What a week! Shoutout to Logan - he is going to be awesome in Iowa! I am so proud of him!!!! (Alyssa's younger brother Logan just got his mission call to the Iowa Des Moines mission last Friday) I'm glad you were able to have a good spring break - sounds like things are just moving right along for you guys. Wow, I have a plethora of things to tell you but I don't know if I will be able to even begin to explain what my week has been like. Well, I guess I will start off with a bit of Fukuoka news, because that is what the start of my week was like. Well, last pday, after finding out about transfer calls, we were able to visit a few people we had been wanting to see. It was raining harder than I have seen since being in Fukuoka. Huzzah for kapas (rainsuits)!! Those are definitely needed, while biking in the rain. Anywho, we were able to visit with Tamada shimai, the less active we have been working with , and say goodbye to her. She is so strong. After that, Michiko took us out to dinner and we were able to have one last lesson with her. She took us to a place that had steak. So I had a fabulously tender, juicy, steak. this is a big deal because I am in Japan - where we hardly eat any beef EVER. It was fabulous. I think the hardest part of leaving Fukuoka was leaving Michikosan. I have been working with her for 4 transfers and love her so much. I know she will get baptized one day. She is an amazing person. Anyway, it was exciting because she came to my last eikaiwa (english class) the next night. It is exciting because that was the first time she has been in the church since that argument with the member situation. Super cool. But I am getting ahead of myself - on Wednesday, we had bean dendo! It's weird to think that I did that 4 times. Wow. I swear it does not feel like I was in Fukuoka for 6 months. Time is flying by entirely too fast these days. My bean was so cute. She was from Fiji. We had a great time talking to people on the streets, and I was just getting all nostalgic realizing I wouldn't be streeting those streets that I knew so well anymore. Eikaiwa was heaps of fun (I;ve started saying that alot now thanks to all the Australian missionaries in our mission) and I was able to talk to more people and say goodbye. It really is crazy how many people I have met here and learned so much from. Went home and packed, then left on a bus Thursday morning to Hiroshima! Michikosan surprised me by coming to see me off at the station that morning. She is so cool. It was fun because I was able to meet up with Willes shimai at Hakata (the Fukuoka station) and we came to Saijo together. We had a 4 hr bus ride to the Hiroshima bus terminal, then about a 20 minute city tram ride to the train station, then about a 40 or 45 minute train ride to Saijo. Thank goodness for the nice hiroshima missionaries that were there to direct us and help us with all our luggage. Transfers are always a fun time. It was great because Willes shimai and I haven't really seen each other since the MTC, so we just talked the whole time and got caught up on each others' lives and mission and such. We came to Saijo and hit the ground running. We are opening an area here. Well I don't know exactly how to say that but we created a new companionship here - as in it was a 2 man sisters area and now it is 4 - so we have got some work ahead of us. We got to set up desks, order futons, get apartment supplies, and so on that first day then weekly planned. The other sisters gave us a few potential investigators / or people they had only met with once which was super nice. We set up an appointment with MInaesan, one of these investigators, and we were able to have an awesome lesson with her this past weekend. She has been reading part of the Book of Mormon, but had only been taught about that and prayer. We felt like we needed to talk to her about Christ, and how much he can help her. So we planned on teaching her lesson three, and when we went to her house we just started talking to her there in the doorway. She didn't have us come in, but we ended up having a solid, 40 minute lesson right there on the doorstep. we talked all about Jesus Christ and the way to return to God, and asked her to prepare to be baptized by April 24th.... and she accepted!!! That was our first Saijo miracle - Minaesan has a baptismal date! Another huge miracle here - the people are super nice. Everyone we talk to on the streets is way nice, even if they are turning us down. Most people will listen to what we have to say. For the past 6 months, I have been used to people flat out ignoring me or speeding up to get away , or saying they are busy before we can even get two words in. It's interesting how much you can tell the difference between being in the middle of the city and being out here in the countryside.
A bit more about Saijo - - this place is just straight up awesome. As far as the church goes - we currently are a group, not a branch. We affectionately refer to it as our little twig. We are hoping to make it into a branch in the next transfer or two. Our church is two rooms, in a big office complex thing. there are different businesses and such in this big building, but the LDS church owns two of the rooms! IT is exciting because they didn't even have this until two transfers ago. They went to Hikari, which is about a 40 minute trainride from here. We have 6 active members in this group, and now that the sisters became 4 man, 10 missionaries. There are 4 elders, 4 sisters, and a senior couple. Saijo really is exploding with people wanting to hear this message. They have had a baptism each month for the past few months, and there are lots of investigators with baptismal dates in our district. Super exciting. I feel like I could just keep talking about it forever, but I will save that for another day. The Lord really has plans to hasten his work, especially here, and I can't wait to do my best to continue this growth. Willes shimai is a champion. I still can't believe we are companions. It is so fun being able to work together. I have already learned a ton from her. She is an awesome missionary, and we work really well together. GAH. so excited. Anyway, I probably forgot to tell you something but I will get to that next week. I love you all so much - thank you for your love and support and I hope you have a great week!!!!!!
愛しています!!!
フレーク姉妹
p.s. Because there is a national university here, there are all kinds of people here. our ward has 3 chinese, 1 phillipino, and 2 japanese people, with several japanese investigators, several chinese, one from Iran, and so on. That is your fun saijo fact of the day!!!!!
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