皆さん！こんにちわ！げんきですか？
Guess what everyone! I'm in Japan!!! It's so hard to believe that it's week 2 already. :-) I still feel like I just got here, you know? I'm definitely still a newbie, but I feel like I'm starting to finally catch on.
So first off, I really want to apologize to everyone. Last week I was really really down when I emailed everyone. It had been a long hard week and I was just done. On Tuesday of last week it hit me that by doing that, I probably made a lot of you (especially family) worry about me and how I was doing. I want every one of you to know, I'm okay. Last week was just a down point. Please don't worry about me and know that Heavenly Father is taking care of me. :-) Thank you all for the love and support. I really can feel the power of all of your prayers. :-)
NOW! On to describing this week. :-)
Illya kyodai:
So last week I talked about Illya kyodai I'm pretty sure. (Though I think I spelled his name wrong then. :P) He really is quite the character. I seriously could picture him in a movie. Super buff and really healthy. But he's kind of been one of my rocks in the ward. He's been so helpful in helping me be patient with myself.
Every Thursday night he teaches a "Life Class". Basically he makes this big dinner for anyone who wants to come ("Of only healthy foods. I don't put anything into my body which could harm it. Everything in front of you will help your body somehow.") and we have some sort of deep discussion on something he chooses beforehand. This week he brought up this... I don't know how to explain it exactly... Way of thinking? I guess? Anyway, basically there are these 3 kanji in Japanese he wrote on a white board. They meant Reject, Seperate, and Throw Away. He said that this has become a way of thinking for a lot of people. When something gets hard they reject it, seperate themselves from it, and throw it away no matter how good it may have turned out. He specifically mentioned that it was mostly that way in America. Then we started discussing how we should try to be the opposite. Instead of Rejecting, Accepting. Instead of Seperating, bringing together. And instead of throwing away, gathering.
I really really needed this discussion... I felt like that's what I'd been doing. This has been hard so I've wanted to reject it, seperate myself from it, and throw away this opportunity. I need to do the opposite. Then I got an email from President Budge (My Mission President) who said "a mission is all about attitude. You can choose what to make of your mission. Choosing to be positive is much more fun, I promise." So, I decided to try to turn my attitude around. I feel like I've been fairly successful. It's amazing the difference.
Disneyland:
Like I said last week too, we can see Disneyland from our apartment. Well, on Friday was my first day really trying that whole "Be positive about this experience" deal. That night, we got back to our apartment and started planning for Saturday. All of the sudden there was this boom, boom, boom! Both Kuwahara shimai and I kind of freaked out. We looked outside and... FIREWORKS!!! It was the first time we'd been home in time to see the Disneyland Fireworks. I've never actually seen Disneyland Fireworks before so I got REALLY excited. :-) I felt like it was Heavenly Father's way of saying "You did good today. Keep it up." :-)
The Hill:
On Saturday, we went to an appointment with one of the members. We live right by a HUGE river, so to get to this appointment we had to cross this huge bridge. There's a hill on this bridge that's REALLY steep and has lots of turns. Going down it is rather dangerous for me (I'm not exactly the most skilled bike rider. :P) but I made it safely. Well, on the way back I realized I was going to have to go up this hill... Kuwahara shimai is awesome... but she wasn't going to wait for me. I was going to have to pedal all the way up this hill and around the steep corners on a bike that's too big for me without crashing. Needless to say, I was really scared. So I immediately started to pray. I felt weird praying to Heavenly Father about going up a hill... But the hill came and I pedaled... and I pedaled... and somehow I made it around the sharp corners and made it all the way up this hill. I honestly don't know how I did it. I shouldn't have been able to. But I feel like the Lord strengthened me. :-)
Now here's the moral of that story. If God was willing to help me with something so silly... Why wouldn't he help me with something hard?
Yoko san:
Last thing and I gotta be quick.
Yesterday at church I was having a kind of rough time. It was the primary program and it REALLY made me miss home. Right when I was feeling the most homesick, a ward member came up to us, said something in Japanese and walked off. Kuwahara shimai stood up and motioned for me to follow her. It turned out there was a girl there who was interested in the church, but had nobody to sit by. We had her sit by us. :-) Long story short, we got a new investigator! She speaks English fluently and she's really interested in the church. Like really. We have an appointment with her next week so hopefully I'll get to tell you more then!
I'm just grateful that the moment that I felt the most homesick was the exact moment Heavenly Father sent me someone else to focus on. :-) Heavenly Father is taking care of me. :-)
I wish I could tell you more about Yoko-san because she's also... quite the character. :P But I really need to get going. Too all of you who I haven't had a chance to write yet (*cough*JoshMirandaPeachDevin*
I love you all! Thank you so much for everything! Talk to you all again next week!
愛しています！
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グラスランド姉妹
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