Wildflower Thoughts : Week Fifty-one.

Hey y`alllll! Today I have been a missionary for 1 year. On the 17th will be my one year mark since entering the MTC.... whoa. I did it. I made it to one year.

Im just gonna start from the beginning and run through all the important things that happened last week. And... BEGIN!

So before I left Akita we went and visited Natsuko chan`s mom to say goodbye and to say thank you because she donated a watermelon to our fourth of July BBQ. When she opened the door she got the biggest smile on her face and when I told her I was leaving she said stuff like "ahh thats too bad! I wanted you to come over and hang out more!" GUYS. SHE LIKES US. This was a big big moment for me! The reason Natsuko chan cant hear the lessons is because her mom didnt want her to, but now her mom likes us and so maybe the missionaries in Akita now can teach not only Natsuko chan but also her mom! Yippee!

The day before I left Akita we went to the gym to play basketball one last time with everyone. Natsuko chan came and so did Kai kun. It was so fun but I cried... a lot... it was so sad riding my bike away from the gym knowing I would never go back there again. That gym is where I met Kai kun so it is special to me! After playing basketball we rode back to the church and to my surprise there was a Namahage in the parking lot! A namahage is a Japanese monster and they are famous to the Akita area! He was hiding behind a car and when we arrived he jumped out and started chasing me and Sister Luk and one of the other girls that was with us. Scary!!! But after awhile the monster got tired and uncovered himself by taking off his mask... dont worry, it was just Hitoshi san. Ha ha he is the cutest, right? Actually that is one of his jobs... to dress up like a namahage and play the fancy Japanese drums and perform at events like carnivals and weddings. I guess he wanted to put on one last show for me since I am leaving. It was fun! After that EVERYONE went out and ate udon which is a kind of noodle. There were like 15 people that all went. It was so sad to leave all of them. I will always remember the people I met in Akita, Japan. I know that I was called to Japan for THEM, especially Natsuko chan, Kai kun, and Hitoshi san.

Ishinomaki, ne. It is very different from Akita. I remember when I first got to Akita I loved it instantly. It was kinda weird... I just had this strong "at home" feeling- like I was always meant to be there. But when I got to Ishinomaki the first thing I noticed was the smell of poop as I got off the bus. It is a pretty dirty looking town, probably because of the big tsunami. It actually looks kinda like Aizu did. I havent seen anything in particular that I can tell is damaged from the tsunami but I am sure I will have a chance to see that kind of stuff in the future. I could very well end my mission here.

My companions are Sister Alcazar (from Utah but she is Columbian) and Sister Kanno (from Hokkaido). Oh man. I dont know how I am getting so lucky with companions but I LOVE them so much. We have already had so much fun and I think every night we fall asleep crying and laughing. They are so great. The other members in my district are Elder Zane Hill from Auburn Washington, Elder London Simonsen from Utah, Elder Kobayashi from Hokkaido, and Elder Aono from Tokyo. It is a fuuuuuun district, and we are all doing WORK here! I think there are 2 baptism dates set in our district and the elders just had a baptism right before transfers- so like 2 weeks ago. Its awesome.

My second day in Ishinomaki we went out to dinner with a potential investigator that Alcazar Shimai had found a week earlier. When she met him she gave him a Book of Mormon and at dinner he told us that he had already read to 1 Ne. 9! MIRACLE. He is a pretty funny guy. He is 50 something and super rich and likes to talk A LOT. He talked for a long time but I cant understand the Sendai dialect yet so I didnt really understand him. I am too used to the Akita dialect I guess! But anyways, he became a new investigator that night! Woo hooo!!!! My second day in Ishinomaki and we have a NEW INVESTIGATOR! That puts us at 3 investigators. One investigator doesnt have interest. She is just taking the lessons because her boyfriend wants her too and he is a member in our branch. One investigator has been taking the lessons forever but she wont get baptized. She is what we call an eternal investigator. And then there is Kimura san- our new investigator! Hopefully we can see some success with these people and find new people too.

Ishinomaki is way different from Akita but the dendo is kinda the same. They focus on service and activities here. Listen to how great missionary work in Japan is... On Wednesday we play ultimate frisbee from 3-5:30 and eikaiwa like usual, on Thursday we do service at a child center, on Friday we have a ping pong tournament from 7-8:30, on Saturday we give hand massages for service in the morning, play softball at 1:00 then right after softball we play ultimate frisbee at 3-5:30. SO FUN. This last week was so fun playing all those sports. We are going to have a softball tournament against the Izumi branch and their missionaries in the future so we have been practicing! Everyone said I was pretty good at softball. I guess I have Jr High School to thank for that! Ha ha.

The members in Ishinomaki are amazing. They have so much more dendo fire than the Akita members... no offense Akita! I love you! But seriously. They always are calling US saying, "hey can I joint for you! Can I do a mogi with you! I can drive you to visit LAs!" Its so amazing. And the members themselves will go and hand out flyers for eikaiwa and other activities just because they are so awesome. We had a super cool training with a member that used to be the branch president but he just got released but he knows a lot about what kind of missionary work works best in Ishinomaki. He used the bible and we read stories about the things Christ did during his earthly ministry so we are to base our dendo off of that. Our focus here is showing love and doing service. It is taking the time to talk to those around us and help them, because thats what Jesus did. It was a way cool training.

Last but not least, the typhoon and earthquake! Dont worry, we didnt get hit by the typhoon. We were supposed to get it on Friday but I dont even think it rained at all. I guess it missed us after all. And on Saturday I think it was? at 4:30 am I woke up to my apartment shaking. It was an earthquake and it lasted a really long time and it was a little bit stronger than other ones Ive felt. After the earthquake stopped we started hearing sirens and then our district leader called us asking us if we were okay. He told us that we needed to get our emergency food and go to the church because a tsunami was coming. But we didnt need to go until 8 o clock but until then we were to STAY AWAKE. Lots of other members texted us and called us to make sure we were okay. One member called us and told us that on the news it looked like we were going to be okay and the tsunami wasnt a problem anymore. We called our district leader back and he said that we didnt have to go to the church anymore. So we all went back to sleep and woke up at 6:30 again and continued our day like regular. It was kinda scary though! I feel a lot of earthquakes here... maybe 3 or 4 a week.

Thats it! Here are the answers to your questions mom. I am glad I bought winter stuff in Japan because for one thing I didnt have to worry about suitcase weight. When I go home I am probably going to just throw out all my clothes so I wont have to worry about suitcase weight then, either! But when you transfer around it doesnt matter how heavy your suitcase is so I can just stuff it all in there for now. I didnt think it was hard to find winter stuff. I had members that helped me buy boots and a coat and buying tights and socks and scarves is easy. You just have to go to any clothing store. It is easy to get what you need for cheap if you have members help you. And they are ALWAYS willing to help. As for my release date, I am pretty sure it is going to be February but I dont know. Plus, if I go back to ISU I already have all my pre req`s done to get in to the dietetics program so I wouldnt need to be home for spring semester. I would just start the program in the fall... but if I got to a different school then they might have different requirements so I would have to do spring semester. It just depends on the school I guess. Can you look at the requirements to get into the Dietetics program for these schools- ISU, UW, BYU-I, BYU, Boise St., and any other college you think would be good for me? You can get my siblings all on the hunt if you want.

I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers!
Love, Miranda