Sunday, December 25, 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS - It's a Christmas Miracle...

Our Christmas came a day early since we got to skype with Jordan yesterday (it was Christmas in Japan).  We had a great time being able to see and hear her and learn about everything that is in her email a day early.  I'm soooo excited about the baptism she has scheduled.  I believe I mentioned this in one of the first blog posts when she got to Sado but I'll say it again - there have been 3 baptisms in Sado in the 22 years it's been open to missionary work yet the church has kept it open because the worth of a soul is great in the sight of God.  There will now be 4 baptisms after Yamaji San is baptised - Jordan has such a great spirit and has worked really hard to try to find people to teach.  I'm so happy she is having this blessing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS
It really is the most wunderful time of the year!!

Yamaji San is getting baptized!! 
Yamaji San is progressing so fast!! We shared a scripture over the phone when we were in Niigata and asked her if she would read 1 Nephi 11. She told us she would and that she was praying for our safety on the ferry ride home the next day. We had a lesson with her in Thursday night when we got home from Niigata. We asked her if she had read the chapter we gave her and she said she read from 1 Nephi 1-11! She read 11 chapters in one night!!! She had really good questions about it too so it was really nice that we had a member there for that lesson because my Japanese is not nearly good enough to explain answers to her in depth questions. We ended the lesson by extending a baptismal invite and she said yes!!! YAMAJI SAN IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON JANUARY 14!! She wrote it down in her little planner and asked us what time and everything!! We had a lesson with her again on Friday and she read 7 more chapters in the Book of Mormon. She came to church on Sunday and we had a short lesson with her after church and we weren't going to have a lesson at night since it was Christmas, but she asked us if we could! So we had a short lesson with her at night and she prayed out loud for the first time (she just likes praying by herself because she's scared she'll mess up), but she did it and it was one of the most sincere prayers I've ever heard. I am so excited for her and have already seen a change in her because of the gospel.

Making Japanese doors:
Reimi San, our English club student, invited us to a really cool service opportunity on Friday. She picked us up from the church and we went to a vacant house and refurbished some sliding doors. Apparently, there are over 3000 vacant/abandoned houses on sado and she wants to work on them and make it so people can buy and live in them again. So we went to this really old, super traditional Japanese house and we refurbished 5 sliding doors. They kind of had a stained glass effect because we put paper behind it (pictures below). They looked way fun and cute and it was a really cool service opportunity. 

Branch Christmas party: 
We had a little Christmas party on the 23rd and it reminded me of a family party I would have back home. Everyone brought food and we all sang and ate a ton. Reimi San also came and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and we committed her to read some of it. 

Christmas in Japan:
The traditional Japanese Christmas dinner is fried chicken (specifically KFC) and cake. I guess that's what they think Americans eat for Christmas although my family definitely didn't have fried chicken for Christmas dinner. Sister Boden realized she had choclate cake mix and I realized that I had chicken so we figured we would make a traditional Japanese Christmas dinner. We fried the chicken and baked the cake and had them for dinner. It was delicious!! We also made gingersnap cookies which taste just like Christmas. My real highlight though was skyping my family! It was so amazing seeing all of their faces and hearing their voices. I'm so grateful for their continuous love and support. 

I'm so happy to be in Japan during this time a year and I'm so happy to be a missionary!! I love this time of year. I'm so thankful for everyone in my life and I'm so grateful for my Savior and Heavenly Father I saw a ton of little miracles this week and I know it's all thanks to my Heavenly Father. I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and have an amazing New Year! 

Word of the week:
Word: oishii 
Meaning: delicious
Pronunciation: oi-she (not really sure how to say it phonetically, so good luck)

Pics: 
1. We went to the Sado gold mine and this bar of gold was so heavy, I couldn't pick it up at all!!
2. Yamaji San and she gave us little Christmas presents 
3. What a good looking fam I have
4. Reimi San and our doors we made!! It's called shoji 
5. Got my fam and the tissues ready haha 
6. I'm making the fried chicken and Boden shimai is making the chocolate cake 
7. Our gingersnap cookies!! 
8. Two of the doors we made!! 










I second Jordan's gratitude and sincerely thank you for your support via emails, prayers, snail mail or just a thought.  I hope you had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year and an awesome 2017.  

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Toilet Paper Comic Books and Sister Jordan Wunderli's 20th Birthday - IN JAPAN!!

My beautiful daughter turned 20 this week.  Who would have ever guessed that she would be celebrating it on the island of Sado in Japan?  I'd like to see what odds Vegas would have had on that one.  She loves her new companion and they had some good things happen this week which is making me excited for her because I know she's been working hard.  This is one of my favorate emails and it has lots of great pictures.  Enjoy.

こんにちは,
Thank you everyone who wished me a happy birthday!! It means a lot. I'm 20 now which means I'm officially an adult according to Japan laws. I loved having my birthday on my little island of Sado and I'm so happy to be here!!

Miracle/kiseki:
So we were in Aikawa this week and we did some housing and tried to find some old potential investigators, but we weren't having any luck with either. When we were at the bus stop we saw what we thought was an earlier bus so we got on and ended up getting on the wrong bus. Instead of it taking the normal 25 minutes to get home, it took us an hour. But it was meant to be because we sat next to this girl and we started talking to her and she wants us to help her with English. We actually helped her a little right there because she had her English textbook with her. We set up an appointment with her for next Saturday at the church!! This is the first Eikaiwa student on Sado that's actually young and in school so it was a huge miracle for us and Sado.

I'm no longer a teenager woohoo!!
I had a great birthday on Sado! An eternal investigator called us and wanted to take us out to lunch for my birthday so we went to my favorite restaurant. We tried to talk to her about baptism and she said that she believes in the church but she would never get baptized because of how restricting it is...it didn't really end up the way we had hoped, but it's okay, everyone has their agency. For my birthday dinner, Sister Boden made me American brownies which it had been awhile and I loveeeee brownies so it was amazing. We went to Eikaiwa and they all sang to me and the two ward members that came brought me some homemade bread!

Yamaji San:
She became an official investigator this week!! On Monday, we went to volleyball club with her and after it was finished, I gave her a Book of Mormon and talked to her about how this book came from God through prophets. I told her it was true and that I marked some of my favorite scriptures in it for her to read. She came to FHE (Family Home Evening) on Friday and said that she read a little bit of the Book of Mormon, but it was hard, so we told her we would read it with her and help her to understand it. Then she came to church on Sunday (this was her second time) and we taught her a lesson on the word of wisdom in gospel principles class. We asked her if she would keep it and she said it was really hard to change, but that she would try!! We are meeting with her again on Tuesday, and I'm so excited with how well she's progressing.

Funny things:
•When we were in Aikawa these old men came up to us and gave us toilet paper (I never appreciated free toilet paper until my mission haha) and when we got home we looked at it and it has comics on the entire thing Haha
•We went caroling a ton this week when we were going housing and the reactions were priceless, one old man opened the door and then slowly shut it, and an old lady opened the door and then gave us some fruit, and another old lady opened the door and wasn't wearing any pants!!
•I had strawberries for the first time since being in japan because they are so expensive here and a member bought us some (they are $8 for a little thing of strawberries).
•Yamaji san gave me two birthdays presents. One was a cat mug because I swear everyone on Sado is obsessed with cats!! Then the second one was wine which I obviously couldn't accept. It looked like a pretty nice bottle of wine so it was a little awkward when I told her we don't drink any alcohol.. but she understood. Kind of why we taught the word of wisdom on Sunday haha.

Word of the week:
Word: kibou
Pronunciation: key-bow
Meaning: hope
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai

Pics:
1. Our Christmas tree
2. Toilet paper comics
3. The brownies she made me and the banner she put up
4. This cool thing we found on p day, I'm not sure what it is
5. Cool thing part 2
6. Another p day find
7. Our new Eikaiwa student!!
8. Yumeka chan (a kind of investigator)
9. My favorite Eikaiwa class ever
10. Cool thing part 3
11. Always representing the U!!












As always, thanks for your emails, letters, thoughts, prayers and anything else you do for our Jordan.  It means the world to her and to us.  If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to share them.  Have a very Merry Christmas - her next blog post will be on Christmas evening.


Sunday, December 11, 2016

Agents, Not Secret Agents

It was transfer-week and Sister Jordan Wunderli spent more than half of the week in Niigata.  She was with a number of different missionaries while she was there because of the timing of various transfers.  She is settled and pushing forward with "Agent" Boden.  Check out this week's episode of Sado:  It's Freaking Cold Here.  :)

こんにちは,
This week was a little crazy and boring so bare with me for this email...

Psych my new area is Niigata (jodan):
I basically spent the whole first week of this transfer in Niigata. I was there from Tuesday until Friday!! Transfers were moved from Wednesday to Thursday, but me and Call Shimai still had to go to Niigata on Tuesday because Domino Shimai (Niigata Sister) was going to be alone since her companion went home this transfer. So, we were in a sannin (3 person companionship) on Wednesday. Call Shimai left on Thursday morning, along with Kema Shimai's companion so we were in another sannin on Thursday (me, Kema Shimai, and Domino Shimai). Since Kema Shimai was my MTC companion, it was really fun to Dendo with her!! We got banana hot chocolate from a vending machine which was way good and I'm so thankful Japan has a hot chocolate in vending machines because it is freaking freezing here.

New companion:
I met my new companion, Sister Boden, on Thursday night and she's super nice! She tells people she's from Arizona, but she's actually from all over since her dad is in the military. She's a 10th transfer missionary so she's going to be teaching me a lot!

Zone meeting:
On Friday, we had zone meeting where I met my new district and the new missionaries in our zone. A ton of people got transferred this transfer so it was fun meeting some new people. Our zone vision this transfer is "are we not all agents?" Because they really want us to think for ourselves. Agency was one of the greatest gifts God gave us and we need to use our agency and not be water bottles (act, don't be acted upon). I gave a training on White Christmas - every area set goals of how many baptisms they will see by Christmas with their branch - and I talked about loving the people and seeing them as our brothers and sisters, not just white Christmas goals. Everyone threw out good ideas on how we can show better love for our investigators.

Ogi Eikaiwa:
For my first full day back and Sister Boden's first day in Sado we went to Ogi to teach Eikaiwa. We worked a lot on pronunciation, specifically the "R" and "L" sounds because Japanese people can't really tell them apart. They were doing pretty good with it by the end! The bummer is since they own an alcohol shop they said they are super busy until January 14 because of the holidays. They want to continue the Eikaiwa classes then, but not until then.

Hitotsumatsu Shimai:
Hitotsumatsu Shimai is a very faithful member and she lives in Ogi so whenever we go to ogi we try and visit her. She's never been to the temple because it's so far and she has a hard time just walking. We always do a little temple prep with her and this week we set a date for her to go to the temple!! February 2 she wants to go to the Tokyo temple so we're going to try everything to make that happen.

Word of the week:
Japanese: jodan
Meaning: joke
Pronunciation: jo-dawn

愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai

Pics:
1. Bus selfie with two girls we met from Tokyo
2. My area!! Jk
3. Companion selfie with Sister Boden
4. Ogi Eikaiwa class selfie
5. Last dinner with Call Shimai, conveyer belt sushi






There you have it.  Jordan was only with her new companion for a couple of days this week and with all of the traveling they didn't get to do a lot of stuff together.  I'm hoping that next Sunday's email will have a lot of great stories about the progress they are making on Sado.

I'm guessing she didn't break her record in the number of plates of sushi she ate or she would have mentioned that - LOL.  It's her birthday on Wednesday - 12/14/2016 so if you have a minute, a happy birthday email with a short message would be a fantastic gift and she would absolutely love it:  jordan.wunderli@myldsmail.net or on her facebook page at Sister Jordan Wunderli.

Please feel free to share your thoughts or ask questions in the comment section.  Thanks for your support via prayers, emails, letters, or positive thoughts.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

It's Transfer Time and Sister Jordan Wunderli is Going to...

SADO.  Yes.  That's right.  She's STAYING in Sado while her companion and both elders are leaving the island for the main island of Japan, Honshu.  Next week's email will be a fun one because we'll get to hear about her new companion and how everything is progressing on Sado with the new "team."  Jordan was excited to stay because she's hoping to see more development before she leaves.

Some very positive things happened this week and she shared lots of great stuff in her email along with some interesting pictures.  Without further ado, here is Jordan's email.

こんにちは,
Wow! I swear it was October yesterday and now it's December! It's really cold which is making me really grateful for the heated toilet seats here... but anyway, time is flying!! I'm now a 3rd transfer missionary. Yes, that's right, a THIRD TRANSFER!! So everyone on Sado is transferring except for me! My new companion is Sister Boden and I hear that she's a boss so I'm soooooo stoked to meet her. Transfers are on Wednesday, but we go to Niigata on Tuesday. I'm so stoked for this transfer!!!

Store Eikaiwa in Ryotsu:
I love the ladies that come to store Eikaiwa soooo much. They always come to class with English questions and just love to learn. At the end of the class, one lady said, in English, "I wish we could meet everyday!!" We taught them "the" and "a" today which was pretty hard to explain, but they requested it. The more I teach English, the harder I realize it is! They also asked us if we go to college or work while we are on our missions so we got to explain to them that we are full-time volunteer missionaries. We don't get paid for doing this. They were so amazed. Then they asked how long we have been there and when we told them only 2 (6 for Call shimai) months they were so surprised at how good our Japanese was. I feel like this Eikaiwa will open doors and I'm so excited to see where it goes!!

English Club:
Reimi San came to English club again!! We had fun talking to her again. We talked about our thoughts on tourism on Sado and she loved it. She said next English club, she's going to bring her husband!! She also gave us a huge bag of fruit to take hahaha.

Store Eikaiwa in Ogi:
Two new people came to Eikaiwa this week, so we ended up teaching 5 people! It was funny because we teach Eikaiwa in an alcohol/tobacco store and the owner offered us tea so we had to explain that we don't drink tea, then she offered us coffee so we had to explain that we don't drink coffee. Then, the asked if we drink alcohol and we said no. They were all in shock. They asked us if the only thing we can drink is water. We told them no, and then started to talk about the word of wisdom, but they didn't really care about that haha. So, we taught them some English. We taught them some directional words and how to give directions in English. They loved it!

Brazil Night:
What a success!! One of the Elders in my district is from Brazil so we had a Brazil night in honor of him. It worked out because one of his investigators is also from Brazil and was happy to help with some real, authentic Brazilian food. We had something called "feijoada" which was meat, beans, rice, this salad stuff, and this yummy powder stuff. There were bones in with the meat, and the weirdest thing was you could eat the bones! It was actually way good, though. Two high school girls came which is an absolute miracle because that has never happened before. I was able to talk to them for a little and one of them added me as a friend on Facebook and then asked if she could take a picture with me! So we're basically BFFs. One of our investigators, Yamaji San (she came to girls' night a couple weeks back), came and she had so much fun. She was taking pictures and talking with everyone! I asked if she would come to church and she said yes! Towards the end of the activity, the Elders' Brazilian investigator and his family played some traditional Brazilian music with the Brazilian instruments! It was so cool! I felt like I was a missionary in Brazil for a little while haha.

Yamaji San came to church!!
And she stayed for the whole 3 hours! During the second hour, we were able to do a douseki lesson (member-present) with her. We talked a little about the plan of salvation, faith, baptism, and prayer. We had two members in the lesson with us and they were able to tell her their conversion story and to just talk to her. At the end of the lesson, Call Shimai asked her if she could pray and she goes, "I don't know how to pray! It's hard!" And then jokingly I said, "I don't know nihongo (Japanese), but I'm trying!" Everyone busted out laughing, but it worked and she prayed to end the lesson.

Funny Story:
While Call Shimai and I were waiting for the bus, we talked to a lady. We talked about who we are and why we are living on Sado. Then she asks if we were married to each other!!! We immediately looked at each other in horror and said no!!! We had a good laugh after that and we're also thankful we actually understood what she was saying because how bad would it have been if we just nodded our head and said yes!!

Word of the week:
Word: yorokobi
Pronunciation: yo-row-ko-be
Meaning: joy

愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai

Pics: 
1. Real authentic Brazilian food 
2. The high school friends that came to Brazilian night
3. There was stuff growing inside this house too!!
4. My new ride
5. Aikawa
6. The district 
7. Sushi in a bowl
8. A shrine in Aikawa 
9. A house we saw while housing
10. Aikawa!!













As always, thanks for your prayers, thoughts, emails and letters.  We all appreciate them very much.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them in the comments section or reach out to me.  



Sunday, November 27, 2016

Missionary REBELS - staying out past curfew AND bedtime...

Good news, bad news, and miracles.  I'll let you read all about them below but the mission presidents wife told us via facebook that she is very impressed with Jordan's Japanese.  That makes me happy to hear that.  I just hope that she continues to progress and that she is starting to feel comfortable with the language.  Enjoy the email and, as always, feel free to post comments in the comments section or to ask questions.  Thanks for your prayers, emails, letters and thoughts.

こんいちは,
English club:
At the beginning of this transfer, we started an English club on Sado. Every week, on Tuesdays, at 7pm we have a room rented at the Sado community center. We've passed out countless fliers and have been there every week without fail and no one has shown up. This happened 4 weeks in a row. This Tuesday we start biking to the community center (45-minute bike ride) and it's pouring rain and really windy and cold, and I just kept thinking to myself, "Someone better show up, please Heavenly Father!!" We made it to the community center soaking wet and chilled to the bone and started setting up. The door opened, "Is this where English club is?" Umm heck yes it is!! I about peed myself I was so excited. Reimi San is our first student and she's basically fluent in English so we just talked to her and got to know her. She works for the tourism department in Sado (we've been trying to get connections there) and she said she's going to bring a friend to English club this upcoming week!! She was so awesome and I am so thankful for this big miracle.

Eikaiwa:
We had a special "Store" Eikaiwa in Ryotsu with some shop owners on Tuesday. We taught English in a store to 4 ladies and they were the funnest ladies ever! We taught them the word "sweet" and how Americans use it to mean "great" and the whole lesson they just kept saying "sweet!!" They were pretty sweet, to say the least.

Yoshiko San:
Sadly, Yoshiko San is no longer a progressing investigator. She is still an investigator, so we still teach her, but she isn't keeping her commitments. She has a huge testimony of Jesus Christ, but she's not too interested in the church, just talking with us. We're going to keep teaching her and I think someday she will be ready to accept the gospel, that day just isn't today. I still love her so so much though!!

Zone conference:
My first zone conference was a success. Lots of trainings and lots of learning pretty much sums it up. Something that was said that I liked a lot was we need to be more patient with our investigators. It took most of us 18 years to fully convert so why should we expect them to convert in a month?! This put it in a new perspective for me and made me realize that I definitely need to be more patient.

Just a little past curfew:
It was a struggle getting home after zone conference. President Nagano let us take the 7:30pm ferry to get home which would mean we wouldn't get back to our apartment until 11pm (a whole 2 hours past normal curfew and 30 minutes past our bedtime). We get to the bus station to get on a bus to go to where the ferry is docked, except there were no more buses! We were already late and it's about a 15-minute bus ride to the ferry port, so we started running. We ran all the way there with 5 minutes to spare and got our 2-way ticket out and gave it to the guy and he said, "This is a one-way ticket you can't use it again." Well we definitely knew it was a 2 way ticket because it said it on there and we've ridden the ferry enough times to know what ticket to buy, but he wasn't having it and the gate was going to close, so we bought another $25 ferry ticket and we got on just in time. We got back to our apartment at 11pm and we were absolutely exhausted!!

Eikaiwa round 2 and 3:
We taught another store Eikaiwa, but this time in Ogi. We had 3 people there and they loved it and want to do it again next week. Then, when we were talking to other store owners, a lady invited us in to do an Eikaiwa right then and there! We ended teaching to her and her friend and she wants us to come back next week too! (If only this were about the gospel, dang).

Word of the week:
Word: yoshi
Pronunciation: yo-sh
Meaning: sweet, great

愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai

Pics:
1. Ramen!!!
2. A Japanese temple I think?
3. I saw this wall while we were biking and I yell, "stop it's monsters freaking inc" and of course u had to take a pic because how random is that??
4. A shrine or something
5. The Niigata zone
6. A shrine
7. We live 2 minutes away from this gorgeous view









Sunday, November 20, 2016

Teaching: English and the gospel, girls' night out (sort of) and baking - YUM.

It's Sunday evening before Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for the couple of hours that I get to email back and forth with my daughter.  I'm also thankful that she is working hard in the service of the Lord.  The time from Thanksgiving through New Years is my favorite time of year.  I love Thanksgiving because it kicks off the holiday season in such a great way and gets us in the spirit of giving which is a great spirit to be in for Christmas.  The holiday season also gives me more time to spend with my family which is always a great thing for me - I love time with my family.  This Christmas will be a little extra special because we get to skype with Jordan - we get to see and talk to her for the first time in several months.  She will have been on her mission for 5 months and 12 days on Christmas.  With that, I give you her email from this week.

こんにちは,
Exchanges:
I want on exchanges with Riggs Shimai and she's also from Vegas!! This is her last transfer! We went to Ogi and found a place that we could teach English to store owners. We didn't have a whole lot of luck, but on our way home two high school students were sitting in front of me so I started to talk to them. We ended up talking the entire way to the bus station (an hour). I showed them some pictures of America, and they showed me some of Japan. They told me about their families and how they want to visit America! I told them about English club and they were super excited about it so I hope they come next week!! Other than that, Sister Riggs and I just ate a ton the whole day and laughed a ton as well. We ate ice cream, 5 donuts (each), drank hot chocolate made from a vending machine (go Japan), and topped it off with a ton of Sado rice (the best rice). As for mine and Riggs Shimai's companions... they taught the first Eikaiwa on Sado!! I'm soooooo excited! And this week I get to teach the 2nd! Things are looking good for Sado!

Japanese style baking:
We had a little activity where we decorated a cake and then ate it. Genius right? So making the cake was definitely an experience. There are no ovens in Japan so baking isn't really a thing. We bought cake mix at the store and made it at our apartment. The box of cake mix comes with a make-your-own-pan because I guess no one owns pans since you can't really bake. So we made that and poured the cake mix in it and then we cooked it in the microwave!! The CO alarm went off while the cake was cooking and so we ran out of the apartment thinking we were going to die. It was freezing cold outside and we didn't grab jackets on our way out so we really thought we were in trouble. We called Sister Nagano and she explained that the CO detector was also a smoke detector and to just move it away from the microwave. Turns out she was right and everything was okay. And the most important part is the cake turned out great!!

Girls' night:
So only two people showed up for girls' night, but it was a potential investigator and a ward member! We ended up having a douseki (member-present) lesson. The potential investigator isn't too interested in the church right now, but she's not scared of us so that's a start. Right now we just want to build trust with her and form a good relationship. She's pretty lonely right now because her husband died a couple of years ago. So we are trying to help her have fun and to have more friends. Anway, the cake tasted way good which I was pleasantly surprised about.

Eikaiwa in Ogi:
Call Shimai and I went back to Ogi a few days later and talked to more store owners. We talked to one that had interest that Riggs Shimai and I had talked to earlier in the week. And we set up an Eikaiwa class with her and another store owner!! This coming Saturday! Soon Eikaiwa is going to be all over this little island.

Word of the week:
Word: kuiaratame
Pronunciation: koo-ee-aw-da-taw-meh
Meaning: repentance

愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai

Pics:
1. I thought this was cool
2. We always have pretty bike rides
3. Our cake!
4. Kaki
5. Riggs Shimai and I love Mr. Donut
6. OGI
7. Girls' night








I always love the pictures and the great experiences in her email.  As always, she appreciates all of your support as do we.  Please feel free to comment or ask questions.  Until next week, make your week a great one.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

More Small Miracles for Sister Jordan Wunderli

It's email time for Sister Jordan Wunderli and I'm always excited for this time because we get to communicate in real time but I also get to hear, ok read, all about her week and see what good things have happened.  In my emails to her, I always provide words of encouragement and try to share inspiring scriptures that might resonate well with her.  She says it helps her get through the week and that these things motivate her to persevere and to work as hard as she can.  She was my workout buddy when she swam and she always worked out really hard and put forth a good effort and it paid off for her so I know that she is driven and that she will put forth the effort - especially with a little nudge from her dad.  She was rewarded for her efforts this week with a few firsts.  Check it out.

こんにちは,
I'm convinced that the 12 branch members here on Sado are the best ones in the world!! One family invited us over for dinner and another took us to dinner and did a lesson with us!

Yoshiko San lesson:
Woo-hoo we had a douseki lesson (member-present lesson). The Hamada family came and taught Yoshiko San with us and it was great because now they are really good friends. It turns out that they knew each other somehow because of work so they already had that common ground. I didn't understand much of what was going on in that lesson because they talked in fast Japanese most of the time, but she wants to keep coming to church!! The lesson was 3 hours long, which a lesson should never be 3 hours long, but we didn't know how to leave! We didn't want to be rude, and the Hamada family was going to give us a ride back to our apartment...We went back to Yoshiko San's house a few days later and read the Book of Mormon with her. She promised to read it every day!

New potential investigator:
We were walking the streets in Ryotsu and this little old lady was walking in front of us so we decided to talk to her. We asked her if she has heard of Christ before and she said yes AND that she believes in Christ! What!? Apparently, she has some Christian friends, but she doesn't actually belong to a church and she reads all of their stuff that they give her. We asked if we could teach her more and she said yes and gave us her address!!

Coolest little miracle:
We had to get to the Ryotsu community center, so, we were walking around thinking we knew where to go. We passed this lady on the street and she goes, "oh you're going to the community center, it's this way" and she tells us where to actually go. The cool thing is that we have no clue how she knew where we were going. There's no way she should've known! We had to go to the community center to set up an appointment, but we are definitely going to go back and visit her!

Store Eikaiwa (English class):
On Sado, we are starting a special Eikaiwa for store owners. We want to target the more touristy places and teach them English so that the tourism grows here. We found a place to do it at (the community center) and we have been talking to store owners about a good time to do it. Some said they were too busy, some said they had no interest, but we had some promising ones too. One lady said that there was a store owner association group and at their next meeting she would talk to them about doing it and then call us. Another lady we talked to asked if we could do a personal Eikaiwa with her and her friends right in her store! She actually called us on Sunday and set up appointment with her and 4 friends for Tuesday!! 

Frosty the snowman was playing (in English) on the streets in Ryotsu which was pretty funny. It's only the middle of November and we're on a little island and here Frosty the snowman is. I love Christmas!!

Word of the week:
Word: suteki
Pronunciation: stecky
Meaning: stylish, cool, superb

愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai

Pics:
1. Our rain pants and we're wearing about 4 jackets each, it's been cold in Sado
2. Some traditional houses
3. A cute little alley way
4. This town is ancient
5. My new bff
6. An example of a random vending machine
7. Beautiful Sado
8. A Buddhist shrine









Like last week more good stuff happened this week including the first dinner invitations by members on Sado.  I love the pictures and can't wait to visit.  As always, thanks for your emails and letters.  She loves and appreciates the support.  Feel free to leave a comment and ask questions.