week 72: teaching and eating! haha!

- June 23, 2019

Sometimes in Japan we represent America!

こんにちは！HELLO Family and Friends

This week was way fun! Monday we went to lunch with members and it was an all you can eat place. It was way yummy! Then we were hoping some of the other missionaries would come down and play, but they were lame and didn't come. We found a ghost town amusement park (like no one was there) and it was super cool! Tuesday we had interviews! Our washer is still isn't working (our fixes from last week weren't actually fixes) so Wednesday we went to a coin laundry and got that taken care of. Also, we had our Japanese class and basketball. At basketball one of the lady's brought her friend who went to a Christian college and is way down to come to church! So excited! Also we met with Yoko and Ginko and that was crazy fun! Thursday the guy came to fix our washer... but it was going to be way too expensive so we are now going to get a new one! At Eikaiwa, us and the mom gang all wore our Old Navy shirts and matched! Friday we made Brazilian food with Soejima san and Juliana shimai and Shima shimai and Konishi shimai! So yum! We also visited an old investigator named Toshihiro san and he was nice...not ready for set lessons yet, but we're hoping soon. Then we met with Yanagida san at McDonald's and had a lesson. Saturday we had a relief society activity and learned how to water paint post cards! Actually way fun! We had 2 returning members come! Then we taught english to the Shinagawa family. Then we met Okinaga san for sushi! Yum! Then dropped by Ueda Kyoudai's house and talked with him for a bit. Sunday we had church! I love all the members so much! After we went and tried to visit a returning member with Ogawa shimai and Uchikoshi shimai, but she wasn't home. We did some studies and our new washer got dropped off!

Funny keiken: Something way funny this week was how much we had to call elder Takahashi. He is the MSM (missionary support missionary) so he handles anything wrong with our apartment. So we called him about the washer and he did some research and told us to try some things. So we did... nothing, nothing worked. So we called him again 10 minutes later. He gave us new ideas but still nothing worked. Finally after we had called him like 5 times, he is like "did you unplug it?!" Now elder Takahashi is one of my favorite people because he is just hilarious. So we tried that too and nothing... so he called the guy to fix it. When the guy finally comes, we have to go back and forth with elder Takahashi about it. We started to introduce ourselves as his favorite people and he did it back to us. It was way funny and I loved getting to talk to that kid!

Spiritual keiken : We met with Ueda kyoudai and he is not coming to church but he still knows the Book of Mormon is true and has a very strong testimony. During our conversation, he started talking about how church can be too much talk and not enough action. He talked about Christ and how Christ was always more about small teachings and then action. So I was thinking about it because the Bible says "Faith without works is dead" it's very true, we need to have action. Well I quickly thought about how this is a church of action. We aren't necessarily doing the kind of actions or miracles he was talking about, but we have been doing so much more. There is so much disaster aid and homeless aid and lots of money donated to so many good causes and that is only what the world notices . The members do so much more, by serving and ministering to others in the ward or at work or school. This gospel truly is a practice of action.

New words:
つば (tsuba): salvia
びわ (biwa): loquat (they are delicious)

I love you all! I love being a missionary so much!

Love,
Thompson 姉妹

Maddy's last advice for her little brother who leaves for the CCM on Tuesday:

1. Enjoy every moment there is never going to be a time like this again in your life.

2. You have 2 short years to serve the Lord, so give it all you got.