Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas was a real blast. I was able to spend Christmas Eve over at the Mission Home and eat Christmas breakfast with the Mission President and his wife, which was a real treat. I was also able to talk to my family, and they are the same as usual, which was nice to know.

Time does some crazy stuff when you are on a mission. Hours last for an eternity but weeks fly by. Days drag on and suddenly months have passed. You feel like you've been out here for an eternity but you haven't even been gone 3 months. It's pretty bizarre. Turns out the rest of the world continues at a regular pace, and your family has not gone crazy without you.

Reassuring.

We taught some great lessons this week! We met someone who has been very difficult to get ahold of, but we were actually able to teach her today. She is wonderful! She's been taking the lessons for a while and told us rather frankly that she wants to get baptized and is just working towards that goal as best she can.

It was very refreshing, honestly. I know she'll get baptized, even if I'm not around for it.

Speaking of which, transfers are in 3 days. Any predictions as to whether I will stay or go? I've been in Shibuya for 2 transfers thus far, with my trainer who will die* after next transfer.

*She will go home from her mission.

I don't have a lot of time (what's new) so I just wanted to tell you a little of what we've experienced for New Year's thus far.

1. They start an "Official Non-stop party" from the 28th of December until the 3rd of January. I do not know many details about that.
2. New Years is considered a holiday from the 1st until the 3rd. Most people celebrate from the 31st to the 4th.
3. Spring Cleaning is done for New Years. EVERYONE will do it, and when they say deep they mean DEEP. The church is doing it too, and it's down to refinishing the lining around the carpets. It's INSANE, and it is pretty much impossible to schedule meetings with housewives for 2 weeks.
4. It is suggested not to do any housing during this holiday. We are still allowed to meet with investigators and members, and we can still street, but housing would be insanely rude.
5. New Years is a family holiday. Extended families will gather in their hometown and have a 3-day celebration.

So, yeah. Christmas was like another working day, but New Years is a real celebration. Happy year of the tiger!

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy this season when everyone tries to be a little better. The feelings sometimes wear off by January 15th or so, but I pray the intents and the memories will stay for much longer!

For those who might be wondering, missionaries don't celebrate Christmas as a holiday. We get to call our families and speak with them for an hour, and the mission will usually get together and throw a small party on a non-Christmas day. Besides the phone call Christmas is just like every other day for a missionary. Which is okay because Christmas is just like every other day in Japan, save a few more light displays and KFC being flooded with customers buying their KFC Christmas Dinner, which is a bizarre misunderstanding. Japan made it a tradition because they thought Americans did it, and KFC isn't owning up because they couldn't be happier. Anyway.

This week has been curiously fascinating. My electronic dictionary has been a source of immense fascination and curiosity. It contains many textbooks used in junior high and high school, and the Japanese sister staying in our apartment is just as fascinated as I am. Whenever I am trying to cipher menus she is invaluable, and I am having fun with this puzzle game where you have to match haiku together. If you need a hint the dictionary will sing the haiku at you, which is EASILY the most hilarious part.

Thanks to the Christmas season, we are able to do some pretty creative dendou (missionary work). It's a great excuse to visit all the less-actives and former investigators. My companion recorded a CD of Japanese hymns and some Christmas songs, so we deliver some candy, a CD, and a Book of Mormon as their Christmas gift and visit them. There is also a lot of other musical talent in the area, so an impromptu brass band meets a few times a week and plays by Shibuya station. We are able to talk to people who come listen, and we've met some awesome people doing that!

We're going caroling on Christmas Eve, and our mission home is throwing a Christmas party for us. I am very excited!

I have to go soon, but I have a quick story before I take off. We are teaching a family (I think I mentioned them, they are the family that walked into church and said they wanted to become a stronger family so they wanted to learn about us) right now, and we were able to teach them with some AMAZING members. They had a hard time following some of the stuff we were saying. After a while, the wife finally told us,

'All this Christianity stuff is new to us. We like what you are saying, but we are going to have to study some more.I think if we read the Book of Mormon and pray we'll be able to understand better.'

Best. Conclusion. Ever.

They are going to read as much as they can and pray two times a day and meet with us again next Sunday.

Smiles all around! I really need to go, but have Happy Holidays!

Thought of the Week

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
-Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

A quick note

Happy birthday to me!The electronic dictionaries finally went on sale, so I bought one. In fact, they were on a super sale. That model I'm holding usually sells for $270.

I spent 17,500 yen. It is a pretty sweet dictionary. I am pleased.

I wish I had more time but we have had an insane week and I need to go out and talk to some people. The stories will have to wait, I'm afraid.

To tide you over I'll give you a picture. Our mission decided to give us lightsabers for Christmas:For the record? I didn't edit this picture in any way. That's really the photo. It's not the best positioned so you should be able to work out how we did it. Go do it and have fun!

We have a cool family that we are working with. We have trouble meeting with them for lessons because the members keep inviting them over to dinner. It's an amusing problem.*

*I'm being vague from lack of time. Rest assured we are going to be at some of those dinners. Not all of them tho'. I still think it's a funny problem.

Just in case I don't get a chance before next week, Merry Christmas!

Peace out,

C

P.S. Final Fantasy XIII was released today. Every train showed the opening video as an ad. It looks pretty sweet, and I look forward to playing it in 18 months or so.

Thought of the Week

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Japanese Proverb

A story that needs telling

Editor's note: You can click on each photograph to enlarge it to its original size.

Greetings from Shibuya! I wanted to show you some pictures before getting into my awesome story of the week.(That's my companion and me. She's doing the peace sign, I'm holding the camera.)

Japan celebrates Christmas season, that's for sure. We get to see a lot of "Holiday Light Displays."Man, I have a lot of photos on here. What else do we have? This is my district right before transfers. The two elders in the middle (the one in the chair and the one standing behind him) got transferred, but everyone else stayed.(Right before the picture I shouted, "That's my camera! Do something weird!" but I didn't give much notice, so this is what you get. The Elder in the chair smiling brightly IS doing his weird face, he normally doesn't smile like that.)

Also? Just in case you didn't know, Japan is kinda strange.That is a fish hat.

In Shibuya we try to do some different types of missionary work. When I say missionary work, I am referring to our efforts towards finding new people to teach. The Elders decided on using sports pretty early in the game, so we go play basketball occasionally:This is surprisingly effective. I also have about 100 action shots of them playing (some of them are rather good, surprisingly), but I don't want to sort through them all for the best ones.
Members in Japan can be...interesting. These two fellows are AWESOME. (speaking of awesome...)Also, we played football on our day off with some members to celebrate Thanksgiving. There is an American School in Japan (ASIJ) here so they let us use a real football field. I think I look terrible in this picture, but it's a good shot overall.By the way, I wasn't kidding when I said Japan looks like fall weather right now. This was taken near the Emperor's Palace (across the street, in fact) two weeks ago (two days before December, I think):I also have some really gross pictures of dead fish but since my sister Shana is uploading this blog and I think the pictures would make her cry (they make me want to cry, too) I will skip them. You can have these instead.I suggest looking at my face closely. That Japanese sister isn't my companion, but she is one of the other two Shibuya Sisters and she rocks.

Japan celebrates Christmas with some rather different traditions. Christmas Eve is the big celebration, first of all. Christmas is kinda the Valentines of Japan...kinda. Christmas Eve is for dates. The main traditions for families are Christmas cake, which is usually bought and brought home by the dad Christmas Eve, and KFC is successfully introducing a bucket of fried chicken as the Christmas dinner. The real family gathering is the New Year celebration. Christmas really isn't made for families. They don't even get the day off work (and neither do we!).

We went caroling at Shibuya station. It was ridiculous. We passed out something like 10 Book of Mormons (we usually get 2-3 per week), got many new investigators, and those crazy awesome Young Men and Women passed out somewhere in the realm of 600 fliers/pass along cards in the span of 45 minutes. We normally average 10 a day. That was so COOL.

I think that will suffice for now, don't you? Life is good.

Speaking of life being good, I have a story for you. No pictures, but I really like this.

Last week we called one of the members to ask about an appointment the next day and she excitedly exclaimed that there was a referral for us. A less-active member had been inactive for MANY years (about as long as I've been alive), but upon meeting an old friend (who is also a member) she indicated that her life was not so hot and she requested that the missionaries come teach her. This old friend's friend works for the member in our ward, so we were told about her. We got her information from this member, and discovered she lived about an hour away by train. We called this less-active woman and she sounded very excited to meet with us, and asked us to come as soon as possible. We were able to come on Saturday, her only day off.

Well, we prepared a lesson about Christ, with a few fallback plans depending on her needs (ironically we didn't use any of them, keep reading). We set off to her apartment, and found it relatively quickly. We rang the doorbell and heard her call for us to come up over a dog barking (yay, dogs!). From what we could gather, she lived alone, apparently with a dog.

Well, when we got to the apartment a man opened the door, much to our surprise. This man turned out to be her 21 year old son. When we made our way to the kitchen to greet this woman, she enthusiastically hugged us and ushered us into the living room. There sat her son and his two friends. She whipped out her phone and called her sister. "Sister! The missionaries are here. Grab your daughter and come over." She then told us that her sister would be here in 20 minutes. If we didn't mind, could we talk to everyone?

Yeah, sure. Of course! We smiled, and greeted everyone in the room. I guess when they mentioned the inactive they forgot to mention her whole family was inactive, or something. The woman dashed back into the kitchen to prepare snacks, so we chatted with her son and his friends. After a while we asked them how they felt church, and what they could remember about the last time they'd been to church.

"We go to church every week," the three youth responded, a little confused.

"Really?" we responded enthusiastically (albeit rather surprised), "That's wonderful! Doesn't church feel wonderful?"

"Yeah, I guess." The two boys and one girl were still looking at us a little funny.

"Do you read your scriptures and pray, too?"

"Yeah. We read and pray every night." One of the youth crossed himself while saying this. I grinned enthusiastically and was about to praise them when--

...Wait a second. He just crossed himself, didn't he?

The mother walked back in, "Everyone, I have an announcement! I'm not actually Catholic like you, I'm Mormon!"

EVERYONE in the room stared at her. Some mouths dropped. One of them was mine.

"These are the Mormon missionaries! They are going to teach you what I believe, and we are going to go to the Mormon church together from now on!"

My companion and I looked at each other. The three youth stared at this now-deemed-insane woman. They looked a little angry.

This inactive woman had raised her son and never told him she wasn't Catholic. They had been going to a Catholic church all their lives.

Everyone stared at us now. We looked at each other again. After our initial shock and shared look of 'we are about to get martyred by angry Christians' we determined what to do.

"Lesson 1?"

"Lesson 1."

So we taught them about our beliefs, and how/why the church was founded. At first we were given cold stares as we discussed the nature of God (Heavenly Father), how He speaks with us (Prophets), and Jesus Christ's Ministry on earth. We pointed out that our beliefs regarding this are generally the same as the Catholics, and they begrudgingly agreed. Then we discussed Jesus Christ's resurrection--

The doorbell rang. The dog barked. One of the three kids (I say kids, but they were our age) needed the bathroom. They all three dashed off. Eventually it got quiet again and they came back, to my initial surprise. I thought they'd be hidden away elsewhere, from how they were acting before. Huh.

We discussed the resurrection, and the Great Apostasy. We pointed out the need of an Apostasy and the predictions of the Great Apostasy, and how Christ's church would become slightly distorted and bara bara, or split into many different churches, and that's why there were so many today. Then we talked about Joseph Smith. We began the First Vision--

A cell phone rang. Not just a beep beep ring either, but the full nine yards dirty-dancing-rap song. It was...awkward, to say the least. I had never had this many interruptions before. The dog went crazy again several times, whenever we talked about living prophets or Christ. People kept coming and going through the house. The long-awaited sister arrived, noisily.

But what was amazing is after each interruption they all came right back. They were leaning forward over the table, like this was the most fascinating thing in the history of the world EVER. Which it is, y'know, but it's nice to have it appreciated. We were able to complete the First Vision, explain the Book of Mormon, and we read from it. The dog barked some more but was now ignored. We gave them a Book of Mormon and more information about what we had discussed. After the lesson they exclaimed that it was amazing, and started reading the Book of Mormon before we could even get up to leave. We arranged to meet them again, and left--much later than planned and much happier than ever expected.

That was, by FAR, the coolest lesson I have ever taught. I had heard that Satan does his best to interrupt our message, but I had never seen it in such shocking abundance. I also could never have imagined how unsuccessful he was.

And that's my story, in essence. The inactive woman who never told her family her religion, the coolest first discussion ever, and the curious phenomenon of getting interrupted when discussing spiritual things---particularly the First Vision. I think that fits rather neatly as a missionary story, wouldn't you say? It's not the first and definitely not the last, but I must admit, it's a favorite.

I still laugh whenever I think about how she made that announcement. "Guess what, I'm a Mormon!" Heh.

I better trundle off to do other things. I was planning on finally picking up that Birthday present today. I will treat myself to some much needed clothing, including a hoodie, a t-shirt, some socks, and a new skirt/blouse combo if I can get one. We found the Japanese equivalent of Wal-Mart (no, seriously, it's owned by Wal-Mart) and we're going to go give it a shot today. Go, Seiyu!

Love you, miss you, can't imagine anything else I'd rather be doing,

Me.

P.S. I cannot believe how many members in the Tokyo Foreigner Wards are CEOs/CIOs/CFOs of companies around here. It is INSANE. We just met the President of Nuskin. We know the CFO of Shell and the one of Seiyu. We have gotten Tupperware from the Tupperware president. We have met the former and current President of a very prominent Japanese bank. He gave us cookies. Who knew they were regular people? Who knew they were Members? I love Shibuya. I love our church, and I LOVE the gospel.

Thought of the Week

Even a sheet of paper has two sides.
Japanese Proverb

Happy super late Thanksgiving, everyone!

Once again, I have come to tell you about my week and I am without a camera cord. Which is a shame because I have some gorgeous pictures this time. I will simply have to have a very picture oriented post in future. Sorry, Shana. I also have a flash drive full, so I need to send it home. This scares me, as I am worried it will break. I will break down and ship it eventually---I really need space.

I had a wonderful birthday, thank you everyone who wished me a happy birthday! It was awesome. I woke up to find that my roommates had heart attacked my desk. They also hid little presents all over the apartment. I have a pencil that writes in 5 colors at once, a bubble-blower that blows bubbles that don't pop (really!), and I learned a few new magic tricks. I love magic tricks, so if anyone has any other ones, I would love to hear it! I know how to do the Royal Flush, the 3 piles of 3/ 3 piles of 7, Aces on top, Travelling Aces (also known as the invisible ace), and guess the card on top. I love it when people send me their ideas and tricks, especially with instructions, so thank you!! I used to be able to do This That and the Other but I can't remember some of the bits of it now...I am working on it, though.

Thanksgiving was so cool. Some people found out about the mission comic I have been doing and asked me to do a comic for the mormon.jp website [Editor's note: Remember that you can use Google Translate to translate web pages.] No one has officially requested it, but it was a thought. I think it's a cute idea, we'll see what happens.

I love hearing from all of you, and I wish I had a lot to say in return! We are still teaching and still meeting with members. We had one sweet woman come into our ward accidentally thinking it was a Catholic church. She's interested in being "healed" and wanted to hear more about our church, so she became an investigator. I don't want to give too many more details, but it was pretty cool.

Oh, yeah, so. I don't normally talk about lessons I gave or people we've met in any sort of detail. If you would like me to do so I can, but I figure this is a public blog so I could happily talk about the more mundane and random but it might be a little bimyo to talk about people I'm teaching or very spiritual experiences I have had. I recorded those in my journal, so they aren't lost, I just haven't opened them up here. Thoughts?

OH. So, some of you asked about Christmas. Uhm. This is awkward, but I am just going to tell you what I would like for Christmas here, okay?

Letters.

I LOVE getting paper letters from you all. I love coming home to a thick envelope with lots of information and occasionally photos. BEST GIFT EVER.

Just print out your blog and send it, that is so great. Send me some favorite poems and tell me why you like them, an update about the mundane, tell me about your NaNoWriMo, whatever. I just love hearing from you!

Okay, I am done.

Today I am super exhausted. Why? Because the Sisters heard about the fish market down in Tsukiji. They auction off tuna at 5 in the morning. Visitors are allowed to watch. "Let's do it!" they cried. So we woke up at 3 and left at 4 this morning so that we could get to Tsukiji.

There are no trains at 3AM, so we rode our bikes for nearly an hour in order to get there in time. Huzzah! The fish market. The fish were huge! I had no idea that tuna could get that big. They were probably around 4 feet long and supremely fat. It was so crazy.

It was actually sorta creepy. Those of you who do not eat meat or want to hear about fish selling please skip this paragraph to the next one. They had cut out huge holes where the gills usually are, so you could see the spine of the fish. All the fish were frozen and had numbers on them. The tails were hacked off and the belly, tail area, and neck area were wedged open so that people could inspect the meat. They then were sold. I didn't really enjoy looking at the fish. I can eat beef and chicken because it doesn't look a thing like a cow or a bird, so I can happily chomp away without thinking too hard about the animal itself. Fish actually look like fish when they are eaten and sold, and it was really sad to see rows upon rows of dead creatures waiting to be hacked into with ice picks and crow bars so that people could buy them wholesale.

I felt kinda ill after a while so I asked one of the other sisters to leave with me. I cannot eat fish today. I want to be a vegetarian, and if I didn't love beef so much I would be one right now. I seriously don't think I can eat fish without feeling super sick after today.

Oh, speaking of which, my Japanese Food Fast is over! I was able to eat Japanese food at a Japanese member's house on Sunday. Woohoo! I normally love Japanese food, especially ordered in restaurants in America. We were told we were having "curry pot." Sweet, curry!

We get there and there is a big post of boiling food in the middle of the table. You use chopsticks to grab food and put it into your bowl and eat it.

You'll never guess what I ate on Sunday.

Seriously, I have never eaten this 'authentically' before.

I have now eaten the following, right outta that pot:

-Cabbage

-Carrots

-Potato

-Chicken

-Onion

-Mushrooms

-Tofu

-Mochi

-Noodles

-Seaweed

-Shredded fish scales

-Fish Meatballs (<--WHY DO THESE EXIST)

-Squid

-Shrimp heads

-Octopus tentacles


I can now say with confidence that I have eaten Japanese food.

Thought of the Week

Beginning is easy - continuing is hard.
Japanese Proverb

It doesn't snow in Tokyo

At least, it hasn't snowed yet. It rains instead, which is far more annoying. Snow at least has the courtesy to stay outside of your clothing for the most part. Rain is very inconsiderate.

Sorry about my lack of an update last week. Internet has been difficult to obtain for P-Day for a while. I've been incredibly busy working on a few projects and with appointments, so that's good, right? I don't have a lot of time this week either, due to the same Internet problems.

First let me say THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has wished me a Happy Birthday! You are all so awesome. I really appreciate it. We found a Yakiniku restaurant (grill-your-own-food, mostly meat) that gives you all you can eat/drink for 1,200 yen (roughly $14) so we'll probably check that out either this week or the next.

Japan doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but ex-patriots in Japan do! My companion and I are over an ex-patriot ("Foreigner") ward here in Shibuya, so we actually got invited to a genuine Thanksgiving dinner! Huzzah! The Elders that got transferred were very sad.

Oh yes, transfers. I wanted to mention that. Transfers happen every 6 weeks. They are a rather big deal to missionaries, and in fact we measure time by transfers more than months when talking to other missionaries. Every transfer you find out if your whole world is getting flipped inside out: you could be moving across the country, you could be living with all new people, and that person you just commited to baptism may never see you again. It's pretty stressful.

It doesn't help that the mission handles transfers in possibly the worst fashion possible. Sometime on a Friday night we get a call. This call lets us know if there is a transfer. It doesn't say if both companions are leaving or just one, it just says "there is going to be a change in your companionship." A third person may come in, one may leave, or you may be getting whitewashed (both leave). You don't know.

Saturday you find out details. Who is going where, sorta thing. Saturday you have a deep cleaning and packing day. Sunday you say goodbye to the Ward, and Monday you transfer. It's crazy.

This was my first transfer in the field, so I was nervous. I really like Shibuya, and we had appointments well into the Christmas season and investigators we really liked, so my companion and I really wanted to stay. Then our district leader calls our apartment, where we and another companionship stay. The call goes kinda like this:

"Hey Sisters, how are ya?"

"Forget the small talk. Give us the news, Elder."

"Okay. *pause* Three of you are transferring and one of you is staying."

"..."

"..."

"WHAT."

"Ha ha! Nah, I'm just kidding. You're all staying."

That was not funny. Actually, that was pretty hilarious, but it freaked us out for a second. Two Elders got transferred, sadly. We wanted our district to remain unchanged, but alas.

Oh, a quick note, have any of my letters arrived yet? If anyone has recieved a letter from me while I was in Japan please let me know. I've been sending out letters every week but I'm never quite sure if they get there. I believe Adam got one, but I have no clue if my friends know how much I love them.

Which I do, so I guess I could just point it out here. You are loved!

Okay, I'm outta time. We have a lesson that we need to plan. Wish me luck!

Thought of the Week

One who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.
Japanese Proverb

C's letter to A

Our big brother, A, received a letter from C this week and sent me some of the news to post on this blog:

"My companion is a thespian. Enough said."

C is finding it funny that, while wandering around Tokyo, she can identify most of the music and film stars on the posters. This is a side effect from living with Japanese families for such a long time before her mission.

In particular, there's a huge role-playing game coming out in Japan soon (it's called Final Fantasy 13), and there are posters EVERYWHERE. Billboards, convenience stores, shopping centers, whatever. This is, unsurprisingly, distracting because C *loves* the Final Fantasy games. She hopes that someday she'll be transferred to the countryside because this will be less distracting, though I think she'll find that they stick posters in the convenience stores out there, too ;).

C's letter to S

I ran out of time because I have too many appointments today (even though it's P-Day! Nooo!), so no blog post. You can either put this, or if you want to put up a blog post or something you can. Life is great, Shibuya is huge, rain is terrible.

Thought of the Week

A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.
Japanese Proverb

Food

'So, I bet you are sick of Japanese food.'

'Here's some American food, I bet it's been a while!'

'You poor missionaries eat strange stuff all the time, huh?'

Thanks to wonderful members and a companion sick of local cuisine, I HAVE NOT YET EATEN JAPANESE FOOD.

Thought of the Week

Laughter cannot bring back what anger has driven away.
Japanese Proverb

Short but Sweet

Yesterday was a national holiday in Japan so the place we normally come to do e-mails (The LDS Family History Center in Tokyo, in fact) was closed. We dendou'ed instead and decided to come and do e-mails today. Today is cut a little short, we had a bit of an upset this morning and we have to hurry to get to our meetings on time. Rather than the usual wall of text I thought I'd try to spruce up the blog a bit. I won't do this quite so often in future because I love my sister and I want her to not hate doing this for me. This week is going great, and I'm really enjoying my time here. I was able to stop by a dollar store so I picked up a few essential supplies. I also sent out letters to a great number of you this week; if you do not get them by next Monday please let me know because you should have.

Okay, so here is mission life thus far.

Sometimes you have a hard time getting along with your companions.But most of the time it's just awesome.Especially when you can relax and have fun. (the person in the middle was my MTC companion, although due to my crazy swapping around all the sisters you've seen thus far were companions at one point. There is another sister, too)Missionaries will use any means to seek out people and teach.Those were my MTC days. Here in Shibuya it does get pretty hectic, but we've adapted rather well. Do you recognize this place? I guess there's a video of this crossing on my blog, so I hope this looks familiar. It was actually a pretty slow day when we took this.This is the Shibuya district. Bring it on! Ironically two of the sisters couldn't be in the picture because they were actually teaching. We just got out of a Halloween party.Yep. Missionaries will teach anyone who will listen!I really am having a great time, and while these are my favorite pictures, there is very little goofing around during the day. During the night, though, MAN. I just found an old deck of cards in our apartment. I've been doing magic tricks the past few nights. It's been awesome. If anyone wants to send me some magic trick instructions that can be done with a standard deck of cards, send them over! I have forgotten many of the ones I could do, I'm stuck at about 5 tricks.

I love you all, and thanks for reading! I hope to have more stories next week.

Thought of the Week

The only thing to fear is fear itself. And this guy. Happy Halloween, everyone!

I AM NOT DEAD.

It's been a while since I wrote a blog post myself. I think the last time I wrote one was before I got into quarantine, and before I knew what my travel plans were, is that correct? Quite a few things have happened since then, so let me see if I can catch you up. I believe my parents/lovely and wonderful sister kept you updated without me, but I have no idea how...perhaps just a note saying I'm in quarantine?

I would have LOVED to provide pictures at this point (I now have the ability to access my camera on this computer) but unfortunately I didn't bring the cable to hook my camera up. You shall have to deal with yet another wall of text, sorry! Hopefully my rather random 'Thoughts of the Week' are still updating and providing the occasional image.

Before I offer the massive 3 week update, I have a few quick notes. I tried to set up forwarding so that all my other e-mail accounts would forward to this one, and I found myself utterly unsuccessful. Gmail will allow you to forward to other Gmail accounts, but does not automatically forward to an account outside of Gmail. If you would like to contact me, you'll have to either send a letter or e-mail directly to this myldsmail.net account. It's my first initial and my last name @ myldsmail.net.

Now then, who wants to find out what missionary life is like?

---

It's hard. But not hard in the ways that I thought, and I'm certain (REALLY certain) that I'm only scratching the surface right now. I had thought that it would be physically taxing in that our throats would be sore from all the teaching and we'd be catching pneumonia from being in the baptismal water all the time (Holland's joke, bwa ha ha). Missions are more taxing in that you have to deal with mounds of rejection. AND a ton of walking, but we fixed that by biking. We do a lot of biking, but I enjoy it currently and I'll enjoy it more when I have my own bike.

But let's start from the beginning, shall we? It's a very good place to start.

Firstly, I was quarantined. This was very relaxing in some ways but mostly the dullest thing I have ever done. Good grief, I have never been so bored, and I became rather homesick for my little electronic devices that I usually use to get through the day. But I got over it, and I even got to meet two other roommates (sick people don't make the best conversationalists, but we made do), one the first day I was there and one the day before I left. It was good times. I was very grateful to get out of there, though.

I believe I discussed the food with my parents, but I'll make a note here. I don't mind putting up with cafeteria food, but it does get a little old. It's frustrating to not be able to choose what you put into your body. I become thoroughly sick of meat within 2 weeks, although I'm by no means vegetarian. I did survive on a diet of fruit and veggies so far as possible, though. I would still eat meat on the days when they had Teriyaki Stix or the BYU equivalent of Winger's Sticky Fingers (SO GOOD). The main issue I have with cafeteria food is the dishes. The dishes were frequently dirty. As in, globs of food stuck to the plate or fork. This is gross. What made it worse is you couldn't trust the dishes that look clean after a while--what if they weren't sanitary? The stress builds up and you find yourself hating the food. Sorry that I talk about food a lot, but it was something I noticed. Should you have any other friends or family in the MTC, send them some Cup of Ramen, or something! They will love you.

I certainly LOVED all the packages and letters I received. I fully expect that to wind down and stop now that I'm in another country, but let me tell you how much I appreciated your support. I've kept every letter and I read them more than once (to answer your question, Mom). I also LOVED those letters that included photos. I would love to have a picture of every single friend and family member, and we have little photo books that we show investigators. I feel rather naked without one.

Well, anyway, I get distracted easily. So, I got out of quarantine. The first piece of news I receive was that my VISA was cleared and I was free to leave Monday. Sweet! I spend most of that day (Friday) doing laundry as I was quarantined on Monday and we do laundry on Tuesdays, so my stuff was pretty dang gross. I don't think I have ever been so grateful for clean clothes, and I had a lot more sympathy for people that don't always have clean clothes with them...

Nothing else super amazing happened until Monday. Our zone (the missionaries going to Japan) had shrunk tremendously, and there were only 8 of us on Sunday. Weeeeeird.

Monday morning I woke up at 4:22 and got ready to get on to 5:00 am bus. What a blast that was! I had awesome suitcases so I was perfectly at 50 lbs on both and didn't have to repack at all. I just got my travel plans, got on the bus, and was off to the airport! A sister I met in the shower (Weston?) sat next to me. Her Uncle makes rich and amazing Canadian chocolate. I tried to set up a candy trade but couldn't get it underway fast enough, so she'll just get to enjoy all that sweet awesome chocolate while she's in Canada.

I made a lot of friends at the MTC ('The Pre-Existence'), and I suspect that I will maintain contact with 4 of them. They were all awesome peeps.

Well, I got to the airport and was a little jostled to find that people can be curt. Ah, right, I'd been spending 6 weeks in the MTC. Okay. I checked in without a hitch, got through security (he x-rayed my bag 7 times but never actually spoke to me. Bizarre) and was 3 hours early for my flight. I got to call Mumandad and had a lovely conversation while I hacked out my lungs. I was feeling great, but I STILL have a cough. I sat next to an older couple while I was waiting for my flight (I feel very uncomfortable sitting alone...I had no companion while traveling and it was rather odd feeling) and soon the time came and I clambered aboard. I always needed help with my carry-on; it had all my many books and was ridiculously heavy for its size. People are so nice when you are traveling!

The flight to LA took longer than I wanted it to, but soon I arrived. I had another couple hours to kill before my next flight, so I chatted with some older Japanese people returning home to Osaka, and met a gentleman who was headed to Manila (sp?) for the umpteenth time to chase the gal he fancied. He taught me a lot about airplanes--he makes airplane parts. I got super excited for the new airplanes coming out; smaller and more fuel efficient. That should be nice.

And finally, the flight to Tokyo! For those of you who aren't aware, we weren't allowed any music or movies in the MTC. Well, duh on the movies, but the music thing was sad. (Future missionaries: MTC rules do NOT equal mission rules. You may still be able to bring a music player. Tokyo allows music that is 'Sunday appropriate and by an LDS artist') Since I had not arrived at my mission yet, these rules still applied. This meant no movies on the plane. Well, if we each had our own screen this would not have been an issue, but unfortunately the plane only had one screen, and it was RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I watched scenes of movies (my neck is still stiff so I couldn't really look down) whenever I wasn't writing, reading, or sleeping.

That flight was long and miserable, but totally worth it. I was so excited when we touched down. I said quick farewells to the wonderfully cheerful Vietnamese couple sitting next to me, waved goodbye to the two Utahns that recognized my badge and wished them luck in China for the arts festival, grabbed my sickeningly heavy bag and dashed off the plane.

The first thing I did in the airport was adjust my face and brush my teeth. First impressions, you know? I grabbed my bags and headed out to meet my cheerful mission president.

I went through customs and headed out to meet my cheerful mission president.

I arrived at the arrival lounge and looked for my cheerful mission president.

There was no cheerful mission president.

I would have settled for a mission president, but I got no one at all. I wandered around the airport for a bit, idly wondering if the MTC even told them I was coming. Well, there was no point in sitting around, so I headed for the payphones. On the way there a Japanese woman stopped me and asked, 'Are you coming or going?' I didn't understand her at first, but then replied that I had just arrived. I asked if she needed help or anything (honestly I thought she was about to sell me something) when she responded that she was a member, and she was wondering why there was a missionary all alone.

A member! I explained my situation to her and she took me over to two other members, who were actually Americans, and her family. I explained my situation again. They gave me a cell phone and I called the Honbu (Mission Office/HQ). I think it went something like this:

'Moshi moshi Tokyo Honbu desu.' -Hello, this is the Tokyo HQ.

'Moshi moshi. Ano, Watashi wa C desu kedo.' -Hello, this is -my name-.

'Oh, Sister C! How are you?'

'I'm doing great. I'm actually at the Tokyo airport, and--'

'You are WHERE?!'

So, one heart attack, two transfers and a mission president later, some Elders were sent to pick me up. ...yeah, so, the MTC forgot to tell my mission I was coming.

I thought it was pretty funny, but they certainly didn't. It did mean a few problems, but by the time I got to the HQ I had a companion and a proselytizing area and everything. Good times.

My first day was mostly training, but the local sisters took me with them for some fun times. I thought I'd go housing, but they actually had 3 teaching appointments that day, so I got to invite someone to baptism, teach the first lesson, and teach the second lesson in Japanese. Good times, good times. It was such a blast!

My second day I met my companion: Sister Campos. She is from Las Vegas, and she sings Opera. She is AWESOME. I was a little scared that she'd be wanpaku (I don't think there's a translation for this, but it basically means bad missionary, disobedient, trunkie, etc.), or that she'd be super strict, but she turned out to be a little like me and Shana mixed up and turned into an awesome trainer. She was really nervous about being a trainer, but after our second day she told me that I acted just like all her other companions, and she didn't feel like I was a bean-chan ('Green Bean,' new missionary) at all. Best compliment ever.

My bike is on its way, and I've taught two lessons with Sister Campos thus far. It's a little less teaching than I'd hoped for, but we're working hard and doing our best here.

Oh! Isshi-kun is probably gonna freak out at this, but I want to rub it in. Guess where my first area is?

Shibuya.

The busiest area in Tokyo, arguably. This is where Scramble Crossing is. In fact, we go through Scramble Crossing on the way to our apartment--which is HUGE. Please look up Scramble Crossing, or just believe me when I say that I think it's the biggest/busiest intersection in the world, or something. Editor's note: Click here to watch a YouTube clip of Scramble Crossing in Shibuya.

I am loving my mission, and I love the members here. They are unbelievable nice to missionaries.

Go invite the missionaries over to your house! Give them food! They need food, both in their bellies and in canned/packaged form. But most importantly, invite any friends you might have that aren't members, and make sure they know that missionaries will be there. I crave opportunities to teach, and I bet they do too!

This post has become obscenely long, so I am gonna close it here, for now. I haven't given too many details about my apartment (it's big), the other two Sisters I'm living with (they are interesting), Sister Disney (she plays Disney Princesses in the parades and sings a lot, I could write a whole post about her but I want pictures for it) or my daily routine, but there are other weeks and other times.

I'm loving my mission and learning why Japanese people hate the rain. Try riding a bike in the rain in a skirt and you'll understand too.

I love you all, and I hope you won't totally forget about me! Letters make joy!

Thought of the Week

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

Excerpts from C's letter to Mom

Mom,

I have no e-mail because I have no computer. I have no computer because I can't leave this motel-like room. I can't leave because I've been quarantined. I've been quarantined because I have somehow contracted swine flu.

Sigh.

Basically, I have the only legitimate excuse to skip class and sleep all day. As this will most likely not come up for another 18 months, I am making the most of it. I am free and welcome to do whatever I like so long as I do not leave the room. As this is the MTC, that means I can either watch church videos, read the scriptures or write to my dear parents.

We get four visitors daily. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and the Doctor. Security brings the meals. If we need anything we ask; otherwise we wait until the next visitor.

What follows is a rant about the MTC food. The meal plans are clearly aimed at getting 19 year-old boys to clean their plates. With rare exceptions, I've been eating a vegetarian diet since coming here. Since every single choice has meat in it, this can be tricky, but is well worth it. Fruit, salads, water and milk have gotten me through. However, in quarantine you don't have choices. They bring you your meal. It is always something hot, a drink, and a dessert, with the occasional side. Now remember I said these meals are aimed at 19-year-old boys? We get fruit, bacon, sausage, and donuts (five! (5!) Who eats that many!) for breakfast, with soda and chocolate milk.

Lunch was cheese steak, nacho cheese chips, and feta cheese salad. Dinner looks good tonight, actually. Stir-fry, rice, egg-rolls. Again, soda to drink. And juice.

If I wasn't careful. this is what I'd eat every day. Can you imagine? Yuck.

This room is nice though. It's like a very cheap but clean motel room.

Mom's Note: Breaking news - C. is out of quarantine. She was allowed to call her family last night. She will be leaving for Japan on Monday morning at some ridiculously early hour.

Thought of the Week

To know all is to understand all. To understand all is to love everybody.

Thought of the Week

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
Terry Pratchett

I'm ALIVE!

Wasn't General Conference simply awesome? I can't believe how much I was missing out before. Seriously, that was possibly the single coolest spiritual experience I've had thus far. I took 26 pages of notes for all 5 sessions (we watched Relief Society at the same time the Elders watched Priesthood). It was so fascinating, spiritual, and almost totally worth sitting in hard plastic seats without being allowed to stand up.

And one of the coolest parts was when they announced the Sapporo, Japan Temple. I'm pretty sure our entire district (District: The group of missionaries who entered the MTC at the same time who are going to the same place or speaking the same language) shouted more than a little irreverently, although we tried to be quiet. The entire Zone (Zone: A group of districts all headed to the same country/mission. Often made up of missionaries who came in within 3 weeks of each other, but some districts in the zone can be 6 weeks behind the others) was jumping for joy afterward. It was just so great! We'd been talking and in a meeting the day before where we talked about prophecies that have been made about Japan, and one of the ones emphasized was that there would be many temples. Then a temple was announced. We all whispered after shouting loudly, "The Gospel is MAJI DE true!"

I have to keep a little more time to write e-mails than I did last week, so the rest of this post may seem a little rushed. I was actually going to say that it would be better next week because next week I'm in Japan and there isn't a stupid little timer in the upper right corner that shuts down the computer after my 30 minutes of provided e-mail time, but that's part of the news I have:

I'm not going to Japan next Monday.

I thought I was. The zone thought I was, but apparently we forgot to tell the MTC that some of the missionaries were skipping a grade. I have no VISA, no flight plans, nothing. They are now trying to remedy the situation, but they have told us that there is no way we'll be ready in time for Monday. If our Mission Presidents will take us late, we can go a few days later, otherwise we'll be in the MTC for another 6 weeks.

I have now begun to experience Cabin Fever. I'm still hoping that they are wrong and things get fixed so that I will go on Monday, but I think it would seriously kill my mood to be here for another 6 weeks. I want to go out and TEACH, dangit! Send me to California! Send me to Texas! Send me AWAY, and let me get to work!

All well. The good news is this means you may still hear from me one last time while I'm on American soil. This also gives you another chance to send me any packages you may feel prompted to provide.

Nah, I'm kidding.

I really appreciate everyone who has been writing me, though. Days go by much faster when there is a letter waiting to be read that evening. It may sound depressing, but I do actually read your letters multiple times. I love them!

Oh, the other news was going to be a health update. My neck is fine. I went to the Physical Therapist again on Monday (I hate going, it feels so selfishly wonderfully wasteful) and I got a clean bill of health, as long as I don't jerk my neck, look down, or do anything else that might lock it up.

Oh, by the way, to those of you who do not have my mission address, hopefully someone who does know will leave it as a comment or something, because I don't have it with me. To those of you who don't want to pay for the postage, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. I can READ your e-mails, I just can't REPLY in an e-mail, so if you do e-mail me be sure to give me your mailing address if you want a reply.

YES EVEN IF YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS. Just because I know where you live doesn't mean I can write it down.

Ugh...the news that I may be here another 6 weeks has kinda got me down. Bleah.

That's okay. Life here in the MTC is awesome. We have two really great teachers. One, Brother Porter, is a super nice, HUGE guy. He tells great stories and he's really good at getting along with the class. The other, Brother Lee, looks Japanese but was raised in California, I think. He's really fluent, though...maybe I'm wrong? He's very intimidating, but it's because he expects a lot from us and isn't happy when we don't live up to our potential. He's a great teacher. I learn a lot from both of them.

Both teachers don't really include me in the class discussions because they've worked out I already know the answers. This suits me just as well, while the other missionaries review bunpou (grammar patterns) I study kanji. It works rather well.

The MTC food is delicious, and it is ironically hard to eat healthy food, but it's certainly possible. I've been a little more lax lately, which is a shame, since I actually slimmed down right after coming in here. Back to the old grinding wheel, I guess.

A few other disctricts have continued to meet with us each Gym period. We usually play softball or soccer, but with the cold front here in Provo we've taken up Capture the Flag. As this is my favorite field game (short of Ultimate Frisbee, which we can't play) I won't complain.

But augh, I want to go to Japan! Nooooo! Stupid whoever didn't tell the MTC we moved up!

I better go write those other e-mails. Love you all, and despite what I may say, I love my mission! (Just not the MTC so much)

Thought of the Week

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993)

Happy Birthday Kimber!

Happy Birthday!

May your days be long, bright, and awesome!

"What's the different between a Physical Therapist and a Terrorist?" He asked.

"I don't know, what?" I replied through gritted teeth.

"You can negotiate with terrorists," he responded.

"Ha ha ha-AYUGH!" I laughed as he twisted my neck farther and to the right.

"Relax," he reminded me.

Yeah, right. I was seeing huge black spots and could barely keep my entire body from seizing. I actually have super sore muscles in my core and leg, I had been keeping them so tight.

So, I shall never secretly hope in my heart for something interesting to post in this blog. Heavenly Father hears our prayers, and this is a testament to that.

The other day I went to early morning gym and did some exercising. While in the midst of Electronic-Parade-Version Hymns, Waaaay too happy teachers, and jumping sisters, my neck popped. It felt just like any other popping joint, where something just slips with an audible noise. Normally you feel pretty good right after it happens.

I, regrettably, did not feel good. After the pop, I was no longer able to look up or to the right without enduring severe pain. I actually couldn't keep my head straight without any pain, so I found myself leaning my head to the left.

Not wanting to leave the class during such pathetic exercises, I continued with the gym period, just adjusting each time I had to look over the right shoulder. I assumed I had rubbed a muscle the wrong way, and it would feel better if I stretched it out. After gym, I rubbed my neck gently and returned to the room for personal study.

The pain did not abate. When we set out for breakfast, I asked my companion to come back to the gym with me. She agreed quickly. The pain had gotten much worse, and it was difficult not to change my breathing or cry out. I spoke with the physical therapist at the gym, and he took one look at my neck, heard what I was doing, and said, "You probably just strained it. Tilt your head far to the left and gently return it to center position. Stretch that muscle. You'll be fine."

I thanked him for his time and left once again for breakfast. I tried that exercise, and it didn't seem to help. In fact, after 3 times the pain suddenly increased to the point where I was having difficulty thinking straight at all. I could no longer find any position where my neck was not hurting.

I was worried, and did not hesitate when my companion suggested we skip our service activity to go to the health clinic. By the time we arrived, I asked her to explain the problem while I started to cry. I was getting so frustrated---I had been injured and I couldn't figure out why or how. I couldn't understand what was wrong with my neck, and by this point it was a constant and unavoidable 7 on the pain scale.

We waited for an incredibly long time at the clinic. I was put in as an emergency appointment. The doctor still took 20 minutes to see me (this is probably really fast but I was super frustrated). He grabbed my neck roughly and jerked it around, then checked my reflexes. "Your neck muscles have torn. I'll schedule physical therapy." he responded.

We went through some paperwork, my parents were called for insurance information, and I was put on a shuttle and taken to a physical therapist. He finally gave me a full examinationg WITHOUT yanking my head around in any way.

He announced that my spine had locked up in the neck, in 5 different joints. Normally joints slide on top of each other just fine, but mine became locked side by side and wouldn't move. This was causing the pain and the lack of movability.

He then went through a series of INCREDIBLY PAINFUL twists and turns of my neck. I knew this was necessary and put up with it, but it was not pleasant by any meaning of the word. He did this 5 times, one for each locked up joint, and then apologized---some of the joints were so badly locked up that he had to do them again. This was easily a 12 on the pain scale (of 10). It was difficult, but I dealt with it. This lasted for 2 hours.

I was now able to move my neck, but not without severe pain. This all happened Friday. On Monday, I went back to see him and he was able to make it so I have full movement on my neck, but I have to go back the rest of this week in order to fix the problem and prevent it from happening again. I am happy for him to help prevent this from happening again, but I still wish it had never happened in the first place. It's embarrassing to visit doctors and be sick.

And now, you might be wondering what I was doing when this horrible spinal injury occurred. I would love to entertain you with dramtic tales of me leaping up walls to grab the basketball and make the game saving throw only to fall badly, or jumping down stairs and side-kicking to the face only to have the return catch me at a bad angle. I would to regale such impressive stories of how this all came to be, but I am striving to be Honest this week, and so I am left only with the truth:

A jumping jack broke my neck.

Thought of the Week

Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth. And set down as gain each day that Fortune grants.
Horace (65 BC - 8 BC), Odes

Letter 9/22/09

Well, one more week down here at the MTC. Things have been really awesome.

For the record, my mailbox number has changed. Please send future letters to Mailbox #227, not 228. You can still send stuff to the old address (technically it's been 227 all along but I still get my letters just fine), it's just that if you send stuff to mailbox 227 I'll get my letters about a day faster and technically correctly. Many thanks to EVERYONE who has been writing me! Your letters completely light up my day, and I love getting news from all of you!

Unfortunately we were running a little late today so I don't have much time for a blog post. I'll try to remember stuff that's happened since last I wrote. Since I have no way of viewing my blog or previous post, it'll be tough to remember where I left off.

Did I mention that Elder Holland spoke last week? His talk was AMAZING. It was a total power house. We get great speakers every Sunday and Tuesday. We also get to watch church videos every Sunday night, if we don't have other meetings.

I'm not sure if I described much of my schedule last time...did I? It's awful busy, but a lot of fun. Things that you normally can put off until you have time in the evening can't be put off here. Seriously. You either have 5 minutes to go to the store, or you can go to the bathroom before class, but not both. That's how finely cut our day is.

Monday we had a Large Group Meeting (these happen every week) where a former missionary speaks to us about a certain topic related to better missionary experiences. He went to Japan, and he had some awesome stories, but I don't actually have time anymore to type them. Suffice to say that Japanese old men chasing missionaries through a forest is HILARIOUS. He also told us some really key things about finding people to teach, and how you need to talk to EVERYONE, all the time.

We also got together with a ton of sisters and arranged to play with each other every Gym period, which we have each weekday. Yesterday we played soccer, and tomorrow we're gonna play kick ball. It should be a ton of fun.

This Sunday I was able to interpret. It was difficult, but very fun. It's interesting to listen to Japanese, then speak English, then have to catch the next Japanese sentence in order to translate that, too. It was great, I hope to do it again.

One of the sisters in my triad companionship is getting a new companion tomorrow. She is teaching me how to read Korean before she goes. We will miss her.

I'm a Host tomorrow, so I'll be greeting new missionaries. I'm very excited!

Uh, was there anything else? I'd love to type more but---


SISTER MISSIONARY LOGGED OFF
REASON: TIME EXPIRED

Thought of the Week

We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try.
Tom Clancy (1947 - )

Letter 9/15/09

Hey, this is Shana. I'll try to post C's blog entries within 24 hours of her sending them to me so that you can all keep updated. Please feel free to contact me anytime through my blog at www.shanalyris.blogspot.com or through my e-mail if you have it. And now, here is C:

Hey everyone! I was originally hoping to have these posts appear on Sundays, but I can only write e-mails on Tuesdays at the MTC. I believe the P-Day (the day we can write e-mails) in Tokyo is Thursday, but I'm not sure, so that will vary a little bit too.

I'm here at the MTC, sitting with my companion, writing some rocking awesome e-mails! This is great. I better tell you a little bit about what happened before my timer runs out, huh?

Just because I'm a glutton for letters, let me point out that you can write me (it'll be like sending an -email for you, but I'll get it as a letter) through Dear Elder, though I'm not totally sure about that link. My mail box number is 228, my mission code is JPN TOK, and I leave October 13th.

I arrived at the MTC bright and early after a refreshing walk with my parents. We figured we were close enough and walking would be hilarious, so we walked. Upon arrival I was carted from one building to another and told to stand in this line or that line, handed several packages and some books. No one really explained anything to me, they just dropped me off at a classroom and said g'bye. There I got to meet the rest of my district; other new missionaries that were called to Japan. We all greeted, met our teacher, and discovered that the missionary day is divided into 5-10 minute increments that span from 6:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night. It's totally bizarre. I've never been so worked in my life. I met two companions that first day, and we were all bewildered together.

Thursday was also pretty neat. A general day is wake up, go to the classroom and study, go to breakfast, return to the classroom and work with your first teacher, go to lunch, return to the classroom and work with your second teacher, go to gym, go to dinner, return to the classroom to either work with a teacher or get self-maintained mandatory study time, then have a companion planning session (to plan the next day) and return to your room to write in your journal, pray, shower, and sleep. It's awesome, but it's super busy and pretty stressful. I love it.

The coolest part about Thursday is that I got moved into the advanced class. Rather than stay here 12 weeks I'll be staying here 6. I got a new companion, too. She had been a solo sister before, but now there are other sisters so she gets a companion! She's super happy about it, and I like her a lot, so it's pretty mutual fun.

Everyday we can eat lunch fast, or use our personal study time to go to practice teaching appointments. These are when we go and teach to a teacher who is pretending to be an investigator. Since I missed 6 weeks of practice, I'm way behind. The rest of my new district is already teaching entirely in Japanese, and they've had a lot of practice at being smooth, relaxed, confident teachers. My Japanese can take care of itself for the most part (I had to learn a TON of new gospel words), but my teaching skills are still lacking.

The food here is so delicious, I can see why people gain weight. Also, they in no way try to make you eat a balanced meal. You actually have to plan pretty carefully in order to eat right. As it is, I really need to get some more fiber and vitamins in my diet. There's way too much temptation to eat unhealthy food. Curse you, delicious cafeteria food!

$10 says I'll be sick of it by next week, though. Any takers?

Anyway, the coolest part here is how much you feel the Spirit. You really do. I was worried the first day (I wasn't feeling too spiritual) but I've just had so many experiences since then. It's really been amazing. I probably will sound like one of "those" missionaries for a while, but please put up with me. It totally rocks here.

People have been going pretty easy on me, even though I'm in the advanced district. I still haven't been in the MTC for a week (It's only been a week?!) so people don't expect me to have the same hymns and scriptures memorized in Japanese like they do. They also don't expect me to have a well thought out talk on Sunday.

Oh! That's something neat about the MTC. Every Sunday you have to prepare a 5-minute talk before Sacrament meeting. There's a catch: you only find out what the meeting "theme" is Sunday morning. So Sunday afternoon everyone writes a talk. The Senpai (advanced districts) assured the kouhai (new districts with new missionaries) that the kouhai wouldn't have to speak on Sunday. No one expected them to know Japanese yet. Since I'm still a new missionary, they assured me I wouldn't speak either. There were still senpai who haven't spoken, and NO ONE speaks their first Sunday.

Well, I guess I broke that record. Guess who got called to speak this last Sunday?

Me, in case you couldn't guess. There was a pretty big gasp and a lot of whispered, "Aw, no WAY..."'s in the crowd when they asked me to come up and give a talk. The theme was baptism. I'm so glad I prepared!

The Branch President thanked me for speaking afterward. I thought it was pretty awesome, but I was super surprised. I guess they're going with the Trial by Fire method sometimes.

Well, that's about all the time I have. If you want to contact me, I suggest using Dear Elder, please. If you want to e-mail me, contact a member of my family. Hopefully they'll have my e-mail address.

See you next week!

Thought of the Week

Good taste is the enemy of comedy.
Mel Brooks (1926 - )

What is this blog? The inevitable introduction

This blog is intended for people to read while I am on my mission. It's a public blog so I would not post any seriously private information, such as addresses, phone numbers, first + last names, or anything of the like. If you need to send any of that information to me, either send it to my usual e-mail address, or send it to my sister Shana, who is moderating this blog. A link to her blog can be found at balgram.blogspot.com. Ideally though, and seriously, just send it to me via e-mail or letter. Anyway.

Many of the posts on this blog have been written in advance, and the blog will update a few times, at least once a week, while I am gone. The current plan is to have a thought/random message or joke once a week (Saturday) and a real post from me on my mission once a week (Sunday).

I wanted to have a comic here too, but that's just not likely, seeing as I never actually uploaded all those pictures I drew.

Thoughts

These thoughts will just be random thoughts, quotes, and other posts that I want to record. Most of the time it will be neat quotes or poems that I like. Some of the thoughts will be totally random, of course. I strongly suspect that this day will be the least cool, which is why it will update on Saturdays, when you all have better things to do anyway. These posts will invariably be short.

Sunday Posts

These posts will depend on my mission situation. If I can use e-mail, I will be sending an e-mail to my family with a section "For the blog" that they can then copy and paste here, updating for me. I've spoken with my sister and she has indicated willingness to update my blog on my behalf. This post will be my current mission life.