Week 33

Mon

We got Baskin Robins ice cream from a member. What a healthy, delicious dinner.

Tue

We had a lesson with an investigator that went remarkably well. We were talking about Christ and how he is alive today and it seemed like she had some trouble picturing that so I said let's turn to 3 Nephi. When she opened the book, she turned to the exact page. She said it spooked her because it made her feel like something was there/someone was watching. I said that it was God and He is watching. The Spirit was strong. After the lesson, we bought takoyaki from a street vendor and had it for lunch. Usually there is only tako (octopus) in takoyaki, but this vendor decided to play things up and put in things like white fish and fried crunchy things. It was good though. One of our appointments canceled so we decided to visit a member. When we got there, there were a bunch of neighborhood kids playing jump rope and blowing bubbles and such with the moms chatting nearby. The member walked over to them and said hey, these are some volunteer missionaries from my church. They teach a free english program where they come to your home. Is anyone interested? The moms were a little hesitant at first but they said yeah actually we wouldn't mind. We then played with the kids and talked with the moms for like thirty minutes. If we had just rang their doorbell, I know we wouldn't have gotten the same reaction. Yay for members who help the missionaries! On the way home, it was dark. And there was a dark cat. In the middle of the road. I didn't see it till too late, so I swerved, and unfortunately the cat decided to run in the direction I swerved, so I ran over the cat and crashed. The cat was fine, it ran away before I could get up, but I now have scar layer #5 for my knee.

Wed

There is one less active who we aren't sure if she is alive or not, but when we visited, we peeped through her mail slot and saw new trash on her floor, so we think that she still lives there and is still alive. We went to visit a former investigator and found the lady who only spoke spanish that came to church last week. Apparantly the former investigator is her neice and she was visiting for the week. Funny how things work. One former investigator said that it would be ok if we came back...for twenty minutes...once a month. But we'll take what we can get.

Thu

We had an appointment on Fri, so we had DTM on Thu morning in Yokkaichi. It was so strange to go back. I've only been gone for a month but it already feels like things have changed. The church smelled like Yokkaichi church, though. After that we went to go watch a recent convert's daughters run in their school race. We ran into the bishop's wife there. Apparently her daughter was also running in a race. Then we went to another member's house and talked about dendo and what she's going through right now as Sister Ishihara helped the member color her hair. It was a strange experience. But on the good side, the member came with us to visit a Less Active. We ate sukiyaki together, which was very delicious. The less active's boyfriend was there and he participated in the lesson. It seemed like he was open to hearing more, so hopefully we can meet with them agian.

Fri

Three investigator lessons in one day! Yay! We invited one to be baptized. The answer she gave was a little wishy-washy, so we'll see what she thinks next time we meet. One of our investigator's grandchildren are from Nevada so I got to talk with them a little. I hope we can do FHE with them or something. Then we watched Finding Faith in Christ with a lady who is 78. She likes to talk, so it was a little hard to get her to focus on the film, but she sat through it and at the end she said that she believes that all those things actually happened. Hopefully she'll begin to progress!

Sat

Kid's Eikaiwa was actually manageable this week. I hope that this is a patter that continues and not just a fluke. We did family eikaiwa hoping to share a message again afterwards, but the grandmother of the family bullied us into going shopping. We want them to realize that we are very happy to teach English for free and the only re-payment we want is for them to listen to our message, but I think they think that they need to repay us through taking us places and such. I dunno.

Sun

At 8 o'clock in the morning, it occured to me that we would be teaching the lesson in Sunday School. So I hurriedly looked at the lesson and planned as best I could. I think it turned out pretty good. We had 5 Less Actives come to church. We went out looking for members that no one knows about, found one, but no success on the others. Hopefully we can find more. I like hearing the word of God on Sundays. It's like 3 extra hours of personal study. One member wants to carroll with the sister missionaries in December and wants to start practicing now so that we can do it well by then. Unfortunately, we aren't sure if both of us will still be here by then. Sister Ishihara is definitely leaving because her mission ends in October, and I'm not sure if I'll still be here then because that would be three transfers in one spot. It's happened before though. I would like to be here because I love carrolling. And Takabata is fun.

 

Love to you all,

Leah

Week 32

I need to start making notes at the end of each day again because as it is I don't remember details about the days early in the week.

 

Tue

I finally found floss! I used up my floss about a month ago and thought hey, maybe brushing my teeth is just fine, but for a month straight I felt like my teeth weren't clean, so I looked for floss. We finally found it in a walgreens type place. Yay! Clean teeth! We went to a LA house to introduce ourselves to find that they share the house with another family. The other family answered the door and said please wait in the entry till we talk to them. So we wait and wait and wait and wonder if we've been forgotten, when at last they came back and said that the LA didn't want to talk to us right now. Oh well. I found out that one of the members used to draw manga for a living. She still loves it, but she said it wasn't good for her health so she quit. I want to read something of what she did, but she wouldn't tell us what it was. Two sister missionaries from a far away zone came and stayed with us, so we bought sheets, but they turned out to be too small.

Wed

Zone Conference! I got a package. I seem to be building the reputation of always getting a package. All of the zone leaders and the sister leaders had an interview with Elder Aoyagi of the seventy. We spoke in Japanese during the interview which I think helped understanding on both sides. President Yamashita asked a professional translator who is also a member to come and translate for the conference because Aoyagi choro and his wife and Sister Yamashita all spoke in Japanese and President Yamashita wanted the young missionaries to understand. I learned a lot, but I felt like the verse in Malachi that says that Heavenly Father will pour out blessings so much that there isn't enough room to recieve it. I felt like there was more I could have gotten out of it but my vessel was full. Afterwards we had another meeting with Aoyagi choro where we could ask him any question we wanted. They asked the interpreter to come and sit in, I think in a fear that we wouldn't understand, but everyone spoke in Japanese. After that we had a companion exchange. Sister Moore, a new missionary working in Ichinomiya came with me back to Takabata. We talked to some nice people on the train, but I unfortunately forgot my bag with the proselyting materials so I gave them my name card with our number on it. As we got into Takabata Station, I realized that Sister Ishihara still had the keys to our apartment. Both of us were doing Eikaiwa in our areas, so we decided to meet up after that at a nearby station to exchange keys. Since I hadn't drunk much all day, my head was a pounding mess all of Eikaiwa. I felt like I was about to fall over so I supported myself on the whiteboard the whole time. Then we went to the station to get the keys. We met, got the keys, and then started to leave, when an African-American man came up to us and talked to us for about 20 minutes. I'm pretty sure he was just trying to pick us up. At that point it was 9:30 so we were already late. Then we ran into two members from Ichinomiya so they talked to Sister Moore for a few minutes but we had to leave. We didn't get home until like 10:15. 

Thu

Since we had time, we biked out to some members that live far away. On the way, we stopped at a convini and bought lunch, where I had orange juice. Then we got to the member's house where we had orange juice. Her dog gave me lots of kisses. Then we biked back to home and went to the station to trade companions back. We had dinner at a soup restraunt in the station where I had orange juice. I think I had about 15 oranges worth of juice in one day. I had the strangest thing that I've had yet in Japan. At the soup place they had a sign for dessert soup and I thought what is that I'd like to try it. It turned out to be corn, macadamia nuts, sweet red beans, raspberries, blueberries, soy milk, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Strange. Afterwards, we went to Institute and participated in the mission prep class. One of the ward members attended so we were able to catch a lift back with her.

Fri

I finally got to open the pacakge. Thank you ward! When I saw the peanutbutter food I thought, oh they know me so well. I felt very loved. Our area is large and kind of lopsided, so to better understand the roads we decided to copy a road map, so we spent some time putting it together. I like puzzles. After dinner we visited some members where we got carrots and a churro from Costco (apparently there is one in a neighboring area). 

Sat

At Kid's Eikaiwa, there were only three kids, but they were still loud and hard to manage. I really hope that things change. In between Kid's Eikaiwa and family Eikaiwa, we visited a deaf member. Most of the lesson was written, so I didn't know what was going on most of the time, but that's life when kanji is concerned. At family eikaiwa, when the mom brought out snacks for us, she brought out a green dessert. Both of us were worried that it would be green tea, which we are not allowed to drink, but when we asked, it turned out to be made from soybeans and as such was green. It was delicious. Then we shared a message with the family, and it turned out well, they asked why there are so many different christian churches. We gladly shared the message of the restoration with them. We aren't sure if they will be progressing investigators, but we will definitely keep sharing messages.

Sun

A recent convert's boyfriend came to church. He is Brazilian, but has been in Japan for about 8 years. We taught him a lesson, but we aren't sure how much he understood. He does seem very very nice though. There was also a lady from Bolivia there visiting for the day. She doesn't speak Japanese, but we talked to her in Japanese and somehow worked out that she wanted to pay her tithing. We explained how to do it, and it seemed like she understood. We got some yummy food from the members, like blueberry chocolate and chocolate crossaints.

Mon

The ward had a barbecue. There was SO MUCH FOOD! We played captrue the flag and missionary tag and volleyball with the kids that came. There were four non-members that also came. I hope that they come to church and other activities. The beach ball came in handy. I also wore the tye-dye shirt.

Love

Leah

Week 31

Mon

Fairly normal P-day with no activities. We spent the most I ever have on groceries while on my mission getting things for the apt. Our refrigerator was a little bare up until then. We went to a little mall in order to look for new shoes. I didn't end up buying anything but Sister Ishihara did! She bought some shoes and an umbrella. I was sorely tempted to buy donuts, but I resisted.

Tue

We had dinner with a recent convert and her two daughters. She is deaf, but she can read lips very well and speak clearly enough for me, a foreigner to understand. Whenever I talk to her I accidentally say things in English. I'm not sure why. We did a FHE type thing and they all enjoyed it. I hope that her daughters become investigators.

Wed

We went out to eat with one of our investigators. The restaurant we went to was a little Italian place that had a really good salad bar with things like garlic three bean salad and perfectly cooked eggplant. I wish that I could have eaten more, but the pasta was filling. This investigator seems well prepared by the Lord to hear our message, the only trouble is getting appointments with her because she is a single mom. We then went out to visit FI's. Came home with no success in that department, but we did find two Potential Investigators. One was an old man who opened his door only the width of a Book of Mormon. We talked with him for a good 15 min through that crack. He said that he would accept a Book of Mormon, so we passed it through the slit and said that we'd be back to talk about it sometime. On our way home, there was one lady standing outside and as we passed she called out "your bikes are cool!" We turned the corner, stopped, looked at each other and said "Do you wanna go back and talk to her?" "yeah." "what should we say?" "Um...where's the nearest convenient store?" So we turned around and asked her. She said that she went to a Christian middle school and high school and so she came to like hymns and the feel of Christianity. We said that we'd come sing a hymn to her sometime and went to the convenient store where we bought some water. At Eikaiwa, a high school girl came for the first time. The elders were teaching and one of them asked her to make a sentence using the vocabulary on the board. She didn't understand what he said, so he paused, gave her an example, and when she didn't respond, he moved on to the next person. She then burst into tears. I feel bad for her because it was a kind of hard vocab and it was her first time.

Thu

We had an appointment with a member at the church so we head over and wait. And wait. So we call her house. And her cell. And wait. No response, so we packed up and headed out to our next spot. In the afternoon, we met with a less active high-schooler and made blank Happy Birthday and Thank you cards while we talked to her. We got to meet with the bishop and discuss the ward and his vision. I think he has a large vision and I like it. I want to help him achieve that. After that we dropped by a less active and put some cookies in her mailbox only to find out later on from the elders that she may have moved. I hope the cookies don't attract bugs.

Fri

At district meeting, one of the Elder's said he had caught a cold, (probably the one I had) and so they asked us to go to an appointment with a LA in their place. So we ate lunch and rushed out the door to the train station. We talked for a good while and got an appointment for Monday. She is fluent in English, but we spoke in Japanese the whole time. At night we went out to eat at a sushi place. The wait time was long, so we weren't sure if we should even try, but we made it in. And we got home on time. Apparantly two members saw us riding our bikes on the way home. You never know who will be watching.

Sat

Instead of spending our time going out to find FI's only to have them not be home or moved or something, we decided to call them first. So we spent about half an hour calling some of them. Kid's Eikaiwa was a mess. The kids were all over the place and it was hard to get things across. We'll have to re-work our plans. In the afternoon we went back to visit the old lady that went to a Christian school in her youth and she became an investigator! It wasn't a "I want to listen to your message" kind of feel but more like we testified of a few things and then asked if it was ok if we came back and she said yes. Because we talked with her, we missed out on going to seminary, but oh well. Next time.

Sun

The Brazilians from last Sunday didn't come to church, but one of our investigators did! Then we had ward council after church. I was impressed at how much time was dedicated to missionary work and hearing individually about our investigators. The ward seems very efficient in their information gathering. Then we talked with a Less active for about two hours after that, so most of our day got used up very quickly. As we were walking home, it started to rain. It was the beginning of a...

Mon

TYPHOON! It was mostly during the night, so no ankle deep water biking, but the sound of the wind and rain was so loud that we didn't hear the phone ring. A text came from the honbu saying don't go outside during the morning. Wait until you think it is safe to go out. By 11'oclock everything was clear. The weather is so nice now! We didn't turn the air conditioning at all, just opened the windows and it was perfect. We went out with the Yokkaichi missionaries and the Takabata missionaries to an all you can eat ice cream place. I knew that I couldn't fit more than one ice cream in so I didn't pay for all you can eat, just one meal. Then we went to the LA's house and did FHE using a card game to talk about the Spirit. It is kind of like ERS where if the right card comes out you slap the pile and take the cards. The point is that you have to focus on and pay attention for the right card (aka the Spirit) or else you'll miss it. She fed us some very delicious lemon tea that I want to drink again.

 

Love,

Leah

Week 30

Tue

I went to my first Leadership Council as a Sister Training Leader. It was much like other meetings, spiritually uplifting and motivating. We had pizza and soda for lunch. After the main meeting we had a sisters only portion with Sister Yamashita. She gave us a sheet of compliments in Japanese and told us to say them to our companion each day in companion study. Then we practiced bowing and sitting and standing properly. By the end of it most of us were feeling pretty silly. We came home and finally went grocery shopping.

Wed

To the 100 yen store! We bought a lot of little things that our apt needed like baskets for our utensils and toilet bowl cleaner and such. Then we met the elders at a apt complex so they could show us where an investigator lived. Unfortunately she wasn't home, so we decided to do some housing. As we were housing, the light rain turned into a literal downpour. For almost an hour it was raining like a giant shower head. We decided to head home before it got dark in case the rain didn't let up. Several streets were flooded. Some streets were so flooded that they came up over the sidewalks so that whenever a car passed it was like a wave. In some places it was calf deep water, which meant that my foot went underwater above my ankle while pedaling. See picture. I was laughing the whole time. I thought it was increadibly fun. As we got home, we got a text from the elders asking if we were ok. We said yes, why. Apparently, the mission home had sent out a text saying don't go outside this afternoon but because our phone is new, it didn't get that text. Oh well. We're alive and all is well.

Thu

We met one of the investigators the elders gave us. She likes the message we have and has felt the spirit in her life.  Promising. In the afternoon we met with a great member that wants to dendo with us. She even rode her bike with us for 25 min to visit a less active with us. The less active is a convert of Sister Aoki's brother who served here about 5 years ago. I like her. She reminds me of many of my friends.

Fri

One of the neighboring ward's buildings flooded so we had ZTM at that building and then afterward we stuck around and helped clean up. It was really fun to do some real service. After that I had comanion exchanges with another set of sisters. Sister Cox and Sister Brady are both transfer 2 missionaries so they had an appointment with the APs to teach them lesson 1, but in a senior companion capacity. I felt kind of funny being there because I'm not their companion but I helped as best I could. Then we went out to a member's house for dinner and a lesson. On the way there, an old man asked us what we were doing. I said we were going to an activity. He said that he wanted American friends so why not go out on a date. Was tonight good? I said we had an appointment that night but maybe next time.

Sat

More visiting people in the other area. Sister Cox and Sister Hart are having a hard time so I spent some time talking to both of them. I'm not sure if what I said helped, but I tried. We were supposed to meet Sister Ishihara and Sister Neilson at Fushimi train station to trade companions back, but we exited out of the wrong place and so we spent about an hour calling each other and wandering around trying to find each other. Eventually we did. We spent some time discussing how to help Sister Cox and Sister Hart and then we split ways. Unfortunately, I forgot that I still had their phone. We thought we would have to go all the way to their area to catch them, but thankfully they were still on the platform and we just handed the phone over. Sister Ishihara caught my cold so when we got back she crashed and I wrote the progress record and read the Liahona.

Sun

Our Ward Mission Leader is newly called, so we had our first official meeting with him. I gave a talk on the first vision in sacrament meeting and then Sister Ishihara taught gospel principles. After church we had a food party where the main dish was spaghetti. One of the members owns a restaurant and he brought his shaved ice machine so us and all the primary kids had rainbow ices. Yum. We went out to visit some less actives and former investigators but we didn't account for the fact that it gets dark earlier. The places we went they were either not home or they had moved, so we were waffling between going home or doing some housing. We said a prayer and decided to house. We knocked on one door and the man who answered said no, but as we walked away, his friend popped out his head and said what is it that you're doing again? We soon discovered that he spoke little Japanese and even less English, but even still we talked to him for 30 minutes. He said that he would come to church with his friend. Here's hoping.

 

Love

Leah

 

Week 29

Sorry for writing so late. We moved into the new area finally so we've been doing other stuff these past couple of days, but more on that later. I got both packages this week. Thank you bunches. I really like the black knit skirt and the brownies were a hit. I think I have enough soap and razors now  to last me till next year. I'm not sure what I want to make with the choco chips yet...chocobanana bread maybe? The tide packs really helped when we moved in because we didn't have any clean clothes.

 

Mon

Sister Vincent and I bought slices  of cake from a restaurant we've had our eye on for a while. We also got blessings from the elders to give us guidance for this upcoming transfer. We visied a less active member and had a small dinner with her and her husband. They are both going to General Conference and so we talked about how  to prepare for it. I hope that it is a good experience for them both.

Tue

Everyone gathered at Nagoya station to change companions. I got the packages and I woldn't put them down because I felt so loved by you all. I walked Sister Vincent to the subway and said goodbye, but only for a moment. Sister Ishihara and I went back to Yokkaichi and had gelato and talked about the area. Unfortunately, Sister Vincent was carrying both the apartment keys and the phone so we spent the day walking around. I had a fashion show for the sisters. I am happy to report that most everything fit.

Wed

We visited some people, nothig especially special happened. Sister Vincent's bean-chan is Sister Aoki. She is of Japanese decent but she and her family have all spent their whole lives living in Hawaii so she doesn't speak any Japanese. She taught Eikaiwa for the first time. I think it will take a while for them to get used to a new  teacher. Apparently a lot of the students and members want to come to Takabata to see me. Some of the members were there at Eikaiwa and all of them were really happy to see me. I was also happy to see them, but I felt kind of akward because I had already said goodbye on Sunday.

Thu

Sister Ishihara and Sister Aoki went to the bike shop to get her a bike while Sister Vincent and I went to visit a potential investigator. Afterwards, Sister Ishihara and I went up to visit a less active that lives kind of far away. They weren't home, so we did some housing and found many nice people, but they didn't turn into investigators. I think that area is like a gold mine just waiting to be dug. We had dinner (ramen) at a nearby mall. It was a very nice mall and I would like to go back to it if I could.

Fri

We went out to eat at a hambuger spot and it turned out to be really good very authentic burgers. The only trouble with it is that the portion sizes were too small. We went to visit the nice old man that gave us goya before and sang him I am a child of God as our thanks. On the way home it started to rain but thankfully we got in before we got too wet. We then spent the rest of the night going through the Takabata records that we got from the elders. I think I understand why people like reading other people's journals now. At the same time, I understand how important it is to have good handwriting so that other people can read it. I am not sure there is any hope for the people that read my handwriting...

Sat

We did Kid's Eikaiwa in Takabata. We were expecting maybe 4 kids but it turned out to be like 10 kids with 5 moms who attended. Apparently the missionaries before taught for 45 min whereas I've only taught for 30 min and so it ended a lot earlier than most of them expected. Also, the majority of the kids who attended are much older than the ones in Yokkaichi so I think I will have to put a little more thought into lessons. The elders bought us ice cream and melon bread as a thank you for teaching. Then we came straight back and biked our way out to our far away recent converts. I was very happy to meet with them for what might be the last time. I just hope that they keep learning and keep coming to church. On the way home a splitting headache started. I wondered if it might be just dehydration but by the time we got to the apartment I knew it was something else. I stuck a thermometer in my mouth and yep, I had a fever of 102. Since we only had dinner and more records to look over that night, Sister Ishihara said that I should sleep and so I did.

Sun

Still high fever but with sore throat and sinus grossness. I took some medicine and we headed up to Takabata to meet the members for the first time. My first impression of the ward is that everyone is very talkative. They are all very full of energy it seems. Many members were happy to finally have sisters in the ward. Next week I am giving a 5-10 min talk in sacrament meeting. Then we went back to Yokkaichi to visit with our investigator for a short time. I shared with her three scriptures that I thought expressed my feelings. They are Moroni 8:3, Omni 1:26, and 2 Ne 1:16. I really hope that she and the future missionaries can progress towards baptism. She bought a peach cake roll for me and we all ate it together. As she drove us back to the train station, she asked about prophets so we taught lesson one over again in the car. I think this is a good chance for Sister Vincent and Sister Aoki to teach all the lessons in order. When we got back to the apartment, I was burning up again so I drank some water, took some medicine, read some of the Liahona until my eyelids drooped and then collapsed onto my futon until the next morning.

Mon

Moving day! Finished packing my stuff although most of it was already packed. It was a tight squeeze though. I think after the winter is over I will leave most of the winter things here or throw them away if they are too worn out. Then all we had to do for the day was wait until the movers came so I slept again for two hours (still sick). Then I finished writing in the Yokkaichi records, said my goodbyes, gave my suitcases to the movers, and walked away from the one and only area I've known. I'm sad and excited at the same time. When we got to the new apartment, there were elders all over the place in there putting desks and light fixtures in the apartment. We had to wait until the refrigerator came before we could leave the apartment so we didn't get dinner until 8 o'clock. The apartment is very clean and smells strongly of new appliances. It made me realize how hard and expensive it is to move. All of the places I've ever lived have already been furnished, so starting from scratch is a big job.

 

More on my travels next week!

 

Love you

Leah

Week 28

It's the start of a new transfer so I have a new planner and as such I forgot the one from last week so this is all going to be from memory.

Mon

We went out to eat with the elders at a curry restaurant because it was the last P-Day for Elder Tojo. We each shared the scariest moments we have had so far on our missions or in real life. Many of them did seem scary but we were laughing anyways. We went out to try and contact some referrals from the elders and got in touch with one out of three. We'll see where it goes from here.

Tue

We had a long day of biking ahead of us. We would go from one appointment 40 minutes north to another appointment 40 minutes more north to another appointment 40 minutes more north on the very edge of our area to bike back home for an hour and a half. On the way up from the first appointment to the second, Sister Vincent expressed a desire not to ride along the side of highways without sidewalks so I looked at the phone navigator to try and find another route. According to the phone, there was a small road that would take us over the highway and down to the road that we wanted. Little did we know that road would look like a cross between Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (see attached picture). So we start up this "road" and discover it is more like a hiking trail. And then we discover the spiderwebs. I think we fought off more than 50 spiders. We would pick up sticks and toss them through the webs and then race our bikes through. As we got to the top of the trail we turned around the corner expecting to see the way down, only to find a pile of fallen trees completely blocking the way down. So there we were, shouting distance from where we wanted to be but unable to get there. So we said let's just head back down. So we did. We get to the bottom of the trail and I look in my bike basket and...the phone is gone. It is now about 6 pm and starting to get dark so Sister Vincent and I said a prayer, grabbed our bike headlights which double as flashlights and head back up looking for the phone. At the very top, we find an ice pack which had fallen out of my bike and there, shiny and black, was the phone. So we sang hymns down the mountain, got on our bikes and headed back home in order to be home by curfew. Sister Vincent had 61 mosquito bites on one leg alone. I don't think I had quite as many, but certainly a lot.

Wed

I wrote my talk for Sunday so we were thankfully able to spend a little bit of time indoors. Everyone wants the picture of Sister Vincent with watermelon in her mouth. A yogurt sales lady that we talked to came to Eikaiwa.

Thu

We rode 45 min to an appointment to ride all the way back into town for district meeting. I think I have sweat more in this summer than I have in all of my life combined. I think I am in a Gatorade commercial. On the other hand, I am also more tan than I ever have been in my life. Each time I look at myself in the mirror it seems like someone's gone over me with an airbrush. We went up to visit a less active with the bishop's wife and it seemed to go over well. Afterwards the bishop's wife took us out to dinner at a spaghetti place and I had a delicious piece of chocolate cake. 

Fri

We found a new investigator! She is 84 years old. I bore my testimony about prayer, eternal families, and we had a small discussion about the Word of Wisdom and she said that we could come back. Hopefully she'll be willing to hear more about the gospel and not just want company to talk to. 

Sat

Transfer calls. I am....transferring! To the next area over! I am going to open Takabata for sisters. There are elders there, but me and Sister Ishihara (a Japanese sister from Okinawa) are going to be the first sisters there. Takabata is downtown Nagoya, including Nagoya station. No more rice fields and forests and green things. I feel sad to leave Yokkaichi because it is like home but excited to open a new area. I'm sure that we are going to get lost. I am also a new sister training leader (which is kind of like a Zone Leader but for sisters). Sister Vincent is becoming a trainer in Yokkaichi. Please pray for her and her new companion. This is going to be a hard experience but also one that can bring a lot of growth. We got to see a member perform the piano in a concert hall. It was quite beautiful and she was too. Around 8 o'clock, the phone rings and it is a less active sobbing on the other end of the phone. I tried to piece what she was saying through the sobs and couldn't get the whole picture so I said we'll pray for you and you should pray too. I also said that we would come and visit on Monday so hopefully we'll get a better understanding then. 

Sun

I said my goodbyes to the members here. I feel very sad to leave them because they have become my friends. I want to keep in touch with them for sure. I also want to keep up my Japanese after my mission so that I can communicate with them. The ward had a dessert party for the missionaries who are leaving, so we had a good time. Since I'm in the same stake still, we will see each other at Stake Conference and things like that.

Week 27

Sometime between now and next week I reach my half way point, but each time I do the math, there is this missing week, so sometime soon I'll be over the hump.

Mon

We went with the elders and a member to a couple of shrines and ice cream. It was very hot. Apparently it got up to 40 degrees Celcius which is above 100 in Farenheit. The member made some side trips to show us where his non-member family members live so we could go "visit" them, but I'm not sure I can remember where they are just from driving past them. Then we had a member FHE. They gave us grapes as refreshments. Sister Vincent and I proceeded to pop the whole thing in our mouths and the members looked suprised and said "you eat the skins in America?" Apparently in Japan they always peel their grapes. We came home with purple fingers.

Tue

We had a member unexpectedly call us up and say come over for dinner, so we planned our day so that we would work up in that area. We visited a bunch of less actives and found one lady who talked with us for fifteen or twenty minutes. She is a practicer of light life, a religion that is focused on meditation and chi and mental waves and stuff (as far as I understood). She accepted a pamphlet though. Hopefully she'll read it.

Wed

Zone Conference! I unfortunately read the train times wrong so we got there a little late. I was very embarrased to walk in during the opening hymn. But all's well that ends well. We heard from the area medical advisor and the area counselor. They both had very good presentations, although the medical advisor had some gross pictures of ingrown toenails. Yamashita Kaicho asked us to do a 40 day fast in our areas. What it means is that one person or one family fasts for one day and then passes the buck to the next person to fast for the next day. This has had great results in other missions according to him. Hopefully the ward will buy in. Sister Yamashita made us real brownies. Not Japanese style brownies, but like Hersheys brownies with walnuts and chocolate chunks. I wish that I could have saved it for another day to savor it more, but all good things end in their own time. That good thing was gone in about 30 seconds.

Thu

Three member apointments in one day! One member gave us asian pears. Yum yum.

Fri

Sister Vincent's tires weren't flat, but they were low, so we borrowed the elder's pump and got them filled up again. She said that the days before it felt like her legs were going to drop off and then it was so easy to ride. Yup. Keep your tires filled. We visited a less active and talked about her friend who is having a hard time. Next Wednesday we are going with her to her friend's house because the less active member wants the missionaries to talk to her. I hope that this will help the LA to become active and help her friend to feel some comfort (and get baptised). Then we biked 9.5 miles to our recent convert's house and taught a big lesson because we haven't been able to meet with them for a while. They had a hard time wrapping their minds around a couple of topics so we assigned a chapter of the Book of Mormon for homework and said we'd talk about it next time. One of them had their first experience with persecution of a sort. He was talking with one of his customers about religion and she asked him some questions that he didn't know the answer to, but he said that he did get baptized and she was like "why would you do something like that without studying it out before? Are you crazy? You need to read the Bible!" He felt like maybe she might have something against Mormons. I said that everyone has experiences like that and I met some when I was in school. I just hope his faith gets stronger from these experiences.

Sat

I got the three wool skirts that Mom made me tailored because they were literally falling off of me. At the end of this transfer I plan on chucking out any other clothes that are eating me alive. We went housing around the tailor shop and met a man who gave us about six goyas, which are like cucumbers but bitter. Then we rang the door at one house (most of Japan's door bells are more like intercoms) and said we share a message about strenghthening families and have you ever thought about that kind of thing. There was a big sigh from the other side and then she said she didn't want to talk about it. I guess she needs some family strengthening. A recently re-activated member, a recent convert and us went to a member's house for dinner. It was SOOO DELICIOUS. We had tempura and soba and watermelon and some juice that I don't know what it was made from but it was highly drinkable.

Sun

We put our trash can out on our balcony because there were a bunch of fruit flies in it and they would swarm out whenever we opened it. It was pretty gross in there. Thankfully Monday is trash day. One member told us during church that on the news they said don't go out and exercise or work today because it's so hot. About 20 people have died this summer because of the heat. So we went out to visit two PI's that live up an enormous hill in the heat. Yay. One was home and one said they didn't have time right then. Ah well.

 

Love

Leah

Week 26

Mon

Fairly usuall P-day, nothing out of the ordinary. We didn't have any appointments that night so we decided to go visit a member that we haven't been to before. Of course, it started raining on the way and we didn't bring our rain coats, so we got drenched. It was pretty fun actually. We found the member's house, but we didn't want to spend the whole time talking to them, so we decided to go ring some doorbells and come visit them afterward. Near that member's house were some giant apartment complexes. Many of them are not lived in, so it seemed very much like a zombie film because it was night, in a deserted place, with flickering lights and naught but the cicadas to keep us company. We probably scared ourselves more than the place itself was scary. But we ended up being fine.

Tue

We went to visit a referral from the elders with high hopes. We got to the area before the appointment and knocked on some doors. We found one lady who said yes, I'd like to know more and I'd like to meet with you. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a second appointment with her. And I have a hunch that she might be a little mentally ill. There were some other people who we met that were nice and said come back, but I'm not interested in religion. So we plan on going back and talking about religion in a sneaky way, so that they don't even realize that they're having a religious conversation. In any case, we met with the referral and she said that she read a little of the pamphlet but she had to leave soon so she couldn't talk then. Also, we didn't get a second appointment. So we came home, had lunch, and then knocked on some more doors. We met one young mom who was very nice, but she lives in another town and was only in Yokkaichi for one day. Hopefully she'll meet the missionaries in her area. We talked to one old member who told us that that morning she had gone to the Post Office to pay her tithing (because that's how you do it in Japan) and as soon as she paid it a member offered to drive her to the grocery store and as soon as she got home and put her groceries away we came to her door. She said it was definitely blessings from paying her tithing. That night we had an FHE with some members and she gave me brown sugar jello. It seems a little funny that even in Japan members have an affinity for jello.

Wed

We walk out of the apartment and over to the bike parking spot to find my back tire completely flat. So we call the elders and say hey, can you help us? and they say yeah but we used our last patch this week and we say we don't have any either so we walked my bike to the bike shop. They fixed it and while they fixed it we had ice cream. Then we go on our merry way and 30 min later I'm completely flat again. So we walk back and say ummm, something is wrong. And they say yes, we'll take another look at it and give you a new tube for free. Apparantly, the stuff in my bike basket (aka scriptures and proselyting pamplets) is too heavy so it was damaging the spokes which would then come out of their spot and poke holes in my tire tube. So they replaced the spokes and we did some walking dendo during that time. I thought the whole thing was very funny, to have two flat tires in one day.

Thu

Companion exchange! This time another sister and I worked in Yokkaichi. Stremka shimai and I went to a less actives' house for lunch and service, only to have the lunch take too long so we had to call raincheck on the service. Then we biked up to a former investigator's house to talk with her. Stremka shimai couldn't get over how many trees and forest-y and field-y places there are in this area. Apparently her area is very city like. We met with the lady and she gave us a tea that we couldn't drink, so we just left it there in front of us. We talked for a while and then she asked if we would like a different drink. I said would that be ok and she said yes and gave us coconut milk with brown sugar in it. A much better tasting option I think. She came close to being an investigator again, but not quite. We'll try again next time. Then we came home and played badminton with the ward. It was very hot because the gym didn't have air conditioning, only two fans. But fun anyway.

Fri

Zone Training Meeting. It seemed to be a more spiritual one than ones in the past. Then we came home and biked very quickly to Komono cho which is an hour away by bike. We were both feeling pretty gross, so before our appointment we stopped at a convienient store to buy a gatorade like drink to try and get us hydrated again. Then we met with our recent converts for only a few minutes before we had to bike back again for a dinner appointment. I got an orange pastry that was like ambrosia.

Sat

One of the things that Yamashita Kaicho wanted us to do was go to the police station and introduce ourselves and find out some information about the area. So we did and they were nice and all they had to say was don't be out at night. So then we went to the city hospital to see if we could volunteer there. They said that because it was the weekend the people that we would need to talk to weren't there but if we came back on a week day we could try again. Then we went to visit some members and ring some doorbells. I don't like cicadas. They pretend like they're dead and lying on the ground but then they fly up as soon as you're near. They're like zombies.

Sun

We got a lot of member appointments made for this week! Yay! We were planning to go back to an area where we found some nice people, but a member came up to us and said that all of her family (not all of whom are active) would be at home that day, so please come and visit so they can hear. So we did. And when we got there no one was home, so we were wondering what to do, whether we should go to the area that we planned on going to or stay up in the area near the member. Then she came back home. She was watering her plants and didn't hear us come. So we taught a short lesson to her and her daughter and went to visit a nearby member. This member is so amazing. Right now she's having a hard time with her family, but her testimony is so strong. She has had some pretty amazing miracles in her life. After we shared our message she said hey, I'll come with you to knock on doors, so we went around her neighborhood talking to people. We practically taught half of lesson 1 to a mom and her two little kids, but she lives in another city and was just here for a day. I think we planted seeds for other missionaries to harvest. It has also been HOT!

 

Love

Leah