Teaching in Kofu

Today, Tuesday, we woke up to an earthquake. I got up at 5 to use the restroom and then the earthquake happened. It was the biggest earthquake I have been in and was rather long, maybe a minute. The picture on our wall shook a lot and the hanging light fixture was really going too. We could feel the walls and the room shake. Funny thing though. The other day the elders called and asked if we felt the earthquake. Apparently there was one about two days ago too and it was centered in Shibuya. Japan is due for a large earthquake soon. I am hoping these two earthquakes mean there will be little ones and no big one.

We ran to the bridge and back this morning. It was 3 miles round trip!

That is CRAZY about Elder Morris. We did not know his name and thanks to you, we know! Mission blogs are pretty cool. We had a lesson with Chiaki-san, the lady from Elder Morris. She soaked everything up. We told her the history of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. After we told her about how Joseph Smith prayed for an answer, she said "So if I do that, I can get an answer too, right?" We then showed her Moroni 10. She wants to come to church on Sunday. She was really open to everything in the lesson. Her husband died 5 years ago, suddenly. His heart just stopped. She is a really neat lady. I think Elder Morris would be very pleased to know how the lesson went!

My back is still having some problems but nothing I can't just deal with and move on.

Sister Perkins is doing well. She is a lot of fun and dendo is never boring.

We met a lady on the street. She had been to our church years ago. She said her husband was like a Samurai. We didn't make a return appointment but we got her phone number.

We went to Hosaka Shimai's house. She is an older, but lively, lady in the ward. She lives alone. She has 3 dogs and some cats. One of her dog's names is momo. Momo means peaches in english. So, I thought of Peaches. Is Peaches ok? We went there to do service and clean her floor. There was tons of hair from the dogs. She gave us some grapes while we were there and little trays to put the peels on, but we just ate the grapes whole.

We got to see Mt. Fuji. They call it Fuji-san in Japanese. I have seen it about 3 days from our apartment. It looks gorgeous. I thought it would be the same size as all the mountains here but it is HUGE. It towers above everything and looks slightly scary but at the same time romantic. It does not have snow on it now. We are a 2 hour train ride from it apparently and even this far away it looks huge. I can't imagine what it looks like up close. It is still active, right? I am hoping that an earthquake doesn't set it off or something.

We had a lesson with Mei, the 15 year old. We watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD. She really enjoyed it. We gave her a copy of True to the Faith and she loves it. At church on Sunday she asked me what Relief Society was. I think she looked it up in the book later. She is so great.

We went back to the man who gave us the necklaces to wear for a week. We went with the elders so we could pass him off to the elders. He bought us anko-filled fish shaped pancake things. They are very popular in Japan. Anko is the sweet desert bean. Sister Perkins does not like it at all. He gave us all two of these treats, the second one also having some cream in it. When the man and his business buddy were not looking she put it under the Book of Mormon that was on her lap. I saw her do this. Then another time when they were not looking, she slipped the Book of Mormon AND the treat into her bag. It was so funny. I started laughing and she did too but I was laughing more. The guy asked what was so funny. I think he thought I was laughing at him because he couldn'T use the dictionary right. He was using a dictionary at the time. I said that SIster Perkin's face was funny and then stopped laughing because he was being serios.

We went to visit Yuuko-san, a recent convert. She is a college student in a town about 1.5 hours away by train, but it is still in our area because our area is totally huge! On the way walking to her house from the train station we talked to these 3 people:

1) A girl and then her guy friend came riding by on his bike and then she waved to him so he came over too. Turns out he has been to Salt Lake City for Homestay and has seen the temple and stuff. Neither had interest but we gave them a pamphlet.
2) A girl who just got back from 10 months in California, going to school there. It was part of some exchange thing her college had with the college there. Her English was kinda Californian, whatever that means, and she was wearing jeans an flip flops.
3) A girl who had done Homestay in Seattle for about a month. She said she went to church there but didn't really understand. She was kinda shy when she talked to us. Then she pointed to the Book of Mormon that my companion was holding and said she had that book. Then she remembered she went to the Mormon church in America. Her host family had given her the book. . I thought about how cool it would be to tell her host family she met the missionaries when she was in Japan.

We did a service project for a less active lady in the ward. She is older. She gets her blood changed out every two days. She has lots of money and doesn't know what to do with it. She showed us a diamond ring and we asked when she bought it. She said, "Oh, yesterday." She said that she is not very happy and thinks having faith might help. We went and pulled weeds for her.

We met a couple while proselyting in the park. The husband was from Africa and he spoke his native language of French, then English, Chinese, and some Japanese. His wife, a Japanese woman, spoke Japanese and Chinese. They met in Hong Kong, I think. She taught him Chinese. They have been married for 2 years. He spoke to us in English. He said he was trying to find a Catholic church here in Japan. We gave them a pamphlet.

Our dinner appointment on Sunday was amazing. We went to the Tamaki's. They are a couple with two grown kids. One kids is married and inactive. They served us homemade pizza, a spectacular salad with (cheese, broccoli, pasta, salad dressing, and other stuff.. pretty much everything) and trifle. It was all very big. The Yuasa's came. They are the investigators, a family of 4 and then the mom's brother who is about 40. I have talked about them before I think. We did a lesson on Prophets. My companion had a good idea. We hid a sweets bar in the room and had one of the daughters go out. Then she came back in and the other daughter gave her directions to the treat. She gave correct directions. Sister Perkins shouted out false directions. I am sure you can fill in the blanks, but it was about how prophets always give us correct counsel.

Well, my time is up. Thank you so much for writing me and being so supportive! I love you!

Sister McMahan