The Week of Love

Konnichiwa!

So this week, as you all know, was Valentine's!!! Because of that, we went and heart attacked everyone we know in our area all week and it was so awesome! On Valentine's Day itself, we went and ate sushi with Katou Shimai and Komori-san! It was so much fun. I ate lots of shrimp nigiri (rice with a shrimp on it) and it was super yummy. It was just love love and more love! And now we wanna keep doing it because it was such an awesome thing! The ward was so happy and when the ward is happy, we're happy. 

On Friday, Yamashita Chourou, the area seventy in charge of the Asia North Area, came for a mission conference! He emphasized showing love to our investigators and showing faith by inviting investigators to be baptized in two weeks on the first or second lesson. It's really intense, but I feel like we're going to see an awesome change in the pace of the work because of the changes he's made. 

Also on Saturday we got to volunteer at the Kyoto Marathon Expo! It was so much fun! We met fun nihonjin and got to hand out race packets and numbers and we got cool jackets too! It was awesome cos we rarely get to do service projects like that here. Nihonjin generally don't like to accept help because they're so self reliant, so it's really nice to be able to serve people. 

And then! On Sunday Shinji came to church! It was a literal miracle because he's been sooooooooo busy editing thousands of job interview videos for work. But he came! He has so much faith it was so amazing to see! He's such a sweet, gentle person. We all love him so much. 

Well I'm off to have more adventures in Kyoto! See you next week! 

1. Volunteering but cute form

2 - 5. The Kiyomizu-dera 

Kamogawa is the River of Kinjin

Konnichiwa minasan!

Sorry for the late email, but it's been a busy day! 

This week has been quite the adventure. We met with a couple new investigators and even found a Mexican restaurant in Kawaramachi! It had avocados and everything! Speaking of which, I've repented of my sins and realized that avocados actually are oishii. Eaton Shimai was very happy because she loves avocados.

The coolest thing though was on Friday after district meeting we dendoed some gaijin! We were walking along Kamogawa (a river that runs through Kyoto) and found this guy reading 1984 on the riverbank. We started talking to him and found out that he's from Switzerland and traveling for a couple weeks through Japan. Then we started talking about the gospel and two hours later he committed to reading the Book of Mormon and meeting with the missionaries in Switzerland!!!! It was awesome! Also Eaton Shimai learned why I was sent to Japan (Spoiler Alert: it's because my mouth needed the hardest language in the world as a handicap) It was a really good day. Kyoto is awesome because you can talk to the whole world here!

Also heyo this week is Valentine's Day!!! In Japan, Valentines is a little different. All the girls buy fancy chocolates for the boys they like, and then next month on White Day (March 14) all the boys return the favor with either chocolates or some other nice present or thing. It's way fun. (I bought Eaton Shimai Snoopy chocolates because she loves Snoopy more than life itself but you can't tell her cos it's a surprise shhhhhhh)

This week, Yamashita Chourou (the area seventy in charge of the Asia North missions) is coming to do a mission tour! He gave us homework to love our investigators and ward members so hard! Hug them all the time and tell them how much we love them. His third challenge was to find a new investigator every single day and we're working so hard to do it! I'd like to extend that same challenge to you guys! This week, love everyone so so much! Love them too much! Hug everyone and tell them how much you love them! And while finding investigators for the missionaries in your area may be a little much, I bet you can all share something about Christ's love for all of us with someone every day. 💖

Let's all do a week of love this week!!!!!

愛していますよ!!!! 💖💕💖💕💖💕💖💕💖

Sherwood 姉妹

1-3. We went to a Buddhist shrine in Sannomiya it was awesome

4-5. Proof we found a Mexican restaurant

6. A Thomas the Tank Engine bus. Kyoto is wild

7. Eaton Shimai next to some Buddhist pilgrim statues in Kyoto 

Sister Eubanks is a Queen

Konnichiwa minasan!

We had a way cool week this week! We had several lessons and our investigators are progressing way fast!

Tuesday we met with Tawarazaka-san and taught her about the celestial kingdom. She's doing really well and understands a lot, but she's so humble it's a little hard to teach her about blessings sometimes. But we got to see her repent and come closer to Heavenly Father right there in the lesson and it was really awesome. She's great we love her.

Then on Wednesday we got to go to a conference with Sister Eubanks, Sister Oscarson, and Elder Yamashita! Sister Eubanks is awesome and I love her. Everyone talked a lot about the little things in dendo being what really makes the difference and it was great. Earlier that week they did a women's broadcast devotional to all of Japan, and they talked actually quite a bit about marriage. Sister Eubanks gave some wonderful insight for the women who aren't married because she herself hasn't had the opportunity to get married. It was beautiful and edifying, and listening to her speak as a missionary, I realized that talk about marriage and stuff still applies to us, even though we're dendo dake (only missionary work) right now, and not in the "well you're gonna be home at some point" kind of way. The principles that govern a healthy and celestial marriage are the same principles that govern our relationship with Christ and Heavenly Father. Furthermore, in the sealing ordinance itself, God is an integral part, so the relationship and trust built with God is just as important as the relationship you build with your spouse. Even in the scriptures, Christ is referred to as the bridegroom, and when He declared himself as the Messiah to the Samaritan woman at the well, He symbolically healed her sad situation of having six husbands in her life and when she became a disciple, He became her seventh "husband," significant in that seven is a number that represents perfection and completion. In this way, all of us, married or not, can hugely benefit immediately when listening to talks about marriage. The principles taught, if followed, can bring us so close to Christ, and strengthen the relationships we have with others.

In other news, lots of awesome things happened with Shinji this week. We did a Bible study class with him and he really liked it. We talked about different parables in the New Testament, and it was a really awesome and spiritual night. Then in our lesson yesterday, we taught him about the Spirit, and he said that he's felt the Spirit help him become a kinder and more patient person. He's even committed to praying about when to be baptized, and next week we're going to try to set a date with him!!!! He's our beautiful kinjin (golden person) too good for this world, too pure. He came to dinner with us at the Shibatas home, and they taught him a little bit about the Word of Wisdom and now he knows about D&C 89 so welp that lesson is probably going to be fairly straightforward and easy when we get there. He's growing up so fast! *brushes away tears*

Also!! On Friday we went and dendo-ed with Kaizaki Shimai (the Relief Society president) and it was awesome! We visited lots of less actives and brought them cookies. We even got to go and eat at Sushiro together!  (so yummy!! 🍣🍣🍣🍣) There was a way good melon sherbet in a cute melon container and now I have a cute melon shaped container to hold all my pennies. It was a good day. Kaizaki shimai is the bomb. Love her so much!

See you all next week! 愛しています！

Sherwood 姉妹 ❤️

1-3. Cool Buddhist Japan shrine stuff we found near a kyuudousha's house

4-8. The chouroutachi randomly had a yukata in their apartment and it's mine now. Not sure if I can really pull it off though.

9. More Japan shrine!

10. My companion is an alien 

Achievement Get! New Superpower Unlocked

Konnichiwa minasan!

So this week's been a long one. On Tuesday we went on splits with the Sister Training Leaders in Fushimi-Inari and it was a good time. Maiwiriwiri Shimai and I found a bunch of cool people from China and we taught piano to this guy from Myanmar. Turns out explaining piano in Japanese is wayyyy muzukashii (difficult). Arigatou Hemi Chourou for being basically pera-pera (fluent) and knowing all the words for the different fingers. We ate gyouza for both lunch and dinner and I was a happy senkyoushi. I love gyouza.

We taught kids' eikawa this week and it was fun. We taught them all about family words and had them start making kiddo family trees. Mostly because teaching the alphabet and stuff is boring and this way we can dendo the moms with family history. Two birds one stone heyooo.

Also the other day we found a less-active family that our area book map had put in Cyprus of all places, but when we actually looked at the address we were like "wait a second that says Kyoto what" so we Google mapped it and we were right! They live in Kyoto! And we found their house! They're alive!!! But they weren't home so we didn't get to talk to them so slightly sad. But soon. Soon we will find them.

While we were up in Kyoto looking for these guys, we accidentally stumbled upon the most hipster cafe study spot I've seen in my whole life. It was called MTRL (I think it's supposed to be pronounced material) and the little cafe inside was just like "Fab Cafe. What do you fab?" and it was hilarious and great. What do you guys fab? Incidentally, their bagel sandwiches were way good.

Also y'all are probably wondering what I meant by "achievement get! new superpower unlocked". So fun story. While walking through Kyoto I was very tired and sad and just miserable and then I just kinda stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and cried because what else can you do when you're cold and sad and tired and can't speak Japanese? Well like five minutes later a squad of Jehovah's Witnesses appeared out of the mist and brought us to a warm laundromat and got us warm lemon drinks and were super nice to us and we just talked about ourselves and the Bible for like 20 minutes. It was a baby miracle. They were way nice. And then after we were warm again and not hating life they just kinda left and we have no idea where they went. Where did they come from? Where did they go? Where did you come from cotton-eyed Jehovah's Witnesses????? So yeah apparently I have the ability to summon an army of Jehovah's Witnesses now. Way nice people. We're really grateful for them. 

Also other cool miracle, we had seven investigators at church yesterday! That's like a fifth of the people in the ward! We were so happy and the members were also so happy. God really is too good for us. Katsura is an area of miracles and I'm so glad to be here. 

Til next week! 愛しています！

Sherwood 姉妹

1-3. the cool hipster Cafe

We saw actual grass. It was amazing. 

We're A Gonin Now

Konnichiwa minasan!

So Katsura area is a gonin now (五人, five people) because a new chourou, Eddington 長老,  joined Emerson 長老 and Slack 長老. He's chill and incidentally, he was one of my dai-senpai in the MTC. So that's a thing now. There's too many missionaries. We're like a fifth of the ward.

In other news, we went around to a couple hospitals looking for service opportunities, but alas we couldn't find any. Japan is very self reliant and nihonjin don't like onegai-ing (asking for favors) other people. Even when we ask its alwayss "no no its fine." They're all very humble and polite and don't want to put other people out in any way.

Also Thursday we had zone conference so that was way cool. President Smoot talked a lot about family history and the prophecies given to us about Japan. We've finally got lesson plans and tango (vocabulary) lists to practice for dendo-ing family history and we're way excited. We also played fun games as a part of the lessons from the zone leaders and the sister training leaders about improving dendo, and there were literal stacks of chourou-tachi. It was wild.

Shinji came to church again this week and it was way awesome. We've started calling him Kyoudai (brother) and he's way cool with it, it's so great. In our lesson he said he's been telling all his friends and coworkers about how he's been taking lessons from us and going to church. He's been dendo-ing on his own! It's unheard of! He's a literal miracle. We taught him about the creation, fall, and atonement, and he really liked it. The spirit was really strong in the lesson and he kept saying how he felt really warm and good about what we're teaching him. He's so cool! We're so blessed to get to see him progress.

Other than that the week has mostly just been us doing our best and going out and finding people. Until next week! 

愛していますよ！

Sherwood 姉妹

(P.S. Eaton 姉妹 gave me an intense awesome study quad pdf made by an old Seventy that expounds every verse of scripture in the entire standard works so if anyone wants that, hit me up) 

1. Kyoto has Pokémon signs under all the lampposts and I found my precious sweet baby slowpoke.

2. I found a cute Pokémon themed "Pocket Veggie" juice with Eevee in it in a Kyoto vending machine. (it was way oishii. Tasted like oranges and carrots)

3. A cool jinja (shinto temple) on the way to visit Ono Shimai

4. Catron Shimai and I got chocolate melon pan with chocolate chips and chocolate cream filling at the Lawson's near the Shimogamo church building. It was delicious.

5. I'M THE WORST GOMEN HERE'S THE PICTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS BANNER FINALLY ARIGATOU MINASAN (People in our church ward (congregation) all wrote messages to Brittney on this banner that we mailed to her for Christmas)

6. The sannin (三人, three people) chourou being nerds (Slack 長老, Eddington 長老, and Emerson 長老)

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

Omedetto Gozaimasu!

Konnichiwa minasan!

So this past week has been kinda hard to dendo because New Years is like Christmas for Japan. Everyone celebrates for like an entire week. But hey we got to do cool things anyway! We went to Bishop Okunishi's house for lunch and New Years games and it was super fun. I cleaned everyone's clock at the hiragana slap game and won the New Years candy of joy and happiness. 

We've also been able to finally set up appointments with people because the holidays are winding down and people's schedules are more free. We're teaching a cute family now, the Osakis, and we're way excited about it. 

Also we went up to Kyoto University the other day and met a way brilliant daigakkusei (college student) who's studying civil engineering and who explained to us the intricacies of Buddhist theology. He said that the basic idea is that all laws of nature, rules, etc that keep us from doing things and cause us suffering are there because we put them up in ourselves. Like aliens don't have to follow gravity because humans just decided way way back that we were gonna have gravity. It was way complicated. But he said that while he knows a lot about it, he doesn't really have much faith in it, so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he was like "cool I'll read it if I have time outside of my studies" and then dashed off to catch the bus back into town. It was an interesting conversation.

Today we're making mochi (sticky rice cake) because that's what you do for New Years in Japan and it's way cool! So I don't have a ton of time but I love you all and hope you're having a wonderful start of the year!

愛しています！

Sherwood 姉妹

 my cool bike

 Mochi tsuki! (mochi making) 

Kyoto Tower