Jazmyne in Japan: Too Much Time on the Train

Hello all!!

This week was a little hectic for us! We have been on so many trains this transfer - going back and forth from Sapporo for Music Practice and Zone Conferences and Zone Training Meetings. I'm honestly getting a little tired from all the travel time and waking up early and the reason why it's so tiring is that lately when we have been traveling, there are so many people on the train, that we end up standing the whole time (an hour and a half there and then an hour an a half back). But it's been kind of fun being able to see everyone and we've had some really good workshops at all of these conferences!

So because we were traveling so much this week, we were only able to meet with 2 of our investigators. We first met with Matsuda San. We've been teaching her and her son for almost 3 months now. I think I've mentioned this family before, but we found them through a Free Family English Program that we offer. So the deal is that we teach English for 30 min. and then we teach about our church for 30 min. And usually it's pretty hard to find families to teach so this program is a great way to get them interested. So we taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation this week. And I asked the mom what she thought the purpose of life is and she said, "well really I just want to be happy". And it caught me a little off guard because it was a great and perfect answer!! I feel like she really understands our message and I know that the gospel will really bless her and her son. The Program that we are doing with them only lasts 6 weeks, so I hope that even when the program is finished that they'll want to continue to learn more about this great gospel of happiness!

One quick funny story from yesterday. So after church we went with the chorotachi (elders) to one of our investigator's houses. His name is Kakisaki San. He's a college kid and so we wanted to pass him to the Elders so that the Elders could start teaching him. The lesson went pretty good, he's shy so it was a little awkward at some points, but he really has a lot of potential! Then after, we were walking through the college campus and then we see a couple college guys making snowmen. And one of them calls out to us in English, "Hello". So we answer and say hi. Then he asks us if we want to come make snowmen with them. And all four of us just look at each other and I'm thinking, what, who ever actually calls out to talk to us?? Haha! But, then we just said ok! :) So it was all of us missionaries (3 of us Americans) and about 5 Japanese college guys playing in the snow and making snowmen! It was so fun! Haha. At one point we were talking about how old we were and I asked one of the guys to guess my age and he says 40! What? Obviously he was joking, but I hope I don't actually look that old! hahaha. We hung out with them for about 2 hours and we invited them to all come to Eikaiwa (free english class we teach) and they said they would try to come!!