Dear Family,I forgot to mention it again last week but this week Monday is my P-day. Oh well. I haven`t received any mail since last week so this`ll probably be a short letter.
Last P-day I bought an electronic dictionary. An EX-word Dataplus 4 XD-SP6700. It`s pretty nice, but I`m still learning how to use it. It`s nice, but it was made for Japanese people, so there`s a lot of kanji that I can`t read yet.
Thank you for all the pictures that people have sent so far. I really appreciate it. If I could get any pictures of Uncle Brian`s house or Aunt Tia`s house it would be nice. I teach an hour long English class on Wednesday nights and pictures would be helpful for explaining things to them. They also are curious about random facts that I`m not sure on. Like the population of Washington, Seattle, and Marysville. A few people have been coming to English class for more than 15 years so they have decent English.
We went to the Adult Session of Stake Conference Saturday evening. It was all about missionary work I think. The missionaries and ward missionaries in the Stake sang `No Greater Joy` It has lyrics in English and Japanese. It`s the number one missionary song in the Kobe/Osaka area. You could probably find it on google.
On Sunday we went to Stake Conference. My companion Elder Ito had a talk so we both sat up front. I managed to not doze off in a two hour meeting I couldn`t understand. I spent that time trying to memorize D&C 4 in Japanese and English. The Sunday session of Stake Conference was also about missionary work I think. The mission president spoke at the Saturday and Sunday session. He has really good Japanese.
Now on to the food. Friday night I bought some food from a stand by a store. It was called Bebi-something. They`re like small balls of pancake. They tasted good. The vendor said they`re only made in Osaka usually. Last night for dinner I had Takoyaki***. I can`t say I loved it. I ate far more of those than I had any desire to. The Tako meat (Octopus I think) tastes a little different than anything I`ve had before, but it`s the suckers and their weird texture that I don`t like. But it was sort of fun to make them.
Right now we have someone scheduled to be baptized on November 1st. Her interview is next Sunday, as long as that goes well I think it`ll go through.
Cocoa, peanut butter, and oatmeal are all relatively expensive here. That makes me sad :(. Actually to be honest most food here is a lot more expensive than back home.
Anyways the work is hard but rewarding. You can spend all day getting rejected and then get one person who listens. It`s not the dozens and dozens of rejections you remember it`s the ones who listen you remember. I`m happy to be here and know that my mission will prepare me for the rest of my life.
Pray always and be happy.
Sincerely,
Elder Andrew West
***Note: Steve and I had some takoyaki when we were in Japan. Definitely an acquired taste. I didn't mind the taste so much as the extreme textures - the fried dough ball was light and fluffy - but then it had a tough, chewy piece of octopus (or maybe large squid) inside.
2 comments:
"I ate far more of these than I had any desire to..."
Sounds like a missionary to me.
Sounds like he's doing well. I like that he thinks stake conference was about such and such. He seems to have a good attitude.
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