I've lived through a Typhoon...or two

Tokyo Japan Temple

Hola!

Sorry this email is a day late, but today is Temple P-day! We got to go to Tokyo and go to the temple.

This week was a little insane.

On Tuesday we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders in Oyama. We actually forgot to set an alarm the night before (we needed to wake up early to catch our train) so we ended up waking up 1 min after our first train left. We were so late, but it was ok. Exchanges were so much fun! I was with Sister Wooley, who was Sister Pourre's MTC companion. That day we were going to go to a lesson mogi with a member, except she lived really far away. So we biked 1 hour to get there on some pretty sketchy sidewalks, but once we got to the city, google maps decided to not work. We spent an extra 40 min trying to find her house. We had to call her twice and we asked 2 different people for help. We went into a fireworks shop at one point to ask this grandma for help and just as we were about to leave, it started pouring. We hadn't been expecting the rain so we were not prepared, but this nice grandma saw our problem and gave us 2 umbrellas! We returned them after the lesson, but it was so nice! That's just Japanese culture I guess. She even told us that we didn't need to bring them back.

The actual mogi was really fun. Some of the member's family was there eating dinner so we got to talk to them a bit and then teach her after they left. She even fed us some curry! Japanese curry is so good. Did I mention that this was all in Nihongo? I've missed Nihongo, and it was so fun to be able to spend a whole day speaking Nihongo. I was a little sad when we went back to Oizumi the next day, I missed Nihongo so much.

On Wednesday we came back to Oizumi and we had the chance to talk to Leia. She is amazing! Her faith is out of this world and I love teaching her. We talked about prophets and she just understood and accepted everything. It was so great. She also gave us more Goya, bitter melon. Apparently you need to cook it for 15-20 min, and last time we only did 5 min and it was so bitter.  Feel free to go try some Goya though, it's more bitter than you think it is.

Dinner with Adriana

We also had the chance to go eat some Brazilian food at Adriana's. The Japan Tokyo mission has a tradition where the last 2 days of your mission you get to go visit some of your old areas. Well, Sister Sakamoto is leaving and she wanted to visit Oizumi so Adriana made her lunch and invited us to come. It was so good! Seriously, this was a week of delicious food. She made some fried cheese balls and fried chicken cones and stroganoff (but Brazilian). I didn't understand most of what everyone was saying, but that's ok because Sister Sakamoto's companion didn't understand anything either. It's nice to have someone who doesn't understand, makes me feel better that I'm not the only one.

On Thursday we had Zone meeting in Maebashi, which was way fun. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but Honda Shimai (my childhood friend from Minnesota) is in my Zone, so we got to see each other! Zone meeting is really interesting because they tell us all these things to work on and it's super inspiring, and then the Oizumi missionaries have to take everything and apply it to Oizumi in a unique way. Oizumi is kind of it's own separate mission because it's a different language and culture and has some different rules (we get up at 7 instead of 6:30 and go to bed at 11 instead of 10:30 for example). We have to be a little creative with how we apply the things that they talk about in Zone meeting to fit our culture. It was so fun though. The missionaries in my zone are great!

After Zone Meeting, Sister Pourre and I had the chance to go eat lunch with Tessa. Tessa is an investigator that lives in Maebashi and we recently had to refer her to the Elders in Maebashi since we can't visit her very often. Maebashi is about 1.5 hours away from Oizumi by train. We had the chance to eat with her and it was so fun! We got udon and takoyaki (octopus in dough) and it was delicious. We had a chance to talk to her about a few different things like missionary life and I think she is going to be an amazing investigator.

That same night, we were calling Potential Investigators and we found a girl named Nisha who was super interested in the gospel. We were so excited! She actually lives in Hiroshima, so we had to refer her to another mission, but we are excited for her to learn more about the gospel as well. I love when people we meet show that kind of excitement to learn.

On Saturday, it rained a lot. I actually got to wear my rain shoes (Crocs). It was so wet. My skirt got soaked, which was really fun. There was just SO MUCH RAIN! And despite the rain, no one was home. It was weird. But funny story, we were turning around on the street because we had gone the wrong way and somehow the toe of my shoe got caught on the ground and my shoe came off! Luckily it wasn't too busy of a road and a nice lady stopped her car so I could go grab my shoe, but it was funny. Dangers of riding a bike in flats I guess.

On Sunday we took the train to go to Takesaki and watch a broadcast of the Sapporo Temple dedication! We went with some members and it was amazing. I'm so excited for the people of Japan to have this third temple. It is beautiful and it really helped to remind me why I love temples so much. Temples are the best and I'm so excited that we got to go to the Tokyo one today!

Now we get to the typhoon part. I'm not exactly sure which parts of the week were typhoons and which parts were just rain. Maybe there was a typhoon on Tuesday when we were on exchanges, maybe there was one on Saturday, but I do know that Monday there was a typhoon for sure.

It was pouring all day, and for those of you who don't know, missionary work doesn't stop for a typhoon. We were biking all over trying to visit people, but again no one was home (so weird). My skirt was soaked within 2 min of stepping outside, but the top part of me was dry thanks to the great rain coat we got. Thanks mom! We did a lot of phone call lessons on Monday as well because it was so rainy. When it wasn't raining, the wind was insane, making biking really hard. I would pedal and wonder if I was actually going anywhere, the wind was so strong. But now I can say I survived a typhoon!

Japanese Raman

At dinner we had the chance to go eat Raman with Naomi and Camila, two recent converts. They are so cute! Naomi reminds me of Alena a lot. The Raman was really good too. You haven't tried anything until you've tried Japanese Raman. We were able to have some good lessons with some sweet spot investigators (teenager/young adult age) last night as well, so it was a good day.

Then today we had to ride trains for almost 2 hours to get to the temple, but it was so worth it. I love the temple! The Tokyo temple is gorgeous too. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the Tokyo temple isn't closing any time soon so I still have many more chances to go! Yay! Honda Shimai's Great Uncle actually happened to be in our session so he took all 4 of us to lunch. We got so much food, but it was so good. He was really nice and he has done so many crazy things. He taught Elder Stevenson Japanese at the Language Training Mission (what they had before the MTC) and when the Tokyo Temple was dedicated, he took President Kimball's luggage to his hotel. He has done so many cool things, it was so nice to talk to him. It was a great experience. I love the temple and I can't wait to come back soon!!!

This week has been rough. It's been raining and many people aren't home, but it's also been great. We have gotten better about talking to everyone on the street and inviting them to learn more or to come to Eikaiwa. I know that the Lord is preparing people in Oizumi for us to teach. Oizumi is great and I'm excited to be here!

At the Tokyo Japan Temple

Also, funny story, my mom mentioned in her last email that my brain might be going crazy because of the Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese and English. It is so true, I have started mixing languages so much and it's a problem, especially when I know the person understands Nihongo and Spanish...oh dear. Well, the other night, Sister Pourre was reading phone numbers to me and she said the numbers in all 4 languages. One second she would be in English, the next in Portuguese, then Nihongo, then Spanish. Then I did the exact same thing to her! We just about died laughing. I guess it's a good problem to have though since it means I know enough Portuguese to start mixing it with other languages.

I've also started teaching parts of the lessons, so Portuguese is going well.

Lastly, I am on Facebook, this is a Facebook mission. I can't respond to messages though and I can't see what you all post. However, I will probably be posting a few things throughout my mission, so enjoy those!

You are all amazing! Thank you for your love and support!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai