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