Konnichiwa, kazoku!
Thank you for the email! It looks like you had a fun-filled week with the reunion and such. I know it is probably not that crazy to you, because you have been consistently seeing all of those people but WOW - everyone is so old! The pictures of the cousins you sent - blew my mind a little. And Dallin looks really old. I am a little scared to go back to America. I think I will just stay in Japan for a while. Alrighty, on to the week!
I shall start with a fun fact about my time here in Saijo - we have met people from 23 different countries just in the past few months of living here. It is a really neat experience to learn so much about different cultures and languages and ways of doing things. Love it! Rain - yeah that is a thing. It rains so much here. But the funny thing is - I love it. The times we get caught in the rain without our rainsuits are a little crazy - those are the times where I come home wringing out my skirt and having tons of water pour out, but when I have my rainsuit on, biking through the rain, I absolutely love it. I think this is one of the things I will always think on when I reflect on my mission - darting through random streets with rain pouring down and the wind on my face. I love Japan!
Alright - lessons of the week! We were able to teach a lot this week, which is always exciting. I will share a few fun experiences. We taught the Restoration to Munechika san, the cute little grandma the elders housed into a few weeks ago. She had read 15 pages of the Book of Mormon in just a few days, and all we had asked her to read was the introduction! That is always exciting to hear as a missionary :) She was sincere and nice. She said she wants to talk to us more, but to go slowly. We are excited to keep moving with her. Funny moment of that lesson - she brought us these slices of green cake (a distinct green, like olive green kind of) and we started apologizing and telling her we were so sorry but we cannot eat things with green tea in them. We were sure this cake had green tea in it, because EVERYTHING in Japan has a green tea option (ice cream, cakes, cookies, even oreos, chocolate, shaved ice, etc.) and it is always a very specific shade of green. The exact color of the cake she set in front of us. But here is the exciting news - she looked at the package and said oh don't worry, this is just seaweed, not green tea! A relief, indeed! Huzzah for being able to eat word of wisdom approved green cake! We had another great lesson with Tomikosan as well. Things are going well with her, but it does take her a bit of time to understand things so we are going little by little, and her faith is growing!
America day - here it goes. Lots of miracles on our Fourth of July! But before I start on those, a quick explanation. Trying to explain that the holiday's name is the Fourth of July was quite a task. It doesn't make sense to anyone as to why it is called that. Then, I tried to explain it could also be called Independence Day. That one didn't fly either. Plan C was put into action. Calling it America's day worked the best when explaining it to non-Americans. Woot. Favorite moment of America day - we ran into Barbara on the street! HUGE MIRACLE. She is our cute Philippine investigator that we have been trying to get a hold of for a while, but she is always at work and only has a house phone, no cell phone so we haven't been able to contact her for about 2 weeks. We were able to set up an appointment for next week and invite her to FHE. We all went to get donuts, and had a small lesson right there in the donut store! What a great day! Don't worry mom. For dinner that night, I ate rice and seaweed. Yay America!
Too many things to say and no time to say them - but I have a bit more news. We went in to Hiroshima for church yesterday (fast sunday) and it was great, as always. Fun opportunity - there was a family visiting from Arizona there (Chandlar) and I got to translate for them inSunday school, and Willes shimai translated through relief society. It was fun to meet fellow Arizonans.
Alrighty. Lots of things to say but no time - let it just suffice to say I am happy to be here! The work is true - I love serving in Saijo with my whole soul. I feel like I have so many blessings, far more than I deserve and I am so grateful to have the support of such a wonderful family :) thank you for everything you have done for me and continue to do for me - I love you all so much! Have a great week!!!!!
Ai shite imasu!
Flake Shimai
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