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