Letter from Elder Wyman written 6/22/2010
Dear (family in Japanese characters),
Well we sent Elder B back home and now I'm with Elder B2.  He has been out since about last October.  His dad is in the military so they're from everywhere.  Currently his family is living in Japan actually, so his packages cost closer to 50 en than 50 dollars.  So Elder B did not tell the ward he was going home and I didn't realize how much trouble that would cause us until about.... immediately after he left!!  The ward mission leader called to have us over for dinner and was aghast that he hadn't been informed!  Bah!  I don't want to do this with every single member!  Besides, he worked hard up to the end!
So this week I did something I told myself I would never do again.  Seminary!  The teacher called us the night before and had us come over, so as missionaries we figured we weren't in the position to say "no way Jose!".  It was funny how everyone looked about as dead as I did over a year ago, us missionaries were the most lively since our schedule can more easily allow us to wake up fresh for seminary than a high schooler who stays up till midnight doing homework.
On Friday a member wanted to take us to Costco so....of course we went!  We hadn't really bought groceries for around three weeks now, and who knows when we will get to go to Costco again.  I decided to go to town on it and not need to buy groceries for another week or so.  I got a whole case of soy milk!  That is the only place you can find soy milk in Japan!  So we check out and the guy who took us wouldn't let us pay!  I felt extremely grateful/guilty/excited!  On top of that he sent us off with a case of root beer and a big bag of pistachios!  What a noble fellow!
This week has been so hot and humid, it feels like I'm in a rain forest!  I feel like I need to bring a machete to cut through overgrowth it is that hot!  Most everyday I come back wet, if not from rain, from my own sweat!  Speaking of wet I bought a pair of rain pants, so my pants won't become completely drenched after five minutes in the rain.  Wooo!  It really does get hot here though.  When Elder B was heading off he took a call and when he handed the phone back to me it was dripping.  Pretty funny, but also pretty gross.
Yesterday was Elder B2's first day in the area, so after a little bit of tracting some members took us out for some Chinese food, (yes, in Japan) and then after wards took us to a store and bought us a bunch of fruit, jelly, anko, pudding, crackers and some other stuff.  Japanese people are way nice!  On the way home from that this guy my age stopped us and said "Hey, do you want to get some juice?"  We said sure, what the heck, why not?  And he said "You'll pay for me right?"  Sure, why not?  So we bike with him to a convenience store and the whole time we're thinking - who on earth is this guy?  That and I also made the realization that if a random person comes up to me and asks me to buy him juice I'll say, hey that's a really strange request - "Sure!  Let's go!"  He kept asking us if we spoke all these languages, like Spaingo and Furansugo (Spanish, French).  I guess he figures if we are American missionaries and spoke English and Japanese we spoke everything else in between.  He only spoke Japanese however.  He had met the missionaries before us and kept asking about them.   He wanted to come over to our apartment and he was way persistent about it, he kept saying, "ah, c'mon Elder so and so let me!"  And we would say yea!  We doubt it!  He was way weird!  In the middle of all this he pointed at the burger place and said, "I went there for my birthday."  So finally I got tired of this and decided to try weirding him out.  I said we're missionaries!  (We had tried getting this point across several times.)  "We teach about Jesus Christ!  Because of Jesus Christ's atonement we can all return to heaven.  Would you like to learn more about Jesus Christ's atonement?"  He said... yea, sure.  Elder B2 said, "Great!  Come to church this Sunday!  See you there!  Bye now!"  We took a very indirect route home that night.
We are being fed by people left and right here, I love it!  I got some really nice ties today at the dollar store.  They sell designer ties that have some minor defect.  One of them I got had a loose thread on the back and the other, I guess the loops on the backside are a little crooked.  Way nice ties though!  I was excited.
Well, love you all
(Elder Wyman in Japanese)