22 Sept 2009Well I have 25 minutes to write. We went to the temple but couldn't email at the church headquarters there cause it was closed for the holiday. So we came here to Harajuku. I have never been here before. It is so packed on this one street off the eki (train station) that you can't even walk. There are lots of places to buy costumes and crazy stuff. It was weird to come from the temple to here. It is a 100 percent difference. It is free to email here but only for 30 minutes.
At the temple today I saw Elder Oaks and his wife. Sis Oaks walked into the temple changing room and said "hello shimai" to me and when she walked back out she looke
d at my tag and said hello to me by name. Then I saw her on the way out. I think Elder Oaks has some meeting or greetings. She shook me and my companion's hand this time. I think she said her maiden name was McMahan; I might have heard her wrong. I wonder!(note: Sister Oak's maiden name is McMain) I only saw Elder Oaks in the distance once. It was great to see them! Elder Morris also was there and my companion told him how we met with Chiaki san yesterday. About that...Her two daughters listened to the lesson. We taught the plan of salvation. When my companion asked her how she felt about knowing she could live with her family again, she said "ureshii" which means "happy" and got teary eyed. Her husband passed away suddenly about 5 years ago if I remember correctly. We have our next appointment on Saturday. She works now so she won't be able to come to church on Sunday.
Well, those are two huge events that happened this week. Now I have a funny event!
There is a lady from Bolivia in our ward. She is an older lady and apparently her daughter had interest in the church. This woman's 11 year old son comes with the grandma to church on Sunday sometimes. The grandma speaks no Japanese but the grandson does a little.
We went over to their house and taught about God and how the gospel blesses families. Then a 15 year old boy walked in. We thought it was the daughter's son, the one who came to church. Well, we were wrong. The 15 year old was the grandma's son. Apparently she has 14 kids, two of which are in Japan- the 15 year old and the daughter with the 11 year old son. Whoa! Showed us a picture with 6 kids and said that was about half of them. The daughter has never seen the Book of Mormon before even though her mom goes to church, so we gave her one in Spanish. It is kinda fun to hear Spanish again. The daughter translates for the mom. They are both a little tentative in hearing the lessons, if that's the correct word. We are gonna work together!
Sad news about Shimizu. She is busy now and her 3 year old son has something wrong with him. He's fine but he is going to the doctor for something. She doesn't want to meet until next year. She is really, really stressed I think. So, we can't go for "slow tal
king" but I think we will go occasionally and post something in her mailbox. We know how important the gospel is and how it will help her through what she is going through so we were trying to be bold and meet again, but she wants to take a break. She said she will meet for slow talking though when I transfer.Thanks in advance for the packages. The weather is changing now and my hair is not oily any more, but just the same I am excited for nice shampoo. It will be great for my hair!
I love you sooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!
Sister McMahan
Oh yeah.. We had zone conference. It was at 8 in the morning. Even if we got on the earliest train from Kofu we would still be late so we spent the night in Kichijouji. It was a super conference. 3 of my previous companions went home. We told Elder Morris about Chiaki, how she disappeared but we met her randomly on the street and turns out she realized she knew someone who was Mormon living in the USA. They are going from 31 sister missionaries to 26. There is only one new sister coming in next transfer. We also had interviews on a separate day last week.
From what I could gather from it, me and Sister Green will spend another transfer in Kofu. We shall see! So, all in all we went to Tokyo 3 times this week. Today we are gonna take the fast train back. It costs about 10 bucks out of our pocket, but we wanna get back cause it is P-day and we need to buy food etc. What my ideal thing to do is is xerox my journal. I keep saying that and not doing it, but there are at least two other random little things from this week. One is meeting a weird guy on the street and the other is giving a pamphlet to the guy who delivers packages. Anyways, I love you soooooo much! Thanks for being a great family and Dad, I hope I answered the questions in your letter. I really, truly appreciate your letters. They help keep me going and remind me of the support I have at home! Love you lots!
No comments:
Post a Comment