Week 10- JAPAN!

みなさんこんにちは!!!!!
(Minasan konnichiwa)

I still cannot believe I have been in Japan now for 2 weeks! Oh before
I forget Happy late Thanksgiving! What I have notice while being here
is that some of the people hear aren't as friendly as I thought they
would be. But, it's alright.
Well this week has been nothing, but finding, finding, and finding so more.
When I first arrived in Wakayama there wasn't any investigators that
we were teaching. Not even one. We had a few potential investigators,
but we were starting from scratch. In a way, I was excited, but after
these first two weeks, I kinda kept wondering why?
Wakayama is a crazy city! The language in this part of Japan, like
Osaka is very slang. So, when trying to listen to someone it's really
hard. But, little by little I'm catching on. Wakayama is know for this
mikans(which is little mandarins oranges) and umeboshi (pickled
plums). Okay I probably should start from the beginning.

Tuesday- we went across town and went to a lesson, with a sister who
was very nice, she read some of he Book of Mormon, after we went to
the bishops, and had dinner at their home. It was really good, my
companion and I got to help the the bishops wife her name is V Shimai,
she is really nice she is from the Philippines, and loves talking
English with us. After the meal, we taught a quick lesson and left.

Wednesday- we did our normal studies and then headed out to a less
active members house. This sister was so nice, I had not met her
before, but she was so cute, she is this cute little old lady, who
made us, I thought Moogi cha, but turned out the tea was black bean
tea... haha it wasn't the best. But, I still drank it anyway. After we
headed around and went finding.we really didn't have any luck, and I
mean we went to a apartment complex that had 20 doors and not one
opened. Okay, I probably should explain about housing. In Japan,
people don't normally answer their door, they talk through this little
speaker phone that everyone has. You press the button, and that is
when you know if they might be interested, if you press the doorbell,
and you tell them who you are and they say I'm not interested, or they
might come to the door, or you have to have a conversation on the
speaker. Very weird, but okay! But, we were riding our bikes, and all
of a sudden I saw his old lady working on her garden. I told my
companion I wanted to stop, when we got over there, I used what little
Japanese I had and asked her if she has heard about God. She then
started talking fast, and my companion translated, but she said she is
Buddhist and believes in recarnation and she believes that she will be
able to come back as another person, and she said when she comes back
she would like to be in the Olympics hahah. But, we gave her a plan of
salvation pamphlet!

Thursday-yah Thursday was Thanksgiving! Yah, it was weird not being
around the table with a big turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing...
but I still had fun. So first off post office people here need to
figure out their addresses right, second off did you know that Gusman
Shimai is getting married? Hahah I didn't either, Just Kidding! Gusman
Shimai and I were just getting ready to go when the doorbell rang!
Gusman Shimai got up and ran to the door. When the mailman handed her
a package and shouted "Omedito" which means congratulations and left!
We brought the package upstairs, and were about to open it, when
Gusman Shimai said wait... is this for the right house? Confused she
looked for our address, and low and behold it wasn't. She then looked
at the senders name it said "bridal"!!!! Laughing our heads off, I
turned to her and said "wow, Gusman Shimai I didn't know you were
getting married.." it was so funny. "I thought he was just excited to
give us a package, not that I was getting married)!haha!
After we hopped on a train towards a family in our wards house. One
thing about Wakayama is that we have the coolest trains ever! We have
one that is called the umeboshi dencha (pickled plum) train, the
Ichigo dencha (strawberry train) , and Tama dencha (Cat train). But,
we didn't get any of those haha... but we headed over and had a
thanksgiving dinner with a family and the chōro Tachi, I did get
really full though, so that was good. We thanked them, and then headed
home. When we got home, we worked on planning for the next week. Then
headed our to another dinner appointment with a family in our ward the
Oumis'. When we got there we sat down and had dinner, the talked and I
just sat their listening, then for some odd reason, I don't know how
they got on this topic, but they were talking about Natto. If you
don't know what Natto is I would highly recommend looking it up
online, but I would not eat it. They were talking about it, and then
they asked if we wanted to try it? I said sure, that was a big
mistake. My companion and I got some put in a bowl for us. And it did
not look good. Natto looks like snot, it is so gross. We then on the
count of three, put it into our mouths and my word man that was so
gross.

Friday- was my first district meeting, I got to meet Carr chōrō and
Meckam chōrō they are super nice. After the meeting we went this this
sushi restaurant that is so good! It's like fast food sushi, but I
didn't care, it was so good. Basically you just either order on this
screen what type of sushi you want our you take the ones that go on
this conveyor belt, and it just comes out on the conveyor belt. I
tried many different types, but my favorite was shrimp with onions,
mayo, and avocado! I also tried, salmon, salmon with cheese, and 🐙
octopus, octopus is a little chewy though. That night we taught
Eikaiwa, that we do every week.it was really fun, there was only a few
people this week, so I only had one person in my class, and his name
is Ari San, and he told me at the beginning "may we just have a
conversation in English the whole time" I said "you bet"! During the
lesson we talked a bunch about America and my life actually, he asked
a lot about my mission, how much, and then he asked about coffee. Do I
drink it? I said not, and he was surprised. After we were done, about
to end I asked if he would say the prayer. He said sure. The funny
thing is after the class, I was talking to my companion, and she asked
about Ari she asked "did you have him pray?" And I said "yah" she then
goes on to telling me that Ari san is not a member. I was beyond
surprised. Haha yah, so I got a nonmember to say a prayer, I also
taught him a lesson without knowing it haha? And at the end he asked
if we could come over. What? So apparently he was taught before by my
companion, so now we can count him as a investigator! Wow!

Saturday- that was really fun day, we went to the BEACH! We biked far
to get there! Probably a good 12-15 miles. Don't quote me though. When
we got there we talked a little bit, and then started talking to other
people that we saw. We met this really nice lady who had a bull dog
that was beyond cute! We then talked a little bit about God but she
wasn't that interested, after we started our long bike ride back home.

Sunday- we went to church, oh the little primary children in our ward
did a cute program. It's funny because my companion had to translate
for them as well. Haha.. after we did a lot of housing. Oh and it was
raining hard, but we got to sing a Christmas song for this cute
family. After, we headed to this cute old investigators house, we got
to introduce ourselves. But, she was busy, so she said we could come
back. As we were walking back to our bikes in the rain she yelled to
us and gave us an umbrella. In that split second I could see the love
I had for her, and what joy and hope I had for her!

One of the things that I have realized from being on a mission is the
power of the Book of Mormon! There's a quote that  President Benson
further taught: “The Book of Mormon teaches us truth [and] bears
testimony of Christ. … But there is something more. There is a power
in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you
begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to
resist temptation. … You will find the power to stay on the strait and
narrow path.” And I know that to be true. I have found so much desire
to ready from studying the Book of Mormon and I love it! I hope each
of you try to read this wonderful book! I have felt the love of my
savior as I have read it! Also the new #lighttheworld video on
Mormon.org is up go watch it!

Love you all
Love ロケット姉妹