food blog

Not much this week

The legendary Domino's pizza. There's a Hawaiian (plus corn; Japanese are OBSESSED with putting corn on weird things), and like a margaritas with tomato and cheese chunks, potato ham and green stuff, and the Domino's special regular delicious pizza with sausage mushroom and green pepper. 

Some Tsukemen 

Because why not eat popcorn with your curry?

Stew, rice, and cooked veggies. Actually way good

Weekly Mission Email (xfer and new companion)

Welcome to another week in Inuyama.

Monday night talks: We met a rapper, and a young salesman who sells

copy machines, and a reeeally fat Nagoya man.

Thursday we made plans and got seriously pumped, ready to go, but then

everything changed when the Fire nation attacked. (we were asked to

move a fridge). I couldn't even remember my scout knots for the

service, how pathetic. Anyone got some good ones for tying down a

fridge upright in the bed of a farmer's truck?

Well, at least we got Domino's out of it. Oh, yeah!

And then we had to wonder around Kani City visiting old pins and

OYMing on foot. It actually turned out well--no complaints; we covered

a lot of ground and met even more cool people. Lots of foreigners. I

don't have hardly any pamphlets left, including all my foreign ones.

Transfer Calls:

Hey, look at that! I'm staying! But the next transfer is sure looking

interesting.

Elder Ribeiro!! It's Portuguese so you pronounce that all funny--like

He-bay-e-row. Super smart, super energetic, and another companion one

transfer above me.

Elder McColm is becoming a Zone Leader over in ...Yokkaichi! No way!!

Twin cities!

Neither of the Japanese sisters transferred! That was a big surprise

for everyone.

And yeah.

Some random white couple, the James, showed up to our church on

Sunday. The husband apparently was a missionary here back in 1990 when

Inuyama was still a branch. Only the really old Branch Pres remembered

him, haha. But the lady was eccentric. She gave us peanut butter candy

galore. Took our pictures and sent them all to our moms and a

Missionary Moms Facebook Page or some other.


They have a son serving in California or something and couldn't stop talking about it. Made

for an interesting service; the man still passed off some broken

Japanese, so they managed to get by.

Then the Sister's had a baptism!

Sister Nishida Got BAPTISED,,!!! Brother Endo performed the baptism.

Good all around. She was a self referral who started showing up in

late January. Wonderful.


愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon

food blog

The majestic church in Inuyama. I think it's prepared for both the
earthquake and the flood.

Lots of spinach omelettes this week. 

That one, unfortunate thing of a restaurant. Chocolate nan didn't even go well with the vegetable or chicken curries 

One sweet potato lasts a while 

Something you mix and eat--popular in Japan. It's got kimchi, pork, spinach, and rice noodles. It was on the Low Calorie/Diet menu, but I didn't know that until after I ordered it. 

This is basically tomato soup with spaghetti noodles and white onion in it. Probably not substantial, but filling 

weekly mission email

Elder McColm crashed into a tree on the way home Monday night. It was dark, pouring rain, and McColm had decided to wave at some dude like it was a midsummer's parade. I wonder what that guy thought when he saw McColm crash. Probably that McColm was an idiot. I couldn't help laughing because I didn't even see the guy, only that McColm launched headlong into the only tree planted in the sidewalk of the station. 

Service at Old Folk's! This time, we made newspaper hats. The glue was ...sticky. The Grandmas made fun of me the entire time because I couldn't get the hang of it all. Plus they couldn't stop teasing my English. "Ok, OK!" 

Eikaiwa! Three new students again! Wow! Fernando, Cho, and Mie. Everyone got new English names, we talked about manners, and 21 Q's was way fun--they actually got it! (It was a squirrel) 

Exchanges with ZL Elder Garry! We saw tons of miracles. 

Our companionship study was PMG 11: Commitment, Promise, Testify combo. Teach in short, powerful statements and keep the conversation two-way. It was a spiritual powerhouse. We charged with that for the rest of the day and every person we talked to was an actual, solid conversation that was full of the Spirit and made us leave feeling good afterwards, even if they didn't accept a follow-up appointment. Just a good day. 

We thought we would eat out at a new Indo-curry restaurant this week. When we pulled up, we were surprised to see about 45 bikes parked out front. Every single one of them had a baby seat bolstered on the back. That's when we began to think, "Oh, no." 

That's right: The mom curry cafe. 

Made with "All-Natural, Whole Earth Ingredients" in just the proportions you need. Basically, the servings were tiny, the usual second helpings non-existent, and the entire restaurant crowded, except for one table left in the back, with every mom in the block coming for their daily Home Motors Association Gathering. To top it off, the lunch was expensive! Rated 2 of 10 for Recommend to a Friend. 

EJ Class; the missionaries go, make friends quick, and because the set up is a simple let-loose-free-for-all-conversation, the missionaries are able to do things like teach entire lessons, or how to pray, and such and then get about four phone numbers afterward. Whaaaa? 

Family History! Dendou! Actually has turned out extremely successful. People love to talk about their families, family names, ancestors and such. Many of the people we've met on the street, i.e. Old Buddhist people, have opened up so much more because we talk about Family History instead of straight Christ from the outset. Highly recommend. 

愛しています！ 

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon

Look at how good-looking Elder Oaks was when he was first called into Apostleship. 

food blog

Mmmm pizza

Some homemade miso udon 

I found fiber! Dad, dad, look! Ain't it healthy? 

And then I ruined my health with peach cobbler

But all this candy sure didn't help hahahahahaha. 

Happy Easter!!

Elder Cardon 

Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Meito-ku, Itakadai 1-304 

paulsmissiontojapan.blogspot.com 

weekly email

The highlights of last week:

I bought a Japanese pizza! As promised, it was the weirdest one on the
market. Luckily the pizza places are considerate enough out here to
provide sampler pizzas with four varieties. Imagine: the one I bought
included a teriyaki Mochi pizza, Funeral Potato-like pizza, honey
thick-slice Mayo-bacon pizza, and a corn/green pepper/tuna pizza.
Ingenious. The best was probably the last; the weirdest was definitely
the Mochi one.


In the last two weeks or so, two different people have tried to pay
for a copy of the BOM rather than just accept it with our love and
testimony. Well, that won't do. We slipped the money back into their
mailboxes, hehehe.

Moving day is much different out here than I'm accustomed to in
America. A member asked us to unload a truck; we were prepared for an
afternoon's worth of labor. After a one-way 30 minute bike ride up
there, it turns out the only thing they ever wanted us to move was
their sofa. So ...five minutes and done, kind of job. Not gonna lie, I
was a wee bit disappointed.

We were blessed with the opportunity to plant potatoes in a member's
field! Really fun. I may have a video or something.

Easter was good. It's interesting in Japan because the only people
that really know about it are church members and those who work at
Tokyo Disneyland. Probably the best thing that happened on Easter was
the hour I spent participating in the Priest's Quorum class at church.
So we have one young man in the ward--total. The conversation kinda
went like this:
(YM Leader) "Orders from the Brass (up in Stake Council): We need to
decide on an activity to do this month."
(YM) Ahm.. Idk, I don't really want to do an activity.
"Well, we gotta do something"
Ahmm.. well, I don't want to take the extra time for an activity.
Pretty busy, you know? Hey, but you know I've always liked Daniel
(Bible story); I want to try vegetarianism. Vegetarians always seem so
buff, for some reason.
"Ok, that works. Let's try going vegetarian for an entire week"
OK. I'm gonna have to check with my mom first, but let's do it! I'm down!
And then they spent the rest of class talking about how good Takoyaki is.

My deepest apologies to those who read my email a few weeks ago and
didn't understand several acronyms. I've become so caught up in
missionary lingo that I forgot most people don't know it.
OYM = Open Your Mouth; basically every time we hail people on the
street and track them down to talk church.
HTBT = How To Begin Teaching; basically what we say to make people
like us, take us seriously, and understand exactly what we're all
about--in a nice, colloquial kind of way.

愛しています！

カードん長老より
Elder Cardon

Happy Easter!!


Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Meito-ku, Itakadai 1-304 

paulsmissiontojapan.blogspot.com 

bonus stuff

(someone please tell me what they are saying...)

food blog

Just go frame by frame through this one to see what a conveyer belt
sushi restaurant is like

So I had salsa, pancake mix, and cabbage 

Lots of strand-mushrooms 

Savory pancakes ... :/

Hawaiian Haystacks! See if you can't pick out all my toppings this time. (Hint: there should be 9) 

Some member gave us bacon, so obviously an American breakfast was in order. Excepting the veggie juice and natto. 

weekly letter

There's just so much work to go around in Inuyama. You always have
something to do; it's great. Last week was just highlights, so this
week will be the kinds of people we met in a week of Inuyama work.

On Tuesday, our last OYM's included several engineers who speak decent
English and one extremely Genki businessman, waiting at a bus stop,
who showed incredible interest in the gospel. The businessman lives in
Ichinomiya, but really wanted to learn about the church and stuff--and
maybe even go to Eikaiwa. So, Yeah; referrals for other missionaries!

Wednesday, we are on our way out to visit some people and OYM an old
couple; somehow we ended up walking with them a good 20 min to their
house, go inside, talk about their travels and then the gospel. Really
nice people; the wife had investigated Mormons forever ago. They
decided that they couldn't change their traditional religion of
Bhuddism, in the end, but were very open and thoughtful about God and
the PoS the entire time we were there. Hopefully they'll pick up the
BOM we left there sometime.

On Thursday night we met a Brazilian G-pa at the conbini smoking.
Talking was tough (because I have no Portuguese skills and he had no
Japanese skills), but it somehow worked out. Elder McColm saved the
day and got the man to accept a BOM and an invitation to church.

The next day, we met a member referral late at night and had a basic
lesson with him--introducing him to God, Christ, the BOM, and prayer.
We'll see if we can't go back. He had mild interest, and many problems
that the gospel could help resolve, so I feel that he has potential.
The last OYM that night was a handicapped guy who was super shy and
didn't speak very confidently. Well, we tried, at least.

His last Sunday we visited a referral and had to leave because they
weren't home; not 10 minutes later, Elder McColm feels the prompting
to go back--and their were suddenly home! Although the father stuck
adamantly to his Protestant beliefs, he accepted a BOM and listened to
our 5 min schpeel on the Restoration. Good news is, he was open to the
message and now the family has a BOM in the house to peep at if
someone gets curious.
Met a dude with the single fattest bike tire I've seen in my life just
outside the station.
Also met a LA RC traveling on business with his secretary, and got to
talk to them the whole train ride back home. Basically, an improv LA
lesson while I did improv HTBT lesson. It's amazing the people God
puts in our path.

愛しています！

カードん長老より
Elder Cardon

food blog

All the most interesting Sushi at the cheap restaurants. Mussel,
squid, tentacle, cod eggs or something ...my most favorite isn't on
here, but it's definitely gotta be Conger Eel

Spicy raw eggs from China? Why not! 

Yeah! 

Japanese version of Tacos 

Makes perfect eggs every time. There are cucumber and carrots in here 

Yeah... I done messed up.


Mixed vegetables?!



Brazilian dinner. Yeah! Meat over starch. Rice, mashed potatoes, etc. 



A rather expensive burger that was only descent as compared to America. Like, ¥800 meal 



I would guess this is about 1 Kg of rice over 1 Kg of beef. Anyways, it was a ton of food. I pounded it. Managed to barely finish the bowl. Didn't feel much like buying groceries afterwards. Actually, for this week I only bought three cartons of veggie juice hahaha. It doesn't look big, but consider how big my hands are ...and the size of that thing. Bigger than my head, I bet.