Dear Family,
Sorry about the delay, and also for this one being a day late. (All dying missionaries went to the Tokyo Temple on thursday, and its a LONG train ride there and back, so we email today). (See definition of "dying" below)
So, to answer some of your questions:
1. Are the trains as crowded as we saw in that movie? (Click here to see movie) Yes. The trains get very, very full. Now imagine me with a backpack and a huge box in the very back of the train, with all those people being squezed in. Rather akward and painful.
2. How do you normally get around...Bike? Train? Feet? Can you take your bikes on the train/bus? If we are going around Yokosuka-chuo, we walk. Anywhere else in Yokosuka and we ride our bikes. Anything out of our area, we take the train. The train sort of dead-ends in Yokosuka. Yes, we can take our bikes on the train, we take them apart and put them in bike bags when we transfer to a new area. People probably dont look to kindly on it when the trains are full though :)
3. How are your investigators doing? Investigators are progressing. Slowly. Yamaguchi-san is completely ready to get baptized, is OK with everything 100% and just needs to find a day when his military school will allow him. Ujihara-san, we dont know about, because we havent been able to meet with him since last time. He comes to eikaiwa though.
4. What will happen when Elder Cook's parents get there. Dying transfers - Elder Cook and I will head on down to the honbu, where I will pick up my new companion, and Elder Cook will stay until his family comes. It will probably be me and Elder Matsuhashi for a day or two, because he is the only other Elder with a dying companion.
5. Are you able to get milk for your cereal. They have lots of regurlar 'ol milk here. Just like home. (at least in this area)
6. Sister Fry said that you are teaching an english class every week. What is that like, and how is it going. Eikaiwa (English Class): Yup, every Thursday we teach it, and its usually pretty fun. Its primarily a finding method, so most times, we discuss anything we want. For example, last time we taught prepositions and played a game where the students had to guess where something was (Is it on the chair? Is it between the books?). English class in Japan is notorious for having eternal students; people who have come every week for several years unfailingly. Although it is usually way fun to hear everyone trying to pronounce english words. English pronunciation is extremely difficult coming from Japanese.
7. How are packages delivered if there is not a place for them in the mailbox. They deliver packages to the door, but if you are not home you have to go to the post office to pick it up. Its ok though, the post office is 5 minutes away.
8. Did you get your sonicare? Also, please give feedback on the food items that you liked from the package, so I will know what to include in future packages. Oh ya, I got my sonicare just fine. All OK. And I figured out, if you ever feel like sending something, Hot Chocolate is always good. I really liked the ones you sent. Elder Cooks mom sent him a huge thing of HC packets and we drink it as much as we can, and mix candy canes and other treats in it.
The language is coming along well. Suddenly I can understand a lot of what people say, and reading is beoming far easier. Thanks everyone for praying for me, this really wouldnt be possible without you.
One of our english class students told us that president Bush had a SHOE thrown at his head at a press conference. What the heck? Did the secret service 'take a shoe' for him?
I should tell you all the terms here, so my letters arent confusing;
1. Dying, to Die - when a missionary goes home
2. to Kill - to be companions with a dying missionary
3. Bean - a new missionary
4. Womp (short for Wanpaku) - a slacker, lazy missionary
5. Maj (short for Majime) - a strict missionary who follows all the rules
6. Dad/Son - a trainer and bean. I am Elder Cook's 'son'.
7. Mom - a followup trainer (second transfer).
8. Trunky - a missionary who is ready to go home (bags packed) early.
And speaking of trunky, its fun to be with Elder Cook. We did all the end of the transfer stuff together like Purikuras (photo booths with sort of an on-the-spot photoshop station on it). Those are extremely popular with missionaries. Also, Elder Cook has amassed a collection of the 7 harry potter books in Japanese over the years (but never read them of course, that would be Womp) from members and such, so he will have something to do to keep up his Japanese afterwards.
The temple trip was great yesterday also. I actually did it in Japanese and understood a bunch. I had a english headset, but decided to turn it off halfway through because I was picking up what they were saying. Very cool.
Anyways, Im out of time. I wish you all a great Christmas, hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy!
Thanks,
-Elder Martin Mumford
-Tokyo, Japan!
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