This week was pretty great!

Tokyo Temple

Hello everyone!

I've officially been out for 3 months now! And I've been in Japan for a month. Where is time going???? Actually, three months doesn't sound all that long...but next month it'll be 4 months..and that sounds like a lot! Which makes me feel like I don't have much time left! And I still have sooooooo much more to learn...especially nihongo!

This week was pretty great. We were sooo busy. I don't actually know what happened to the week. We traveled all over our area and out of it too! We had a couple meetings and lots of eikaiwa (ed. note: English) classes and...oh yeah...we were on TV!!!!!!! 

They are running a commercial for our English classes and sister Orton and I get to be the poster children. Sister Orton just corrected me and said "you" hahahaha. What makes that really funny is that I barely say anything on the commercial. I wasn't quite sure what was going on...but at the end I smile and look into the camera and say "come learn English with us..it'll be fun!" The commercial starts showing this week so we will see if more people come to class Friday...

Orton Shemai and me in front of the Tokyo Temple

Today was temple p-day. That's why there was no email yesterday. It was super fun! After the temple I got to see almost everyone from my MTC district!! It was sooo fun! It was an “Alma 17: 2-3 moment.” Dopp shimai was there and I was just so happy to see her. It may have been a tearful reunion haha. Then we went out to eat with her and her companion and then we spent a little time in the city.

Downtown Shibuya

Shibuya is crazy! There are soooo many people and it smells really bad. I've become pretty sensitive about stuff that never bothered me before too. All the media that surrounded us was showing off alcohol and trying to make smoking look cool. And the way the girls who worked in the clothing stores dressed! Oh my goodness! Every single one of them looked the same and were hardly wearing anything. I just felt sooo bad for them! I wanted to tell them they are worth more than that! I think I'm spoiled over here in Oyumino. It's so family friendly! And I have yet to see a poster trying to sell alcohol.

So a couple weeks back I think I told about S San; the old lady who found us in the park. Well, we have been meeting with her each week. And this past week we gave her a Book of Mormon. It was the greatest thing ever! Based on her reaction you would've thought we had given her a new car or she had one a five day cruise. She was SO excited! I have not seen someone that excited before. And she was soooo excited to read it too. We would ask her to read a paragraph or a verse and she would finish it and then would say "I'm just gonna read the next one too, ok?" I can't wait to see her next week. I wouldn't be surprised if she has already finished the Book of Mormon. One of my other favorite moments of our lesson was when we told her Christ came to the Americas too. Her response "What? I didn't know that! How did I not know that!?" There was no question of if it happened or not. Just a question of how in the world did she not know that. How awesome!

So at the beginning of eikaiwa we teach pronunciation. On Friday we worked on "L" and "R". It was pretty funny. River and liver, fry and fly, and brush and blush each sounded like they were saying the same word. I would say River and Liver. And then they would repeat after me reeber and reeber. I had them do that one quite a few times. Then we went to fRy and fLy and they repeated after me fw-eye and fw-eye. It was pretty funny. Most of the Friday class is older people too. So there are all these little old nihonjin trying so hard to say the words correctly. And when they think they have said it right they are SOOO excited! I love it.

My other exciting story for the week: my bicycle bit me!!! There is a picture included for you all to see. I finally got my bike home...after going an entire transfer without it and how does it thank me?? By attacking me!

Bike bite!

 

Our bishop gave a talk at a baptism that was held this week. He said something that I really liked: just because you are baptized doesn't mean that the hard times stop. It means that you now have brothers and sisters within the church to help and support you AND you have this gospel to help you and support you. You may become very ill, or you may have an accident or you family may get ill BUT I can promise that God will always support you and that you now have brothers and sisters that will support you too.

Isn't that great? It's so true too. And I think sometimes people don't realize that. Hard times are just part of life. And we all will have hard times. That's just how it is. But we are promised we won't be given anything we can't handle. What if challenges and trials are actually blessings in disguise?? We learn and grow from them and become stronger and better people when we overcome them! And the best part is that we don't have to go at it alone. Heavenly Father is always there for us. And because of the atonement Christ knows exactly what we are going through. And then we also have the church which is a giant support system!

Well that's all for now! I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week.

Sister Molinari