こんにちは！ Ｈｅｒｅ ｗｅ ｇｏ ｗｅｅｋ ３ ｉｎ Ｊａｐａｎ！
Ok, so where do I start..... Let's start with Monday, because, well, that's when the last post ended. So we did end up going to the Kumamoto Museum 「熊本博物館」 and it was awesome. We went to their planetarium there and watched an hour long video on the Hayabusa probe. Essentially they made a movie about the trials and tribulations of the Probe and its journey to extract materials from a nearby asteroid. You may think I'm weird for saying this, but the music was great and the movie did a great job of making you feel for that little probe. I have to say though, I didn't quite understand half of it, I haven't gotten so far in my Japanese Astronomy, but the visuals and the full ceiling view was awesome, a very nice experience, I highly recommend it to everyone. You know, if you get the chance.
Later that day we had a meal appointment 「食事」 with the Yatsunami family. Their son is the Ward mission leader, and, although their non-member friend couldn't attend, we had Yoshiaki (the one who got baptized Saturday) with us for the meal. Speaking of the meal, it was some sort of pancake like thing, I'm still not entirely sure what it's called.... But in the "pancake" there was cabbage, squid, octopus, and various other vegetables and other goodies. We ate it with Japanese mayonnaise on top mixed with okonomiyaki sauce and some sort of savory flakes. It was super delicious and we got to take the left-overs home. That served as our meals for the next day!
Tuesday there was some sort of Leadership training, and since my companion is a trainer now, he goes to those meetings. So I ended up having a nice exchange that day with De Freitas 長老 We ended up street contacting in the local shopping arcades, Shimotori 「しもとり」 and Kamitori 「かみとり」 I think it went really well, I was able to get several people's contact information and got to know people rather well. It's very good that we have a college (大学) here because we have so many young people that are just easier to talk to. About dinner time we switched back and Clements and I had a good time contacting various members and tried to get some less active members. We are focusing on referrals, lessons are just more fun with members there.
Wednesday was interesting. We started off by visiting the Semba family (they live up north by Yoshiaki, a good 30/40 minute bike ride up and down hills... we seem to be up there often as of late) and Sister Semba (who is angelic with her bread/baking/and pizza!) introduced us to 3 of her friends, hopefully we'll be able to build relationships with them. One of them is an Artist that makes various signs for houses and businesses, and apparently he used to be a boxer and was telling us about Mike Tyson and Frazier (sp). He's a cool guy. Oh, and did I tell you about our friend who left to go to bike to Tokyo to tell his brother that he is a son of God? Well, His name is En, he's from China, and was baptized a little under a year ago, he's a way cool guy. We went to go check up on him and learned that he had come back after 6 days. Apparently the Heat and the need to constantly drink not just water, but to refuel his electrolytes ended up being more of a cost than he anticipated. He returned with some gnarly sunburns and a great story. He decided instead of buying a room, he would just sleep under trees, or outside of police stations. It's worked out for the best though. Hopefully he'll get a second chance.
We also had a very nice Eikaiwa that day too, we focused on Hobbies and I got to know everyone a little bit better, and build relationships with a lot of the students there. Almost all of our students are non-members, so it's a great way for us to meet and teach more people. (Looking through my planner I've noticed that I've written 「食べるかなああ」 several times which basically translates to (maybe we'll eat). It's harder to schedule that in than I had previously thought. But it's all good, all we have to do is fry some random assorted vegetables, stir in some sort of meat and throw it on our rice and we're good. Or sometimes our noodles, but it's whatever.
Thursday we had our normal lesson with Itoh, he's "81 years old", and has been "living single for 10 years, very difficult." He also reminds me every time we are in a car together that "Japan is safest country on earth. No terrorists." He's a really nice guy, but his capacities just aren't what they used to be. It's always an adventure when we have a lesson with him. I think we've taught him how to pray about 5 times since I've been here, and 5 more before that. Thursday is our main planning day for the next week, so that took a while, but in the evening we had a practice lesson with the Semba family (back up north again) It was good, and she gave us an entire pizza! Way to go Sister Semba!
Friday was good, we had various different lessons, including the mother of the mother of the mother of a priest in our ward. She's 88 years old and her daughter and other friend helped us with this lesson. It was a very nice experience, I hope she'll be able to see the blessing that the church has given to 3 generations of her children and maybe develop some interest. Today was also our last lesson with Yoshiaki as an investigator. We had to help him get ready for the baptism so we asked him to bring some white underwear for the baptism. When he informed us he had none, we went to the local mall and had quite the experience buying a pair of white underwear. 3 18-19 year old males going into a mall for the sole purpose of purchasing underwear..... maybe a little odd. But it was all good. Also on our Friday night sports night at Church his mother attended and even participated. I think that was the first church function she had attended. This can mean good things.
Saturday was the big day. It started out with an English lesson up north (yes, again) The lady had a very nice house, especially for Japan, and 3 bright yellow sports cars out front, and two other cars that apparently were too valuable to let get wet and were covered. I don't think I've seen so many super nice cars in one place before. She was way nice too, and her English was awesome. But as good as that was, the afternoon was the best. At the baptismal meeting His mother did a nice introduction of him and expressed her interest in seeing what exactly it was her son was getting in to. All of the missionaries around the area sang 「にじが好きです」 "I like to look for rainbows" (a song about baptism) and the entire ceremony was nice.
When it came time for the actual ordinance, we got into the font and realized that the water level was below our knees. I looked over at Yoshiaki and just kind of laughed, I feel like even if I laid him flat it would be rough getting him fully immersed, much less with a broken right thumb. We just kind of sat in the font while we filled it up some more; but by the time it was high enough we managed to get everybody settled down and it was very peaceful and nice. His Testimony at the end was powerful, and it visibly moved his mother. Is it bad that I'm excited that he cried a bit? I think not.
Well, that essentially brings us up to today. We visited the castle (AWESOME) and pictures should be coming soon. I got a very nice package from home the other day (yesterday) that I'm sure we'll still be using come time for transfers. Also, this new camera is awesome. Next time I'll expound a bit more on the castle. But for now, it's time for us to go shopping for this week, and hopefully we'll have enough food this week.
Always go and do cool things, and remember, you choose whether or not to be happy, so choose to be happy, because being sad sucks.
With all the love
エベレット長老
Elder Everett
Elder Everett
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