June 30, 2014

Transfer 8, Week 2

Alright, so I admit it. I hit my year mark four days ago. Holy Manchester I have been a missionary for so really long! I can remember what I was doing last year at this time and it was definitely a lot different than what I'm doing now. And I am doing a lot different than how I thought I would be. Sometimes I still get wampy and want to play games or do something non-missionaryie. But it is a lot easier now.

I think one of the hardest things about missionary life is the focus. In order to be led by the Spirit in all things and to be an effective missionary, you need to stay focused on missionary things, like Japanese, talking to people, practicing teaching and stuff like that. It is so much easier if you are proactive. If you are able to keep yourself busy and always think about what needs to come next, or how can I improve, or how do I say this in Japanese, then you are much better off. But to keep your mind running like that is hard sometimes and if you don't have stuff to do all the time to keep you busy, then you end up with some idle thoughts. If you idle, then it's really easy to start thinking about non-mission stuff and then your desire to work, your resolve to serve softens and it's harder to dendo. So I have had to learn when to keep busy and when I can relax a little bit. It's been an interesting experience, but I am super grateful for P-days and the opportunity to de-stress.

So Kumamoto is great and all that, but I kind of miss the small towns that were just huge. It's just a completely different environment and ballgame, so I haven't decided whether I like it here yet. But I love the apartment here. It's lots of fun and the other guys are way cool.

Ironically I think riding a bike here is actually safer than in small towns. There are more bike lanes and wider sidewalks and what not. And because there are more people the drivers are sometimes more careful and are forced to drive slower. We've done some fun stuff so far, but not much. We still haven't been able to check out the castle (hopefully next week). The castle here is super cool and there's also a volcano that we need to check out sometime. So we have plenty of stuff to check out. I got my hair cut and we are just going to write a couple letters and relax today. I have been super tired ever since getting to Kumamoto. It might be because of the heat, clouds, humidity or a combination of the three, but all I want to do is sleep here. But I gambaro and keep working. Love you guys and hope you have a great week. I'm glad Wyatt was able to have such a fun time at EFY. I think the EFY's are getting better and better. I know the last year I went they changed it up a little bit and I think they're becoming more mission preppy, which is good.

Love lots,

Elder Lee