Week 36: 「久しぶりだね〜」 It's Been a Long Time

HEYO!! What is up what is up? Howdeedoodie or whatever the young people are saying these days....

Now that the pleasantries are over, I've got a lot to run through over the past couple weeks. Let's get this email started, shall we?

FIRST OFF IS MISSION TOUR.

Elder Yamashita of the 70 (you may remember his talk about Being Ambitious, Ambitious for Christ... And also about Hokkaido, the island on which I presently reside) came and visited our mission! You can see him seated next to his wife, on the left of the attached photo.

Over half my mission is in the rest of this picture, but I looked fat in it, so I just cropped it so you can see what really matters :  classy important Japanese church members.

PS his wife is the nice, delightful version of that crazy pink lady from Harry Potter, Umbridge. She is crazy and intense, and I adore her.

So not only did Elder Yamashita visit the mission, but he also visited ME, and yes, I do mean personally. And by personally, yes I do mean a personal, one-on-one interview with the man himself.

What a terrifying call to get from the Assistant to the Mission President, as you are walking to an investigator's house one evening, completely hapless of the TERROR THAT AWAITS.

Yeah I was scared.

But it was awesome. He asked two questions about my normal life and then BAM, asked a question so real and true that I cried right then and there and wow it's like he could see right through me.

Then he and my mission president gave me a blessing.

Good times!

NEXT!!

AN ACTUAL MIRACLE HAPPENED!!!

This was actually last transfer, but I am going to lay it down for you real fast. 

On the way to our investigator's house, we were on a bus, about to get off, I check my wallet, EMPTY!! I check my coin purse, EMPTY!! Not a useful yen to spend! So I get my companion to pay for me.

Okay.

On the way back, at the bus stop, waiting for the bus to come, I think, oh I need to ask for my companion to pay for me again! She checks her wallet. NOTHING. She checks her coin purse. NADA, GOOSE EGG, ZILCH!! Now, we probably could have booked it home and made it before curfew, but I had no desire to run in these boots! So I almost jokingly pray aloud, "God, I really need a miracle over here!!"

And so I open my wallet. Like I thought, nothing.

And so I open my coin purse, and BAM!!!! ¥650 (approximately 7 American buckaroos in coin form) were just perched there all pretty and shiny in my wallet.

WOAH!!!

Yeah I was pretty much in shock that whole bus ride home.


OKAY OKAY SO I AM RUNNING OUT OF TIME AND DESIRE TO WRITE SO HERE ARE SOME PICTURES  !!!

A zone activity where we wrote our goals fancy Japanese style.

Me being artsy and stuff while we were trying to figure out our broken Area Book app.

Our darling investigator and English student being HILARIOUS this morning.

And a joke about Trump!

(It's not funny or clever so don't worry about trying to read it)

BYE BYE!!!


********(PS FOR DILIGENT READERS :;:;:;;;; I was going to put a bunch of puns in this email that would TIE to me saying I really need a bolo tie and I still want to do it in a future email but anyway I'm just laying it down here straight: I need a bolo tie, people! Every day I wear a button up shirt under a sweater and my outfits will not be complete until I have a bolo tie to spruce it up! I can't work in temperatures BOLO zero without a bolo tie! (an example of the aforepromised puns.) よろしく！ = please treat me kindly = please do this for thing for me in Japanese weirdness culture/language/formality.))