Sister Harris in Japan!: There Are So Many People Here.

MONDAY

We didn`t actually do anything too exciting last Monday, despite this being a tokai (city) area with things to do in it! We went shopping with an investigator to get her a skirt to come to church. And Croft Shimai got some striped heat tech sweat pants that she is loving to death. And we wrote some letters and ate some food. AND. I bought a big bag of delicious MOCHI filled with ANKO (sweet bean paste) and I ate them all myself like an old greedy gobble gannet. But they were delicious.

After that, we did some good housing and had a lesson with H Kyodai, this cool African guy that Croft Shimai baptized last transfer. He wears fantastic sweaters and likes to `Talk about the faith.`

TUESDAY

We had a lot of finding time, but saw a lot of miracles. We started out attempting to street (which is still kind of a disaster for me. They took a country mouse and put her in the city!), and I had no idea what I was doing. But eventually we stopped this older lady and started talking to her. She said she had started reading the Bible and loved God and all of these wonderful things. She didn`t have interest in us meeting with her, but we were able to give her a Book of Mormon, and she was really excited to read from it!

Then later, we went to go visit a PI from the area book, but they weren`t home. I ended up getting stuck behind a light on the way back, and while she was waiting for me, Sister Croft started talking to this lady outside of her house. By the time I got to the other side of the road, this lady invited us into her abandoned Okonomiyaki shop and we got to teach her! She believes in God and doesn`t know much about Jesus, but she wants to know more and believes in him. Her name is K Shimai, and she`s our new investigator of the week. :)

Then we had Eikaiwa. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE HERE. Like 30. And all of the missionaries teach a different class. I taught the advanced class. And did I tell you about Ksan last week? We went to go visit a less active, but apparently they moved and we talked to an older man behind a pingpong box (the doorbell with speakers). He came and was in the advanced class. He says he`s not interested in religion, but I could hardly get him to talk about anything else!

WEDNESDAY

We had a lesson with a less active named O Shimai. She`s so sweet, but her situation is so sad. She wants to come back to church, but her husband and mother in law are very, very against it. We asked her what her number one desire in life is, and she said it`s to return to church. For now, we`re just helping her to feel the spirit and strengthening her testimony until something can be done about this strong family opposition.

We met with A Shimai again later as well.

THURSDAY

We did a lot of finding, and then had dinner with the Elders and a member named N Kyodai. He`s one of the 50 billion people here who are fluent in English because he lived in America for a long time. I Kyodai also joined us for dinner, and we ate burritos and tacos! Which was yummy. I was glad.FRIDAY

District meeting! It was good. Also, I taught J-Kaiwa. That was intimidating. Every district meeting, the hour before the meeting we have J-Kaiwa, like Eikaiwa but for teaching Japanese to the foreign missionaries. Usually a Nihonjin teaches it, but our district is unfortunately lacking in one. And except for Sister Croft and one other missionary, everyone has as many transfers as I do or more. But Elder Sorenson (our district leader) asked me to teach it, so I said yes. Kind of intimidating, but I think it went alright! And afterwards, we went out as a district for Indo Curry. Which was, as always, delicious.

More streeting! And a cool miracle when we went on the train. Sometimes, you can tell when people speak English because they look at you like they just want to talk to you. One of such people started speaking us to the train, and his name is P. Turns out, he`s from Taiwan, but lived in New Zealand since he was 10 (he`s 30 now), so his English is beautiful and has a cool accent. We invited him to Eikaiwa to give him an opportunity to speak English with people, and he was excited. He`s a cool guy.

SATURDAY

We might have struggled with finding and realized that we have no idea what to do with streeting. Haha. But, we`re working on it! And that night, we went to go volunteer at the I ( a member family) `s panya (bakery), which apprently we do every Saturday. It was fun, and we got a LOOOT of bread afterwards, which is really bad for a girl who`s trying to be healthy.

SUNDAY

CHURCH.

And then we had a lesson with A, which was really good! She`s a funny gal. She`s read the Book of Mormon through twice and believes it, but doesn`t believe in eternal life and doesn`t want to be baptized. She`s a tough cookie. We watched a talk from general conference with her and it went really well!

Then we had a lesson with our neighbor, Fsan, about prayer. She`s really sweet and has a strong desire to grow closer to God.

ALSO, we got an AWESOME referral from the Fukuoka mission about a man who was from here who was traveling there that they talked to about baptism, and was disappointed when they found out that he had to wait an entire month to be baptized. WHAAAT? We`re visiting him tonight! the Lord works miracles!

And that`s all the time I have, because the elders are here.

The church is true!

The book is blue!

Sister Whitney

Me and Sister Croft on transfer day, by the tallest building in Japan! True story. :)