The Heat is on in Maebashi

In Japan they have these photo booths where you take photos and decorate them. This week, Emily sent us a few photos taken with her last companion, Yamamoto Shimai. Emily's current companion is another native Japanese woman, Sakamoto Shimai.

Here's the latest from McMahan Shimai's email dated 6-24-09:

How was Zone Conference? It was great. I got to play one of the piano hymn medleys out of that book I have. Afterward we took a group picture. The wonderful Japanese Sisters of that building's ward made us lunch. It was way good. They even had dessert. Also, since my birthday is next month Sister Hill gave me a treat when she announced the birthdays. The transfer ends on July 19th but she gave me a treat anyways. What is your apartment in Maebashi like? Does it look like your other apartments or is it different? It looks a little more quaint in my opinion. I took some pictures, but I haven't printed them out. I think I mentioned before but out futons are on camper evelation things. We are on the 3rd floor. We have a balcony. Today I put out my futons to air out. Any fun stuff going on to say "goodbye" to President Hill? Not for the missionaries. I think there is something or other though for regular church members like the stake presidents and stuff. Actually a while back all the missionaries got to write, on one page, a thank you or whatever. They put them all in a big binder for the Hills. Are you gonna do something for the 4th of July? Not that I know of. In Japan, they have fireworks, but not for the 4th of July of course. Fireworks, in Japanese, is hanabi. They do them over the river sometime in July I think.
Any contact with Andrea, Christian or Riku? Can't get ahold of Andrea of Christian by calling or visiting. I think I mentioned but we saw Andrea's daughter, the 9 year old, two times, on different days. She was with a man. The second time she was with the man and another girl, a girl whom I had seen at Andrea's house. Bottom line, we can't get ahold. We have not heard from Riku. I don't remember if I mentioned, but she told us how her mother told her to read nothing but the Bible. Where in Japan is Sakamoto Shimai from? Oyama.

Yup, the weather is warming up and I am getting.... freckles... and.... tan. I know, it is incredible. I want to buy the gloves all the women wear. They go up past your elbows. All the day in the sun is total doom on my forearms. Before we put our helmet on we put a towel on our head to keep the helmet from smelling bad and to keep all the sweat in one spot. Sometimes I feel sweat run down my back like a water droplet. Sakamoto Shimai is getting really, really tan. We both have gotten some bug bites. Late in the day I think the bugs like to have a party by the rice fields because there is all that water. We have bug spray at our apartment but I found it takes the color off of the nylons. Interesting.

Yesterday for Eikaiwa I taught homophones, not off the top of my head though. There are a couple binders in our apartment of stuff to do. I noticed we have slight slight slight pronunciation differences even in homophones. For example, doe and dough. In the second word, you heard more of a u with the o sound. Also horse and hoarse. Anywho, there were other examples. I think that learning Japanese has made me more aware of how things are pronouced in any language.

I gave a talk in church last Sunday. It was really short and consisted mostly of me reading the following scriptures... and then the added commentary. Everything is from Alma 26.

verse 29- talk with everyone
read the missionary purpose from PMG
verse 27- The Lord will give us success
sometimes success is planting a seed
verse 31- our fruits are not few
verse 37- God is mindful of all

On Sunday after church we went housing. We housed a grandpa who was a member of the Japanese House of Representatives. Whoa. Yamamoto Shimai saw the sign that said his position afterward. It is fun to have a Japanese companion because she can read Kanji when I don't understand. If it weren't for her I wouldn't have know he was a member of the House of Representatives.

On Saturday we had a fun activity. Brother Suda called in the morning and asked if we wanted to go see the fireflies. After we had dinner and a message with the Nakano family we went back to our apartment where he and another sister and her 8 year old daughter picked us up in a car. It was about 30 minutes away in a more hilly part. Or mountains. Something like that. There were lots of fireflies. It was like a festival, or so I heard. There were a few tents set up. The tents were food booths and also a come and look place to learn more about fireflies. You could buy cotton candy or ice cream or one of two other Japanese food goods.

There was a little boy at the firefly thing. Actually there were lots of people, and there was a walkway along a stream of water, up against a rock wall thing, and people were walking and looking around and whatnot. Anywho, the boy in the crowd was 10 I would say. He said hello to me. Just like that, in English. "hello" Later when we were in line for ice cream he said something to my companion to which she replied, "Hai. Konojo wa eigo o shaberimasu." or "yes, she speaks english" Then the boy said to me, "What is your name?" My companion asked when he studied english and he answered her. Then he fanned his face and, in English, said to me, "It's warm."

We had a lesson with Ryo, and investigator last week. I was afraid we couldn't meet with her because she was going to go back to China for a month or so. Turns out she will go back next wee or so. She told us why she is unsure of getting baptized. She wants to have lunch or dinner with us before she goes back.

Did you know that Sakamoto Shimai likes Spongebob? Maybe I said that last week.

Oh yeah. We were housing and I stepped onto the porch and then doorbell music started playing. Totally freaked me out, like I was a robber or something. Then the lady came on the intercom box. There was a sensor for the sound thing. So weird. And then, today, we were housing. Everybody, well most people, have the talk boxes, but today something new happened. Because they were not home, the talk box, which was the kind with a camera said, in Japanese (well, I am paraphrasing. I really have no idea. It's like that a lot. I dunno Japanese so I just guess) "Sorry we are not home right now. Please leave a message." So Sakamoto Shimai stood there and said her thing. Isn't that weird. Whoa.

So yeah, I dunno what people say. Lots of times I just guess, like when I went to a restaurant. I saw there was a no smoking sign and then the lady was talking and I assumed she said "would you like smoking or non smoking." I asked Yamamoto Shimai (it was last transfer) if that is what she lady said and she said yes.

After this email experience we are going to...... the 100 year old city hall! Yup, the old city hall! It is a traditional Japanese building. It is about a 20 minute bike ride from here. After that we will buy groceries and the go to the 100 yen (the dollar store) store and then hopefully have some time to chillax.

Thank you for writing me letters. Some missionaries don't hear from their families.

Sister McMahan