Root Beer and Long Nights

October 04, 2017

Root Beer and Long Nights

This past week was a rush of a lot of random stuff. There's not going to be a great way to make them flow into each other, so this email will probably be really random. Here we go!

First, we have continued our heart attack adventures and are reaching the end of the ward list. Fun story: we went to heart attack a member that lives about an hour bike ride out in the middle of nowhere. Get there, and the kanji (name) is different on the house than what's in our records, so we're like "dangit, they must have moved" and rode back home. The member then proceeds to ask us at church why we rode past their house last week? Haha, cue us realizing that we just have the wrong kanji and they do actually live there. So we made the trek back out there this week and actually heart attacked them. Luckily it all worked out in the end, but it was an amusing experience. We also had a member bear testimony in church--to the point of tears--and how that small act of kindness touched her heart and helped her through a hard time. It was so tender and a great reminder that sometimes the smallest acts of kindness can have a big impact on those around us. Go do something nice for someone this week! <3

I also got sick this week. That was...not so fun. Luckily it was just a cold and went away after a day of mostly sleeping, but ugh...it was rough. However, it is such a blessing that I haven't gotten sick before now and that it went away so quickly. たくさん祝福があります！ Gonna be downing the vitamin C as I go into this next week, though. Can't afford to get sick this week!

Why? Excellent question! This Wednesday, right outside Toyohashi Train Station at the busiest part of the day, Prince Shimai and I are having a concert. How did this happen? Not fully sure myself. One second we had the idea of doing something small at the train station--like playing guitar and passing out flyers, really simple like--and next thing we know the ward has advertised it to hundreds of people and reserved a stage for us. Bright side, the ward is really supportive of this idea and we should reach a lot of people. Down side, we now have to perform in front of hundreds of Japanese people. Haha...We'll be singing for an hour, performing both English and Japanese songs. Whoot! We've been practicing really hard, and will continue to practice until we actually perform. All prayers are appreciated ;) The elders will also be there, but they will be handing out flyers for our English classes to the masses standing around watching us sing. Expect a full report next week!

We met yesterday with an investigator named Christina who is a redheaded American living in Toyohashi and teaching English, haha. We met her at the train station a few weeks back and have been trying to meet, but she got really sick so it never happened. But we finally met with her and it was amazing! She grew up in Montana, so has some friends who are Mormon, and knew quite a bit about our church already. She's Christian, so we were able to have some really good discussions about religion. We had a picnic in the park that lasted for 3 hours! We just talked and had a lesson--in English!--and it was amazing. We are meeting again in a couple weeks and I'm excited to see how it goes.

Other than that, the week progressed much like normal. Lots of finding, working with the ward, and trying to speak Japanese--a daily struggle. The main other highlight from the week happened last night. We were practicing the songs in our apartment when we got a call from the Taniguchis. They inform us that they have root beer and are bringing it to our house. Haha, to preface, you cannot--CANNOT--find root beer in Toyohashi. It's hard enough to find in Japan, but impossible here. And I am a big fan of root beer. But I wasn't terribly torn up about it. There are more important things ;) However, when they brought us the root beer, it was the nicest thing ever. Taniguchi Kyoudai loves root beer, but when he got some, he didn't drink it himself. He immediately gave it to us sister missionaries. With ice cream too! He is just too nice. We enjoyed delicious root beer floats last night and said many prayers of thanks. It really is the little things that can make all the difference in the world. Go take the missionaries out for ice cream! It'll make a world of difference, I promise <3

That's it for this week. Sorry there are not a ton of photos this week. Expect lots more next!

Thanks for all the letters and support <3

愛しています！