picked it up. Seriously. But we got all the trash into trash bags, all the boxes wrapped together for disposal, and the room was empty. There was a few things she wanted to save, and we put those into the closet in the room, which magically didn't have a mold problem. The room was totally empty. Except for the black mold growing on the walls. Then we had to put all the trash (at least now they were in trash bags) back into the room because it wasn't trash day.
Now here is the real kicker. She will probably never throw out the trash. First of all, she doesn't know how to clean. coughJaycough.
Second, there are about 20 bags of trash and it won't all fit in the little dumpster that apartment uses. The mess was, of course, not just in that room, though it was the worst. I snapped a picture of her gas stove for cooking when she wasn't looking. It broke a while ago, and she had a new stove in a moldy cardboard box in the trash room that we found. We hooked up the new stove for her. The new one really is brand new. Good. The rest of her house is small pathways to walk between important things like the bathroom and TV. The rest is just piled towers of things in plastic bags. I have no idea what all that is.
The ward wants us to continue to visit her, so I plan on cleaning one room every time we visit. Haha. My companion will have to live with her mold allergy as we scrap the walls. Maybe then the husband won't be against the church and then she can come to church.
Liu Shimai is doing great, and will get baptized this Sunday. She said things like 'why did I find this church earlier?'. Her faith is super strong. She has always believed in God, and when she first came to Japan she learned about Jesus Christ, and believe in him. She just couldn't find a good church. Well, how about the restored church that Jesus Christ established? Her faith is so strong. She is Chinese, but her Japanese is great, so the lessons are in Japanese. Though she prays in Chinese. I have no idea what she is saying. I think Chinese sounds like mumbles. I can't even make some of those sounds! Her name is Liu Chang, but the Chang is more like Chon with a soft ing sound. Way hard. As you know, there aren't churches in China. And church members are expected to live the laws of the land, so when she eventually goes back, who knows what will happen. The temple people in the Hong Kong Temple can help her find other members in her area, and sometimes they gather and partake of the sacrament in members homes, but it's kinda hard when the country doesn't recognize any religion. But it's only a matter of time until China is open to proselyting and then the church will explode. So many prepared people live over there.
Well, I'm out of time, and I want to send pictures. Until next week!
the trash bags from cleaning the Less Active's apartment
My companion and I with the Aoyagi Couple. Elder Aoyagi is in the 2nd quorum of the 70.
We had a eating appointment at a member's house.
Faye Shimai is Fillipino.
She made the best food ever.
The stove. The white stuff is mold I think.
(Editor's note, no, it isn't Sarah's brother, Jay's stove -- we think)
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