22 Jan 2012 (23 Jan in Japan) Sennan Japan

                                           An investigator's car with my name on it.

                    A big pink gorilla that towers over the city of Sennan.  We named her Larry.         

                                                 Destroyed building we explored

                                               Rice that`s half way to becoming mochi

                                                               Making mochi    

                                                                 Cooking dinner

                                                     The train station from the outside.

                                                       A big train station in Osaka.

                                    Seijinshiki (20th birthday party)    It was a fun special occasion.

                                              Girls wearing  dresses called  kimonos.  

                                            The drum performance was really cool.

                                                      The sign says seijinshiki

                                              Me at the ocean on a really stormy day.   

                                                 Pokemon center in Osaka.(2 above)

                   I`m eating a food called taiyaki.  It`s in the shaped of a fish and it `s full of custard.

Week 81

Mission Log

I`m sorry that I wasn't able to send an email home last week.  Elder McKellar is going home soon.  So, he got permission from the mission president to go and see Kyoto on preparation day.  I took him up there and showed him around all the good places.  It was really cool to go back there.  I haven`t been there since this time last year. 

In the United States, Japanese restaurants have the chef cooking food right in front of you.  There aren't really a lot of places that are like that here, but there are a lot of places where there is a heat plate or something on your table and you cook the food yourself.  They`re pretty fun.  Maybe, that`s too dangerous in the United States, so the chef comes and cooks it in front of you.  The restaurant does'`t want to be liable. 

I think BYU Idaho will be great for Caleb.  Did he have to pick out a major? 

I have an interview with the mission president on Friday.  I will ask for my ecclesiastical endorsement then. 

There`s some great news.  Two things that I thought might be lost forever are now back to how they should be.  I got the camera cord and was able to charge my camera with it.  I can finally take pictures from it.  The other thing was my right shoe.  I`m on my last pair of shoes already.  The soles started to tear off of my right shoe.  It was nearly completely gone and I had no idea what to do, but I was able to go to the 100yen store (dollar store), buy some multi-purpose glue, and fix it up as good as new.  I hope it holds for another six months. 

I was very surprised to hear about Nathanael and Mary-Anne`s baby.  The picture looked way cute. 

I`m going to end the email here and try to send some pictures.  You`d probably like pictures more than me writing stuff. 

-Elder Isaac Swift