Week Forty-six.

Konnnnnnnichiwa!
Hows it going? Akita is looking good! Its been so warm here! Probably in the 80s or so. Hearing Celsius still doesnt really mean anything to me so I am just guessing on the weather by feel ha ha. Its nice and warm but it also is pretty windy. Today as I was riding to the church on my bike, my skirt got stuck in my chain and Im sure my neighboorhood enjoyed seeing me with my skirt half way off. That was embarrassing! Darn that wind! It keeps blowing my clothes into my bike chain! This story ends with a skirt fatality... I think the hole that was produced is just a little too big to repair. Zannen.

Sounds like you guys are having SO much fun in Texas! The pictures you sent me of the zoo are so great! It looks like it was really fun. I want to go to the zoo when I get home! Can we go? :) Oh and thats too bad about the ocean being seaweed-ed. Bad timing huh.

This week some really good things happened, but also some really bad things. It was transfer week and my district leader, Elder Nishiie, got transferred. It was SO sad. We actually become really good friends and he helped me a lot over here in Akita so when he got on the bus with all his luggage I sobbed my little eyes out. Its way sad because chances are I will never really see him again because he lives in Japan and I am American. I guess thats how missions go! You meet some really awesome people but then life moves on and you go your different ways. Oh he did have some last words though for all you guys, well mainly just abby. He said, "tell Abby Im sorry" Ha ha he didnt mean for his letter to be so creepy that he sent to her. He was embarrassed.

On the bright side, we had zone training meeting this week and Elder Nishiie was there! Ha ha he got transferred out of my district, but he is still in my zone so thats good. Theres no need for tears after all! Zone Training Meeting was pretty good. We received training on what we should do and say when we are first meeting with an investigator. It is important to understand what they want to learn or receive from the lessons and what they know about Christianity and stuff. It helps the missionaries so we know what to teach and it also builds trust with the investigator.

On Sunday we had ward conference and the missionaries had a special musical number so me and Sister Luk invited all our investigators and friends to church. Nobody replied to us when we invited them so we didnt think anyone was coming. But surprisingly Hitoshi san showed up and participated in 2 hours of church! While we were singing the opening hymn in sacrament meeting, the door opened and Yurie chan came walking in! Um, can you say miracle?! We havent heard from her in months!!!! She came to sacrament meeting! Then after we took the sacrament one of the members looked at us and mouthed to us "Natsuko chan is here!" Me and Sister Luk just looked at each other like, "E?! This cant be happening!!!" And so we snuck out into the hall and there was Natsuko chan! So we all went back into the meeting and I couldnt focus at all because I had 3 wonderful people sitting next to me at church. Wow. 2 investigators and a potential investigator at church. Anyways, the musical number went good. We sang "I Know that my Redeemer Lives" of course because I was playing the piano :) I dont know how exactly but I was able to create my own little arrangement of the hymn from my brain and play it perfectly during the performance while everyone else sang. Thank you for forcing me to take piano lessons when I was little! Everyone sang good too. We sang the hymn mostly in Japanese but we did one verse in English for dramatic effect :)

After church we had a big lunch with the branch and my 3 besties all stayed and had a way good time. And the branch did a FABULOUS job at fellowshipping all of them. After the event, me and Sister Luk finally made it home and we had to do some study since we didnt have time in the morning before church. While we were studying I got a text from Kai kun and he said "Sorry I had an event for school during church so I couldnt come. And also, Im not coming to English Class anymore because I cant get along with some of the people there. Sorry." And he didnt even use ONE EMOTICON which is kind of a big deal for a Japanese person! It took me forever to reply because my Japanese is so bad but as I was trying to create a reply to see if he was okay, Hitoshi san called us! So I answered the phone to say hello! And this is what he said to me, "So Im calling to tell you that I cant come to your activity on Tuesday night. My older brother just died." Um WHAT. I asked him if it was an accident and he said that it was suicide. I am pretty sure that right after he found out we were the first people he called. I didnt know what to say because number one I was in shock, and number two I needed to reply to him in Japanese of course but I dont know the right words to show empathy in a situation like that. In English we would say, "I am so sorry!" but in Japanese you dont say sorry in situations like that. Its so weird if you do. So I just didnt say anything and started to cry. I asked him if he was okay and he said no of course. And then he said bye and hung up. I looked at Sister Luk and we both were sobbing so we ran over to our futons and buried our faces in our blankets and cried. Two very sad things happened in a matter of 10 minutes. Right after that the other sisters walked into the apartment and freaked out because they didnt know what was wrong. So then we told them what happened and they came and sat on our futons with us and tried to help. But we had to go because we had a dinner appointment and someones house so we just had to suck it up and keep working. I was okay during the appointment but when we were riding our bikes home it was really late and pretty quiet. I had a moment where I was waiting for a light to turn blue so I could go (Yeah in Japan blue means go and red means stop. Weird I know.) and I was able to really just deeply think about a lot of stuff. About Hitoshi san. About Kai kun. About home. About my mission. It was 30 seconds of... lonliness. I dont think I have ever really been that deep in thought before in such a short period of time. But that night right before bed I texted Hitoshi san and told him that we love him and that we havent stopped crying since we heard the news. He replied and said that he loved us too and that he wants us to not cry but to laugh instead becasue he likes my laughing face best. And he used a lot of emoticons and stuff too. So it seemed like he was doing okay. And today he tried sending us a picture of some roses that he has at his house for some reason and seemed perfectly genki and happy. And started asking about all our activities for this week. I said to Sister Luk, "His brother just died and he is sending us pictures of a rose! Who is this guy! I dont have any clue how I should be feeling right now to be honest!" we both kinda laughed but were both really confused too. Hitoshi san....

Maybe Hitoshi san is okay... but Kai kun still isnt. He wont really talk to us and he keeps making excuses to meet with us. Ahhhh noo. Not Kai kun! I want to cry every time I think about it.

Another tough thing about this week is I keep having dreams that I am home! The other night I had a dream that I was home for Christmas Break but that I had to go back on my mission once break was over. When I got home Isaac came running and hugged me so hard that he tackled me and then mom told me to come into the bathroom and meet my new niece who was taking a bath. She was so cute and I woke up before I got to hold her. But it made me kinda homesick. And then last night I had a dream that I was on "mission break" again! But this time I was in Louisiana with my best friend Rachel Worthington. I dont know why I keep having dreams that I am on break. Its so weird.

But dont worry. I am doing fine. Yesterday was really sad, but I am feeling a lot better. I dont want you to think I am going through a huge trial or anything like that because I am feeling really happy right now in Akita. I just am feeling so much sorrow for my investigators. I think thats a good thing though. It means I really love them and care about them, right?

Anyways, I miss all of you so much. I hope everyone is doing good. It sounds like everyone is very happy! I pray for you all the time.
Love you.
Love Miranda