Nov. 30, 2015

K can't remember what I wrote last week, but we went to the towel museum! Sounded really funny and actually turns out to be mostly a towel ART museum. Towel art, who knew?!

Also today we went to Nihon Shokken, it's a sauce/various packaged foods factory that for some reason is in a reconstructed Austrian palace, so it also had European history...random and fun!

This week big highlights were Friday and Saturday- Friday after District Meeting, we finished up SKK (weekly planning) with testimonies and it was POWERFUL! We realized that we need to do that more often because we felt the Spirit really strong and then had the BEST NIGHT EVER. Basically we saw miracle after miracle- a lot of
unplanned visits, but we went because we felt like we should. So we were riding to a member family and on the way we always pass a former investigators house. She was dropped because she could never meet. She walked out right when we rode past, so we stopped and got to talk+teach for a little bit! Basically the same kind of thing
happened, 4 lessons in a row. (Also the curry we had for dinner at this place on the side of town we were at was really great too.)

Saturday was Imabari Branch Thanksgiving (Kansha Sai)! Started Mormon standard time...we were freaking out a little right at 6 because there weren't very many people. People showed up! Sadly none of our investigators, BUT some less-actives we've worked with and a few people from Eikaiwa came! Ended up being about 60 people. We had a short program about Thanksgiving, gratitude and prayer, and then I sang and we watched a Mormon Message about gratitude. Overall it went really well and there was tons of food- all the Thanksgiving
traditional stuff, plus a bunch of Japanese food, some Mexican (from Watabe Shimai, don't know why), Korean and Phillipino. Most interesting Thanksgiving I've ever had!

I'll send more pictures later. I have the greatest companion, it's freezing cold now- but we can't see our breath so I guess it's not that cold, we work with the most wonderful members and have so much fun, even though we're SUPER tired by the end of the week! Love you all, go watch the Christmas video because it's officially CHRISTMAS SEASON! 

Love, 

Wagstaff Shimai

We have e nicest members! 

Yamamoto Shimai (mom of the cute baby) is currently my favorite because we've spent a lot of time with her. Funny thing- Fujiki Shimai's older brother was one of he missionaries who taught her when she was a teen near Tokyo! Anyways, she's really crafty and likes to sew- she said she wanted to make us skirts, so today she took us to this discount fabric store to choose fabric!!

Also I wanted to share something Fujiki Shimai shared with me during companion study, actually a couple weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to tell you: Helaman 3:7. Honestly doesn't look like a profound a verse- usually one of the ones I would kind of skim, BUT she said that they are changing and learning. Before things had been done one way, but they had to adapt and are successful using a different method. Anyways, I thought that was cool.

Always so tired on Sunday's, end of our week, but we've been visiting an LA in the evening that always goes really well!

Lots of focus on getting investigators to church, but so far that hasn't been successful for us, we've been working hard to just stay positive and be happy with the little successes we do have.

Package came this week, but because we weren't home, they didn't deliver it (no leaving packages on doorsteps here), so I scheduled the redelivery for tomorrow!

Next transfer is the week before Christmas on Thursday...

Thanksgiving weekend sounds like a lot of fun! Thankfully, it wasn't a hard homesick holiday for me, especially being busy with our party. I get to Skype for Christmas, I'll send you the info I have  on it. 

Mostly for T but this was really funny- SGG on Tuesday- sometimes they read and discuss English articles. So one was on the Oxford dictionary word of the year, which is an emoji

I learned that emoji is a Japanese word!! So they're all older and didn't really understand, so Fujiki Shimai and I tried to explain emoji's for AN HOUR. I was trying not to laugh because it was just funny. Eventually at the end, one exclaimed oh I get it! And then said exactly what I had said before... Haha

Still on with a little time!

I'm so blessed to get to sing all the time- I honestly thought it was something I would be sacrificing, and in the MTC when I had come to peace with that was when I found out I was singing for the apostles. I receive lots of compliments and I think maybe part of the reason I'm singing so much here is to learn to give praise to God. Trying to recognize Him more and not being selfish. Sometimes hard...turns out I'm pretty selfish- thinking it's because of my practice and my training. Yes that's true too, but it's definitely not all that.

Not every moment is stellar, but a lot of them are!
Love you so much!
Katya

Monday Nov. 23, 2015

Being a missionary is a lot of fun! Last Monday we had District P-day.  One of the elder's recent converts came from Osaka to see him and stayed all day. Unfortunately, she was also pretty sick and couldn't do too much, so we stayed at the church, but it was still pretty fun!


Miracle that night was that we found a member's house without getting lost!! We'd been there once before, but it was pretty confusing AND this time we were coming from a different direction but figured we
could do it. Normally we tell ourselves that, then end up getting hopelessly lost and have to call, but this time we found her house and shared a message!

Tuesday at SGG we shared Ether 12:4 and talked about faith being an anchor. They were actually interacting with us and after, one of them came up to me and said he liked that image (faith is an anchor)!! Honestly, any comment or slight interest is progress, so I was pretty happy about that!

Wednesday was lots of rain but didn't bother us because we have interviews with Pres Welch in Matsuyama and that took almost all day and we got back just in time for Eikaiwa. I love interviews! Even though Pres Welch has 170 ish missionaries to interview, it's individual and doesn't seem rushed (yes there's a schedule, but we
were an hour behind it).


Thursday I made banana bread and one of the day's miracles: OUR MICROWAVE WORKED! Big deal, I promise. So the microwave is also the oven and has a bunch of different settings and also our microwave has an attitude and sometimes doesn't like to do what we want it to do, but for the banana bread it actually worked! Have no idea why. In the evening, we taught the Protestant cake shop couple. Last week we went through the entire Restoration pretty quickly, so we thought we should go over again by watching the Restoration video (20 min Joseph
Smith first vision). Honestly, I think they could be golden investigators- paid very close attention and really liked it. Though at the end we asked the husband to pray (taught prayer last time) and the houhou (method) was a little off but heartfelt! I love the Restoration video, also I LOVE teaching about Joseph Smith because
every time I teach, I'm reminded that it's true, it's all true.

Friday we had District Meeting and the AP's dropped in- that was a surprise! They had just been in Matsuyama on a koukan and decided to drop in. They were asking about how our areas were doing, we were talking about Imabari for a little bit and Dos Santos Choro (former ZL) asked if we'd gotten any new towels (we always receive towels in Imabari since they're famous here, I guess). Anyways that's a weird question and the other AP, hadn't heard of them, but wanted one and spent the rest of the time trying to convince his companion to stop in Imabari on the way back to Kobe to get a towel. Watabe Shimai is so nice that she promised to bring some to the Christmas party. Anyways, random.


Friday was Setsura's birthday (investigator) so we brought over banana bread and a card! He seemed really really happy about it- his family was pretty busy, so they were going to celebrate Saturday. 


Saturday we got to go to the beautiful islands with the Watabe's to visit a member and her less-active daughter! Her daughter is so busy with high school, so I've only met her once before and we were so blessed to get to meet her again! After, we stopped for salt ice cream...weird but really good! Also, the view is gorgeous!

When we got back, our neighbor had dropped off cake for us! We drop by mikans and notes sometimes. She used to come to Eikaiwa and she's Chinese and the nicest person ever, even if she's not interested in the gospel right now.

Sunday we dropped by this flea market-thing going on because a less-active that we visit all the time had a booth. Obviously couldn't buy anything, but just wanted to support and say hi- she was super genki (happy)- we don't know if we've ever seen her so excited, she's usually just tired. Miracle!

After funny story- so we talk to everyone, at least a "konnichiwa" and this older guy replies to me  and I had NO IDEA what he said. I know it wasn't Japanese, and I've gotten pretty good at understanding bad English, but I had no idea what language this was! Then he asked where I was from in Japanese and I replied America- he laughed and said he studied "Doich-go" in college. German! He was speaking German to me, that's a first. Told him sorry I don't speak German. He was pretty nice but not so interested in talking once he found out I don't speak German. :)

The rest of the day was finding less-actives, except we didn't find any, BUT we were at the right houses, so we can always try again later.

Love you all! This week we've been focusing on kansha (gratitude) since Thanksgiving's coming up. We found this really good quote from April 2014 Conference Pres Uchtdorf: "There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious. We can be grateful!"

- It's so simple yet powerful. Love you all!

Wagstaff Shimai

I have the best companion, hopefully, I'm half as good as she is! We were doing SKK on Thursday (weekly planning). Not a fan- it gets a little depressing to look at numbers sometimes and last week she
suggested we buy treats before to make it a little better. Also, after reminded me to mail a letter to Sam I had written. That was so simple, but for some reason really lifted me up!

Found out I need to pay better attention to my clothes- some of my skirts are a little dirty on the bottom from biking and being hit with dirt or something. Anyways, taking stains out right now, shouldn't be a problem. While I'm talking about useless things like my clothes- found a hole in my favorite pink cardigan from J Crew :( zannen-unfortunate. Life goes on, still happy. All that being said, my clothes are fine mom! Wearing tights all the time and using my rain
jacket all the time- not actually as a rain jacket, but it's a good windbreaker to wear over sweaters when we're biking.

Love you all! This next week were having a branch thanksgiving party, which is rare from what I've heard from others. So the American guy in our branch really wants to have a piñata. As far as I can remember, what does that have anything to do with Thanksgiving...?

Funny thing: so I found this really cute turkey clip art for our flyer and then we take it to an LA and she goes- "what is that?" Me and Fujiki Shimai: ".... A turkey." Apparently not many people know what a turkey is.
Also I'm singing. There's a shocker :)

Love you guys so much!

Katya

November 16, 2015

So this week our Area Book app stopped working and that's our whole schedule, people, etc...so I don't remember everything that happened this week.

But Monday I received another Imabari towel! This one is Mickey Mouse. Also it rained, so we just went shopping. We were both just tired and wandered around- some Christmas stuff is up, but honestly not much. I was talking with Fujiki Shimai about Christmas here and she said it's more of a couples holiday, like Valentine's Day.

Tuesday in SGG they brought their BOM's and actually discussed Moroni 7:45 with us!! Before they usually just quietly listened, so it was a HUGE deal when they talked- miracle!

On Wednesday we had a good lineup of lessons that went well! As a mission we're working on becoming full-purpose missionaries (find, teach, baptize, retain and rescue) so we had a good balance today of different lessons- investigator, member, less-active. We went over to the RS Pres and Mission Leader's house (basically my favorite couple in the branch!) and they weren't home, so we heart-attacked them, then right as we were finishing, the mission leader drove up, so we talked on the porch with him for a bit. From our Dendo fireside last Sunday,
we asked if he had any chances to share the gospel. He said a little (like it wasn't a big deal!) and that he just briefly talked about God and Jesus Christ with people. Whaaaa?? That may be little but that's a big deal! It's those simple conversations that eventually lead to wanting to know more.

Thursday we had 2 cake shop lessons- both lessons are 30/30- English and gospel teaching. I'm working this week on not doubting and increasing my faith. I had doubted that one had kept prayer commitment and planned based on the assumption she didn't. We followed up and she has! Don't doubt anyone! Also we taught a Christian couple in the evening- first time. We went through the entire Restoration lesson, that was really different, good experience. High hopes for them!

Friday we had district meeting and after had a koukon (exchange) and I went with Hatch Shimai to Niihama. It rained the whole time and it was SO COLD. But we still talked to lots of people and I'm getting more used to housing- we haven't done very much in Imabari and I'm not a big fan but it's getting easier. Also for dinner we went to this Okanamiyaki restaurant by the church. The owner LOVES missionaries (I guess they used to come here all the time). He's not interested in the gospel, but he and his wife were so nice- it was this little place sigh only us for a while and the best Okanamiyaki! It's Hiroshima style, a little different that what I ate before.

So wet :)

Saturday I was back with Fujiki Shimai and we were so motivated to work! When we were leaving our apartment it wasn't raining very much (Mom and Dad remember me every morning in Paris...? Same. Eventually I'll learn) so I just put on a raincoat. It rained more than I knew that rain could rain- we kept going and had 2 lessons on the street (when it wasn't super raining). We were literally soaked and had to go back a little before dinner because there was no way anybody was going to let us in. I appreciate dry weather more and more.

Sunday we were pretty tired after church and always find the energy to keep going- honestly this is a blessing we keep receiving. Our last visit was a less-active we haven't met before. No ones seen her in a long time- at least not on records we've read. And we met her! Seriously this was a lesson led by the Spirit and we just walked away so happy. I didn't know I could be this happy. I was thinking about the Gift of Tongues- it's definitely not always speaking perfectly, but it's that broken Japanese is understandable. 

So even though it rained A LOT and I was really wet, I'm happy. Thought of D&C 128:22-25 "shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

LOVE LOVE LOVE Wagstaff Shimai

First- I FOUND LIME COKE IN JAPAN! sadly not diet. I don't think I've seen diet at all here, just zero. Not that it really matters, but anyways...

That was my motivation to get through weekly planning- it always takes a while and gets a little boring because it's long, but we're working on improving that. This time it was getting a little depressing because we felt like people weren't progressing, sometimes we think why can't they just keep commitments?? But that was Thursday and then we had a great koukon and were more motivated after. .

Sunday night was really special- the LA lesson was only 15 minutes and we didn't actually fully prepare it, just before we knocked decided we'd talk about God's love. Without writing it all out, we were able to just switch back and forth talking, asking questions. She doesn't want to come back to church, doesn't see a need, but we felt like we could tell her that's okay- we're not here to make you come back to church, we're here to uplift people and help everyone feel God's love. I said the closing prayer and felt really good about it. Really really good. After, Fujiki Shimai commented that she hears me pray all the time, but that prayer was different. That's what being led by the Spirit feels like. 

Today we're in Niihama for District P-day. The Watabe's couldn't come, and then the elders found out that  one of their recent converts from another area was coming to see them, and this was the only week we could all have District P-day, so we're here at the church- should be pretty fun even though it's a little weird. 

Love you all! Tash looks beautiful- fun! Sad for the football games. 

Also I thought this was pretty funny, go and have a laugh.

Also other funny moment: I was looking at the sacrament meeting program and asked Fujiki Shimai who a certain person was (kanji)- she looks at me and goes that's me! Lots of fun- i ask her what things mean all the time since I can't read stuff, I still don't recognize stuff be much, including her name apparently! We can always laugh and that makes everything so good.

Love, Katya 

Sent from my iPad

I love hearing about everything! I received grandma's Christmas package already- she emailed me last
week saying she was really worried about because of the experience with yours returning. Big differences in countries though. Obviously couldn't open it yet, but it was a good pick me up in the middle of
the week.

Food sounds good! Right now we're having a district ping pong tournament. Since I'm not very good, I just get more email time!

Nov. 9, 2015

This week was transfer week, but because we weren't transferring, we felt like we had a lot of time! A lot of time was dedicated to our Dendo fireside which was yesterday and turned out pretty well! Lots of prep- met with all of our branch leaders and most of the returned missionaries (I think there's 5, so that wasn't too hard).  We were really worried about the time because there was a lot we wanted to do, but with 50 minutes to do it all, so...we mogi-ed! (Practiced/rehearse) we seriously had it down to how many minutes everything would take and miraculously, it actually turned out about the same time we planned! 

Okay so that was Sunday and the biggest highlight of the week, but going back...Monday we tried a Chinese restaurant we heard was good- Chinese food here isn't the same as American Panda Express...I really like Panda Express. But it wasn't bad, just didn't come with a fortune cookie.

Also it was REALLY cold! The weather has been all over the place!

Tuesday we tried again to follow up on a former investigator we've never met, and instead met his parents. Conveniently they own a cake shop, so we had some cake and the mom brought her husband out because he's interested in learning English (the last time we dropped by, we left an Eikaiwa flyer), so I spoke with him for a bit- his English isn't bad! He loves traveling and been lots of places and we talked about Europe for a bit. That's something as a missionary I didn't expect- you can connect with people about anything and connecting is really important! My expectation was more gospel-only, but honestly we can talk about anything and get to know people, and besides, everything connects to the gospel somehow. Found out this couple is Protestant, and scheduled a lesson for Thursday- NEW INVESTIGATORS!

Wednesday we met some investigators who are currently ma-ma, not really keeping commitments and not really too interested, but they keep meeting with us...kind of weird. Anyways, we felt like we took a step forward with one! She's the nicest person ever- always SO happy, she's a hairdresser and loves to talk and will listen but hasn't really progressed, so we tried something different and watched a video together "What the Scriptures Mean to Me"- so good! She started commenting and making connections without us asking questions!

Then in Eikaiwa, another former investigator came back! He's a high school student from Panama, here for a year for his dad's work. So he's learning English and Japanese- HARD. But his English is really really good, I think. Anyways, hopefully we get to start teaching him again, so to prep, I downloaded some a Spanish missionary app with basic phrases to use, really hope I get to!

Thursday picked lemons and mikans again for a member with the Watabe's. This time it was a little colder, but still fun! Minus the spider webs everywhere, those aren't so fun, but I managed to not scream this time (last time we went I basically walked right up, almost into a GIANT spider web, so I screamed. I think it was justified!)

Friday- basically the whole day was study and planning- Dendo fireside, weekly planning, and transfer goals. We had to give ourselves a little excitement, so we had good food! I made sweet and sour chicken for lunch and Fujiki Shimai made pumpkin soup for dinner. Yum!

Saturday we went to a less-active's shop and did service for a while. Usually she just has us do something super simple and we're not sure how useful we are, but this time she had real things for us to do! There were a bunch of embroidered towels, but one of the kanji's embroidered was wrong, so we had to unpick it really carefully. It. Took. So. Long. BUT she was so much more receptive to our message after! We shared Elder Lawrence's talk from Soutaikai (GC) and talked about the Holy Ghost- normally she politely listens, but she was more involved this time! "Ai o shimesu koto": show love, is one of our goals this transfer and it works!

Sunday was THE DAY. Dendo fireside! It went well, we were exhausted after! After, more Ai o shimesu koto! There's a less-active we visited a while ago with a member and she said she was going to start dieting/exercise and Fujiki Shimai remembered that, so we copied some pages from a book we have of different workouts and brought those over. When we went over, she was ready to say no/not have time for a message, BUT we pulled out the pages and she instantly changed! We talked about the workouts, etc for a while (okay so she talks really fast and I don't really understand her well, so it was mostly her and Fujiki Shimai talking), But anyways, it softened her! She's still not very receptive to gospel messages, but we strengthened our connection with her, and she did listen to our connection of exercise being like prayer- consistency is needed to see a difference, make a big change! 

So a lot of member visits about the fireside and a LOT of people not home when we tried to visit. It's a little discouraging to bike for a long time and then not meet someone, but we're learning patience and working on always staying positive- Fujiki Shimai is so good at staying positive, I love working with her! My ponderizing scripture this week was Alma 44:4 "Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith."

We just have to stay faithful because God will honestly always support us and give us successes- we're not made to fail!

Love you all so much- your examples and stories and emails- promise I read and love everything even when I don't reply!

Love, 

Wagstaff Shimai

I'll probably be on a little earlier from now on because I'm officially done training, so there's less study time.  Thank goodness I'll always have language study time! For the first 12 weeks we have an extra hour of companion study where we're supposed to use our 12-Week booklet (focusing on basics from PMG, lots of watching

The District). Now down to 3 hours of study!  

Weird question did you see fireflies in the summer?  Nope, didn't see any! Just a billion mosquitoes that loved me

Shakes at an investigators cafe, taught a lesson, and after she gave us a soft "kekko"- rejection. 

I hate the soft ones, really awkward because technically they don't say "Don't come back" but they aren't begging us to stay, so we can't really drop them yet. Weird situation and that's a lot of our investigators to some degree or other right now.

Here are the lemons we picked! We pick them green so that they're yellow by the time they're in the store

So. Many. Mikans. 

And they are so yummy, currently eating one. Unfortunately it is illegal to transport Japanese fruit out of the country. Lame, because it's good!

This is the view when we pick mikans. Talked about it a couple weeks ago- PARADISE

Also, Fujiki Shimai told me last night I was talking in my sleep- switched between Japanese and English... That means I can speak the language! Thankfully I'm not keeping her awake and not alone, she snores a lot :)

Love you guys so much!

Sent from my iPad

Last week we went shopping and solidified the fact that I'm different :) sizing is different here since everyone is smaller, so I had to buy anXL for a heat tech undershirt. Honestly. I don't know where fat people could buy clothes here. Really haven't seen any fat people.

I've been trying to focus better during Sacrament too, especially because I really don't quite understand the Sacrament prayers. But before I thought if I just kept listening I'd get it and I shouldn't rely on English. Okay so that wasn't working and relying on English isn't a bad thing if that's what I understand, so I pull out my BOM
and open up to Moroni to read and I think it's made a difference.

With member missionary work, one thing I've realized here is that supporting other members and less-actives is really important- that's missionary work too. Basically we've discovered that not a lot of home teaching/visiting teaching gets done here...as I was feeling judgemental towards members about that, I remembered that I wasn't
very consistent in my YSA ward...need to improve! It's not every man for himself, I think we really do all need support

Nov. 2, 2015

Subject: Staying in Imabari! WE'RE BOTH STAYING!! We're so happy to stay here, we've have lots of new plans and ideas to try. Plus our whole district is the same, so that's a bonus! Last Monday evening we had dinner and FHE at the Yamamoto's with the Miyamoto family. They are the 2 young families in the branch and they have lots of energy and so supportive! We had gzoza YUMM and I tried "tamago kake gohan". What is that? It's raw egg on rice (tamago: egg, gohan: rice). Yamamoto Kyodai had me try it and it wasn't too bad, but...(insert Jesperson Shimai!) I wouldn't have it on my birthday!  (Yamamoto's on the left, Miyamoto's in the middle- promise their kids are happy most of the time:) ) Tuesday we went to SGG- Unknown acronym of the English group. KISEKI (miracle): they brought their  BOM's!! That's a huge deal! We've been trying forever to get them to bring them and this time we didn't  even ask/beg!  Every Tuesday night we have a lesson with a recent convert (Kobe Mission they are  considered recent and continue having lessons for 2 years). Honestly this was a Gift of Tongues lesson. Lesson was about Saigo made Taishinobu: Endure to the End, and we read the end of 2 Ne 31 together and discussed and watched the Mormon Message about the cruise ship guy and  I just felt like I could talk and understand more than usual.  After, we asked a few members to help us prepare for the Halloween party and everyone we asked came!  We made cardboard cutouts of Halloween creatures for a bean bag toss.  I forgot to take a picture, they turned out pretty good! Wednesday morning we went to an older members house with Yamamoto Shimai helping with the  Visiting Teaching message. Yokota Shimai, the older member is an amazing example because she's just been so strong in the church, she can't do a lot anymore, but she is a retired flower arrangement  teacher so she still brings flowers for Sacrament meeting. So cute! In the afternoon we travelled to Takamatsu to stay the night in order to get to Okayama the next  morning for TTTM- trainer trainee training meeting!  Thursday- TTTM! Okayama used to be a mission, so they have a regular older big church that could fit  the 50ish missionaries that came! Saw some of my MTC friends! It was just a lot of talking and so much  fun to see people!  After, we went straight to Matsuyama, another sleepover because Friday was ZTM - lots of traveling!  ZTM (Zone training meeting), big surprise- I sang. Thank you Mom for sending music! Then we were  finally back in Imabari, in time to wish Hana Chan - only YW in the branch, happy birthday!  Saturday. Halloween Party. So. Much. Time. Honestly our whole day was helping with that party,  we were exhausted and like the idea of simple parties :) the Niihama elders came to help!  We had the whole place decorated and the Scott's invited all of their English students,  which was the majority of the guests. We guessed about 50 would come, no, 110! It was a mad house!  The Halloween party ended at 6:30 and we had 1/2 to clean up and get ready for the Music Evening/  Talent Show- Niihama sisters came and performed- Samoan dance, Niihama elders sang+piano, I sang "Dreamed a Dream"-Les Miz, kind of funny- Branch President's request! A couple other people  performed- Branch president's family are super talented with singing and guitar! It was very fun and  much more relaxing than the Halloween party. We had an investigator come and a couple potential  investigators from Eikaiwa come!!  Sunday was nice and calm after Saturday! Lots of member lessons! In the afternoon we went over  and helped Murakami Shimai (RS Pres) with iPad troubles, it's kind of funny, we've don't a lot of member  tech support, mostly with Family Search. Anyways, it took a while, but 1 success- their dog, King,  finally likes me! The dog barks and won't come near me every other time we've gone over and this time  she finally warmed up and decided to come sit on my lap- success! We're so grateful to be staying- more time to help out in this area!  Love you all! Love, Wagstaff Shimai

Halloween Party from **** :)

Thankfully the members in charge finally realized this party is too much work, so I think this was the last year. Niihama elders (our District Leader) came to visit some of our investigators/less actives and Halloween party prep took so long that we had just enough time to visit one. Of course maybe that just means we really needed to visit
her! I really haven't worked with elders much here and it was funny seeing that sometimes, they are just young and immature, thankfully not too bad. They dressed up as body guards and everyone was obsessed with
them, especially Elder Falute because he's from NZ/Australia.

Miracle yesterday we met with Kondo Kaicho (Kaicho: president) for a dendo (mission/missionary work) fireside we're doing next week. We had plans, but felt like we needed to talk to him again to see if we were meeting the members needs. Through talking, found out that we needed to change our approach with the fireside. We were going to focus on sharing gospel with friends, but he explained that a lot of people aren't ready to do that because they are really struggling. That went right along with a lot of our meetings this week- first we strengthen ourselves, then we can reach out to others. So now our focus is going to be strengthening them, hoping to reach the point where they can reach out.

Church really is different on this smaller scale- no worrying about Big temple celebrations or scout activities here. I honestly hope I stay in little branches my whole time here because they are the ones that need the most help, not the thriving wards in Kobe or Osaka- even if those areas do have more baptisms. Rees Shimai (from MTC- saw her at TTTM!) said strengthening the Japanese members might be one of the most important things we do because they're staying here, we're not. It was like what mom said about her little branches in Guatemala. :) Who knows, they might even have a ward there now!

I love you guys so much!

Matsuyama Zone from last week's meeting

Also the cutest member of our branch-he practices his peace sign a lot!