Thanksgiving in Miyazaki

I got the package this morning! I was so excited. The thing was I didn't know if I was more excited for the bras, the peanut butter, or the mouthwash. Seriously! My mouthwash is down to the end. I have been trying to cut back and preserve it all. Ha ha. I had peanut butter, but I left it at the church and one of the old grandmas thought it was trash. Trash? How could peanut butter ever be trash!

So Miyazaki is the hottest part of Kyushu. It's right by the ocean so we get the warm ocean breeze. I haven't seen snow yet and I don't think I will here in Miyazaki. The mornings and evenings are bitter cold, but the afternoons aren't too bad because the sun is really strong.

Our laundry still dries outsides, and doesn't freeze like I heard it does up in Hokkaido Island. Ha ha.

For Thanksgiving we got a call from the Relief Society President, Sister Petersen. She is Japanese, but she married an American. In their household the mom speaks Japanese to their kids, and the dad only speaks English to their kids. Therefore, their kids are fluent in both languages. Crazy huh? The kids are older, the youngest being 14, the oldest married and has a kid.

Julie Petersen just got back from her mission in Hawaii (when I asked her about it, she said she didn't know what she did right to get sent there). She reminds me of Hannah Shepard. We're instantly best friends. There is Shane who is leaving on his mission this month. There is also Aileen who lives in America and will be getting married in December. As expected the mom is freaking out, about as much as mom was when I left on my mission.  Ha ha. Basically they are an almost normal American family in the middle of Japan.

They invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. I was so happy! Real turkey and mashed potatoes. Yeah! The family runs an American Kindergarten in the 1st floor of their house. It's for ages 2-6. The kids come and play around, but everything is in English, and since they're kids they pick up English, with proper pronunciation right away. It's amazing. Anyway, they are by far my favorite family. And the fact that they fed 6 missionaries Thanksgiving Dinner was a miracle. There were even extras.

My companion went crazy Monday night. She was on another low and this time told me that she blames me for all of it. Well, I told her to get over it. I'm stuck with a companion that doesn't want to leave the apartment and yet I'm not choosing to be angry or sad. I told her to take time that night to decide to serve her mission or leave. The choice is hers. The door is open. Go ahead and go home. She isn't helping anyone in the state she's in. Was that harsh? Yes, but as I laid awake in bed that night (making sure she didn't actually leave) I felt full justification for my words from the Spirit. I knew my words were guided at that moment because my Japanese conjugations flowed easily. So, that night she decided to just open her scriptures and read wherever they fell open. It fell open to Alma 5:27. Are you stripped of pride? Are you following the good shepherd? Because if not, you are following Satan. I don't think there is a more in-you-face fire-and-brimstone chapter in all of the Book of Mormon.

So I guess my harsh words were followed up by a harsh scripture. She told me later she was sorry and she's been emotionally stable since.  Wow. now, of course by emotionally stable I mean back to the normal ups and downs she was doing before, but at least that is manageable.

This week in our mission we have good news. We're all getting new phones! All the phones for the missionaries in Japan are all done together. We were going through Docomo telephone services, but now we're going through Au.  Docomo and Au probably don't mean anything to you. But think of switching from AT&T to Sprint or something like that. So we got awesomely stylish new phones. Now we can text whoever we want. That's a big deal in Japan, where everyone is on the bus or subway where they can't talk on the phone, so everyone texts.

I will have to learn to text in Japanese soon. Gross.  Anyway, everyone in Japan got their new phone except us. Our phone right now is from Miyakonojyo, so maybe they sent it to the wrong area. oops.

Anyway, I'm sad it's not an iPhone but I'm excited it's a new phone.

Yeah! A new toy to play with!

For Christmas, I would like to add to my list. I would like the most ridiculous leg warmers you can find. Yes, Dad, that is permission.  For our morning study we have to wear skirts, but I don't want to put on tights yet. Not that tights are warm enough. I won't be wearing the leg warmers outside, so they can be whatever you want. My poor little calves are freezing!

Okay, I wish I had more to say, but I don't.
Your Favorite Daughter

The photo below is me with my hump camel.  I laughed, Thanks!

Thanksgiving Week

Before I forget,


- My camera is a micro SD, but I have a regular SD card adapter for my camera. The camera people are really smart and made the micro SD cards and the regular SD cards the same size, and the micro ones come with an adapter. I expect that sooner rather than later all the cameras will switch to micro SD. Anyway, my camera can handle either one of those. I don't think there's a limit on the length of the movie or anything, but I haven't actually done it. If it's a problem, I can load it onto the church computers and watch it on P-day.

- Thanks for the gift in the mail! I'm exited for new bras.

Seriously. I want to see if my weight will hold still long enough for me to buy new clothes, but I don't want to buy new clothes if I'm going to change size again, you know? Maybe for Christmas I will need a new winter coat though. These are kinda big. I wonder if they'll get bigger.

- My companion has continued to go up and down, but it's the regular up and down she was doing back in Sendai, which is still a lot more than the normal person. I very much think her depression is situational and not medical. She is the one making these decisions to be sad. At least that's how I look at it. I don't think I am in danger of being seriously depressed. I just choose not to be. It's weird because I am watching my companion choose to be depressed. At least that's what it looks like to me.

- I realized today that I don't know how to get personal money from the credit card. For whatever weird reason in Japan, everyone uses cash. So I want to go to the post-office and pull out money from my credit card like a debit card. Is there a pin number for my credit card? I know that kind of defeats the purpose of a credit card, but I thought it would be good to know.

This past week we haven't done anything worthwhile. But funny story of the week. It involves how Japanese addresses make no sense at all.

Seriously. So we were on companion exchanges this week, and Yoha Shimai and I were trying to find the address minamihanakashimacho (yes, that's a name of a neighborhood) 310-12. Well, thanks to our one map with the index, we found minamihanakashimacho no problem. 310 was also on the map, so we found that. After looking through people's mailboxes to find the addresses we found 310-1 through 11. Yes, looking through mailboxes is illegal in Japan. One stands guard and the other reads the address. We could not find 12 for the life of us.

We housed that whole area, asking for Souma-sama. Nope, no one knew of that family. So we finally gave up and went home. At home we have this super detailed map that lists every house and the name of the family that lives there as of 2004. Yeah, the map is kinda old. So after a few minutes of looking, we found it. It was across the street. But this wasn't just a normal street. This is one of the biggest roads in all of Miyazaki. Seriously. It's the Japanese equivalent of a freeway, only there are stop lights still. What was it doing way over there? Crazy! These addresses are ridiculous. It wouldn't be that bad if the places were at least labeled, like they were in Fujisaki. Sendai was even better than Miyazaki.

So back in Sendai, in my weekly report to my mission president, I asked him for an iPhone so we could look up addresses.  At Zone Conference I again asked him about it (in a joking way) and he said he read it. He even talked to Richard Heaton, head of all the MTCs and in charge of that kind of thing.

Bro. Heaton said 'don't think we're not thinking about it. Woot! I doubt I will see missionaries with google maps on their phone in my mission lifetime, but in my new letter to the mission president I volunteered to pilot the program. Haha. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, for other Christmas presents, I would like nylons and tights. I have enough black tights, but I'm getting really sick of black.  Really really sick of black.  How about gray or a conservative pattern? That would be great. As for Jay and John, I would just like an August Christmas Present instead to get ready for school and stuff.

For your Christmas presents, you will just have to wait and see.

Okay, my companion wants to go home to sleep, because she is depressed I think. I kinda hinted at the mission president for a transfer. I told him my patience and faith was running thin. We'll see what happens.

Okay, bu-bye! Happy Thanksgiving.

Your Favorite Daughter

Oh, some new photos. 

what I ate on Sunday.  Gross. My companion ate an eyeball.  It was so gross!

my desk is the clean one

the Single Adults pie-faced all the missionaries.  This is my after shot.  Ha ha.

Myazaki week 3

Come next summer I may need new clothes as all my clothes are too big, but my winter clothes still work, because the bigger they are the warmer they are. I can't wait to get home and put on my jeans. That's when I will really see/feel the difference.

So this week my companion has continued to be very depressed. Like clinical depression. She sleeps in until noon at least twice a week, and just about anything I say her to makes her cry. It's really running me (and her) down. We ended up talking to the mission president about it. She even talked to a professional. He is in one of the quorums of the seventy. Anyway, so she feels good about it for about 30 minutes, then we try to leave the apartment to do some work and she gets all depressed again.
But I've learned that you have to do something really stupid or really want to go home to get sent home from a mission. Just because you don't feel like working for a day or two doesn't mean you get sent home. You have to do something really stupid like break the law of chastity, or walk away. So here we are in Miyazaki. But the work goes on. Any potential investigator the Elders find they refer to us, so suddenly it looks like we might have some investigators soon.

Funny story for the week. Takahama Shimai made me some really tasty pasta on Friday night. She got it all ready, then decided the flavor.

She pulled out this one sauce from the fridge. It tasted really good. About 20 minutes later she said her stomach hurt. I didn't think anything about it because her stomach has hurt almost everyday since I met her 2 months ago. But then a few minutes later my stomach really hurt too. After taking a few turns in the bathroom, she realized it was the sauce. When we moved in we found it on top of the fridge, but we put it in the fridge, so we thought it was okay. But apparently it was one of the sauces that is supposed to be refrigerated. Oops. Yeah, we threw it out really fast. That night we called the Elders and told them the story. One was like 'was it the sauce on top of the fridge?' Um, yes. Well, apparently, he needed a sauce, used it, got sick, and thought it was probably the sauce. We asked, 'Why in the world didn't you throw it away?' Well, it just didn't occur to him. After that we threw out everything perishable that was in the apartment when we moved in.

I have been introduced to the Kotatsu Table. At people's houses I've noticed these short tables (since there are no chairs) where the tops come off. I couldn't figure out why in the world that would be useful. But now that it's cold my companion pulled out the special Kotatsu Futon. It's a blanket that goes over the table, under the table top, then there is a heater you can plug in underneath. Now our feet are warm when we have planning sessions and such. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. My feet get really cold. For some reason this apartment doesn't have any tatami mats. It's weird. But that also means it's really really cold.

Mom, I'm glad you got the quilt thing done. I bet Dad is too. Ha ha.

Dad, I hope you get a job soon. Probably around Thanksgiving - since that's when it has happened before. I'm voting for Seattle since I like the rain, but you said that might not work out. Darn. Toronto wouldn't be bad, because then I can tell everyone that I'll be Canadian when I get back. ha ha. Glad to hear the family will come together for Thanksgiving. John wrote me an email and told me that so that Mom won't get sad, he will be both himself and me. ha ha, good luck there J-man.  Jay's airplane story was priceless.  Dad, you should never sing in a Japanese choir.  There is no such thing as original music.  I don't think there is a copyright law in Japan.  At least no one follows it. Everyone uses copied music. I mean everyone. I don't think there are originals anyway.  It would drive you crazy.  And Mom shouldn't drive in Japan. Ever. It's too narrow.  I have seen so many miracles in Japanese driving. I don't understand why they aren't all dead yet.  They know exactly how big their car is, including the side mirrors.

This week we were housing and found a 93 year old man. He was still up and walking, and he cooks and cleans for himself. 

Okay, so for Christmas, I have attached a picture of the dental products I need. Once again, here is my Christmas list:

-Deodorant x3
-Toothpaste x3
-Mouthwash x1 (it's big, so I'll have to go one at a time) -new bras (yeah!)
-Crunchy Peanut Butter (Skippy of course)
-a new cork insole for my nice shoes. Naot 37 L6 is what the shoe insole says. It's totally worn out. I mean totally. That would be great! I could probably find it in Japan, but I don't have the time.


Special note to Skyler Ferrin:

Skyler no tame ni:

Konnichiwa. Skyler-kun wa gakko ga suki desu ka? Watashi mo gakko ga suku desu. benkyou wa ii desu ne.

こんにちわ。スカイラくんはがっこがすきですか？わたしもがっこがすきです。べんきょうはいいですね。

Translation, but don't send to Skyler unless he asks;

 ************************************************************************
(redacted by editor due to national security issues)

Sister Lemmon

Still hot in Miyazaki

So here in Miyazaki it is still about 70 degrees. I think it's the hottest place in mainland Japan (of course Okinawa is still in the 80s). Since it's close to the Pacific ocean it stays pretty warm.

It's the same latitude as Satsuma Sendai-shi, but way warmer. I'm wearing short sleeves today. At night it gets pretty bitter-cold, but we have new futons to wrap ourselves up in. Yay! Miyazaki is a good fit for me. As in there are people here I can talk to. I will always remember poor little Sendai Branch, but my work there was done.

This week we haven't done much, which has taught me a lot of patience.

Remember in my setting-apart blessing how I was blessed with patience to work with companions that are not on the same spiritual plane as me? Well, I think that was talking about this companion. Takahama Shimai is great, but she doesn't want to leave the apartment. She is very skilled at finding other things to do. This week we photocopied a huge map. Let me explain this map to you a little better. There is the normal map of the city with the roads and stuff, then there is this map which is so detailed that you can see any house. Then in each house the name of the family that lives there is also written.

Cool, eh? Well, this map is called Zenrin. In Miyazaki it's so big that it's split into north and south. We spent a whole day photocopying the Zenrin into a binder for us to use. But we only did the north so far. South is for next week. We also spent a day trying to find the right sized binder for the Less Active Book. There are 500 less actives in this area, so the binder is pretty big. Anyway, that gives you an idea of what we have been doing. I want to go see the recent converts, the investigators, and such like that. But my senior wants to just sit at home. We have fun together, but it's not what I want to do. I can't wait for the day that my Japanese is good enough that I get to call the shots, you know?

Okay, so Christmas. yay! So the thing is I don't need a lot of stuff, because I don't want to transfer with it. Yet there are a few things I need. They are listed below.

- crunchy peanut butter! I'm all out!
- Crest toothpaste
- Crest mouthwash (not the night stuff, that's gross, just the normal blue stuff)
- a new rubber tip thing for my gums. Ha ha. I'm not joking. The one I have now is slowly dying.
- new music! The rule in this mission is anything goes as long as you can feel the spirit and there aren't romantic lyrics. I think I will mail you my iPod, then you can add what you want on it, then send it back. In the mean time I have my companion's music.
- you can also put General Conference talks on the iPod. Those are pretty cool.

Sorry, I was going to take a picture of my toothpaste and mouthwash, so you get the right stuff, but I forgot. And I forgot the SD Card thingy. I'll try to remember for next week.

That's actually all I want right now. But when I get back I would like an iPhone, a computer, and a car. :) And maybe an apartment, and tuition. Ha ha. How much of your money can I spent on Christmas for you, and which card should I use? Ha ha.

I'm going to send Grandpa an email, so make sure he checks it!

We need to go pack for our zone conference today, so I'm out of time.

Sorry! Until next week.


Your Favorite Daughter.

Miyazaki

We can do email on the Family Search Computers here in the Miyazaki Branch, so I have more time for email. Therefore, I will try to do a week at a glance a little more justice. There just wasn't enough time to do it all!


Monday

After email we brought the old Halloween stuff to the Taniyama Church where we watched the Elders make fools of themselves with Twister. We stayed the night at the Taniyama Sisters Apartment because district meeting was the next morning, so we went on Junkais (switching companions).

I was with Endo Shimai, who finished her mission this past week. The other two went back to the apartment where they made a real cake. My companion, Takahama Shimai, went to school for baking, so she made an awesome wedding cake worthy cake.

Tuesday

In the morning we had to leave early, sneaking the cake out so Endo Shimai wouldn't notice. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up some cream, and wipped it at the church for the frosting. This was a 3 layer cake with Hershey Syrup as one layer because Endo Shimai loves chocolate. It was delicious. After District Meeting we ate at the church, where the Adachi Couple (senior missionary couple) fed us tacos. The cake was desert. Takahama Shimai and I knew that we were closing the Sendai area as Sisters, so we tried to hurry up the last goodbyes and such, but that was nearly impossible. There were dishes for about 15 people to wash. That was crazy! We do it every week, but this week people were a little bit lagging. So, we made it to the train station just in time to go back to Sendai.

It was about an hour train ride of torture. I do not miss that train. When we got back, we had just enough time to pack a tiny bit before our appointment with a Sister. She was baptized about 10 years ago, but recently returned to church. We taught her a lesson on the importance of the priesthood.

There are only about 4 strong priesthood holders in Sendai Branch, but we knew there were two Elders coming, so we were like "If there were Elders here, you could get a priesthood blessing from them too".

Haha. I bet she was surprised on Sunday to see Elders. The Sisters had a revelation! It's called an early transfer call. haha.

Afterwards we tried to pack as much as possible. Takahama Shimai was a fast packer, but a slow un- packer. I was the opposite. Anyway, it takes about 3 hours to pack, then the last hour for things like bed sheets, shower stuff, and such.

Wednesday

The transfer was official. So we called Miyazak Elders and told them Sisters were coming. I was so excited thinking that we were getting a new apartment, but I learned that because there are 4 Elders, they had to get the new (bigger) apartment, and we were stuck with the old Elders Apartment. Yucky! So as we were visiting members and investigators, the Miyazaki Elders were cleaning their old apartment. We visited Kamezawa-san, which I recently learned means Turtle Swamp. Did I type that in an previous email? Anyway, Mr. Turtle Swamp has had problems with prayer recently. I mean, he doesn't pray in the name of Jesus Christ, so he has been studying prayer for about 3 hours a day for a week. As a goodbye present we tried to get him to pray. It took about 10 minutes of encouragement, then he prayed, from his heart, in the name of Jesus Christ. Totally worth it. He really needs Elders. We also said goodbye to Miura Shimai and her daughter Yukiko-chan.  Sendai turned Sisters in the first place for Miura Shimai and her daughter. That is a fact. But now that she has good ward relations and such, it's time to switch back to Elders. She was way sad to hear that we were leaving. But I know she'll stay true. She met the missionaries in her life about 3 times before she finally was ready to hear the message and get baptized. She is going to the temple this month to do baptisms for her mom and dad. And others too, I think. It's pretty cool.

Thursday

We woke up at 5.30 to finish packing. We had written everything out for the new Elders, like people info, and what map page the grocery store is on, and such, so we laid that all out prettily on the desk. We left the apartment at 7.30 to catch our train at 8.03.

That train took us all the way to Miyazaki. It took about 3 and a half hours. It was terrible. I will not miss that train. I will NOT miss that train. I really want to ride the Shinkansen, which you probably know as the bullet train. Recently they put in the train track to go down to Kagoshima. It's a different track, because it doesn't form to the landscape as much as just cut through the middle of mountains and stuff. The regular train follows the landscape, which is why it's so terrible (but beautiful). Missionaries don't have the money to ride the Shinkansen. How sad! But now you can ride from Kagoshima all the way up to Tokyo or even farther north. Cool, eh? It's way fast. In Miyazaki the Elders were there with a ward member (with a car) to take our suitcases to the apartment. By the way, I mailed one of the suitcases to myself. It cost about 14 dollars, so that's not bad.

The Elder's apartment looked pretty good, until the Elders left and we opened the closet where the futons were stored. The smell! I cannot explain to you the stench. I don't think they use deodorant, just body spray. Yuck! So we called the Relief Society President and got her to drive us to get new futons. Totally worth it. We were pretty exhausted by this point, and crashed.

Friday

We re-arranged the apartment, tried to make sense of all the records and such. I have decided one thing. When I'm the senior companion, I am going to keep perfect records. That is going to be my thing. And address of 'the apartment next to the Shiromizu Hospital' is not an address, even in Japan. There wasn't even an apartment number written down. When we asked the Elders they said it was the door with all the little kid bikes. I did an eye roll so big that I didn't know it was possible. haha. And member records with nothing written on them are not helpful. It's frusterating! And keeping good records was a project I was working on in the MTC when I worked there. If you transfer and your information is gone, then it's totally worthless that you learned that. Anyway, that's my soap-box speech for my mission, I think.

Saturday

In the morning we continued to do apartment things, and find things on the map and call the Elders for better directions for their non-addresses. That night was the ward Halloween party. We met the Miyazaki Branch.  I was shocked. This branch is very, very strong and really understands missionary work. It's crazy. There are about 13 branch missionaries. There are about 60 or 70 that come to sacrament meeting. The idea in putting 6 missionaries here is that if we strengthen this branch, we can split it. And soon this District will become a Stake, then two stakes, then maybe we can get a temple.

Cool, eh? So, that's why the District President wants to strenthen the already strong areas. So this branch has children, YSA (young single adults), and therefore has a ton of energy. This is definitely not little Sendai Branch. At the Halloween party, it was totally done by the branch, which means we could go around and meet people. Everyone is shocked that there are Sisters. Yep. Here we are. So give us referrals because we don't have investigators. haha.

Sunday

Church. Dendo Coordination Meeting was in the morning, with a ward mission leader that actually does his job. Yep, that might be a first for me. Okay, not really, but he really goes above and beyond his assignment (in a good way). I don't know if this branch even needs missionaries to do more than just do the teaching and interviewing for baptisms. Now that I know what a functioning branch looks like, I want to go back to Sendai because I can see Sendai's future.

Well, that's this week. I don't think I can do this kind of email every week, because it makes my head hurt. Just the highlights for next week. Hope Dad gets a job soon, and I hope that Mom got rid of all the quilts. Glad Grandpa is still alive. And John sent me an email. Jay might be dead. That's that! Until next week.

Your favorite daughter

I'm going to Miyazaki!

Hello from Sendai. But not for much longer.

We got a call from the Assistants to the President last night at about 10pm. He said that Sendai is changing together and that both me and Takahama Shimai are going to Miyazaki on Thursday. Miyazaki is turning into a 6 missionary area. 4 Elders and 2 Sisters. That's really rare for a branch. I'll still be in the Kagoshima Zone. So basically that call was poorly timed. We couldn't sleep at all that night. When you are closing an area as sisters, there is a lot of work to do. You have to hang out with all your sister recent converts and let them know they're awesome, without telling them that we're transferring and two maybe-immature boys are coming. Yeah, we can't tell anyone until Wednesday, so if you could not put this paragraph on the blog until Wednesday in Japan, that would be great. Thanks.

So sisters have a reputation of having clean apartments. So we have to make sure the apartment is clean for the two Elders. This Sister image is very important! Then we have to make sure all of our records are up-to-date with lessons taught, and what we think such-and-such a person needs. Phew. The reason this area is changing to Elders is because the men are pretty few in number. And as Sisters we can't really contact men on the street. It's part of that same Sister's image, you know? Then we have to put the phone and key in the mailbox and just hope for the best!

In Miyazaki, we think we'll be getting a new apartment. There haven't been sisters in that area for as long as anyone can remember, so we are really hoping we get a new apartment.  Next week I'll have the address for you and such. They usually don't tell us early, but when you're closing an area they let you know so you don't buy too much food and such.

This week was our Halloween Party. Friday night. Somehow the missionaries got put in charge of it because last year and the year before it was an Eikaiwa event, so now the members expect the missionaries to do it. I somehow managed to make a Twister board out of a green lawn tarp and some paint markers. It was so cool. Now the Elders in Kagoshima want to use it for their Halloween Party this coming week. I've made missionary history! Yeah. The other games included bobbing for apples (haha) and that game where you throw rings onto water bottles for a prize. It was more like a carnival than a Halloween Party, but it was fun. It was also a lot of work for two Sisters. We asked the Relief Society to bring food and man did they bring food. In America, they would have brought a bag of chips, or some pop, but here they brought different kinds of sushi, and little chicken wings and wrapped up nicely so you can eat it without getting dirty. Haha. It was tasty. There was also a costume contest, but no one really dressed up. So we gave the cutest award to the 9 year old girl, who is the cutest because she is 9.

Our favorite investigator, Kamezawa-san, has not been praying in the name of Jesus Christ. He's been praying in the name of the two cute angels that come visit him almost everyday. Haha. This area definitely needs to be Elders. Anyway, we keep trying to tell him how to pray, and what's important to pray about, but he is stubborn and wants to find the answer himself in the scriptures so he's studied every part of the Standard Works about prayer. He's the king of hard work. I keep trying to tell him to pray, then he'll understand, but he wants to understand before he prays. Okay, so that would be great, but that's not how God works. You have to show faith in him first, through actions like prayer, then he proves to you that you did the right thing. I've had my share of stubborn old men. I wonder how you and Grandpa are doing.... (haha, just kidding Grandpa. You're the best! And you do the things that matter, like pray and pay tithing.  Good job!)

A little side note. It's interesting to see how different your emails are. You both live the same boring life right now, but your views are totally different. Dad writes me poems (as it looks from the email I haven't read yet) and Mom writes all the warm fuzzies. It's funny, but greatly appreciated at the same time. Keep up the good work there!

Anyway, I don't really have much time to write today because we're headed to Taniyama for a District P-day. We are going to play Twister I think. Of course, the Elders and the Sisters can't play together.  Haha. Luckily I brought pajama pants. You can't really play Twister in a skirt.

The picture is of Takahama Shimai petting a turtle we randomly found on the sidewalk. It was pitch black outside, so the picture isn't very good. My hand isn't steady enough for a slow exposure. This turtle was going to die, so we spent the next 10 minutes trying to pick up the turtle and walk with it 50 meters to a nearby lake/river thing. The issue was it gave us the creeps. It's little legs came up around and started scrapping our hands. Gross! But we saved it.

Love always,

Your favorite daughter.

Week at a glance

Wow Mom, you're really not diligent on this whole writing your favorite missionary thing are you? Ha ha, I guess I can't complain.  (Editor's note:  The Mom is on a road trip to Colorado with her sister Karen so she gets a bye on not writing this week.)

My companion hasn't talked to her mom since she left on her mission.  She writes her a postcard every week, but she never gets anything back. She emails her sister every week, and according to her sister, her mom is doing well.

BTW, I haven't gotten the toothbrushes yet. From the mission office things take about a day, as long as I live on Kyushu, and about 2 if I'm on Honshu Island or Okinawa Island. So I expect them tomorrow, maybe.

So you've both begged me for what a typical day is like for me. Well, there is no typical day. Every day is different, but here is a week at a glance.

Last Monday

For P-day we went shopping for food, I power washed my clothes. My whites aren't exactly white any more. But we found some really awesome color bleach stuff that is magic if you soak the clothes in it for 2 hours. ha ha. The power! P-day ends at 6 so we visited Sagara Kyodai, who is a less active that was baptized about 7 years ago. His day off on work changed from Sunday to Monday, so he can't come to church anymore. He would like to go to a church activity if there was one on Monday, but since the single adults here in Sendai Branch are few and far between, there is no YSA (Young Single Adult) Family Home Evening. Then we visited Isshiki-san. She got married about a year ago. She works at a beauty salon and teaches people how to wear make-up and such. I thought she was kinda a make-up freak and told me my face was so red it looked like it hurt. Yeah, I don't really like her much. Ha ha. Japanese concept of beautiful is all white, with no blush or anything. Well, if you do wear blush, it is basically white.

As for my make-up, that pretty much died during the summer when I would sweat it off in about 20 seconds after putting it on. Now that I don't sweat the moment I put it on, I've been known to do a little for church and stuff. Anyway, Takahama Shimai likes Isshiki-san so we have an appointment with her tomorrow. Maybe then we can actually teach her something, instead of just listening to her talk and talk about how her friends and her get drunk and do silly things.

Tuesday

District Meeting. That means all the missionaries in Kagoshima, Taniyama, and Sendai (me!) get together and have a weekly training, and eat lunch together. Since we're so far away, we leave the apartment at 7:30am, to get to the train station train by 8am. It's crowded with all kinds of school kids. If we get there early enough we can sit down. There are commuters that come from Sendai to Kagoshima for work everyday. It's about an hour train ride, and it's way bumpy. I mean there is no part of Japan that is flat, I think.  At least not on Kyushu.

So if we come a little late, then we just have to stand for the whole hour. About 3/4 of the way through the train ride all the school kids leave for the school, but then more commuters appear, so if you want a seat you have to be really aggressive. Luckily, I'm American so I have no problem with that. At least it's not packed like the trains in Tokyo, where they have hired people with white gloves that shove you into the train like sardines.

Yeah, that would really stink. So we get to Kagoshima and transfer trains to go to the Taniyama Church building. Remember, the Kagoshima Church building is on top of the Hill of Faith, so the meeting is at the Taniyama church building. So, there are 10 missionaries. We talk about how to be better missionaries, then the senior couple feeds us (this is the best food) and drive us to the train station in Kagoshima to save us some time and money. Then we take the hour train ride back. Phew. But this week was companion exchanges, so the sisters in Taniyama came to Sendai! With Endo Shimai we visited some old PIs (potential investigators), and found an interesting house. In Japan, all the houses have the name posted outside are really cool looking plaques. We saw日日which is an really interesting name. It means Sun Sun, or whatever. (Editor's note:  According to Babblefish it means everyday life.)

So Endo Shimai and I knocked on the door and did our contact. She wasn't interested but Endo Shimai asked her for her name. See, Japanese characters can be pronounced many ways - especially the common ones like Sun. It was Hibi-san. Ha ha.

Wednesday

I worked with the other Japanese sister, Yoha Shimai. We came to Japanese together and I remember talking to her in the MTC (Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT).  Well, trying to.

We decided to take the bikes to a really far away place. It probably took and hour, and it was slightly uphill the whole way. Well, the map in Sendai is a little difficult. We have a really big map of Kagoshima-ken (the whole prefecture or state), and a really detailed map of Sendai-shi, but not any in between map. The really detailed map is about 16,000 yen (US$160.00), and it can't leave the apartment, so we have a photocopied book and we take the parts of the map we need with us.

But I realized Sendai is so pretty! Really it is! And really country. The rice is being harvested. Then when they are done, they burn their fields. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe it's because they want to fertilize the soil? I really have no idea. So there was smoke in the air. It smelled like camping. Ha ha. We couldn't find the less active member, but we found her mom, and she talked to us for a while. Then the Taniyama Shimai left to go back to Taniyama. All it all it was way fun.

Thursday

I pretty much died. I was so exhausted from the bike ride on Wednesday we both ended up taking a 3 hour nap. My body was just worn out. One thing I've learned is that a sister missionary's body is not an Elder's body. We can't just do whatever. Today I read 1 Nephi 17:2 about how the wives of the Lehites were made strong. Yeah, I'm still waiting for that. Thursday night was Eikaiwa. We tried to teach Morio-san, one of the students, but he ended up giving back the Book of Mormon to us, telling us that it's too hard to understand.

Well, there goes that potential investigator.

Friday

Weekly Planning Session. We planned all of this week. It was intense. It took about 5 hours. That night we visited Kamezawa san (see below)

Saturday

Nagatoshi Dendo. We found a new neighborhood that isn't on our maps, so we housed it.

Sunday

We sang in church! During practice it was really bad, but isn't that what church is all about - bad musical numbers? Ha ha, anyway, during sacrament meeting it wasn't too bad. And we made some of the more sensitive ward members cry. That's how you know it's good.

Anyway, I'm running out of time, but I wanted to talk about Kamezawa san. I mentioned him before. He has lung cancer, and will probably die this year. He studies the Book of Mormon for like 3 hours everyday, but he hasn't be progressing. But this week he said he's thinking about it. He is really old, like Grandpa old. And stubborn too. His pace of learning is that of a snail. I will try to learn more patience.

Anyway, there are no pictures this week, because I didn't take any, but this Friday is the Halloween party, so I'll have pictures.

Hope you are doing well!

Your favorite daughter.