Missionary Moments

So yes, I did transfer last week. I am now in Ootsu ward area (not oohtsu, but O-tsu).

Change is always a bit stressful at first. Saying good-bye to everyone last week was super hard. Lucky thing was that we managed to meet with almost all our investigators and have lessons with them. The amount of faith and desire that they have made it fine for us to leave, everyone agreed to meet whole heartedly with the new Elders, and there was only maybe 3 or 4 of them that cried.

We ate Yakiniku out ..... on Thursday, in between lessons. That was pretty fun. Unfortunately, my nose was just a little bit runny, so was not able to enjoy myself to the fullest. I said that then, but have managed to pick up a very annoying head cold over the last few days... Hopefully will be over it soon.

I will really miss Himeji, .....

A lot happened during that transfer week actually,  but in my mind the details are already starting to fade, I have a whole bunch of new stuff here in Ootsu to handle now, also my runny nose makes it hard to focus.

We share this area with two sister missionaries, ..... who have been in this area for a while. We email at the Church, and take the afternoon shift of emailing, .....

So Ootsu. I met (my new companion) at the transfer meeting point and we came back. He seems like he will be good to work with, but I definitely am the senior here. Poor fella has struggled a lot with Japanese over his mission....., and even though he is only 12 weeks younger than me as a missionary, he still is not too capable in talking and stuff. We will improve that though. It has inspired me to get my language even better too, I had not felt too much improvement lately, but now with only us two in the apartment, I have a lot more time to study and improve.

So, this ward is part of Kyoto stake, where I first started my mission. Met the Stake President on Sunday. He only just barely remembered me after so long, but it was nice to be able to talk to him this time.

The ward here is really quite nice, the Bishop is a super hard worker, and heavily involved in everything that goes on in the ward. We also have quite a resource of YSA, including RM's to pull from for helping us teach. It is a ward of about 80, bigger than my last few, but still could be a lot better if we got all those less actives back.

The missionary I replaced returned home (finished his mission),..... Despite that, we managed to get 3 new investigators this week, which is kind of cool, especially as Kyoto areas have traditionally been very slow moving, ..... We will be working hard to build it back up, Himeji area seems almost easy compared to here. When I walked the streets of Himeji, everyone seemed to want to come take photos with us or talk to us and be friendly. Here everyone is kind of distant and really quite doubtful about what we are sharing. We will find more people though.

The largest lake in Japan is smack bang in the middle of our area. The only big draw back so far is that we, the Elders, live on the east side of it, and the Church is on the west side. We actually live in a completely different city. To put it in comparison, it would be like buying the missionaries an apartment in Deloraine, and expecting them to work in Launceston. Not impossible, but means a lot of travelling time. It takes about 40 minutes by bike for us to travel to the Church. Bright side of that is that I have an old, but really nice, road bike, which can go pretty fast.

I haven't seen the Sun in this area yet. It has been overcast, humid and rainy the last 4 days. I think it looks the same as everywhere else, just can't be too sure yet.

I was in for a surprise on Sunday. I thought I had left Himeji behind for good, but the Bishops wife (from Himeji), came to Ootsu ward for Church! Followed me half way across the mission. ..... it was nice to see an old friend (who I had said good-bye to only 4 days ago). .....

Well, that's all to report so far, will try and think of more stuff to share next week. I feel like there is a lot of responsibility on my right now, and I must gambaru!

At Yakiniku (authentic Japanese Barbeque - grilled meat)

getting ready to leave Himeji