Thanks for the Letters!

OH my goodness gracious!

I opened my email today to find 26 new emails!!! Oh man I feel so bad that I really just dont have time to read and reply to everything! :( 

Ok sorry this is going to be a short letter!!!!!!!!!!!! :( but I want to try to reply to some people who emailed me this week. I hope youll forgive me!

Answers to your questions.

1)  Do the people of Japan pay more attention to you because you are blond?

I dont know if they pay more attention, but people always comment on my blonde hair and sometimes they want to touch it. A lot of people ask me if it changes color. Whenever they do comment on my hair they always say that it:s so pretty and they are jealous.. So I guess its a good thing. :)

2)  What kinds of things do you do on your p-day's.  I assume you do grocery shopping and laundry.  Do you have a scheduled time to write letters? Just curious if you are at the church and all 11 missionaries are using the same computers you probably have assigned times.

On P-days we do grocery shopping, shopping for clothes, and then we do some fun things like go and take pictures and go to resturants - like today we went to this curry resturant and it was SOOOO good!! :) We can actually do laudry any day of the week since there are 5 girls in our apartment and only 1 washer and dryer. Yes we have a scheduled time to write emails.　There is only one computer at the church so we hace to take turns although I heard that theyre trying to figure out other options for us like using members computers or something...(sorry there arent going to be any appostrophies in this letter.... im too lazy to add them in...) :)

3) Do you cook in your apartment most days?  Do you take a turn in cooking?

Yes usually we eat in our apartment. Our kitchen is so small though that usually its 2 girls who cook food and the other three of us help to clean and set up the table.

K so I just have one quick story and I hope that will suffice. :)

 

This week we took a little trip and spent 2 days in Sapporo. On Wednesday me and Furue Shimai got to take a bus to Sapporo. The bus ride is about 3 1/2 hours. The countryside of Hokkaido is absolutely beautiful!! There are just rolling hills with trees and flowers everywhere. It kind of reminds me of the opening scene in The Sound of Music where she is singing `The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music`. We dont have quite as big of mountains, but you get the idea. :)

 

So we got to Sapporo Wednesday afternoon and we had exchanges. Which means that I got paired up with a new companion for the day. It was one of the Sister Training Leaders, her name is Honda Shimai (yes Honda like the car brand). She is so sweet! She is Japanese and she is from a city near Nagoya. Her English isnt the best so it was a little hard to communicate with her, but from what I did understand, she is really funny! Anyway it was great spending time in the city with her.

 

Quick story time: On Wednesday night we had an appointment to meet with a girl who was interested in hearing our message. Her name is Irina and she is from Russia. Shes been living in Japan for about 11 months and she is in her 20s. She lives in this little one room apartment, but she is so cute! She has the longest and blondest hair I think I have ever seen! Her Japanese is really good and since she is a gaijin (foreigner) she spoke a little slower so I could actually understand most of what she was saying! Anyway,  we brought her a Book of Mormon in Russian so that she could start reading it. So together we all read the introduction to the Book of Mormon, which explains what the Book is about and why its so speacial. As we were reading together on the floor with a Russian, Japanese, and English Book of Mormon I just felt so overwhelmed. Its truly a testimony to me of the promise that is given that the true gospel of Jesus Christ will go to all the world - every nation, kindred, toungue, and people. I truly believe that everyone will benifit from reading the Book of Mormon and inviting Christ into their lives. I bore my simple witness that the Book of Mormon is true and they contain God`s words. The spirit was there and it was a really neat expirience.

 

Hope you are all doing well! Thanks again for all your love and support and letters! I promise I will reply to all of them eventually!

Ai Shiteimasu!!

Morrison Shimai