Yoshiaki さん is having his Baptism this Saturday! As we were planning the バプテスマ会 （baptismal meeting) we asked him if there was anybody in the ward that he wanted to perform the baptism and the confirmation. He chose my companion to confirm him, and decided that I should be the one to baptize him. 16 days into Japan I will baptize my first convert! I don't even know if I can accurately express how I feel right now. I am very proud of Yoshiaki さん and his progression, and if at all possible, I hope that we can start teaching his Mother and brother as well.
It's really a weird feeling thinking that I've been in Japan for about 2 weeks now; sometimes it feels like it, but sometimes it feels like I just arrived. If the MTC was a timey-wimey vortex, I don't even know what to call the mission. Speaking of.... the washer in our apartment (yes we have a washer!) sounds like the Tardis whenever it runs, it's only a little distracting. Oh, and as far as the apartment goes, I totally neglected to give a little run-through. Ok, so we have 4 rooms in the apartment; one is where Clements 長老 sleeps and where we have all our clothes for the apartment. That has a sliding wall that opens into the other room where Buckingham, De Fretas, and I sleep, which also functions as the study room for De Fretas and Buckingham 長老。 So, sleeping in Japan: we sleep on pads called ふとん 「futons」, that are just on the floor on our たたみ 「tatami」 mats. Just outside of those rooms there is a balcony where we hang our ふとん to air out, and have a nice little view of the next building. Right in the middle of our apartment is our kitchen, we have two refrigerators (unique for apartments here, but necessary for the 4 living there) and a little table that we all sit around. Along one wall we have a sink, and 2 burners for cooking, above that we have some cupboards, and below some storage space. The kitchen is about 8' x 10' in total, including the eating space. On the other side of the kitchen is Clements 長老 and my study room. it's about 10' by 7' or so, and kinda stuffed with stuff. Just across the hall from us we have the washing machine and dryer in a little room that is just big enough to fit the two, one above the other. The shower room is one big tub and a movable shower head, and that's about it. The restroom can fit a toilet, and maybe a person too. We also have a little stand for all our normal hygiene needs, and it's all one person at a time, so with 4 people the morning routine can take a little longer than you would like.
That's our apartment, it's nice and works for what we need.
Oh man, I totally forgot to tell you the story of how I got my bicycle. So Clements 長老 and I were going around on my 2nd day seeing if we could find a good bike for me to use (and boy have I used it) The normal here is buying a brand called "giant" and so that was the plan. I was trying to decide on which type and decided on one that was 42,000円 and was on my way to sign the paper for it when the guy was like "no no no, you don't want to buy that bike, you want to buy a 「trek」 bike, it's American."
I tried to reassure him that really, I was fine (that one cost 55,000円） and I was not going to be able to pay that much. He was like, "It's summer, we have a special sale, I'll give it to you for 47,000円" Pretty much at that point I was sold, because it really was a much nicer bike, but it was still a bit so I told him that I had just recently moved here, and that I would need money to eat, and that if I bought it for that much I wouldn't really be able to eat, but maybe if we did 4４,000円 that would be fine. He looked at me and offered 44,500円。 Deal! One, this was all in Japanese, so that was exciting, and two, I totally saved like $125 on that deal; and got insurance with it. New skills I've learned in Japan, I can haggle better in Japanese than in English.
I suppose I should end this one on a little more spiritual note. As we were studying this morning we read the doctrine of Christ and read a bit on happiness. We decided this morning that if you want to be happy, then be happy. It really can be as simple as that. To do so, go serve someone around you and love them for all they do. As you do so you will see life's little annoyances disappear as you do your best to spread a little bit of good wherever you go.
Good luck from Japan
エベレット長老
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