'White Washing' in Takamatsu

October 1, 2012

Well it was a pretty great week. There is always an adventure to be found in the mission field. Especially when you are white washing and one of the companions (that would be me) doesn`t speak the language. 

The beginning of the week was spent trying to find a lot of things. We had people we wanted to visit and things we needed to do. But everything is so new, and all the maps are in Kanji. Such an adventure!

There were definitely moments where we were completely lost and had no idea where to go. Luckily, however, we are in Japan. And the people here are very hospitable. If we were to ask someone where to go sometimes they would point us in the general direction, but also many people would stop what they were doing and show us the way for quite a while. One lady hopped on her bike and said to follow here. She took us through several blocks until we got to the general place we needed to be. Then she went back to wherever she was going. The Japanese people are just so great! 

We got to meet this SUPER awesome family. I can`t remember if I talked about them last week. The Elders contacted them. The dad was a less active, and his wife and 3 kids were not members. About a month ago the dad passed away from cancer. The family took a little break from speaking with the missionaries for obvious reasons. 

Well after much praying, looking at the map, and asking for directions we found their house. We got to talk to the mom and her 8 year old daughter. They are AMAZING! The mom has kept pushing on through life, even though I`m sure she is still mourning the lose of her husband. They ran a little business together and now that he has died she is doing the whole thing. I guess she is super busy and it was a miracle we even got to see her at all. We only talked for a little bit before she had to go, but I just love her. 

Later in the week we felt like we needed to go visit them again. This time we found her at work, trying to figure out some emails. Apparently the husband spoke English fluently, so taking over his part of the business has been a challenge for her. She doesn`t speak English. As we talked with her she asked us to help her translate some of the emails. She was getting these weird emails about something, and they were all in English. We went in and while cute Anderson Shimai was trying to learn the words and phrases for business Japanese and trying to translate the emails, I was playing with the 8 year old daughter. I taught her some hand games and about Christ. She said she loves church and wants to go. Awesome!

Long story short on that one, we didn`t teach a ``Lesson`` but I think the mom is really starting to trust us. I think it was such a blessing that we could be there at that time. The Lord`s hand was definitely guiding us there. 

This week we also found this awesome girl. She is about my age and Chinese. She is working right now but is trying to got to school. She wants to be an interpreter. We had a 20 minute conversation  in the middle of the side walk. (With lots of glares from passerby bicyclers). She believes in God and has some Christian friends. She is a hoot to talk to. She has a sense of humor, (which is something the Japanese don`t show you until you`re REALLY good friends. I haven`t really seen anyone with a good sense of humor for a while. Well except for my companion of course)  and she was just so great to talk to!  We`re meeting with her tomorrow and I hope things go well! I think she would be an AWESOME church member! 

We met our new district on Friday. I don`t have a picture with them yet. I`ll get one next week. I`m sure I`ll come to love them as much as I did my first district. Hopefully....

Anyways. I don`t know if you`ve been watching the weather but yesterday we had a Typhoon! What an adventure. Saturday night our Zone Leaders texted us and told us that we didn`t have to stay inside if we didn`t want to, but to be smart and don`t go out if it would be dangerous. In the morning we woke up to a lot of rain. The wind wasn`t super bad which was nice. But I don`t think I`ve seen so much rain in my entire life. I loved it! 

All of church was cancelled except for Sacrament meeting. The members INSISTED on picking us up and taking us to church. Which was actually super nice. We live about a 10 minute bike ride from the church. It could have been fun riding in that I guess. But I`m glad we didn`t have to find out. 

It was kind of a bummer that the rest of church got cancelled because our investigators didn`t want to come and we couldn`t teach our lessons. 

But there was a little adventure. We were asked to give a little thought and bare our testimonies for Sacrament meeting. 

I was really nervous at first, and I had practiced what I wanted to say all morning. 

When I got up there, I was only a little nervous and I said almost everything I wanted to. Everyone in the congregation was smiling and nodding their heads. I thought I had gotten my point across. I was happy and sat down. 

Later on I found out that I still have a LOT to learn in Japanese. I definitely said that through Christ we can receive sin. NOT strength, like I was trying to. I also said that I help Him everyday. Not He helps me. I hate particles. Who needs them. Right?....

Anyways...I am definitely the greeny making those awesome mistakes. 

For all of Sunday afternoon we studied and worked on some stuff in the area book. The area book is so important! It tells us everything about any person the missionaries have ever taught. And the area book here hasn`t been updated in ages. There are actually like 4 area books worth of papers we found all throughout the apartment. So we sorted all of that. 

The members all said the typhoon was supposed to be worse in the evening. But by around 7pm it cleared up. There was almost no wind and the rain was completely gone. We decided we had been inside long enough. We went and did some finding. 

It felt really good to leave. 

Well...I love you all lots and lots! I think you`re amazing. Remember that through the Lord you can receive strength...not sin. 

あいしています！

ダブセン　しまい

Here are pictures of our apartment in Takamatsu

Front Entry Way

Front Door

Our Apartment is on the 2nd floor (minus the front entry way)

View from our
Apartment

Outside our Apartment

Our Bathroom

Our Futons Folded Up in our Bedrrom

Our Study

Our Kitchen

Me wearing a borrowed Motorcycle Helmet (until mine could be shipped over from Akashi)