Halliday shimai's happy birthday and a "stupid" visit to the doctor

dearest family,

yes, i got your packages and they didnt hold them at the honbu which is a good
thing cuz interviews were actually zone conference and we were not informed
(kofu doesnt get informed of anything...and no one gets informed about kofu
either but more on that later)

so anyhow, i actually got the packages last p day but of course the post office
couldnt fit them in our mailbox (they tried to stuff natalees in there and it
was halfway sticking out and it amused me greatly) anyhow so they stuck a
notice in there saying that they had them and to call them so they could bring
them by when we were home.

the lame thing is, they came when we were home in the first place.
but anyhow,  i had to wait til saturday cuz on account of having to go to
hachioji for interviews we wouldnt be home all day friday but they came on
saturday and i had a grand old party opening them (slowly of course) haha. I
video taped some of it and took pictures so i will send those home when i get
the card filled up. (shouldnt take too long)

The elders were very pleased with their half of the package and powell shimai
and i dont have to go shopping for like a month now! whee! I told president hill
we were saved! (i tell him all about my food in my letters every week...its like
a gourmet cooking show...he seems to enjoy it too cuz he called me a couple
weeks ago to tell me how much my letter amused him. It was on account of my
kiwis and grapes story hehe)

anyhow, so yeah and the granola bars do stay with your forever! Its great! We
have so much more energy now and we are happy sister missionaries! yeah!

Also, the CDs are really pretty. yay! I love them! We listen to them all the
time! And the junk food is pretty much all gone. I managed to eat all the
chocolate covered raisins in one sitting and i shared the popcorn with the
district at district meeting and then gave the other one to Silvia cuz she is
pregnant and wants popcorn and its not so easy to find. I figure that has got to
be taihen, to be pregnant in a country where you cant get what you are craving.
I think it was babysitting Clarissa what made me that sympathetic to a pregnant
woman`s plight. haha.

Speaking of Sylvia, it reminds me to answer your question... I DIDNT TELL YOU
WHO THE MIYAZAKIS WERE!?!?!

how did i not tell you that!? Powell shimai and i talk about no one BUT the
miyazakis at home. And Hosaka shimai of course. (who we havent seen in like 2
weeks and we are much afflicted on account of it)

Moving on, the miyazakis are one of the brazilian families in the ward. (the
other one being the Lemes who are also very nice and i hear that Leme kyodai
is very good at barbecuing BUT i digress...) All the kids served missions cept
silvia and they all speak english, portuguese, and japanese fluently. Silvia and
Elaine are really cute and love to talk. Silvia is married to Hoshi kyodai and
they have the cutest little kid, Lukas. I actually have yet to talk to Elaine,
but Powell shimai sings her praises all through the apartment so i am excited to
talk to her someday. She served in Temple Square.

Then there is Eder and Andre kyodai who served in Fukuoka and Sendai
respectively. They both trained like 4 times on their missions, and were APs and
now that they are home hand the missionaries referrals like crazy. Which is
basically why we talk about them and Hosaka shimai all the time.

I could have sworn I told you all this. Remember? Andre trained Brittan.

Ok, moving on. Back to my birthday. (you cant get me started on the miyazakis
like that...it could go on forever) (and just so everyone knows, we are down by
the temple and a bunch of missionaries walked in...is it bad that i keep hoping
that Harris and Allen choro will walk in? Allen choro is another name that comes
up a lot in the apartment, cuz he served in Kofu and so Powell shimai knows him.
I tell her stories about him in the MTC. Hee hee. I miss Allen choro. And Harris
choro. Has anyone heard from them?!?)

OK! back to my birthday! I went to furuya kyodais restraunt on my birthday cuz
he wanted to throw me a birthday party so we invited all our investigators. Our
ONE investigator didnt come...cuz she is well...she is Tanzawa san and we dont
know what is going through her head at any given moment in time.

But Tommy and Emma came. Tommy is the elders investigator from indonesia
and Emma is his friend, she is from the Philippines. They are my favorite.
Tommy is way good! I think he will get baptized. His story is very Alma the
younger like...he converted to Christianity in prison in indonesia and really really
loves reading the bible and the book of mormon. They came to church for the
first time on my birthday and they said they will come next week too.

Emma is actually the one that referred Tommy. She was a PI from a while back
but just wanted to play with the missionaries, she had no interest in church.
Then she started coming with Tommy. (funny story about Emma...I NEVER see
her without Tommy or vice versa but she is married and has kids...she just
always hangs out with Tommy. Weird, i know. But they are both great.)

Anyhow, Emma came to gospel principles and got a migraine halfway through
relief society so she had to leave but she said she enjoyed it and wanted to
borrow the gospel principles book so we have hope in her yet!

Anyhow, they bought me nice socks for winter! Ones that go all the way up to my
thighs so they keep my legs nice and warm. And they got me some cozy slippers
and i think i want to get some for mommy cuz they are so cozy and toasty...but
they are made out of fleece and well...that never goes over well at our house
cuz they will become cat hair slippers haha.

And Phil came! He is from eikaiwa. I hear he is a former investigator and just
couldnt give up drinking so he feels really bad that he couldnt get baptized. He
comes to church and eikaiwa still though and he brings us referrals without
being asked! he is great! He bought me violets. Which...i am sorry to say, i am
slowly killing...I dont know how to keep them alive. I put them on the balcony
to get some sun and i water them...but still they are dying.  sad day!

So yeah, that was my birthday party. It was full of delicious foods and fun. I
enjoyed it. And Leiataua choro was talking to emma and he said something about
the president of the philippines and his wife with all the shoes and I nearly
choked on my water cuz i started laughing. I thought of frank de lima comedy
sketches haha. no one really understood and i forgot to ask leiataua choro if he
knew why i was laughing. heh. It was funny though.

Furuya kyodai wanted me to tell you guys that i had a good birthday party in
Japan. hee hee.

So lets see, i am going to tell you the horror story about zone conference now.
Well, in a nutshell, we thought it was just interviews so we scheduled an
appointment for 6 pm that night. The next morning we got up to catch the train
*at that lovely hour of 5am...) but we missed the train and the next train going
to hachioji that WASNT an azusa (the superfast train...that is not the
shinkansen but still expensive) didnt come for 3 hours and so we would have
been late. So we took the next azusa and made it in time for what we thought
was interviews but was in actuality a zone conference (to make up for not having
zone conference as we normally would on account of mission conference) So we
had to stay for the whole time and the only way we could make it back was to
catch ANOTHER azusa home.

Well, things we order from the honbu are given to us at zone conferences so we
had like 3 bags of lesson pamphlets etc to take home from conference and no
time to go home so we just looked like hobos. Then, the closing prayer was like
forever long and we barely made our train but with all the stuff we had we
couldnt move fast enough to catch our next train so we missed that one and had
to cancel our appointment cuz the next train didnt come for half an hour and
then it would be too late cuz the kids had to go to bed so we had to reschedule.

We already had a ticket for the train though so we caught the next train just to
try to salvage a day where we hadnt talked to ANYONE and we did talk to some
nice junior high school girls on the train...

We got off at Joei thinking we could walk to hosaka shimais to see her but with
all our baggage we couldnt have possibly made it. I dont think we could have
made it without all the bags...she lives far away from the eki. THEN of course,
wouldnt you know...it starts raining. And our bags are paper bags. So we
resigned to waiting at the eki (which is a tiny middle of no where eki) for the
next train to Kofu. We talked to one girl before the train came so it wasnt a
TOTAL waste... but by the time we got home (with our bags somehow, probably
through the graces of God, still intact despite the rain) we were DEFINITELY
ready for bed. haha.

So yeah, that was our fun adventure at zone conference. Oh yeah! and it rained
on my birthday too! That was exciting! Except i got splashed by 5 cars on the
road...gross. dirt water in my shoes. and i had forgotten half my kappa so my
skirt was soaked through. but it was a fun adventure and people do take pity on
you at the door if you are dripping wet. haha.

Today was another stupid adventure to the stupid doctors where they charged
me another stupid 50 dollars for more stupid medicine i didnt really need cuz i
still have half of my other stupid birth control pills i have yet to take. and then
they told me to come back in a month. I think next time i will just ask my district
leader for a blessing becase it is a PAIN to go to the doctor every month.  Why
cant it be like america where you fill your perscription every month instead of
talking to the doctor EVERY time you need a refill. I LOVE japan...but they are a
little bit crazy. Just a little.

So I bought cold stone to make myself feel better again and they actually sing
when you tip them here too. It was kinda funny. They sang 'a pirates life for
me' and it was quite amusing.

So yeah, there is my week. Aside from the doctor it was a good week. Eikaiwa
was last night and we made skits. Those were hilarious. My skit was about 4 of us
being stranded on a raft and trying to get to hawaii. We had to beat off sharks
with our shoes and surf back to hawaii on a tsunami.

We taught them how to share personal experiences and we had different topics.
one of the topics was an earthquake experience which ironically, I ended up
getting. I was able to trade with Andre and I got to share an experience about
one of my good friends. So I talked about making magical cookies with Ali and
watching Jane Austen movies. No one understood what Jane Austen was of
course...but oh well. I taught them the word chick flick. hee hee.

It was very amusing listening to all their experiences but we had a really good
turn out at eikaiwa last night (even if half the students were the miyazakis)
and phil brought us another referral! Whee!

Oh, and the yogurt turned out wonderfully. I had no idea how easy it was! Powell
shimai was so cute, she was walking around talking about the yogurt like it was
a child and she would go check on it every so often and pat it and talk to it.
haha!

ok, we gotta go. Love you all!

Love,
Sister Halliday 

It's almost my birthday, where is the mail????

dear family, 
 
no, i havent gotten the packages... but i figure that they are stockpiling them 
at the honbu and will bring them to interviews tomorrow rather than forward 
them. that is what i am banking on so yep. if they do not come i think i might 
be very depressed for teh first time in my mission... i have been checking the 
mail ever 10 minutes for the last week and have had to say that absolutely no 
one loves me anymore i have had NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO letters! Not even from brittan 
or natalee! gah! oh wait...i got one from beaufort shimai and smith choro. smith 
choro got hit by a car two weeks after he finally made it to japan...he would. 
haha. 
 
ok but nothing from outside japan. what gives??? AM I NOT CUTE!?!?! 
 
ok ok enough complaining. I have been singing the christmas cookie song from 
veggietales all day hoping it would bring mail. 
 
`oh postman! I cant wait for you to come, i just cant wait for you to come! you 
have a letter. a lovely letter...just for me for when you come, only for me for 
when you come! Because its p-day!` 
 
it goes on like that with the landlord coming to the door as well as the 
Jehovahs witnesses and finally the sokogakkai peoples... all of whom i try to 
pass chirashi to... 
 
yeah....... well it is raining today and there is nothing much for me to do but 
sit by the mailbox and pray for letters ok!?! 
 
moving on... interviews are tomorrow. which means we have to make our interview 
goals! every interview we come up with a random word and we try to get president 
hill to say it in our interview. whoever gets him to say their word wins. Last 
interview the word was `frisky` hee hee 
 
so not much has gone on this week. i got laryngitis again and so i couldnt do 
much...just kinda following my comp around for moral support. Ito kyoudai was 
making fun of me and telling me that the still small voice is only for the Holy 
Ghost and i needed a bigger voice. He said he would pray for me with faith =P 
 
We were supposed to have a barbecue at the miyazakis on sunday for my 
birthday...well...really it wasnt FOR my birthday, it was for our brazilian 
investigators with whom we cannot communicate haha...but it was on my birthday 
therefore it was FOR my birthday. says me. 
 
unfortunately the elders didnt call early enough and so now we are having it 
next week. So i have to think of something else to do for my birthday...hehe 
 
but i am excited! yay brazilian barbecue! Powell shimai says Leme kyoudai is WAY 
good at barbecueing. yum! I am a kuishinbo. which means glutton...but its a cute 
word. 
 
In other news, we went to Osada shimais on monday and helped her pick weeds. She 
said her mother in law was very impressed because normally all she sees of 
missionaries is them coming over and eating food or teaching a lesson. So to see 
us helping with the yard work was very impressive. After that she took us to see 
an old burial ground near her house. its 1500 years old. 
 
Basically its just a couple of big hills...at first they reminded me of that 
hill that Hiro transported himself to in Heroes... hehe Then they reminded me of 
where Luca Blight took his last stand against Riou in suikoden 2. Yeah...i still 
live in a fantasy world... 
 
last week we visited a less active sister in the ward, Ramos shimai. She is from 
Peru. She really likes cooking and she is going to teach us how to make 
tortillas! wheeee! she says peruvian tortillas are different from mexican 
tortillas and now i am thinking brazilian tortillas might be different too and 
maybe i can convince miyazaki shimai that she wants to teach me how to make 
those too. haha. 
 
speaking of making things, sister powell is going to teach me to make yogurt 
today! 
 
A word on Sister Powell, as i havent said much about her yet. Shes a farm girl 
from rexburg idaho. Her grandpa has a farm and she milks cows and gathers eggs 
and plants stuff and all that fun stuff! I am going to visit her someday heehee. 
 
Anyhow, she and i have pretty much the same sense of humor but i am much louder 
than her. usually the apartment is me talk talk talking and then she talks 
occasionally. 
 
Her older sister is married and she has told me all about her neice who is 3. 
The kid is a genius. When told not to hit her sister and asked `what would jesus 
do?` she replied `well, how many sisters did Jesus have?` 
 
A lot of the talk in the apartment is `powell shimais neice says the darndest 
things` 
 
Of course, all the talk about little kids has kinda turned us into little kids 
too... this morning when my alarm went off i rolled over to see that the clock 
said 6:30 and shouted `oh man!` to which powell shimai sleepily replied `swiper 
no swiping!` 
 
its a dora the explorer thing and you wouldnt understand! *hides* 
 
that pretty much all the fun and excitement. Except that Leiataua choro taught 
us a hula at eikaiwa last night. that was pretty funny. He used to teach at the 
PCC... 
 
And now i have `pearly shells` stuck in my head... 
 
Ok well, i have to write guilt letters to people today and time is pretty much 
up... thanks for the birthday messages. Aubrey...you have a 4-pack. i never want 
to hear that again. I have a dendo baby*...i dont wanna talk about it ok?!?! 
 
Love you all! have fun! Conference is coming up! are you excited!!! 
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! 
 
Love, 
Sister halliday 

*a dendo baby is a pudgy little belly...

Saved from our own folly by a screaming obaachan!

dear family, 
 
still no call for ali huh? I guess that will put an end to my checking the mail 
religiously 18 times a day to see if she wrote. dont tell me though cuz she 
insists she is sending a tape when she gets her call. hopefully she wont forget 
to hit record like i did haha. 
 
and no...it will not put an end to my checking 18 times a day...if you dont have 
hope, what do you have? hee hee 
 
this week was full of hilarious experiences...and few investigators. but we are 
getting close! Tanzawa san is progressing now. Shes a very VERY quiet person and 
getting her to keep committments is kinda hard but from reading the progress 
record the past missionaries have focused on changing her behavior and not so 
much her testimony so that is what we are focusing on right now. 
 
some people in the ward tell us she seems like she mayhave a history of abuse 
but from what she tells us about home is seems like an alright place...she stays 
there often enough. she doesnt tell us much so she is like a mystery and i 
really have to focus on what questions i ask and what i can piece together from 
her answers. powell shimai says she is being a lot more open than she used to 
and i think its cuz we have got her reading the book of mormon every night. 
 
as for solving the mystery... something terrible happened to her i am sure... 
and she is on a hunt for something spiritual to give her peace. she can sit in 
the chapel for hours by herself just staring...and when i asked if there was 
anyplace in the world she would like to go she said france because she wants to 
see the cathedrals. 
 
shes is a very nice girl but terrified of men...(hence the ward members 
assumption) and so getting her to sacrament meeting is hard. she comes to relief 
society though. She just needs time i think. we are going to start teaching her 
from lesson one next week. 
 
so that is tanzawa san. our one and only progressing investigator. 
 
on to the hilarious experience for this week. 
 
on saturday we wanted to go to fujiyoshida to visit some members. you dont get 
much contact with the missionaries when you live in the shadows of mt fuji. so 
we check the train times and head to the station only to get there and realize 
we dont have a map. so we had to go back and get it and that set us back an hour 
because of train times. 
 
powell shimai didnt think we should go but i insisted that we should stick to 
the plan and it would be ok so we prayed again and felt ok with going. we met a 
really nice girl on the way there and she really wanted to come to church. we 
exchanged phone numbers and then went to catch our train. 
 
on the train we sat down and then the girl from the street showed up and sat 
with us. we talked to her for about an hour til she had to get off. she is 
really cute...but she is only 17 and her dad is a buddhist preist....that spells 
trouble in my opinion but we will see. 
 
so we get to a random eki in the middle of nowhere and the train switches to go 
back to kofu so we run off the train and the next train isnt coming for another 
half hour. we decided to go dendo in the area and found out we were in the place 
tanzawa san said she lived (she wouldnt tell the missionaries before but now we 
know the neighborhood she lives in and it is close to the eki) so we decided to 
play detective and find tanzawa sans house. 
 
no luck so we returned to catch the train. we were now like 2 hours behind so we 
called the member we were going to meet to let her know and then...missed the 
train while we were on the phone. ayah! 
 
long story short, we ended up missing 2 more trains before getting on one way 
later than anticipated. we sat down and there was an old woman staring at us. we 
smiled and she walked toward us. we were expecting her to ask to be baptized 
right there but instead she starts yelling at us to get off the train. 
 
she was pointing to the train bound for kofu and telling us to get on that one. 
we were so confused. powell shimai tried to tell her we jsut came from kofu and 
didnt want to go back yet but she kept saying `IKENAI YO!!!` which basically 
means you cant go (by this train). 
 
we got off cuz she scared us and as the train pulled out i noticed the 
destination was not fujiyoshida but fuji. A little geography lesson for you 
all... Fuji is in the NAGOYA mission. 
 
so even though that woman had no idea where we intended to go, somehow she knew 
we shouldnt be on that train. had we stayed, we would have left the mission and 
been completely oblivious til it was too late. God loves us! He sent an obaachan 
to save us from certain doom! 
 
so we had to make a whole new back up plan, being so far from kofu made our 
original back up plan null and void so we called hosaka shimai and she picked us 
up from the eki near her house. we practiced teaching lesson three with her and 
she helped us with all our japanese questions. 
 
Of course, she wanted to feed us so we went out to house in her neighborhood 
while she made dinner. Housing was hard because they were either all obaachans 
and ojiichans who had been buddhist all their lives and dont wanna hear about 
`krisito kyo` or they were younger families that lived in `great and spacious 
buildings` (big houses...even for american houses) and certainly represented the 
pride of the world =p (see lehis vision 1 nephi 8) 
 
anyhow, we did that for about an hour and a half and then we found a neat row of 
new houses that werent so big. we knocked on one door and got it shut in our 
face (nicely) and then the next door there were 3 young girls and their mom all 
in the genkan. they were all very cute and the mom was very nice but she said 
she had no interest in religion. I jumped in with something that in english 
would sound like this `my family has the same goal through this message. it 
makes us strong. here is a pamphlet (family proclamation) uh....here` 
 
in my head i am thinking `yeah. take the pamphlet. its good. i should be telling 
you to read it or something but i cant remember my japanese so just take it! 
PLEASE!` 
 
apparently my inability to speak japanese made her think we could teach her kids 
english. she came outside and talked to sister powell while i played with the 
kids in the yard (yeah! they had a yard!). turns out the woman had grown up 
jehovahs witness and felt that her experiences were pretty miserable for a child (no 
matsuris or field days or birthday parties!) so she didnt want them to live like 
that. she thought all christian churches were like that. we assured her this was 
not the case. i like birthday parties. :)
 
anyhow, we are meeting her tomorrow. we are jsut teaching her kids english but 
we think that she will come around soon. she was very curious as to why we were 
volunteering for a year and a half and not accepting money to teach her kids. 
 
that was pretty much our horrible day which wasnt horrible at all. its the best 
day we have had this transfer! yay! 
 
now we are trying to build up our eikaiwa. there are about 5 people that come 
and they all like to go out to eat after and bash the Church. why... i dont 
know. its odd but whatever. We "made" new fliers for eikaiwa. and when i say 
made, i mean we totally plagiarized and copied off a bunch of fliers from another 
eikaiwa. which eikaiwa? Well, the fliers have a picture of a penguin teaching 
other penguins... where do you think they came from? =p 
 
unfortunately, we ran off about 100 of them before we realized the map on the 
back was a map to the church in Akita which for you who dont know is in Brittan's mission...yeaaaaaah.... that is the price we pay 
for plagarism huh? 
 
I just remember powell shimai cutting them out and then gasping and saying `THE 
WHOLE THING IS DAME! (messed up) haha...the look on her face. oh man. it was priceless. 
 
if anyone sees brittan, tell him thanks for his help with eikaiwa haha. 
 
thanks for all the packages mom! elder morris will be very happy haha. 

 
also, if it isnt too much to ask... powell shimais camera is broken and she goes 
home next transfer (to her surprise but that is another story) so there isnt 
much point in her parents buying another camera. but i told her we might have an 
old one laying around somewhere that she could use if my old one isnt in use or 
something? She is kinda lonely without pictures. 
 
yeah, i am going to be a serial killer...i am on to killing my second companion. 
she got a call from the honbu telling her she had to go home next transfer cuz 
president hill just got his hand slapped for letting us all extend at the end of 
our missions. heh. powell shimai is pretty bummed cuz you can extend if your 
ministerial certificate expiry date is within 30 days of the next transfer 
ending. she had had the option of extending and going home christmas eve but 
that falls 31 days after her certificate runs out. she is pretty bummed... 
 
well, that is all the news. i did get the package and thank you! unfortunately 
peachy season is over...sad day! but i am excited to make grape jelly instead! 
 
thanks for everything! love you and miss you! 
 
Love, 
sister halliday 

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 

I am in Kofu and it's wonderful!

dear family,

i am glad you got the box...that was a load off my mind when it was finally in
the mail.

kofu is amazing and i think my japanese is ok....or at least enough to fool
andre kyodai into thinking that i can actually speak decently so he can report
to brittan that i am doing well.

apparently brittan now has ways of spying on me...i am not sure how i like that.
though i am sure andre kyodai has better things to do than actually report on my
japanese and besides which he keeps telling me how amazing brittan was at
japanese his first transfer so i am sure if he did report, it wouldnt be a bad
report.

i am jealous of your thunderstorm. the doughnut hole followed me here. all my
companions like it but i dont. i want it to rain. it always rains at night when
i am inside and cant go outside cuz it is after curfew. grrrr.

in other news i really like the ward here. hosaka shimai is my favorite! She is
a cute little obaachan who loves to help the missionaries. My first impression
of her was at eikaiwa when we were playing `do you love your neighbor` and
every time leitaua choro went over to her she would throw her hands up in the
air and scream `noooooo` cuz she didnt want to be picked.

Pretty much everyone in kofu loves the missionaries and loves helping us out.
The Miyazakis are amazing too...though i have only actually met andre and his
brother... powell shimai talks about them so much i feel like i have met them
all! haha. apparently they always have referrals for us and if they dont they
assure us they are working on it.

we are not wanting for fruits and vegetables in kofu...everyone has a farm and
gives us food all the time. right now we have more peaches than we know what
to do with and more vegetables as well. the peaches we will make into
jam...maybe...if i dont screw it up. the vegetables...i think i will fashion
into a godzilla model cuz i am NOT eating them.

we have a goya and some okra and frankly...they terrify me. the goya looks like
a godzilla anyhow.

cooking in kofu is fun cuz i have tons of room. I made chinese chicken salad and
some other stuff from the package mom sent. my companion seems to think i am
an amazing cook. she doesnt realize that mom basically handed me everything
cuz she knows i cant cook. i did learn how to make curry pan though. yay! it will
have to wait til i come home though cuz i dont have time to wait for bread to
rise.

speaking of packages...my birthday is coming as you well know and my district
would like kingsize twix, mars bars, and snickers as well as some poptarts. if i
was still in kichijoji i am sure darner choro would have wanted tons of stuff
but my district is all...i dont know... they werent going to ask for anything
but i told them it was fine cuz you totally spoiled me in the MTC and so now i
think i can make myself popular by sharing my packages. your fault. haha.

speaking of leitaua (i totally spelled that wrong) he tried to translate my
middle name and walked around trying to figure out what i was the chief of for
like an hour before he would finally let me tell him...haha

as for me...i just like cooking. simple recipes or things with recipes on the
labels are appreciated. i am collecting them now haha. i keep them all in a
book. =p

so we have a few investigators in kofu but i havent met them cuz they are still
out of town cuz of obon. yay..... so we just ride our bikes everywhere looking
for people. there are a lot of portuguese speakers from brazil and such here...i
discovered yesterday that that makes housing kind of hard. yesterday i had to
throw what little spanish i knew together in a sentence that was mostly japanese
and a lot of sign language. i think i threw italian in there too...maybe.
anyhow, i directed her to the homepage and that was the end of that. haha.

last saturaday we went to a members house for a goodbye party thing. it was a
good opportunity to meet members before church the next day. the house was
on a farm pretty much on the border of the nagoya mission...i could have
probably waved to smith and ward choro and they would have seen.

anyhow,  the house was really pretty. it was like a cabin and there was a stream
on the property and we could sit on the roof and watch the sunset. it was way
cool! and there was lots of good food and fresh veggies cuz it was a farm.

i eat more veggies these days... i can stomach corn but i still dont like it and
usually try to swallow it whole. tomatoes are actually downright good now.... i
will not eat the okra.

lets see...what else. we found an onsen (they are ippai here cuz of fuji) while
we were tracting and it was just for soaking your feet. we are still trying to
figure out if that is within mission rules cuz we need it! haha! I discovered a
crack in the sole of my shoe the other day...but they should last and i still
have 2 other pairs of shoes. i should be good til the end of my mission.

sad news. i lost my white handbook during transfers. so not only am i walking
around a lawless heathen...i lost my ministerial certificate. I can get that
replaced but...it had PRESIDEN HINCKLEY`S SIGNATURE ON IT!

not that i dont love president monson...but i want my certificate to have
president hinckleys signature...

sad day. i also managed to lose my scriptures. my japanese set...not my english
set. i think they are hiding in a cupboard back in the kichijoji building but i
will be there next week so i will check.

speaking of next week, i will be emailing early cuz we have a huge conference on
thursday so wednesday is p-day. be aware!

ok well, i am starving and we still have to go to the temple... we had to come
to roppongi to go to the stupid OBGYN again which was pointless cuz they told me
i was fine and i was like `no i am not...if i was i wouldnt be here` so they put
me on birth control and told me to come back in a month. i dont wanna come back!
grrrrrr. least there is a cold stone creamery next door.... i can drown my
sorrows in that.

oh yes...and if you could send peanut butter and jelly...i had to leave it in
kichijoji before... thank you!

I am glad everyone is doing well and that brianna can walk like a normal person
again. that is always good. Have fun with courtney and tell her i said hi back.

Love,
Sister Halliday

ps. i got another haircut. its short...but all the damage is gone for good which
is good. it was unexpected. we went to visit a less active who owns a beauty
parlor and she wanted to play with my hair cuz well...people tend to want to do
that.

its not that much different but it is shorter. i am still getting used to it.
back to shoulder length...wowww. k a little longer than that. shampoo... i am on
my last bottle but i can get that stuff in japan. i think i am doing pretty good
on everything. thanks!