I'm in Yamaguchi, Ube

Yes, I am in Yamaguchi, Ube right now. No, I didn't transfer. It's companion exchanges! Well, after church on Sunday we jumped on the Shinkanzen and headed for Shinyamaguchi station. That was about 30 minutes. Then we took a normal train all the way down to Ube City.

Good luck looking that up on Google. So, Yamaguchi is to the west of Hiroshima. It's the next prefecture over. Yamaguchi is 山口　and Ube is  宇部. I trust you and your Google map skills.

We are hanging out with Nakano and Tagawa Shimai. Then tomorrow morning we are heading down to Fukuoka for a Sisters Conference. This mission covers quite a bit of land, so sisters hardly see each other. I'm especially excited to see Sister Fluckiger, my MTC companion. I've only seen her once during my whole mission at the last sisters conference during my 2nd or 3rd transfer. Crazy! We just kept missing each other in our transfers. So Tuesday is Sisters Conference, then on Wednesday there is some 'activity'. We aren't quite sure what that is, but I'll let you know next week. I think they figured that sisters need to talk.

And isn't that just so true? So we will head back to Saijo on Wednesday afternoon/night.

This week...

We headed over to Mihara 三原(to the east of Saijo) for a baptism. The Mihara branch is small. Their church building used to be a toy store.

I laughed at that. It's been remodeled, but they are only using half of the building. When their branch grows more then the church will renovate the other half of the toy store. You just have to wonder if there are still toys hiding in the nooks and crannies of the church.

I didn't see any. Well, this church doesn't have a font. It's a giant blow-up swimming pool that they filled one bucket at a time.  Sounds like a pain, but also a ton of fun for two elders to do in an afternoon.

So I am buying my last bit of Japanese stuff, AT THE DOLLAR STORE! I plan on doing today, at Ube's dollar store to see if they have anything different. I'm buying cute Japanese lunchbox things, and my favorite pen. I got a letter from the hombu that said I get 400 dollars worth of goods that I don't have to pay customs on. Ha ha.

That's 400 things from the dollar store.

Our investigator has been telling us for a few weeks that we need to ride our bikes through Kinki University. It's close to his house. He built it up and said it is sooo beautiful, etc. He also said to eat at the cafeteria because it's cheap and good food. We checked with one of the members, who is a Kinki University student, and he said that the food is absolutely terrible. He said in the best English I've ever heard, 'do not go to the cafeteria'. Ha ha. Why, is it really that bad? Apparently it is because he continued to say that the lunch ladies are terrorists. We checked with our investigator, and he laughed. 'Well, at least it's cheap' Okay, well, maybe the campus is still beautiful, right? So we drove our bikes through this tiny university, and it wasn't really anything special. I mean, there were trees, but there are trees everywhere out here. We went back to the investigator, and he just laughed. He still thinks its beautiful.

At least his wife gave us real good food, straight from their garden.

Nishiyama Shimai quit her job, right? So the stress is gone, right?

Well, she intended to go live with her mom next year, but in the end her mom said no. Not quite sure what's wrong with her family's relationship, but something went sour along the way. So she called us and said she needs to quit the church because she cannot pay tithing.

I laughed in my head, rolled my eyes, and continued to listen. There is always some drama that pops up with her, despite the fact she is 61. Little does she know the masses of members that come to church and follow every commandment except tithing. Yeah, I didn't let her know that. We just sat there, listened and promised her blessings.

If you pay tithing, God will help you. Of course it may not be the way your like, or in the time you want, but if you follow God's commandments you will feel that peace until your answer comes. I wonder if it sunk in or not. I guess I'll see next week.

Oh, I can't believe I haven't written this yet! Our other favorite LA (not the mold LA) (editor's note:  LA = Less Active  Member) is a 60 year old man with perfect faith, but because of work things, he hasn't come to church in the last 10 years. Yeah, he walked into church this Sunday. Half the ward remembers him, and come up to greet him. And here is the part that really got me. He did not partake of the sacrament. This is a man that truly understands the sacrament. I mean you can't just expect showing up to church once to make up for 10 years of not coming. He knows he has sinned, and until he feels like he has repented, he won't partake of the sacrament. I wonder what God has in store for him in the future.  It's something great, so I can't wait to find out what.

Sorry, no pictures this week. I forgot the SD card adapter in the apartment.

>-< ごめんなさい。



Until next week,

レモン姉妹

Korean carrots, space bags, and beautiful tatami under old futons

Well hello there family, how are you? My companion and I struggled through the typhoon last week, but it didn't even rain in Saijyo.

Then we got it figured out. Saijyo is completely encased in mountains. We pulled out the big map of our area and looked for the little lines that shows elevation. We are in a bowl! That's why the rain never came. All the rice fields were looking a little yellow on top. Speaking of rice fields, I have taken about a thousand pictures of them this week. On Saturday we went into some of the more country-side parts of our area. I mean really country. The problem was where there are tambo (ricefields) there are mosquitoes. And these are super mosquitoes. My companion jokes that because I'm American, they are excited to drink my blood. I'm like a specialty.

Maybe you know, but to grow rice you need a LOT of water. I mean a lot. You basically have to flood the fields all summer. That's not hard in a place as humid as this, and right by the ocean too. I think I might miss these rice fields. I feel lucky to be in such a pretty area and not in the big city. But then again, in the big city maybe we would have more investigators.

As mom and dad have learned, I gave a talk yesterday. The thing is I've been in this ward for 4 months, so I couldn't take the first 5 minute to give a self-introduction and then just share a favorite scripture and sit down. Everyone knows me! So I had to give a real 10 minute talk, in Japanese. Of course I didn't actually start preparing until Friday night/Saturday morning. Probably my fault.

I'm glad the bishop liked it. His English is perfect. Dad, I heard from him your reply. ' Tell her she is my favorite daughter. She will smile at that because she is my only daughter'. But in your email you said you maybe sent it in Japanese? Anyway, the bishop said that my dad has a great sense of humor. I kinda laughed at that.

Daddy, if you don't like Utah wards you could try Japanese. They would give you a calling out here like nursery leader since you don't know Japanese. Well, actually this ward is very multi-lingual. There is a Brazilian family (for whatever reason there are a lot of Brazilians in Japan), an American family just moved out last month, and other various American speakers. I'm convinced that's why the bishop is still the bishop. He's been the bishop here for like 7 years. But he is the only one fluent at English, so maybe there is no replacement? He is really good at what he does.

Anyway, the gross story (aka, that's-way-too-much-information story) this week is a lunch brunch with a bunch of old ladies at the Relief Society president's house. She has a kidney stone, and so now only eats really healthy. She found these cheap (ish) Korean carrots, and put them in the soup. Korean carrots do not look like normal carrots, but a weird skinny ginger root or something. They are really good for your body, but really expensive. See if you can find them on Wikipedia or something. In Japanese they are called 朝鮮人参 or chousen ninjin. Anyway, it cleaned out my digestive tract, in a good way. I heard from my companion that studied as a nurse for a while, that your intestines and especially your colon is covered in stuff that normally just stays there. They are called impacted feces. Reading that in my dictionary was the first time I've ever heard about it. Well, this magic carrot just cleaned me right out. It wasn't painful or messy.

It was perfect.

The mold house continues, and as my companion focused on putting un-used futons in space bags, the sister and I focused on the one half of the living quarters in the giant kitchen. When we were done we saw the floor. I asked her how long it's been since she's seen the floor. Several years. When we come over this sisters starts cleaning. Like I said before, we are just creating the opportunity for her to clean. We also put the futons they use every day out and beat them. The kids saw the tatami floor and all the space and started dancing in the space. I doubt they often put their futons out.

We enlisted the help of Kishimoto Kyodai. Or Brother Kishimoto. He is a convert of about a year, and when he finishes college in the spring he plans on going on a mission. He wants to go to America, so wants to learn English. He helped put the futons in the space bags.

But when it came down to vacuuming out the air, this vacuum nozzle wasn't flat, so it didn't work. Well, he is studying engineering at the university that specializes in engineering, and he wasn't about to let a vacuum nozzle stand in his way. After about a roll of cardboard box tape (you know, the brown stuff), a couple of toilet paper roll ends, and chopsticks for reinforcement, he got it to work. I couldn't help but think of Jay, engineering who knows what. At least this vacuum didn't have extra pieces left over when he was done.

Well, until next week.

While looking for an address, we saw this on the side of the road.  I thought it was ridiculously funny, so I took a pictures next to it.  I think the helmet adds a nice touch.

At the RS Pres's house she dressed us up in Korean formal clothes.  I felt like a doll.  This dress is so much simpler than a kimono.  That's for sure.

RICE FIELDS!  I seriously have about 20 pictures almost exactly like this.

The dinner appointment at a Chinese family's house.  It was delicious!  Really delicious!

Mail from Hiroshima

Dear Brother and Sister Lemmon,

I am Bishop Kiribayashi in Hiroshima Japan.

Your wonderful daughter, Sister Lemmon, is serving in our ward.  I got your mail address from her so that I can express my gratitude to you for sending your daughter to Japan as a great missionary.

She really is a great missionary with strong testimony.  She gave a wonderful talk today at the sacrament meeting.  Here are some pictures that I took on the 17th.  We had a lunch together in my house.

Thank you so much!

With warm regards,

Bishop Kei Kiribayashi

 

げり

Well, this week I have learned the Japanese word for diarrhea. Geri (see the Subject line). Ever since Wednesday before the alarm went off I have been suffering stomach pains. We tried to figure out how to get the fan hooked up in the bathroom for the long moments stuck in the little room. The thing is I couldn't remember what is good for diarrhea and what is good for constipation. Turns out corn is bad.

Ha ha. Anyway, I hope I grossed you out or made you laugh. I better now, but it kinda put a damper on all the fun this week.

Okay, before I forget. Yes, Dad, please see if you can get me a computer. From previous experience, I know that I want one on the smaller side. I don't need a notebook with a 10 key pad and the resulting bigger monitor. That's just too much to carry around. I would give you specs on what I would like, but what I would like is probably 7 generations behind what there is right now. So anyway, I think I can trust you enough. You're right, the requirements are very specific for the School of Business. I would like one with a web cam, but I bet all computers come with a web cam right now. Basically, I have no idea what I want, even if I was the one ordering it. I don't want to buy one here because then I would put it on my credit card (which means it's waaaay too much in American dollars and there is a conversion fee).

Oh, and it's interesting that my address from my friend, and the one on the housing application is 2 digits off. Well, I bet either one is fine. Maybe the back part of the house has a different number.

Let's see, this week - With our favorite less active family, the little 5 year old girl got really excited when she was studying the 1st Article of Faith with her mom. I think she liked it because when she finished we congratulated her. And that feels good. So then she would say one more time! One more time! So we would have to do it again. I think she did it 15 times at least. Maybe 20. Then she said she wanted to do the prayer. Here was her prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well, I thought, why not? Why can't she testify in the middle of her prayer. She was a little confused why we didn't congratulate as much when she did it as a prayer than when she was memorizing it. Well, maybe she'll figure it out sometime.

And our favorite recent convert quit her job this week. That's no secret, she announced it on the roof tops. She had always complained about her job since the first moment I met her. But I thought it was all talk. I didn't think she would quit her job for real. Well, she did. And now she has a ton of time. She is 61, which means in Japan she can start collecting some of her retirement money, though it comes in full when she turns 65. She has sooo much time. She calls us all the time and is even more lonely than before. She will be going to the 'peace conference' which is code for the marriage conference for members over 40. She's a great cook, and that's all Japanese men are looking for anyway. We'll just have to see what happens. Since she quit her job, you might think she would have a problem with tithing, but she went to the bank and paid it last week. You pay tithing at the Bank or at ATMs in Japan. Who knows why. But when she used the ATM, it said to insert something, but she didn't know what or where so she stared at the screen for about a whole minute, then it went blank, sucked up her money and said to wait for a representative to come.

Ha ha. She had to wait for about an hour outside the bank. She was super embarrassed, but was laughing about it anyway. We had family home evening with her last night, but we can't visit her everyday.  She is so lonely. Maybe she needs to get a dog or something.

There is a typhoon going through Japan right now. I had to wear my super wind-proof skirt today. I think it's the one Emily used on her mission, but it's long and black and is narrow so it doesn't get caught in the wind. It's made out of nylon or something that's not cotton, so it dries quickly. The rain hasn't started yet, but Japan is shutting down to deal with it. Today is Tuesday, so we had to go to Hiroshima City for District Meeting. The train stopped at every station and waited and waited and waited, then went to the next, and waited, and waited, and waited. I think what happened was that they didn't want a train to get stuck between stations in case the rain or wind started so strongly and the trains had to stop. So before our train could move the train in front of us had to leave the next station. Crazy, huh! So our normal 40 minute train ride took over an hour and a half. After district meeting, the zone leaders made us go back to our apartments as soon as possible. This is us taking a little break before doing the other half to our apartment. But on our return train it was pretty good. No stopping at stations or anything.

But 2 stations before Saijo we were stopped for an hour and a half because a tree fell in front of some of the tracks near Saijo. You could hear the train moan when that announcement came on. I slept real well. So now we are on our way back to the apartment where we will start calling people. We aren't allowed to leave the apartment until the typhoon blows over. Yep. Well, at least we bought our 72 hour supply of water last week. I heard this is a #6 typhoon. What strength was hurricane Katrina?

Until next week.

レモン姉妹

Me, waiting for the train to get moving.  On our train ride into Hiroshima, the train was packed and we didn't have a seat.  This is me resting me knees my squatting, waiting, and waiting, and waiting....

Sunday dinner. The bishop's wife is the best cook ever.  She cooked spare ribs!  This meal appointment was the best ever.

Have I mailed this picture before? This is rice as it is growing. In a few more weeks it will turn more yellow and be ready to harvest, but right now it looks like a giant green blanket. Don't you want to lay on this?

Still in Saijo

Hello there family! Before I forget, next week my email will come a little later. Next Monday is a holiday in Japan. It's called sea day, which i guess is like harbor day for the sea? Anyway, the place where we do email is closed, so we will have to do it on Tuesday I think. We'll see.

Oh, and how in the world do you know my travel itinerary? They don't tell me anything! So I arrive on Friday, in the late morning? Wow, that jet lag sounds absolutely terrible. When I land I will be ready to take a wonderful nap. You four will have to turn nocturnal for me, okay? So, what are we going to do with our 4 days as a family? The only thing we ever do is go to the movies, which would be okay for me, but we'll have to watch rated G movies so I can slowly adjust to normal life. Or we can go swimming! Missionaries can't go swimming (probably because God gave Satan power over the water, as I read in the Doctrine and Covenants recently - that was pretty weird. They never taught me that in Sunday School), so the closest we get is foot-bathing or watching other people get baptized. I did take baths this past winter. Japanese baths are infinitely superior. And no, I didn't go to the public bath houses. Those are also off-limits for missionaries.

Yes, I did buy a new dictionary. It was 15,000 yen, which probably means close to 200 dollars with the exchange rate as poor as it is.  The dollar is so weak! I heard the exchange rate was close to like .8 instead of 1.0. That's really different! So, Oh well. But my new dictionary is superior to my old one. It's the same one most missionaries have. It has slightly weaker dictionaries (it is made for a middle school student) but has all these cool features that none of the other brands have. Ha ha. I'm such a sucker. It's white, because the other choice was pink. I bought a case for it, so don't worry. I hope not to drop this one for a while.

This week we continued on service missionary work. We continued our mold war, but I think we've hit the limit of what we can do. I think the mold stopped growing in the floor. I want to just rip the wall-paper off, but the family doesn't have enough money to replace it. I would rather live with no wallpaper instead of moldy wallpaper, but there seems to be something else going on in this Sister's head.

Japanese walls are not drywall. They are this yellowish color, and I think it's wood-based. Anyway, I think we've done what we can in that room. So next we will take all the junk out of the one room, put it in the less-moldy room, and clean the other room. We did unearth this magic closet in the hallway between the two rooms that magically has NO MOLD. So we took everything important to this couple and put it in the magic closet. The Sister collects CDs (there were so many!) and the husband collects manga. So they were stuffed into the magic closet. It was such a good feeling. I had to explain it to my companion later. She didn't understand why we worked so hard when time was scarce. I had to explain that these sorts of things are very important to them. To us they mean absolutely nothing, but that has no relation to their feelings. The Sister said she felt really good.  Now her stuff is safe away from the mold.

We taught the visiting teaching message for June, which was Temporal Self-Reliance. Don't worry, we aren't cleaning for her, it's more like when we come over we create the opportunity and moral support for her to clean. She pretty much does the cleaning.

Then on Sunday morning she called us when we were walking to the eki.  She said that her husband had work so she could (and wanted) to come to church. We were super surprised. So we went to church with her.  The last time she went to church as probably about 5 or 6 years ago.

Her older daughter is 5 and sat through primary just fine since she goes to kindergarten. The Sister sat with her 3 year old daughter all through the Sunbeam class. When I walked in at the end of primary to see what was going on, I realized that Primary is a zoo, even with super polite Japanese children. American primary must be crazy. But I don't remember it that way at all. Kids were jumping off chairs, and talking to each other, and hardly listening to the teacher. But the two little girls seemed to like primary. We hope that they can come every week when the husband has work. Or that the husband will not be hantai (this is Japanese for opposite, but its used this way to show how he doesn't like church or anything to do with it) and come to church with the kids. We'll have to see.

On Saturday we went to the Relief Society President's house and attacked her weeds. She has quite a bit of land. I don't know what you would do with that much land. And she is older and lives alone, so there is no one to take care of it. We gathered an army of strong men (and the sister missionaries) and hacked down all of her weeds.

It took 4 hours. My favorite (least favorite?) part was this pile of garbage on the side of her house. I don't know how this happened, but it was a pile of trash. As we dug it out and put it in bags, the smell got stronger and stronger. I found this jar of Strawberry Jam, only it was a green-ish water. I made the mistake of dumping it out, then we had to wait 5 minutes for the smell to evaporate. Gross!

Besides this one garbage spot, the house and yard was clean. You know how everyone has that one room in their house they don't want people to enter? Yeah, this was her spot.

So yeah, I have 6 weeks left in Saijo. And it's slowly getting hotter and hotter. Like I said last summer, I know that God knows that I can't handle a summer in Okinawa. I have a distinct tan line on my feet. I wear the same shoes everyday. My goals before I come home include clearing all hints of acne, having no gingivitis, and losing another 5 kilos. I would said 5 kilos is impossible in 6 weeks, but I sweat buckets. I can't hydrate fast enough. Seriously. So maybe. If I lose 5 kilos that would bring my mission total down to 16 kilos. I will let you do the conversion.

Well, I'm going to send pictures now.

レモン姉妹

Tis statue is outside the place we do email.  It is made up of blocks, as you can see, but one is missing.  This guy needs a bath real bad.

Me and the RS President.  We were really really sweaty from weed-wacking all morning.



The missionaries (and one of the Elder's investigators) with all the trash from weed wacking.

Me at KFC for the 4th of July.

My companion at KFC for the 4th of July

 We heart-attacked the dying missionaries on Tuesday at District Meeting.

From the mountains of Japan

Dear Family,
Thank you for getting my stuff from storage. I remember packing it all in the same kind of boxes, and labeling it in every direction so that you can easily find it, but who knows what it looks like in the storage unit in Denver. I should have labeled all the boxes 1 of 10 or something like that. My clothes aren't that big of a worry. I've been wearing clothes too big for me for a while now, so I kinda like the baggy style. And luckily my belt is the type that has holes going all the way around, so I just keep pulling and it works out okay.

I'm trying to decide what to do with my mission clothes. I can't wear them, but should I frame the yellow armpit-ed shirts and the bike grease-stained skirts? They deserve a badge of honor. Don't even get me started about my underwear. I was thinking a patchwork quilt of all my mission clothes would be good.... but we all know that's an idea that will probably never happen. The winter clothes aren't that bad because I didn't sweat the moment I left my apartment. I have learned on my mission to just be sweaty. No matter how much wiping you do, it's not going to make a difference.

John says he wants to buy me a cell phone when I return. Jay, for the record, John is currently winning the favorite brother award since you made a jab at me being married with 15 children by next summer. Dad, is the family plan full? If so, then I can go separate, but it would probably be cheaper in the long run if there is room.

Transfers are this week, but I'm probably staying in Saijyo. They don't often move people on their last transfer. And they are trying to keep new missionaries with their trainers (me!) for 2 transfers to finish this new training they've implemented. So I'm dying (as a missionary) in Saijyo - the only place in the mission without a church building. Seriously. Luckily the Hikari Ward 35 minutes away is nice and will take care of me. I wish I could take my bike home, but oh well. Some poor missionary will take care of it. Maybe.

Dad, I got an email from my mission president, who got an email from the missionary department, that everyone needs to be more careful about what they write on their emails home. Especially if they are blogged. Privacy of investigators and members. Don't worry, the email was to everyone, not just me. But could you jump into blogspot somewhere and take off the searching capability to my blog? So that if people type 'bean-chan' my blog doesn't pop up? Thanks! Privacy is really something that wasn't a problem 10 years ago. At least not to this degree.

My electronic dictionary died this past week. Yes, it is broken.

It's been in my bag everyday for over a year and it's been fine. I guess I must have been a little too rough with it in my bag or something, because when I turn it on I only have black lines on the sides, and nothing in the middle. I even took it apart to see if I could see anything hardware-ish wrong with it. No loose pieces. It is just broken. So today I'm going to the store to price new dictionaries. My broken dictionary has a warranty, a one year warranty, that I bought over a year ago. That figures. If I can see one for a good price, I will buy it and put it on my credit card that I can pay off later. So dad, please watch out for that payment and pay it for me, then I'll pay you back when I have a nice job here in a couple of months. I thought about using a book dictionary, but I can't save words in it, and the electronic dictionaries are just simply superior.

Today is the 4th of July over here. Yeah, that means absolutely nothing. I told my companion that America become a country today in 1776. That meant nothing to her. Well, to celebrate we are going to KFC. It's the best I can do. Luckily KFC is next to the dictionary place.

This week's theme was cleaning. We organized a cleaning project to clean up the mold apartment but the members bailed on us to write a paper. At the end one sister finally came. Yeah! The mold... CAME BACK. Of course it did. It is so deep. So we used the strongest stuff you can buy at a normal store in Japan and just focused on the floor in the one room.

This poor young mother has given up. She doesn't know what to do! The truth finally came out. Growing up her mother would clean for her. She never learned how to clean. Now she is in this mess, wants to learn how to clean, but doesn't have any friends so no one can teach her. Thank goodness for missionaries that have cleaned our fair share of apartments. And my companion is Japanese, so she has battled mold her whole life. Mom, thank you for teaching me how to clean. I might not like vacuuming as much as you do, but at least I know how. I kinda learned laundry on my own in college, but that wasn't too hard. Then we have Jay. And John. Do you two know how to clean? You better learn here pretty soon!

The next day we had apartment checks, where the couple down in Kumamoto came up to see if our apartment was clean. They gave us their tub of Clorox that we will use on the mold problem this coming week. I am so tired of cleaning. Thank goodness in college you move around once every few years, and there is a landlord that would deal with a mold problem. I will stay as far away from mold as humanly possible for the rest of my life. Dad, I think I would like San Francisco better than Florida.

Okay, I think that's all for this week. Until next week!

レモン姉妹

Our desk.  This was taken right after our cleaning check.  My side is the right side.

This little devil child finally slept!  Of course it couldn't have been during sacrament meeting, but on the train ride home.  Well, at least that 30 minutes was the quietest of the mom's life



This is the meal that Nishiyama Shimai made for us.  We couldn't eat all of it, but I sure tried!

Traffic cones in Japan

More traffic cones in Japan