Monday, August 12, 2019
こんにちは!
I can't believe it's only been a week since my last P-Day, it feels like forever. It also feels like I've been in Japan for both the longest time and no time at all. Time is weird.
Spiritual Stuff:
One of the people we're teaching is a middle-aged おばあちゃん (obaa-chan= grandma) who lost a son to an accident at the age of 3 and who's husband is currently in a nursing home. It's been such a joy to teach her about the Plan of Salvation and feel her love for all children, not just her own. We can't wait to continue to teach her more about how she can see her son again! So grateful for the opportunity.
One thing that's been emphasized this last week, in my district, companionship, and personal study, is the need to rely on the Lord. I love that PMG talks about not relying on our own abilities, not worrying about our own abilities (or lack thereof), because we have the Lord on our side. We are on His mission, serving His purpose, and He will support us. One scripture I like is 1 Nephi 4:6-
"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."
Some Things I Forgot to Talk About Last Week:
Our first morning with Japan, we got up half an hour early and jogged to a nearby exercise park, where we joined a lot of old people in doing radio exercises (look up a video). It was both hilarious and surprisingly exhausting.
Tokyo's traffic is the nicest, politest traffic I've ever seen. On our drive from the airport to the mission home, not once did I hear a car honk, and when someone wanted to get over, the cars made way for them. Completely different from New York lol.
Gotta love housing when you're going up an apartment complexes staircase for that one light that's on the top floor, picking your way over and under and around spider webs with very alive spiders in them. And then they don't even answer to the door lol. Great experience to look back on and laugh.
Daily Life/Fun Stories:
I have been converted to the ways of the sweat rag. That's right, the sweat rag. As in, a rag you carry around and use to wipe your sweat, because it's that hot and you're moving that much.
Ogata姉妹 and I needed to use the bathroom before 英会話 (eikaiwa= literally English conversation, the name our weekly free English class), but when we rounded the corner there was an enormous spider in the way (see pic). It disappeared after one of the elders tried squashing it. Needless to say, we look around very carefully when we use the church bathroom now...
We got invited by the nonmember sister of a member to dance in a summer festival, and so we went! We danced, but also ate food and watched the mini fireworks show. Also made some new friends.
On Saturday, we were invited to eat dinner and do a 模擬レッスン (mogi ressun= role play lesson) with a convert couple of about 2 years. We looked at the time and various ways to get there, and determined that if we took the train we'd be late, but we could probably make it by bike. Ogata姉妹 asked if I was OK with that and I, seeing the 22 minutes on the Google maps app, said that I was. I figured it would be tiring but not too bad. Turns out, that was the time it would take to drive there. We biked there in 45 minutes. Absolutely gorgeous countryside, but Ogata姉妹 was definitely going easy on me that first week because I was definitely feeling the burn. However, it turned out to be a great evening, well worth the bike trip. I don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life, though.
The ward mission leader took us out to lunch so we could make some plans, and he took us to a sushi restaurant! I got to try more 天ぷら (tenpura= tempura), along with my first real sushi! So delicious and soft and completely unexpected. The 長老たち (chouroutachi= elders) just stuck to 天ぷら lol.
New Foods:
-nikujaga
-gouyachanpuru
-sushi! (tuna, fatty tuna, and mackerel)
-more Japanese curry!
-homemade miso soup
-cold noodles
(most of them made by Ogata姉妹, who is an amazing cook, thank goodness)
About the Pictures:
- The spider
- Ogata姉妹 and the terrified Wilcox長老 lol
- Odawara Castle!
- I love a good sunset
- The festival before it started
- Mini fireworks show!
- The entrance to Odawara Castle
- At lunch with the ward mission leader
- Using an old DVD player to watch a training video because our pocket wifi is too slow to use our tablets...
- As always, amazing views
愛してます!
-スナ一姉妹
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