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

こんにちは! お元気ですか? 引越したいですか？

This week.... we didn't do much. It started to get REALLY hot here. 
It reached 30 and 31 degrees. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but it feels hot! And the humidity is SO strong. The sweat is just dripping off. Or is it rain? Because it's also the rainy season in Japan. America doesn't have a rainy season, but just imagine rain, everyday, for like a month. My rain suit needs to be re-water proofed. Luckily I found some stuff in the apartment.

Oh, and I did get the package last week. Thank you! The PayDays are all gone, and the granola bars are also gone. This month we didn't really keep track of money that well. We get more money on the 1st, but until then we have to scrimp and save. For food today we are going to just buy veggies. We have food in the apartment, but we don't know if it will make a meal. But I think we can do it if we have veggies. I have enough money this month, but my poor bean-chan has no money. For the 1st transfer in the field the mission office took about a hundred dollars out for her helmet, futon sheets, etc.

Yeah, and this month we got a hair cut, and went to the temple. Money is super yabai.

Okay, Japanese lesson 42. Bean-chan. New missionaries are lovingly called green beans. They're a little green around the edges... yep.

-chan is a suffix to show affection, usually used for friends and children. For example, Liu Shimai's 1.5 year old boy is called See You - kun. The kun is like chan but for boys. Anyway, that's why my new missionary is called a green bean, or bean-chan. Next, yabai.

See the end of the previous paragraph. This is not a word you would say in front of the bishop, but it's not a bad word. It means that something is on the verge of being scary/dangerous/something bad. As you can see, there is no word for it in English. For example, I got a mosquito bite on my left hand. Japanese mosquitoes are super mosquitoes. Or maybe I'm just way more delicious than all the Japanese people around me. I am like insect repellent for my companion. Well, today I forgot my anti-itch stuff. Yabai!

My companion made me pizza this week. That was nice, except it was JAPANESE pizza. That means it had corn on it, used ketchup instead of pizza sauce, and had tuna on it. GROSS. Okay, actually it was okay, but it was not my idea of pizza. I thought I took a picture of it, but I don't know where the picture went. Can I have a 5 dollar pizza when I come home? A nice pepperoni, or one with real veggies (not corn) on it?

Her other recipes are tasty. Look up yaki-soba. Or somen. Then we have something we call Saijo Special, because it is made with spices someone left in the apartment. We fry some veggies, then add soy sauce, and mirin (which is sweetened vinegar), and chicken bone soup powder. If we feel daring, we add some Chinese Fire Sauce, which is SUPER spicy. Jay, you might like it. We then eat Saijo Special with rice. Yummy!

Well, now that everyone got baptized, we don't have any investigators.  We meet people on the street, and pass out information or a Book of Mormon, but they don't quite become investigators. I guess it's only a matter of time.

Well, I'll try to go do something fun this week. We arranged for a service project on Thursday to go rip the mold paper off the wall.  It's impossible to clean it. Japanese people's walls are all papered.  They don't paint. My companion was confused and asked, 'why do you paint the wall?' Anyway, we're going to strip the two front rooms.

We saw a real change in the mom this past week when we came back a week after the service. She wants to teach her children to pray.  Then she wants them to get baptized when they are 8. We told her that first they need to come to church. One step at a time.

This service project this week is for the missionaries and the Young Single Adults in the area. We don't want the old ladies with their own families to see the house. The mom will be too embarrassed, but it's low stress when young people come over.

Well, until next week.

Okay, just one picture this week. My battery died so I didn't take many pictures. This is Liu Shimai, and her year and a half year old son, Seeyou. Yes, it looks like see you, but it's "seih yuu". Ha ha.
Anyway, he is the hardest child to get into nursery. We had to ask one of the members to watch him in the nursery room so Liu Shimai could get the gift of the Holy Ghost. You could still faintly hear the screams through the prayer. Then on the train ride back home, he cried every time the doors opened. There are about 7 stops between the church and Liu Shimai's train station. He may be a year and a half, but he knows that when the train stops he can get off. He really doesn't like the train. Recently they shaved his head. His head is HUGE! Everyone wanted to rub his head, but I don't think he liked that. It was just great to see Liu Shimai, who would go through all the pain just to come to church. Yeah, she's doing great.

私は日本人ですよ。

So this past week was go go go go go go. Thursday was zone conference, again. Well, because Elder Aoyagi Choro came last week, the Mission President didn't have time to do interviews, so he had to come all over again. Then we did companion exchanges, and I got to be companions with Nakano Shimai for the 4th or 5th time. We are always working next to each other. We just keep following each other around.

We continued to clean up the mold on Friday. Crazy mold. We couldn't get it all. But at least we emptied the room and sprayed it with bleach. This less active's commitment (as a missionary we always have to leave a commitment behind) was to wipe down the walls after 5 hours. Then spray it all again with bleach. Like I said I'm just worried for the two little girl's health.

Saturday we went to the temple with the ward. Our recent convert, Nishiyama Shimai, went and got baptized for ancestors that died without the opportunity. As with everything with her, you just kinda have to hold her hand and push her every step of the way. I wonder who will do that when I'm gone. We'll be doing Family Home Evening with her this evening and we're working on getting her to talk to her hometeachers and make that contact. I think she'll be fine. 

Then we did an endowment session of our own, and then I got to see the sealing of the Son Family. The Son family is Chinese, but have been in Japan for over 10 years. They met the missionaries and got baptized a little over a year ago. Now they were sealed in God's temple as a family for time and all eternity. After the ceremony, you know how the groom is supposed to kiss the bride? Well, in China that is super awkward.

Like really not done. They don't even hold hands or anything. I think it was most embarrassing for the wife. Then they brought in their two little girls, 6 and 4, and were sealed as a family. Cute!

Don't worry, my desire to get married isn't any stronger, but my desire to have cute little kids is stronger. (Editor's note, not sure that is at all reassuring....)  During all of this, Nishiyama Shimai was in the waiting room holding a 4 month old baby girl so the mom could go in the temple. Nishiyama Shimai probably thought that was better than doing proxy baptisms.

We got home around 9 at night, then left again in the morning before 8 to get to church. I somehow managed to hand make a book cover for a Chinese Book of Mormon to give to Liu Shimai at her baptism. There was no stress there at all for me. Well, except that they had to dunk her 3 times to make sure all of her hair and stuff got into the water.

The priesthood holder doing the baptizing was Son Kyodai (see the eternal family in the above paragraph). This was his first time, and he forgot the Amen part at the end. Twice. Oops. Liu Shimai's testimony made the bishop cry. After the service the members came up to me at said congratulations. Now they see why sisters are in the middle of nowhere Saijo. But honestly it wasn't me. I didn't do a thing but tell them what God's commandments were. They did the following part. It was very very cool. Liu Shimai got flowers and said that she was happier than she was at her wedding ceremony.

Training a bean-chan (new missionary) is hard work! But just a few weeks ago the church came out with an in-field training program for new missionaries. This paper tells me what to study, and when, and we watch parts of a movie, where real missionaries teach real investigators. That's her favorite part.

I was kinda having a hard time until I realized, wait, she is shy.  It hit me all at once. President says not to push it or anything, that it will come naturally. Just by being around me she will naturally become more outgoing. I've never been shy in my entire life. Ever.

Have I? I have no problem standing in front of people and talking.

These were never any problem for me. Poor bean-chan. I make her happy by using her name kanji (which is super hard) and letting her wash my dishes. Her hobby is cleaning. Too bad she has a mold allergy. Ha ha.

Well, I want to send pictures. Then the people at this community center place where we are doing email want me to check her English on something. Ha ha.

Sister Lemmon

Liu Shimai's baptism.  Mom, as per your request, this is the normal face pictures.  But don't worry, I also have the funny face picture.

Son Family as an eternal family

MOLD - the BEFORE shot. Zooming in is highly recommended. Mom, be careful! Who knew that mold came in so many different varieties.  Brown, black, navy blue, etc. Don't worry, we wore a mask and plastic gloves as we cleaned.

 

MOLD - the AFTER shot.  Still not done, but see the before shot below.