Ohanami--Cherry Blossom Time!

Above is a picture of Emily and the rest of the sister missionaries in Tokyo, meeting for lunch on transfer day! Below is McMahan and Nagase Shimai with the Iwamoto Family in Kanagawa:
Emily writes from Shibuya on 4-1-08:

Thanks so much for your email! I am so lucky to have such a great family who is strong in the gospel! I got the letters from the primary kids. So cute. I sent to you a letter for one of them.

As for my cold, I am all better. I went to the doctor and he said I had bronchitis. I have been taking 5 pills three times a day for a week. I have about 1 more day on them. I actually had a small fever when I went to the doctor and I had no idea! Last Sunday I had been coughing so hard I pulled something by my rib.

As for the language, I am learning to be in this new environment. I think what has helped is telling myself the language isnt hard. I am trying to not worry about perfection. Speaking of language, I have been reading the Japanese Book of Mormon a lot to catch up on my reading schedule. It is getting fun to read faster now. Today I ran across 2 Nephi 29:6. I hadnt the english Book of Mormon open side by side so I just read the Japanese. This is what it said:

seisho ka. seisho ka. wareware wa sude ni seisho o motte iru. dakara, hoka ni seisho wa hitsyo nai to iu mono yo....

seisho- bible
ka -question mark
So it says.........Bible? Bible?

motte iru- currently have
so it says.......... we already have a bible

Dakara - therefore
hoka ni- another
hitsyo-need
nai-not
so it says......... therefore we dont need another bible... or something like that

Anyways, I thought it was fun to recognize that as I read.

Speaking of language, Swasey Shimai learned the word *indicate* today. Isnt that a hard word to define?

I read about Ammon today during my personal study and how he cut off the arms and then made friends with King Lamoni and then saved not only King Lamoni's life but also his brothers. I was thinking how Ammon did stuff without being asked and he always was obedient to the Lord. Remember when he was feeding the horses and just going right on to the next job? When he followed the Lord, he always followed as quickly as possible. Remember when the Lord said not to go see King Lamoni's father but to take another road? I like reading the scriptures and imagining what the people would be like in real life! Ammon was probably one of those really smiley, strong, pleasant people and a very hard worker. He probably never whined and was quick to take charge and the first to get things done.

I am amazed at all the cool people I get to meet. Speaking of which, we visited a member of the Japanese ward. Shes maybe 50 or 60. Turns out she speaks perfect English. She didn't know we were coming until we called about 5 minutes before. It was just a totsuzen or *sudden* visit. Turns out she has been translating the conference talks for.... the upcoming conference! She knows the stuff before they speak at conference! Whoa. And she is also translating a movie we watched in the mtc called the *district*. The district is kind of like a reality show except its real footage of real lessons and real missionaries. The missionaries at the JMTC can't watch it because it is in English, so this woman is translating it! She pulled out the script she was working on as asked us for help on a couple words that were specific to missionary vocabulary.

We visited another lady from the Japanese ward who was one of the members who helped build the Hakuraku building, the church I went to in my last area. Remember how they built it with their own hands? Pretty cool.

On Sunday we ate dinner at the Nelsons. It is a mom, dad, girl 16, son 14, and girl 6. They have another daughter who is a freshman at college in America. The dad is the president of Nuskin, Japan. Isn't that cool? The bishop and his wife also came. They have been mission president before and are awesome. I really liked the Nelsons. They are a very jolly family and kind of remind me of our family. The dad is really funny. He served a mission in Korea. Their apartment kinda reminded me of the Willes house when you walk in. The dad had us missionaries share why we went on a mission with their family because the boy was there and the 16 year old girl had some interest too. They served lasagna and rolls. Man, they were just such a jolly family and we had a great time.

Last Sunday I saw my third cockroach in the apartment. Yup, we have them. I used to be kind of afraid to sleep at night, but it is not so bad. Today, Thursday, Eddington Shimai saw a baby cockroach crawling on the wall.We have a real good spray killer. I bet in the summer it gets worse when it warms up and gets more humid. I suppose its expensive to tent the place and get all the bugs. But really, its not bad at all. I have only seen 3. We live on the 5th floor by the way. Chotto kankenai *a little unrelated* but I just thought I would share in case I hadn't before.

On Monday while streeting we met a girl in her 20s who makes violins. Isnt that something a bit unexpected? Also on Monday we made onigiri at a catholic church center place. We 4 elders and 2 sisters in the area made it for about an hour and a half. The church then distributes them to homeless people. To get there we *rode with the traffic*. We do that some times. It can get a little intimidating because its city. A missionary ran into a taxi recently and it got scratched a bit and the driver got upset or something. So, you have to watch out for cars and stuff when they turn corners and such. IT still feels weird to bike right across an intersection with the cars.

One of our investigators just set her baptism date to the 19th of April! I am excited! Thing is we are transferring her to the sisters in Kichijoji because that's her area. Shes just been being taught by the sisters in Shibuya for one reason or another. Swasey Shimai is the one who has been teaching her and knows her the most so she is sad to see her go to other sisters, but she is glad she is going to be baptized. We just taught her the word of wisdom and the law of the fast. We teach her in Japanese.

Yesterday we had eikaiwa. There were 5 new people! One of them is coming to church on Sunday. Isn't that awesome? The cutest part of eikaiwa happened just after it ended. A grandma-aged lady asked us if she could take us to her favorite cherry blossom place, that is was just a 5 minute walk from the church. We said yes. It was raining and thundering but since it was just a short short walk we decided to go. It was a regular street in the city, lined with the trees. It was neat to see the city lights light up the trees and have it rain at the same time. We had our bikes so we just walked our bikes over there with the lady. It was 8:55 and we are to be home at 9. We didn't get home until 9:15. Funny thing, we ran into 3 of the 5 new eikaiwa people when we were looking at the trees. It was fun to see them again. Most of all I loved that grandma. She was just so cute to bring us. She said we could come any time we wanted to. I said that God created the flowers and I was very thankful for it. And speaking of doing missionary work at eikaiwa, I was talking to Hiromi, a new student aged 30, after eikaiwa. She had a lot of questions about what our schedule is as a missionary. And she asked if we got to choose where we go. It was fun to do missionary work in the way of just telling her about our day.

Today we are going to see the Cherry Blossoms. There is a thing called ohanami. That word refers to the picnic that people have under the trees when the blossoms come out. It rained last night, but today the sky is blue. We are going to the place where the Emporer lives. Right in that area is a very famous shrine. Apparently when the tree by it gets blossoms, that's when the cherry blossom season really starts. I am so excited to go. On the map there is a moat of water around the Emperor's palace. I am very lucky to be here in Shibuya right now and to see such cool things.

Anyways, I guess my main theme is that I get to meet many different people and they each have a cool story to tell. I am trying hard not to worry so much about whether my Japanese is good or not, although I am a firm believer that those who have good Japanese are hard workers and I want to be a hard worker.

Well, anyways, thanks for everything you do. I am so glad to have a family that writes me and cares about me and cares about the gospel! I am sorry I haven't sent pictures home lately. Today I am going to take lots when go see the cherry blossoms. Hopefully next week I will be able to make a cd.

Sister McMahan