Hey hey hey!
My p-day is on Monday. ;) Same as everyone
else it would appear!
I tried to buy my bike with my card, it wouldn't
accept it. I have NO idea why, but it wouldn't. I have only tried it at the
bike shop, so I'll try somewhere else as well. Maybe you guys could look into
that for me? Because I owe Elder Harper $509. :P He's such a great guy. I love
him to death already. I think I got the best trainer in the mission. ;) He's
been here for just over a year, and he knows his stuff very well. I'm learning
a ton from him. He's from Kaysville, Utah, and he's half Japanese. So since
he's fluent and Japanese, people don't think he's a foreigner! And then they
look at me and they're like O_O Gaijin!! (outside person, foreigner) :P It's
pretty great. You don't see many gaijin's in Hokkaido, so I'm a bit of a
spectacle sometimes. He loves the work, and he loves the people. And he cooks
everything! I've been eating pretty well since he can cook a lot of Japanese
stuff, which is awesome! I'm gonna have to learn so that I can do some of that
too in the future when I don't have him to do it for me! He's also a musician.
Plays the clarinet and the sax, and he's really good. He was going to school
for band related stuff, and he really likes it. Sister Evans recruited him to
participate in her jazz night in 3 weeks, so we made the two hour trip back to
the honbu so that he could make the rehearsal. We will normally do emails on
the church computer in the clerk's office. I'm not sure exactly how that works,
but Elder Harper knows the gig so I'll be fine. He's only been in Muroran for
one transfer, so he's still a tad new to the area, so it's going to be quite an
adventure for the both of us. :) He says I'm way more prepared than he was as a
bean chan, (greenie :P) So I guess that's good! I'm not sure if he's just
saying that to be nice though. ;)
And it is true that it's been raining Hokkaido, just
not in Muroran. It's been HOT! SUPER HOT! It's so humid here that I'm just a
sweaty mess all day everyday. Turns out that the summers here are really warm,
and the winters are VERY cold because of the humidity and how far north we are.
It's crazy. It did rain my very first day in Muroran, so Friday, and it was
down pouring. The rain gear worked well I assume, but I'm not too sure, because
I literally soaked my shirt through with sweat so... :P Who knows! ;) It's
great though! It'll start getting cold soon enough though, and then I'll be
wishing for the heat! So Muroran isn't cold quite yet, but it's gets colder
much sooner than a lot of the other areas in southern Hokkaido because of the
coastal breeze.
I'll look into dropbox next week. I didn't bring my
camera stuff to the Honbu so I can't try anything right now. I don't think
it'll be a problem though. However the computer at the church is VERY slow I
hear, so it might take awhile to upload pictures and what not, we'll see.
As for Japanese missionaries, there are quite a few.
It's about a 60% to 40% spread for gaijin missionaries to nihonjin
missionaries, which is incredible!! Lots of people have Japanese companions,
they usually are the ones that speak Japanese really well though. :P So I don't
quite fit under that umbrella quite yet.
The sleeping arrangements are not beds too by the way!
We are in Japanese apartments, and they don't really use beds. We sleep on mats
on the floor every night, and it's really actually quite comfortable. It's WAY
different from america. It's crazy not being able to read ANYTHING too, it's
nuts. There's so much kanji that I don't know, so I just have to guess what
stuff means, it's crazy.
So every Friday night, we teach an english class, as part of
service and missionary work. We teach some english and then get to know the
people well and then try to invite them to church things, it's really
cool. I was like O_O I can't teach english! I don't know where to begin! But it
was a blast, and seeing all the japanese people practicing english was a fun
switch around. ;) My first Sunday was a blast as well. I gave a little talk and
interacted with the members a ton! It was great. They are all so nice and are
very excited to see me. They all seem to like me, and I love them, so I can't
wait to get to know them more and work with them! The bishop is AWESOME!! He's
got so much energy, he's a fun dude. We've been doing a ton of finding the past
few days. Lots of door knocking, and street contacting, and it's pretty
intimidating at times. I have a hard time hearing them well because they don't
always open the door, the speak through it first and ask who you are and
what not. It's scary sometimes, but it's fun too, especially when they actually
stop and talk to you for a bit. We're the only two missionaries in the Muroran
area. We're over three cities, so there's lots of work.
Good luck heading back to school. :) I'm sure summer
was fun, but school's great too. :) I love you all so much and I can't wait to
hear more! My address by the way is just the one that you guys already have,
which is the mission home. They'll get the mail and then send it to us. It's
easier for transfers and other logistical stuff, so just write it to the
mission home. I'll let you know if anything about that changes. I can't wait to
keep working and do lots of good in Muroran! There are some promising looking
individuals that we're going to be meeting with, and we got a referral
yesterday, so hopefully we'll see some progress. :) I'll let you know all about
my adventures and the crazy things that happen! :)
Love,
Mike
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