I'm in Japan!

This week has been amazing.  I have been assigned to work in Gifu, which is the capital of the Gifu district state. We have been really working hard and have been talking to everyone. The Gifu ward is great and the members are really helpful, they love to teach us how to speak better Japanese. We had a lesson at the Honda household and I really could understand most of what was going on. We also had dinner and they fed us Shabu-Shabu (it's like a meat that is raw and you dip it in boiling water and then it becomes cooked and you dip it in your sauce bowl) it's really good.

 When I got here we stayed at the homebu (mission home) and they fed us Costco pizza...yep we have Costco in Nagoya and the one in Gifu is going to open soon. The night in the homebu I slept on the hugest bed you have ever seen, all by myself. We are soup and fruit and portable pancakes for breakfast, they are two little pancakes with syrup in between and they are sealed with butter, the fruit is so much better here ( ok I will be honest, everything is better, even the milk, peanut butter, but especially the bread...it's always as thick as Texas toast and so soft and fluffy and it is just amazing) the fruit we ate was apples, pears, Apple-pears, persimmon, and pineapple. Ishii Kaicho said the reason why the fruit is so much sweeter here is because there is so much water over here, rain, humidity, etc. Our area is pretty busy, we have like 5 malls and a huge eki (train station), which has a huge super mall inside it. Crazy. We drink a lot of drinks, they don't have water bottles for sale usually, you drink electrolyte drinks that are kind of like water, and lots of juice. But not always fruit juice, usually vegetable juice, like tomato, or corn. Corn juice is really good.

 My first night in my area, we taught eikaiwa, or English class. It was really fun and I learn so much. We have some really cool people show up and they all have a good time. Yesterday, Sunday, after church we had shokujikai, which is pretty much where people gather together and we all eat food. It was pretty awesome. Then when we left the ward had a basket of food ready for us to take home, also tissues and sponges and other things for our apartment.

 

This week has been a blast, we had sushi my first day in the area for dinner, one of those old fashioned rotating things...so good, you would love it. 

I think that our companionship is really going to do well. Laumatia Choro is an amazing trainer. He has taught me how to do many things and always encourages me to find ways to become better and to not settle for something that is good enough. Whenever we are on the street or on a store or something, he always encourages me to start a conversation with people and to go as far as I can without his translations. If I get stuck he is always a part of the conversation and is always ready to jump in and save me.

I have much fun in Gifu and love much.

愛していますよ。
リチヤドソン 長老

平安外(heian soto) peace out

Laumatia Choro

Dante and his new bike!  (With approval from Inigo Montoya.)

Inside the apartment.