Week Seventeen

Ohayou Gozaimasu, family!

This week has been pretty fun. We have been trying hard to find new investigators, because the Sendai mission has a goal of finding one new investigator per week per companionship. We weren`t able this week to accomplish that, but we did have other success. For example, we were riding past a public park yesterday evening where only two people were playing soccer. Dowdy Choro said that we should probably go back and talk to the people, so we turned around half a block later. As we were talking to them, the father told us that he was a friend of Y (B) from our branch, so he had a good impression of Mormons. He even had been helped by the church and Y

(B) in particular after the tsunami destroyed his home in Ofunato. He was really nice and even let us exchange phone numbers and possibly meet again for soccer, which Dowdy Choro actually enjoys doing, thankfully.

We also went to another touristy area, Genbikei! Like Geibikei, it is a river gorge, but it looks way different. The river goes through a low, rocky canyon with an unusual turquoise colour. I`ll have to send you the pictures, because it`s rather difficult to explain it properly. But it was really fun! We also tried to order the flying dumplings, which is where you put money in a basket, hit a board, and have fresh dumplings sent back to you, but it closed right as we walked up. We`ll perhaps try again on a P-Day in the future. When Dowdy Choro told a store worker that he was from Australia, the guy went and got his 2000 Sydney Olympics picture book that he had taken. We were able to invite him to Eikaiwa, so perhaps we`ll see him again.

We`re hoping to really do a lot of work this week! We have a few lessons set up and will hopefully be able to pick up some new investigators this week. Also, tomorrow we`re going to Hiraizumi for the lego exhibit of World Heritage Sites. I`ll be sure to send you pictures of that too!

Cultural Point: People in Japan traditionally buy souvenirs for everyone back home when they go on vacation, so there`s lots of stuff available to buy. Especially treats with the name of the touristy place on the wrapper. Be prepared for something of that type in gift packages.

Sayounara!


Earl Choro

Well, in Japan the traditional thing to do would be to clean my grave and give me some offering, which would seem to indicate the sending of a package of my favourite food. Sounds like things are still fun back home. I`m sure Andrew would be disappointed that Hannah didn`t do everything like that, but it`ll be fine. I knew a lot of people at the MTC who didn`t do any of the stuff like that, and they made it here to Japan at least.