missionary moments

Last week Jakob wrote:

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I don't know if we do have daylight savings in Japan or not, I cannot remember. Probably not, as I haven't changed my watch the whole time of being here.

Elder Wood and I are getting along pretty well, he's a different personality when compared with Elder Yoshida, .....

Being Senior companion is good I guess, not too much different, except I ride in front and use the phone. And generally I get last say in a decision.

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This week was alright, we saw more success than usual, which is good, should be a good transfer. We had fun going out to different places in my area, as I am navigator. Tried to go over a mountain, got a km in or so before we turned back because the path disappeared, felt like I was serving in a island with no civilisation.

This week Jakob wrote....

My investigator is going great, in fact both my investigators with baptismal dates are solid right now, tonight I get to baptize one of our investigators! .....This past week he received the answer he has been looking for since February, and he's been amazing ever since....

I did a koukon(split) with the district leader Friday night, which was good. We got to teach two lessons together during that time, and I could relax and let an older missionary take the reigns, a little bit. 

The weather has started cooling down a lot, and we just had a typhoon move through, so lots of rain last week, maybe more this week .....

Language is language, I can handle myself around most situations, but still fall asleep most nights wishing for a babel fish in my left ear or a professional 3 inch tall translator. 

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There are a lot of ways to say time in Japan. If I want to say, the I like time I have to read emails I say: Emaru o yomu jikan ga suki desu. But If I want to say it is 6 o clock I say `roku-ji` or 3 o clock 'san-ji'. ......

I have seen a lot of Halloween stuff here in Japan.....

On Saturday I saw a whole school group of little kids and their teachers all dressed up in crazy costumes, the Japanese don't do things by halves, it was funny though, because Japanese adults are usually really serious. All of the kids and teachers stopped and waved at us for like 5 minutes because apparently two gaijin in suits looks more unusual than a 100 little 

vampires and zombies being lead by a walrus,.....

To answer your question, I don't think in Japanese with a few exceptions some words only seem to work in Japanese, and they have become part of my thoughts, like hai, taihen, takusan, sumimasen, konnichiwa, ohaiyo gozaimasu (or just Uus! in Osaka-ben (like bogan language)) and a few others. I try to do one personal prayer a day in Japanese, but my mind usually runs faster than my Japanese ability. All our companionship prayers are in Japanese though. I feel like every time I make a break through with the language, there is like 100 other more difficult things I need to know to speak well. And I get almost zero language study time on top of studying for lessons, gospel and everything else.

..... I still think about KFC, had a kinda funny moment this morning, we rode to an electronics store to get an electronic dictionary for Wood choro, which is right next to KFC, we parked round the back, and I must have been sleepy because in my mind I was about to go in and start a morning shift... then I woke up and realised they sprinkle seaweed flakes on their original recipe.....