🎶Remember Meeeeeeeee Cmon Guys Do Family Historyyyy🎶

Konnichiwa minasan! 

This week has been very very busy for several reasons. We had Christmas Taikai on Tuesday and Wednesday and it was brilliant. I was very pleased with everything that happened, especially that we were able to watch Coco! I love that movie so much I'm so happy I cried like five times. My greatest hope is that maybe finally missionaries will gain some family history fire because of it. We've been considering different ways to boost family history as a district because we basically have a mini MLC (missionary leadership council) in our district because we have the head tech, head family history specialist, both STLs, and the zone family history specialist all in our district. Also Hatchett 長老 is the actual most stressed out person about it ever which is impressive because usually I'm the most stressed person in the district. Poor guy. We all wanna do more family history but figuring out how to get other people on board is a whole other can of worms. I'm very tired of hearing the phrase "日本人だから" because it's always followed by a thousand excuses for why they can't do family history or dendo or any myriad of other things that they should do but don't want to do. I'm frustrated but it's fine. Hatchett 長老, Stein 姉妹, and I also got to perform at the taikai before testimony meeting and it was really awesome, especially considering the fact that we threw three part harmony together in just two practice sessions. I was very pleased. Harmony makes me happy. Also a couple of the districts in the Okayama Zone put together a really funny Christmas video of nonsense that I will attach because it makes me laugh to no end. 

In other news, we got a new investigator this week!!! Her name is Hara San and she lives 0.03 seconds away from one of the members and she came to the ward Christmas party, where we met her and she invited us over to play the ever entertaining game of "wow gaijin let's treat them like dolls for an hour" and pulled out her thousands of dollars worth of kimonos out. It was pretty fun actually. And turns out she's a real religious person, not a fake religious person that just tells us they're religious to get us to go away and she told us we could come back and talk about God and let us set up an appointment so we're very very excited about that. Also her house was so cold I can't even describe to you how cold it was. Like I could barely move my hands levels of cold and I was wearing three layers of kimono. Goodness.

Also 3 whole people came to church this week and it was brilliant because I was already hardcore stressed about the special sacrament meeting because a lot of things were going up a creek without a paddle and I was about 4 seconds away from being unable to keep my screaming internal but it's fine. Ooyama san came and loved it and so did Kurose san and Natsuki chan. Kurose san even cried because of the Spirit. It was awesome. We ended up having to move back Ooyama san's baptismal date, but she says she's pretty sure she's going to get baptized, it's just a matter of when, which confuses me because if you already know you're going to get baptized, you should just get baptized and I even told her Hatchett 長老's brilliant pizza tatoe about how just like you only need one bite of a pizza to know it's a good pizza, you don't have to know everything ever about the entire gospel to know its true. But alas no dice. She's still concerned about a bunch of little things. We're working on it. Hopefully she'll be able to get baptized when her daughter and soon-to-be son in law are in town because that would be great.

愛しています！💕
Sherwood 姉妹

1-5.) we made a gingerbread house with the Tokunous. They're adorable. 

6.) we got to stay at a hotel at the Christmas taikai

7-11.) fun times in kimonos today

12.) Christmas taikai with Okayama, Kobe, and Shikoku Zones

In Which Sherwood Shimai Forgot to Hit Send Last Week So Now it's a 2 in 1

Konnichiwa minasan!

The days are long (except not in terms of daylight) and the weeks are short (except on Tuesday) and it's hard to believe it's already the end of another transfer and the beginning of a new one. 🎉 I'm still here in Kitarokko with Pilling Shimai, and now I'm an STL too with Stein Shimai so there's probably gonna be many more shenanigans to come. 

Last week we went to Costco as a district for P-day and then had a fun koukan with the Amagasaki shimaitachi. I was with Stein 姉妹, who is me but cooler and better at on the spot puns. We learned a lot about understanding and recognizing the Spirit and receiving revelation. She's a boss STL. 💕

The main event of the week was Thursday and Friday. You see, as a district we decided to do caroling dendo and pass out gift wrapped Books of Mormon and pamphlets with bags of cookies. Because I have the greatest knowledge of baking things in tiny toaster ovens in the district, we were assigned the responsibility of making about 100 cookies. So we, having no appointments Thursday evening, decided to make them then. But alas, you see, we overestimated the ingredients required for 100 cookies and what ended up happening was we made a grand total of 333 cookies. We were about ready to defenstrate all flour in our house. Thus, several shenanigans and querious phone calls to the district leader later, we ended up with Far Too Many Cookies, wrapped in cute little Christmas bags ready to pass out the next day after district meeting. Amazingly enough, we ran out of cookies and Books of Mormon in less than 15 minutes. It was wild. We all sang our little hearts out in front of the eki about Christmas things and Hatchett 長老 almost killed his voice by trying to sing bass rip #tenorlife. But it was fine because it ended up being way effective and we still had extra ingredients so we did it AGAIN this past week on Friday. Except this time it was 300 cookies and we were more careful about the Books of Mormon we handed out, making sure the people we gave them to knew what it was, so we gave out four that time. Still way fun. 

Saturday was very eventful as well. We went to Kyoto with Kurose san to visit her father's grave and we got to talk about temples and stuff because Japanese people keep their graves at Buddhist temples. It was wild. I also ate lots of mochi. 

Last Monday was fun, we ate Brazilian food and Turkish ice cream (yes Jones Shimai Turkish man was there and he remembered me) and went to a Studio Ghibli store with the district. But the coolest thing was we ran into Miyazaki 兄弟 from Matuyama on the train there! He was on his way to the honbu to go get set apart cos he's going on a mission and we just randomly met him! #kiseki only. It was super great and happy. He's gonna be an awesome missionary.

But that's about all I can remember rn haha see you all again next week! 

愛しています！💕

Sherwood 姉妹

1.) it's soon to be Miyazaki 長老!

2.) I made pretzels with the famous recipe of Hatchett 長老

3.) eki caroling! 

4.) too many cookies 

5-9.) district Costco adventures

10.) Turkish ice cream

Japanese Meatloaf

Konnichiwa minasan!

The week has had its ups and downs, but so does any good roller-coaster I guess.

Tuesday was TTTM (trainer trainee training meeting) was a blast, lots of good things were learned and reviewed, and it was nice to see old friends after millennia of transfers. Pilling Shimai seems to have been very happy with her notes. We had a lesson with Suenaga-san that night as well, and it's starting to look like he doesn't really have interest beyond gathering information, which is very zannen. But we're gonna try one more lesson on some hard-core faith and if that doesn't work, we may have to drop him.

Wednesday we had a koukan with the Kobe shimaitachi and that was way fun. I with with Mauldin Shimai and turns out we have a mutual friend back home so that was cool. We were way busy that day and had several appointments, which was very good. One of which being dropping off a cake we had made for Chi-chan's birthday. Her mom was super grateful because she got super sick that day and was too exhausted to make a cake, so I'm very happy we were able to help. Then Mauldin Shimai came up with a brilliant lesson for our dinner appointment with the Makenzies and long story short we got to all draw together and it was very fun. I have officially won the love of the small 2 year old child that I've been attempting to earn for four transfers now. I feel accomplished.

Thursday, a great many inconsequential things occurred, but only one very consequential thing came to pass. I tried to make okonomiyaki. You see, okonomiyaki is basically a cabbage pancake with various other veggies and things thrown in. But I, in my attempt, decided that throwing a bunch of ground beef in there would be a great idea. It was not a great idea. The result was a vaguely okonomiyaki shaped meatloaf. It wasn't nasty or anything, but it certainly was not okonomiyaki. But you see this is not the worst part. The worst is that my companion INSISTS on telling everyone and their dogs this story and now my entire district (and by entire district I meant Hatchett Chourou mostly) REFUSE to let me forget it. (Notwithstanding the DELICIOUS space brownies I made you, Hatchett 長老!) I'm going to be very cross if this is how I go down in history. 

In other news, a great inconvenience has occurred in the life of Sherwood Shimai. My tablet is now toast. I was trying to Google map myself to interviews on Friday, and my tablet decide it would be a great idea to take a flying leap from my hands and land smack on the pavement. Now it flashes black and fancy colors when you press the home button. Nevertheless, though the great tragedy of my tablet screen becoming straight up toast in 0.03 seconds was both stressful and inconvenient, the Lord has been merciful and there was miraculously a tablet that I'm now able to borrow for the time being. LINE is still impossible though so that's kinda annoying. Pilling Shimai's getting real good at kanji now cos she has to message everything lol. That same day, we had a dinner appointment with the Fukuchis, and we had an awesome discussion about family history and dendo and ways we can more effectively work in Kitarokko. It was very happy. I got to eat taco rice twice in one week. Yatta!

Saturday was way awesome because it was the worldwide day of service and we got to do three whole service things! We cleaned up a hatake for an old lady, who was very confused when we told her we wanted to help her more later and give her cookies and also give her a hug. But it's okay. She'll come around to the unstoppable force of Shimai Love eventually. We also helped Kurose-san clean her house and it was also way fun. There was Christmas music and doughnuts and all sorts of happy feelings. And then after that we made a cake for A-chan's birthday and that one was slightly very stressful because it did not turn out as I hoped it would, but at least she seemed mostly happy.

Sunday was probably the best though because Ooyama-San came to church again finally! We got her to tentatively commit to a baptismal date and it was super happy. She really wants to learn about the gospel and it seems that she feels like she is going to come to the point where she'll get baptized. We're way stoked. Also we had an awesome dinner appointment with the Bishop's family where we taught about commandments and obedience. It was way fun because we used a present tatoe and it seemed like the little girls are really starting to understand the point of and blessings from the commandments. I'm also very proud of Pilling Shimai for eating salad with a bunch of little tiny fish in it. 🎉

Hopefully this next week is only going to go up from here!

愛していまーす！💕
Sherwood 姉妹

1-2) okonomeatloaf
3.) the cake we made for chi-chan
4-5) in Japan they give you dry ice to keep your ice cream cold when you buy it from the grocery store. 

🎄*Aggressively Plays Christmas Music at Full Volume*🎄

Konnichiwa minasan! 

This week has sure been busy despite the amount of things that happened being rather few and far between. On top of zone conference and the family history fair we've been all over the place, but that's okay because it was fun.

We helped out Naganuma Shimai this week with one of her PathwayConnect assignments because I can do math and it was really great actually. She helped us translate Pilling Shimai's I'm a Missionary page as well so that was really helpful. And then she was the literal nicest person in the world and not only drove us to our Eikaiwa class in Sanda, but she also took us out to eat yakiniku and it was very delicious. We were very happy campers. And what was even better was that we got to take great advantage of the Christmas season at Eikaiwa and teach the two little girls about Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. We made an anagram of Christmas with Jesus' different titles. 

Christ

Redeemer

Immanuel

Son of God 

Teacher

Messiah

Almighty

Savior

It was awesome. They responded super well actually it was awesome. Last week the younger one accidentally smashed her finger in the fold up chair, causing a great many tears and pain, as would be expected. So when we told her that Jesus went through that same experience she had so He could comfort her, she was really surprised and touched. It was amazing to watch her expression. Our plan is to teach them something new about Christmas every week until Christmas. We're very excited. 

 The family history fair was honestly one of the highlights of the week. Just surrounding yourself with the Spirit of Elijah and everyone's testimonies of this great work is one of the best feelings. That and Sister Smoot's cookies. I find that I mostly just want to engage in family history like all day every day, though I know this isn't very practical haha. It boggles my mind when people will be like "mah it's not that important and it's too time consuming" like ??????????? What could be???? more important?????? than strengthening your family???????????? I do not understand. I bet lots of people's ancestors are very salty and frustrated up there in the spirit world. Goodness gracious.

And then get this: we had a lesson with Nakamura-san on Saturday and it went brilliantly! We got him to set a baptismal date to work towards and found out a bunch of his concerns. He's starting to recognize the hand of God in his life and we're so proud of him. Now we just have to work on the whole Word of Wisdom thing.... Mah it is what it is we'll see what God has in store.

Sunday was also really great and we had an awesome lesson with Natsuki chan. Wilkin Kyoudai dousekied for us and Kazuki showed us all a really great video about the atonement. We had a really wonderful discussion about the Savior and how he is our Mediator and I think Natsuki understands the importance of Jesus Christ much better now. We talked about baptism and invited her to set a date, but she's not ready for it yet. It's not the right timing for her. Her mom is against her getting baptized for one thing, but our feeling is that she needs to really gain a strong desire to be baptized and then the problem with her mom will go away as a result of that.

All in all, a good week. Things are moving if a little slowly, but Christmas is soon and that's what really matters. 🎄🎄🎄

愛しています！ 🎅🏻☃️🎄💕

Sherwood 姉妹

19歳 20歳

1.) ice cream in November what up

2.) yakiniku #blessed

Thanks Hollingworth 長老 Your Musical Efforts Have Brought About Miracles

Konnichiwa minasan! 

This week originally had exactly zero appointments, but them ended up being crazy full of all sorts of last minute appointments and stuff. I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but it's fine. 

We had a lesson with the Relief Society president's son, Issei on Monday. He's 12 and loves chemistry so we made a baking soda volcano with him and turned it into a really solid tatoe about faith and how it's a principle of action and power, of trying the word and seeing if it has any merit. It was really fun and also cute. His mom was really happy about the lesson and he got all ureshii about trying to be more faithful. We extended the Jesus Christ challenge to them as a family. It was way good.

On Tuesday, we visited Nakamura-San and gave him a prayer rock to help him remember to pray. We told him we would pray together to help him be more genki cos his hips really hurt and he put the rock by his CD player that he uses every day so he would remember. It was really nice having a nice simple lesson for once instead of the all over the place messes it's been lately with dousekis that have been too strong.

Thursday we got to spend time with Jenny and talked a lot about truth and how she's come to know what she knows now. She said she Googled the Church (gotta love the Google. Giving people problems and random annoying deep doctrinal questions about the Church since day 1) and as a result had a number of questions about the godhead and eternal families. I must confess I am not used to having to deal with such kinds of questions and thus was rather stressed. But hey it ended up working out and long story short she's down to learn more, but is currently very hesitant about baptism, though she is open to the possibility that the church is true, which is in and of itself a miracle I don't see very often.

Friday was full of lovely district meetings and friendship, as well as a really solid chunk of visiting less-actives with the Ooshimas. It was way cool actually because this one lady Okamoto Shimai basically committed to coming back to church thanks to the Ooshimas being total rock stars and not letting her use a bunch of the typical excuses. It was great. We also had a lovely dinner appointment with the Fujikawas and not only did we get to talk about the gospel, we also got to discover that Japanese Settlers of Catan does exist, and there were many hilarious quotes by the six year old of the family. Highlights include

Me: "Kou chan where do you want to go on your mission?"

Kou chan: "Disneyland. Or USJ"

Hina: "英語でウサギは何？" (What's 'rabbit' in English?) 

Kou chan: "Carrot!"

Then there was volunteering at the Kobe Marathon on Saturday and that was super fun. My voice kinda hurts from asking like a thousand people about their lives as I handed them their race numbers, but that's okay because we got a couple solid contacts out of it. Everyone was very happy that we tried so hard to talk to everyone and take interest in them. It was way great. And then the Tokunous fed us ramen and it was delicious. All in all a way good day.

Sunday was truly the day of miracles though. Natsuki came to church and we practiced English with her by reading Book of Mormon Stories with her. We roped a couple of the youth into it too. It was way fun. And then after church we had Music Night, which four of our investigators came to! Even Ooyama-san who we were sure was too busy to make it showed up! It was awesome! (@Hollingworth長老: eternal 感謝 man your song made this all possible) She told us about how her daughter just got baptized and she got to go to the service. The Lord be willing, I think she might be able to get baptized by the end of the year. But wait! There's more! When we went to go pick up Nakamura san, he was super genki! Not a single complaint about his hips, and when we asked him about his prayers that week, he said he saw a miracle! Get this: he loves music and listens to his CD player every day. But then randomly it stopped working and he couldn't get it to work. At that moment, he saw the little prayer rock we had given him and he decided to pray that his CD player would work. AND THEN AFTER HE PRAYED IT STARTED WORKING! He totally recognized that God helped him and it took quite a lot of self control for me to not scream very loudly and joyfully. I think he might actually start really progressing finally! Hallelujah! The Lord loves us. It's been a good week. 

All the best!,

Sherwood 姉妹

19歳 20歳

1.) the prettiest red tree

2.) we found tobacco Popeye and Hatchett 長老 almost died laughing. His face in this photo is my favorite

3-6.) hiking with Suenaga-san today

7.) baby's first ramen shop

Well Now We Know Joseph Smith Was Def Inspired Because This Was Exhausting

Konnichiwa minasan!

We've been having a lovely week of things falling through left and right but this is fine. We've also learned the important lesson of telling your dousekis to please not talk about the intricate details of celestialized Earth when attempting to teach someone who Joseph Smith is. Furthermore, there are certain individuals who like to knock on Suenaga-san's door and tell him all about the points of angry apostate literature and cause him to create question marks above his head. It's fine. I'm not salty. I'm just gonna change up the voice of my email to make myself feel better about life. 

Nevertheless, it came to pass that the missionaries were blessed with the exceedingly great and tender mercies of the Lord throughout their ministry amongst the people of Kitarokko, and an account of their proceedings shall be given hereafter. 

And it came to pass that an appointment was decided upon with Nakamura-san, to visit with him on the sixth day of the eleventh month of the 2018th year after the coming of Christ. And it came to pass that the missionaries, having great desires to be obedient to the missionary handbook, inquired with their ward mission leader for a douseki, that the missionaries might be able to enter into Nakamura-san's home and expound the scriptures to him. 

Now the ward mission leader, being exceedingly desirous to assist the missionaries in their efforts to bring Nakamura-san unto a knowledge of the goodness and everlasting mercy of the Lord, sent a LINE unto the Relief Society president to inquire after a sister who might be able to accompany the missionaries to the home of Nakamura-san. And it came to pass that a sister was found, thus causing the missionaries to become exceedingly excited, for while the teaching of the children of men brings great joy to the hearts of all those who engage in the work, standing in the midst of old shoes in the genkan of a seventy-nine year old man's house has a tendency to cause an undesirable amount of pain in the feet of the missionaries and the hips of the old man. 

But it came to pass that as the day appointed unto the missionaries to teach Nakamura-san arrived, the previously established douseki became suddenly unable to fulfill the necessary requirements of biking 30 minutes to his house. And thus the missionaries became exceedingly concerned as to the future of their lesson, as the appointed time was fast approaching and there was none to douseki for them. 

But behold, as the missionaries were thus standing by the vending machine and drinking melon cream soda to calm their agitated spirits, it came to pass that Naganuma Shimai called the missionaries over LINE, inquiring as to whether or not they were in need of a douseki. And thus we see that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those who act in faith and are obedient unto his commandments. For Naganuma Shimai was able to douseki for the missionaries and thus assist in bringing an added measure of the spirit into the home of Nakamura-san, notwithstanding her tendency to become overcome with the joy of the gospel and thus accidentally expound upon the scriptures too much to Nakamura-san. 

And it came to pass that in the later hours of that same day, the missionaries had a lesson with Suenaga-san shortly before the hour appointed unto them to teach eikaiwa. Now, Suenaga-san, being a man of great learning, had many questions for the missionaries which they did not fully understand, and this because of the exceeding difficulty of understanding the vocabulary of things related to Buddhism in the Japanese language. But behold, the dousekis, being native Japanese speakers with great knowledge pertaining to the matters of Buddhism, were able to address the many concerns of Suenaga-san. 

And it came to pass that the missionaries looked on in confusion as the lesson became increasingly more difficult to understand aside from the helpful diagram which the assistant ward mission leader had drawn of the whiteboard. And thus the missionaries began to pray fervently in their hearts that they would be able to turn the lesson back to the first principles and ordinances of the gospel instead of questions about the history of polygamy in the church. But behold, the strength of the excitedness of the dousekis was too strong for the missionaries to overcome in that day, and the missionaries became thus tsukareta in trying to regain control of the conversation. And thus we see the exceeding necessity of maintaining control over a lesson with excitable dousekis and explaining to excitable dousekis the importance of pure and simple testimony and the power of the Holy Ghost and the first principles and ordinances of the gospel in converting the hearts of men. 

And it came to pass that in the following days of the week, the missionaries encountered many amusing and interesting things, which things can not all be written. Nevertheless, some of these things are expedient that they should be written, and thus an account shall be given hereafter.

And it came to pass that on the Friday of the week the missionaries were invited once again to come to the house of Matsumoto-san to play the Japanese koto and meet her friends. And it came to pass that the missionaries were asked to sing for the obaachans as well, and the obaachans were thus impressed with the missionaries' ability to sing and play the koto and their interest in the traditional music of Japan. And behold, Matsumoto-san, being exceedingly impressed with the missionaries' love for the song that is about a castle or something if Sherwood Shimai understood correctly, printed off copies of the koto sheet music for them, which thing caused Sherwood Shimai to be overcome with joy, and this because of her exceeding love for jammin music.

And it came to pass that on the following Saturday the missionaries walked for the space of an hour and a half, and this because of Pilling Shimai's pressing need for a bicycle and the exceedingly great distance between the missionaries' apartment and Asahi, one which could not be traversed today due to the many time consuming responsibilities of the missionaries. Now behold, the idea which the missionaries had was this: that while walking the exceedingly great distance to Asahi, there would be ample opportunity to preach the gospel to people which passed in the way. But behold, despite this great desire of the missionaries, it came to pass that not a soul was to be found on the entire length of the journey, which thing caused the missionaries great disappointment, as the distance which they walked was very great. Nevertheless, Pilling Shimai was able to procure an exceedingly suteki bike, and for this thing the missionaries have cause for much thanksgiving.

And it came to pass that on the Sabbath day it was expected that both Natsuki chan and Ooyama san would come and partake of the sacrament upon the Lord's holy day, and both the missionaries and the ward council were exceedingly excited about this expectation. But behold, the missionaries and also Wilkin Kyoudai received a LINE from Ooyama san, informing them of her inability to attend church last minute, which thing caused the missionaries and the bishop exceedingly great grief, for not only could she not come this week, but also the rest of the month. Nevertheless, the missionaries and the ward council maintained hope in the goodness of the Lord and trust that he works in mysterious ways. And it came to pass that Natsuki chan did come to church, which thing caused the missionaries great joy, for she hadn't been to church in over a whole transfer. And behold this is not all, for the missionaries were able to commit Natsuki chan to come every week hereafter with the promise that they would help her with her English listening comprehension skills, which thing she did greatly desire. And thus we see that the Lord is mindful of his children, and will reveal to his missionaries many ways in which they may bring his children to come unto him, be it through difficult Japanese college entrance exams or hiking or any other number of ways which are not all known unto us at this time.

And thus we see that despite the many difficulties and afflictions of the missionaries, they have been exceedingly blessed of the Lord, and do look forward with an increasing brightness of hope for a baptism by the end of the year, and this because they do know of the goodness of the Lord and trust in the revelations of his word to their mission president. And these things I, Sherwood Shimai, do write and bear record that all may know of the exceeding mercies of the Lord to his missionaries and that they may also know that the missionaries do truly have faith in the Lord their Redeemer, even unto the salvation of many souls in the Japan Kobe Mission. Amen.

愛しています！ 💕

Sherwood 姉妹

19歳 20歳

1.) mom your hot chocolate recipe is literal chocolate gold from heaven

2.) I play the koto again

Where's Professor Oak When You Need Him?

Konnichiwa minasan! 

A new week, a new transfer, a new dawn about to rise in this the Land of the Rising Sun. Except winter is coming so the dawns are way later now. But that's neither here nor there. 

Also, I'm a trainer now! 🎉🎉🎉 

*turns baseball cap backwards and throws a pokeball* 

My bean chan's name is Pilling Shimai. She's from Canada and I love her. Lots of stuff has happened this week. We are pleased. 

Monday: hiking with Suenaga san. It was great. We even got to talk to a solid couple of people on the train to the hiking spot. I love "wow your Japanese is so good" dendo. It makes me laugh.

Tuesday: met with both Nakamura-san and Suenaga-san. We were able to set up a lesson on Friday with Nakamura-san. He's a sweet old man. Thinks too hard about things. He needs to feel more. Suenaga-san has read all the way up to Jacob 7 and I am deeply impressed. He said he didn't understand Jacob 5 but this is to be expected. We ended up having a very lovely discussion about the Plan of Salvation. He was very surprised by the doctrines of the Spirit world and the resurrection and the kingdoms of glory. Finally realizing that Buddhism and Christianity have differences! Progress! Woo!

Wednesday: met up with Jenny for lunch. Had a really nice conversation with her. She seems really lonely. I hope we can continue that connection with her even though Jones Shimai has transferred. She's really sweet and is well on the path to being prepared to receive the gospel. She also happens to be writing a really cool book about the Civil War interestingly enough.

Thursday: Went to Kobe to pick up my bean! Got all of Pilling Shimai's stuff in order and had a really solid SKK. She's really excited to learn Japanese. I actually have to tell her to take breaks from studying haha or she'll just go all day. We've got awesome plans to strengthen the youth and get them to join the Youth Battalion to gather scattered Israel. Busyness is a lie. All in your head. The hard part is getting them to break out of this matrix if you will. I also made her eat natto and then gave her black thunder all in one day. Mighty successful if I do say so myself. She's basically all trained now. Beans don't need to experience anything else lol. 

Friday: had a lesson with Nakamura-san. Not the best lesson in the universe, but then again they can't all be, I guess. His Japanese is difficult to understand. Also he struggles with the whole faith thing. He wants proof before he'll believe but that's not how it works, so he's struggling a lil bit there. We're working on it. We did some solid McDonald's dendo after the lesson and met a really cute couple of high school students. We helped them with their English homework, which was to write a scary story involving a witch, a graveyard, and a surprise. It ended up turning into a semi-scary story where the surprise was the witch falling in love with a werewolf lolol. It was really fun actually and we swapped contact information too! They were very cute.

Saturday: Koyama Shimai invited us to this dance festival for Culture Day where this singer called Bolo-san who was really popular like 30 years ago came and played this song he wrote for the 2019 Tokyo Olympics all about friendship and love and stuff. And then we danced to it like seventy bazillion times. I'll never be able to forget that dance. It's engrained into my soul now. But it was way fun and we got like seven contacts out of it too. It was way cool. We also got to go in sort of costume. I drew polka dots on my face to become an alien and Pilling Shimai wore a red dress to be a ketchup bottle. We even won a prize of fancy anko for being from a far away place. It was very great.

Sunday: miraculously! We met Natsuki chan for like 5 minutes! And she said she'd meet with us every week from now on! Blessings only! This is the only thing that mattered that day. Nothing else compares. Except that Pilling Shimai accidentally obtained the nickname Pin-chan (like bean except a P) because her name is hard to pronounce apparently. It made me laugh.

But yes! This is the kanji of the week. It has been a party. Until next time!

愛しています！ 💕

Sherwood 姉妹

1-2) hiking again with Suenaga San and the amagasaki shimaitachi

3.) another crab in the gutter. He was very alive

4-5) IT'S SKELETON MAN

6.) us at the dance festival

7.) Bolo san and some bomb costumes at the dance festival

8.) MY CHILD