Halloween in Japan!

Ok, 15 minutes... go!

One of my pleasant surprises in Japan was discovering that they celebrate Halloween here! There wasn`t too much of anything Halloween in London when I was there for the fall, so I was excited when as soon as it hit October all of the shops in Ebetsu started putting up jack-o-lanterns in their windows. It was super cute. And apparently one of the main parties of the year at the church is for Halloween. One of the members came up with an awesome program including apple bobbing and a halloween mystery box and it was a total hit. We even had a couple of investigators come. So without further ado, Halloween pictures!

We definitely couldn`t decide what to dress up as until like 5:30 the night before, right before p-day ended. It is hard to think of things to do on a mission because you only have missionary clothes! But Koyama Shimai ended up being Kiki, from the movie Kiki`s delivery service, and I went as a pirate. I may have already been a pirate like three times before in my life... but it is fun and easy!

Here`s a how-to for if you are ever in Japan needing a costume, but have nothing. First, go to the dollar store and buy a shirt. Then attack it with scissors, roll it around in the dirt outside your apartment and splash a little ketchup on it. Make an eye-patch out of paper (Annie, I think you know why I needed that this year...), and then for pirate gold take 1 yen and 50 yen coins and stick them on a string. Tie scarves around yourself in random places, and you`re all set! Haha, I think it turned out ok.

Ok, so that was definitely only one night out of the whole week and there were lots of other awesome things that happened too but time is up, so I will save it for later!!

The actual day of Halloween (the party was Tuesday night) was really fun too though because we had a zone conference, where a lot of missionaries from a big area gather together for training with the mission president. It was in Asahikawa again, so we were gone all day!

Ok, LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Happy November.

And election day. I can`t believe I am not around for that. And have no idea what is going on in the news. Super super super super super super weird. I love elections! Even though they can get crazy sometimes. So enjoy it for me. Someone has to stay up watching the news until a ridiculous hour in my place. Ok, thanks.

[Note from the editor: the following should have been with last week's post, but the photos had to be re-sent]

So there is this magical crepe place here in Ebetsu... that we may go to at least once or twice a week. Since my first transfer here... During the summer they had the most delicious smoothies, and now they have delcious warm beverages called sno-jies! It is entirely impossible to resist when we are near.

Also, a pic of the Ebetsu Eikaiwa (English class). This week we are going to have a big halloween party. Hopefully a lot of people will come! This pic is from Elder Stilson's birthday. He turned 23 in the middle of October. So now three out of the four Ebetsu missionaries are 23! Me, Koyama shimai and Stilson Choro.