March 15th, 2014 Letter

1300 hours a place of tears.

I got transferred. It is so sad.... I was kind of shocked and I am so hurting to leave Macnab Choro and all my friends in Aomori.  I am going to a place called Odate. It’s in the north part of the Akita prefecture. It’s still the same zone just a lot more to the west and a little to the south. My new companion is Elder Koide who has been out the same amount of time as Sheldon. He is Japanese but I don’t know where he is from yet. I will tell you when I find out!

Culture point:

Shikishi. They are these boards that are normally about a 1 foot square. They are about as thick as cardboard but a lot harder, kind of like wood but not that strong. You write notes on them and give them to people for goodbyes or congratulations or birthdays or anything! The best ones have lots of pictures plastered all over them and fun notes. They are super fun to get and I hold the one I have like a treasure. (I got it way back in Kamisugi days from the Kamisugi Sisters (thank you Gass shimai and all the others that helped if you read this!)  I am making two of them today for Sister Hayashi and ELder Nishiie who are going home this week. Sister Hayashi was in 3 of my districts. In 3 different areas! She is a stud. Nishiie choro was the one here in Aomori that got where I was coming from all the time and had my back. I am going to miss him... ahhh transfers are the worst.... haha

Fun food fact:

So we got these from Brother Ebina last night and Macnab Choro was dying so I have to share. (also be aware this is not super normal Japanese food this is the first time I have ever heard of it) so they take eggs ( I love eggs) and they put them in the hot springs (called onsens and LOVED by the people) and let the egg sit there for 20 minutes and then pull it out. The minerals in the water give the eggs some extra flavor that is yummy and the weirdest thing is the water is very hot but not bowling so the yolk and the white both cook at the same speed and both are not solid but not hard at all either. All the slimy is kind of gone but it’s not solid at all... hard to explain maybe scary the first time you try one but if you like the taste of egg yolk very yummy!!

Spiritual thought:

 Goodbyes could be really scary I think. I hate them because it just sucks but they aren’t scary most of the time. It’s just a comfort to me that I know when I pray and ask God if there is an afterlife and if coming to Christ through Baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the right way to return to him I just feel peace and warm. So I firmly believe we can meet all our friends after this life if we aren’t able to later in this life. It just give me hope and a smile now. I am happier now because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s my thoughts lately.

Funny Story:

 Birthdays. Everyone likes them but I think it’s especially important to make a good one for missionaries who are away from home without a family. Missionaries are divided into groups of 4-8 called districts and then 2-5 of those districts make up a zone. So the district is kind of like your family away from home. So we had a birthday in our district last week with Sister Hayashi. She is going home this week and we really felt we needed to do something that would make her day awesome! but.... we might have forgotten about it until the night before and it was 9:30 so we were in for curfew and the next day was Sunday and since it’s the Sabbath we try and focus on the Lord that day and not do other activities that take people away from their families like shopping so there was no going out and buying ingredients for a cake.. So I start digging through my stash of good for cooking from my Mama and beloved sisters and I find this box of Reeses cookies! (There is another story about having to tie and gag Macnab Choro, because he said he had been saving those for a special occasion when he, who could truly appreciate American candy, could enjoy them,) but we decide to make them! But it was too late so we hit the sack and decided to bake it and then go early before church and ding dong ditch it at their apartment. The other Choro needed to participate too so they found some old balloons they had bought and said they would blow them up and leave them all over the hall. So we went to bed and then woke up the next morning to me having a great idea to take the cookie dough and make the kanji for her name! (It’s a way easy kanji that just means a grove of trees) (林） So, I make the dough, make the shape and then so to bake it... if you run the toaster and microwave/oven thing we have you kill the breaker. We needed to make breakfast so I ended up having to use the toaster oven... and a long story short it went down pretty quick. We ended up with burnt tops and soft under and it just got a lot thinner and flatter in the oven (go figure right?) but we had no time and no better ideas we put it on some cardboard we cut out (a plate ended up being too small) are we throw it in the bike basket and hit the road! (The other Choro went ahead to prep the balloons) and we got chucks of cookie falling off into the road behind us, avoiding the snow piles, wind in our hair... that’s freedom. We get there and we run up the stairs and about 2 stories before we get to the top we hear all this puffing and breathing and a few huge pops... we get to their floor and all the floor is covered with balloons... heart balloons. Someone accidently bought heart balloons. We can hear the sister missionaries laughing on the inside of the door because of the balloons popping... ugh. It was a total fail but it was still a good B-day I think so sho ga nai...

Love each other for me!

ラー長老