Hi everyone!
This week flew by. The best part of this week, by far, was the baptism of Eva, our lovely Filipino investigator who treats us just swell. We four sister missionaries sang at her baptism, and it was just the best feeling. Even though it was a million degrees in the room and ten million little Japanese munchkins running around in circles and climbing all over the furniture.
Here is the tale of the pitiful mustard yellow skirt: We were biking back from a member's house the other day, and my skirt blew into the gear and suddenly I was stranded on the side of the road like one helpless hot mess. After I yanked it out of the gears, it was looking rather holey. #nopunintended I decided it was still okay to wear, so I was wearing it a few days ago while biking with a carton of eggs in the basket. I felt like it was raining or something, and realized that the eggs had gotten smashed and were splashing all down my front. So now I have an eggy, holey mustard skirt. The end.
But I guess if that's the worse thing that's happened this week, life is pretty good. Good thing Sister Bagley and I are going shopping today. And good thing I'm into the whole distressed clothing aka Hollister look (NOT).
Most of the week was spent streeting, housing, and visiting less active members. This area has only been open to sisters for one transfer, so we're basically whitewashing (aka starting from scratch with no one to teach). Which is a little terrifying when neither you or your companion is entirely sure what people are saying to you, but we do our best! I'm learning to avoid that question of "is this awkward for me to chase after that person and start talking about church" and just embrace the uncomfortable-ness of it all. Most people will greet you back politely, but then just start waving their hand in front of their face like we stink to tell us no thank you. I promise I wear deodorant, I tell them. Also, with the obon holiday, basically nobody is home or available. Everyone tells us that they can't meet us till September. So if y'all know someone in Chiba who's looking for the gospel, hit up my email. Please and thank you. Expectations can be sort of dangerous, statistically August has been a slow month for missionary work and we're sort of feeling it.
We had a miracle this week! Sister Nagamine taught me how to area book dendo, so I picked up the phone and started calling random contacts from the past. You know I am really desperate when I'm willing to work on my aversion to the telephone. One lady answers and tells me that she had been waiting for months to talk to the missionaries and was super shocked that I just randomly calling her. I was super shocked--shocked that she understood me, and shocked that she wanted to meet with us. But who wouldn't want to meet with us, right? So we met her yesterday and taught her about the Book of Mormon in McDonalds.
This week I thought a lot about adversity. Not because I feel like I'm experiencing a lot of adversity or something, but talked to this lady on a street corner in downtown Chiba and she was telling me that she couldn't justify the existence of a God when one of her three sons passed away and another is severely disabled. I decided that adversity is not necessarily so that the Lord can measure us (because He knows what we are capable of), but I think it's important that we take note of our own personal growth in order to better understand ourselves. It's hard to remember that when life feels unfair, but I'm trying to learn to appreciate struggles because they allow us to mold ourselves into what the Savior sees in all of us. No one ever got any stronger without lifting so much as an ounce of faith.
"Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not." -Henry Fielding
So there it is. I'm allowed to email friends and family, so all are welcome. Love you all! Mata ne!
Love from your most favorite sister missionary in the whole wide world,
Magi-chan
Pic 2: Streeting in the park--where on earth are all the people?
Pic 3: Making Tako-yaki (balls of dough with octopus in it) at the Church
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