Kyoto is actually freezing!

Konnichiwa y'all! 

This week was good despite a tad bit of sickness up here in Katsura. Shinji and Tawarazaka-san are progressing rapidly and it's really a miracle. Shinji came to church again yesterday and we taught him the restoration. He said that he's open to finding out whether or not Joseph Smith really was a prophet and that he thinks that Joseph had admirable faith. He's also started to try and quit coffee all by himself! We haven't even mentioned the word of wisdom yet. He's just a star. He even wore a suit! It was really cool though because he said that he really loves how welcomed and loved Katsura ward makes him feel. It was wonderful. We feel like if he gets baptized, he'd be the kind of person to really strengthen the ward and bring them closer and help them be happier.

Tawarazaka-san is really cool because she just really wants to come closer to God and she has a real desire to read the Book of Mormon even though reading is hard for her. We taught her to pray and she was so ready to just go for it and pray twice a day, it was awesome. She understood what I was trying to say even though I was having a really hard time explaining in Japanese. We're really excited to invite her to church and help her make friends with the kain. We're really blessed to be able to teach these awesome people so we're ganbaruing as much as we can to be worthy to teach them. Katsura really is an area of miracles.

Also I made mochi at the mochitsuki (mochi making event) on Monday and it was way cool. Mostly though the week was fairly uneventful except for our investigators' lessons being awesome and me being sick for a day. Oh also Emerson Chourou had to spend a bunch of time at the dentist (poor guy) so we've been trying to help the chourou not die of pain and business. In general though it's just been freezing. It snowed on Sunday and no one was happy about it because biking on icy roads is way abunai (dangerous). Pretty sure my hands are gonna fall off. But hey if being cold is what we gotta do to help Shinji and Tawarazaka-san be awesome then ganbarimasu.

Love you all! 

Sherwood 姉妹❤️

Mochi we made

 My face because mom wanted more pictures of my face

 Tanbos by Katsuragawa (rice fields/gardens by Katsura River)

 I drew Bishop Okunishi. He's like a sweet kind shy version of President Hinckley we love him

Me hammering the mochi

 The yonnin (the four of us) at the Okunishis house

 Bishop accepting defeat at the hands of Emerson Chourou's unfailing affection

 Turns out I'm cousins with Aaron Burr

An old picture of me and Sister Oliver because I love her