the Catch Up email!

I don't know how this happened, but I feel like I haven't had time to write a decent email in ages so all of my pictures are piling up on my SD card! I was flipping through them last night and realized I had a problem. So I think at first I'll just take a brief moment and send a bunch of them with descriptions. Sound ok? I thought so!

First up: this week. Just so that I don't get even more behind. These are the current Ebetsu missionaries!

We went to dinner at a member's house yesterday and it was her daughters birthday, so the day before we took some pics together to make a fabulous birthday card. The birthday dinner was a lot of fun too. It was at the Funamizu's, and they invite over to their house (that is a good thirty minute drive away in the middle of nowhere) a lot. It was my third time there. Before they even gave us a whole watermelon! The highlight of it this time was a Baskin & Robbins ice cream cake.

So one of the reasons I haven't been able to write much lately is because everyone celebrated President Evan's birthday last week! Around 40 or so missionaries all came to the mission home where we ate the traditional cake and ice cream, and then headed over to the close-by Maruyama Koen for some sports. We played a gianourmous game of ultimate frisbee (like 20 vs 20). It was hilarious, and then some people split off for soccer. I got to borrow a mountain bike for the day too, which was a fun change!

After transfers we had a one-day companion exchange. It was a lot of fun, and I got to work with Tsukiji Shimai, who is super smart and was studying to be a judge before coming here. She goes home to resume her studies soon, so I was excited to get to work with her!

So the end of this last transfer was super sad, because my trainer (first companion in the field of Japan) Masuda Shimai went home! So we took some pics before she disappeared back into normal life, including one with all of her companions who were still here. 

Dinner at the Takamatsu's, and hanging out with Taki Kun!

Last lunch of the last district -- sushi!

Ok, and I have thirty or so seconds left so that is it! I need to work on finding a better balance of being able to send emails with both words and pictures... I always forget that everyone doesn't know what I am doing all of the time, even though all of my communication is one email a week! I think my mind is still in instant communication mode, and just forgets that I'm not doing it, haha. I should definitely work on getting some more spiritual stuff in here though.. It's just so hard to do in a tiny time limit! Good practice for newspaper deadlines though. Although, I think those are more generous most times...

And time is up! I love you all so so so incredibly much!

Scripture of the week:

John 21:25 (Bible, New Testament)

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

Japanese word of the week:

kinbuntenkan ni = for a change of pace

Quick email!

Today is President Evan's birthday, so everyone is at the mission home and there is no time to mail! I might have a minute or two to mail after but we might not so I"m going to send a picture of us in front of the sapporo eki (eki = train station). We did a little shopping on the way here today.

...I'm back!

I only have a few minutes, so I will make a super quick list of some highlights from the week:

We got to do some service for a member, Fujita Shimai, this week where we... made grape juice! They have grapes growing in the backyard and it is the end of the season so we cut them down and squished the good parts out for the beginning of the process, and then drank some that she had finished from the day before. It was delicious.

Ah time is up! It takes like an hour to get back to Ebetsu from here (bus and train...) and I still need to change out of my sports clothes (I'm wearing jeans for like the second time in Japan and it is glorious!) I didn't really have enough time to put enough points for this to consist of a list, haha. But I love you! Send me letters! You're all cool.

Love you!!

TRANSFER 6!

BEAR WITH ME HERE, BECAUSE THIS COMPUTER IS SUDDENLY STUCK IN ALL CAPS WITH NO WAY TO FIX IT BECAUSE OF A STUCK BUTTON AND A GLITCH IN THE TOOL BAR... AND i AM TOO WEAK\LAZY TO TYPE THIS ENTIRE THING WITH MY FINGER ON THE SHIFT BAR.

OH, THE TROUBLES OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL AGE.

BUT I STILL LOVE YOU ALL! PLUS, I DEFINITELY ONLY HAVE TEN MINUTES LEFT ANYWAY SO THIS IS GOING TO BE A SHORT ONE.

WOW THIS IS UNPLEASING TO READ. MAYBE IF I USE MORE SPACES IT WILL MAKE IT A LITTLE EASIER ON THE EYE.

SO THIS NEXT TRANSFER i WILL BE IN... EBETSU!

I`LL BE STAYING HERE FOR A THIRD ROUND, BUT THIS TIME WITH KOYAMA SHIMAI. I`VE DONE EXCHANGES WITH HER THREE TIMES BEFORE (TWICE IN EBETSU -- THERE SHOULD BE PICTURES OF US FROM THE LAST TIME IN ONE OF MY OLDER POSTS).

SHE IS A SUPER AWESOME MISSIONARY WHO IS 23 JUST LIKE ME -- HER BIRTHDAY IS JUST A MONTH BEFORE MINE -- AND JOINED THE CHURCH 3 YEARS AGO. HER TESTIMONY IS SO STRONG WHEN SHE TEACHES THAT I AM REALLY EXCITED TO BE ABLE TO WORK WITH HER FOR AT LEAST A WHOLE TRANSFER.

THIS WEEK WAS ALSO GREAT BECAUSE WE GOT TO WATCH THE BROADCAST OF CONFERENCE! IT IS ALWAYS SUCH A NICE REST... FOR THE BODY SINCE WE AREN`T OUT RIDING OUR BIKES FOR ALMOST THE WHOLE WEEKEND, BUT MUCH MORE FOR THE HEART. i JUST LOVE THE STORIES, ENCOURAGEMENT AND ADVICE THAT COME FROM CONFERENCE SO MUCH. TAKI KUN CAME WITH US AS WELL ON SUNDAY, SO THAT WAS A LOT OF FUN TO SHARE GOD`s MODERN TEACHINGS WITH HIM.

AH ONLY FOUR MINUTES LEFT! ONTO A COUPLE PICTURES. BETTER EMAIL NEXT WEEK! pROBABLY...

(ALSO, i THINK i AM GOING TO TAKE A RAIN CHECK ON THE SCRIPTURE OF THE WEEK SINCE i FEEL LIKE SCRIPTURES GENERALLY SHOULDN`t BE YELLED...

BUT FOR A NICE SPIRITUAL UPLIFT i RECOMMEND CRUISING OVER TO LDS.ORG TO HEAR THE WORDS OF TODAY`S LIVING PROPHETS FROM THIS RECENT CONFERENCE!)

PICTURES = PICTURES OF EBETSU. THE WEATHER LAST P-DAY WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!

AHH WE HAD SISTER EXCHANGES AND OTHER AWESOME FUN THINGS THIS WEEK TOO... MATA CONDO! (MATA CONDO = NEXT TIME IN JAPANESE)

Hello from the Animals of Ebetsu!

Hello everyone!!

I hope that you all had a lovely conference weekend. We don`t watch it here until next week since the time difference is too funky, but I did hear the big news that the age requirement for missionaries has changed! (In case you didn`t know, before it was 19 for boys and 21 for girls, but as of Saturday it is now 18 for boys and 19 for girls) We actually just found out from some of the sisters talking about it in church on Sunday morning because they had seen the news online. None of the missionaries had any clue since we`re not hooked up to the internet, haha.

But I think it will be awesome, especially for girls. I think I would still be here at the same time in my life no matter what, but I think that now a lot more girls will come on missions and it will be great! It is such a wonderful experience and sets a great foundation for the rest of life and will strengthen a lot of futures and families. Cool stuff. It will be interesting to see if more sister missionaries start showing up here after a few months!

Um, I shall proceed on to pictures because that tends to be the safest plan.

Last week we went to Tonden farm, a cute little place where they have animals you can play with petting zoo style. It`s an Ebetsu attraction. While we were there we ran into Rin Chan, who I think I have mentioned before because she was baptised with her dad last month, and her family and it was super cute to see her run around and feed all of the animals.

all of the stuff in the gift shop was from New Mexico, which was kind of random.

more animal friends

there were lots of animals. haha

We have 30 minutes of sports every morning first thing at 6:30, and this transfer has been great because we have gone running almost every day. LOVE it. But one day this past week we decided to do a little jumping instead...

 

We also went to a super delicious soup curry shop for lunch one day. I definitely want to learn how to make it myself at home when I get back! It is warm and magical.

 

I also got to make some pumpkin cookies this past week! For a full understanding of my undying love for pumpkin cookies, refer to my blog entries from around this time last year. And probably the year before that, and before that... I kind of like them. So anyways, I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn`t be able to eat them this year but then I got a surprise package from my mom with all of the ingredients in it (surprisingly hard thing to find here -- chocolate chips! You just have to break up bars of chocolate or else spend a lot of money for a super tiny bag of them)! Thank you mom! The Elders appreciated it too.

And then when we were out one day we discovered a Gresham, Oregon (review: Gresham is Ebetsu`s sister city) park! Taking pictures became necessary.

We also ate delicious parfaits at a cafe called Santa Cream. I know that you all are just dying to know everything I eat in a week, so you`re welcome.

I took way more pictures than I thought, so now I am all out of time!! Oops. But most people think pictures are more fun anyways, so I guess it is ok... We had a great week of missionary work though, and were able to teach some really fun lessons and learn a lot more about the gospel ourselves at the same time.

The weather here is just starting to get chilly and the leaves are starting to turn colors and fall and it is so gorgeous! I love the crisp air, and am so glad to be able to be here with these people right now. Thank you so much as always for all of your support!!

Scripture of the Week:

Proverbs 3:5-6 (Bible, Old Testament)

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Fun Japanese word of the Week:

Necojita = cat`s tongue, or `I can`t eat/drink hot food.` They always drink things so ridiculously hot here! I am way too weak. I can`t do it. I just have to sit and wait, haha.



Come Listen to the Living Prophets

The LDS semi-annual conference is this weekend!

The Half Way Mark

I officially hit 9 months of being on my mission this past week, meaning that I have now entered into the world of having less time left on my mission than what I have already completed. So that is weird.

I`m still a little behind, so I will just start by sending pics and describing them and go from there! This past week went ridiculously fast. It`s crazy.

[This paragraph is repeated from last week for these two pics that didn't send due to an email problem]

They are really big on business cards here, so every time a missionary goes to a different area they write on the back of them to give to all of the members and people they worked with. It is pretty cool and fun. So since the music concert was in Atsubetsu I wanted to finish before then so I wrote seriously like every single day. When I finally finished I had written 47!

Last week we had a pizza party! Stilson Choro channeled his former little ceasars pizza making past and we all made little personal pizzas. Imanishi Shimai has made the dough in the morning because she is awesome. The most interesting pizza was created by O San, who is one of the Elder`s investigators from China. He put white chocolate lemon cookies in the middle, then cheese and all that, and then on top an intense amount of salt and pepper and crunched up cheese potato chips. Everyone ate a slice... I got part of the cookies so it wasn`t too bad. But it was super funny.

More pizza pics!

And I have tried out all of the banana bread recipes my mom sent me in the past few weeks and had fun both eating them and giving them out to investigators and people in the ward -- they don`t have banana bread here! The Elders were super stoked when I gave them some. The winner is the banana chocolate chip muffins. But the sour cream here is different and kind of expensive, so I`ll only be able to make it once in a while.

Also, you may have noticed that I cut my hair. It was just getting way too annoying, as much as I wanted to help the children. Getting my hair cut was a totally terrifying experience though, haha. I don`t know how to express the subtleties of hair cut desires in Japanese! It is definitely way shorter than what I said, but I`m still alive so it is ok. Maybe if I think really hard my hair will grow super fast again and I will have enough to donate to locks of love when I get home.

This past week we got to take a little field trip away from Ebetsu, going to Asahikawa! It is a two hour bus ride away, and the first time I have left the Sapporo area. We went there for a zone conference and went up and came back the same day, meaning we had to catch a 6:15 train to the Sapporo train station, where we took a 7 a.m. bus to Asahikawa, so it was super early but we survived. And it was fun to see everyone and do some training together!

Bah I am way out of time. But this week has been great, with some great lessons with investigators and such too. Hopefully I will be able to catch you up on that soon!!!

Love you all so much!!! This week has been a fabulous one for mail :)

Scripture of the week:

Alma 7:24 (Book of Mormon)

And see that ye have faith, hope and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

Japanese word of the week:

katatsumuri = snail