The Brooklyn Bridge

Courtesy of Elder Hansen's mom. I swear my companion was in this photo. ブルーワ姉妹 HELLO! Whoa. *Adjusts mic volume, nods in apology.* Hello, fellow saints. This week was great of course because I'm a missionary. Too much happiness and blessings. Y'all should try it. Sister Gunn and I had some great adventures going to really really really far places. We went to cities like Azumino and Yamagata, such beautiful night skies and long country roads. All the rice is harvested and the fields are bare now, just like when I first arrived in Japan. Weird! All creatures of our God and King are stunning! I'm so grateful to be in a biking mission, enjoying all the outside has to offer. I am also extremely grateful for the spirit, which like a fire is burning and keeping us warm. On Wednesday we had a fun Thanksgiving party at our English class. It was fascinating trying to describe the concept of stuffing to everybody. They were convinced that it was disgusting a...

We are definitely neglecting the picture taking recently, sorry. So this is an accidental screenshot of our weekly report video we send to the area presidency each week. Enjoy. (なさい？笑) Hi fellow Organism samas. This week was a lot of up and down, of course! Quite a few cancelled appointments and a couple no-shows. We set a baptismal date with our investigator Manami, which was so exciting, her desire is so pure! She has been progressing wonderfully lately. Unfortunately, the meeting with her parents did not go well and the date has been cancelled. Another one of our investigators has been an investigator since 1945. Yes! She is 91 years old, going very strong. She spoke at a public event for seniors on Wednesday, and she talked about her experiences with missionaries. We got to go listen which became excellent language study and city introduction to the church! No, we can't figure out why she hasn't gotten in the water yet. Thursday I got to go on a companion e...

And that's what companions are for, taking secret pictures of your back in scenic Japan. Hello! This week I've have a new favorite food. It's called オムライス(omuraisu)、which is rice and vegetables in an omelette. SO GOOD. I crave it all the time. Don't worry though, I am still fully faithful to my kitsune udon and Mac and cheese favorites. (I'm coming up on one whole year without eating mac and cheese, can you believe it? How is she surviving. Faith, that's how). Speaking of foods, we visited a really awesome member this week whose house is hidden away in a secret beautiful mountain of smallness. I swear we bike 200 years backwards into this little yamavillage she lives in. That's was great! Her testimony is rocking. Japanese members are like celebrities. They have sacrificed a lot to become members, and they way they show their faith and pure love of Christ is exemplary. And she fed us tsukemono. Japan has this food called tsukemono. What wou...

As you know, Halloween is my very favorite holiday so I was so excited ALL week even though it's not a very big deal in Japan. However, we had successful Halloween parties for both Eikaiwa and the Branch. A lot of people came, it was so great! We didn't get the OK on costumes from the assistants until right before, so we had to run to the dollar store and see what we could do. We had a lot of fun and met a few new people with potential for gospel investigation. Yay! Monday we had a lesson with a newer investigator who brought one of her friends! Whoo-hoo! He was listening the whole time, the spirit was strong, then we asked him to read one of the passages in the Book of Mormon. He did, then flipped through it a bit and asked, (the first thing he has said all lesson) "Hm. I need to buy myself one of these books."  WAA! So then we gave him that one and exploded internally with joy (I feel like I type that a lot, but it happens a lot on your mission. Very hard ...