18 Months in the Land of the Rising Sun: FANTASTIC WEEK!

This week was kinda crazy, but super awesome!!!

We didn't have District Meeting because we had Zone Taikai this week! Yay!! It was so much fun!

But Wednesday was way good too. It was Elder Stump's birthday. So we made this brownie cake dealio, and it was pretty good actually. Oh but it had to be gluten free because Stump has an allergy. I was pretty impressed with our skills actually. But then Eikaiwa (English class) was a blast. I wasn't so sure about teaching kids' eikaiwa at first, but now I love it! Those kids are stinkin adorable! I sure love them! We're all friends now too. So cute!

So then Friday was Taikai. It was in Kagoshima again. It was a LONG day, but it was pretty much the best day ever. Kinda. But we got up at like 4:20 and got to the train station. Then it's like a 2 hour and 15 minute train ride into Kagoshima. Then we walk up the giant hill to the church. We got there pretty early, so we just got to hang out and talk to the other missionaries! Naze (the island) missionaries came in! (They did Skype for ZTM) So I got to see Elder Willis (from her MTC district)!!! I also got to see Elders Malen and Bailey and just everyone! Kuroki Shimai was there too. I love seeing the other missionaries and hearing their stories. Kagoshima is seeing TONS of miracles right now. It's super crazy. Everyone just has all these crazy stories about the miracles they're seeing in their areas!

Then the training was way good, like always! Kaicho (President), Shimai (his wife), and the AP's (Assistants to the President) talked about all kinds of stuff to help our dendo and help us as missionaries too. Shimai talked about part of our motto, "Love is the Motive". Her training is always so uplifting. I always feel super motivated to be better after Shimai talks to us! Kaicho talked about the importance of the sacrament. It was SO good! It really helped me to understand more of the importance of the sacrament. EldersChung and Bloomfield talked about making Baptismal Calendars to help our investigators progress towards baptism. I think it's an awesome idea, and it sounds like it's been way good for lots of people already.

Then we had a testimony meeting afterwards. We have the most amazing people here in Fukuoka Japan. I'm serious. I am amazed at how strong, and just amazing these missionaries here are! I got up and bore my testimony too at the end. My mission has turned me into such a baby. I just cried through the whole thing. I used to never cry! But I cried...a lot...

We had to stay after taikai for a little while though because Kuroki Shimai, Higashi Shimai, and I had to get our departure interviews. Waaaa!!! There are too many people going home, so Kaicho won't have time to do all the interviews on Thursday when we go to the Honbu. So he did ours after taikai. More tears. I bawled through that whole thing too. Literally I was crying as soon as Kaicho said "have a seat" and then proceeded to cry through the rest of the interview. It wasn't fun. But I adore Kaicho! He is seriously the best!

Then we had to say goodbye to everyone. That was hard too. But luckily I held in the tears for that. It took some effort, but I think maybe I was mostly cried out by that time. We headed back on the train, and got home at about 8:45 that night. So long day, but a super awesome day!

Then we had normal dendo (work) Saturday and Sunday, but we saw some sweet miracles! Kaicho taught a while ago that we should pray at decision points. Times when we aren't really sure what to do. So we had a couple of those this week. And we prayed at those points, and we saw awesome miracles both times! We were able to find a guy housing that wasn't normally home at that time, but was that day. Then we gave him a Book of Mormon, and I think he'll become a new investigator! The other time, we met tons of cool people, and gave out another Book of Mormon. We also ran into a member who just moved to Miyazaki a few weeks ago, and she needs a little strengthening. Super awesome!

We also had another lesson with Kai san. He is progressing slowly, but he's definitely moving the right direction! Yay! Miracles everywhere! There was a couple from South Africa that came to church yesterday too! A member invited them to come, so they came and checked it out. They only stayed for sacrament, but they liked it I think.