13 February 2008

Dear Family,

I’m moving next week! Yay! Don’t worry about sending stuff. I will just have them forward it. I got the package with American foodstuffs -- we love pancakes and Eggo syrup! Elder Moon makes awesome banana pancakes. It’s funny how little things bring us such great joy!

Oh yeah. Happy Late Valentine’s Day!

I never remember to say anything until the holiday has passed (for you). We have zone meeting, so we get to spend Valentine’s Day in Tokuyama. That means delicious Indian curry -- Yes!

Well, all the kids here are starting baseball. That makes me think back. They only have dirt fields though. That would make sliding really tough.

The song I happen to really like this week is “Take My Life” off the “Best 2 Years” soundtrack. It is very chill. It has cool guitar.

Today’s weather is awesome! We spent the day at Kanmon Wharf and we ate at a place called “Karato Ichiba.” Basically, it’s a huge warehouse with tons of sushi right next to the ocean. I had fugu again, but this time very cheap stuff. This is one of the few days the sun has been really shining, so the view of the ocean was awesome! And it’s some sort of day off here too, so there were tons of people out and traditional music from the jinjas. Very Japanese. Also, I got my first Japanese haircut. It feels a lot like an American one. That was kind of a let-down.

Well, I’ve been keeping up in my journal, so I’ll share an excerpt.

“On the way home, I started comparing Japan to Disneyland. The sidewalks and ‘blind-people’ yellow lines are definitely Main Street. For some reason, I get that ‘it’s a small world’ mentality all the time. And on the way home, we go down a way steep side-street, and with the bike light blinking in the dark, and going way fast, and feeling like I’m going to hit my head on a little overpass is totally the boulder part of the Indiana Jones ride, or the dip in the dark of the Pirates ride.”

Other than that, life is pretty much normal. I’m glad to hear that everyone is doing their part to help missionary work. It’s awesome!

On Sunday, we got a new ward mission leader -- the old district president! I’m so excited! He is the man and he gets the job done. Also, they announced the new First Presidency. Wow! Uchtdorf came out of nowhere! I thought it was going to be Holland, and Elder Moon thought Oaks. Still don’t know the Apostle . . .

Well, Shimonoseki is fine. I’m happy. I have a lot of fun! All is well. Tell Hil that I’m making her famous off her CD. Spence -- Carl sounds awesome! Willie -- Egypt! Sarah -- thanks.

Always, Elder Hogge