I used up most of my time this week writing to various folks and I forgot that a lot of short e-mails equals one very long chunk of time, so here's today's status:
I am sunburned quite badly on my face.
This is because we went to a BBQ in Abiko and the sun made an appearance. We went to a very VERY wide park and, sasuga Japan ("that's Japan for ya"), it was very minimalist and there was NO shade in the entire field. I did not expect either of these things (the sun nor lack of shade), so I was outside and happily enjoying myself playing Japanese Ultimate Frisbee (it's the same but with real vests and a whistle and a ref and stuff) and eating burgers. When I came home I felt hot and sick and terrible and today I have a VERY red face.
Boy, is my face red.
Ha.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
My First Run-in with the Law
We had a few interesting things happen to us this week. We met some new and interesting people, and I am now certain that I have seen a very drunk man and a slightly deranged woman. The one was dancing and singing in a classic manner, and the other was shouting at the air next to her suitcase on the train. It was actually a little sad, to be honest.
In other MUCH happier news, my big brother is engaged. Woohoo! My happiness knows no bounds. Congratulations to the happy couple! I wanted to have a picture of my reaction to his 'I'm engaged' e-mail but I didn't have my camera ready, so this blog is going without photos this week.
In other other news, I talked in my sleep in Japanese again. This time I had a fairly decent conversation, but my companion forgot the topic (she was a little drowsy herself and she was mainly just surprised that I was speaking Japanese again). I am embarrassed that I talk in my sleep, but at least I'm getting some language practice in!
Last night we met with T.Y. Shimai, who was baptized last transfer. She is so wonderful. She really wants her husband to get baptized too, and she is working with him gradually. He isn't opposed to the church, but he's just not interested. She is taking small steps. Small, ADORABLE steps. Last night when they prayed, they said Aisuru Ten no Otousama (Our Dear Heavenly Father) and Amen together, and she filled in everything in between. So, in a way, she's getting him started in prayer. He also listened to our spiritual message and he has agreed to let the missionaries start teaching him. It was an AWESOME day!
As for the blog title, we got to meet the police on Sunday. After church we went over to a member's home for a Ward FHE. It was a lot of fun (as usual) and we all enjoyed it. This member has Ward FHE at her home every month. Well, apparently this month there were too many bicycles and cars out front, which aroused the suspicions of the police patrol because they came to break up the potential illegal activities or insurrection. Honestly, I'm not sure what they thought we were doing and I don't know if they know either, but the fact is that our celebration was indeed ended rather quickly by the arrival of the police. I guess one of the cars was parked illegally so they threatened to ticket EVERYONE if we didn't break things up soon. Or something. The moral is the cops questioned us (Japanese style, mind you, so it was very friendly and polite) and I have now met the fuzz as a missionary. It was much simpler than the time I forgot my passport at the airport, and no one was arrested this time.
That's all the news for this week. Next week we already have appointments for every day, and most appointments overlap so we are going to be doing a lot of splits with members. I am excited but starting to get tired. Doing splits is pretty stressful, and not being with your companion is a little unsettling. All well, we really appreciate the members for being so willing to work with us, and we are able to get a lot more done. Go, members!
I am having fun in Tokyo, I hope you are also enjoying life wherever you are. Oh, and P.S., it's totally short-sleeve weather over here. Isn't that nice?
In other MUCH happier news, my big brother is engaged. Woohoo! My happiness knows no bounds. Congratulations to the happy couple! I wanted to have a picture of my reaction to his 'I'm engaged' e-mail but I didn't have my camera ready, so this blog is going without photos this week.
In other other news, I talked in my sleep in Japanese again. This time I had a fairly decent conversation, but my companion forgot the topic (she was a little drowsy herself and she was mainly just surprised that I was speaking Japanese again). I am embarrassed that I talk in my sleep, but at least I'm getting some language practice in!
Last night we met with T.Y. Shimai, who was baptized last transfer. She is so wonderful. She really wants her husband to get baptized too, and she is working with him gradually. He isn't opposed to the church, but he's just not interested. She is taking small steps. Small, ADORABLE steps. Last night when they prayed, they said Aisuru Ten no Otousama (Our Dear Heavenly Father) and Amen together, and she filled in everything in between. So, in a way, she's getting him started in prayer. He also listened to our spiritual message and he has agreed to let the missionaries start teaching him. It was an AWESOME day!
As for the blog title, we got to meet the police on Sunday. After church we went over to a member's home for a Ward FHE. It was a lot of fun (as usual) and we all enjoyed it. This member has Ward FHE at her home every month. Well, apparently this month there were too many bicycles and cars out front, which aroused the suspicions of the police patrol because they came to break up the potential illegal activities or insurrection. Honestly, I'm not sure what they thought we were doing and I don't know if they know either, but the fact is that our celebration was indeed ended rather quickly by the arrival of the police. I guess one of the cars was parked illegally so they threatened to ticket EVERYONE if we didn't break things up soon. Or something. The moral is the cops questioned us (Japanese style, mind you, so it was very friendly and polite) and I have now met the fuzz as a missionary. It was much simpler than the time I forgot my passport at the airport, and no one was arrested this time.
That's all the news for this week. Next week we already have appointments for every day, and most appointments overlap so we are going to be doing a lot of splits with members. I am excited but starting to get tired. Doing splits is pretty stressful, and not being with your companion is a little unsettling. All well, we really appreciate the members for being so willing to work with us, and we are able to get a lot more done. Go, members!
I am having fun in Tokyo, I hope you are also enjoying life wherever you are. Oh, and P.S., it's totally short-sleeve weather over here. Isn't that nice?
Monday, March 8, 2010
Happy Hinamatsuri!
Greetings from a ridiculously cold and cloudy Tokyo! Lately we have been having more and more Spring days so this week's sudden turn for the worst is MOST unwelcome. The cherry tree blossoms should be appearing soon, and there are already a few early bloomers. I am VERY excited!
Yesterday my companion and I decided to bike from our apartment in Matsudo to the church in Abiko. We are over both areas, but the train is not the cheapest so we wanted to see how feasible it was to go by bike. Our appointments for the day were few (one) and late (dinner appointment! Whoo!) so we decided to head out after morning study, arrive at the church, estimate how long it took and house with our spare time, then return with enough time to look good and nice for the appointment (i.e. smooth our hair in the mirror and remove bugs from our teeth).
Well, we got a REALLY neat referral that required some coordination (I'll talk about that next week, after we've met with her, but basically she's a pro-manga artist. I am excited.) so we set out later than we originally planned but still with plenty of time. We decided to use more back roads rather than the main road because we could have better conversations if we didn't have to yell over the noise of busy traffic. It was all going well until I asked my companion to lead but gave her bad directions. She set off with a blast and went straight...when she really, REALLY needed to turn right. Augh, I thought, I've just killed my companion. Well, no, but going straight did mean that we went DOWN a mountain when we were supposed to go along the top. And we had just spent the better part of an hour climbing aforementioned mountain. (A note to Utah readers: mountain = large hill, no higher than the Y, but that's still high!)
After racing to catch up with my zooming companion and explaining what I had done, we discovered a new route that was actually faster but required much more map chacking due to the labyrinth of roads commonly found in Tokyo. By the time we made it to Abiko church we were cold, tired, and had made 3 bad turns making the total trip 3 hours.
Our appointment was in 90 minutes and was about 10 minutes from our apartment.
We decided to go for it and raced home on the main busy road. It was exactly 90 minutes later when we rang her doorbell, panting but smiling and VERY pleased with ourselves.
We slept very well that night.
All in all it was a great day. We went far, we talked to a lot of people along the way, and we learned a lot about the roads.
Tomorrow we are conducting a training for the Zone Conference. It will be my first time conducting training. I am excited but rather nervous, as the topic is "How to speak Japanese fluently." You may scoff and say, "You'll be fine, you already spoke Japanese." Ah, I shall respond, but my audience are all older than I am in terms of mission-age, and many of them speak MUCH better Japanese than I do.
I am still looking forward to it.
I have written a number of letters over the past two weeks, but if you feel you haven't gotten a letter from me lately and you desire to bask more fully in the love I feel for you all, drop me a line (either e-mail or a letter) and be sure to include your correct mailing address. Family, you can do this too.
See you next week!
Yesterday my companion and I decided to bike from our apartment in Matsudo to the church in Abiko. We are over both areas, but the train is not the cheapest so we wanted to see how feasible it was to go by bike. Our appointments for the day were few (one) and late (dinner appointment! Whoo!) so we decided to head out after morning study, arrive at the church, estimate how long it took and house with our spare time, then return with enough time to look good and nice for the appointment (i.e. smooth our hair in the mirror and remove bugs from our teeth).
Well, we got a REALLY neat referral that required some coordination (I'll talk about that next week, after we've met with her, but basically she's a pro-manga artist. I am excited.) so we set out later than we originally planned but still with plenty of time. We decided to use more back roads rather than the main road because we could have better conversations if we didn't have to yell over the noise of busy traffic. It was all going well until I asked my companion to lead but gave her bad directions. She set off with a blast and went straight...when she really, REALLY needed to turn right. Augh, I thought, I've just killed my companion. Well, no, but going straight did mean that we went DOWN a mountain when we were supposed to go along the top. And we had just spent the better part of an hour climbing aforementioned mountain. (A note to Utah readers: mountain = large hill, no higher than the Y, but that's still high!)
After racing to catch up with my zooming companion and explaining what I had done, we discovered a new route that was actually faster but required much more map chacking due to the labyrinth of roads commonly found in Tokyo. By the time we made it to Abiko church we were cold, tired, and had made 3 bad turns making the total trip 3 hours.
Our appointment was in 90 minutes and was about 10 minutes from our apartment.
We decided to go for it and raced home on the main busy road. It was exactly 90 minutes later when we rang her doorbell, panting but smiling and VERY pleased with ourselves.
We slept very well that night.
All in all it was a great day. We went far, we talked to a lot of people along the way, and we learned a lot about the roads.
Tomorrow we are conducting a training for the Zone Conference. It will be my first time conducting training. I am excited but rather nervous, as the topic is "How to speak Japanese fluently." You may scoff and say, "You'll be fine, you already spoke Japanese." Ah, I shall respond, but my audience are all older than I am in terms of mission-age, and many of them speak MUCH better Japanese than I do.
I am still looking forward to it.
I have written a number of letters over the past two weeks, but if you feel you haven't gotten a letter from me lately and you desire to bask more fully in the love I feel for you all, drop me a line (either e-mail or a letter) and be sure to include your correct mailing address. Family, you can do this too.
See you next week!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
We added her flowers to the cherry blossoms we got the night before
Happy Spring! The weather isn't quite sure if it's ready to change from winter to spring yet, but we've been getting more rain than snow lately and the sun has decided to make a few brief but very impressionable appearances. Some of the trees have started blooming as well, leading to a lot of fun dendou (missionary work)!
In fact, one particular experience was directly related to a tree blooming. For those of you who may not be aware, I LOVE flower blossoms. I think a tree in bloom is one of the most gorgeous things, and it can only be triumphed by the loud and proud colors of Autumn. There are times when I just have to stop and marvel. That happened today, when we were biking to a member's house to drop by and say hi. There in the front yard of one of the most amazing Japanese gardens I've ever seen was a plum tree in full bloom. I hit the brakes and just stared. I turned to my companion and said, 'Kirei!' (Pretty!) I then turned back around and noticed that the owner of the house was outside sweeping. I nodded to her, 'Konnichiwa.' (Hello)
She yelled. At first I was startled that I had upset her, but then I realized she was saying 'O-kotoba JOUZU!', which is basically saying 'Your Japanese is so amazing!'
...A big reaction for a hello, but hey. 'Arigatou gozaimasu,' I responded. (Thank you)
She screamed with joy again. It started a rather interesting conversation. She had little interest in the Gospel, but she really loved our appreciation for her garden. She gave us some flowers freshly picked to take home with us. She offered us to come inside and have a cup of tea as well, and we certainly would have if we didn't have an appointment in the next 15 minutes. We agreed to stop by again later. It was a very welcome change of pace, and just goes to show that just saying 'hi' on the street can sometimes lead places.
Actually, later that same day (about 5 minutes later, in fact) we came across a man walking a dog in the park. I had met this gentleman before, so he recognized me and came up to say hullo again. He had investigated our church for 6 months but came to the conclusion that all churches taught of God and therefore were true. He therefore would go to the Protestant church because it was closest to his house. He told us that if we did not reach this same conclusion we weren't reading the Bible.
Which is ironic, since the Bible is what I am studying in Personal Study right now. It was very hard not to Bible bash. My trigger finger itched to whip out my Japanese set a few times. I suffered to only say that I was enjoying the Bible right now.
Ah, but it's not enough just to read it for the sake of having said you've read it, he responded. You have to search for the truth, and God's words.
That's true. I can't agree with anything else he said, but I will admit that's absolutely true.
Well, he's agreed to grace us with his presence at Eikaiwa (English Class) so yeah, the Elders will have fun.
Lately my companion and I have both discovered that we enjoy Housing, so whenever we have free time that is mainly what we do. There are a lot of massive apartment buildings in this area -- danchi are big apartment buildings that are about 11 stories high and have about 10-20 rooms on each floor. This area is COVERED in them. We have taken up starting at the top floor and working our way down. My last companion would not do this because apparently one time while housing in a danchi a man came to the door with a rifle and threatened to shoot them.
This has not yet happened to us.
We are now in charge of two areas, Matsudo and Abiko, and this week we went to Abiko to greet everyone at church. We had very good timing; they had two baptisms that day, one before Sacrament meeting and one after church. It was a very good day to be a missionary, although we felt bad that some of the members seemed to be giving us Sisters credit for the Elders' hard work. We tried to correct it as much as possible without painting the picture that we were terribly and lazy, but I feel I should apologize to all once and future Elders here. Sorry, Elders! We don't do it on purpose!
That's about all the news I have time for. Love y'all, having a blast, see you again later!
Oh, and P.S., if you haven't recieved a letter from me lately and feel like you are being left out, drop me a line either by letter or e-mail. I am trying to write to 2-3 people each week, so hopefully you will hear from me soon.
In fact, one particular experience was directly related to a tree blooming. For those of you who may not be aware, I LOVE flower blossoms. I think a tree in bloom is one of the most gorgeous things, and it can only be triumphed by the loud and proud colors of Autumn. There are times when I just have to stop and marvel. That happened today, when we were biking to a member's house to drop by and say hi. There in the front yard of one of the most amazing Japanese gardens I've ever seen was a plum tree in full bloom. I hit the brakes and just stared. I turned to my companion and said, 'Kirei!' (Pretty!) I then turned back around and noticed that the owner of the house was outside sweeping. I nodded to her, 'Konnichiwa.' (Hello)
She yelled. At first I was startled that I had upset her, but then I realized she was saying 'O-kotoba JOUZU!', which is basically saying 'Your Japanese is so amazing!'
...A big reaction for a hello, but hey. 'Arigatou gozaimasu,' I responded. (Thank you)
She screamed with joy again. It started a rather interesting conversation. She had little interest in the Gospel, but she really loved our appreciation for her garden. She gave us some flowers freshly picked to take home with us. She offered us to come inside and have a cup of tea as well, and we certainly would have if we didn't have an appointment in the next 15 minutes. We agreed to stop by again later. It was a very welcome change of pace, and just goes to show that just saying 'hi' on the street can sometimes lead places.
Actually, later that same day (about 5 minutes later, in fact) we came across a man walking a dog in the park. I had met this gentleman before, so he recognized me and came up to say hullo again. He had investigated our church for 6 months but came to the conclusion that all churches taught of God and therefore were true. He therefore would go to the Protestant church because it was closest to his house. He told us that if we did not reach this same conclusion we weren't reading the Bible.
Which is ironic, since the Bible is what I am studying in Personal Study right now. It was very hard not to Bible bash. My trigger finger itched to whip out my Japanese set a few times. I suffered to only say that I was enjoying the Bible right now.
Ah, but it's not enough just to read it for the sake of having said you've read it, he responded. You have to search for the truth, and God's words.
That's true. I can't agree with anything else he said, but I will admit that's absolutely true.
Well, he's agreed to grace us with his presence at Eikaiwa (English Class) so yeah, the Elders will have fun.
Lately my companion and I have both discovered that we enjoy Housing, so whenever we have free time that is mainly what we do. There are a lot of massive apartment buildings in this area -- danchi are big apartment buildings that are about 11 stories high and have about 10-20 rooms on each floor. This area is COVERED in them. We have taken up starting at the top floor and working our way down. My last companion would not do this because apparently one time while housing in a danchi a man came to the door with a rifle and threatened to shoot them.
This has not yet happened to us.
We are now in charge of two areas, Matsudo and Abiko, and this week we went to Abiko to greet everyone at church. We had very good timing; they had two baptisms that day, one before Sacrament meeting and one after church. It was a very good day to be a missionary, although we felt bad that some of the members seemed to be giving us Sisters credit for the Elders' hard work. We tried to correct it as much as possible without painting the picture that we were terribly and lazy, but I feel I should apologize to all once and future Elders here. Sorry, Elders! We don't do it on purpose!
That's about all the news I have time for. Love y'all, having a blast, see you again later!
Oh, and P.S., if you haven't recieved a letter from me lately and feel like you are being left out, drop me a line either by letter or e-mail. I am trying to write to 2-3 people each week, so hopefully you will hear from me soon.
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