More stuff (February 9, 2015)

Hey-o! Some more information, since I'm sure you want it:

As I said, Nate Smith is in my District, and he's training Elder Nickolas Peterson. We also have Elders Bodily and Okada, no idea what their first names are. My trainer is Amy McGreevy, and this is her last transfer, so I will have a new trainer in five weeks, which is a little tragic because we get along beautifully.

Ishinomaki Shibu is not super big, but the members are very strong. Yesterday we visited a PI (potential investigator) who had a birthday, and a sister called Usui Shimai (who also left us cookies on the day I arrived, she's a sweetheart) drove us to their home, which is close to where I saw the bridge with the water line marked on it. Anyway, I guess they like music, so I brought my violin and played Happy Birthday and the Spirit of God.

Here are two more pictures for Momma, one is of me, our MTC branch president's wife, and my companion, Sister Christina Sugie Ahn. The other picture is Cami Fish, she took good care of me in Japanese 301 and is a teacher at the MTC. She is the sweetest.

We have a PI who I'm so excited about. Her name is Tomomi-san, and she is 29. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was kyoumishinshin, she practically started reading it while we were still there. She has a book of proverbs or some sort of scripture that's like, 365 pieces of advice, and she believes that whatever she flips open to will help her out, so it was good. She already believes in God and believes in faith, and when we taught her that we're all brothers and sisters, she said something along the lines of it being familiar to her, like it made sense. I think she's gonna get baptized. Either towards the end of this transfer or the beginning of the next one. :)

My challenge here is that everyone already knows and loves M Shimai (she goes by Mick Shimai so it's easy for them to say), so I need to get in with them, learn names, become friends with them, figure out navigation, and be Ishinomaki fluent by the time my next trainer arrives. We don't have an apartment map, and our cell phone GPS is off, so we get lost sometimes. We usually have to take pictures of the map that's pinned to the wall in our apartment (it's huge and not one we're supposed to take) and go with that. But it gives us opportunities to stop and ask for directions, so it's okay. Also, missionaries in our mission wear these hideous white helmets, and sometimes we ask people if they've seen gaijin on bikes with white helmets, and they're like, oh, yeah! And it's a glorious moment.

Okay, time's up, love you all, and I love it here, too. My jetlag is pretty much whooped thanks to the mission schedule, which is a blessing. Send me pictures of Daniel's date!!! And also if you could send me more family or friend pictures for my photo album, I would appreciate it but it's not a huge deal. Mostly the only friend picture I have right now is of Jack and I 'cause I snagged it off my wall on my way out, so I'm thinking the Dancing Through Life closing shot might be good, or something, whatever. I don't care that much. Thank you!!! :) Love you!

--L