18 Months in the Land of the Rising Sun: A Visit to Miyajima

So Kuchar Shimai and I went to Miyajima last Monday. BEST. DAY. EVER. It was SO fun!!! It was awesome! We had to ride a train for like forever and then get on the ferry to get out there, but it was so cool. We spent like the whole day there. It was so cool. We went and hiked around, pet and hugged some tick infested deer (it's fine, we are both still tick free!), saw some of the other missionaries who were there at the same time. We met the Zone Leaders from the other zone, and then we met up with the Takasu Elders and the Hatsukaichi Sisters. So much fun. They are just a good bunch of missionaries. Kuchar Shimai and I just went and saw all the stuff we wanted to see, and then met up with the others. I seriously took hundreds of pictures, I think. So cool! Today we're going to the Peace Park.

In other news from the week, Ling san (our Chinese investigator...in Chinese it's Ling, Rin is the Japanese pronunciation) is doing SUPER good! I LOVE her! She is so cute! We had another lesson with her on Wednesday. She gave us a bit of a scare. We went in and started talking to her, and she was like, "I don't really know if I can do this." She was kind of beating around the bush, but eventually she said she could study what we were teaching but she couldn't do it for real. We were SO sad. But I felt like I needed to ask her exactly what she meant. So I did. She told us she couldn't be like us...a missionary! What a relief! So we explained to her that she didn't have to and told her that some of the people she had already met were members and they are just normal people doing normal things. After that we all kind of laughed, and continued with the lesson. So she's good now. We talked a lot about The Book of Mormon. She's praying and reading The Book of Mormon right now. She is SUPER busy! But she came to a branch activity on Friday night. She had a ton of fun and met a bunch of the members. She was swapping phone numbers with people and they were planning things to do together. The branch just fellowshipped her SO well. I was SO excited! She already loves the members and fits right in. We are planning to take her to Takasu sometime to show her a regular chapel and so we can show her the baptismal font. We're pretty excited. I just LOVE her though! She is adorable. We all get along really well, so it makes teaching better.

Other than that, we found another girl who seemed really golden, but then she got sick and the appointment fell through, but we're hoping we will be able to meet with her sometime soon. We still have her phone number and stuff, so we'll be in contact with her. The branch is super great! I love them! We have a ton of support from the members. They are so cute. They want to be a ward and get a "real" chapel built here. I am so in for that!

We met with a less active sister. Her name is A. She is 15 and super cute. She got baptized a few years ago, but she was the only one in her family that did. Her family didn't get baptized with her. She is way cute and we're going to try to get her reactivated. She is super strong I think. I think it's hard because she doesn't really have support from her family. They are not against the Church, but they just don't really care, so they are just not supportive. But we got to know her a little bit, and she might come to Eikaiwa (English class). That would be good. There are a couple of girls from the branch that come to Eikaiwa every week, so it would be good if they could be her friends.

Other than that, it's been kind of rainy, and hot. I'm getting tan! I am going to have an awesome watch tan line by the end of the summer! It's already looking pretty good! And because of all the mountains here, maybe I'll get skinny! :)

Love you all! Have a great week! Next week it will already be JUNE!! Time is FLYING!!!