The Brooklyn Bridge

ブルーワ姉妹 Had a great time here, and even better time in the Book of Mormon this morning. Check out 2 Nephi 25. Much love!

And by that we mean rice fields, not just the mission field, because that is a lot of what we did this week. Our Ward Mission Leader gave us a list of Less Active Members to visit, which was very much appreciated! We have spent the week looking for them. We ventured to one of the valleys of Matsumoto about two hours from the church. We got off the train and followed our all-loyal, sometimes-accurate phone map to her coordinates. The map led us up some forested hills, around a highway, and through many beautiful rice fields hovered by cascading skies of stars. Because, there are no street lights in the country, as you are aware. Or many buildings for that matter, so we were counting the rice fields on the map to try to know where to turn. But the spirit led us along, we found her house AND she was home. We taught a short lesson and were able to give her a Book of Mormon, which she hadn't seen in a while. A miracle! I'm grateful for the warm experiences I have with the spirit he...

Not as sophisticated as you might think.

Hello! It's been a bit of a whirlwind around here, feels like a month since last Pday! I've been on the train more than in my futon, but now we are all Nice and settled here in beautiful 松本！This is the largest area in the mission, so overwhelmingly large, but it's in Nagano Ken so it's beautiful! The weather is very slowly beginning to cool down as well. Monday was so crazy right up to the last minute trying to move out, create the please-take-out-our-garbage-because-they-won't-today-since-it's-a-holiday Trash Schedule for the Elders, cleaning, packing, appointments, blah blah blah (or in Japanese-nani nani nani). Tuesday we had a great session of Trainers' training in Nagoya, then I stayed with beloved Takaku Shimai (my trainer) and Barazza Shimai in Kasugai that night. Back to Meito in the morning where I met Sister VICTORIA GUNN, from Jacksonville, Florida (shoutout to Alyssa). She is so genki and fun and loves the people in Japan so much! We are going t...

Hello, humans. Here's a bit of this week, the last of the transfer! First of all, we had EIGHT investigator lessons this week! *crowd cheers* that is about seven more than usual, wit was really thrilling. A lot of new investigators, so Rogers Shimai and I made a goal to invite everyone to be baptized. It was scary, but the spirit was so much stronger, and I felt like a real missionary! Two said no, four said maybe, and two said YES!! They have set the date for October 25. They are so beautiful!!! God has prepared them, and I am so grateful he led us to them. Their desire to follow Christ is there, it's so beautiful! On Friday we went down to Amori for the Branch President's family Home evening. His granddaughters, age six and four, were way too cute and seemed to enjoy the magic show. It was so refreshing, kids are so magic! Sister Takei also made an immense amount of delicious food, including lasagna, it's been a while since I've eaten that, it was...

This week the report comes from my dear companion, because she took the time to wrote it. Please enjoy, have a radical week and be missionaries! :)  We have found more investigators this week than we have the whole transfer combined! On Monday we were talking people near Nagano eki when we saw a girl in shorts coming our way and we knew we had to talk to her!  The experience we had was kind of like Alma 32:34,"And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant." We didn't have to have faith the she would become an investigator because we knew she would. We meet with her on Wednesday!  Here in Nagano, we have three levels of Eikaiwa and Brewer Shimai and I teach the middle school level. Usually this would be fun, but our students refuse, REFUSE to talk. And if you ask them a question, they look at each other and whisper-discuss what their answer is for five minutes...only to not say the answer. Example: Us : ...

Monday, we took the two-hour train ride to meet our awesome new investigator who cancelled five minutes before. Cool! Not phased, we rode the train right back home and ate dinner with all our might. Tuesday we went looking and looking and looking and FOUND A NEW restaurant we want to try. So we'll probably go there today. Wednesday was the epitome of awesome! We had a practice lesson with a member is the sweetest! Hearing the members' testimonies is always so refreshing and strengthening. Little did we know her husband (who came to church the Sunday before) isn't even a member yet, but she said, I'm going to go home and teach this to my husband! It was so exciting. THEN, because of the beautiful and blessed faith Of the member, we talked to a woman on the way home who agreed to meet with us the next day to learn English and about the Gospel. And yes, there was a choir of angels lined up in the tiny Japanese road, singing "Hallelujah" as that occurred. We were ...