April 24, 2011

Dear Family,
So far Yokkaichi is pretty good. The ward is really good here and it’s a nice set up for the plans that President Baird and I have for here. The Bishopric will be a huge help and I can see it being a very successful place. When we asked the Bishop if we could do anything for him he just asked us to please baptize someone. It looks like their priorities are right and there aren’t many problems in the ward so missionary work can take a front row seat. It’s tough being in a really small apartment with four people but we’ve made the best of it so far and there haven’t been too many problems.

I don’t know if I told you last week about the French toast incident but Elder Bednar accidently put salt into the French toast batter instead of sugar. He made a bunch and once they tasted them they decided it would be funny to leave them there and wait for Elder Soliai and me to come home and then offer them to us. I grabbed two and put them on a plate and poured syrup on them. I took the first bite and noticed they tasted a little weird but I didn’t want to be rude. I kept eating them whiling I was making some other food. It started to get worse. I didn’t: notice that Elder Soliai had already spit his out and Elder Furugen was rolling on the floor laughing. I got to the last bite of my second one and looked up and saw Elder Bednar wide eyed. I realized that they had put something in the French toast. They were all amazed that I had eaten two pieces. No one else had gotten a single bite down. They were all pretty impressed. No one thought deep enough into it though to ask why I kept eating them even though they tasted terrible. So everyone was making fun of me but I told Elder Soliai the next day that the reason I kept eating them was because I just thought Elder Bednar was just a really bad cook. He had cooked stuff for me earlier in the week and it wasn’t very good so I just thought his regular French toast tasted that bad. So really the joke is on him. Funny story thought and we had a pretty good laugh about it. It doesn’t rival Monica’s bread story though.

So I got to Yokkaichi and looked at my new pillow and it was more yellow than white. It didn’t have a pillow case on it so I put like for cases on it and it’s not too bad but I think that I’d rather just have a new pillow that I can make yellow myself.

We contacted a guy from the Ivory Coast the other day in the outdoor mall. It started to rain while we were talking to him and so he said, “oh let’s get under something.” We walked to the closest store front which just so happened to be a lingerie store. It had a giant picture of a half naked woman in front of it. The way we were standing was unfortunate for me because I was facing the picture. I’m sure the guy was freaked out that for like 10 minutes I didn’t break eye contact with him even once. It was a pretty awkward experience.

It’s has pretty much rained the whole time I’ve been here. Spring lasted for like 3 days and then the rainy season started. It’s been pretty difficult so far. My backpack always smells terrible from the rain but its okay.

Thanks for your comments on my questions. If Jason could just give me a little bit more detail on his comments and signpost as well as Quincy did then that would be great. Jason seemed the most passionate so if he could explain and little bit more. I’m interested in his reasoning. It’s really difficult deciding whether to come home in December or February because I’ve seen my life change in a matter of days let alone 6 weeks.

Congrats to Jacob and happy birthday to Jason. I love you all have a good week. Thanks for your letters.

Love, Tyler