The Rainy Season

Well, I kept making fun of the rainy season and I think it took offense; it rained A LOT last week. It started to rain as we were riding home from Umetani san's house on Friday afternoon. It was just a little at first, but we stopped in one of the subterranean cross-the-street-tunnels to put on our rain coats. I was thinking "Oh, it's not raining too hard. Surely we won't need our rain pants as well!" . . .

. . . About 7 or so minutes later, the cats and dogs started coming down. It would have been useless to stop and try to put the rain pants on at that time, because we were already soaked. It poured and poured! Good thing I like rain. . .

Now, however, we are once again experiencing some hot & humid weather. I'm getting a little more used to it, but wow.

Oh, thank you thank you THANK YOU for the package with the Peanut Butter Pie ingredients. I had mentioned how much I loved Peanut Butter Pie to a missionary at Zone Conference and then low and behold: BOOM! Your package arrived! I made the pie for Elder Kajiuchi's birthday (July 3rd).

By the way, yet another beautiful 'Elder Peterson' moment: I followed a recipe in our trusty mission cookbook to make the pie crust. The good thing was that butter can indeed be substituted for a lack of shortening. However, I forgot all about that critical part of pie making where you flour a table top, and roll out the dough to flatten it. . . As I tried to hand-scoop the sticky dough and pat it down into the pie plate I was thinking, "There must be a better way of doing this!" Hee hee. . . About two minutes into the baking I realized with a gasp of horror what I had done. But alas, I was too late. . . However, it still turned out OKAY! So yeah, if you ever feel like sending more PB Pie ingredients, please do. ;)

An update on Umetani San: her interview is scheduled for this Friday. We've been reviewing and practicing with her, so I think it'll go just fine. If everything goes according to plan, the baptism will be held on Sunday the 19th (Sunday so her husband can attend). We met with both of them and the Branch President yesterday to ask for permission to baptize her. He's now deliberating, but we called her last night and looks like things might be okay. There's a chance her husband might even come to church on Sunday! So, we'll see what happens!

Well, to wrap up I figured I'd share a few tidbits of Izumo culture. There are cute little signs everywhere displaying cheerful puppies carrying bags and pooper-scoopers -- Japan seems to be very clean and hygeine-oriented. Ooh, and the post men are awesome, speeding around on these sleek red Vespa Scooters.

Happy Belated 4th of July! (Random: I saw a single, medium-small firework explode in the sky right before we returned home that night. . .)

A worry I've had is that I still don't feel very confident in my planning skills or ideas for effective activities, and sometimes I'll ask my companion what he wants to do or if he has any ideas. He'll often respond that he doesn't have any ideas. Thanks for the words of advice. I needed that and I'm going to start keeping those things in mind, and trying to connect with these people more.

Our district leader called this morning to follow up on goals and such. He complimented me on something and I expressed how I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing. . . in short I was being a bit hard on myself. I've realized that (thanks to your encouragement) and I'll work on it. My district leader gave me a piece of advice he heard at the MTC, "If you ever feel like you're not very good at teaching, at the language, or with something else remember: you ARE in the right place at the right time." I've been feeling a little down about not being able to understand these people I love and care about, but I'm just going to press forward, tell myself that I can, and do all I can to be worthy and deserving of all the blessings that have been promised to me. Sorry if I have sounded a little down. I actually am doing a lot better and the Zone Meeting and Interview this week will help a lot.

Transfers are on the 23rd of this month. I might or might not get transferred, but it would be a good idea to send snail mail letters to the mission home for the next couple of weeks.

{editor's note: the mission home address can be found toward the top-left of this page}

Thank you for all the ingredients, love, and recipes! I love you so much! I am learning so much while on this mission. I’ll keep trying to write everything down so I can share it with you.

To the Mountain Top!

Zone Conference at Okayama again this last week! So much fun! It was cool getting to see Elder Atkin again. I also got to reconnect with Sister Condie, one of my MTC Distric Members, and see some of my senior MTC missionaries.

Again I was amazed by President Isa and the spiritual giant that man is. I was reminded of my weaknesses and all of the things I still don't know, but it gave me a big boost to push forward. Stake President Swaisy also spoke.

After the conference, we started a spur of the moment exchange that my District Leader forgot to confirm, but it's all good. I went with Elder Tanaka (one transfer behind me . . .!!!) to Yonago. Pres. Swaisy gave us a ride to the train station near his house -- about 2 hours away from Okayama -- where we said goodbye to Sister Condie and Iizuka. I can't remember the name of the town, but we went with Pres. Swaisy, his daughter and son in law back to their house. He's lived in Japan for over 20 years. WOW! Their house was totally classic American Style - it was kind of like stepping back into America for a bit. We had some good conversation, and they fed us. It made me think back to when we would have missionaries over for dinner. . . It's funny being on the flip-side now. . . ;)

Yonago was great. Yeah, Tanaka Choro and I were both Junior companions, but we had a great time. And we saw some really cool things. Like the almost spur of the moment, "Do you want to climb a mountain?" missionary excursion we took. Up top, above the massive expanse of this beautiful city, on the ruins of an ancient Japanese castle (yeah, it was AWESOME), we met Johnathan Wadson, a man from Missouri. Wow, what an amazing experience.

Well, the weather here is quite rainy now. It's the rainy season, but yet it's only rained once a week so far for the last two weeks. We'll see.

I totally almost forgot! Umetani San agreed to be baptized!! For now the baptism will be on the 12th of July! We've got a bit of reviewing to do, but she is so close!!!

It's Raining and Pouring

Tsuyu (or the Rainy Season) technically started last week, but the downpour didn't start until last night. It's been dreadfully hot and muggy of late, but looks like it's going to be a little cooler with all the rain that's expected; just about every day this week I think.

Teaching this week went pretty well. We're seeing a bit of progress with Nanba-san, a single mother of three. Her heart's been opening up wider and wider, especially as we work with the members with her. Cross your fingers, I'm hoping she'll be coming to church soon!

Umetani San... drumroll please! ... ... ... ... ... Okay, maybe it's not all that exciting, but still! We've officially taught her all of the pre-baptism doctrine, so now we just have to work up to her baptism. She was in church again yesterday, for the third time!! We drove with some members to visit her yesterday afternoon and to meet her husband. Awesome!! I felt absolutely no animosity from him, he was very kind, not opposed to the church at all, and even seemed a bit familiar. He doesn't want to hear our message at this time, but he has no qualms whatsoever about his wife joining the church. Well, we'll see what happens and if we can't start to meet with him sometime soon!

Well, hopefully these emails haven't been too boring. I'm trying to think of ways to spice them up... I’m working hard and trying not to get discouraged. It seems that now that my companion and I are out and about a lot more than last transfer, I've once again started to get those feelings that I'm not doing enough. I know that negative feelings don't come from the Lord, but it just gets to me a little sometimes.

One thing I'm a little confused about, but will hopefully be resolved at Zone Conference this week, is "effective" missionary work. Recently - and I've said this before - our leaders have been making a big emphasis on "Natural Conversation"; avoiding the tendency to stop people on the street by asking "Do you have a moment" but talk with them in a more natural way. Also, to not spend all your time housing, but to find the proper place for it... But then I read Elder Palmer's emails, and see that he's still having cool experiences with street tracting... Maybe I just need to not compare. I'm sure I shouldn’t compare! I just really want to know what I should be doing -- what kind of Missionary Work is the most effective, and I'm running out of "New" or "Different" ideas. Don't worry, I'm still trying to keep my face to the Son (thanks for those encouraging words, Dad). I know that He knows what I'm going through, and that I can find peace in Him. So from here I'm going to try to trust in Him a lot more and make sure to have a constant positive attitude.

Oh by the way, I have learned that you can make your own yogurt by opening a carton of milk, covering it with tissue and a rubber band, and leaving it out for a day. . . I haven't tried any yet (Lacey, you KNOW how paranoid I am about these kinds of things), but I was making a cake for a dinner yesterday... You see we ran out of milk the other day, and I had already added all the other ingredients not realizing I needed milk. Well... pulling up my sleeves, puttin' my game face on, and mustering all the courage from within my senkyoshi (gut), I valorously opened the homemade yogurt and poured some in the batter!

It actually turned out okay... And looks like no one's gotten sick yet. Tee hee.

Anyway, last night's dinner was at the church: Hayashi Rice, potato salad, Sou Mein Salad, Tempura Beans (can't remember the kind of bean, but they were way Japanese), and my little Cinnamon Dessert Cake! It was with the Yamane Family (Branch President, his wife, Mother, and son), Brother Satou, some of the Young Adults, and Katsumi Yoshioka - a 20 year old investigator who seems to "only want knowledge"...

Hmm, we might be dropping some investigators soon -- it's been either really hard or impossible to meet with some of them, but we'll see.

Wow, Kajiuchi Choro made a superbulous Beef Stroganof-esque pasta dish the other night. I'm hoping to learn a lot of cuisine tricks from him!

Well, this week we have Zone Conference again at Okayama. This time I get to see Sister Condie from my MTC district, and Elder Uemura (from my "Honbu Doki" - or same-time group at the Mission Home)! Woot!

Don't hesitate to write any snail mail letters. Our mail box has been quite hungry lately, and he seems to have a pretty big appetite.