Minnasan Konnichiwa! みんなさん！今日は！So.. how is everyone this week? How is school going for WB&H? :) Austin and Dad how was conference??! That would be great to go there, I still want to watch it in the conference center someday! Mom I'm so impressed you did wedding flowers! Sheesh, you really ought to just open up your own flower shop, you'd be in heaven everyday working there. :) I think you'll like seeing all the little flower shops they have here in Tokyo, everytime we pass one I think of you :)
Well, actually we haven't watched conference yet. Since the Saturday session starts on our Sunday it would have to go from Sunday to Monday and nobody could get work off, so they just wait a week and will be broadcasting it this week. I think we watch it in Japanese... but I'm pretty sure they'll have headsets or something for us to hear it in English. They're really good about that in this ward--even the normal sacrament meeting is translated. Not for us--we're expected to just understand it all ;) but the Office couple (right now that's the Shays) and Sister Albrect and a lot of Phillipino sisters all prefer English and we have very Jyouzu (skilled) translaters in our ward that work for translating the Ensign! They really are an example to me of giving of their talents to further the Lord's kingdom! They go above and beyond from work to callings.
But I heard a few things about conference, I heard Elder Holland's talk was just great (they always are!), and I also heard the COOLEST thing (which of course everyone heard but I'm just way stoked) and that was the announcement for the Sapporo, Japan Temple!!! That is sooo cool! Sapporo is the furthest North part of Japan and really cold and has tons and tons of snow. But this will be the third temple in Japan!! We are so blessed! They announced it in sacrament meeting and the whole chapel just started buzzing :) Anyway, that was a highlight for me!
So here in Nakano we have still been busy and seeing lots of miracles. We made four new contacts this week! A lot of them were just appointments to eat lunch or dinner but we figure that through being friends it can be more natural to bring up the gospel :) And it seems to be working cuz this week it's only Tuesday and our time is almost completely booked with appointments up until sunday, and most are teaching appointments! We even made an appointment to eat breakfast with one girl because it was the only time we had! :) But it is so great to be busy.
And good too, because the weather is definitely starting to turn here too! It has been cooling off but still sunny, but then the last few days have been rainy on and off and more on than off yesterday and today. I guess we're getting the tail end of the Typhoon that just hit Manilla, in the Phillipines, a few weeks ago. We heard about that from Baby shimai, one of our recent Phillipino converts, and it sounds horrible! Lots of people died and thousands are missplaced from their houses, of which many are flooded up to the second floor.. ! And they're expecting another typhoon soon too! Sheesh! Well, please keep the people in Manilla in your prayers! We'll be fine here, just getting very wet. Good thing we have these awesome rain suits like the picture I included!
BTW Dad--the one we bought at the Missionary store in Provo--a sham! It ripped at the seams like the second time I wore it... but luckily Kofu had many Cappas (rain suits) so I adopted one. I really could not imagine wearing a rain suit over a skirt before I came... but it really isn't that bad, somehow it just all fits and the pants are big and baggy so it doesn't matter.. lol. I also couldn't picture riding a bike in a skirt either but that has proven to be pretty simple too... I think I might continue the practice always..! :)So, as for this week, one interesting thing we did was the whole Nakano district (including the Shays and the Albrects) went to Kichijouji and cleaned the old Hombu. I guess, when there was a Tokyo North and Tokyo South mission, the South's Hombu was in Kichijoji and the North's was here in Nakano. But when they were combined, one had to sit idle, so there's this whole beautiful building that turned into more of a storage space. So we went through and organized and threw out things like old towels and pillows that have been sitting there for a year, and all the old phones they had before we all got cell phones. There was a lot of random stuff there too, but it looks a whole lot better now and who knows but hopefully it can be used again soon for something. It has space for a big office, missionary quarters that could fit up to 6 elders, and the whole upstairs is another two stories of a nice American-style home for the Mission President's family. It was very interesting to see.
Other than that we've just been busy riding around in the rain making appointments :) As fall comes on it's interesting to see the food in the grocery store slowly change. They eat pumpkin all year round. But now instead of peaches, grapes are still big as well as Nashi--or asian pears--which they just consider pears here. It's the same Nashi (梨) that is in the name of Yamanashi (山梨=mountain pear) prefecture where Kofu (first area) was. Anyway, they are much tastier here than I ever tasted them in America... way sweet! And now they have Perimmons coming into season, called Kaki here. They are also surprisingly sweet, something like a plum? And orange/red with a squarish shape, and if you wait until they get really ripe they turn kinda jelly-ish texture and you can just slurp it out of the hard skin and it soooo sweet and tasty. *bliss* Japan's fruit is great! But short lived. But there is always fish and lots of sushi ne! :D Ok, well I think that's all the time I have for this week, but thinking of all you lots and look forward to hearing from you.
Ok, well I'm attaching a few picutres. My hair is getting longer and curly in the rain but I think i like this new style I'm trying.. Enjoy!
Thanks everyone and love you all and miss you lots!! You're all in my prayers. :D Tell me who your favorite conference talks were by!
Lots of Love,
LeFevre shimai
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