"100 percent hectic"

Pictures of Sister Missionaries learning Origami, taken at a recent Mission Conference:

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On Tuesday we visited Kaori Mitchell. She was a former investigator when I was in Shibuya. I called her at that time and referred her to the recently-opened-by-sisters Saitama and now I got to meet her in person. Her husband is from Canada and a member of the church, but has come in a long time. We are helping her have a desire to read the Book of Mormon.

Wednesday was a Zone Conference. I played for Elder Hancock to sing "O Give me back my Prophet Dear..." He has a beautiful voice. I went on an exchange with Sister Helps in Matsudo afterward (where the conference as held). She is very talented a drawing comics and makes a comic of the day each day. Very creative. Her parents, with fair skin, were originally from Africa but moved to America when she was a baby. They were both converts to the gospel. The missionary couple came over to to an inspection of the apartment, making sure we have necessary things. They are going to all apartments. Then they took us and one set of elders out to Denny's. That night I went back with Simomiya Shimai to eat at the Ikezai's house. They have 4 boys if I am not mistake. The youngest is 9 and full of life. He is very kind and spirited. Their family loves Hawaii. Well, they drove us home in their car. The 9 year old said "Wasureru mono ai? Are you ok?"--- just like that! So funny! He said "Did you forget anything?--- and then, in English... are you ok?"

During the day we visited a sister who doesn't come to church much. She is a young mom. Her son, probably 2 or 3 said, in Japanese "I have to fart" (my companion translated) and then went in the next room and, well... took care of that. So funny. I also learned about a referral that has been sitting around in our apartment. It is from Sister VanBose in the Fukuoka mission. I roomed with her in the MTC! We also had Outreach that night at the Urawa church.

Saturday I slept in for 30 minutes because..... we were so sick! We had had sore throats for about 2 days and Friday had a runny nose. We had this runny nose for about 3 days. I still have it today a bit actually. Oh man, we were quite sick. We went to a ward activity at Urawa though. It was a talent show of sorts. Elder Hancock was there so I asked if I could play and he could sing. He sang the "I Know my Redeemer Lives" with the fancy piano. He cried during it and I heard some people watching cried too. They were serving mochi. They had had a mochi tsuki earlier. I had some mochi with cheese fondue.... I thought about Dad. It was way rich and way good! Oh, and I had a dream that Ibuprofen was 100 dollars in Japan. It was a sad dream.

Sunday was 100 percent hectic. My companion and I went to separate wards. I had a companion of the day from Sakado ward, the ward where I went. Her name was Tsukiji Shimai. It was on this day I decided to minor in Japanese. I was doing all the talking to people and whatnot and it was the first time I met everyone so I did a lot of introducing myself. It wiped me out! We met with an investigator after church. Thing is she has come to church for 3 years but doesn't want to get get baptized because she feels she is happy. She teached yoga and in my opinion that has become sort of a religion of sorts for her. We shared a scripture with her and we listened to her talk for about 30 minutes about various things including her opinion that God is at the top of a mountain and there are many ways we can get to him or in other words, all religions are good as long as they make you happy. Well, after that we went and visited a referral from the elders. I got there couldn't find the address but found a place that looked like it. So I called the elders and then had to call another elder who served here a while back. It was originally from him. Anywho, no one was home apparently, in any of the 4 apartment thing because there were no cars. I waited a sec and a lady drove up in her car. I asked if she was Shimazu-san, the lady who we wanted to visit. She said she might be the lady but had a different name. I cant remember it as I am writing right now. She remembered meeting the missionaries before. So, it was her. I made a return appointment. We met her husband and baby as they got out of the car. They seemed nice. I talked to Shimomioya Shimai later and she recognized the name the lady had given us. She was a former investigator! My comp had never met her before but had seen the record in the apartment. Sure enough, I saw the record and it was written as Shimazu but then crossed out and the other name was written. The correct address was also written. I guess the elders had gotten and given us the slightly incorrect information. She is very strong in a Buddhist religion and didn't have a strong desire to learn about Christianity so the missionaries had stopped teaching her before. Maybe she will want to listen more this time.

We had a dinner with the Amano family in the evening. They are an older couple. Their RM daughter and her young boy (maybe age 2) were there visiting. They were sooooo funny! The dad speaks great English although he is very humble and says he doesn't. The grandma mom served a mission. The dad was talking about an apple at one point and my comp referenced snow white and the poison apple. The grandpa said that if I ate it I would "shinu made ikeru" which means "live until I dies" It was sooo funny. I could feel a really good spirit about them and their house. He spoke in perfect English at the end about how he knew we had a living prophet today.

Monday we had 4 appointments. One with Shofontes Shimai. She is from Peru, an active member but sometimes needs friends because of the language barrier. We also met with Koto-chan. She is 14. Her mom used to listen to lessons about the church. Long story short, she has had dance recently and hasn't read the Book of Mormon or prayed and told us how she could feel a difference. She prayed at the end and expressed how it had been a long time since she had prayed. She has to make a tough choice because she has the opportunity to be on a dance team, or something, that meets a lot on Sundays. We met with Yamaguchi-san, the referral from VanBose Shimai. I won't say her whole story, but she feels intimidated by some of the members of the church who have been members their whole lives ad feels like she doesn't know much. We want to help her realize that she had learn little by little. We also want to help her husband learn a little about what Christianity is. Right now he is with another Buddhist religion and, I assume, doesn't know much about what his wife is learning.

In the evening we had a dinner appointment. We took a bus for part of it. I talked to a girl named Miho the whole way. We ended up making a lunch appointment with her for a later date! Yeah!

As for today it has warmed up suddenly ad the weather is gorgeous. I haven't had time to write in my journal this week because I was sick and then we got home late sometimes and then I was just kinda tired. This morning I stretched for one entire hour!

Well, I must be going. Thank you for all you do for me!!!

Sister McMahan