First Bike Crash!

Lacee had her first bike crash!  She said it was embarrassing...riding in the city, she either almost hits a person or almost gets hit by a car multiple times a day!  From her email:

"I had never wrecked though (in spite of the traffic/pedestrian issue).  So the time I do, my skirt got stuck and my shoe fell off.  And I flew over the handlebars.  It was quite embarrassing!  I have some pretty sweet bruises.  The best one is in on my chin.  It got all scraped and swollen and bruised.  Cool.  Cool.  Stupid skirt!  Can I say that as a missionary?"

She has had some problems with her debit card and the bank is supposedly "rushing" her a new card but she is riding someone else's bike until she gets the card and can get her own bike.  She says, "I'm grateful I have a bike to use, but it is a dumb bike.  It's all greasy and gross, so it has ruined 2 skirts because the black greasy stuff won't come out.  Also there are some enormous hills here.  Everywhere.  And this bike won't shift gears...at least I'll be in pretty good shape I guess."

Bumps and bruises from her crash!

Another fun thing...we played basketball with all these little kids.  Our bishop set it up because Kuroki Shimai, Kuchar Shimai, and I all play basketball.  It was SO FUN!  These kids were adorable.  They all like charged us when we walked in.  We played some games with them.  Oh, their hoops are like 8' hoops and the kids were all like 4 foot nothing, so I was like a giant!  It was great!  :)  The best part though was between a couple of the games, these 3 or 4 little tiny boys who were probably like 6 came over with a ball and handed it to me.  And the one said, "Dunku shite".  Ahhhh!  It was so cute!!! He wanted me to dunk it!  I told him I couldn't but they kept telling me I could and asked me to do it.  They were so cute, so I tried, and I got pretty close, but didn't make it.  Anyways I told them all to try, so all these itty bitty kids were trying.  Adorable.

So this was my coolest spiritual experience so far:  We went to go visit a less active member.  She got baptized a while ago, but then went inactive really fast.  So we went over, and we couldn't go in (which happens a lot).  We just teach them at their genkan (where they leave their shoes).  Anyways we're just sharing a quick message, and I only understand like half of it, but my trainer said she was a daughter of God, and that God loves her.  Then she asked the lady, Higaitsuko Shimai, if she believed it.  She said she wanted to but it was hard to believe.  I asked her if I could share a scripture.  I shared Alma 32:27 (which says: "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.").  She read it, and I told her that she already had the desire.  She just stood there for a second and then told me that that scripture was perfect for her right now.  Yay!  Cool right?!!  I thought so.  I think that helped me feel like even though my Japanese is terrible I can still contribute a little.  So that was good.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the people here.  I can't even tell you.  I love them all so much!

Some things I've learned:
Riding a bike in a big city is scary.  In a skirt, it's even worse.  But biking shorts are awesome!
Sometimes you don't actually want to know what you're eating!
Without the Lord, all of this would be impossible.
Sometimes you ride your bike up the biggest hill of your life in the rain to visit someone, and then they aren't home.
You ride your bike until you literally can't ride any further...then you ride home. :)
Sometimes you just have to open your mouth, and have faith in the Lord.
If you don't fall, angels can't bear you up.
Miracles happen every day, you just have to look for them.
Japanese is HARD!
Sometimes you wreck your bike!

Love you all!!!