First full week in Shibuya

Here's a picture of Sister McMahan and her fellow missionaries at a recent Zone Conference.
And here are the highlights of her email from 3-25-09:
What are your new companions like? There is Sister Swasey. She is very good at art. Her dad is American and her mom is Japanese. Her dad met her mom when he was serving his mission and then they re-met through a friend after the mission. Then I have Sister Eddington. She is tall and has red hair. There are 8 people in her family. She likes to cook.
Have you visited Yoyogi Park? You know, I am not sure of the same but we went to a humongous park. It was gorgeous. The 4th ward was having an Easter egg hunt for the primary kids. We brought an investigator, Wendy. She speaks Chinese and a some pretty good Japanese. We teach her in English.
Have you been to that Hachiko Station? Is it really as busy as it looks? I haven't been there yet, but I think every where I have been seems quite busy. There is a long stretch of highway and it is perhaps 6 lanes, 3 going each way. Then there is another highway on top of it. So noise gets amplified. Maybe you can find a picture of it online. I am sure there are lots of roads like it.
Do you ride bikes in the city or are you on foot now? We do both. For the first 3 days or so I didn't have my bike because it was being shipped from Kanagawa but I got to use a bike from the JMTC. It was one of the beach cruiser types. It was really old and rickety and the gears didn't work. It is relatively flat here but the gears didn't work and the bike was a bit weird. So we bike and walk dendo. I don't like deondoing along that big road with the double decker road I told you about. It is too noisy to feel the spirit and it's just noisy and echo-y anyways.
What's the subway like, compared to NY? The subway here and in my old area is the same. It is organized and clean. I am always amazed that people are so polite to each other even when they are squished on the train or being tired from work and stuff.
Did you go to an English speaking ward? Was that totally weird??? Yes totally weird. In some ways I don't like it because I feel my Japanese slipping. and we don't speak Japanese in the apartment so it is mostly English that I speak now and I think it is tricky to dendo because my brain isn't used to Japanese anymore and I always forget. It was mostly weird to sing in English.
How far is it from your apartment to the Shibuya church building? closer than Kanagawa I think or maybe it feels like that because there is no hill. We are about 10 minutes. The church building looks just like all the other buildings. It is made of red brick. There are 5 floors if I remember correctly. The baptismal font is on the top floor and it is outside and it looks like a big bathtub. Well it is outside but it is on a patio type thing.
How is the missionary work progressing in Shibuya?We have some very good investigators. The one who is very good needs to be transferred to the kichijoji sisters though because that is her area. On the street we met a lady who had a mormon friend and she had a book of mormon at her apartment. That was really weird. I don't think she had much interest in what we had to say though.
Are you currently teaching any investigators? yes and i dont have the list with me. there are 5. first is wendy who i talked about. then there is lisa. she is phillipino and she is pregnant. we talk to her in english but she knows a bit of japanese. there is a member lady who speaks tagolog. she sat with her during sunday school last week and helped with the english she didnt recognize. we need to get a return appointment with lisa.
Do you teach anyone in English? yes and like i said it kinda isn't that great because my Japanese gets worse and worse by the second.

Guess what. I met a cousin or a niece (or something) of Sister Oga. She was working in the institute office. I showed her the pictures of the Ogas and she was excited. I guess she hasn't seen them for a while!

We had dcs, the missionary meeting with the guy in charge of mission stuff for the ward, with the 4th ward, the english ward. his name is brother edwards. he lives in a very very nice apartment that is huge. and get this he is a combination of randall hickman *slightly* and uncle dick. no kidding. and he looks like he could play gaston from beauty and the beast. so i guess he kinda looks like randall dodge in a way. he is tall and has hair to his chin. he is slim, but he has a belly because he likes to cook. he is a lawyer and his wife is an accountant. he is a character. he told us how to come back to japan and make lots of money. anyways, he is a really character. for a lot of his marriage, his wife made the money as an accountant and he helped with the kids because he didnt mind the *poopy things*. but he is a lawyer and he is pretty smart. his son spoke in sacrament meeting and i think his son will be a lawyer too. his son is in young mens. he also has three daughters and they are in young womens. the oldest kinda reminds me of natalie. shes got the same look and i think she does ballet. i wish you could meet this guy. he is just way interesting. he even used slang when he was talking to us a missionaries. yeah. interesting guy. i wish you could meet him.

speaking of cool people we went to dinner at sister grants house. she is about 28 and single. she is from australia. she joined the church when she was 23 and in china. she went to china to teach english to kids. she was glad she did that because thats how she decided to be a teacher. in australia lots of people drank and she did too. so did her friend that she stayed with in china. her friend in china smoked too although she was a mormon. so they could go out drinking together and sis grant invited herself to church just to see. turns out her friend got her life back togeth because she was feelings guilty and not good. now her friend is married in the temple! and sister grant decided to teach school in japan. she teaches at a private international school. she said it is hard to go back home ebcause her family drinks so much. she was drinking right up until the week before her baptism. plus the said that she could pay off her student loans much quicker if she worked in japan. it would take her about 15 years if she worked in autralia but only 2 if she worked in japan. so thats where she is now. she has been here for about 3 years and has one more or so. she has a really cute apartment. i noticed a snowboard by her bed. she seems so cool and like someone who is just really into travel and doing stuff. she is the young womens leader for the 4th ward. i think she would be a way cool young womens leader!

i heard from gavin that there is a mochi flavor topping at goldenpoon. whoa! so cool. its the rice mochi right? do people even know what that is over there?

As for Shibuya it is city and Japan at the same time. it is very English oriented here though. i see many store signs in english. there are tons of clothing shops and the clothes are so cute. everything is very clean for such a big city. i am amazed. there is grafitti and i haven't seen that in a long time. seeing it reminds me of home kinda of. the main roads are wide. there is a particular street that has music playing on it and i love it. i love being by the temple. that is where we write out emails, at the visitors center.

pray for me that i will somehow manage to get in the japanese-speaking mode again. for some reason it is extremely hard to get back on once you have gotten off! thanks for all you do!

oh and before i forget this is important. my companions don't get a lot of mail. can you send letters from the fam all together in one envelope? so 4 letters in one envelope and two stamps or whatever that would be? i think that would keep things going well and keep the kakei *relationship* good. thanks! i loooooooooooooove hearing from you!