FAMILY THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 I received it safely and soundly and I don't think there were any taxes on it, but the goods inside were lifesaving! <3 thank you sosososososoososo much!!!!!!!!!!! I especially am enjoying the American toothpaste and the delicious pretzel M&Ms and JIF peanut butter, but I've adjusted to japanese food and it definitely surprised me how sweet american food is. I can't eat very much of it at a time anymore haha. It's sad. But thank you sososooo much for the letters and HOLY COW ELIZA I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH YOUR RAPUNZEL MADE OUT OF RUBBER BANDS. It's actually the most impressive thing I have ever seen. Send me a picture of all of the princesses you've made!!!!!!!!! Thank you for all of your spiritual insights as well!! <3 I'm really excited for family home evening after I get home and I just sit you all down and teach you everything about what I've learned and all of my incredible experiences here and made japanese cooking for you. Also I have purchased a USB and will be backing up all of my photos for the rest of my life on it. 

This week has been SO WONDERFUL. We had a wayyyyyy cool lesson yesterday with one of our investigators, Ayumi chan. She is 20 and is living as a salesman and goes door knocking for 9 hours a day which will be good experience for when she serves a mission one day. We taught her about God and how He is her Father in Heaven and the spirit was just so extremely strong and she ate up everything the Spirit was testifying to her about and we were teaching her. And she asked, ''but God has so many children that don't know about Him. They should be able to feel all of this happiness and His love too, right?'' and it was just this really powerful moment of the Spirit testifying to her and to me of my purpose as I explained to her how I had left my beloved family and my school and work to come and show this to everyone so that they can return and live with God someday, and be truly happy in this life and have all of the happiness and blessings that God has one day when they become like Him. and she got it. and she wants to live with God and wants to talk with Him and she feels the importance of this message. She's been doing so well and reading the Book of Mormon and the only unfortunate thing is that she is soooo busy with work and can only meet once every two weeks. But we're keeping her busy in between appointments. 

Also we were able to do a way cool service project this week with one of our investigators who is building a new house. She is moving on to very old land and when they were digging in the lot, they started to find a bunch of really awesome old broken pieces of samurai pottery. They had until the end of the month to dig and find as much as they could so we offered to help and we found some SUPER COOL pieces of bowls and vases and I have lots of cuts in my thumb from cleaning off 800 year old dirt. But it was so worth it. 

An old investigator of the elders who comes to eikaiwa every week has a daughter that makes bows and decorations for summer kimonos told her dad she wanted to meet with us after she saw a picture of us on his camera, and she gifted us each with a kimono I HAVE MY VERY OWN KIMONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY LIFE IS COMPLETE! It was the kindest thing ever and I feel sosososooso japanese when I wear it. I'll send pictures (:

Our new zone leader came in this week as well. He is half-japanese, half-brazilian and super awesome. Also I fell off my bike this week and have some really beautiful bruises and found this really cool lady while we were looking for a less-active. She owns a restaurant/bar and her only worker referred her to a catholic priest that she knows so we decided we're going to baptize the whole congregation. Alsooo an almost-investigator named Riko san does this really awesome cultural japanese/hip-hop dance and we went to support her and it was the coolest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A bunch of dance teams were competing via a dance parade outside of the castle in Wakayama. IT WAS SOOO AWESOME! I can't even describe to you what it was like-- imagine super old japanese music mixed with R&B hip-hop and just thousands of japanese people dancing with fans and toe shoes and it was dark and had thousands of lights and lanterns lining the street. My life is so cool. 

I know that our Father in Heaven watches over and protects each of us.  I know He wants each of us to return to live in His presence with Him and our families forever!! Jesus Christ lives!!!!! He makes it possible to live with God again. He makes it possible to see our families again once they've passed on. I believe with all my heart that He is preparing each of our brothers and sisters to accept His gospel and come unto Him. It is our responsibility to invite. We have this amazing gospel that will make anyone perfectly happy forever- a gift with much more value than even a free summer kimono. Have faith and don't ever forget that it's there!!!!

I love you all with all my heart! 

Daniels shimai