An ALARMING End to the Week!!

I've got to say that while I'm very proud of Jordan and the success she is having on her mission, I'm looking forward to her being done as a Sister Training Leader so that she can get back to emailing us on Sunday night.  She's been so busy with her responsibilities as an STL that we haven't gotten any email time.  That said, I'm happy for her and the effort she is putting in and the attitude she has toward her responsibilities.  Here's her weekly email with some rather alarming content.  :)

こんにちは、

Everyday it's feeling a little more like summer, and everyday I'm getting a few more mosquito bites..haha yay for summer in Japan!! Anyway, hope ya'll are doing fantastic.

Murofushi's:

This week I noticed that I tend to be happier with simplicity and with doing plain ole' missionary work. I've honestly been dying with all of the meetings we've had all of the reports we have had to write!! I miss being able to go visit ward members and build relationships with them. So, this week we made it appoint to visit just one family in the ward. We visited the Murofushi's, the bishop's family. We biked 30 minutes in the rain to get there and then when we got there, the bishop wasn't even home. We also only had time to share a 5 minute message because of how busy we were, but those 5 minutes were probably the happiest 5 minutes of this week. His wife and two daughters were home so we shared a scripture with them and asked them how they were doing and they were SO thankful that we came to visit them!! They were so happy which made me even happier. I had the biggest smile on my face that entire 30 minute ride home. It's hard to describe the joy that I get from the members here, but they are just incredible. 

Gaijin (foreigner) problems: 

There we were in our apartment, safe and sound, on Sunday night, right in the middle of our weekly call in summary report with our district leader...well all of a sudden the doorbell rings - in Japan the doorbell is actually connected to a phone so you answer the phone and you talk to the person through a speaker. Well we didn't know what button to push or how to work the phone at all actually so we ended up pressing a button that sounded an alarm. It was a pretty loud alarm that rang through the whole apartment building (7 stories). We had no clue what to do..we tried pressing other buttons and that didn't work, we tried hanging the phone up and that didn't work, so we call Sister Nagano  (our mission president's wife) and she tells us to go ask our neighbor for help. During this whole 10 minute process, the alarm is just going crazy!! We went and got help and the problem was solved in about .2 seconds and everything was back to normal...just a wee bit embarrassing, but what do you expect from two foreigners living in Japan? 

My new companion - Sister Her:

Sister Her is great! She's from Minnesota, and her parents are from Laos so she speaks mong!! She has the coolest family stories ever, and she converted to the church when she was 14 years old. She loves spicy food and has a huge bottle of that seracha (honestly don't know how to spell that at all) sauce that she puts on literally everything (even spaghetti). She's also so kind and I'm so excited to work with her this transfer. 

Keep your head up everyone; it's all going to be okay. 

愛しています、

Wunderli Shimai 

Pics:

1 and 2: beautiful Nakano 

3. Sister Her!! 

4. Pday snack 

5 and 6: kodomo Eikaiwa (11 kids this week)

7. I can't get enough of this view 

8. Blue flowers what 

 There you have it.  I hope you weren't too alarmed with Jordan's experience with the alarm.  I always love her pictures.  As always, we appreciate your thoughts, prayers, snail mail and email, as does she.  Feel free to share your thoughts and questions in the comment section and make this week a great week.