Ai suru kyoudai, shimai, tomodachi, ryoushin! Genki desu ka??

I love wakayama with all my heart. It's a little toasty here but we're on the coast of the Pacific so it's bound to happen I guess. hahaha this week we got really lost a few times and thought we messed up by taking a half hour train to a city called ''ki'' to visit a less active becasue the elders showed us a different kanji of 'kii'. so we got all the way there, thought we messed up so took the 34 minute train all the way back to wakayama and then we called the less active and she clarified that it really was the right one so we rode all the way back and felt kinda dumb. BUT she was soooooooooooooooooooooo awesome and is amazing and her son looks like TJ Devries if he was japanese and had hair longer than mine in a pony tail. hahahaa. we did a quick measure, it was impressive. she was in the super huge Kobe earthquake like 20 ish years ago where tooons of people died. She saw her coworkers die and her entire family besides her son and ex-husband didn't make it. She saw people get burned to death and had a really strong impression (guidance of God through the Holy Ghost) that she needed to help these people and that He had preserved her life for a reason. So she quit her truck driving job and started volunteering and gave up like everything she had for the victims of the earthquake. She has a bio in like a book they use in a lot of high schools. Anyway, she's awesome and her son is also the most service oriented person in the world and they joined the church 8 years ago. They're so cool. And also huge harry potter fans? I love them.

anyway, I don't have a ton of time but this week was incredible and awesome and amazing and I love my companion. She is a sweet heart. She hasn't gone housing and streeting in a long time because she's been completely engrossed in helping the less actives for 3 transfers, so we've been trying to build back up her confidence in that. She is really worried about messing up her japanese and talking to people. I think she's just had really chill companions in the past that just speak all the japanese for her but we're going to change that!! hahah. I feel like the Lord has really been helping me A TON with japanese this transfer. ahha the gift of tongues is the best feeling in the world and I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo grateful for it. I still don't understand people perfectly, nor do I speak normally BUT I catch what's important and somehow I'm able to say a good percentage of what I want and need to say. This work is led by the Lord. Sometimes when I talk to people I don't even have to think about how to say it and my brain just translates it and it runs out of my mouth and my prayers are being answered and my dreams are coming true and then I can't understand what people say back and I'm humbled again, BUT we're making progress! woooo! I love the Lord. I love the gifts of the Spirit. I love being a missionary. Remind me to tell you next week about the most awesome member in the world named Yabutani Kyoudai. HE IS THE MAN.

ALSO I GET TO MEET ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON THIS SATURDAY AND SEE GRUNDVIG SHIMAI AGAIN. we're going to get lunch <3 also our companions were companions earlier so it worked out well.

I love you all!! take care!

meg