3rd Week in Japan - 11 Weeks

2nd Week in Japan

Date: March 17, 2014 
Area: 
Companion: Elder Mecham

Ethan Swenson	Mar 17

Mina san Konichiwa!

Sorry I am emailing late today we had an appointment that went a little long so you probably wont read this till Monday morning considering its like 12:50 am your time. Anyways, This week was a lot of fun as well! 2 of our investigators decided to answer their doors and let us come in to teach them. I still don't have any idea what they are talking about, but when they start talking about gospel related questions, I can piece together some of what they are saying. 

So Tuesdays are busy days here. Every Tuesday we start off with DTM district training meeting which takes place from 10:30 to 12:00, we go out to eat, and this last one we went to a hamburger place and it was delicious, and then we get to dendo (mission) for a few hours till 5. Next we eat dinner and get ready for Eikaiwa, or english class. The Japanese people love learning english and it is a good way to get people feeling comfortable around us enough to talk about church. I taught advanced class where everyone is basically fluent and was able to bear my testimony about Jesus Christ and His teachings.

Wednesday is a normal day where we get a lot of time to dendo. So  we go housing try to visit investigators, and street contact people.

Thursday we have to Plan for the upcoming week so we are in the apartment until 3 o clock before we can leave to dendo until 8.

Friday and Saturday are both full dendo days as well.

Sundays are the busiest. We go to the ward council and report on our progressing investigators and inactive members. Then its the block. Afterwards we go home and eat at 1. After that we visit a lot of people because they have Sundays off. We dendo until 7:30 to go home eat and report the numbers for the week. At 8:30 we write our letters to the President.

Mondays is obviously P day and we start off by shopping for groceries or cleaning the apartment. Next we either email or go shopping or whatever the companionship wants to do that day. Today we went to the Sapporo Eki which is basically the largest tallest mall I have ever been to. Like it is way big. In fact i believe it is 2 towers. Anyways the stuff they sell in Japan is great! The people here are always trying to be fashionable so they sell super cool stuff that I would like to buy:p I only bought a nice spiritual journal for study. But when I go back I might get other stuff:)

So yeah the reason why I really didn't get more stuff is that there seems to be a problem with my debit card. My PIN is too big for a lot of the ATMs here and the one that did let me put in my PIN wouldn't let me withdraw money. So I have a job for watashi no Chi Chi to Ha Ha, ( my mom and dad) if you could please send me info on what money is in each account and change my PIN number to something that only has 4 digits. Please thanks! 

So last Monday my first taste at sushi was awesome! The salmon was very good! Never get cooked Salmon though it is nasty. Tofu isn't as bad as I thought it was, just mostly overall, food is either better here, or just good:p We normally eat curry rice, yakisoba, pasta, ramen, mabo tofu, and toast at the apartment. Japanese bread is way good. My favorite food so far is jenjis kan which is grilled lamb with rice, cabbage, dipping sauce, and onions.

I am super sorry to hear that you guys got sick:/ And yes I had plenty of ties and I am not technically allowed to chew gum on the mission so we just do it in personal study to stay awake, plus i had no extra weight in my suitcase. I am glad that you all are working hard on the yard! Keep it up and send me pictures of the construction!

So my comp is Elder Mecham not Mecham 2 that was just a typo. So I love you all and send me pictures!

Love 

Elder Swenson

Ethan Swenson	Mar 17

And someone please send me what is happening in America like politics or basketball or something! Oh yeah forgot to mention, the only bad thing about nihon is that no one eats cheese. Which made me really sad.