Alright, this seems like old news, all the earthquakes, tsunamis, and such, but we had another of both! (But we did't have a typhoon. It curved around Ishinomaki.)
Side note: Every town and every name has some sort of deeper meaning. But since I can't read Kanji, I usually just ask what it means, and so here's the story of how Ishinomaki got it's name... I think...
"once upon a time. Ishinomaki was a bog. And the first people that came into the bog saw a stone. But it was no normal stone... It was a spiral stone. A spiral stone in a bog. And there you get Ishinomaki. Spiral stone"
Yep, but back to natural disasters.
At 2:45ish AM we had another earthquake. But I slept though it (I was exausted), so I asked Willey Choro what it was like and he said this (and I:m paraphrasing)
"It was big. Man. So first there were two giant booms clear in the distance. Then the ground started moving back and forth, and there was an even louder boom closer. The ground shook for about three minutues. At first I thought it was just a normal earthquake, but I looked over at Ohori choro and he was sitting up straight, and he looked really worried."
I didn:t wake up until the tsunami alarm went off at about 3ish.
It's not a blaring, or a screaming, or even a beeping. It's just the voice of a man, not worried, just a calm voice with long pauses between everyword. In every pause you heard his voice echo from every speaker in the entire city. And all I understood was: "Tsunami.... Ishinomaki..."
I sat up straight and whispered at Ohoro Choro's silhouette.
"What are they saying?"
Oc "Tsunami."
me "I got that. What about it?)
Oc "Stay away from ocean."
Me ".... do we need to leave?"
Oc "...We see."
Since Japanese doesn:t have a future tense it's kinda difficult to remember. He meant "we will see"
Turns out we didn:t have to run to the shelter, but they announced that everyone should be fine 15ish minutes later, and to be sure to stay away from the ocean.
Now that I think back on it, it's really freaky, but whenever something that is potentially life threatening happens, I get really calm and think way clearly. (Except when it comes to mold... That mold...) So I was totally ready to ether run for my life (literally) to the shelter, or just go back to sleep. Thankfully I got to choose the latter.
So, the six weeks are up and I get a new not wrinkly from water planner! With new planners comes transfers. New places and new companions. Since I am mid training I thought I'd be safe from that great and dreadful call... But as I never am... I was wrong. (korewa hiniku o desta. That was sarcasm)
We got a call on Wednesday from the President (of the United States) and he told us that Ohori Choro and Willey Choro were staying together, but we were getting one new elder who would be my trainer.
I'll tell you all I know about him:
His name is Olsen Choro.... And that's it. Well, I know he's been here twice as long as I have. (Which, means he just BARELY finished getting trained. 6 weeks more) And judging from his name, he's not Nihonjin. But man. :) I'm excited. Seriously. We'll have 100 % Gaijin power. And I'll get to practice my Japanese a lot more in real life settings. :) Yosh.
So yep. We're going to have to divide our investigators which is really probably the saddest part. I know for a fact Olsen Choro and I get to keep our English speaker Sean san, but Hanzawasan and Onadera san... Man...
Hanzawasan told us (willey Choro and me) that he was our Nihonjin Otousan. (our Japanese Dad). Sad...
But life, as it always is, is amazing. I love dendo, and I love learning about this gospel. Christ truly lifts up those who turn towards him, and I've felt him lift me up.
Thank you all for the letters. I love them.
Keep up the good work, and the sharing of the gospel, is not merely a job for people in far away countries. It's a job for us all.
Help us out,
Elder Wheelwright
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