on the sandwich and a steinway: Week 18

Hi all,

Hope everyone is just well and happy. Chiba was a tough crowd this week with a whole lot of rain, housing, and streeting. We've resorted to dancing and singing EFY songs as we hand out chirashis at the eki because a simple "Hi do you want to learn English?" isn't seeming to do the trick.

I believe we got the police called on us as we were visiting a referral from the elders. I think three incredibly tall American boys freaked out the neighbor lady so she called the police when she saw two short American girls show up the next day. So we left. Goooood times.

On the bright side, it was Sister Christensen's birthday on Saturday. The big 2-0. So we celebrated by biking an hour away to track down a referral from a ward member. We only had the address of the building so we housed the entire apartment building, but there was literally 3 people home in the entire building. Even more goooood times.

So we actually celebrated by eating at a burger place as per recommended by one of our hip eikaiwa students. (Bob Dylan playing over the speakers? I love this place!) And then we ate a bright purple funfetti cake that Sister Christensen's mama sent all the way from the dear old U.S. of A. We lit it with a match from the earthquake surivival 72-hour kit.

We also had a two-zone conference this week which was just the morale boost that I needed. 140 of the 160 missionaries in the mission have come since last April, so ... yeah. It's crazy. The zone leaders often call us and make sure we're surviving, but Sister Christensen and I just try to forget that we don't really know anything and just do the best we can. That's all anyone can ask for, yes? If you don't know what they're saying, just smile and invite them to church and bear your testimony. (PS sarcasm not intended).

My Japanese is slowly but (hopefully?) improving. One of the ward missionaries lent me her electronic dictionary so now I can actually look up words that I don't know, instead of relying solely on Preach My Gospel to help me decode conversations and emails. Sister Christensen is a doll and lets me yammer translation in her ear during sacrament meeting, and it quickly lets me see what I don't know.

Zoachie: Pee day (that's how Zachary spells it, not Margaret) is Monday! I'm sorry about the idiotic kids. Don't let them get to you. Just keep being a good boy. And yes, I get to watch General Conference. This coming weekend, I think.

Heidi: what's the hubbub about the government shutdown? I rely on my eikaiwa students to keep me in the know. One of them tells me about all the latest Apple products.

Probably the biggest thing I have learned this week: faith wouldn't be faith if it wasn't tested. Is your faith progressing or regressing?

Okay. That is all for today. I hope you all loved General Conference. I am realizing now how much I took it for granted. Thank goodness I'm in a ward with a fair amount of English speakers so we'll have an English broadcast of it. And thank you to everyone who writes me. YOU ARE THE BEST. I can't even say how much it means to me!

Love, Magi-chan