that:s sad that the clarks are leaving. i:m sure the party was awesome. tell them goodbye for me! also, send me pictures of snow and our christmas tree and the family please!!!!! my headaches arent bad, i:ll get them occasionally, but they:re nothing like they used to be. my apartment is a `mansion` hahha. that:s what they call big apartment buildings. I:m on the 5th floor (:

hahah i:m sure there are computers with cameras, but it:s my mission presidents: rule. i:m sososososoosooooo excited to talk to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 also, tyler says happy birthday to jessica. tell her to email me about her birthday!!!!!!!!!!

this week was way cool and way sad. Being a missionary is sososoo amazing because you do see people coming unto Christ! we just started teaching two girls who are Shinto and believe in 800 million gods or something like that. We taught them that they are daughters of God (after we clarified who He is) and it was the coolest thing ever in my whole life. We prayed with them for the first time ever and the Spirit is so strong and they feel it!!!!! They recognize it as a `warm idea and feeling` and oh my heck it:s so cool. But also, Satan works really hard on these people that we teach. He knows they:re trying to build a relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and it actually breaks my heart when he throws antiMormon information or sickness or anything at them and they get scared and he:s the scum of the earth. But it:s okay because Heavenly Father won:t allow satan to tempt His children above what they can:t handle. They just don]t know that they can handle it yet. Ahh and that is why faith is so crucial every day.

I have to leave, but i promise i:ll write a letter and send it home. i:ll explain more then (:

i love you all!!!!!!!

you:re in my prayers

meg

I don:t have very much time to email because my companion and i have to run some more errands but i:ll include some fun highlights (:

actually, first things first:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahha i sent you a birthday card last week and if the rumor is true you should get it exactly on your birthday. apparently it takes 10 days for letters to get to america, and for letters to come from america to japan (: 

it:s probably the best card i:ve ever sent in my life: Japan has the best stationary in the world!!!

hahah so yesterday we had some really interesting japanese food. we had FHE at a less active member`s house and we got to share a message (: we broke down the purpose of our life on earth. our goal is to return to live with Heavenly Father, the thing that is stopping us is sin. The solution is Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The way we utilize the sacrifice of Christ is through faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We then focused a little bit on enduring to the end and had a little discussion. It went really well and the Spirit was really strong. However; we had the most interesting meal ever. (and by ever i mean so far hahah). haha we cracked raw eggs into our bowls, and then put some beef, clam, huge chunks of tofu, vegetables, really interesting looking mushrooms, and some other japanesey foods into our bowl to soak in the raw egg and then you just kinda eat it. straight from the bowl. hahahha i love these people way too much so i ate it but i felt suuper sick. maybe it was a psychological thing? they do it a lot in Japan. hahah straight after our appointment we biked up a mountain to get to an investigator:s house, which was a struggle and my comp and i had to stop a few times because the goopy egg was slightly unsettling. hahah thank goodness we ate tons of rice! hahah 

also, another investigator gave us the most adorable hello kitty-in-a-kimono keychain and i have accepted the fact that i:m obsessed. also, since we:re white lots of people will just give us christmas presents on the street. a little old lady came up to us and handed us clementines- called mikans- and said ~gambatte yo-- good luck~ hahah 

i have to go but i love you all and i:m so grateful for all of you! you:re all always in my prayers. i:ll try to attach some pictures on here, but sometimes it:s a struggle. 

ALSO about christmas!! we don:t skype in this mission. we don:t actually have computers with cameras, which you:d think we would? also, you (family) need to call me because i can:t call you. those are the only details i know but i:m sure i:ll figure out more this week. (: i:m excited to talk to all of you!!!!!!!!!!

ai shite imasu yo! 

daniels 姉妹

one picture is of scheffler shimai and i when people gave us/bought us gifts. we were on kokans- exchanges. she rocks. also, i now want to do a study abroad in africa after my mission

and this is a picture of your typical vending machines on the street corners. one is for cigarettes, and the other has cold AND warm drinks. the hot cocoa is SO GOOD

we also went to shimogamo for zone training meeting and i took a picture of the housetops. as you can tell, there isnt much grass here

Konnichiwa! happy late thanksgiving!!!!! hahha my keyboard is the opposite this week and now the caps lock doesn:t work. otherwise that would:ve been in all caps (: 

I don:t have a ton of time, but I really want to talk about my thanksgiving (: Kyoto is amazing, and everyone started putting up the most precious Christmas decorations I:ve ever seen. basically everything about japan is wayyyy cute. even the pachinkos-- casinos. hahahh they play videogames in there and every so often when they come out with a new game they:ll advertise it and it never fails to include some sort of animated character. The last one kinda looked like wreck it ralph. (: 

anyway, that day we had our first real lesson with our investigators-- the daughter and mother. we were way excited because we got them to meet together. When we walked through the door there was this wayy cute 23 year-old girl standing there. O-san brought her friend from work who is CHRISTIAN. That lesson we taught that God is their Heavenly Father and the entire time all three of them were super engrossed in our words and *mmmmmm*-ing in agreement. ahhhhh the Spirit was sosososo strong. At the very end of the lesson I invited all three of them to be baptized. hahha which was almost intimidating in my first lesson, but immediately after I asked they all enthusiastically said, [ohhh itadakitai!!!! baputesuma o uketai!!!] -- we will! we want to be baptized! we didn:t set a date because we had to leave in a couple minutes, but before we left the husband (who used to be hantai, or pretty opposed to his wife and daughter meeting with us) snuck his wife some hand cream to give to allred shimai and i as a gift. and we talked with him quite a bit on our way out. he speaks really quickly so I can:t understand a lot of what he says, but i just *mmmmm* in agreement and laugh if I don:t hear a [ka] at the end of his sentence. also, before we started the lesson, they fed us delicious cheesecake and grapefruit juice with really tiny plates and cups and forks. i think it:s safe to say i:ve had my first real tea party, excluding the tea aspect. so i guess it:s just a paatiii. 

this new girl is pretty busy with her work schedule (which is expected because she works with O-san) but we did have a second lesson with her which was super awesome. It was centered on baptism and we made sure she wanted to stick with it and then tried to set a date. hahah she misunderstood us the first time and has already been baptized twice in different churches and wants to figure out if she likes our church first before she is baptized. But she soaks in everything we tell her and is super interested in why she is here on earth and what happens after she dies. Also, she is super different than any nihonjin i:ve met because she told us she wants to be best friends and will hug our arms all the time when we talk with her and she is crazy friendly and loves meeting with us because she always feels happy. She also thinks we look hilarious in our bike helmets and took a picture to send to her boyfriend-- whom she wants us to convert because he:s not christian. i think i:m really going to enjoy this experience. (: ahhhh i want them to get married sooooooo badly and see them through the temple before I go back home. 

this week we also taught my first eikaiwa! we teach english to whoever wants to come. None of them are investigating the church, but they:re the cutest people i:ve ever met and one of the older men brought us cookies. scratch that, the japanese kids are the cutest human beings i:ve ever seen in my whole entire life. i love these people. also, i think i will adopt japanese twins. 

haha i:ve got to email my mission president. i love you all! enjoy the first week of december!!! it:s still way nice here-- usually sunny and 50 degrees. 

love you all!!! i:m praying for you all! 

meg/ daniels 姉妹