Sendai in the Evening

I've been thinking of Kristi this week since she has been taking a photo class. To keep my lungs as open as possible, we try to walk for about a half hour at least 3 times each week. Because we've been busy, sometimes it's late when we go and I took one picture of Sendai and another of the tower on the hill as it got darker. Our camera only has auto focus and I wish I could do a manual focus. Also to take these shots, the shutter speed had to be nearly a second. That meant that I needed a post or rail to set the camera on since we didn't bring the tripod that Stacey and Evan gave me. Well, they didn't turn out but it gives you some blurry views of some of the things that we see.

We've been inspecting missionary apartments this past week and still have more to do as soon as we can get out. The GPS in our car seems to keep us from getting too lost and when we get within about 1 block of each missionary apartment it turns off. This is because it is programmed to their telephone number and most of them live in an apartment complex. To find them, we call them and tell them to walk around the neighborhood until we can spot them, or if a church is close we meet them there. We enjoy visiting the missionaries and they are doing a good job of taking care of their living quarters. However, each place we go seems to have things that need repair - a hole in the wall, a stove burner that won't work, broken chairs, etc. I almost feel that I need to wear my old clothes, get some tools and see what can be done.

This past week we spent much of p-day having a mold war. We have found mold growing all over the apartment and even the underside of our table was covered with it. So - we diluted the chlorine bleach enough that it won't discolor things, but still be strong enough to kill mold and away we went. Things are starting to smell and look better, but we didn't get completely finished. The rainy season seems to be ending so now we're just having showers instead of continuous rain like we've had for the past 3 weeks. The humidity has also dropped which should help us get control of our apartment.

Our Japanese language skills are progressing slowly, but at least they're coming. For example: Watashi no tomodachi wa anata no tomodachi desu (my friend is your friend). Hon wo yomi masho (lets read a book). Yoru gohan wo tabemashita. (I ate dinner). Watashi no mago wa odori masu (my grandaughter dances).

We wish that our gospel teaching was progressing faster. President Tateoka wants us to talk to people on the street one evening each week and we can't do that yet. We can go with the missionaries and say "sumimasen," which is excuse me, and can introduce ourselves but then the young missionaries need to take over. Japanese speakers still talk too fast for us to understand more than an occasional word. Sister McArthur sent us some materials to help us learn Japanese faster.

Our English class (Eikaiwa) has been cut back to one day per week. Ours will only be on Wednesday. That means our Japanese lesson will also be cut back to one day per week. This will free us up to spend more time working on missionary activities that are more productive. We hope things work out well. We only know of a couple of students that won't be able to come on Wednesday. They can go to Kamisugi, if they will and attend their class, as it will be on Saturday. The husband of the couple we had over for dinner, is one of them. The wife can come on Wednesday but the husband can't. They actually live in the Kamisugi area, so I hope we can get them to attend there and not quit coming altogether.

We love you all and hope you are keeping in close contact with each other and enjoying the opportunities you have to be together. Life is short, so make the most of the time that you have.

Love,

Dad and Mom, Gma & Gpa, Elder & Sister