Bumpy White

Konnichiwa! 

Well it's been a week. I ate too much naan today so I'm kinda tired not gonna lie, so I kind of don't want to write for super long. 

We had a bunch of shokujis (dinner appointments, well the word technically just means meal) with members so we had really good opportunities to try and strengthen kaiin dendo (member missionary work) in Ibaraki. Also on Wednesday we had a culture night for Eikaiwa where we made crepes and talked about a bunch of different countries. It was really great because members were able to talk to eikaiwa students and the Ikawas actually invited one of Wood Shimai's students (Maiko) to their house for a shokuji with them and us on Sunday. 

Speaking of which, that was really great because not only were we able to eat real proper tacos with guacamole and everything, we shared the family history video, #MeetMyGrandma and it so happened that Maiko had a really special relationship with her grandma and was able to share a really awesome story about her with us. The fuenki (aura, feel, atmosphere) of the shokuji was just really great and wonderful and the Spirit was there, it was just really wonderful.

We were also able to meet with Kazuki and really get to know his needs. He spent a lot of time in Utah with a bishop there, and because of that he knows a lot of Church hanashi (technically it means talk(s) but we use it to mean church doctrine and culture and stuff) and really likes it. He just struggles with confidence in his faith. Like he needs faith in his faith. Cos he said that if he were to live in Salt Lake indefinitely, he would get baptized, but because Nihon culture in general is not really friendly to Kirisutokyou (Christianity), he's afraid that he wouldn't be able to keep imashime (commandments) because of all the hantai (against, opposite) influences around him. So we're trying to help him make friends in the church who can help support him and give him confidence that he can live the gospel if he wants to.

We also had another lesson with Hashizume-san and we made him a study journal to help him learn about Jesus. Hopefully it helps. He's trying to read the Book of Mormon in English, which is awesome except now he refuses to read it in Japanese so now he can't understand what we read when we try to read with him. It also doesn't help that I can't understand anything he says in Japanese or English. Even Ashikari shimai has a hard time with his Japanese. Lessons are a little stressful. But we love him anyway and he came to a little girl's baptism yesterday in the Takatsuki ward! He's getting there, little by little. 

Also on Friday we got to dendo with a cute member, Kokoa Shimai! We walked around Aigawa and ran into all sorts of cool people. The first guy we talked to (Nakahara-san) was way awesome and had come out to the river to look at the sky cos he can't see the sky from his office. And he was way down to talk and we chatted about all sorts of stuff. He said he thinks people lose their connection with nature and each other because of phones so he doesn't have one (unfortunately this meant we couldn't exchange contact info). And he already had the right idea about the spirit world. It was crazy. I hope we run into him again. 

That same day we also met a group of guitar players who were SUPER TALENTED. It was awesome. We also met a kid who'd met missionaries before. (one of them was Stewart Chourou from my MTC district) Basically Kokoa Shimai is a really awesome good luck charm. 

And now for the question y'all probably have: bumpy white. We were dendoing on Saturday through a park and we found this giant weird statue that looked a bit like something out of a horror movie. I compare it to a bumpy slenderman but without a suit. It was an adventure. 

More to come next week! 

愛しています！ 

Sherwood 姉妹 💕

**Sister Sherwood forgot to add photos to her email this week. There were four she was supposed to attach, but they were forgotten. Hopefully she'll add them next week.