Monday, September 23, 2013

another week goes by

Greetings, mina san.

This week had its ups and downs, but flew by, just like all the others. I feel like I wrote my last email only a few days ago. Still no new companion - hope she comes soon!

I started the week with splits (companion exchanges) so I was in Utsunomiya on Tuesday. It's a lot busier than Oyama, so we talked to LOTS of people. It was fun to see some more of Japan - and cats! There were so many cats in the streets. Awesome. Unfortunately while I was gone someone stole my bike light - kind of random. I guess this country isn't perfect after all. I'm actually kind of impressed they managed to get it off the bike - I've tried to move that thing before, and it was impossible.

On Wednesday some members took us to the Japanese version of Sears so we could get a futon for our new companion. Everything's all set and ready to go! I also taught Eikaiwa, which continues to get bigger and better. We always play a game at the end with everyone, and people get really into it.

Thursday was awesome - one of the men in our ward's mom used to take the missionary lessons, and we've been trying to set an appointment with her for about a month now. She unexpectedly emailed us in the morning with a question about the Book of Mormon so we called her back and said, "are you home? We can answer in person, right now!" So we quickly biked over and got to finally teach her and set up another appointment. Yay! She's very kind and fun to talk to. We kept seeing miracles all day when we ran into three other people we'd been trying to contact while on our bikes or at the station. They can't avoid us when we're face-to-face! Haha. So that was way awesome. I've never had a feeling like "hmmm, I think the Spirit is telling me to go down that street now" - all of the run-ins happened by "chance". As long as we keep doing all we can, we're guided to where we need to go and everything works out.

Early Friday morning, maybe around 3am, I was woken up by my first-ever earthquake. To be completely honest I was pretty scared - it wasn't the most peaceful way to be woken up. I think it was only about a 3.0 in Oyama, though. So all is well.

We met lots of new people over the weekend. Sister Kubota said some of them had a "funny vibe," which of course I didn't pick up on. I think everyone here is funny. Because I'm not super familiar with Japanese mannerisms yet, it's harder for me to tell if someone is drunk, mentally handicapped, or just a character. I also don't always pick up on emotions or hints. Yikes. Let's hope I learn to be less oblivious soon.

Sunday started out really well - Aki came to church for the first time with her friend, and said she really liked it. And I was able to understand some of what the first speaker was saying! It probably helped that he was 12. I couldn't understand a single word of the other talks. We had a full schedule of appointments planned for after church, all of whom cancelled on us. So it was a long afternoon of knocking on doors. I was pretty spent when I came home, and chose to ease my pain by eating a huge bag of potato chips, which I usually don't even like. I have a problem.

Sister missionary weight gain update: I've gained one or two kilos since entering the MTC, but it's been pretty constant lately. So maybe my body's found its happy place and it'll stay that way? Let's hope.

Thank you for all your good news from home, I hope everyone is well!
Love, Anna

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