January 30, 2012

Dear Family,

Hello from Utsunomiya! Yesterday was transfers... I am still here in Utsunomiya, but I have a new companion: Sister Stevenson. She is from California and went to BYU for 3 years before coming on her mission. We've already bonded together by re-arranging the furniture in our apartment this morning (haha).

On Sunday, the lady that I met on the street in my first area got baptized. I wasn't able to be at her baptism, but through a very fortunate string of events I was able to go down to that area again last week for an exchange. It was the day of her baptismal interview so we met at the church beforehand and had a little lesson. Attached is a picture. She is a pretty neat lady.

Last Wednesday we found out that our investigator Akutsu is moving to the Kobe mission area this coming week. We were kind of shocked at first, and now it's just sad. I've been looking forward to his baptism for over 2 months now. I don't know that I have put more time and energy into any other investigator over the course of my mission. We really loved teaching him the gospel. Anyway, it kind of feels like we are back to ground zero having him gone.

Last week we went to a member's house to do a little activity with her kids. Her non-member friend was supposed to come too so that we could get to know her better, but the friend ended up being sick. Anyway, they had asked me to do a sort of English-learning activity... I was clueless. How do you teach a 4-year old English? Well, I racked my brain and decided we would just have to paint toast like Grandma Waite always does with kids, and I would just talk to them in English as we did it. I figured it would be fun enough that it would distract everyone from that fact that I have no skills, nor the desire to teach small children. We looked for some food coloring and finally found some at a special store (they don't use food coloring in Japan). It turned out pretty good and in 2 weeks a different member is having us do the same thing at her house. Thanks Grandma Waite.

Well, today is the last day of January. This morning when I jump-roped on our veranda I noticed that it was much brighter outside than it had been last week. Hooray!

I love you all so much! Have a great week.

Love,

Waite Shimai