A whole year....

 So a week in Japan and it is the one with a year mark. To get started, let's back it up to

Monday: we found these Yukatas, which are a very hard thing to find for missionaries apparently, and they were only 20 dollars, so, bam, done! We went and had a nice kubari in Ōizumi because so many people come home at 6 and 7 here, even from school. Nice day, not too busy, but it was good.

Tuesday: busy day! We went out in the morning and dendōed around the Eki. To kick off the afternoon, we went and visited Uenoyama Kyōdai. He was doing good, we will visit him with the bishop this week so that we can know just how to help him with his memory. After that, because we were in the area, we went to South Hoya so that Elder Gerritsen will be ready if I transfer next month. We streeted and looked around, and we found some good places to house. For dinner, we went to the Aono Family's. It was their son's 17th birthday, so we got him some pudding. He REALLY loves pudding. We shared a really good talk with them that was the homework for Zone conference. It is President Benson's Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon. It focuses on how members and missionaries can use the Book of Mormon in their lives more. We had something that I have never had before, dry curry. That was so good!

Wednesday: It rained a lot today, like cats and dogs and rhinos and elephants. We tried to street in the rainy morning, but no one was in the right mood or they were hiding at home,so we went and ate lunch at life before district meeting. Our new Dendō Shunin, Ward Mission Leader, came and sat in. I gave a training over the Book of Mormon and we all ate umeboshi again so that we can see the difference between having the Book of Mormon and not. If you have umeboshi in your mouth, you don't and you are sad, if you have chocolate in your mouth you are happy and have the book. Then we went and waited for the rain to die down a bit so that we could get home. Then we did studies. After dinner, we went to Eikaiwa and apparently everyone is scared of the rain because there were only 7 people this week. It was fun though.

Thursday: we  decided to see what Hoya is like in the morning. There where people, but not that many, we missed the rush, which is at about 7am. Then we did lunch and started weekly planning for the afternoon. After planning, we set up for set up for Zone conference and then because frida is Elder Gerritsen's birthday, we went to Hamazushi, which is brand new and always busy. We ate sushi and he got a coconut during that was a raw coconut. Then we we did language study. Today marks a year since leaving home, and 10 months in Japan. It doesn't seem that long, but when I think about it, it is a really long time. Everyone is done with a year of college, Gavin has graduated and going on his mission, and now I am an older missionary. It is weird.

Friday: So today was Zone conference with everyone. I gave a training, alone, and it was ok, it was from the 12 weeks program and about the Book of Mormon, so i had some practice this week. It was great and it was in Hibarigaoka, so we had a fun time not having enough tables for everyone. We just turned the pews around and circled up. That night, we went to Hoya and learned that it is so much busier there when people are coming home. We finished off  the night with language study.

Saturday: We went to Kiyose in the Morning and learned that there will be a festival there at the end of the transfer, so we might go and check that out, it looks like it will get a lot of people to come out of hiding in Kiyose. It was pretty hot, so we went home and cleaned the church alone. We then set up TOEIC and Eiken alone, then went and did a kubari session. That was effective! Lots of people in Ōizumigakuen want to learn English. We taught TOEIC and Eiken that night, so i helped Hisashi get ready for the test next month. He is a good guy.

Sunday: So the day started normally, but after we got out of DCS and Eikaiwa, lo and behold, there was Gappmeyer Shimai, our MTC teacher! We were a bit confused and then nervous because we were gong to teach about The Second Coming in Japanese for Gospel Principles. It went well though and Gappmeyer Shimai was happy to see us both and was impressed by how much our Japanese had changed. Granted, it has been a year and for Elder Gerritsen, six months, but that was a nice surprise to be able to show your teacher how much better you can speak and teach that Nintendo the MTC where we just used the Ninja book. After church, we talked with members, did stats, and ate lunch, then studied. After we did that, t was time for dinner, so we ate and then went to Ōizumi to kubari. We learned however that sunday night is when the politicians come out and rally. There were also no people on the streets so after trying to kubari and street, we went and did a quick make up language study to make up for a day of not having it this week.

Today: not much is happening, we are going to have a nap and just chill. Tonight we are going to house in Ōizumi area and try to kubari again. The last time we did Monday night was really good and lots of people stopped to talk to us.  Wish us luck!

I hope everyone had a great week, and have a fun time too!
愛していますね、
マーフィー長老