Hey Everyone!

Konichiwa!!!!!!!!!

Wow... What a week...

As is to be expected, I crashed a couple of times on my bike this week,,, but I still have all my arms and legs and fingers and toes! I'm not blind or deaf or anything, so that's good!

I also got big by a poisonous spider! So that's lots of fun!

Holy cow, have I been in Japan for a month now?... I guess so!

This week my companion and I went to celebrate my 'monthiversary' by going to sushi... Oh man... I thought it was bad that Japanese people eat raw eggs on everything... The first time I ate one, it was like to swallowing a raw goldfish... Well... Now I can personally say... real raw goldfish is waaaaay worse!

Haha... I actually didn't eat goldfish... but I did eat raw fish, raw baby squid (whole), raw shrimp (whole), raw scallops (like... 5 of them), and fried baby crabs... with the shell still on... Afterwards I felt like I had swallowed a gallon of lake water... I actually got pretty sick! Haha, now eating a raw egg is no problem! If I need some protein, I just crack one in my soup or cereal and eat it! "When in Japan, do as the Japanese do!" =)

I remember once my brother inlaw Paul told me that while he was serving his mission in Chile, he had to eat braided pig intestine... I was pretty happy when I got called to Japan, because I wouldn't have to encounter that!

Alas... I also ate pig intestine this week... pretty chewy... but other than that, not bad!

Also this week, the emperor's son came to Fukuoka! It was crazy because there were police men everywhere! Who-hooooo! And the firework festival is happening this week! One of our potential investigators taught us a special cultural geisha dance that we can preform at the festival. She's also going to teach us how to preform the ceremony of dressing in a kimono! Whoooo! We have the coolest investigators ever!

We have 8 progressing investigators. Sometimes it feels like they're killing us! No one wants to get baptized, but we're just going to keep working harder and harder until Heavenly Father shows us a way!

This week I cried for the first time since being in Japan... Japanese sucks. I have kind of hit a road block for learning Japanese. I'm trying so hard and studying so hard, and praying and praying and praying, but it's not getting any better! A few people told me this week that they've seen a few cases that were a little bit more hopeless than mine, but "don't worry! It will get better! I think....." My Japanese is so bad. I don't understand anyone and no one can understand me either... So I cried... a lot. I mean, I speak 2 other languages fluently, and have studied 3 others! I should be doing so much better! But I'm not... apparently everything they taught me in the MTC was wrong, because even when I say the most simple sentence, no one understands!...

But oh well... What can I do... just keep praying and working hard... I'M doing all that I can! Heavenly Father will do the rest!

Ok, so enough whining! I saw something cool this week! A sign-language baby blessing! Yeah, this old deaf grandpa blessed a baby in sacrament meeting in SIGN LANGUAGE! And his daughter translated. It was so spiritual and cool and weird! But awesome... =)

Anyway... I hope you all are doing well. As always, thank you for caring enough to read!

Love,

Roberts shimai!