1 September 2014 Sanjo
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| Nitta Shimai and I (uh, me) |
With September starting the weather has already cooled down. I broke out my tights last night! During the day it is still pretty warm, but as soon as the sun goes down it gets chilly! It's a welcome chilly...for now. Probably after a week or two of cold I'll be longing for summer again though haha. If I stay up here in the winter it is gonna be cold! Very, very cold!
I loveeeee my companion. She's an inspiration! She works hard and loves it. And I love working with her. We've already seen so many miracles this week. It's great!
This week we were chatting it up with some ladies and I accidentally told the lady I had been in Japan for almost 8 years...instead of 8 months. She was very impressed and proceeded to talk to me in VERY fancy Japanese. I couldn't understand why she was doing that...until she referenced me being here for so long...we had a good laugh about that after we walked away.
Fujita San gave us gold to drink! Because we don't drink tea she gave us hot water with gold flecks in it. What a deal! Too bad gold doesn't have any flavor... Because Nitta shimai is from Hawaii, Fujita San wanted to show us her trip to Hawaii picture albums. My favorite moment had to have been when, while on a page of her on a tennis court, she said "I don't actually play tennis, I just wear tennis clothes."
Skabelund shimai gave Fujita San a Book of Mormon as a goodbye present. And miracle of miracles she is reading it! We are very excited for our next lesson with her!
We've been doing a lot of work with less active members. There are QUITE a few of them. It is crazy how easy it is to just stop going to church but how ridiculously difficult it is to come back. We've been having lots of fun with them though. Tosaka shimai has to be one of my favorites. She is great! And she loves crafts! Match made in heaven!
We are currently making really cool paper crafts with her. They are stenciled flowers...mahh I don't know how to explain it...I'll send a picture. Anyways, you cut them out with an x-acto blade. I made mine very, very intricate...it will probably take a long time to make...so, we will be spending lots of time with her! Ogura shimai was able to come to church again this Sunday. That is two weeks in a row! What a miracle!
We also got to meet with her and we made a new goal we her to work towards: go to the temple! It's great. Being up here in Niigata we don't get to have temple p-day. I never realized how much I could miss going to the temple. It is such a special place. When I go I'm always reminded how much God really loves each of us. Its great. We are actually planning on inviting quite a few less actives to make the temple there goal. I'm excited for them.
This week biked to Kamo! It's probably around an hour bike ride. We missed our train so decided we might as well bike instead. We had a top secret mission to complete. Our entire mission (so every missionary in Tokyo) heart attacked our church leaders doors. We were in charge of heart attacking Nakagawa kaicho's door. It was really fun. Their two boys, Yusuke kun(pronounced koon) and Tatsuhiro kun caught us though！ but we told them it was a secret and it was all good. They ended up being very good helpers.
Yasuko
San rode her bicycle to church on Sunday! It's probably a twenty-ish
minute ride. What a champ! Next week we are going to try and pick her up
though. I think it was a little harder and longer than she expected.
But, she loved church! Before church we sat and I tried to tell her
about temples...I ran out of things to say in Japanese pretty quickly.
The background on my iPad is the dc temple and she asked me of it was a
church. I told her it was a temple. And that my parents had been married
in that temple. And that, when we get married in the temple it is not
just for this life, but for eternity. And through temple marriages we
are an eternal family. Who doesn't want that? After that I ran out of
nihongo so I started showing her pictures of temples around the world.
It was really fun.
We have a brand new missionary in our district this transfer. Fryzel choro. After church we had the nihonjin equivalent of a pot luck and he was talking to a member..or trying to...at some point he turns to me and asks me to translate something for him. I turn and look at the member, Tanabe shimai, and she bursts into laughter...because yup you guessed it.She is peda peda in English! What a goof! It was pretty funny.
After church we got to meet one of the members daughters, who has been less active for a while. It was totally. Miracle and It was love at first sight. She is the cutest thing ever! I can't wait to get to know her better. She reminds me a lot of myself. We had been trying to figure out when we could meet her and hadn't been successful all week. And then she ends up coming to us!
This week has been really awesome! I've gotten to see Heavenly Father's hand in the work. He is preparing people and helping us every step of the way. I am so lucky to be a missionary and to get to serve a mission in Japan. I love this gospel. And I love how it has changed my life. I am so lucky!
Love you all,
Sister
Molinari
