Helloooooo Tokyo!: .....not dead......

Badminton in Nagaoka with the CUTEST girls

Heyyyyoooo!

Sorry! My pday got switched around this week and it's been madness but I AM ALIVE NO FEAR. This week was good. Like way good. Our investigators are progressing and it's AWESOME, it's warm (sometimes hot and humid and you kind of want to melt in a puddle and die) but nonetheless WARM, I had sushi multiple times this week, including one time on the beach (is this even real?) and I get to preach and talk about happiness nonstop everyday. Living the life? Kind of.

Chillin' on the beach in Sado with the Joetsu elders and their
investigator and the Sado sisters.

Ya know, being a missionary is cool. You teach. All day every day, yet somehow through that teaching you learn the most. I had an experience like that this week. We were teaching Sandy about Joseph Smith. Like I mentioned in prior emails, Sandy soaks stuff up like a sponge. We watched the Joseph Smith video with her and to say I was in chills the whole time would be an understatement. As I spoke I just felt so strong in my heart that this was true... Sandy was practically speechless. The spirit spoke to her and she was soooo amazed by Joseph Smith and his story. I walked away from that lesson knowing that it's true. Missions are hard. They're wayyy hard and stressful but it's true. It's true so it's worth it.

Birthday sushi with Onoda 姉妹 (homie)

Also... for those of you who read these looking for the funny stuff, this week I was teaching another area's investigator... well, she was flipping out because I could speak Japanese. Like literally flipping out. We would start to talk about the lesson and she would just stop us and be like, "Ya okay, but wait... DO YOU HEAR THIS... SHE CAN SPEAK JAPANESE AND I UNDERSTAND HER!!!!!" Lol. Batchelor 姉妹 and I were dying. But then... it got better. She proceeded to say that I look Hawaiian? Wut. That's definitely a first. I've been told a lot of things on my mish, but Hawaiian? That's a first. So hey everyone. I can speak a little Japanese and I'm Hawaiian. You learn new things every day.