It is way nice because the kohai seems to always have the *you're senpai so you should know what to do and tell me what you want me to do* complex. Now there are two of us working as equals, which means I don't have to tell her to write records for her to start writing records. It's great. She is from West Valley, Utah. Before her mission she studied at Salt Lake Community College.. and get this, she doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. Haha, her and the rest of the world. She does know she wants a lot of cats. Her nickname is Neko Shimai, or Sister Cat.
That's a new name the Less Active Family we are working with came up with. This is the first time she has been called that. Haha. She is really tall, 6 foot I think, but feels short because she is the shortest in her family. I feel short again. She towers over all these short Japanese people.
Sakurajima has continued to be genki. The real problem isn't ash from the sky, as much as cars just bring it all back up. But on Saturday there was a Kagoshima District activity where everyone went to Miyakonojyo to help clean up after the other active volcano over there. It was sponsored by Helping Hands, so we all got yellow vests.
Sweeping up ash is kinda ridiculous. Half of it blows into the air just to fall again. That's why cleaning up ash is such a pain. We got so many bags. I'm going to send pictures. In the parking lot at the church we realized that we could write things on the cement, because the ash underneath is slightly more gray. That's why I wrote my name. The S in a circle means Sister. That's how they abbreviate it in Japan. :) The ash got into everything we own. But it was fun.
We went to visit this old grandma who couldn't clean it up herself. We got about 20 bags. It's just unbelievable. And we're just picking up the tail end... it was way worse. I wore a white hygienic mask, and goggles since I have contacts.
That same evening, I came home and got in the shower for the ward activity called Fun Night. A few minutes later my companion knocked on the door. The senior missionary couple called and wanted us to come to the church to dress us up in kimonos. There is this member that studied it (because she didn't think she was going to get married... but then she did, so now she has all this stuff and a lot of free time to dress up random foreigners that come to Japan). So I hurried out of the shower and we rushed to the church. This Fun Night had two parts - a laughing contest, and a fashion show. Obviously we were in the fashion show. I have a ton of pictures. I'll see how many I can send. Last time I was forced into a kimono it was kinda hard because it was a hideous shade of bright green, and the lady dressing me was used to only do it on herself and didn't know how to dress someone with curves. But this time the member was trained in dressing other people and she did it well. Everyone thought we looked great. I thought we looked ridiculous. There was a line to take pictures at the end. My companion, who has a bit of stage fright was having a hard time because she didn't know anyone. This was before her first Sacrament Meeting even. Haha.
We have been calling this family, the Tabata Family. The kids love church, but the dad doesn't like to come. We're not sure why. Sometimes he comes to sacrament meeting but sleeps upstairs since he can't take the sacrament and claims that he is too embarrassed to come. I think there is more to that story. The mom lives elsewhere....Okinawa I think.
We have called them everyday this week at 9:30 to tell them to gather for family prayer, then we pray with them over the phone. The dad, as usual, picks someone else to say the prayer and he just listens. On Tuesday, he picked his 14 year old son, Yuya to prayer. As the prayer started, my companion and I looked at each other. That was a very manly 14 year old voice. Then it hit us - Tabata Kyodai was praying! After the initial shock we listened. It was a real prayer straight from his heart. He thanked God for his family, and for the missionaries that have helped his family. He sincerely asked God to bless everyone individually in their lives.
After our amens we started cheering over the phone. Haha, I think he liked that. We found out the next day when we saw the two teenage kids that that was the first time they had ever heard their dad pray.
On Sunday, for testimony meeting Anna, the 16 year old daughter bore testimony that for the first time in her life when she prays she thinks that someone is actually there. When she says amen, she pauses before she continues what she was doing before. So yeah, through several transfers of missionaries working with this family, starting from Family Home Evenings of just games, to slowly having a small message, to teaching actual doctrine, to inviting them to pray as a family, to hearing the father say a prayer for the first time in who knows how long, I think the past 6 months of missionaries should all pat themselves on the back. We are continuing to call them everyday at 9:30. Our goal is to slowly have them do it without the missionaries.
Well, that's all I have time for this week, but now I'll send some pictures.
レモン姉妹
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