Where on earth has this year gone? How can it already be June? Just yesterday I was taking photos in the snow, and now it's June? Wow. That's so crazy.
It wasn't really snowing yesterday although that would have been an awesome lead-in to talk about weird weather.
It HAS been unusually cold lately. Summer, apparently, decided to shove Spring out of the way in order to flash us all with some bright, hot, burning sun somewhere around April, and now Spring is gently sliding back into place and cooling us all with rain, strong winds, and cloudy skies. It's still long-sleeves and raincoat weather here in Chiba.
Not much to report story-wise this week. I climbed a ginormous 3-story tower structure made entirely out of rope this morning. My companion and I spotted it a while ago and I have been aching to climb it ever since. It felt really good to climb something. I haven't been using my hands at all lately. I have a strange urge to take apart my bike and clean it top to bottom while I'm at it...which wouldn't be a bad idea; that bike hasn't been scrubbed since...ever.
The tower, by the way, is constructed of several ropes tightly pulled together into geometric shapes with large stakes pinning the three base corners into the ground and a large central pole to hold it all together in the middle. It looks a little like the base for the Eiffel Tower, and it was a LOT of fun to climb although really scary when you got close to the middle and the ropes started to give under your weight. Needless to say I stayed near the outside.
I got really, really sick last week. As in, we took a taxi home and I sat on my bed and waited to die.
I didn't die, and happily after a few hours I started to feel like it would be okay not to die. I was fine after that.
We are teaching many people, and many people have started to come back to church. They have also dragged their neighbors along with them, which is always great to see. I really do love this area.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Short but sweet
I don't have a lot of new detailed information, so far as people are concerned, but I do have a few brief comments.
I have located D&D Deodorant. The name is coincidental but the implications HILARIOUS and it made me smile on the train ride home.
It is raining. I WISH it were rainy season, but this week's rain has nothing on that miserable week in June. At least the weather is relatively cool at present. We have been getting a curious mix of hot and cold lately. My arms are very freckled from the sun, but this week is scheduled to rain the whole time. Rainy season, or tsuyu, is rain nonstop for a few days, but it is HOT and HUMID and the rain itself is warm. It is most unpleasant to be in but something that will be endured because I don't really have a choice.
We had a member run up to us in church and excitedly tell us about her friend, whose entire family seems interested in the Gospel. We dutifully took down information and before we had a chance after church the member called us again and told us that she called her friend and had set up an appointment for us, could we go visit her on Wednesday?
Why yes, yes I think we can.
I really like this ward. We visited the bishop unexpectedly in order to ask him a question (and figure out where he lived), and he and his wife cheerfully invited us up into the apartment where we were served homemade cookies, homemade herbal drinks, homemade ice cream, and homemade curry (using mostly spices she grew herself). His wife is astounding and decorated most of their home with various paintings, masks, and wall hangings. She is a good artist and a VERY good cook. They cheerfully entertained us and we were able to learn a great deal about the ward and what was expected of the missionaries, and we were able to share a few of our ideas in return. It was a happy meeting and I have new respect for the bishop, who I admit seemed a little scary at first. What was I thinking? The man is a true comedian!
In the ever changing and updating food legacies, I have discovered that I don't mind seafood curry, but I have to have NO IDEA of what I am eating. I carefully explained the idea to the Japanese members, as follows:
To me, eating squid and octopus is very hard. This is because I do not think of them as food, but animals. How do you feel about eating dogs, cats, or insects? It seems a little odd to you, right? (Yes, is the usual reply.) Well, I've eaten insects before and I can tell you they don't taste all that bad. If I said that, would you be willing to try it? (Some say yes and some say no, but generally the reply is reluctant). Well, that's what squid and octopus are like to me. I would have just as hard a time eating them as eating insects, dogs, and cats because they are animals, not food. If I don't think about it or don't know what I'm eating then it actually tastes pretty good, but the moment someone tells me I put a tentacle into my mouth it becomes vile to me.
This is my same issue with cheese although I really do object to the flavor. Cheese is rotten milk to me, if I think about it, and it just tastes bad to me either way.
Oh, the curry was served with cheese bread. I think I had more issue with the mayo on the cheese bread than with anything else.
OH! The whole point I wrote this blog was to give instruction on how to eat a Tim Tam. If, for some reason, some of you receive Tim Tams from me in the near future, please take note of these instructions. (A Tim Tam is a chocolate biscuit made in Australia).
HOW TO EAT A TIM TAM
1. Prepare some hot milk or hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is better but really sweet.
2. Take a Tim Tam and bite off two opposite corners. The bite should not be too big, but you should be able to see the chocolate cream within the cookie pretty well. This Tim Tam will be used as a straw.
3. Dip one bitten end of the Tim Tam into the drink and use the other bitten end as a straw. The Tim Tam will start to melt. Eat it before it falls into your drink!
4. Glory in a sweet chocolate-ness you have doubtless not experienced until now.
NOTE:
-The hot chocolate should not be so hot that you are forced to slurp it, but it should be quite warm. If you can drink a tablespoon without burning yourself then you are good. If you can't melt chocolate in it then it's not hot enough.
This method of eating the chocolate biscuit is called "A Tim Tam Slam."
I have located D&D Deodorant. The name is coincidental but the implications HILARIOUS and it made me smile on the train ride home.
It is raining. I WISH it were rainy season, but this week's rain has nothing on that miserable week in June. At least the weather is relatively cool at present. We have been getting a curious mix of hot and cold lately. My arms are very freckled from the sun, but this week is scheduled to rain the whole time. Rainy season, or tsuyu, is rain nonstop for a few days, but it is HOT and HUMID and the rain itself is warm. It is most unpleasant to be in but something that will be endured because I don't really have a choice.
We had a member run up to us in church and excitedly tell us about her friend, whose entire family seems interested in the Gospel. We dutifully took down information and before we had a chance after church the member called us again and told us that she called her friend and had set up an appointment for us, could we go visit her on Wednesday?
Why yes, yes I think we can.
I really like this ward. We visited the bishop unexpectedly in order to ask him a question (and figure out where he lived), and he and his wife cheerfully invited us up into the apartment where we were served homemade cookies, homemade herbal drinks, homemade ice cream, and homemade curry (using mostly spices she grew herself). His wife is astounding and decorated most of their home with various paintings, masks, and wall hangings. She is a good artist and a VERY good cook. They cheerfully entertained us and we were able to learn a great deal about the ward and what was expected of the missionaries, and we were able to share a few of our ideas in return. It was a happy meeting and I have new respect for the bishop, who I admit seemed a little scary at first. What was I thinking? The man is a true comedian!
In the ever changing and updating food legacies, I have discovered that I don't mind seafood curry, but I have to have NO IDEA of what I am eating. I carefully explained the idea to the Japanese members, as follows:
To me, eating squid and octopus is very hard. This is because I do not think of them as food, but animals. How do you feel about eating dogs, cats, or insects? It seems a little odd to you, right? (Yes, is the usual reply.) Well, I've eaten insects before and I can tell you they don't taste all that bad. If I said that, would you be willing to try it? (Some say yes and some say no, but generally the reply is reluctant). Well, that's what squid and octopus are like to me. I would have just as hard a time eating them as eating insects, dogs, and cats because they are animals, not food. If I don't think about it or don't know what I'm eating then it actually tastes pretty good, but the moment someone tells me I put a tentacle into my mouth it becomes vile to me.
This is my same issue with cheese although I really do object to the flavor. Cheese is rotten milk to me, if I think about it, and it just tastes bad to me either way.
Oh, the curry was served with cheese bread. I think I had more issue with the mayo on the cheese bread than with anything else.
OH! The whole point I wrote this blog was to give instruction on how to eat a Tim Tam. If, for some reason, some of you receive Tim Tams from me in the near future, please take note of these instructions. (A Tim Tam is a chocolate biscuit made in Australia).
HOW TO EAT A TIM TAM
1. Prepare some hot milk or hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is better but really sweet.
2. Take a Tim Tam and bite off two opposite corners. The bite should not be too big, but you should be able to see the chocolate cream within the cookie pretty well. This Tim Tam will be used as a straw.
3. Dip one bitten end of the Tim Tam into the drink and use the other bitten end as a straw. The Tim Tam will start to melt. Eat it before it falls into your drink!
4. Glory in a sweet chocolate-ness you have doubtless not experienced until now.
NOTE:
-The hot chocolate should not be so hot that you are forced to slurp it, but it should be quite warm. If you can drink a tablespoon without burning yourself then you are good. If you can't melt chocolate in it then it's not hot enough.
This method of eating the chocolate biscuit is called "A Tim Tam Slam."
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Extracted from a letter to the parents
My new companion, Sister S, is a lot of fun. I am immensely enjoying my time with her. She asked me to say, "She is very small" just now. Indeed, she is rather short but not as short as one of my previous companions. Isn't it curious that all my companions have been Japanese thus far, save my trainer (who was originally Japanese but got changed at the last minute)? I swear, Japanese is supposed to be a language I am to master or something.
Being a follow-up trainer is much easier than I thought. Sister S is always cheerful and an utter joy to be with. I am teaching little and learning much.
This area is great. We have some really great investigators along with some really frustrating ones. We have one investigator who agreed to get baptized last lesson, although it may take a while before she is actually prepared. She is now "taking lessons with intent to be baptized," which I say in the same accent as that someone "courts with intent to marry."
We found a park nearby that has a flower museum with exhibits changing very rapidly as various species of flowers come into bloom. Since last week was my P-Day, today is Sister S's P-Day, and she has elected to essentially go to a really cheap/famous/delicious Melon Bread store and then lounge around in our freshly cleaned apartment. I will have to investigate the park next week along with the ENORMOUS rope tower that children are free to climb. That thing would never pass in sue-happy America, but small children happily monkey several dozen feet in the air on a suspended rope tower the shape of the Eiffel Tower. There is a small and not-safe-looking net underneath parts of it to theoretically catch falling children, I
suppose, but it still looks insanely dangerous.
I desperately want to climb it.
Being a follow-up trainer is much easier than I thought. Sister S is always cheerful and an utter joy to be with. I am teaching little and learning much.
This area is great. We have some really great investigators along with some really frustrating ones. We have one investigator who agreed to get baptized last lesson, although it may take a while before she is actually prepared. She is now "taking lessons with intent to be baptized," which I say in the same accent as that someone "courts with intent to marry."
We found a park nearby that has a flower museum with exhibits changing very rapidly as various species of flowers come into bloom. Since last week was my P-Day, today is Sister S's P-Day, and she has elected to essentially go to a really cheap/famous/delicious Melon Bread store and then lounge around in our freshly cleaned apartment. I will have to investigate the park next week along with the ENORMOUS rope tower that children are free to climb. That thing would never pass in sue-happy America, but small children happily monkey several dozen feet in the air on a suspended rope tower the shape of the Eiffel Tower. There is a small and not-safe-looking net underneath parts of it to theoretically catch falling children, I
suppose, but it still looks insanely dangerous.
I desperately want to climb it.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Hey, it's been a while!
Did I mention transfers last week? Transfers were Monday. I got transferred, which was most unexpected. I only spent 1 transfer in my beloved Yokohama. I am now back in Chiba, which is where Matsudo is located, only now I am also in a city called Chiba.
For anyone who remotely cares, Chiba is a prefecture, which is kinda like a state. Yokohama is in Kanagawa prefecture. They are close to each other. Shibuya is in Tokyo prefecture, so I have been in 3 prefectures in my mission so far.
I really like Chiba. It's a little more countryside, but it's still JAPAN so rather than having a lack of convenient things close by it's more like having a group of people who will smile and stop to talk to you. Ideal for missionaries!
I am now with a new companion, who is actually rather new to the mission field so I am her Father, or her second companion. This means I am a follow-up trainer. I am nervous but excited.
This place is really cool so far. We taught a former Yankee (the Japanese term for school-punk) last night. She is one of my new favorite people. It was really interesting to teach someone who sounds like a punk in the vocabulary they use but someone who loves the gospel based on what they talk about. It was a good lesson. She really wants to get married in the temple and is considering giving up on her current crush since temple marriage isn't on his menu.
My bike got damaged pretty badly during shipping and a few parts need to be replaced. As a really poor missionary who has had a number of unpleasantly expensive and ineffective expenses lately (did I mention I went to the hospital last transfer? I can't remember.) I am not too happy about having to pay to repair my bike, but I will endure. The apartment is well stocked so if nothing else I can just survive on NOTHING until June, when I shall have money for trains and things again.
Well, it feels really good to be able to see a computer screen again but I would dearly love to go get back to work. It's pouring rain but that just keeps things interesting. Love you lots!
Oh, and by the way, I really appreciate your letters. There are a few people I have not been able to respond to lately as these last few P-Days have been hectic, but I will respond as soon as I am able, and it should be either today or next week. Sorry! I am repenting! Wait just a little longer!
Oh, and PS. JTTF, D=Girl.
For anyone who remotely cares, Chiba is a prefecture, which is kinda like a state. Yokohama is in Kanagawa prefecture. They are close to each other. Shibuya is in Tokyo prefecture, so I have been in 3 prefectures in my mission so far.
I really like Chiba. It's a little more countryside, but it's still JAPAN so rather than having a lack of convenient things close by it's more like having a group of people who will smile and stop to talk to you. Ideal for missionaries!
I am now with a new companion, who is actually rather new to the mission field so I am her Father, or her second companion. This means I am a follow-up trainer. I am nervous but excited.
This place is really cool so far. We taught a former Yankee (the Japanese term for school-punk) last night. She is one of my new favorite people. It was really interesting to teach someone who sounds like a punk in the vocabulary they use but someone who loves the gospel based on what they talk about. It was a good lesson. She really wants to get married in the temple and is considering giving up on her current crush since temple marriage isn't on his menu.
My bike got damaged pretty badly during shipping and a few parts need to be replaced. As a really poor missionary who has had a number of unpleasantly expensive and ineffective expenses lately (did I mention I went to the hospital last transfer? I can't remember.) I am not too happy about having to pay to repair my bike, but I will endure. The apartment is well stocked so if nothing else I can just survive on NOTHING until June, when I shall have money for trains and things again.
Well, it feels really good to be able to see a computer screen again but I would dearly love to go get back to work. It's pouring rain but that just keeps things interesting. Love you lots!
Oh, and by the way, I really appreciate your letters. There are a few people I have not been able to respond to lately as these last few P-Days have been hectic, but I will respond as soon as I am able, and it should be either today or next week. Sorry! I am repenting! Wait just a little longer!
Oh, and PS. JTTF, D=Girl.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Is a geek without a computer still a geek?
YES. I WISH I had time to show you the pictures but to make a long story short we found an investigator via a 30 minute conversation about cosplay, and she showed me her cosplay stuff, and now I have a picture of me as a missionary wielding 2 keyblades:
[Image and links added by Shana after several Internet searches]
All is well in Yokohama. Sorry, we have a few appointments today and I needed some time to send some pictures home in preparation for my brother's wedding. Augh! Bye for now!
[Image and links added by Shana after several Internet searches]All is well in Yokohama. Sorry, we have a few appointments today and I needed some time to send some pictures home in preparation for my brother's wedding. Augh! Bye for now!
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