First Week

I'm glad to here that things are going well, and that you have a quieter house most of the time now.  I figured you weren't worried about me being safe, but since i was given the opportunity to write, i wasn't going to waste it, even though I only had five minutes. Japanese is so hard, but i already love it, and for me the most important thing is to use it as much as i can. It helps me a lot. I'm glad to hear that you have got to spend time recently with almost all of your grandchildren. Thanks for letting me know that Joe and Alicia got the house they wanted, and that all is going well for them. I had already figured that Jennie would get the job, but it is nice to know that it is for sure now. I hope she enjoys working there. I'm glad that stake conference was so good, but im not sorry i missed out, because i have been having so much fun here, though it is hard at times. I don't know if you noticed, but my host's name was sister hamgarde. I didnt really get to know here very well though, because as soon as i left you at the curb it was go, go, go. I had to go to a few buildings, get a bunch of stuff, including my name tag, and all of my study supplies. I didnt have time to unpack at  first. I got put into a room about half the size of our living room with 6 of the sisters from my district, but we just got moved today into a bigger room, closer to the size of our living room. Still 6 sisters, but it is so much nicer. The word i say almost constantly in Japanese is Shimai (sheemy), which means sister. There are so many sisters in my zone, and you address them as last name Shimai, so it is said a lot, all throughout the zone. My companion is Sister Smith. She is 3/4 Japanese, but was raised in the US< so she isn't entirely fluent in Japanese, though she is really good at understanding what they are saying, which is super helpful with teaching our lessons, because often our investigator will say something, which is totally over my head, but she will get the jist of it. Are investigator speaks super fast, and he 'supposedly' doesn't understand Japanese, but occasionally he'll take pity on us, and let us know he understands words like happy in english. I find i have to write in my journal super fast at night, because i dont have all that much time, and there have been a few days when i have had to finish up last night's entry in the morning or during the day when i have a moment. The food here is pretty good, most of it is pretty similar to what I am used to, but i do miss your cooking mom. Cause you food is so much better. Some sisters are complaining about the food, but i don't mind it. A sister in my district, Sister Welte, gets at least two packages and two dearelder.com letters from her mom and family daily. I guess they really miss her, but i think this is just over doing it. She now has so many treats, that she doesnt know what to do with them, and so freely shares them with the class. They are good, but you can only have so many sweets. I find that I wish i had two towels, cause i think one gets pretty gross showering almost daily, but I'm fine for now. I might check the store to see if they have one i like, and if not, then i might ask you to send one. They have so much stuff in the store, and it can be really handy, but stuff is super expensive there, though we do get a missionary discount, so that helps. I am going to probably need more toothpaste at some point, though i wouldn't send that til closer to the end of my stay, because apparently Japan does not have very nice toothpaste, so it would be smart tyo have about a year's supply. My Branch President, who i report to weekly's name is President Stevenson. You may know one of his counselors. I don't know his first name, but he is Brother Adamson, and he is the guy who stopped by about three years or so ago to check out the shed that dad had just built. I found that out, because he was driving past our house some time this past week, remembered Makins lived there, and since i had told him the area where i had lived, he put two and two together. Teaching investigators in just japanese already is so hard. I often find that i know exactly what i want to say in english, but have no clue how to say it in English. I got an email about a bike procedure change, i don't know if you got it, but basically i now buy the bike, it's my property, i have to pay for repairs, and i also have to buy a bike bag for transportation purposes. I can forward that to you next week if you didn't get it. Saturdays we have service assignments extra early in the morning, which makes it super hard to get up the next day, cause i'm extra tired, but so far i have been able to get up on time fairly easily, so that's good. I struggle with falling asleep though. Our branch president taught us some sleeping techniques, those of us that were struggling with falling asleep fast, but so far it hasn't worked, because i get only so far and then a song pops into my head, and i have to stop and start over again. I love my sister training leaders (which is what sierra was during her time at the MTC... they work with the sisters to help them specifically, so it's different than Zone Leaders), I knew one of them in highschool, and the other two are so much fun to be around, its hilarious. My district sometimes has time focusing, because we are already such great friends, that we get sidetracked, and often it'[s just laughing so hard at something funny that people said. Often me. They have said that our family should have our own reality TV show, because when we were talking about our families on monday night, mine was so big and crazy that apparently it needs it's own tv show. Which is just hilarious in my opinion. there are quite a few sick bugs floating around at the moment, including strep and the flu. I am just hoping that i dont get sick, though sister fonua in my room was sick yesterday, so we will just see. I would appreciate your prayers for the sick missionaries, and that no one else will get sick. Moving this morning was hard, but now I am all done, and shouldn't have to move this frequently ever again in my mission. Ai Shitemasu (i, stay-mas, I love you)! and mom, don't start sending millions of packages even if dad would let you, I dont have the space for so many treats... ( though i wouldn't mind some candy or something like that once in a while.. ;) )