Hello hello my dear wonderful family!
Thank you for the package!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!! I've been thoroughly enjoying my oatmeal, peanut butter, delicious goodies, English hymnbook, my rocking red slippers, and all my favorite things. It made my day!! It's fun to think that Dad was somewhere in Japan when he mailed it to me. :D
It's been snowing for 2 weeks straight here! It's crazy! I'm told it's NOT normal for Sendai, but the weather seems determined to snow snow snow. Thankfully it's wet and slushy so there's only a little ice so we can walk just fine and then we put our boots by the heater when we eat so they're warm before we go out again. It's been so fun!
Tuesday we taught Ishibashi-san (took the bus because the roads are still bad). It was a really cool lesson! We had planned to teach about the sacrametn but she really wanted to talk about forgiveness. She uses really intellectual Japanese so I didn't understand a whole ton and Orgill shimai [Sister Orgill] did most of the talking, but I was able to understand enough to pull out all these random scriptures to help. It was way cool! Then we went back to the church and had a mogi [roleplay] with Sugawara shimai [Sister Sugawara] (Stake President's wife) on the Plan of Salvation--it was super good--and DCS. It was super good!
Wednesday we had lunch with Kikkawa shimai [Sister Kikkawa] (she's SUPER cute--has 3 kids, in her 40's). She went on a mission somewhere in Japan. she's super kind. We also had Eikaiwa [English class] and we taught about holidays. Does anyone have any clue when Arbor Day is? I had no idea and everyone seemed to think it was a super cool holiday. All I remembered about it is that people plant trees. Why it started, when it is, what you're really supposed to do--I have no idea! I'm losing my Ameri[c]an!
Thursday, Orgill shimai's mom sent her chips, salsa, cheese, and torti[ll]as so we had a fabulous Mexican feast. It was awesome! Then Moon shimai (from Utah--from Orgill shimai's MTC district) and Morita shimai (from somewhere in Japan) arrived for our Sister Training Leader split. Moon shimai and I went straight to Niiyama shimai (the 83-year-old, dendo [proselyting] fire, served more than 2 missions, awesome, a little intimidating 5'1" one)'s house for our scheduled mogi. It went really well! I was magically able to speak and understand Japanese well enough to have a fantastic time and she loved us so much she gave us persim[m]ons, french toast, and 3 cups of steaming mugi-cha [a kind of tea that's approved for Japanese members] each! It was way fun. :) Then we streeted and tried to visit a PI [potential investigator] and talked to some cool people. A couple had interest in Mormon.org and Eikaiwa so that was fun. Then we went over and meet up with the Takakos and the rest of the shimai [sisters] for a pizza party. Takako kyodai [Brother Takako] is an awesome cook! It was delicious. We'd invited a bunch of less actives but they all called and said they couldn't come, so we shared a spiritual thought with the Takakos and they even had a referral for the Kirby shimaitachi so that was super awesome! Then we returned and did a Mogi for the STLs before planning and sleep. :) I also got your letter that day Mom! So fun! Loved it!! :) AND MORITA SHIMAI AND ORGILL SHIMAI FOUND A NEW INVESTIGATOR! They were housing Oikawa-san's 10 floor apartment and found this cute 20-year-old was home babysitting her sister and they taught her how to pray and talked about God and she said we could come again on Thursday! So exciting!!!!!!
Friday, we had another trio practice for Zone Training (to which there's going to be an Area 70 coming--way cool!) and since we were still on our split the STLs came and studied at the church with Luk shimai (from Hong Kong) (Johnson shimai's companion) while we practiced. We're so excited! It's such a cool song! Then we had lunch and did split feedback and then the Moon shimai and Morita shimai switched over and started splits with Kirby shimai and Isogai shimai. Then Orgill shimai and I did our studying and gengo [language study?] and went and rode with Oikawa-san and Seza kaicho to the church for the Nagaoka family's 8-year-old son's baptism. It was a miracle we were able to get Oikawa-san there because it was snowing like crazy and we almost weren't able to find a ride for her! She loved it. She said she realized that the water isn't cold and that she probably has as much faith as the boy that got baptized and she talks about it all the time now. :)
Saturday, the 4 choro [elders] called us and asked if we could come to lunch with them and a PI. They found her information on the wall in the International Center and it said she is really good at English and wants to meet lots of gaijin [foreigners]. So we subwayed down to the Eki [station] and went to Indian food with ehr [her]. She was super cool and cute and kind and had AWESOME English. She actually did a 8 month home stay in America and has interest in Eikaiwai and church and she's studying Japanese law. Way cool. Then we came back and tried to visit Oikawa-san but she wasn't home so we left her a message and then we went back to do weekly and she called and said we could come so we ran over there, had a miracle lesson--taught God is our Loving Heavenly Father, Gospel Blesses Families, all of Plan of Salvation, and the Word of Wisdom. She seemed to think it all was interesting, but she was worried about quitting tea--but thinks if she can drink Mugi-cha and the other okay teas that she'll be fine. :)
Sunday, we'd set up for Oikawa shimai (we're starting to call her shimai now!) to come to church with Date shimai but when Date shimai called her Oikawa shimai said she couldn't come because she was too busy! Everyone else's kyudoshas [investigators] also bailed on church too (maybe everyone was afraid of going out in the snow) but we were able to joint with Kriby shimai and Isogai shimai's new Nepaljin [Nepalese?] kyudosha and--oh my goodness--he is amazing! He was so sincere, so earnest, such a kinjin [golden investigator]! He REALLY wants to know the message of the gospel. And they'd only given him a Book of Mormon the night before but he'd already read all the introductionary pages and the first 20 pages plus a ton of other stuff in his Hindi Book of Mormon. Amazing! And he isn't even fluent in Japanese but he wants them to teach him in Japanese/English. So cool. And Isogai shimai did this really cool visual representation of the gospel blesses families; she had little pictures of different people in a family and then a big one of Jesus Christ with all these little threads attached to it and said "Because life is so busy, sometimes we can get all spread out will [with] all we have to do, but when we are all working in the gospel and unified by it," (here she took the threads attached to the big picture and taped them to the pictures of the family members) "...we are connected by the gospel and as we progress in the gospel, and come to Christ..." (she pulled the strings) "... our family comes closer together." (And all the pictures were all together.) It was way cool!
Then we had church (at 11 so people could drive safe on the roads) and lunch afterward with some of the Relief Society. Then we had a District Meeting about planning our church tour/open-house schedule and our sacrament musical number. Then we did weekly and numbers. :)
Random fact: Apparently in Japanese non-human things can't be personified. WHAT?? I'm so upset! I adore personification!
This morning our Ishibashi [Sister Ishibashi?] called to say she's sick so we can't visit her today, but we'll try and visit her later this week.
So, in other words this week has been an adventure! Crazy awesome!! We're super excited. :) Thank you so much for all your letters and emails and updates!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE hearing from you every week. :) Sorry to surprise you with the earlier email time!
I'm glad the snow is also causing many adventures in Carolina :) and that Tyler is having fun in Wisconsin. Glad to hear Spiderman has redemptive superpowers. :) Niiyama shimai gave us Valentines when we came over to mogi with her. :) Jeremy's papers are in???? That's awesome!!!! When will his call come? Good for Jordan!! Candice, is Mr. Thomas an English or History teacher? That's exciting about the tutoring schedule! Did you watch the chick flic[k] with the YW or with the family? Rooster booster... oh my goodness. Adventures on the way home from Japan... Poor Dad! Saiyaku [disaster]!!! (Orgill shimai finishes up in December so that could happen to her!) Everyone has been very excited about the Olympics here recently--now I know why! I love love love hearing about all the Bellows Family adventures. :)
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Your missionary,
Bellows shimai :)
P.S. Our next P-day will be Tuesday Feb. 25 instead of Monday the 24 (our district is switching it so we can do a district trip to an art musem). So that will be our email day!
P.P.S. Can you send me via email my BYU FHE family pictures? I know they're on facebook but I didn't bring any and there are a lot of missionaries here from BYU who might know them. :)
P.P.P.S. I've been wanting to sing the songs (I think they're by Kenneth Cope) His Name (what have I done with his name... talks about his Grandpa's name and Christ's name) and What will you do with the time that's left. Do you have a copy you could e/mail me? Thank you so much!
P.P.P.P.S. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment