Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It was a fantastic day! Oh man! I can't even tell you how awesome it was. I decided Heavenly Father makes sure we all have awesome birthdays. What an awesome dad:) Anyways, so let me tell you why it was so AMAZING!!!First things first. Tyler and two of my senior companions went home on my birthday...that was sad. BUT the day before my companion and I thought super hard and found an excuse to go up to the honbu(mission home). We decided we wanted to laminate some things...haha. Anyways, I wasn't sure if I'd "bump into" my companions or Tyler...but we went anyways. Well when we pulled up to the honbu (mission home), Sister Iwaasa was there. I asked her "Are my old companions here?" She told me " no, not yet." I was like dang....I wanted to see them...oh well. So we went inside anyways to do our laminating and guess who was there. BOTH Nishino-shimai(sister) and Ito-shimai(sister)!!!!!!!!! I 'm sure you can imagine the high pitched Ahhhhhhs that came out of our mouths:) We had a great big group hug! I was SOOOO excited to see them. We talked about how our old areas were doing and got all caught up when the two of them looked at each other and told me to "wait right there". They came back holding presents and the whole office started singing happy birthday!!! I can't believe they remembered!...I can't believe they bought me presents!!!!!!! I was excited just to see them! And presents on top of that? Man. It was a GOOD day.
Well, we had to get out and work...but I wasn't able to see Tyler. Dang. We got on our bikes and as we were riding out the driveway Ty pulls up in the big utility van with all the Elders that are going home. So I got to see him one last time.Yaaaayy!!!! That's present number one.
The next day (October 3rd, my birthday) started with Pancakes that my companion made. Delicious! And we went off to Dendo(missionary work). We had a lesson with one lady and guess what!!!! She committed to be baptized on November 8th!!! WOW!!! She is the most amazing investigator I have ever met!!! She has the GREATEST desire to follow God and Jesus Christ. My companion and I rode home for dinner on a total high!! We weren't able to find any new investigators(which is our main focus right now) but we were able to set a Baptismal date!! Even better!
So we got home, ate dinner, opened presents from you (Which I LOVED!!!...the Sister Act card was ingenious!!!! I couldn't stop laughing. I wanted to show everyone...but I'm in an area of all nihon-jins (Japanese)...and they don't get it. But seriously, you couldn't have found a more perfect card!!! Thank you!!)
So as we were heading out the door, the door bell rang. It was the Jehovah's Witnesses!! hahaha. The name plate on our door says "The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" on it...but I guess they thought they'd give it a shot. At first I thought they were sales men cause they were dressed in suits and holding briefcases (totally different aura than the Elders) but they were super nice....I thought it was really amusing. We got "housed" hahahaha. Dad is right. Heavenly Father has a great sense of humor:)
Then we headed out the the church to meet the Elders for a meeting about a project we started as of October. "Project 愛(Love)". We walk in the door and the Elders are there waiting at the front. They asked how our day was...and I could totally tell they knew about my birthday. I hadn't told anyone, but I bet my companion got the word around. So they started singing happy birthday. And it gets even better. It was zone leader conference and it happened to be on the same day as my birthday. So as I'm talking to Elder Mizoguchi (who came from the ward when I was in Kyoto 2 years ago), Elder Sorensen walks in the door!!! (he was my zone Leader for my whole Jr Companion life) So then I started REALLY freaking out. I was all "What are you doing here?!?!" And of course he has no idea it's my birthday...so he didn't understand why I was freaking out so much...hahaha. I think I might have scared him a little:) Right after Fujino-choro(Elder) walks in (my ZL in the last area,Taniyama) So the freaking out starts again! One by one all these Elders I had worked with before start walking into the church. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! It was so awesome! The best birthday present EVER! I have to say though, it was pretty chaotic...in a good way of course. I was smiling so much my face hurt. But it was TOTALLY the best birthday ever.
When we got home, I got a telephone call from the Mission president wishing me happy Birthday. Since it was zone leader conference, he got all the Zone Leaders together and they all sang to me over the phone. It was hilarious! Oh man, I wish I could explain it better. But in a nutshell. I LOVED IT!
When we got home, I got a telephone call from the Mission president wishing me happy Birthday. Since it was zone leader conference, he got all the Zone Leaders together and they all sang to me over the phone. It was hilarious! Oh man, I wish I could explain it better. But in a nutshell. I LOVED IT!
I'm glad you all got to see Ty. I guess you saw that picture where we were almost hugging. My companion was totally appalled when we took that picture. She was like " WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!" haha. I explained...no worries we're Americans, it's okay. I'm totally jealous that you get to see all MY friends all the time. Tell them to write me every once in a while:) Send them my love!
Well, we are going t to listen to the conference this weekend! I can't wait! Conference is amazing, especially as a missionary. The words of the prophet are so amazing! They truly help guide us in our everyday lives.
Well, we are going t to listen to the conference this weekend! I can't wait! Conference is amazing, especially as a missionary. The words of the prophet are so amazing! They truly help guide us in our everyday lives.
