Pi/Pie

Participles, infinitives, radii, pi, coeffients, the conservation of mass in a chemical reaction, The Hobbit. What do these things have in common? Today's subjects in school. Except for "The Hobbit"(which, while fun is not a tough subject), we sound very smart...

My brain hurts. I'm in the mood for pie now.

Our Man in Japan

I'm pretty sure Andrew wasn't transferred to this amusement park. Pretty sure.

Dear People who are reading this,

How are things going? This week I am being transferred to Hanayashiki and getting a new companion. Hanayashiki is bigger than Okamachi, but still a relatively small area. My new companion will be Elder Ashdown (Spelling?), he`s half Japanese and has only been in the field since July. He left the MTC the week before I arrived. I think it`s somewhat interesting that I`ve had a half-Japanese, Japanese, and now half-Japanese companion. There really aren`t a lot of Japanese missionaries in the Kobe Mission.

My new address will be:
Hyogo-ken Kawanishi-shi
Marunouchi-Cho 12-1-701
666-0003
Japan


That address will be my area probably until at least December 25. I have been receiving letters from time to time so you have the correct address for the mission home. I received a package. It was sent October 20 and arrived November 5. They also open the packages at customs.


You`ve been asking me for a list of things I want and there really aren`t many things I can think of yet. 1 set of plastic measuring cups, and cocoa powder. You could also buy stuff from the Japanese Costco.com and have them ship it to my address. Shipping is fairly inexpensive for that I think, maybe like $6. Or flyingpigs.com might be another way.Anyways, enough about that.


Some people have asked questions which I shall now answer quickly.The time difference is...maybe 17 hours later.


As far as height go, Japanese people aren`t really that short. There`s more short Japanese people than Americans but I`m probably only a little above average.


Have I tried the sushi? Yes I have. I like most of it I think.


Mugi-cha is made from barley. It`s interesting because I think in D&C 89 it mentions specifically that barley is fine for drinks.


Do I wish I had slip-off shoes? Well, I actually thought of that one ahead of time. So I`m glad I do have slip-off shoes


The weather right as I got here was hot and humid. Now it`s starting to becoming more cloudy and cold.


The scariest thing I had to eat? To be honest I`ve mentioned the octopus and stuff before. But as far as dislikes go, I don`t love curry. Which is unfortunate because it`s fairly common. And it`s rude not to eat all of it so I`ve struggled with curry.


My favorite part of my mission? That`s a tough question. I enjoy teaching people the gospel. Contacting people is really hard, but I really enjoy it when I get someone who is willing to talk. I know enough Japanese to express myself, I just struggle with understanding them.Last Sunday I gave a 4 minute talk in Sacrament Meeting. It went alright and people said it was easy to understand, which was good, but I think it was harder to understand than they said.


Have I learned anything that has changed my life? Well I`ve learned a whole lot of things. But the number one thing I`ve learned/improved on is patience and understanding other people. Everyone has faults, missionaries too. And when you`re living in an apartment with 3 other people for at a minimum 6 weeks than you really need to look past peoples` faults or you`ll be miserable. Fortunately I have not been tempted beyond my ability concerning those things yet.


Continue writing, and asking questions please.


Sincerely,
Elder West.

We've Got Chemistry?

Alka -Seltzer. Check. (today's experiment - "Double Your Bubbles")

Assorted Gum Drops. Check. (tomorrow's science project - building molecules)

Copper Sulphate Pentahydrate. No dice. They were fresh out at Fred Meyer. I'll have to go further afield tomorrow. Maybe Home Depot.

Frankly with a name like "copper sulphate pentahydrate" I'm a little nervous. I'm hoping Homeland Security doesn't decide to check us out. That said, I haven't read ahead to see what that experiment is all about - but considering we had a wee explosion last week - and that was just with a little muriatic acid and a galvanized nail , well, enough said.

Primarily Grandkids

We visited Stephanie and Cory's ward this morning. Stephanie called me last week and invited us to come and listen to Kaith give a talk during the annual Primary program. He was the youngest speaker out of the 5 talks given - by probably 3 years. I think all the other kids were around 8 or older.

His talk was great, and being Kaith it was all memorized (the only one of the 5 talks that was). He definitely has a future as a public speaker. He spoke clearly and made use of dramatic pauses.

The following are some excerpts from his talk:

"...firemen are rescue heroes. They save us from fire."

"..policemen are rescue heroes. They save us from villains." (yes, villains)

"..Jesus Christ is a rescue hero too. He saves us from death and from Satan..."

He then went on to talk about the atonement and the resurrection. Awesome talk.

Funky Town

I opened my bedroom door this morning and entered "funky town". As in, my house smells pretty funky this morning.

Since I still sleep with my window open, my bedroom just had a faint whiff of fall leaves, rain, and Dove shampoo (Steve was in the shower)...outside my room it's another world. I'm thinking Danny will be taking the garbage out before church this morning. It's not overly full, but it is definitely overly ripe.

Danny dodged the bullet...Steve just took out the garbage...

Now I think a few open windows might be in order.

Beans, beans the musical fruit....

Last night we went to the Elder's Quorum Food Storage Potluck. A good time was had by all.

You can tell the difference between a church social planned by women and one planned by men.

Women: Tablecloths, centerpieces, menu, a program.

Men: tables, food.

Having been involved in more Relief Society socials than I like to remember, I have to say that there is a certain charm to the "less is more" manly style. Especially when it comes time to clean up.

The centerpieces last night consisted of 1 #10 can of food (from our food storage) and Costco water bottles. Oh, and lanterns that people brought with them. The dim lighting really helped the ambiance. Beans just taste a little better in the dark.

The "program" consisted of whatever songs were on my i-pod that Danny chose. And about 20 kids having a ball running around the gym. Some people brought games. I think Alex had the biggest group around him - he's a bit of a Pied Piper when it comes to playing with little kids. He may not be great socially with his peers, but he is an awesome uncle - anyone that is young enough to be a niece or nephew seems to recognize that. He started with 2 kids playing "River Roads and Rails" with him and ended up with about 8.

Prizes were awarded for the best tasting food. Since I had wrapped up 6 prizes, that's how many we gave out. I disqualified myself from getting a prize (but since I knew that the prizes were either a can of Spam OR Vienna Sausages it wasn't much of a sacrifice), after taking into account the family that brought a Costco pie (delicious, but not remotely from food storage), and our family, almost everyone else got a prize.

What food was brought? Let's see...there were homemade refried beans, homemade chili (with beans), black beans and rice (that's what I made), taco soup (with beans). Not everything was bean-based. One family brought cookies and another family brought yakisoba. I also made 2 pans of cornbread - I cooked it at church so that it was hot out of the oven, and someone else brought rolls and freezer jam.

Donating my Body to Science

Slowly add the muriatic acid to the 50 ml of water. Add one galvanized nail. Put lid on loosely, wait 20 seconds or so, then put a burning toothpick next to the lid...you should hear a popping noise like a little explosion. We didn't. We added 2 more nails - hoping to increase the chemical reaction going on. Nothing. Then I came up with the brilliant idea of replacing the lids with the gloves. We watched the gloves slowly fill with gas....this time the flaming toothpick DID cause an explosion. I think our explosion was a wee bit bigger than it was supposed to be, but it made us all happy. And now we know what happened to the Hindenburg.

Lucky for us we didn't have nearly the amount of hydrogen gas as the Hindenburg. As it was I slightly singed one finger. Totally worth it.

I didn't get a picture of our other experiment. Add one teaspoon of yeast to 50ml hydrogen peroxide. Loosely cover with a lid. Take a glowing toothpick (one that you've just blown out) and hold it next to the lid - lift lid and watch it burst back into flame. Cool.

With science done for the day we spent most of the rest of the morning on art. Mixing colors is not as easy as it looks when you are partially color-blind. Just ask my boys. All of them.