Missionary Life in Kofu

From Left-Right: Sisters Shimomiya, McMahan, Shaha and Perkins.

Emily's E-mail, Tuesday, 8-18-09

How is Mei? We set a baptismal date with her for the 6th but she needs to talk to her parents about it, which is not going easily so far. We ran into her while we were watching fireworks the other day. The other day we heard from a lady that there was a matsuri (festival) about a 20 minute bike ride from our apartment. So we went there for our dinner hour. It was held over a river. There were stands of food lined up at the top. The river side went up like stadium seats and it was filled with people. I have never seen so many people! The fireworks were like an American style finisher but all the time. They went for an hour, off and on. I was so impressed! I bought a potato at a stand. It had some weird sauce. Sister Perkins got some popcorn chicken stuff. We got to meet the guy that Mei likes. They are in a band together. Their bands name is chupa chups. Apparently it is the name of a candy. How is the Elder Morris lady (I forgot her name; sorry!) We have yet to hear back from her. What's the deal with helping teach seminary? Is it on Sundays? We don't help teach but we go once a week. We didn't go last week though. I think we are going to go tomorrow. They have it on Sunday at 9 also because everyone lives so far away that they can't come usually. During the week there are like 4 people who do it via Skype.
How's your bike holding up? It is doing very well. Sister Perkins and I have switched bikes for the transfer. The other day a boy was riding with his friends, side by side my companion. He got too close and bumped into her. My brakes came apart on the front wheel. We went to a bike place and all he had to do was tighten something up so no money was involved. Phew! And speaking of crazy things, there was a downpour yesterday, the biggest I have seen. I got my shoes all wet. I bought a towel at the store and dried it out a bit but I still wore them all day. Have you been able to visit any historic or national park kinda sights in Kofu? Well, there is the castle by our house. It is way huge and we go there running. We also went to an onsen, public bath place. Well, we went to the ashi onsen, just outside the place where you put your feet in a small pool. It is right outside one of the train stations. People come from all over to Kofu because of the famous onsens and also Mt. Fuji.

We had interviews with the President on the 22nd at Hachijouji. That was also the day Sister Perkins wanted to celebrate my birthday. But anywho. The elders gave me a blessing after my interview so I could pull through with my ailments. After that we went to Indo Curry at a Nepalese place! It was just right there. It is different than Japanese curry and you get a Huge piece of bread called man (said in British accent, I think) . We also ate the cake you sent from home while there. After that we went to Kichikouji, rather close by train. We went and dendoed there for 3 straight hours on foot. We were so tired. It was where Sister Perkins served before so she knew the area. We went around a lake and got some bug bites. We were really tired after that walking and stuff, but I guess not as tired as some missions who have no bike or car. We got lucky because the kichijouji ward was having their yearly matsuri that night. So we went to that from 630 to 815. Sister Perkins got to make some appointments with those members for when her parents come. She was really close to that ward. Then we spent the night with the shimai in kichijouji. We played pin the tale on the donkey and Ais Perkins read a book about haneka that her mom had sent her in a haneka package.

The next morning we got up and got on the train for hachijouji again, thinking that was where stake conference was. The reason we stayed in kichijouji is because there were shimai serving there and it was kinda far to go all the way back to kofu just to come back again the next day. So, turns out the conference was at Machida and NOT hachijouji so we got on the train. The church was kinda far from the eki at Machida so we were gonna take a bus but we couldn't get an answer from the bus driver and we couldn't tell what bus to get on. But then a brother came to us and asked if we were going to stake conference. We said yes and he told us what bus to get on a went with us the whole way. We were there for the 2nd hour of conference. We were really glad we ran into that guy!

Yesterday we found a lady on the street and made an appointment to meet again. Sweet. But then we ran into another lady and she was talking to us about the bible but didn't have interest. Turns out she was a former investigator of Topham Shimai and Shaha Shimai when they served here. She has a Book of Mormon. Apparently things were going well but one day the sisters came over and said the countenance of the lady changed and there was something unsettling going on, so they stopped teaching her. Then one of the elders ran into her housing. He said there was a not so good feeling about the place and then learned what happened with Topham and Shaha Shimai afterward. Then we ran into her on the street today. So she has met the missionaries three times. Whoa.

Yeah, it has been getting cooler and I am thankful. We have actually had a rather cool summer and no rainy season except for the downpour yesterday. Pretty soon it will be September. Whoa. We get transfer calls in 4 days.

Oh, and about Shimizu-san, the lady with the 4 kids. We had an appointment but she called 30 minutes ahead and said she was getting the kids down and doing dinner and had just got back from work so she couldn't do it. We didn't get the message until we were in front of her house for the lesson though. We decided to ping pong her anyways. Turns out she just lost her job. She had 4 kids and no husband. We had bought some candy for the kids and we gave it to her. Then she gave us some jelly things back. We tried really hard to refuse because we know how hard life is for her, but we eventually had to take it. I can't imagine what she is going through now. Hopefully we can teach her the gospel and that will help her.

Sister McMahan