When you lose everything

Ushiku Transfer 10 Week 1

Konnichiwa!

So this week we lost everything ˆˆ

Hehe...

So the first thing we lost was the pin that we dropped on our maps for a member that the Relief Society wanted us to visit. BUT we remembered the general location and we remembered that they said something about a log house. As we were searching for this house we started to worry that maybe a log house meant something different to Japanese people than to Americans, but then, just as we were about to bike past, I looked to my right and I SAW A REAL LOG HOUSE!!!!!! Yep! We found the member! She is super amazing! She picked a watermelon from the ground and ate it with us. She also was one of the missionaries that taught our Mission President's wife, Sister Nagano, so if that is the coolest thing ever, I don't know what is.

Cute name plate

Thursday was a really interesting day. We went to visit a Less Active that we found a few weeks back and it was such a good appointment. She really opened up to us and we know how to better help her now. She is super sweet and her daughter is so cute! She was making one of those rubber band things on the loom (Rainbow Bandz? I don't remember) and she figured out how to do it all on her own. She is only 6! Eventually we had to leave that appointment though because we had an appointment to meet a new investigator, who is a high school student, at the train station...except she never showed up. So we lost an investigator. We decided to do a bit more finding and after a little bit, I said that maybe we should try the other side just for a little bit before going home for dinner. The very first person we talked to on that side became a new investigator!!!!! She is also in high school!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! And she exchanged Line with us and is super excited to meet with us next week!!!! YAYAYAYAYA FOR FINDING NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!!!

Getting ice cream

Then we had Saturday. It was the first Saturday in a while where we had a completely empty schedule, so we decided to go to Ryuugasaki (a place with lots of young people, but it takes an hour to bike there so it usually takes a whole day). We had plans to visit 3 former investigators and do some finding around each of their areas. None of the former investigators were home (they either moved or just weren't home) so we did a lot of finding.

Nicole from Oizumi

We were so invested in our finding, that all of a sudden it was almost 2:00 and we realized that we had totally forgotten about lunch. Whoops! We stopped by a mall for some ice cream before heading to our next place because we were planning on having dinner soon anyways. Well, while getting this ice cream, Sister Honda lost her bright pink rain coat. We immediately prayed and then spent 40 minutes retracing our steps, asking random people on the streets if they had seen the rain coat, and then finally going back to the ice cream place and asking the workers if there was a lost and found. The biggest miracle of the day???? WE FOUND THE RAIN COAT!!!!! It was in the lost and found!

During this whole experience, I wondered why Heavenly Father led us to retrace our steps for 40 minutes. We had to bike a lot to go all the way back to where we last remembered seeing the coat. It reminded me of a story that an Apostle shared about how he and he father had to choose between 2 roads. They couldn't remember which one led home. They prayed and were prompted to take one road. They took that road and after a little bit came to the end of the road. They had to drive back and take the other road. They realized that Heavenly Father had blessed them. Because they took the wrong road and were able to receive confirmation that the other road was right, they knew for sure that they were going the right way in the end. If they had chosen the right road from the very beginning, they would have questioned their decision for a long time and may have tried turning back, wasting more gas and time.

Is this the right way?

I realized that Heavenly Father had done this for us. He had us retrace our steps so that we could know for sure that the coat wasn't there. We had to wait a few minutes for the ice cream shop workers to try and find the Lost and Found and I know that if I hadn't known that the coat wasn't where we had been before, I would not have been as patient. We might have left to go look on the roads and taken even more time. Instead Heavenly Father really led us and helped us. Yay!

Another interesting aspect of this trip to Ryuugasaki was Google Maps. Now, Google Maps is usually pretty good and helpful. Japanese addresses don't make any sense, so Google Maps is super important. Well, when we were coming back from Ryuugasaki, Google Maps led us to a completely closed road, some rice fields that were golden to harvest (hehehehe that's the name of our quarterly goal right now, Fields Already Golden to Harvest, so we thought it was pretty funny) and finally into the wilderness. There was literally no road, just some car tracks. We were like the pioneers!!!!! We eventually found the street we needed to turn down, but it was quite the experience. ˆˆ

Sidenote: Google Maps also took us all over the place, and we passed so many 7/11s. We felt like we found all the 7/11s in our area ˆˆ

Golden Harvest

When we got home from that daylong expedition in Ryuugasaki, we both just died. We are not as young as we used to be hahahaha. It was a miracle filled day though and I am so glad that we were able to go there. We see a lot of potential in Ryuugasaki!!!!

Then a miracle from Sunday! A new Sister just moved into the ward with her 11 year old daughter and I had the chance to meet them after Relief Society. The 11 year old girl speaks really good English because she was born in America and then lived in Mexico for 11 years! Yay for Spanish!!!!!! She is super cute and doesn't speak super good Japanese, but we invited her to the Young Women event we had today and it was so fun! It was such a nice little miracle that we were able to meet her and talk with her. I hope she likes it here in Ushiku!!!

Making cookies with the young women

Today we made cookies with the Young Women for them to give to their friends. Sister Honda's mom sent her cookie making ingredients from America with orders to make them with the Young Women and we were finally able to do it this week!!!!! They had so much fun!!!!! They loved the cookies and loved making cards with their favorite scriptures to give to all their friends. It was so fun to watch how excited they were while making everything.

I love Ushiku so much! Have a great week!

Love,

ブラック姉妹
Black Shimai