(excerpts)

Dear family;

Last Thursday I passed off discussion 2. I’ve made a goal to pass off (memorize) one principle a day from the discussions. I should be done by the end of October. Thursday night, we went to visit Rex (the mystery man). A lady across the street knew him and told us where he lived (his house didn’t have number on it - and in Japan, the numbers are practically random). There was a light on. We knocked much, but on one came to the door.

Friday we spent ALL day in Shin Matsudo (New Matsudo) - from 10:00am to 8:30pm. We did some finding (housing) in the morning and near the end we knocked on the door of the Yakumaru family. A girl answered the door (about 16 years old - but looks 22 or so). She had amazing interest in our message! She said she’s been going to church and thinking a lot about joining a Christian church! We gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment for Monday. Wow, the Lord’s miracles are being poured out!

Then we had lunch. Oooh ya! My companion let me choose the place, so I chose this little restaurant that served mostly ramen, but some rice dishes too. We sat down. I was so excited! My first time in a "real" traditional Japanese restaurant. On the menu, I couldn’t tell one thing from another so I just ordered something called "menma ramen." Soon after, the cook/owner came to me and said, "menma wakarimasu ka?" (Do you understand menma, or "do you know what menma is?") I said, "Wakarimasen" (no, I don’t), so he brought me out a sample! They were little strips of gray-ish pickle-textured, but somewhat spicy-tasting.... Something. It wasn’t bad. I told him that would be fine. Then he brought out the bowl of ramen! Oh! It was a big bowl, decorated beautifully. The food, too, was well decorated. It had little green leafy things, ham slices, a pink think, menma, and, of course, noodles. It was SO delicious! I couldn’t believe it! It’s nothing like the ramen I make at home from the package. This tasted so good, and warmed my whole body. The ham had a good flavor - I haven’t tasted real ham in a long time. Anyway, it was delicious, and only about ¥700 (as opposed to a Big Mac w/fries and drink ¥650, which in Japan doesn’t fill you up - but the ramen sure did and tasted supreme!)

Well, after lunch, among other people, we visited Rex again. We heard people moving inside the house. We knocked much, but no answer. Pretty strange. This mystery is getting old... will we ever speak to this mystery man? If there’s ever a part III to this story I’ll let you know.

Saturday, Eda san canceled his lesson because he found a job! Good for him, but not so good, I guess. However, there was a Matsuri (festival) going on at the Matsudo Eki that day, so we went to that for awhile. It was so cool! There were people everywhere! Shops (vendors) lined the narrow streets and the word, "Irasshaimase!" was constantly heard shouted by the vendors. It was quite a neat atmosphere. The vendors were selling everything from all sorts of food to clothes, toys, wood, cellular phones, everything! They had a stage where performers would do traditional dances, sing or speak. I heard some pretty cool traditional Japanese music that day. On the way out we saw a clown who was skillfully juggling and doing other fun tricks. He reminded me much of clowns in the U.S. I guess that’s the same.

That night we had dinner at Orito Kyodai’s house (the dendo-shanin - ward mission leader). It was fun and delicious. He had a digital camera and a laptop so took pictures of Elder Page and printed us a little Bio on him for the church bulletin board. I even got to see Windows 98 and other programs (photoshop, word) in Japanese - pretty cool. He also had lots of classical music CDS. And he said he’d record some to tape for me! Yeah!!!

That night I made katudon again. But this time I thought I’d deep fry the katsu (from suggestion from Elder Page). I heated us some oil, took a katsu from the freezer and plopped it in in the oil - WOAH!!! Fire shot up from the pot - water (oil?) Splashed everywhere and instantly my katsu was burned to a crisp (at least the breading was). We figured it must have been the ice on the katsu, since oil and water don’t mix. So I thawed the next one first, turned the oil temperature down and deep fried it. It still fried extremely fast, but I cooked the inside it in the microwave oven for awhile, then made it like normal. It was good! The meat was cooked and more brown like it should be. But all that fire was pretty scary. The apartment was full of smoke from it for quite a while.

Monday we visited Yakumaru again and taught her part of the first discussion. We had to do it in the genkan because her parents weren’t home (we can’t go it in the house of a woman alone). She said she and her mom had been reading the Book of Mormon it in the car together (3 Nep) and cried as they read it. Wow! She accepted everything we taught very well and with great enthusiasm. We did find out, thought, that her family is Jehovah’s witness. (They had their bible and used the word Jehovah) - but that’s great! It’s so rare it in japan to find anybody that believes it in Christ. So her family may have interest, too, this is great! We’ll visit again Saturday and arrange for them to come to church.

Then we visited Kato(u) shimai, an inactive member. She was really cool! Her husband isn’t a member, though, and she’s got two kids so it’s hard for her to come to church, but she thinks she can and wants to come to the Halloween party on the 30th. We also found out today (that day) was her birthday! Agh! We should have brought something! We’ll make something for her and take it to her today.

But she gave us coupons to a place she used to work right next door. They sold sushi. Oh wow! We went! Oh! The sushi was extremely cheap and with our ¥200 off coupons it was even more cheap (I got 2 inarizushi and 5 maki (rolled) sushi for ¥30!! [about 30¢] - usually ¥230) We went to a nearby park and ate it for lunch. OH! I was SO Good! I love sushi!! We’ll have to go back there sometime! I’m definitely hitting some sushi bars (or at least packaged sushi when I come back to Salt Lake). You all should try some - it’s so good!!

Tuesday we had MDM, then interviews with the Dendo-bucho (Mission President). It was wonderful! He’s such a great man and so loving and kind. Then we went on Zone Leader splits. I went with Elder Kellis. We had a lot of fun visiting a contact, a member, then doing some housing. He’s a fun guy to talk to. I realized that I can really get around my area pretty well now. Afterward, I had an interview with him, too. He and his companion, Elder Wilson, are SO FUNNY together! They just tease each other all the time - they’re a riot!

This has been a good week! I’ve begun color-coordinating my schedule - easier to see. Hey, question: how popular are mini-discs it in America now? They’re VERY popular it in Japan! Even some missionaries have them. How expensive are they? Here, about ¥200 - 300. Just curious.

Life is great! This church is true! I love the gospel and the scriptures. The Lord knows and loves each of us and will always keep his promises to us if we keep ours with him.

Thank you! I love you all!

Elder Brandon Pearce

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