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