Preachin' to the kiwi's

Dear family, 
 
how is it that in the land of technology i am sitting here using dial up 
internet!?! this is so slow its killing me. its probably punishment for my 
pride...which i will get struck down for eventually i am sure. hee hee 
 
to answer your questions...i almost never go to the honbu except i went 
yesterday for mission conference. the honbu is a 3 hour train ride from here. 
typically we dont go to the honbu outside conferences (which are USUALLY at 
kichijoji for my zone now and of course my last zone) and if you serve in nakano 
you can go to the honbu anytime. thats it. sorry. 
 
speaking of packages, i have thought about it and compiled a list of things i 
want. they entail food and the like...specially granola bars or somthing that i 
can take with me on the road cuz powell shimai and i...despite our efforts to 
eat healthy and well cannot get our food to fill us up! veggies are great but 
dont pack any protein at all and tofu goes through you so fast that i wonder how 
on earth it gets absorbed! anyhow, we need snacks badly. maybe if someone
could teach me how to make granola bars... we ordered oatmeal from the honbu. 
 
also peanut butter is a good choice but i had to leave mine in kichijoji and the 
jar in kofu is almost out. we can order it from the honbu for 10 dollars but 
kofu is so far away we have to wait til we go in for interviews or a conference 
or something and interviews arent til the 19th! wah. kofu is so taihen in that 
respect. but hey, the apartment is crazy huge so i cant complain! even though i 
just did. haha. 
 
speaking of the kofu apartment and kofu in general...there are things that 
follow me from place to place...and some things that dont. rain is one of those 
things that doesnt. apparently in addition to arizona getting massive amounts of 
rain, it has been pouring in kichijoji since i left. mick shimai told me 
yesterday. 
 
among the things that do follow me...there was a ROACH IN THE APARTMENT
LAST WEEK!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! 
 
and by the way, that actually was a small roach in the video and this is NOT a 
fishing thing ok! 
 
anyhow, powell shimai was on the phone with the ward mission leader when she 
screamed. he is still laughing at her for that but he bought us a roach trap. i 
like ito kyoudai. he is on my ever growing list of people in kofu that are my 
favorite but hosaka shimai is still at the top! 
 
the other day we were working in ryuo and time got away from us. we had to
get back to kofu for a ward activity by six so we left our bikes at a members
house and tried the train but out here...train times are really far apart and the
next one didnt leave til 550. we had to call people coming from nirasaki to see if 
they could grab us on the way but no one was answering so we called the church 
and told the elders to send someone to pick us up at kofu eki at about 6. 
 
when we got to kofu eki we realized we didnt know who to look for or where
so we started walking around when we heard `POWERU SHIMAI!` and turned to
see hosaka shimai running...literally running to us. She is sooooo cute! hee hee.
I am so glad we have someone to save us from our own stupidity. 
 
lets see...what else. oh yeah...we got really really lost the other day in the 
grape fields. the problem with getting lost in kofu is that often if you are 
lost...you cant really proselyte til you find your way back. i ended up having 
to proselyte to kiwis...the fruits not the people. which by the way...i had no 
idea they grew on vines! crazy! 
 
luckily, the Lord blesses us at times like that, when we are really really 
ridiculously lost and i was laughing like crazy every time we took another wrong 
turn. i am not sure why...it was just one of those days when everything makes 
you laugh like crazy. it seemed to help powell shimai too from breaking down
and crying cuz we were so lost. she just looked at me like i was insane instead
and kept going. we are a good team. haha. 
 
lets see...what else is going on? i dunno. mission conference? at which i didnt 
get to see harris or allen choro cuz only half the mission went yesterday. we 
are too big dakara... 
 
man! I miss allen and harris choro! allen choro used to be here in kofu and 
powell shimai loved him so she talks about what a great elder he was and then i 
get all whiny cuz i miss my choro tachi! (by the way...powell shimai loves 
everyone...even me! haha!) 
 
mission conference was fun and i got my white handbook back after a long
lecture from mick shimai about leaving it behind haha. mick shimai`s new bean
is really cute! 
 
so mission conference. elder stevenson came. he and his wife are really nice and 
hes pretty funny. he just got released as nagoya mission president last year so 
he was just thrilled to be with missionaries again and he told us about a 
hundred times haha. 
 
last week, we went to the temple, which is about an hour from the honbu and 
about 2 from kichijoji by the way...almost 4 from kofu... cuz i had another 
stupid OBGYN appointment but i probably already ranted about that. anyhow,
we went to the distribution center after and i bought general conference on
DVD! YEAH! And some other DVDs and then on monday we made cookies for
members and watched conference cuz we are just. that. cool. YEAH! 
 
I am a nerd.but that brings me to the other things i want to beg for for my 
birthday. There is an organ CD that i want...it looks like a motab cd but its 
organ music. its at the temple but it is 20 dollars there. lame. also...i think 
that is pretty much it. yeah. 
 
speaking of my birthday. i got a card from 
grandy...i love her and appreciate the 
card...but powell shimai and i laughed at the letter for like an hour because 
grandy STILL managed to tell me to use the money that she sent me for college!
among other things haha! but i do appreciate the sum of money from her social
security check.  thank you grandy =p 
 
you are right...asians eat lots of unexpected things and cows stomach is GROSS!!!
I had forgotten that i ate it the other day until just now. I thought it was some 
weird vegetable so mick shimai and i ate it and it was all chewy and gross and 
then the waiter was like `that is tripe` when mick shimai asked. I ended up 
swallowing it whole. gross. never again. 
 
also...on the completely irrelevant side of life from missionary work, there are 
somethings in japan that just shouldnt be. we were at an investigators house the 
other day and she had the TV on and i saw it as we walked in...something 
american cuz there was a black guy on the screen. I looked away and then i
heard it... the JAG theme! what is that doing here!?!?! it isnt supposed to be!
grr. Anyhow, we made her turn off the TV so it was ok. 
 
lets see...what else? I dunno...this is the most time i have had to email in a 
long time so i am kinda just running with it.  We are going to fujiyoshida 
tomorrow! whee! to work, not climb fuji. that is an activity for next p day. or 
the next cuz i am going to the science musem on next pday! YEAH! SCIENCE!!! i
am excited! And powell shimai is a nerd like me so she wants to go too! 
 
what else? I dunno. Brianna cant marry the doctor in the video game anyhow cuz
I am going to marry  the doctor...when i get home. tell her good luck with
math *snort*. I cant relate to aubreys situation. bummer. glad i am not in america
right now. I can just come back to it when its already ruined i guess. haha. by
the way, what is  the exchange rate right now? I am curious since grandy sent me
10 dollars...no clue what to do with american money. but WHAT THE HECK
HAPPENED TO THE MONEY! IT  HAS A HUGE PURPLE 5 IN THE CORNER!!!! 
 
ok, that is it i think. we have lots of finding to do this week so pray for us 
in that! Also, we want to do more service but its really hard to find stuff here 
cuz the people are so prideful and if you ask an obaachan if you can weed her 
garden she thinks you are telling her her house is a mess and she will jump 
around doing it herself. So if anyone has any ideas at all...we want to be 
service missionaries cuz lots of people here think we just want them to come to 
church so they can pay us money. We want to serve them and teach them that
way. 
 
That is about it! Thanks! I miss you all and love you! 
 
Love, 
sister halliday