OH! Hello! I know you must have been so worried about me. I didn't have internet these last 2 weeks so I am sure you were just dying inside. Well I have hardly any time for this email because I am at a church an hour and a half out of my new area in Muroran and we have a train to catch in 30 minutes. Soooo here goes the catch up on these last few weeks.
I am now in...(you better be drum-rolling your face off right now cause this is huge news)... 苫小牧！Hahahah good luck reading that. Okay I am in Tomakomai! It is an area right next to the ocean. The city is about the size of Good little Orem Utah and is basically Orem with an ocean. Tomakomai is even equipped with its own fancy Toys-R-Us! And a mall that looks just like the University Mall. A street that runs through the middle of town that looks just like State street. So basically I feel right at home. The ocean is pretty gross and smells bad. Just like Utah Lake. Somedays I get confused where I am but then I hear Asian and I realize where I am. My new companion is Elder Tokuzawa! My plan to never have an American Companion is working! He is from... I dont know. But it is cold where he is from too. He is way funny and is actually my brother. (which means he was my trainers son, so he was trained by my father) That should make a lot of sense. Want the brutal honest truth? We get a long fine. We are not the best of friends but we kindly and very impatiently tolerate each other. We both have just similar qualities and different qualities that clash some times. But I LOVE him so much. We have been having so much fun together. The members of the church in this area is about 30 ish. It is a branch and not a ward. They are AMAZING! They are probably what make me feel more at home than anything. First there are a few people in the ward that remind me almost too much of home. There is a Sister named Sister Ikeda. She is the branch presidents wife and reminds me soooo much of my Aunt Jen and my Mother. Yes her laugh is very unique as well, just like my Mothers. She is basically the missionaries mom here. She texts us every night and asks what good things happened to us today and sends us little motivational stuff when she feels like we need it. She also gives us lots of chocolate. Next is Sister Kotani. I think I have met my Grandma Taylor but in an Asian form. Seriously the EXACT same person. Last week we had english class and nobody showed up. It was 15 minutes after class was supposed to start and nobody was there. So she goes to her car and gets a cd player and turns on some music and starts to dance for us. There were 3 people in the room. Me and my companion and a less active member named Brother Haseyama. It was one of the funniest things ever. She then took us out for desert. Next is Sister Yamada. Sarah Hughes, you have an Asian Twin. I have never laughed so hard in my life. We were learning about the tree of life story in sunday school class this last sunday and there is a recent convert in the class. He didnt really understand what was going on and Sister Yamada and Sister Ikeda teamed up and laughed their faces off by the answers he was giving. "what is the most delicious WHITE FRUIT that we all want?" asks the teacher "MOCHI!" screams the recent convert. Mochi is rice. We were dying. Then sister Takahashi comes in. We needed an Aunt Julie. She calmed everybody down and took care of the situation and comforted the recent convert. I was just in the back laughing my head off because the teacher taught like my uncle John Hughes when he is trying to convince people that he is not in the mafia. Basically I have never felt more at home. A lot has happened this last few weeks and I wish I could tell you all of it. I wish I could just write everything but I have no time so I am going to end with an amazing story.
There is a investigator named Masuko san. She has been visiting with the missionaries for a while. Her husband is EXTREMELY against the church and she has to literally hide in her closet when she prays. We wanted to visit with her but the only way we can contact her is through text. I felt like we needed to text her to see if she could come to church. Elder Tokuzawa texted her and she said YES! We texted her on friday and the next day on Saturday we got a text from Sister Ikeda saying "I felt like I needed to be at the church early today before the activity that we have at 2:00. Masuko san texted me and said that you asked her to be at the church today for a lesson. I can team up if you need me!" WHAT?! We then checked the text we sent her and we accidentally asked if she could come to church on Saturday and not Sunday. We quickly ran over to the church and went into a lesson completely unprepared. We taught by the spirit and testified with the spirit. Masuko san expressed her concerns to us and told us how her faith has been tested lately and she wanted to meet with us but didn't know how. She said that her husband left to go to work on Saturday and she had 2 hours of free time before he was supposed to return where she could meet. We happened to say Saturday in the text. Sister Ikeda happened to feel like she needed to be at the church early and texted us to tell us. It was all planned by God. It is amazing that God always has a plan for us, we just need to be ready and worthy to follow it.
I love you all so much! Be excellent to each other!
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