week 66: miracle of the bikes!

- May 12, 2019

visiting Genpaku Dome...one of the only places that survived the atomic bomb

こんにちは！

Where to begin? Okay so Monday we went on an adventure with some eikaiwa students. We went to a big Buddist temple and it was beautiful there. It was pouring when we first got there and Japanese people hate the rain so we hid out for a bit. Then we went to Genpaku Dome (the dome near where the atomic bomb hit). We went to the atomic bomb museum and it was really cool and really sad...amazing though. We also had a lesson with Yanagida san, our new investigator. He was an investigator way long ago and during our lesson he said he already believes the book of Mormon is true! Tuesday we had District Council, Eikaiwa and made origami with Soejima san who became a new investigator too! Wednesday we went to a free Japanese class! So fun and found a new investigator there too! Thursday we had interviews which are always great and I learned a ton! We had eikaiwa that night in Hatsukaichi and that was fun. Friday we had Junkais!! I was with Nagao Shimai and it was so fun! We got okonomiyaki and learned some Japanese Disney sonsg and went visiting with a member and that was the funniest, coolest thing. So fun! Saturday we had our private kids eikaiwa and we had mutual! We played badminton! Sunday we sang in church and had 3 lessons and ate takoyaki at the bishop's house. With the lesson at the bishop's house, it made it so we had 20 LESSONS this week! Yay!

Funny keiken: okay so one funny thing was on junkais, Sister Nagao and I went to a potential investigator`s okonomiyaki shop and we started talking to her. She asked Sister Nagao where she was from and then asked her when she came to Japan and it was SO funny because Sister Nagao is Japanese! So apparently her Japanese has gotten weird and she doesn't sound as native. It was really funny!

Spiritual keiken: So this week we had a lot of miracles but both sister Berg and I had a harder time...why?? because Satan! He was trying so hard to stop us this week. A lot of the week we saw our flaws and it was rough but every night when we wrote down the miracles it was amazing. It was kinda like the video "you never know" where a mom has a list of things and to do and doesn't do them all but at the end she realized how she had done what God needed her to do. It was one of those moments and we realized how much we did. So that was a cool experience for both of us.

New words:

ぺこん(pekon): the sound of bowing

うら(ura): reverse, backside

I love you all and miss you a ton! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Thompson

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

I love being in a big city like Hiroshima. I love the tall buildings, and the food, and the tourist-y things to do, but most of all, I LOVE the people here!

I made an omelet with nato inside (fermented soy beans), and it was really good!

It was such a week of miracles...3 solid investigators!!

Another HUGE miracle for us came on Sunday: We rode our bikes to church and I was trying to tighten my brakes before we went inside. My hand brakes aren't working very well, and I've been putting off going to get them fixed. I've almost run into Sister Berg several times the past couple weeks because my bike doesn't want to stop very fast. Anyway, when we came out of church, our bikes were FIXED!! MIRACLE!! Not only my brakes, but our chains had been oiled and everything had been tightened up and the bikes were working like new! We found out that there's a returning member who every so often just shows up and fixes the missionaries bikes! The Lord truly watches over us! If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll see our bike celebration pics!!