Week #11: Churros, Mochi and carrying my bike

So arriving in Japan, getting  new companion and being assigned my first area, lots of excitement.  We are out and about doing stuff, and doing great!  My companion, Elder Rogers, is great, love him, totally cool.  I am trying really hard to help in every aspect, but I can definitely can tell the 10 or so month gap between us in mission experience, but all is good.  I am getting there and enjoying this. 

Anyways this week, we got to help a sister move in. By move it I mean mostly clean her new house, as she had hardly anything she needed to move in to the house, and everything in japan is bite size, meaning the houses and their stuff is simple and easy so moving her stuff in was cake.  But cleaning and scrubbing, oh boy did I work up a sweat, I was already sweating on the like 40 min car ride to her house but then boy do you get used to being wet here. Like covered in sweat that looks like my arms are all nice and shiney, or sweaty and stinky I know how every you want to say it. And then the bike rides in the rain, it hasnt rained hard but its a constant drizzle that gets you wet for sure. As the rain comes down, I like to stick my tongue out and catch it, but got to be careful I'm not going too fast or else the water from the street that my wheel is shooting up will get in. Anyways love it here, it is pretty hot sometimes, and apparently I missed the summer so the worst is next to come next year, we will see maybe good I missed the summer but just means ill get 2 more!  

I love our little cute house, we live in.  It's small, but everyone in Japan is small. 

Well everything is small except for our area we work in.  One day last week, we got on a train for an hour, then we biked for an hour or two, then my bike broke (not my bike actually since we had to special order a bike because I am too tall,  some old one handed down) so we walked for an hour and then arrived at miyu's house.  She is an elderly lady and is awesome, she is so nice she made us mini jelly sandwiches, a bunch of vegetables as a salad, with some muigicha( tea most Americans wont like, I dont like yet, very common though). Anyways then we studied in the mall tried some tako (octopuss ) which was actually really good because it was encased in a sweet bread with chocolate on it and some sweet sauce on the octupus, would easily try again loved it. Anyways did some study, some eikiwa (English class) and it was a blast. Oh ya and all day its been raining, they say its like a typhoon or something, but I would just says its a bunch of wind and rain. Fun to get all soaked, my bike broke again so had to carry it. But not heavy so ya. Had a blast teaching, eikiwa they are always so much fun.   

Mom, I am actually making meals, for example I made some churros today it says I am suppose to deep fry them, but i just put it in the toaster and it was... well... ok. Yes I bought churros in Japan as one of my first purchases, it was a dollar for a bag so im like why not...

My shirt today is very dirty and black because carrying my bike and trying to fix it, so we will see how that goes...

We also met with the mission president and his wife they are awesome!  They told us what to focus on and make sure we are eating our fruits and veggies, seriously they are awesome and gave some good advice and some direction of what we should start doing.  They also left us with some brownies and cookies afterwards which always make us happy.

We  went to a Matsuri again, a Japanese festival thing they were playing bingo I thought it wass pretty funny, the place was super muddy like literally a swamp normally they are on the street but anyways talked to tons of kids and was fun.  Oh so there were please making mochi and they let us smack the dough with a giant hammer, it was cool I took some pictures ill send eventually just dont got time.   It was cool because this mattsuri had a ton of free stuff. This clear sugary sap, then some mochi with some jam. The lady there saw me eating it and was like be careful,  if you swallow too much you choke and die because mochi is super sticky.  There was one lady there who actually just came by to look at the church, and our is just kinda like 10 rooms decent sized church part of an apartment, church is two floors and well we showed her around and talked.  It was a good contact.

I am getting more and more comfortable with everything every day.  My companion is great and I feel the spirit strengthening me and helping us every day.