Week Fourteen

By the way, sorry for not writing yesterday. Hopefully mom didn`t worry. We had tried to, but the door to the branch president`s office was locked. We tried going somewhere else to write, but they closed early, and the elementary school we went to let us in after waiting an hour, but lds.org was blocked as a `cult site`, so we had to give up. Usually we can only write on Monday, but thankfully they let us do this if we really tried our best to avoid it. Also, I got an electronic dictionary yesterday. It is so cool! I got it for 5000 yen less than normal, but I figured out yesterday it doesn`t plug in to charge. I`m pretty sure I can get rechargeable batteries for less than 5000 yen though, so I`m still pleased with my deal.

We finally found an investigator that I think has real potential this week! It was such a cool experience too. We had found him on our first P-Day in Ichinoseki, but we couldn`t meet again until just a few days ago. We were only going to give him a paper for church, but he invited us in and let us teach a lesson! Completely unexpected. He also tried giving us drinks, but he only had tea, coffee, and sake, so we just got water (which we were fine with, he felt bad though). He also gave us grapes, cookies, snacks, etc. I love it when that happens! We taught about God and families, because we could tell that family was important to him (he showed us pictures of his daughter who lives in Chicago and him and his wife visiting her). He lives with his wife and adult son, so maybe we`ll be able to teach a family for the first time. He doesn`t believe in God yet, but I felt like he really pondered over our message and might have a chance of being converted. I don`t want to get my hopes up too high right now, but the other foreign missionary in our district said that it is quite unusual.

Also, we went to Morioka for our zone training meeting, which is a much bigger city than Ichinoseki. I wouldn`t mind being transfered there after Ichinoseki. We ate Chinese food there, which was of course delicious.

I got Sichuan Ramen, so it was a lot spicier than anything else I`ve eaten here for a long time. Other than that, we`ve spent the week preparing for the new missionaries coming. There will soon be four of us in the apartment, and two couple missionaries as well! I`m guessing we`ll be almost completely foreign too, other than my trainer. It`ll be interesting for sure.

People in the branch say my Japanese has improved, so I have that at least. Also, I had allergies for a while, but now that I remember to take my pills, it`s completely stopped, thank goodness.

Anyhow, I`ll try sending a few pictures.

Bye bye

I forgot my cultural point again!

This is kind of a funny one too. You remember how Grace used to use those funny onamotepia like `waaa`, `baam`, etc.? Well, the Japanese do the same thing, except it`s normal for them. It`s a part of adult language as well as children`s language in this country. In fact, I`ve heard the exact same ones that Grace has used before. It`s so funny! In Japanese, even emotional states have onamotepia associated with them, which makes it even better! I love this language.

Also, on the crowded train to Morioka (crowded as in there was literally no room for any more people to stand anywhere in the train), I saw a girl who I think is Grace`s sister seperated at birth. She had the same thick, difficult-to-control hair as Grace, the same facial expressions. She even had almost the exact same school uniform that Grace wore to Timpanogos Academy, which is actually fairly rare as most Japanese girls where sailor style suits to school.

Right now, I really am very much enjoying this mission experience. It`s been a good time recently here.