Dear family,
well, this week was somewhat less bug filled and more exciting than last. we got another new investigator, eriko san who is really sweet and pure. i just worry about how much of her is actually there because she stares blankly past you when you talk to her and just nods her head with a huge smile on her face. but she is cute at any rate.
i actually wasnt there for her lesson cuz i was in kofu where it was raining! I saw mount fuji!!! wooooooooow!
yup. i went on exchanges cuz hardle shimai needed to get out of kofu and really wanted to do an exchange and the kichijoji sisters are the closest to kofu. so monday morning we caught the train and rode out 2 hours to meet the kofu sisters halfway and switch companions. i went to kofu with powell shimai.
the train ride was soooooooo pretty! the city disappeared and there was nothing but trees and rivers and mist everywhere!
kofu is somewhat less populated than kichijoji. people are actually home when you go housing! kofu is famous for peaches and grapes so i ate a lot of peaches in the one day i was there. at one point one of the members saw us at the 7-11 and pulled her car over and came running over to us bearing two very large and delicious peaches.
the exchange was rather uneventful because on both ends most of the appointments cancelled but i met their investigator yuriko chan who is super cute. she designed her house herself and it is huge! it looked like a cabin in america!
that night we went to dinner at a members house because it was the district leaders birthday and they just had a baptism last sunday so they were all celebrating. the member owns a retraunt so there was lots of food and lots of people.
i met a guy from kenya who is going to be running in the olympics! i dont remember his name though...and i dont know what country he is running for either lol. sorry. i am a failure.
anyhow, at the dinner party thing there was a guy at the other end of the table who looked strangely familiar but i couldnt figure out why.
at the end of the night he told me to say hi to niiyama marie shimai from the kichijoji ward because he had served with her in sendai. of course my ears perk up at the mention of the sendai mission so i asked if he knew brittan.
he was brittan`s TRAINER! THAT is why he looked so familiar...cuz i have seen pictures of him!
so yeah, that was exciting.
so anyhow, kofu was pretty. i rode my bike without fear of running into anyone! of course...i ran into a pole instead. hardle shimai needs to get her bike checked out...her brakes dont work nearly as well as they should...and the gears slip and basically i thought i might die the whole time i was riding.
i hate mountain bikes too. they are not designed for skirts =p
the next morning we got up, studied a little, and headed to the train station so we could switch back. but we missed our train so we had to take the express train in order to get back in time cuz the kofu sisters had interviews at noon. the express train was pretty nice but it ate up all my moneys. bah. oh well.
i played the game that me and tara played when we took the shinkansen to kyoto. the one where we take pictures out the window of the train and see who can get the clearest picture. well, with my advanced knowledge of cameras i was able to stop even the closest thing to the train at ISO 1600 hehe. powell shimai listened patiently as i explained why that was. i am such a nerd.
anyhow, i have lots of pretty pictures which i will send home. which reminds me...i bought stuffs for aubrey and brianna...but shipping will be like 50 dollars. i didnt account for that. plus i have to send brittan and natalees birthday gifts...and i need to keep 100 dollars with me for emergency funds... just a heads up on the moneys i will need.
i am hoping i can get darner choro to take my packages with him to fussa and mail them from the base and then it will only be shipping from san francisco....but the odds of me convincing him of that are probably not in my favor.
on tuesday night, after i got home from kofu, we went to the uchimuras house for dinner. we taught the girls about the atonement. there are 3 girls and they are all way fun. they loooove kingdome hearts and naruto. yuuki is the oldest and most talkative, the two younger ones are very shy. ai, the middle girl, is reaaaaaaaally shy.
mcmurtrey shimai says that when i was sharing my experience with the Atonement and social anxiety, Ai was really listening intently. I wouldnt know cuz as if to prove my point, i was fighting the urge to look at the floor when i talked. haha!
anyhow, after dinner, ai chan showed us her drawings. she is really good! but she wont let you tell her that. it embarasses her! she gave me one of the drawings though!
they are such a fun and cute family. I cant wait til i see them again! they are all going to girls camp today. oooooooooooh. japanese girls camp. i hear it sucks cuz its so humid haha.
anyhow, that is about all the exciting news for the week. its not so funny...but its new! its nice not to have to grasp at and expound on random events to make an interesting letter haha!
i am so happy everyone is getting their patriarchal blessings! and that yosemite was good! I talked to how choro about that and he said he has made the half dome hike twice and is jealous of dad being able to do it right now haha.
and the post cards will get here. darner choro saw them in the honbu yesterday when he was there. why he didnt just pick them up for me i dont know...
love,
jessica
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
It's HOT! And the roach war continues...
Dear family,
i hope you are enjoying yosemite. i think that is where you are now.
it is really really hot here. its not so humid today...which is good.
it was another one of those `just make it to p-day` weeks. we dendo from ice cream place to ice cream place or from convient store to convenient store. one of the recent converts we have been meeting with suggested we dendo in department stores. my answer was `if only` =p
so lets see... what happened this week? I got eaten by mosquitos, kept up the apartment vigil (so far so good), and nearly ate myself into a coma. that pretty much sums up the day. all our appointments flaked on us and didnt show. oh wait...one showed up... i lied.
all in all it was a pretty good week. thursday was the height of the cockraoch war and i must say we came out on top. i have a video of the final kill...though as usual, its not as cool as it seemed at the time. i missed all the times were were tearing our apartment apart chasing the suckers this way and that. just imagine two sisters missionaries, gross and sweaty and tired from being out all day, frantically trying to kill a roach and so moving every shelf, table, etc away from the wall as it runs behind and underneath things. all this is done while screaming and you get the idea.
well, thursday night the kofu sisters came to stay and when we got home a stupid roach detekita`d (came out) and skittered accross the floor right over my foot. KIMOCHI WARUI!!!! (gross)
so we fought to kill it but it vanished behind the fridge! bummer!
so the kofu sisters arrive and we are doing our best to keep things under control. just before bed, i was telling hardle shimai the sad tale of our fight and how it got away. it was the big one that got away... roach hunting is like fishing...huh who knew.
anyhow, all of a sudden she screams and shes like `ITS BEHIND YOU!!!`
I think `that is NOT funny...this is SERIOUS!` but i turn around and its RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL!!!!
suddenly 4 sisters are screaming and running everywhere. powell shimai is running around saying `i cant see! i took my contacts out!` so i lent her my glasses, and then I couldnt see. we are all running into eachother cuz the apartment is so semai (narrow) and we are probably irking the neighbors as we pound the walls with anything we can find.
finally, it falls off the wall and...GOES BACK UNDER THE FRIDGE!
we decide to close the kitchen off and go to sleep so we turn out the lights and we are all praying and all of a sudden hardle shimai screams, I HEARD IT! ITS HERE!!! I HEARD IT!!!`
prayers forgotte, we all spring once more into action...this time a little more unified. hardle shimai and her supersonic hearing keep track of the bug, i flip on the light, mcmurtrey shimai grabs a phonebook, and powell shimai...still cant see.
hardle shimai shouts directions at mcmurtrey shimai who proceeds to swing at the devilish creature with the phone book. one hit and it runs under the dresser. of course, pride cometh before the fall and it detekita`s into the wide open where mcmurtrey shimai hits it and nails it. its stunned but begins moving again. 2 or three more hits and its down for the count! before it can revive itself we gather it in tissues and flush it down the toilet.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
we havent seen one since. we killed one outside the apartment and i put its carcass on a stick as a warning to other bugs.
we are still on the look out though.
anyhow, back to mission life. Zone conference was the next day. it was pretty much amazing as it always is. that is just how zone conference works. as we were leaving we ran into president hill. ok...we can kill roaches...but we cant look president hill in the eyes for too long. trust me. that is just hard. haha. but it did my best as he shook my hand and then he told me that i was adjusting well to the mission and that i get friskier and friskier every zone conference.
i couldnt look him in the eyes anymore without laughing...i looked at my companion with a look that said `did the mission president just say `frisky`?` We ended up laughing about that all the way to bus stop.
lets see...what else happened?
aside from nearly eating myself into a coma. not much. yesterday was nagata choros birthday so we went to lunch at tabehodai. we ate sukiyaki and between me, darner, and black choro we ate 15 trays of meat. dont ask me why i thought i needed to force myself to keep up with the elders...i dont know. *shakes head* and i didnt learn either because darner choro started talking about the ten burger challenge at mcdonalds and now i wanna try! i am so stupid.
after lunch we had about 4 hours and then we went to sizzler for nagata choros birthday because the inagaki family wanted to take us there. first i ate curry and a couple of plates of fruit then my steak came. (medium rare of course) so I HAD to finish that. then i was so hot i needed a salad and more fruit. and despite the fact that mom sent me nacho stuff, i had to make myself some nachos too. then i had to have ice cream. (this is where i wonder what is wrong with me) after ice cream i was feeling pretty sick...but howe choro kept telling me i was a baby and couldnt handle another ice cream. so...i ate another one! I dont know why...i had already out eaten Howe choro...but i did it anyhow.
now you probably think this has a terrible end...like i threw up or something...
but now. instead i just dendoed home and then proceeded to eat chocolate cake and almond roca...all the while wondering why i was eating...
this morning i was very hungry... =p i remind me of the very hungry catepillar. next thing you know i will wrap myself in a coccoon and turn into a butterfly! wont that be exciting!
in the random news, i saw a rat this week. it was outside the apartment. i wanted to keep it but my companion wouldnt let me. i dont think the white handbook would let me either...and a wild rat isnt as cute as my rats...but i dont have my rats now do i?
it jsut lives outside the apartment with the toad that scares me every night when i come home cuz he blends into the wall. *shrug*
thank you for the packages and the letters and pictures. are more pics coming? you mentioned more than were in the letter.
i laughed so hard when you started talking about peepin bayds...and my comp thinks i am insane now cuz its the second time i have laughed out loud for no apparent reason. she might check me into a mental hospital soon. one of the other times i was at inokashira park and some guy was playing a didgeridoo and i thought of brittan`s dad writing one note songs on his didgeridoo at home and i just started laughing and couldnt stop and yeah....i hope they have email at the mental hospital...
oh yeah, and no, we arent teaching motoi chan anymore. she decided she didnt want to commit herself to one way of thinking...*sigh* she still comes to sports night though. so maybe some day...
the daigakus are still in exam mode so we are still waiting for when we can start meeting with the daigakuseis...
that is pretty much it. oh, and there was an earthquake last night and i actually woke up for it. kichijoji still hasnt had the huge earthquake that i know is coming. and i know its coming cuz my companion and i both pray independently for freak earthquakes and weather. our poor area... =p
well that is all for this week! love you all! have fun!
Love,
sister halliday
ps. sorry, i forgot that we have p day a day early on transfer week. it will be like that every six weeks usually.
i hope you are enjoying yosemite. i think that is where you are now.
it is really really hot here. its not so humid today...which is good.
it was another one of those `just make it to p-day` weeks. we dendo from ice cream place to ice cream place or from convient store to convenient store. one of the recent converts we have been meeting with suggested we dendo in department stores. my answer was `if only` =p
so lets see... what happened this week? I got eaten by mosquitos, kept up the apartment vigil (so far so good), and nearly ate myself into a coma. that pretty much sums up the day. all our appointments flaked on us and didnt show. oh wait...one showed up... i lied.
all in all it was a pretty good week. thursday was the height of the cockraoch war and i must say we came out on top. i have a video of the final kill...though as usual, its not as cool as it seemed at the time. i missed all the times were were tearing our apartment apart chasing the suckers this way and that. just imagine two sisters missionaries, gross and sweaty and tired from being out all day, frantically trying to kill a roach and so moving every shelf, table, etc away from the wall as it runs behind and underneath things. all this is done while screaming and you get the idea.
well, thursday night the kofu sisters came to stay and when we got home a stupid roach detekita`d (came out) and skittered accross the floor right over my foot. KIMOCHI WARUI!!!! (gross)
so we fought to kill it but it vanished behind the fridge! bummer!
so the kofu sisters arrive and we are doing our best to keep things under control. just before bed, i was telling hardle shimai the sad tale of our fight and how it got away. it was the big one that got away... roach hunting is like fishing...huh who knew.
anyhow, all of a sudden she screams and shes like `ITS BEHIND YOU!!!`
I think `that is NOT funny...this is SERIOUS!` but i turn around and its RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL!!!!
suddenly 4 sisters are screaming and running everywhere. powell shimai is running around saying `i cant see! i took my contacts out!` so i lent her my glasses, and then I couldnt see. we are all running into eachother cuz the apartment is so semai (narrow) and we are probably irking the neighbors as we pound the walls with anything we can find.
finally, it falls off the wall and...GOES BACK UNDER THE FRIDGE!
we decide to close the kitchen off and go to sleep so we turn out the lights and we are all praying and all of a sudden hardle shimai screams, I HEARD IT! ITS HERE!!! I HEARD IT!!!`
prayers forgotte, we all spring once more into action...this time a little more unified. hardle shimai and her supersonic hearing keep track of the bug, i flip on the light, mcmurtrey shimai grabs a phonebook, and powell shimai...still cant see.
hardle shimai shouts directions at mcmurtrey shimai who proceeds to swing at the devilish creature with the phone book. one hit and it runs under the dresser. of course, pride cometh before the fall and it detekita`s into the wide open where mcmurtrey shimai hits it and nails it. its stunned but begins moving again. 2 or three more hits and its down for the count! before it can revive itself we gather it in tissues and flush it down the toilet.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
we havent seen one since. we killed one outside the apartment and i put its carcass on a stick as a warning to other bugs.
we are still on the look out though.
anyhow, back to mission life. Zone conference was the next day. it was pretty much amazing as it always is. that is just how zone conference works. as we were leaving we ran into president hill. ok...we can kill roaches...but we cant look president hill in the eyes for too long. trust me. that is just hard. haha. but it did my best as he shook my hand and then he told me that i was adjusting well to the mission and that i get friskier and friskier every zone conference.
i couldnt look him in the eyes anymore without laughing...i looked at my companion with a look that said `did the mission president just say `frisky`?` We ended up laughing about that all the way to bus stop.
lets see...what else happened?
aside from nearly eating myself into a coma. not much. yesterday was nagata choros birthday so we went to lunch at tabehodai. we ate sukiyaki and between me, darner, and black choro we ate 15 trays of meat. dont ask me why i thought i needed to force myself to keep up with the elders...i dont know. *shakes head* and i didnt learn either because darner choro started talking about the ten burger challenge at mcdonalds and now i wanna try! i am so stupid.
after lunch we had about 4 hours and then we went to sizzler for nagata choros birthday because the inagaki family wanted to take us there. first i ate curry and a couple of plates of fruit then my steak came. (medium rare of course) so I HAD to finish that. then i was so hot i needed a salad and more fruit. and despite the fact that mom sent me nacho stuff, i had to make myself some nachos too. then i had to have ice cream. (this is where i wonder what is wrong with me) after ice cream i was feeling pretty sick...but howe choro kept telling me i was a baby and couldnt handle another ice cream. so...i ate another one! I dont know why...i had already out eaten Howe choro...but i did it anyhow.
now you probably think this has a terrible end...like i threw up or something...
but now. instead i just dendoed home and then proceeded to eat chocolate cake and almond roca...all the while wondering why i was eating...
this morning i was very hungry... =p i remind me of the very hungry catepillar. next thing you know i will wrap myself in a coccoon and turn into a butterfly! wont that be exciting!
in the random news, i saw a rat this week. it was outside the apartment. i wanted to keep it but my companion wouldnt let me. i dont think the white handbook would let me either...and a wild rat isnt as cute as my rats...but i dont have my rats now do i?
it jsut lives outside the apartment with the toad that scares me every night when i come home cuz he blends into the wall. *shrug*
thank you for the packages and the letters and pictures. are more pics coming? you mentioned more than were in the letter.
i laughed so hard when you started talking about peepin bayds...and my comp thinks i am insane now cuz its the second time i have laughed out loud for no apparent reason. she might check me into a mental hospital soon. one of the other times i was at inokashira park and some guy was playing a didgeridoo and i thought of brittan`s dad writing one note songs on his didgeridoo at home and i just started laughing and couldnt stop and yeah....i hope they have email at the mental hospital...
oh yeah, and no, we arent teaching motoi chan anymore. she decided she didnt want to commit herself to one way of thinking...*sigh* she still comes to sports night though. so maybe some day...
the daigakus are still in exam mode so we are still waiting for when we can start meeting with the daigakuseis...
that is pretty much it. oh, and there was an earthquake last night and i actually woke up for it. kichijoji still hasnt had the huge earthquake that i know is coming. and i know its coming cuz my companion and i both pray independently for freak earthquakes and weather. our poor area... =p
well that is all for this week! love you all! have fun!
Love,
sister halliday
ps. sorry, i forgot that we have p day a day early on transfer week. it will be like that every six weeks usually.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Halliday shimai and the "Great War"
dear family,
the humidity has gotten to my brain and its turned to mush. i couldn't think of a better subject.
this week was hard. it was full of nothing but white days (days when you don't have anything scheduled) and so it was all riding our bikes all over the area (which thankfully is one of the smaller areas in the Tokyo mission) and finding people. People found? zero. Seeds planted? about 5 billion or so. =p
It was so humid and hot this week that we had to make it our goal just to make it to P-day. Which we did. I think that might be our goal for the rest of the summer =p We rode by the community pool the other day and we both nearly toppled off our bikes =p
Thankfully, the little obaachans in our wards have been keeping us supplied with watermelon which we hack into every night when we come home. =p
The days are pretty empty lately because all our investigators are college students and right now they are all taking final exams...and then returning to their hometowns until the end of natsu yasumi... (they are all centered around Fukushima (not even our mission) and Nagasaki (also not even our mission -_-)
So we play the waiting and finding game. We tried to go to Koganei park yesterday but that was determined to be an Elders park as most of the people are guys playing sports. We are trying to schedule practice lessons with the members during the noonish hours of the day just to get out of the sun. Of course...its Tokyo. Who is home during the noonish hours of the day?
We have had some success with the young mothers though.
Today we went to lunch with Namazuda shimai, an obaachan in kichijoji ward. She is sooooooooooooo cute! the restaraunt we went to served coffee with lunch and she told the waitress that we couldn't drink coffee cuz we were Christian and that we were missionaries and she should listen to us if she wanted to know where she came from before she was born. It was sooooo cute and funny.
As we were leaving we were talking to the waitress and namazuda shimai came out and told her that we taught an English class so she better come =p Then she hopped out into the road to help another obaachan cross the road and then told HER to listen to the missionaries too.
Maybe they ought to start sending Japanese obaachans out on missions =p
This week, though finding was difficult, was not without its laughs. The other day I watched my companion ride head on into a bush because she was looking at a bird. The humidity must have brought the crazies out too cuz there are always old men dancing outside the train stations =p
On the downside, we are engaged in a great war at home. It began with ants and has escalated into a full scale world war. They sent in the air force last week. Every night we kill about 100 flying ants and wake up to find more dead as they entered the apartment and crossed the bug killer line.
Of course, immune to the bug killer are the insect form of the Marines... which would be COCKROACHES! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!
I HATE COCKROACHES! THEY ARE SO GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSS!
And we don't have little ones either. NO. The church has tiny ones that run all of the place. THAT I could handle. nope. THEY ARE HUGE!!! Like the length of my index finger and big and fat and black and last night we discovered they they FLY!!! NO WHERE IS SAFE!
We killed one outside the apartment the other night (we had to step on on about 30 times before it finally died) and then last night I was about to go take a shower and I was talking to my companion when I saw him! He was sitting at eye level cleverly blending in with the paint on the door jam! He took me by surprise and I screamed and ran to the other end of the house. McMurtrey Shimai grabbed a shoe and we tried to smash him. That was when we discovered he had air force training when he flew at my FACE!!!
I cleverly dodged (thanks to my training these past 2 transfers in the ways of Dodge ball) and rammed him once again with the shoe but his exterior armor protected him again (perhaps the armed forces should study the cockroach)
When we thought we had killed him we went away to relax. We came back an hour later to dispose of the dead and he was limping away!!! WHAT IS THIS!?!? I grabbed a tissue and flushed him down the toilet.
2 killed and hopefully that is the last one. We have had 2 other sightings in the apartment previously but we hope that those two sightings were all the same cockroach. I cant sleep at night for fear that he will crawl across my face. Its is soooooooooo GROSS! and you are probably laughing at us but its not funny I tell you!!!
Well, that is really all. I am sad that you will have to put Lucy down... and I miss the other ratties. v.v And the cats
And I wouldn't worry too much about Brittan...he should be used to riding his bike =p
Til next week I shall continue protecting the apartment! And look forward to the letters and boxes. I do have another memory card to send and will send it shortly.
I am sure that Harris choro will enjoy his package...as well as Allen choro as they have been transferred to the same apartment. They are kicking it in Chiba together which I hear is the best area in the mission.
Unfortunately...I will not see them at zone taikai. Just howe choro...but i talk to him every day so its not that cool. Plus I am mad at him and all the other elders in the zone and refuse to talk to them til...I dunno. but seriously. Today they all took a zone trip to the zoo and where are the shimai? doing nothing fun! stupid elders.
`we are taking a zone trip to the zoo tomorrow so...`
`are!?! uh...are the shimai not part of the zone!?!`
`oh....uhhhhh.... wanna go to the zoo?`
`NO YOU JERKS!`
ok it wasn't that heated...but we are still not speaking to them. -_-
Ok I am really going. Promise.
Love you all!
Love,
Sister Halliday
the humidity has gotten to my brain and its turned to mush. i couldn't think of a better subject.
this week was hard. it was full of nothing but white days (days when you don't have anything scheduled) and so it was all riding our bikes all over the area (which thankfully is one of the smaller areas in the Tokyo mission) and finding people. People found? zero. Seeds planted? about 5 billion or so. =p
It was so humid and hot this week that we had to make it our goal just to make it to P-day. Which we did. I think that might be our goal for the rest of the summer =p We rode by the community pool the other day and we both nearly toppled off our bikes =p
Thankfully, the little obaachans in our wards have been keeping us supplied with watermelon which we hack into every night when we come home. =p
The days are pretty empty lately because all our investigators are college students and right now they are all taking final exams...and then returning to their hometowns until the end of natsu yasumi... (they are all centered around Fukushima (not even our mission) and Nagasaki (also not even our mission -_-)
So we play the waiting and finding game. We tried to go to Koganei park yesterday but that was determined to be an Elders park as most of the people are guys playing sports. We are trying to schedule practice lessons with the members during the noonish hours of the day just to get out of the sun. Of course...its Tokyo. Who is home during the noonish hours of the day?
We have had some success with the young mothers though.
Today we went to lunch with Namazuda shimai, an obaachan in kichijoji ward. She is sooooooooooooo cute! the restaraunt we went to served coffee with lunch and she told the waitress that we couldn't drink coffee cuz we were Christian and that we were missionaries and she should listen to us if she wanted to know where she came from before she was born. It was sooooo cute and funny.
As we were leaving we were talking to the waitress and namazuda shimai came out and told her that we taught an English class so she better come =p Then she hopped out into the road to help another obaachan cross the road and then told HER to listen to the missionaries too.
Maybe they ought to start sending Japanese obaachans out on missions =p
This week, though finding was difficult, was not without its laughs. The other day I watched my companion ride head on into a bush because she was looking at a bird. The humidity must have brought the crazies out too cuz there are always old men dancing outside the train stations =p
On the downside, we are engaged in a great war at home. It began with ants and has escalated into a full scale world war. They sent in the air force last week. Every night we kill about 100 flying ants and wake up to find more dead as they entered the apartment and crossed the bug killer line.
Of course, immune to the bug killer are the insect form of the Marines... which would be COCKROACHES! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!
I HATE COCKROACHES! THEY ARE SO GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSS!
And we don't have little ones either. NO. The church has tiny ones that run all of the place. THAT I could handle. nope. THEY ARE HUGE!!! Like the length of my index finger and big and fat and black and last night we discovered they they FLY!!! NO WHERE IS SAFE!
We killed one outside the apartment the other night (we had to step on on about 30 times before it finally died) and then last night I was about to go take a shower and I was talking to my companion when I saw him! He was sitting at eye level cleverly blending in with the paint on the door jam! He took me by surprise and I screamed and ran to the other end of the house. McMurtrey Shimai grabbed a shoe and we tried to smash him. That was when we discovered he had air force training when he flew at my FACE!!!
I cleverly dodged (thanks to my training these past 2 transfers in the ways of Dodge ball) and rammed him once again with the shoe but his exterior armor protected him again (perhaps the armed forces should study the cockroach)
When we thought we had killed him we went away to relax. We came back an hour later to dispose of the dead and he was limping away!!! WHAT IS THIS!?!? I grabbed a tissue and flushed him down the toilet.
2 killed and hopefully that is the last one. We have had 2 other sightings in the apartment previously but we hope that those two sightings were all the same cockroach. I cant sleep at night for fear that he will crawl across my face. Its is soooooooooo GROSS! and you are probably laughing at us but its not funny I tell you!!!
Well, that is really all. I am sad that you will have to put Lucy down... and I miss the other ratties. v.v And the cats
And I wouldn't worry too much about Brittan...he should be used to riding his bike =p
Til next week I shall continue protecting the apartment! And look forward to the letters and boxes. I do have another memory card to send and will send it shortly.
I am sure that Harris choro will enjoy his package...as well as Allen choro as they have been transferred to the same apartment. They are kicking it in Chiba together which I hear is the best area in the mission.
Unfortunately...I will not see them at zone taikai. Just howe choro...but i talk to him every day so its not that cool. Plus I am mad at him and all the other elders in the zone and refuse to talk to them til...I dunno. but seriously. Today they all took a zone trip to the zoo and where are the shimai? doing nothing fun! stupid elders.
`we are taking a zone trip to the zoo tomorrow so...`
`are!?! uh...are the shimai not part of the zone!?!`
`oh....uhhhhh.... wanna go to the zoo?`
`NO YOU JERKS!`
ok it wasn't that heated...but we are still not speaking to them. -_-
Ok I am really going. Promise.
Love you all!
Love,
Sister Halliday
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Tani san is a new member and miracles are happening in Kichijoji
dear family,
another week and another empty mailbox. i hope you are all on vacation and not just a bunch of bums. hee hee. i cant remember when you said you would be on vacation so i am giving you the benefit of the doubt.
speaking of vacations, i need pictures of yosemite because japanese people are fascinated by it and when i talk about it they always want to see pictures. i also need pictures of run of the mill american things...they are absolutely fascinated by everything. I just need pictures. all the pictures i have to show people are like one of my family, some of the temple, and a bunch of the mtc. i need pictures of aubrey doing pole vault, dad with the scouts, me and my friends, maybe a couple of brianna and the koreans (if she can choose from so many of them haha). and so on. thanks!
ok, onto the happenings of this week. this week the humidity hit really hard. i stepped out of the apartment and immediately started gasping for breath. =p it was really really humid and hot. not miserable though...i could handle it ok and i was being a missionary. how could anything have been miserable? =P
This week started off amazingly with Tani san`s baptism! actually it was amazing before that even. That morning a guy walked into the church looking for elder howe. he had talked with the elders earlier that morning but it was his first time in the church. he is from peru and way cool. but the coolest thing is that when everyone was bearing testimonies in sacrament meeting, he got up and bore his testimony of how he felt just being in the church for the first time! the elders are teaching him now. his name is carlos. keep him in your prayers!
speaking of testimonies, in sacrament meeting for suginami (that was kichijoji before) during testimony meeting i found myself on the stand bearing MY testimony fully willingly in Japanese. I must say, I only got through with help from God cuz i only stumbled once!
oh! and of course! Yasutani shimai was there!!! wheeeeeeeeeeee! (side note, there is a costco near her house in sapporo and she bought me a huge thing of almond roca! wheeeeeeeeeee!)
so then we had tani san`s baptism. Holt choro performed the ordinance after much begging. (he refused to do it at first...he was trying to be all noble and let the younger missionaries do it). He was really nervous and we didnt really know why. come to find out, that was the first time he had actually performed a baptism. haha. but he did just fine and we only had to baptize her once!
When we asked Tani san (now tani shimai) what her favorite part of the day was she said that the actual ordinance was amazing and that I bore my testimony. ^_^
later that day we went to the stevensons for dinner. there were so many people there cuz holt choro was leaving and well...the stevensons have a huge family and they love having missionaries over so they invited the whole district and the APs. It was so fun! My favorite part was that we had lots of watermelon! wheeeeeeeee!
Monday was another good day. We managed to reach our daily goal in getting 10 conversations (a conversation is when you testify and leave them with something...usually a flyer) Conversations are usually really difficult cuz a lot of people once they hear `church` run away saying `im buddhist` and sometimes the conversations we do get are pretty bimio and just said AS they are running away. haha. but all our conversations were good conversations that day.
To top it all off, the continuing saga of our trip to the local daigaku.
We have started meeting with the people that came to eikaiwa. On Monday we had 3 lessons. One didnt show, but the other two are our newest investigators! They want to hear more!
The last one we met with, Risa-chan, asked the question EVERY missionary loves to hear... `where are we before we are born?` ^__________^ She also wants to come to church!
The downside is that since they are college students, neither of them live in our area...they travel for school....but Risa lives in Tokorozawa which is in our stake and there are no sisters there so we will probably be able to continue teaching her. The first one we met with, Aya-chan, will probably have to be passed to other sisters later because she lives in Chiba (about 2 hours by train from us)
Yesterday we met with 3 other students but they all came together so its hard to tell who has interest and who doesn`t because no one wants to say anything in front of their friends. We still have hope they all will have interest. At any rate, it was a good lesson and if nothing else, WE felt the spirit =P
Today we are meeting with 3 more people all in a row from 5:00 til 8:00. I will be sooooooooo tired by the end of today! But we will have 3 new investigators! One of the girls we are meeting with today is really cute. She`s a very sensitive person. She told us she doesnt like the word `gaijin` because it separates us and we all live in Japan right now. But more than that, she told us she REALLY wants to know about the purpose of life and true happiness and then, she wants to tell other people about it!
Its a continuing miracle and it gets better every day! We are sooo excited!
That is pretty much it for the week. Wish us luck or better yet, pray for us! And in the meantime, help the missionaries out when you can! We all need the ward members badly!!!
Hope you had fun on your vacation...or if you havent gone i hope you have fun.
Love,
Sister Halliday
PS. I didnt transfer, I`m still in Kichijoji! Yatta!
another week and another empty mailbox. i hope you are all on vacation and not just a bunch of bums. hee hee. i cant remember when you said you would be on vacation so i am giving you the benefit of the doubt.
speaking of vacations, i need pictures of yosemite because japanese people are fascinated by it and when i talk about it they always want to see pictures. i also need pictures of run of the mill american things...they are absolutely fascinated by everything. I just need pictures. all the pictures i have to show people are like one of my family, some of the temple, and a bunch of the mtc. i need pictures of aubrey doing pole vault, dad with the scouts, me and my friends, maybe a couple of brianna and the koreans (if she can choose from so many of them haha). and so on. thanks!
ok, onto the happenings of this week. this week the humidity hit really hard. i stepped out of the apartment and immediately started gasping for breath. =p it was really really humid and hot. not miserable though...i could handle it ok and i was being a missionary. how could anything have been miserable? =P
This week started off amazingly with Tani san`s baptism! actually it was amazing before that even. That morning a guy walked into the church looking for elder howe. he had talked with the elders earlier that morning but it was his first time in the church. he is from peru and way cool. but the coolest thing is that when everyone was bearing testimonies in sacrament meeting, he got up and bore his testimony of how he felt just being in the church for the first time! the elders are teaching him now. his name is carlos. keep him in your prayers!
speaking of testimonies, in sacrament meeting for suginami (that was kichijoji before) during testimony meeting i found myself on the stand bearing MY testimony fully willingly in Japanese. I must say, I only got through with help from God cuz i only stumbled once!
oh! and of course! Yasutani shimai was there!!! wheeeeeeeeeeee! (side note, there is a costco near her house in sapporo and she bought me a huge thing of almond roca! wheeeeeeeeeee!)
so then we had tani san`s baptism. Holt choro performed the ordinance after much begging. (he refused to do it at first...he was trying to be all noble and let the younger missionaries do it). He was really nervous and we didnt really know why. come to find out, that was the first time he had actually performed a baptism. haha. but he did just fine and we only had to baptize her once!
When we asked Tani san (now tani shimai) what her favorite part of the day was she said that the actual ordinance was amazing and that I bore my testimony. ^_^
later that day we went to the stevensons for dinner. there were so many people there cuz holt choro was leaving and well...the stevensons have a huge family and they love having missionaries over so they invited the whole district and the APs. It was so fun! My favorite part was that we had lots of watermelon! wheeeeeeeee!
Monday was another good day. We managed to reach our daily goal in getting 10 conversations (a conversation is when you testify and leave them with something...usually a flyer) Conversations are usually really difficult cuz a lot of people once they hear `church` run away saying `im buddhist` and sometimes the conversations we do get are pretty bimio and just said AS they are running away. haha. but all our conversations were good conversations that day.
To top it all off, the continuing saga of our trip to the local daigaku.
We have started meeting with the people that came to eikaiwa. On Monday we had 3 lessons. One didnt show, but the other two are our newest investigators! They want to hear more!
The last one we met with, Risa-chan, asked the question EVERY missionary loves to hear... `where are we before we are born?` ^__________^ She also wants to come to church!
The downside is that since they are college students, neither of them live in our area...they travel for school....but Risa lives in Tokorozawa which is in our stake and there are no sisters there so we will probably be able to continue teaching her. The first one we met with, Aya-chan, will probably have to be passed to other sisters later because she lives in Chiba (about 2 hours by train from us)
Yesterday we met with 3 other students but they all came together so its hard to tell who has interest and who doesn`t because no one wants to say anything in front of their friends. We still have hope they all will have interest. At any rate, it was a good lesson and if nothing else, WE felt the spirit =P
Today we are meeting with 3 more people all in a row from 5:00 til 8:00. I will be sooooooooo tired by the end of today! But we will have 3 new investigators! One of the girls we are meeting with today is really cute. She`s a very sensitive person. She told us she doesnt like the word `gaijin` because it separates us and we all live in Japan right now. But more than that, she told us she REALLY wants to know about the purpose of life and true happiness and then, she wants to tell other people about it!
Its a continuing miracle and it gets better every day! We are sooo excited!
That is pretty much it for the week. Wish us luck or better yet, pray for us! And in the meantime, help the missionaries out when you can! We all need the ward members badly!!!
Hope you had fun on your vacation...or if you havent gone i hope you have fun.
Love,
Sister Halliday
PS. I didnt transfer, I`m still in Kichijoji! Yatta!
Tani san is getting baptized!!
dear family,
tis me again. i cant remember when you said you were going on vacation but i guess that is where you are now as there was no letter in the inbox.
this week we saw many new people from our trip to the daigaku. there are at least 7 new people coming to eikaiwa tonight that we know of and we hope there will be plenty more.
it STILL hasnt rained and i am getting impatient. i dont like the sun and i frequently wish it would go away and never come back. but its out and its shining...i think it likes to spite me.
lets see, what happened this week. we had a lot of appointments for eikaiwa interviews which was a welcome relief from the many hours upon hours of finding in the sun which refuses to go away.
in other news, i am rather turning out to be like mommy... i have taken to experimenting in the kitchen frequently (whenever i have time) which is probably not a good thing since i really have no knowledge of how ingredients interact with each other like mommy does. of course...i cant read books about it cuz its not in the missionary approved library and well...even if they were they would all be in kanji.
i have decided that kanji is just a big memorization game. when i was learning to read i remember i had a list of about 25 sight words...japanese people have a list of about...2500...or more =p
but i memorize them little by little. i can now read the word for `parking lot` which doesnt help me at all as i do not drive.
i dont know what else has happened lately that is particularly exciting. just long hours of riding my bike in the sun...which despite what my companion thinks...is NOT that hot. and its not really that humid either...but it doesnt stop her from turning on every fan in the house and turning the air conditioner down to 50 degrees farenheight. (i never could spell that word) =p
lets see...exciting things. i got in a bike accident yesterday. its really not that bad. the streets are narrow and so some guy tried to pass me and our handlebars collided. my hand now has several broken blood vessels and is a beautiful shade of black and blue and green...and is covered in princess bandaids which i frequently take the time to admire =p. but nothing is broken or sprained so life goes on. its really fun actually.
oh duh! i cant believe i forgot! Tani san had her interview last sunday for baptism and she passed! she is getting baptized this sunday! and yasutani shimai is coming! sunday is going to be soooooooo wonderful! I can hardly wait!
Today we are going shopping at a new grocery store because the store we usually go to doesnt have enough variety for me...so i told my companion my creativity is being supressed and we need to go somewhere else. i think she thinks i am weird...or is frustrated with me cuz i couldnt think of categories this morning for playing jeopardy in eikaiwa but i need to go to a new store to buy different foods... but you try thinking of random categories for jeopardy in such a broad subject as `everything` without coming up with lame topics like colors and animals. its hard! I am still thinking.
well, that is all for this week. you better be on vacation or you will be in trouble for not writing! =p
love,
sister halliday
ps. i got a letter from the primary. its now hanging on the wall by my desk...quite possibly my favorite letter i have gotten on my mission thus far. ^_^
tis me again. i cant remember when you said you were going on vacation but i guess that is where you are now as there was no letter in the inbox.
this week we saw many new people from our trip to the daigaku. there are at least 7 new people coming to eikaiwa tonight that we know of and we hope there will be plenty more.
it STILL hasnt rained and i am getting impatient. i dont like the sun and i frequently wish it would go away and never come back. but its out and its shining...i think it likes to spite me.
lets see, what happened this week. we had a lot of appointments for eikaiwa interviews which was a welcome relief from the many hours upon hours of finding in the sun which refuses to go away.
in other news, i am rather turning out to be like mommy... i have taken to experimenting in the kitchen frequently (whenever i have time) which is probably not a good thing since i really have no knowledge of how ingredients interact with each other like mommy does. of course...i cant read books about it cuz its not in the missionary approved library and well...even if they were they would all be in kanji.
i have decided that kanji is just a big memorization game. when i was learning to read i remember i had a list of about 25 sight words...japanese people have a list of about...2500...or more =p
but i memorize them little by little. i can now read the word for `parking lot` which doesnt help me at all as i do not drive.
i dont know what else has happened lately that is particularly exciting. just long hours of riding my bike in the sun...which despite what my companion thinks...is NOT that hot. and its not really that humid either...but it doesnt stop her from turning on every fan in the house and turning the air conditioner down to 50 degrees farenheight. (i never could spell that word) =p
lets see...exciting things. i got in a bike accident yesterday. its really not that bad. the streets are narrow and so some guy tried to pass me and our handlebars collided. my hand now has several broken blood vessels and is a beautiful shade of black and blue and green...and is covered in princess bandaids which i frequently take the time to admire =p. but nothing is broken or sprained so life goes on. its really fun actually.
oh duh! i cant believe i forgot! Tani san had her interview last sunday for baptism and she passed! she is getting baptized this sunday! and yasutani shimai is coming! sunday is going to be soooooooo wonderful! I can hardly wait!
Today we are going shopping at a new grocery store because the store we usually go to doesnt have enough variety for me...so i told my companion my creativity is being supressed and we need to go somewhere else. i think she thinks i am weird...or is frustrated with me cuz i couldnt think of categories this morning for playing jeopardy in eikaiwa but i need to go to a new store to buy different foods... but you try thinking of random categories for jeopardy in such a broad subject as `everything` without coming up with lame topics like colors and animals. its hard! I am still thinking.
well, that is all for this week. you better be on vacation or you will be in trouble for not writing! =p
love,
sister halliday
ps. i got a letter from the primary. its now hanging on the wall by my desk...quite possibly my favorite letter i have gotten on my mission thus far. ^_^
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