Music, Crepes, and the Book of Mormon

Monday, October 7, 2019

こんにちは!

Spiritual Stuff:

On Wednesday the 姉妹たち (shimaitachi= sisters) were in charge of the 英会話 (eikaiwa= our weekly free English class) spiritual message, so we introduced the Book of Mormon and showed the first half of the second Book of Mormon video. As in, we showed Nephi and his brothers trying to get the plates from Laban and failing. We didn't have time to watch the whole thing, but we also wanted to catch their interest. And it worked! We were able to hand out 2 Book of Mormons and had several students say they wanted to watch the rest later to see what happens. Can't wait to follow up on that, lol. We also had the chance to bear testimony on the impact the Book of Mormon has had in our lives, and I think they could feel our sincerity and true desire for them to read it. 

On Saturday we had a district blitz! The STLs and zone leaders joined us, as well. I was paired up with another 姉妹 (shimai= sister) and did a mini companion exchange for our one hour blitz in Chigasaki. It was definitely a different experience to be with someone else who's first language was not 日本語 (nihongo= Japanese language), though thankfully she's better than me. We decided to go around with a whiteboard asking the question, "if tomorrow was your last day of life, what would you do?" We got a few of the expected "spend time with loved ones" answers, but suprisingly those were in the minority. Instead, we had a lot of people say they'd eat their favorite foods and one said she'd eat her favorite foods and then go to bed early. On her last day of life . Funny, but didn't lead to many good conversations.

We stopped a highschool girl with headphones in, and were actually surprised when she stopped, took her ear buds out, and listened to us. Her answer was surprising as well. She apparently plays the saxophone and would spend all day playing. We connected when I said I played the clarinet, because anyone who plays knows you can pretty easily switch between the two, which we both do. From there the conversation naturally made its way from school to history to the Bible and then to the Book of Mormon. She was super interested in what we had to say, and totally willing to take a Book of Mormon. When we gave it to her my companion for the evening unexpectedly asked me to share a favorite scripture with her and I chose Ether 12:27. She loved it. Unfortunately, she wasn't willing to give us her phone number because her parents would never forgive her, but we gave her the area's phone number and told her to call with any questions. We both have complete faith that she'll read the Book because she seemed genuinely interested in learning more about it.

What I love about the Book of Mormon, and what I think that girl would like, is that you can learn about history, culture, and gospel principles at the same time. Learning about the history and the culture gives you insight into the gospel principles that further deepen your understanding and build your testimony. Please don't ignore the history and culture aspects as you study the Book of Mormon! 

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

Last Wednesday we went to Kichijōji for our once-every-transfer interviews with President Esplin. Not only was there caramel popcorn balls, but I got a clarinet! I'll probably be performing later this month, so I'll keep you all updated on how that goes. So nice to be playing again, though building up my embouchure and thumb callus again is going to be a pain (literally).

On Friday when we went to the 老人ホーム (roujin houmu= literally old people home) as usual, I brought along the clarinet and was able to play a bit for them. Ogata姉妹 joined in on the piano for a few, but it was a bit difficult seeing as we only had piano music. Meaning, I transposed as I played. Anything for the sweet old people who think we're the best at whatever we do! 

Fast Sundays are a great day for the missionaries in Odawara. The "fruits" basket always overflows and one of the ward members always makes inarizushi. I've never had any other inarizushi, but if it all tastes like hers, I could probably live off of it. 

Remember that time (both of them) when we harvested rice? Well, this week they gave us 4 kilos of their harvest and it's the best rice I've ever eaten. It probably won't last that long, unfortunately, since we eat rice literally every day, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts! 

We went to Kamakura for P-Day today! Visited various shrines, a bamboo forest (報国寺, houkokuji), and the giant Buddha (大仏, daibutsu). Visiting the giant Buddha included going inside, which surprisingly only cost ¥20 (about $.20). Also spent way too much money on random food we passed, saw, and wanted to eat (and did eat). See pics below! And the ones in the other email I'll surely have to send because I take too many pictures when I travel... 

New Foods:

-youkan (2 different types, both given to us by old people) 

-japanese pancakes (they're dessert here)

-possibly the best burger I've ever eaten. No idea what was in the sauce, but it was delicious. 

-warabi mochi ice cream

-strawberry custard it's-called-taiyaki-but-it's-not-actually-taiyaki-according-to-Ogata姉妹 taiyaki

-kaisendon (raw fish on top of rice, in a bowl) 

-it's not new, but I had a lemon sugar crepe for the first time since Paris 

-yuzu ice cream

-pumpkin pudding (didn't actually mean or want to try it, but it was handed to me as I tried to order a normal one) 

About the Pictures:

• Our district's sisters + the STLs eating dinner before the blitz! Don't worry, I only ate half of that mound of deliciousness. Split it with Ogata姉妹 who shared her burger (the one that's possibly the best I've ever eaten) 
• Here's my hand for comparison. This was after it had sunk a bit, too. 
• Sorry for the poor quality, but here's our blitz crew! District + the zone leadership. 

• Just arrived in Kamakura! 
• For washing your hands, NOT for drinking
• No idea what these are/were, but they're pretty cool. 
• Kaisendon! Absolute deliciousness in a bowl. Yes, those are tiny fish. And yes, you eat them whole. 
• The giant Buddha truly is giant. 
• I'm not salty at all that my best picture of the bamboo forest has people in it... Not at all... 

愛してます!

-スナ一姉妹

2 Months!

Monday, September 30, 2019

こんにちは!

I can't believe it's already been 2 months since I came to 日本. 4 months since I entered the MTC, and it doesn't feel like it's been that long at all.

Spiritual Stuff:

Remember that man I talked about who basically dropped of the face of the planet? Well, he unblocked the 長老たち (chouroutachi= elders) and they got through and have started meeting with him again! He even came to 英会話 (eikaiwa= our free weekly English class). They're really working on helping him forgive himself right now, but he's progressing!

On Friday we went to the next town over to do a sort-of-英会話-sort-of-not英会話 at their town recreational center (or something?), and it basically ended up being just eating dinner (absolutely delicious curry, as usual) and talking to people in English, answering random questions, etc. Once they found out that Ogata姉妹 can play piano, however, they requested she play something for them. Of course, the only music we had on hand was the music app on our tablets that has the hymnbook. So, she played and I sang. I am NOT a soprano, but I think they appreciated the effort. Also, I started singing "I Am a Child of God" in English and halfway through realized I'd forgotten it... Ogata姉妹 started singing along at some point, and I decided to drop to the alto part and we made a nice harmony. At that point, the Spirit started to fill the room. Everyone got really quiet and a few people started taking videos. We finished and they requested two encores lol. Talking to the member who drove us to the 駅 (eki= train station) afterwards, she said that it made everyone feel really warm inside. Yay for giving everyone good feelings about the church!

This week we visited a returning member who was found by the elders last week when they were housing. She told them they could come back, but we went instead! Before heading over, though we decided to stop by a nearby member's house, which just so happened to be the Bishop and his wife's. On our way, we ran into the Bishop's wife coming home from grocery shopping on her bike, and it's a good thing we did, because we'd already passed the turn that leads to their apartment building. We walked her home and helped her carry up her groceries, and then told her why we were in her area. We shared a scripture, told her about the returning member living nearby, and then asked her to pray for her. We specifically asked to pray that she will feel the Spirit, but she went above and beyond. It was the most spirit-filled prayer I've ever heard, and we left with confidence. When we got to the apartment and knocked on the door, it was no surprise that she was actually home and willing to talk!

We talked for about 30 minutes, and invited her to several things, and while she didn't want to go to any of them she was still willing to meet us again this week! We'll be seeing her again on Wednesday with a ward member or 2. The cool thing is, as we were talking to her and asking about her experience with the church, she told us she'd been baptized in the 長老たち's bathtub 20, 30 years ago! That would 100% not happen today in 日本. When we asked her what she like about the church, she said the members, and we agree wholeheartedly. 

There's something special about all church members, but the ones in Odawara have been amazing to us. They're all completely willing to help the missionaries and anyone who's in need for any reason, no matter the time or PLACE. This returning member apparently was helped out a lot in the past, and we're hoping to help her see that the members in Odawara still love her and are still willing to help her out!

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

Last time we met with one of the people we teach, a mom of three energetic kids aged 7-11, we invited her to 英会話 but she messaged us the day before and said she didn't know if she'd be able to come, even though she really wanted to come. We completely understood because we know how much stress she is under right now. The next day, about 20 minutes into 英会話, she walked in with all three of her kids! We were super surprised and super happy. She and the kids all had a great time, especially when we played ping pong afterwards. Also, we found out that the day before had been the oldest kid's birthday, and we just happened to have brownies from our Relief Society President on hand, so we were able to sing Happy Birthday and give her one! Also, for those who aren't aware, they just sing the English Happy Birthday song here. In English. With a very cute Japanese accent.

Last P-Day we went to a member's house for lunch, which wouldn't have been that unusual, except she is Filipino. And was expecting the 長老たち too (they didn't come). And likes to cook... There was a Lot of food. (See pics). All of it delicious. Needless to say we did not finish it all.

Tuesday was splits with the STL's! (STL= Sister Training Leader). I and my companion for the day went streeting at a nearby (sort of) 大学 (daigaku= college), which was both super fun and also the weirdest experience. It was fun because we brought a board with stickers and asked people to put stickers under what was most important to them (family, money, friends, god, etc), and because it was in English and because they're 大学生 (daigakusei= college students) they actually stopped and talked to us! We were able to have a lot of really good conversations. It was the weirdest experience, though, because Odawara is basically all old people so seeing people my age, and a lot of them, was very surreal. But very fun! I even met a girl wearing a claddagh ring so we talked about it and she apparently studied abroad in Ireland. Her friends were like, "it's that famous?!"

We had to wait 20 minutes for a train on Saturday, so we sat down. At some point a group of 4 elderly siblings came along, so we gave up our seats so they could sit together. They ended up giving us Japanese sweets (though they're apparently not actually sweet), and we're so cute and nice. They waved us off when our train left.

Saturday morning as we were planning out our day, we got a call saying that we would be helping out the same people with the rice fields we helped out 2 weeks ago. Yes, that's right. We harvested rice again. This time we finished clearing out the dried rice from the previous field and then headed over to another field and started chopping (see pics). This other field was fortunately much more dried out, but unfortunately it still had just as many bugs. The frogs were cute, though.

I filled up my second journal the other day. The first one I filled all but the last 3 lines with my stay at the MTC, and the second one was my first 2 months in 日本. I'm probably going to have 10 full journals by the time I go home lol.

Just weighed myself for the first time in about 4 months... I've gained 10-15 pounds lol. I blame the MTC's not great quality food, the fact that I actually eat breakfast, and Ogata姉妹's way-too-delicious cooking. Probably won't stop gaining unless I give up a lot of delicious food, which probably isn't going to happen. I mean, we could always skip the train and bike everywhere but... Who wants to bike when you can ride the train?

New Foods:

-udon gyoza (highly recommend for if you want that gyoza taste but don't have any on hand)

-melon bread (no, it doesn't taste like melon. I have no idea why it's called that)

-cod roe spaghetti

-Hamburg steak (basically Japanese meatloaf, but better)

About the Pictures:

• Love that I get to see this view every day.
• Went back to see more views from the top of Odawara Castle!
• Went for sushi during splits
• At that member's house for lunch. You can't see the 2 full trays of brownies she also made... This is all for three people...
• More rice harvesting pics!

愛してます!

-スナ一姉妹

Odawara Hosts a World Competition?

Monday, September 23, 2019

こんにちは!

We're back to a normal P-Day this week! The weather's been cooler because of a typhoon that passed by somewhere but didn't actually hit us (though we did get some rain), though it was pretty hot this morning... I'm hoping it cools back down again soon 

Spiritual Stuff:

On Saturday (Friday in the US ), the first episode in the Book of Mormon Videos series was released. Ogata姉妹 and I watched it as soon as we saw it was up and were absolutely amazed. These videos are going to be an excellent resource, not only for teaching people but also for individuals in their own study. There are some things you can't really get a feel for when reading a book like the Book of Mormon, such as the feelings and thoughts of the people talked about, and even just the first video helped me get to know the ancient characters a bit better. It helped me feel for them as real, imperfect human beings just like the rest of us. They have been that all along, but reading about something and seeing it is a bit different. I know that through these vidoes, people will be able to better understand both the stories written in the scriptures and the doctrine written in them. We are eagerly looking forward to the next one, and I hope all of you are as well!

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

A few weeks ago we started doing a second 英会話 (eikaiwa= our free English class) because we had some new students who were not at the English Connect 2 level like the rest of the students. Over the past couple weeks we've had several students from the English Connect 2 side of the room come over to the English Connect 1 side of the room until there was barely anybody for the 長老たち to teach... I'm guessing the very high level of the ones who were left kind of scared them off... So now we have a lot more students in a tiny corner of the room and I'm the teacher because Ogata姉妹 is also a student, but it's so much fun!

On Saturday morning (and a bit of the afternoon), we helped out at the nursing home we usually volunteer at on Fridays because they had a 秋祭り (aki matsuri= Fall Festival). Ogata姉妹 and I were assigned to the old fashioned candy shop, where all the candy was ¥10-¥30 (about 10-30 cents). The kids absolutely loved it and it was adorable.

]'\;[Last Wednesday after 英会話 one of our students invited us, along with the branch mission leader who's another student, to go see what seemed to be a mapping competition held at Odawara Castle... We had absolutely no idea what that entailed, but we agreed. We decided that we didn't need to buy tickets and would be fine standing. That Friday he showed up to モルモン書クラス (morumon sho kurasu= Book of Mormon class), gave us the times and showed us the flyer, which said something about projection and mapping... He then said he had to go and left before class started. He showed up again when we were playing ping pong after the class ended and gave us all the tickets that he had gone and bought for us. He refused to let us pay him back.

The mapping competition was on Saturday night, so we met up beforehand and walked to Odawara Castle together. The image I had in my head was a bunch of old people watching a projection of a mapping competition of some sort... That was completely wrong. For one, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of people there and it was a really good thing we had tickets. For another, it was not a mapping competition like I was picturing, as in literal maps. I can't describe it in words, to be honest.

It turned out to be the One Minute Projection Mapping Competition 2019, held every year all over the world, and this year it happened to be at Odawara Castle. 43 countries were represented in what was apparently a world competition. If you want to know a little bit of what it was like, you can look up the teaser on YouTube, though it probably doesn't do it justice. One of the coolest, if not the coolest, things I've ever seen.

Along with the projection mapping, one of the coolest things I've ever seen was the 和太鼓 (wadaiko) performance beforehand, which is Japanese drumming. The group was a local highschool club founded over 30 years ago that competes at the national level, and they were fantastic. Also, the giant drum (literally the biggest I've ever seen), yelling, and synchronized moving made for the best drumming performance I've ever seen (sorry Spencerport Drumline).

New Foods:

-natto... For those of you who know what that is, I probably don't even have to explain what kind of experience that was.

-nimono (handmade by our branch mission leader)

-rakkyou

-a bunch of Filipino foods I don't know the names of, made by a ward member

-Japanese fried rice (basically the same as normal fried rice)

-fried chicken onigiri

-tapioca strawberry milk (they don't call it bubble tea here, they call it tapioca ______). And yes, it was literally milk with crushed strawberries and tapioca pearls and it was delicious.

About the Pictures:

• I can't believe it took me this long to get my hands on boba...
• Couldn't believe how awesome the competition was.
• We love our Relief Society President. And how she makes extra food for us when she makes some for a person we're teaching.
• Just look at this cute little guy.

• Just, you know, casually admiring the view while waiting for our train.
• My 愛する同僚 (aisuru douryou= beloved companion) mixing me some natto...
• More pictures of last week's rice harvesting!

愛してます!

-スナ一姉妹

Rice Harvest

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

こんにちは!

If you're wondering why you didn't get an email on Monday, the subject line says it all! Well, that and we had zone conference yesterday, so we had to wait until today for our P-Day.

Spiritual Stuff:

Yesterday's zone conference was absolutely amazing, as expected of President and Sister Esplin. I really like one of the analogies that was shared. Forgive my summary, it was in 日本語 (nihongo= Japanese language) so I probably missed a few details . The penguin says the earth is white. The monkey says it's green. The camel says it's brown. And the astronaut says it's blue. All have different opinions and think the others are wrong because that one color is all they know. However, even though they all have different perspectives, none of them are wrong. The earth is white, green, brown, and blue. It's the same with the gospel. We may all have different perspectives and interpretations, but that doesn't mean that we're all wrong. It also doesn't mean that just because someone thinks about the gospel differently than us that we can just assume that they are completely wrong. If we do that, we miss out on seeing the bigger picture. Just as God sees the complete picture of the earth, he sees the complete picture of the gospel. He knows all parts of both, and no matter what we may think or how we may interpret the scriptures, both He and the basic truths of the gospel will never change. It is well worth our time to listen to the perspectives and opinions and others so that we can get closer to seeing that complete picture that God sees.

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

As to why we were harvesting rice on Monday, it's the other area's fault lol. A member of their ward's parents, who live in our area, own and take care of 2 rice fields with 2 other couples. They produce enough rice to be a year's supply for all of them. So, as service, we went and helped with the harvest as a district. Harvesting rice involves long pants and long sleeve shirts (even in feels-like-95-degrees weather), rain boots or made-specifically-for-rice-paddies boots, gloves, a sweat rag, a mini scythe-looking thing, and lots of dried rice leaves (no idea what they're called). Ogata姉妹 and I were part of the cutting group. The tying group used the dried rice leaves to tie the bundles together in a way that would make it easy to hang them up to dry out.

A part of harvesting rice is, of course, standing in the rice paddies. They must have drained it in preparation because it wasn't literal water. It was, however, a lots of deep, shoe-sucking mud. And yes, I personally experienced that shoe-sucking. Multiple times. Basically every time I wanted to move. Three of those times I was stuck so hard that when Ogata姉妹 tried to pull me free my foot came out and landed in the mud. I was so tempted to just take off the other boot, but it wasn't a good idea for reasons given in the list below...

Creatures I saw in the rice paddies:

-crickets/grasshoppers

-very large praying mantis

-lots and lots of dragonflies

-lots and lots and LOTS of spiders, of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. Also all different abilities, such as running very fast or jumping.

-zarigani, which is a Japanese crazyfish. Red and big enough to eat if one desired. One of the 長老たち in my district picked one up and just stuck it in his pocket... We didn't see him take it back out again...

-crabs! Small, freshwater ones that didn't really care if they were picked up.

-small, green, adorable frogs that I wish I could have taken home with me.

Last week was transfer week, which means the district changed and the mission got more bean-chans! For our district, the transfer meant that we are now half bean-chans and half trainers (see pic). It's super unusual, but also cool because I get to see 2 people who were my 後輩 at the MTC! (後輩= underclassmen used in more contexts). We all felt kind of bad for them because their first Monday wasn't P-Day and they had to spend it working in a rice paddy in the heat of 日本.

Actually, this past week there were a few days we didn't turn on the AC for a couple hours! And today is positively cool, though according to Ogata姉妹 it's cold . Fall officially starts on Saturday, so it shouldn't be a surprise, but it is pretty weird considering how I started off my time in 日本 (with feels-like-101-degrees weather and 100% humidity, all day every day).

The other day we were walking through the shopping area under the 駅 and saw literally the biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. Maybe some tarantulas in zoos come close, but this spider literally had a diameter as long as from the bottom of my palm to my middle knuckle. It was headed in the direction of a store, and all I could think was, "well, I'm never going shopping in that store." I also unfortunately, in my shock, neglected to take a picture.

Last P-Day we finally had all the ingredients, so we made sugar cookies! The kind with lots of sugar, not the kind with frosting. And for those who are not aware, microwaves in 日本 have an oven function, which is how it was even possible to make cookies in the first place. However, we did not have a cookie sheet, so we had to use wax paper on the rotating microwave plate instead, which led to the cookies being perfect on top and barely cooked on the bottom (they still tasted good, though). We also did not have a mixer or electric beaters, so I had to become a human mixer with a rice paddle as my beater (see pic). It was worth it to see the faces of the people we gave them to, though.

I finally got to try legit katsudon! (See pic). And the reason this ended up in this section is because of how close it was to K's Kitchen in Provo. It was pretty much exact, actually. Even had the same types of side dishes! For anyone in/near Provo looking for legit Japanese food, I highly recommend it! Maybe the only difference, actually was that K's Kitchen provides a spoon for those who can't use chopsticks . 

New Foods:

-that legit katsudon!

-eel tenpura. Completely not what I was expecting and also delicious.

-soba

-cream pan (bread), which is basically a roll filled with custard and delightfulness.

-Japanese grapes (see pic), from a member in the missionary fruit basket (that really should be called something different cause we get all kinds of edible goodies)

About the Pictures:

• These are Japanese grapes. And that is my hand. Yes, they're actually that big and round. And they're also the best-tasting grapes I've ever had.
• Tenpura and soba! The eel is the long one on the left with dark brown along the edge.
• Pictures really don't do Odawara's mountains justice.

• Sometimes Google Photos puts a panorama picture together for me. it's not perfect, but it's actually pretty good.
• This transfer's district!
• Human mixer at work.
• Katsudon!
• The cookies baking in the oven, I mean microwave.
• Love Odawara's sunsets.
• Rice harvesting crew! You can't really tell but there's actually a small rainbow behind us... Also, my gloves were white when we started...

愛してます!

-スナ一姉妹

Transfer 1 is Done! Also, Typhoon Faxai

Monday, September 9, 2019

こんにちは!

I get to keep my area and companion for another 6 weeks! I've grown to love both of them so much and can't wait to see what the next transfer brings. Also, some of you may already know about Typhoon Faxai, and we're ok! More details below.

Spiritual Stuff:

Last Thursday, at our usual district meeting as we talked about the people we were teaching and how we might help, we talked about one of the people that the 長老たち (chouroutachi= elders) are teaching, who has a baptismal date but suddenly basically dropped off the face of the earth. He wasn't answering their calls, didn't come to 英会話 (eikaiwa= our free English class), and the only thing they know about where he lives is that it's close to the 駅 (eki= train station). We decided that if anyone had time and happened to be near the 駅, they would house in hopes of knocking on his door. That night, we decided to do some whiteboard 伝道 (whiteboard dendou= writing something on a mini whiteboard and talking to people about it, usually a question or challenge of some sort) and some housing around the 駅 because we had time, why not? We were having absolutely no success, once people found out who we were they wanted to go away or they wanted us to go away.

We were walking back to the church to do some contacting with it's excellent wifi, when we noticed a brightly lit alley that we had never seen before, despite the fact that we walk that route multiple times every week. We decided to check it out and found a few restaurants and shops, a little hidden shopping area, apparently. We got to the end of the alley and walking along the cross street comes that person who had dropped off the face of the planet! We were all very surpised, him more than us I think, because almost immediately he told us that he had drunk beer a few days prior and didn't want to face the 長老たち. He felt like he was a terrible human being for betraying their trust and lying to them. We were able to reassure him that that absolutely was NOT true, and that he should call the 長老たち and tell them what he was feeling because they could help. Thankfully, he is still reading the Book of Mormon and praying, so we are all hoping and praying that this is just a bump in his road to receiving baptism.

We were able to talk some about Christ's Atonement and what it means for us, as well as the fact the Heavenly Father loves us no matter what. Sometimes we think that we can never come back, just like this man, but we can always come back. No matter what we've done or how we feel about it or ourselves, because of Christ's Atonement we can always come back. And no matter what we've done or how we feel about it or ourselves, our Father in Heaven will always love us, because He is our literal father.

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

I guess I should probably talk about the typhoon first. Typhoon Faxai was, at the time I went to bed last night, a Category 3 Hurricane that had chances of intensifying to a Category 4 over the next couple hours. It passed directly over us last night, making a lot of noise, but not causing much damage to Odawara (see pics for the only "damage" we directly experienced). An Odawara church member's car-protecting roof thing was torn off, and a ward building a couple areas over had a tree fall on it, but so far nothing worse has been reported to us. The trains are still stopped, and last night we canceled a lesson, but otherwise nothing has affected us.

Last Tuesday we got up at 5am but it was worth it to see my 同期 again! (douki= people that came to the mission at the same time as you). Unfortunately we did not take a picture, but I did take a picture with Ikeda姉妹 when I saw her at the stake Fiesta on Saturday! Thankfully the entire mission was invited to bring people, not just those in the Fujisawa area, and missionaries from other areas were also invited to take part, which is why Ikeda姉妹 came. It was so good to see her again after 3 months! I can't believe it's actually been that long...

The mission is getting a clarinet! I've been talking with Sister Esplin, the mission president's wife, and we've already ordered reeds (Vandoren, yes) and are working on music. There are 3 missionaries total in the mission who can play the clarinet, and there are already some Christmas plans in the making...

Last Wednesday I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. It was much bigger than my palm, and thank goodness it was nowhere near our apartment or the church. However, it was heading towards one of the shops in the 駅 so pray for them... I didn't get a picture I was so shocked, though I wish I had.

I taught Ogata姉妹 how to make French toast this week and could only laugh when she commented on how much sugar was being added to the eggs... It was delicious though, so worth it.

On Sunday an elderly couple from Syracuse, Utah came to sacrament meeting. They don't speak a word of 日本語 (nihongo= Japanese language) and are just traveling around 日本. The branch mission leader's first reaction, for some reason, was to turn to me and ask if I could translate. I've been in 日本 for barely over a month, and our district leader who's been here over a year and a half is in our branch... Yeah, I threw him under the bus and he ended up translating, along with the branch mission leader who lived in Ogden, Utah for 35 years. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to avoid translation, though...

New Foods:

-gyoza with cheese in it. We decided normal is better, though this gyoza did come frozen in some sort of mixture that took the place of any otherwise needed water and/or oil, which was interesting and convenient.

-puchi keeki

-glica ice cream (same brand as pocky)

-yukimi daifuku ice cream (deliciousness)

-some weird Brazilian food at the Fiesta (no idea what it was called or what was in it)

-shiikuwaasaa (yes, that's the correct romanized spelling)

-ankake gohan

About the Pictures:

• The radar around 8:30pm last night
• Watching the storm brew and the clouds move very fast in the opposite direction as normal, moving with the rotation of the typhoon
• The only "damage" we experienced
• lol she keeps taking pictures of me when I stop us to take a picture

• You see all those leaves? Those are lotus plants. And the leaves are at least 3 times the size of my head
• Love the views we bike past (and sometimes stop to take pictures of)
• ️️️ 愛してます, Ikeda姉妹!
• I gave in...