Week Sixty-one.

Hey! So since I didnt have much time last week, I will reply to all your questions from last week first.

Yes the Sapporo Mission is the mission north of mine! My companion is from Hokkaido which is where the Sapporo mission is. What were the names of the couple missionaries?
Employment here is just the same everywhere. Lots of people own restaurants, Ive met a lot of beauty salon ladies, some people work in convenience stores... some people work in calling centers. Just regular stuff. I think lots of people lost their jobs in the tsunami. One of the members here did, but he found work again somewhere else. I dont know about for all of Ishinomaki, sorry ha ha.

Yes me and Kanno Shimai are the only sister missionaries in Ishinomaki! Its fun!

My eye is completely healed! The medicine worked great. When we go to the hospital we fill out a reimbursement request form and send it to the mission office and then we get our money back that we used. We use the mission money when we go to the hospital. I dont know how it all works, I just know what I am supposed to do.

Thats cool mom that you have been reading about the stripling warriors. Our mission scripture is actually Alma 53:20. And they were all young, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all-they were men who were true at all times, in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
I am grateful that you raised me so good and taught me how to protect myself from evil. Thank you!

So this is what happened this week- we had splits! The sister training leaders from Izumi came and we dendoed away. Me and Sister Kodama visited the Shutos. I have sad news... it doesnt look like they will be my miracle.  They are so nice and will listen to our message, but arent accepting it. N san just wants knowledge about Christianity so if one of his friends asks about it he will be able to answer and sound smart. He just wants to study, but isnt interested in changing after all. I tried teaching him about prayer and he ended up switching the conversation and teaching ME about Buddhist prayer. I dont want to know about Buddhist prayer! I want you to get baptized N san! But anyways... I was really sad. Today we are going to a play with him for P day, so it will still be good to spend time with him and T san but I dont know what will happen from here on out.

We had a way awesome Eikaiwa this week. Lots of new people came, and they said it was fun! We usually just have a beginners class and an advanced class but we started an intermediate class that I taught and it seemed to really help the atmosphere and people liked the class too. Maybe we will get some new investigators toooooo!

Hmm, we had a lot of people at ping pong night this week too. Lately we have been focusing on younger people so we can finally have a youth program at church and kinda liven up the branch. Right now it is pretty dull. But there were tons of young people at ping pong. Lots of the students from Eikaiwa were there. Lately these same 3 little 10 yr old boys have been coming to all our activities and they are so annoying but so cute ha ha. I love them.

We played softball this week, like usual, but at a different place than usual. There was a tiny basketball court nearby the softball field and some young 14 yr olds were playing basketball and we invited them to join our game and three of them did. Then we played basketball with them after. My skills have gone way down the drain! But it was pretty fun and the elders got some phone numbers so that was awesome. Yay for finding youth!

We did some volunteer hand massaging this week again. We also performed with our recorders at the volunteer place! And I didnt even mess up this time! It was pretty fun. Me and Kanno Shimai used to just practice with two women from our branch but now every week we have almost a new person come to practice with us. We have been practicing with a kinda less active and also sometimes we practice with R kun, my old investigator that we passed to the elders who is still hearing the lessons woo hoo! This week we are going to throw in some of the elders and invite R kun again.
I will have to buy myself a recorder and play you guys some tunes when I get back he he he.

We had a big Family Home Evening on Saturday. Those 3 annoying little boys came but they made it fun too. Some Eikaiwa students came... some single adults from the branch... about 20 people total (including the 6 missionaries). We ate pizza and played mafia. It was pretty fun and I think everyone had a good time. We have 2 other FHEs planned at the end of this week! I guess our FHE was such a hit that we got booked for other appointments. Nice.

On Sunday some ladies from Tokyo came that are in a singing group called Candle Mama. They are putting on a charity concert in a couple weeks and for one of the songs they sing the Ishinomaki branch is supposed to sing too so I will be performing in front of Ishinomaki!! And the song is so weird. I cant even explain it. I took a movie of us practicing yesterday though so I will show you in a few months. It was the strangest song I have ever heard. We kept chanting da-da-da-da-da-ddy.

Thats about it for this week. Unfortunately it is hard to meet with investigators right now because everyone seems to be busy now. We dont have any progressing investigators or anyone sincerely interested in joined a religion or changing their life. I feel like most the time everyone is trying to avoid us or making excuses as to why they cant meet. That happens a lot...

Thanks for finding out all that stuff for me about ISU and the Dietetics program. I was freaking out this week and really frustrated because I was worried I didnt have enough time to figure out my future and then coordinate it with a plane ticket and things like that. Thanks though for finding everything out! See you in February!

Love you.
Miranda