A clear conscience is more valuable than wealth.
Tagalog Saying
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
I was hoping to go into more detail, but it'll have to wait
I set aside a bunch of time to write a long, juicy, gorgeous blog post. I have pictures and everything. Then LIFE happened and here I am. Rather than details, I'm afraid you will just have to get the Twitter version:
1. Matsudo is really cold. But lately we've had a hot streak, where you barely need a coat. The wind still blows bikes over with alarming accuracy.
2. I cannot believe people are moving and having babies and such. Quit proceeding without me! All well. I am more disturbed by the correctness of my predictions made thus far.
3. I love being a missionary! It's so cool.
4. We have a baptismal date set! I would love to have more details, but I shall simply have to give them after the actual baptism, which is Valentine's Day.
5. Biking is fun, climbing up 8 flights of stairs is less fun. I am grateful for elevators, and I am sad when we do not use them.
6. I have learned how to make some really yummy Japanese food! Yay! I have now added OmRice, NikuJaga, Japanese Curry, and Miso Soup to my slowly expanding repertoire.
7. One of the Elders had a birthday this week and a member wanted to bake a cake to slam into his face (it's just how she is). By the time she finished making the cake, it was just so darn pretty that she didn't have the heart so we gave it to him normally.
Sorry, citizens, but that's all for now. There is trouble in Gotham.
1. Matsudo is really cold. But lately we've had a hot streak, where you barely need a coat. The wind still blows bikes over with alarming accuracy.
2. I cannot believe people are moving and having babies and such. Quit proceeding without me! All well. I am more disturbed by the correctness of my predictions made thus far.
3. I love being a missionary! It's so cool.
4. We have a baptismal date set! I would love to have more details, but I shall simply have to give them after the actual baptism, which is Valentine's Day.
5. Biking is fun, climbing up 8 flights of stairs is less fun. I am grateful for elevators, and I am sad when we do not use them.
6. I have learned how to make some really yummy Japanese food! Yay! I have now added OmRice, NikuJaga, Japanese Curry, and Miso Soup to my slowly expanding repertoire.
7. One of the Elders had a birthday this week and a member wanted to bake a cake to slam into his face (it's just how she is). By the time she finished making the cake, it was just so darn pretty that she didn't have the heart so we gave it to him normally.
Sorry, citizens, but that's all for now. There is trouble in Gotham.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Long Time, No Time!
My apologies for a lack of communication last week. The door to the family history center was inadvertently locked, and since that is the only access to e-mail we have, we do not get to e-mail our families if it is locked on Tuesdays. I sent out a letter instead, I hope that will suffice.
I actually only have about 4 minutes, so I am afraid there will be a significant lack of details today. I will endeavor to answer most of the questions I got.
First, Matsudo is a lot of fun, but it is very different from Shibuya. In Shibuya there is no point in housing (going door to door and knocking to talk to people inside) because there are so many people on the streets, and not a lot of houses. In Matsudo there are very few people on the streets, but the area is so much bigger that we spend most of our time biking from place to place anyway! We spend a large chunk of our time working with Less Actives. We teach them the gospel, much in the way we teach the current investigators.
We have a lot of investigators, by the way. We are averaging 2 1/2 appointments every day. The rest of the time we spend visiting people, handing out fliers, performing service, or getting caught up in something unexpected.
This area is a lot of fun, and I am getting used to Japanese food again. I STILL hate raw seaweed, but everything else is pretty much okay. Except raw seafood. Raw fish, fine. Raw squid, not fine.
You can see Mount Fuji from the church. I would show you a picture but I unfortunately didn't bring the connector cable.
Oh, and it is rather cold. Not Provo cold, but cold enough. My poor lil' toes are not happy, but I have taken up wearing very warm socks constantly. There was one day where my camera lens got jammed. I nearly cried, I thought I had lost my camera! When we took it inside it fixed itself. I guess it had been too cold for too long...
Anyway, life is still good. I apologize sincerely that I could not respond to all the friends and family who wrote to me individually this week. I shall do my best to make it up to you in following weeks.
In regards to questions, I am forwarding e-mails to my own gmail account, I am happy, this area is considered countryside only by Tokyo standards (that really is what they call it though, even in English), and I refuse to believe that any time spent in any snow can be considered boring.
That's all the time I have, folks! Love ya!
I actually only have about 4 minutes, so I am afraid there will be a significant lack of details today. I will endeavor to answer most of the questions I got.
First, Matsudo is a lot of fun, but it is very different from Shibuya. In Shibuya there is no point in housing (going door to door and knocking to talk to people inside) because there are so many people on the streets, and not a lot of houses. In Matsudo there are very few people on the streets, but the area is so much bigger that we spend most of our time biking from place to place anyway! We spend a large chunk of our time working with Less Actives. We teach them the gospel, much in the way we teach the current investigators.
We have a lot of investigators, by the way. We are averaging 2 1/2 appointments every day. The rest of the time we spend visiting people, handing out fliers, performing service, or getting caught up in something unexpected.
This area is a lot of fun, and I am getting used to Japanese food again. I STILL hate raw seaweed, but everything else is pretty much okay. Except raw seafood. Raw fish, fine. Raw squid, not fine.
You can see Mount Fuji from the church. I would show you a picture but I unfortunately didn't bring the connector cable.
Oh, and it is rather cold. Not Provo cold, but cold enough. My poor lil' toes are not happy, but I have taken up wearing very warm socks constantly. There was one day where my camera lens got jammed. I nearly cried, I thought I had lost my camera! When we took it inside it fixed itself. I guess it had been too cold for too long...
Anyway, life is still good. I apologize sincerely that I could not respond to all the friends and family who wrote to me individually this week. I shall do my best to make it up to you in following weeks.
In regards to questions, I am forwarding e-mails to my own gmail account, I am happy, this area is considered countryside only by Tokyo standards (that really is what they call it though, even in English), and I refuse to believe that any time spent in any snow can be considered boring.
That's all the time I have, folks! Love ya!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Thought of the Week
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The tongue is but three inches long, yet it can kill a man six feet high.
Japanese Proverb
Friday, January 8, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Number of bikes I successfully disassembled: 3
Number of bikes I successfully managed to put back together: 1
Now, mind you, that statistic is not as bad as it looks. The only bike I even attempted to put back together was mine. And why, you might ask?
BECAUSE I WAS TRANSFERRED!
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I am no longer in the busiest part of Tokyo. GASP, I know, right? I have left Shibuya, and I am now in the inaka (countryside) known as Matsudo. The missionaries refer to Matsudo as inaka. Now, I want you to close your eyes and imagine some countryside for me, will you?
Clearly your eyes are not closed, as you are reading this sentence, but that's okay. You pictured some countryside, right? There was probably some greenery, a few animals, and blue sky, or something similar.
Tell me, did anyone imagine this?
I mean, there is green hidden in there, and you can see the sky, but does that scream 'countryside' to you?
To be honest, it kinda did for me. I was in Shibuya before, after all. Shibuya may or may not have sky, I do not know, they do their best to draw the eye away from it by building huge skyscrapers and adding flashing lights to the bottom floors. Just in case you forgot, Shibuya looks more like this:
Matsudo doesn't.
Shibuya will be missed. Especially since I finally found the equivalent of an anime convention. It was out in the park on New Year's day. There were about 50 people gathered together in costume dancing to anime songs. They were doing the Haruhi Suzumiya closing song when I snapped this:
And yes I do think it is sad that a) I know what song they were doing, b) I recognized the dance (although anyone who read what I was up to this summer would know why) and c) EVERYONE IN THAT PICTURE IS A MAN.
Go take a closer look.
THOSE WERE ALL MEN.
Okay, moving on.
I prefer Matsudo. I really like the slower pace. I also really love the apartment and my companion, both of which are very Japanese. I wish the apartment had heating, but we improvise.
That's all the time I have right now so I hope I covered just about everything. Just in case, here's two more images for you to consider:
Matsudo:
Matsudo church:
Yes that is indeed a 5 story tall church. It's all church, too. It's the largest in Japan, I think.
There are 200 active members. All investigators are referrals.
Yes, I do indeed like Matsudo.
Love y'all, bye for now!
Now, mind you, that statistic is not as bad as it looks. The only bike I even attempted to put back together was mine. And why, you might ask?
BECAUSE I WAS TRANSFERRED!
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I am no longer in the busiest part of Tokyo. GASP, I know, right? I have left Shibuya, and I am now in the inaka (countryside) known as Matsudo. The missionaries refer to Matsudo as inaka. Now, I want you to close your eyes and imagine some countryside for me, will you?
Clearly your eyes are not closed, as you are reading this sentence, but that's okay. You pictured some countryside, right? There was probably some greenery, a few animals, and blue sky, or something similar.
Tell me, did anyone imagine this?
I mean, there is green hidden in there, and you can see the sky, but does that scream 'countryside' to you?To be honest, it kinda did for me. I was in Shibuya before, after all. Shibuya may or may not have sky, I do not know, they do their best to draw the eye away from it by building huge skyscrapers and adding flashing lights to the bottom floors. Just in case you forgot, Shibuya looks more like this:
Matsudo doesn't.Shibuya will be missed. Especially since I finally found the equivalent of an anime convention. It was out in the park on New Year's day. There were about 50 people gathered together in costume dancing to anime songs. They were doing the Haruhi Suzumiya closing song when I snapped this:
And yes I do think it is sad that a) I know what song they were doing, b) I recognized the dance (although anyone who read what I was up to this summer would know why) and c) EVERYONE IN THAT PICTURE IS A MAN.Go take a closer look.
THOSE WERE ALL MEN.
Okay, moving on.
I prefer Matsudo. I really like the slower pace. I also really love the apartment and my companion, both of which are very Japanese. I wish the apartment had heating, but we improvise.
That's all the time I have right now so I hope I covered just about everything. Just in case, here's two more images for you to consider:
Matsudo:
Matsudo church:
Yes that is indeed a 5 story tall church. It's all church, too. It's the largest in Japan, I think.There are 200 active members. All investigators are referrals.
Yes, I do indeed like Matsudo.
Love y'all, bye for now!
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