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