Blessings

Hello All!

Sorry it has been awhile since I last posted anything!! Life has just been soo much fun lately! At the beginning of this past weekend I wasn't so sure it would be! See, a Japanese LDS co-worker from Interac had invited a group of us to go watch Sumo, and well, it is kind of the thing TO DO in Japan. Also, it was going to be the semi-finals--the last chance for us to watch it since the finals were on that Sunday. Well, I was a little fuzzy on the date of the actual event and thought it was going to be next Saturday. However, at 6:15am, Saturday morning, the happy chimes of my cell phone awoke me. I was like, did I set my alarm for something?? But alas, it was my dear Japanese friend asking me if I was on my way!!!! Also, she couldn't get a hold of the other girl (Miss Amazing Liz)...yeah. It was not so happy; both Liz and I were not able to make it. However, our friend had invited others along, so at least she had fun!

A view I had on my walk in Fuchu

However, all was right in the universe because my dear new friend Api (from Tonga--who is married to a pro-rugby player!!!) had invited me to her Relief Society activity. I met Api in the office last week (as I occasionally work in the human resource center) and we became fast friends! She is LDS and lives 15 minutes away from me by train, 30 running minutes away, and 50 walking minutes away. I did all of the above over the last four days--it was quite fun!

And this is how I didn't get lost! Road signs are awesome!

I thought about going to the Fuchu ward, but it is about the same distance away to go to my Kichijoji ward--which ward I absolutely LOVE!!!! Not to bash the Fuchu ward--as they are amazing as well. I just have soooooo many wonderful friends in the Kichijoji ward I could not bare to part with! Anywho, our R.S. activity was awesome--they made awesome Japanese food and I helped make fruit pizzas!! Yay! Afterwards, Api let me be visit taught with her, and it was soo great! Api is in the hospital this week for a minor surgery, so her visiting teachers sang "As Sisters in Zion" for her in English, accompanied by a ukulele!!! It was awesome!!! We had such a great time! I am hoping to be able to visit Api this week!!

This just made me laugh

And the rest of my happy story will tell you why I cannot possibly leave the Kichijoji ward! See, I have a new family!! Hehehe, the Saito family has pretty much adopted me and I LOVE it!!!!!! After church, there was a potluck (and Sis. Saito was happy to learn a new word, though potluck is a bit difficult for the Japanese to pronounce!) and I got to try all sorts of awesome Japanese food for free!!!!! It made me soo happy. Also, I got to chat it up with my awesome Chinese member friends, my Japanese member friends, and the missionaries!! There are some awesome Sister missionaries in that ward, and they are a woot! Sister Johnston went to BYU before her mission, and will be coming home in July. She is pretty sad to be leaving soo quick though.

Kichijoji Chapel

Then after that, the Saito's took me home with them and I minimally helped them get ready for this huge dinner party!! Lol, I ate soo much food--definitely awesome!! Cause during the week I live on miso soup, rice, and oatmeal :P. Which isn't bad--I actually quite like it! But there is something to be said about eating authentic Japanese food! We even made gyoza pizzas...they were amazing!! Basically potsticker wrappers with ketchup, awesome veggies, mochi (pounded rice--when cooked, it tastes kind of like cheese...weird, but awesome), cheese, shrimp, fish eggs, etc. It was awesome. Then there was the main dish of this awesome beef stew thing over rice, and a bacon chowder type soup. I tried them all! Lol. Not losing weight in Japan :(.

Motor-delivery bikes for Dominos!

Again the missionaries were over, and so were five other people--bringing the party up to 14 people--quite the feat for such a modest home! It was actually quite a large home comparatively, but by US standards, very small. All I can say is that is was at least ten, if not more, times bigger than my own humble abode! Of course, it doesn't take much to beat me :P! It is really nice though 'cause I can clean the whole thing in about half and hour...shweet huh? Another cool thing about the Saito's is that they have two daughters--ages 19 (Yuri) and 21 (Rie). Rie befriended me on my very first Sunday there and her English is pretty good. I think we are kindred spirits for sure! I am finding that kindred spirits aren't as rare as I once thought they were. Of course, we are all children of a loving Heavenily Father, and once you feel that His love, it is so much easier to love others. And Rie has shown me true Christ-like love. I really really love that girl!!!

So after dinner, they actually drove me home! Now, that might not mean a lot to you in America, but in Japan, all I ever use are trains and buses. In fact, most people do. So being in a car, was soo cool!! And while it took like 20 minutes by train, it was only about ten minutes to my house by car! Pretty awesome eh? Of course, it would probably take forever to walk--but I've gotten into the habit of taking long walks and haven't gotten lost yet! A fact of which I am pretty proud of.

So aside from my awesome weekend, it has also been a super fun teaching one as well! I have only taught two days thus far, but they were soo good! 5th grade on Monday, and 1st grade subsitute teaching today!! It was soooooooo awesome! The little 1st graders are by far my favorite! They are just soo happy to see you; you can't help but love them. And they all try and give you high fives--a few even chased me through out the halls trying to get more high fives!! It was soo darn cute! And they actually like being taught English--which is always nice. Not that I am dissing my 5th graders--but its like you just play games the whole time with 1st graders!! Brooke likes games! I ate lunch with one of my classes today and they were soo cute!! They kept going up to the their teacher and asking him who to say their questions in English. Then they would skip over to me and try soo hard to remember what he had said. It was soo darling!! And they did a very good job of it on the whole!

One of my favorite things about fifth grade though is that the kids are just so hilarious! They aren't wild like the 1st graders, but they still have soo much energy. After teaching them Simon Says, I had one of the more outgoing students be the new teacher and he did such a great job! Not many students could lead a Simon Says game. But he was super energetic and loud--which we love in English class! Also, one of my students looks like the Young Spock from the new Star Trek movie, so whenever I see him I am sooooooooooo happy!!! I wish I could take pictures--but I am not allowed to :( :(. It makes me sad.

Well, now this post is too long and no one will read it! :P

Love you all and hope you are all doing good!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE Church

So today was the best Sunday I've had in Japan yet! Of course, it is only the second one I've ever had in Japan, and the first one wasn't too bad. My first Sunday here wasn't bad either, just a wee bit disappointing because we weren't able to attend church :(. Last Sunday the whole group was still together and the girls and I wanted to make it to the English ward. So we tried really hard!! We took trains and even a taxi to get to the building, but alas, when we arrived we were informed that the English ward had combined with the other English ward! That translates into another hour of travel...thus we weren't able to go. And the guy we met was a member of the Japanese ward--which had just finished. Here is a picture of us at the building though--we wanted to prove we had actually tried to go!

It ended up being an awesome Sunday still though because the girls and I went up to Celestia's hotel room and held our own little devotional that concluded with us watching the Testaments. It was pretty amazing actually--the girls I was with (sadly we are all scattered across Japan now) are super AMAZING!!! I miss them quite a bit, but we keep in touch through our blogs and skype...thank heavens for skype!!!

The reason this Sunday was so amazing was due to the fact God kept showing me His love for me in soo many different ways. It was just amazing! To start it off, a friend at Interac took the time to print off a map of an LDS church she thought would be eaisest for me to get to. Luckily I had memorized a few street names and important landmarks, because as I was riding the train to Kichijoji (the stop I would have to take), I realized I had forgotten the map at home!!!!! Happily had left my home a little early (planning on the fact I get easily turned around) and so i figured with the Lord's help I would be able to find the church. So I offered a simple prayer asking for the Lord to help me find the Church and started off. As I was walking down the street I thought I was supposed to be on I happened to remember the street I was actually supposed to be on. I made the correct turn onto that street (which happened to be called Sun Road and is some kind of market place) and then this guy (who looks Japanese) said, "Are you looking for the church?" I was soooooooooooo happy!!!! Thus I met Antone, and made it to church half and hour early!

Church itself was all in Japanese--and I don't really know much religious Japanese! But the sweetest people made friends with me and I actually had the lessons in Sunday school and R.S. semi-translated for me. In R.S. they gave me an English and a Japanese copy of the manual, saying it would help me to learn Japanese. Also, it was great because I could understand the lesson pretty well given a context. The spirit was just so strong at my meetings, it was amazing! It is soo cool to realize that the Gospel is the same all around the world! And they gave me hugs!!! Japanese people rarely give hugs...so that made me soooooooo happy.

On a slightly different note, the owner of the company I am here through (INTERAC) goes to my ward!!! How crazy is that!! I didn't get to talk to him today, but I met three of his daughters. One of the best parts of Sunday actually came after the meetings ended. As I was heading out to leave, I met some sister missionaries. They were very sweet and invited me to help out with the English lessons they teach on Wednesdays. I might go do that! But the coolest part is that I met four Chinese MEMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had some pretty awesome Japachinglish going on! Things were a little confusing though...speaking a mixture of all three languages is a little mind-bending if I do say so myself. They were all so sweet and said my Chinese was excellent--which made me super happy. Anyway, that was my happy news!

More later,

Loves,

Brooke