Hello Fam!Thanks for the e-mails Mom and Dad! I’ll do my best to answer all the questions.
Sadie - how was your baptism day? How do you feel? I was thinking about you all week.
Well, today we went to Costco. Yup. There is at least one here in Tokyo and a couple Elders in our district have cards. So guess what I came away with? OATMEAL!!! I think about 15 pounds. I’m a happy gal. I also got a bag of granola, and some rain boots for about 10 bucks. And some frozen blueberries and a big bag of raisins.
I hope that doesn’t disappoint you all, at how normal my life is here... I was sort of sad about it the first couple days I got here. I thought it would be more different, but Tokyo just feels like any other really big city. Maybe sometime during my mission I will get out in a more rural area and see more traditional Japanese culture, but for now it just feels like I:m walking around in a really big city where everyone happens to speak Japanese.
Oh Japanese... I’m not very good, that’s for sure. The other day I prayed that as a companionship, Saiki Shimai and I would become separated. And the day before that I prayed that we would be able to lose many future investigators. And those are only the mistakes that Saiki Shimai actually tells me about, so there have got to be so many other random things that come out of my mouth. It’s kind of humorous to see the look on people’s faces when I say things.
Girlsies - I just want to tell you again how much I love the letters you wrote to me when I first got here. I will try to write you back soon but now that I’m in Japan we have a lot less time on P-day for mail.
Thanks for praying for our investigators. I have another one to add to the list: Misaki. (Me-saw-key). She is 19 and is fabulous. She’s received most of the lessons and we hope she gets baptized soon but she doesn’t know what her mom will think if she says she might join the church.
So, this week our whole mission all met at a church on Thursday night and got on buses and went to Sendai; very unusual for a whole mission to leave the mission boundaries. We split up and went to 2 different areas. My area went to this Buddhist shrine where the tsunami hit and cleaned up as much as we could while we were there. A lot of work had already been done but there was still tons to do. We cleaned out the shrine and a house and a little temple structure that were all next to each other. It was a lot of shoveling/sweeping mud and dirt out of the structures and putting random things into piles. There was just stuff scattered everywhere -- anything and everything. It kind of looked like the earthquake had had a sort of snow-globe effect on the area: everything that wasn’t firmly attached to the ground (and even some things that were) got whisked away into a big jumble and then slowly settled and just stayed wherever they landed. Books, shoes, clocks, dishes, shower curtains, cd’s, rugs.... It was quite an experience.
Then we all got back on the bus and drove to see the major disaster areas. Crazy. It’s just crazy what a bunch of water has done to these people. So humbling.
Also this week: I ate nato, which is fermented soy beans. It’s pretty gross. It doesn’t taste too terrible, but it literally has the texture of snot. (my apologies to those with weak stomachs). Also, we went to this Okonomiyakie shop and I had some of that. So so good. They make it on a griddle type surface and start by smearing a circle of pancake batter on, really thin. Then they take noodles and pour them into a same-sized circle and let them cook as well. They pile on tons of cabbage on the pancake, and throw on some bacon, and let it all cook. Then they add the noodle thing onto the pile and then they put an egg on top and let it all sort of cook together. I know this makes no sense at all, but then they add cheese and thick soy sauce stuff, and mayo, and fish powder and a bunch of green spice... wow. It was so good.
My apartment is one that has been lived in by missionaries for quite a while I think. It’s got lots of junk that would be just the sort of things sister missionaries would have hanging around. I think all the stuff us just things that have slowly accumulated. I’m secretly on an errand to get rid of about half of it by the end of the transfer.
Bike- The elder I’m getting the bike from is about my height. I don’t know the color. He said he would just give it to me but I don’t know if he was just saying that to be nice or if that’s normal for missionaries here. From what I hear it’s in really good condition.
We have an hour to e-mail, so it’s fine to just forward things. I think we will always come to the church to do it. There’s a printer here.
Mom, Ha! I am pretty sure Saiki Shimai knows how to make real pancakes, but I think her motto is “why stand there and wait when you can pour it all in at once?”. It’s more to save time. This morning she made me some French toast that was really yummy. And I take it that pancakes are a pretty normal thing to eat here.
PIX: there’s a picture of the church, one of the bathroom that was in the airport (some bathrooms here are kind of intense, others are just fancy holes... I don’t get it.), there’s a picture of me and Saiki Shimai on the way to Sendai, a picture of us at the major disaster area (sorry, I have a wierd face because I didn’t think the picture was being taken yet). I just can’t describe what it was like to stand there and see nothing but destruction in every single direction. The pictures don’t do it justice at all. The roads have been cleared, but still there are cars and boats and other things just scattered all over.
Ok, I need to read Dad’s email again and see what questions are there that I need to answer. So hopefully you hear a bit more from me, but if not:
I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!! You have no idea how often I think of you, especially when the going gets rough.
Ok, one more story -- this week we had a practice lesson with a member. She started crying and so did my comp, and even though I had no idea what was going on I started crying too because I didn’t want to be rude. Then her cat bit me on the finger. The end.
I love you!!
Waite Shimai
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