1051 Hours
The slush pits of Misawa (It was way exciting riding down here today)
Weather:
It's been snowing like every 10 hours here. It snows 2 inches then kinda gets warm and melts about an inch then snows two more inches and then melts about an inch and then snows... about like that! It makes bike riding way exciting! It's crazy to ride during melting time and just straight up stupid and a no no in the cold times! So we get to walk and ponder the meaning of life! But from what the locals tell me it never gets like insanely cold here (like negative 20 F with insane wind) just like 3 or 4 feet of snow which is kind of fun!
We sent this to Sister ______ she was stalking Elder Breinholt with love poems and these little cute selfies. So she got to see how cute we were.
Legit beard. And I have no idea who the lady is that got in our apartment picture.
Fun Food Fact:
Peeling... now I know for a fact that I did do this one but I want to update you! So all fruit and vegetables are beautiful in Japan. They all look like the one on the box and they all taste awesome! Another funny thing is I swear they take longer to spoil. So when I was eating an apple a few months back and didn't peel the skin and a Japanese elder asked me what I was doing I said I always eat the skin (all manly too). He was like isn't that dangerous and unhealthy? And I was like what? Dude the skin tastes great and is probably more healthy like the crust on bread (that is actually a lie made by mothers that the Japanese had exploited but isn't important right now). Then he said "it might taste fine and normally be super healthy for you but they are like drenched in pesticides" (i had to look that word up). Then I had a little flashback of all the pristine apples and vegetables and all the bananas that didn't go bad for months... and now I peel my stuff too! Haha! Well... most of the time... but they do taste soooo good here!
Culture Point:
So there is a picture I sent last week where I have something on my face somewhere between a surgeon mask and Bane's little humidifier (it leans to toward surgeon) and i want to explain it! The first time I saw it was really unsettling because you get on a train and like 10% of all people on the train have on these masks and you think to yourseld "plague? Maybe we should take the next one". But its just like they have a little cold! My Hong Kong friend tells me she does it in Hong Kong too and my Korean friend tells me it's the same there so it might just be all Asia. But don't be fooled like I was! Probably 60% of the masks are actually people with cold (only like 60% of the population will wear one when they have a cold and it's not like rude not to wear one if you are sick) but the other 40% of the people wearing masks fall into 3 categories:
1. The Dementors. They have no mouths and I think they might be able to suck souls. haha! But seriously some people just have them every day all day. I don't really know the reason but it kinda makes my heart a little sad but I guess if they like them why not!
2. The Young Woman: I actually learned this from Sister Lesuma but she told me that when the sister missionaries are having like a bad makeup day or have a blemish or something they will just through that sucker on. Or if they like a boy and are nervous around him they put it on too... which i don't really understand but I am a boy.
3. The Incognito: Probably the rarest of the three but the most obvious. These people have a dump hat, a pair of sunglasses (more rare in japan) and the mask with their collar popped. Obviously trying to hide who they are but if Ichiro himself walked by you you still wouldn't know who he was.
Spiritual Message:
So I had a special experience where I went to two separate baptismal services on the same day! One was for an American 8 year old and the other was for a Japanese year old (I'm pretty sure that has to be one of like 10 times in the history of the world that has happened). If you have never been to a Mormon Baptismal service I highly recommend them. I have never gone with someone that didn't say there was a very special spirit at them. They are short and light and just uplifting.Tthe doctrine is so pure and simple and brings sooo much hope. It is very much a second birth and you feel pure, almost childlike, love at them. I just want to share my testimony that all of Gods commandments are there to lead us to the path back to Him and that that path is the happiest place you can be. The gate that starts that path is baptism just like how Christ was baptized: by immersion and by the authority of God.
Funny Story:
So we had this wonderful get together as a zone where we had a lot of training and learned from each others experiences and it was great. Then we had some more fun things to do with Christmas and one of them was a gift exchange. There was a 200 yen limit on how much we could spend (2 bucks) and the purpose was to get people to kind of make the gifts (and we are poor missionaries anyway). So I thought really hard about what I should makes and finally it came to me to make a shogi (refer to letter 18 paragraph Japanese chess) board and all the pieces inside one of the missionary planners so that if someone was on a train they could like bust it out and play with someone they meant on the train! Ideally the recipient of my gift was going to be a Japanese missionary so that they could use it! But the thought did cross my mind that one of the foreigners would get it but I figured they could study the kanji and learn from a Japanese person and all would be well maybe even better! So I worked super hard, got it all bound together, cut up a bunch or milk cartons to get strong thin paper, it was going awesome! Then I took it, wrapped it up, brought it to the activity and even wrote a note on it that said it was to the luckiest missionary in the world from me. So then the hat gets past around and everyone pulls out the name of the person they will be receiving from and I pull out the name Sister Rassusmun! Yata!! What luck, I get the mission mom who is for sure the best present! No jokes just the richest person so it has to be awesome (it was dishes for the apartment which was alright from a realist point of view. Anyway, I think I have all the best luck in the world and life is awesome and then they read the presents one by one and the person who drew that name goes on up and grabs theirs. So my name is finally and read and Sister Harmen stands up. I know her very well, she is in my district actually, she is a senior (like 70ish) and she works exclusively with English speaking military people only, doesn't use a planner, and has no reason to study kanji at all. She was kind but not very amused at all with the present. Luckily Elder Anderson got holiday cards from a Japanese sister and said he would trade with her. It's a funnier story when you are the companion sitting next to me and I bang my head on the desk... but i hope you got a chuckle.
Love each other for me!
Law Choro
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