Dear Family,
Sorry I didn`t get a chance to email you last week. I was stuck on a plane for a very long time instead.My P-days are on Tuesdays, though I think next week or the week after it`s on a Monday instead.
I actually wrote a letter last week my first day here, but haven`t gotten around to sending it yet, sorry.
I got here around 7 PM Japan Time and everyone was picked up from the airport by President McIntyre, his wife, and his assistants. We stayed at the apartment under the mission office that night and the next.
The day after arriving in Japan we spent time going through orientation meetings and interviews. We ate lunch at some Chinese Restaurant. After that we went streeting for a while. It was a little scary but fun. I really don`t understand a lot of Japanese yet.
The next day we met up with our companions. My companion is Elder Ito ã„ã¨ã†, he`s from near Tokyo, Japan I believe. We then headed to our seperate areas by train. My area is Okamachi which is in Northern Osaka. It`s a urban area not countryside. That night we went and bought my bike, I bought a Giant 4500 I believe. I also bought a light and a bike basket for the back. The workers there put the stuff on for me. That night at 8 PM we taught the Ishikawa`s, their daughter is a member and they`ve been investigators for about 15 years now. However recently they set a baptismal date for March of next year I believe. They`re a nice old couple and when we were leaving they actually gave us some food, pancake mix, syrup, and jam.
On Friday I went to the City Hall and registered for my gaijin card (alien registration card). I then opened up a bank account at the post office. We met and talked with the bishop of the Okamachi ward also. I didn`t understand much of what Bishop Yoko said, but he`s enthusiastic about missionary work which is good.
On Saturday we did some service in the morning and had our weekly planning session after lunch. We also went streeting for a while.
Sunday was really good. I had the opportunity to have Fast Sunday again because General Conference is this coming weekend here. We went to Church at 8 AM and held a 15 minute sacrament meeting with the bishop for some lady who has to work on Sundays. I met the members as well, they all seem very nice. I can`t remember all of their names yet but it will come. They actually have a food basket for the missionaries by the entrance and they give a fair amount of food.
We taught a lesson to Mogi, an investigator with a baptismal date for next month, after church. She`s already received all the lessons but since she has a baptism coming up we`re going through them again. I taught most of the Lesson, for practice, and she said she understood everything I said which is good.
Sunday Night we ate dinner at the Tanaka families` house with Mogi. The food was great and they were very nice. I taught a 3 minute lesson on prayer afterwards. We then rode our bikes home in the pouring rain.
Anyways, please send all mail to the mission home. There`s a website called flyingpig that you can use to send me stuff if you want. Just don`t send anything right before a transfer. If you use that website send it to:
Osaka-fu Toyonaka-shi
Yamanoue-cho 10-10
Yamanoue Heights 201
That`s my apartment address I believe so you can look it up on google maps if you want.
Sincerely,
Elder Andrew West.
This is the reason that government committees should never be allowed to pay people to create art for a community. No, it's not really a pile of poo....it a half million dollar sculpture of a coiled snake. A really bad sculpture of a coiled snake. That someone thought was worth $500,000. If you're ever down in San Jose, you can find it prominently displayed right downtown.
A block away from the "pile of poo" we saw this large reproduction of a Leonardo da Vinci design for a horse. It was pretty darn awesome. And just about large enough to have left the "pile". I'll bet if Leonardo had sculpted a snake it wouldn't look like a pile of poo.
No, not Leonardo. Brunelleschi. A large cut-away model of the dome he designed for the Santa Maria del Fiori in Florence, Italy. I showed the picture to Danny and he actually remembered the name Brunelleschi from his history class a couple of weeks ago. 
Yes, we're back to Leonardo. Did I mention that we went to an exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose that was mostly about Leonardo? A few other Renaissance designers/engineers/architects were also included - yeah, Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi had a whole room devoted to him. Leonardo was the star of the exhibit. If the exhibit comes to your town I would recommend it. I wouldn't recommend that you take any young children or children who don't like to read - there was a lot of reading involved in the exhibit - and some nudity (this is the Renaissance we're talking about).
