Whitewashing

So we are whitewashing an area (For those who don't know what whitewashing is - it's when two new missionaries go into an area and completely start from scratch...finding people, touching base with any members in the area...and it IS tough!).  It's tough.  Especially considering the fact that we are only 2nd and 3rd transfer missionaries (6 & 12 weeks into their time in Japan). 

Last Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting.  We all met at the Fukuoka Chapel.  That's like a 30 minute bike ride for us, so it's not bad at all!  The training was SO FUN!!  There are 38 missionaries in the Fukuoka Zone!  Wow!  So big!  It was so good to see everyone! Kuchar Shimai, Bush Shimai, and Merrill Choro were all there. (from her MTC district)  It was super fun!  They are all doing awesome, of course!  I love them!  The training was really good, and we got to meet some new people.  The APs and the Zone Leaders are really cool.  I like them all a lot.  After the meeting, the Assistants told us a good place we could go get some Fukuoka ramen.  We went with the other Fujisaki sisters and Merrill Choro and his companion.  It was way good!

So a couple of stories from this week:
1.  We went to visit a less-active lady because it was her birthday.  So she lives 10 miles away, up an ENORMOUS hill.  We did it though!  We decided to visit a member family that lives up there too.  So we went to their house first to talk to them about one of our investigators.  Anyway, we asked them about the lady we were going to visit.  The record we had said she was like 40.  They said she had died!!!  She was actually over 70, and had passed away.  It was REALLY awkward!  So...sometimes you ride 10 miles up a gigantic hill to visit someone who is actually dead.  It's really kind of funny....OH! not that she died!...but it's a funny story!

2.  So a lady showed up to Eikaiwa (like an English class).  She had a chirashi (flyer) that I think was put in her mailbox or something.  She stayed for all of Eikaiwa, and she agreed to meet with us to talk about church!  So we made an appointment, and taught her a couple of days later.  She is really cool.  I don't know how interested she is in the Church, but she really wants to know the truth.  We had a good lesson with her.  We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and had a pamphlet out.  Before we could even ask if she would take them and read them....she asked if she could have them!  We told her yes, yes please take them and read them!  We asked her to read a few passages in the Book of Mormon and if she had time to keep going.  She said she would, and she has a Plan of Salvation pamphlet that I think she will read because she seemed really interested in that.  We teach her again tonight!  She asks lots of questions, and really seems to want to know the truth!  I really like her!

Unfortunately, there's not really a lot more to talk about.

Baseball is over here in Japan, so I can't go to a game in that beautiful stadium!  :)  There are no basketball hoops, so we run on this cool pathway by the river.  It even has markers to tell you how far you've gone.  We go about 2 miles every day, about...We are out of shape!

It's starting to cool down here.  It's like fall weather.  I like it!  I hear it gets pretty darn cold in the winter, though, so we'll see!!