Sherwood Chourou - Week 20 in Japan

Konnichiwa Mina-san!

Not much happened this week, but I'll do my best to make this email interesting. A couple days ago, we went back near the place we went on pday to meet with one of our recent converts. The weather forecast said there was zero chance if rain, but by the time we'd gotten there, we were getting dumped on. Moral of the story is, as warned in the scriptures: don't trust those who divine using the clouds. Incidentally, we got a lot of rain today, too.

Yesterday, while we were housing, we saw many cats. I tried to take pictures of them, but only 1 worked out (cats aren't very cooperative). I will be sending that with this email. One of them was dead set on slipping into someone's apartment while we talked to them, but it never got a chance. It was very funny to watch.

Anyways, that's all. Hope you all have had a good week! Matte ne!

Sherwood Chourou - Week 19 in Japan

Today is my first pday of the transfer, and my first pday in Hakodate, my new area! Four months in Japan and I've finally actually transfered. My new companion is Elder Ono, my first Japanese companion (there are an awful lot of firsts this transfer)! We're still figuring out how to work together effectively, but I have high hopes.

Unfortunately, I don't have much to report from this last week besides that I moved. We went up to Hakodate Mountain (key wording "up to" rather than "up"), which I hear has the world's 3rd most beautiful night view (which had no immediate bearing since we went during the day). We also checked out a nearby catholic cathedral, because it was cool, and the ocean, because we could see it. We took pictures, so I'll include those in this email.

That's about it, I think. Hope you all are still doing great! Have a good week! Matte ne!

Sherwood Chourou - Week 18 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Sorry, I almost forgot to email! Anyways, my 3rd transfer is already almost over! Time has been going by so fast here, it's crazy.

This last week, I managed to hand out 4 Book of Mormons! I don't know if the people I gave them to are reading them or not, but I think I'm starting to figure out this whole missionary thing. Hopefully this trend continues to the end of the mission. We also had stake conference yesterday, which was fun. We got like 5 lunches from the members, and we're still not finished eating them! They take care of us very, if not too well.

We also got detained last Saturday for being white. We were practicing a lesson for a shinyuu we were going to teach, when a pair of officers pulled up and asked what we were doing. We showed them all of our ID cards, and all seemed well, but then one of them noticed that the addresses on our cards didn't match our current address, so they "took" us (a literal translation of what they said would be "Would you mind getting in the car, please?" because Japan is all about politeness) to the station. They put us in separate rooms to ask us some questions about what we were doing here and about the address situation. Quickly enough, after they called the mission HQ, we figured out that it had something to do with a deal that meant we didn't need to put our new addresses on the cards (because we move so often). After that, we were promptly and politely sent on our way.

That's about the extent of my happenings. Hope everyone has a good week! Sorry, no pics this week, but I'll try to get something sorted by next pday. Matta ne!

Sherwood Chourou - Week 17 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Sorry, I almost forgot to email! Anyways, my 3rd transfer is already almost over! Time has been going by so fast here, it's crazy.

This last week, I managed to hand out 4 Book of Mormons! I don't know if the people I gave them to are reading them or not, but I think I'm starting to figure out this whole missionary thing. Hopefully this trend continues to the end of the mission. We also had stake conference yesterday, which was fun. We got like 5 lunches from the members, and we're still not finished eating them! They take care of us very, if not too well.

We also got detained last Saturday for being white. We were practicing a lesson for a shinyuu we were going to teach, when a pair of officers pulled up and asked what we were doing. We showed them all of our ID cards, and all seemed well, but then one of them noticed that the addresses on our cards didn't match our current address, so they "took" us (a literal translation of what they said would be "Would you mind getting in the car, please?" because Japan is all about politeness) to the station. They put us in separate rooms to ask us some questions about what we were doing here and about the address situation. Quickly enough, after they called the mission HQ, we figured out that it had something to do with a deal that meant we didn't need to put our new addresses on the cards (because we move so often). After that, we were promptly and politely sent on our way.

That's about the extent of my happenings. Hope everyone has a good week! Sorry, no pics this week, but I'll try to get something sorted by next pday. Matta ne!