Konnichiwa, kazoku!
Okay, just to start out - no mom, I am not dead. I am so sorry my emailing is so late this week! We had zone conference yesterday, so our p-day got changed to Tuesday this week, and Willes shimai and I just got back from Hiroshima. We have been there all day helping one of our investigators clean out her mother in law's house.
Sounds like there are a lot of things going on at home! That picture did not even look like Dallin. I am a little worried that I will not be able to recognize him when I go home. And yes, in answer to your question, I DO have that legitimate fear when it comes to returning to America. It took a little bit of time to adjust to the culture here, but now that I have I absolutely love it. It is going to be so strange going back and not having people bow to me and speak honorifically all the time. Fun fact - don't know if I've mentioned it before but in Japanese you can say the same thing multiple ways - honorifically, humbly, politely, a little more rude, and really slang. High schoolers and little kids have their own language. The way we normally communicate is using the polite method, but also sometimes honorific and humble. It is quite an adventure.
But sorry for that little tangent! I just hope you know I also am losing random English. That may sound silly, but it is true. Things do not translate directly very well, so sometimes it takes a little while to remember exactly how it is said - でも大丈夫ですーがんばります！
Alright - on to the week! I shall share a few favorite experiences. We set up an appointment with our little grandma, Hasuike san (the one that flagged us down a few weeks ago and gave us all her info and told us to come back to visit her) and the funniest thing happened. Right when we pulled up to her house, she said "Do you have locks for your bikes? We have to go!" We locked up our bikes and she kidnapped us. She basically said get in the car! (and nobody messes with cute Japanese grandmas, so we promptly got in the car) and we took off! She drove for about 20 minutes and took us to a little boutique with cakes and juice and such. It was great - we were able to share a lot about the book of Mormon and the role religion has played in our lives, and a bit about prayer. She is really sweet, and it went pretty well. We are excited to go back to teach her more this week! Heart attack moment of the week - about 6 hours later (we had dinner, Eikaiwa, and some other things going on before we returned home) at 8:40 ish we discovered that our phone was gone. We booked it back to the church, looked all over, tried to figure out where it could be, hoped it hadn't fallen out while we were biking, then realized it might be in Hasuikesan's car. We tried calling and she didn't answer, and it was too late to go to her house. The next morning, we tried calling again and it was in her car! Huge miracle! We went and got it at lunch - we had gone just under twenty four hours without it but it was a scary thing to not have any way for our people to contact us.
Another highlight of the week - we had a glow party at the park! We invited all the members, a bunch of investigators; and all the missionaries were there. It went so well. There is a huge park by the university that is gorgeous. We had some food and played a lot of games. All of our people are really fun. I will try to send some pictures.
Rainy season - gotta love it. It rains a lot here. As in often and a lot. I can't tell you how many times I have come home looking like a pruny (yes prune-y, not puny) drowned kitten, wringing loads of water out of my skirt. Gotta love it.
We had an AWESOME lesson with Tomikosan about the Atonement! It was just about the epitome of teaching someone without a Christian background - however, even though it was a little hard for her to understand all of it, we and the joints for the lesson were able to simply testify of the power of the Atonement in our own lives. In her prayer at the end of the lesson, she expressed a true desire to know for herself and be able to understand. It was humbling to hear that intent.
More miracles! Sunday - President and Sister Gustafson and the APs came to Saijo. It was awesome - I am pretty sure they haven't been to church here before (because it just was started in December). One really cool thing - Saijo was one of the Assistant's bean area. He loves it here, and really is one of the missionaries that got things moving. It was awesome for him to be back and see all of the growth that has happened. Another great experience - the other AP is from Brazil, and they came with us to visit our Brazillian investigators. Unfortunately, they were not home but we did run in to some really nice people.
Last news. Yesterday we had zone conference and it was one of the best conferences I have ever been to. I learned a lot, and definitely had some questions I'd been having answered through the trainings. I sometimes get worried when I remember how soon I have to go back, but I have a lot of things that I know the Lord still needs me to accomplish here so I am working with everything I have. I know for certain that the Lord knows us each so personally. He knows exactly what is going on with each of us and shows that love! I feel so blessed every day to know this, and am so grateful for the chance I have to tell others that every single day. I love you and miss you, but I know this is exactly where I need to be right now. :) I love you and hope you have a great week!!!
愛しています！
フレーク姉妹
Sisters slumber party!!
Our district in Saijo
Japanese pinata?
Our district in Saijo
Japanese pinata?
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