Sunday, September 1, 2013

Japan week #4

Kazoku!! 
   I hope everything is well at home, everyone loving school? ;) It's been a crazy week for me here in Muroran and Sapporo! 
       We had our lesson with Nishigaki San last Monday, and that went alright. She's having a hard time keeping our commitments which sucks because she's not really progressing unless she's experimenting on the word, ya know! That p-day was fun, practiced for jazz night, which I'll talk about in a bit, and we got all our shopping done. There are dollar stores in Nihon called Daiso, and they're amazing! They are like a regular general store, and it's all 100 yen! Some of their ties are EPIC, and famous among missionaries, so I'm gonna have to get some I think sometime! ;) We bought some candles and spent our evening in candlelight! Twas awesome! :) Had some fun, got some sweet video and pictures. ;) 
      Tuesday was crazy! Our morning was normal, had DTM with our boys in Tomakomai, but a really cool miracle happened!  I was feeling down a bit, had a REALLY serious personal study, wasn't sure if I was doing any good, and I found a note in my suit coat!! I had turned it in to get dry cleaned, and the workers left me a super nice note that MADE MY DAY! I wish I could tell them how much that meant to me. I've got it in my scriptures now as a pick me up for later. ;)  This is what the note said:  Thank you for having a spiffy gold and silky tie, and a spiffy name. You have made our days here, good luck out there, heart, the laundry workers.
     That evening got crazy though. Elder Harper has been having some back issues, and it got really bad that same day. So we made a back brace. A back brace of doom! It was duck taped all around his stomach, and four chop sticks! O.O LOL! He also asked me for a blessing which scared me to death!! First blessing ever, I didn't know what to say! I just said what came to my mind, and it made sense and made him feel good. :) It was so great. I've never given a blessing before till then, and it was quite a powerful experience. I'm blessed with the spirit of healing as you know, so hopefully that kicks in. ;) We bought some cloth to make a new back brace, and with the extra cloth Harper Choro made a turban and showed me his Piccolo costume! (Piccolo is a character from Dragon Ball Z by the way) That was fun! 
      Wednesday and Thursday were normal days. Just lots of dendo. You get to know quite a few words very well when you tract. ii desu! I'm good! keko desu! I'm good! suki ja nai! I hate you! ;) Some old man said that, right after we volunteered to help him weed his garden! :) He was having a rough day, I'm sure. 
The weekend though is where things got crazy. I'm not sure if I told you before, but Evans Shima is ALL about music. She was a singer for awhile making records, plays violin, she LOVES it. And she puts on music nights every once in awhile. This one was Jazz Night, and since Elder Harper plays the Sax AND clarinet, naturally she commissioned him to be there. And then she found out I sang, and so I became a part of it! :D We left Friday afternoon for Sapporo for  rehearsals. They went well, and we had tons of fun! I actually sang, accentuate the positive, with Elder Spurling, who was Elder Harper's comp just last transfer!! That was cool, and he has got some PIPES!! HE's so good. He's only three transfers ahead of Muroran and that was his bean area too! So we have lots in common. Loves SX too!! :D 
        We spent the night in the mission office in the ap's apartment. They have a NICE apartment. It's HUGE! And new! They have it so good! There were eight of us there and we had a bit of a party. I ate a watermelon the size of three of my heads! Not alone of course ;) We played some games and had a great night!
       Saturday was the big day. Before rehearsals Elder Harper and I did some dendo in Moiwa, HIS bean area, so that was crazy cool for him. Hadn't been there in a year. Pretty soon it was Jazz Night, and we had a great turn out! TONS of non members there to talk to. I spoke so much Japanese, it was amazing!! I still know nothing, but it's coming. Every nihonjin says I sound very natural when I talk, and that my pronunciation is great. So that's good. :) We mingled for the first hour then the show started. The music was awesome, and we did a GREAT job! Everyone loved it! After it was over they encored MY song!! :D :D So we went and performed again! It was so much fun. After that we hung out for a bit, mingled, got swarmed with people saying how good we did. And then caught the 7:30 pm train home. This week was epic! I know I've only been here for four weeks, but I can't believe it!

      I can't believe everyone is doing so much crazy good at home. Tell Mark that that is AMAZING, what he's doing. I love him to death! 

We have NO central heating, even in our missionary apartments. Just futones, blankets, and a space heater! Lol!! It's great! And some parts of hokkaido get up to 4 meters of snow!! It's nuts!! I've lost 22 pounds since coming to Japan from the MTC. Isn't that CRAZY!!  Love you all!! :D

 Love love love!!

        Mike

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