Transfer 3, week the first

Elder Spackman. Transfer 16 of Boise Idaho.
Will attend Utah State. About a head and
a half taller than me.

Our apartment, second floor, used to be a sister
apartment, so it is pretty nice, but super small.

This is a creepy house by the church.
Too many Winnie the Pooh bears.

Here is our church, the gate is actually used here!

Not Hibarigaoka, but the next Eki over, I don't know what it is
called yet.

So, this week was transfers. I am no longer a beanchan!

On Tuesday, we spent all morning cleaning. Well, I didn't do any cleaning, I was packing, but the others made the apartment look beautiful! We went and streeted the Eki afterwards, didn't really find anyone it was so cold. Then our evening lesson fell through, so we decided to hack at our area book of over 100 people! Most of them were old, but you never know.

Wednesday: Had a good morning, no complaints. Then we went to Tsujido, where all of the surfing in Honshu is. Every other person's bike had a side rack for their board. We heart attacked 4 families that day. A heart attack is when we cover the door in paper hearts and candy. It is pretty fun. They never say anything, but it builds a relationship with the ward. The last house was super hard to find and when we rang the bell, someone answered and recognized us, and sent us away. We were really confused and thought we were at the wrong house, but no, we were "kekko desu"ed by the elders quorum presidents wife. So we heart attacked their mailbox instead. That threw us off, so we finished off or last day with contacting the 100+ hard to find people in Fujisawa.

Thursday: transfer day. We see Dowdle Chōrō off to get his new trainee. Then we stopped at the church to get some chocolate that Akemi, an old investigator of mine, super sweet old lady, had left for me. There was a print of Fuji-san with it, so bonus! Then I left. I got on a train for Yokohama and I had to stand with my bike all alone for 2 hours. I only had to transfer lines once, in Yokohama, but that was pretty easy. Then I stood until I got to Hibarigaoka. I got to the Eki and Spackman Chōrō really is as tall as I was told he would be. We streeted to the church, which is 7 minutes from the Eki. Then we had a lesson with a really cool programmer. I hope he contacts us back. Then we walked another 9 minutes to our apartment. So yes, I ride a bike literally everywhere now.

Friday:
    Our District:
Elder Millard- district leader, from Tennessee, transfer ~8
Elder Molen- zone leader, from Utah, transfer 11
Elder Spackman- zone leader, from Idaho, transfer 16
Me!- Transfer 3
Sister Casteñeda- Sister training leader, from Mexico(?), transfer 9
Sister Hartshorn- transfer 2

I went on splits with Millard Chōrō. We were together all day. The ZLs were at district meetings all day. We worked really hard, maybe a little too hard... we only took about 20 minutes for dinner. But that was rewarding. If you try something to the best of your abilities, the Lord will bless you.

Saturday: so today was 6 hours of meetings in Kichijoji. Kichijoji is only a 20 minute bike ride south and it is all flat, so it was really easy. First was a stake priesthood meeting, then a family history fair, and then a stake conference session. That was long. I learned so many words.

Sunday: last session of stake conference. So long! We went and ate lunch and went to Streeting. Met some interesting people, but no new investigators. Did some good Kubari. Went and contacted a bunch of PI's, we were pretty tired from all of the bikes.

Monday: cold day. We are writing emails and shopping. There is not much to do in Hibarigaoka. Tonight we are going to find someone to teach if it kills me.

Actually teaching in Japanese and SYLing has helped me so much. I can hardly write in hiragana and katakana, it takes me so long. I will be Working on that this transfer. I am in one of the oldest, transfer-wise, apartments in the mission, so I should be able to boost my speaking.

Bonus: Part of Connor's letter to Dad

So we just had a family history fair! It was great, it was just youth and missionaries having the opportunity to talk about what they are grateful for in their families and to tell funny stories. I told my partner, this little 11 year old about to be a deacon, about grandpa Murphy and how he worked on trains. I showed him the picture of him hanging off of the caboose. It was funny! Japanese always see trains as passenger cars, but seeing a goofy American on a caboose was really cool for him. Thank you for helping me love family history! Most of my reservations just expired, so you need to go back through and get all of the ordinances done for our loved ones. The temple will be closed next year, and I couldn't do them anyways.

Extra Bonus: Part of Connor's letter to Mom

I miss reading books. I am reading Jesus the Christ right now though. It is super good. It just took some time to work on me. I am glad that the Librarian at Northgate remembers me. I don't remember her, but she helped me get some confidence with Battle of the Books. That was so long ago.  I can't believe that it is already Thanksgiving! Holidays don't really matter in Japan, so we usually just have a nice dinner or mention it during the day. But I will miss just eating a lot and having a nap. As you know, missionaries don't ever stop doing stuff. This was an easy transfer, travel and luggage wise. I only had to switch trains once, which is a miracle, considering that I had to go all of the way across the mission. Sagawa, the company that ships luggage, came on time, delivered my stuff on time, I packed my carry on well, my bike isn't very heavy, and there was no one on the trains when I left Shonandai.