A pinch and a punch for the first of the month!! My trainee has gotten me the past 2 months with that one and I finally got her today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOO! I've never actually heard that one until I met her. Which also means I haven't learned the ''no tag-backs'' tagline either so I still got a pinch and a hit for being so quick. But now I know that you have to say ''white rabbit''. We'll have to stay together for another transfer (:

This week was fantastic but mostly because yesterday was one of my favorite days of my whole life. So a little part-member family has a son named kai kun who the elders have been teaching and preparing for baptism and have asked us to teach with them quite a few times these past couple transfers and he finally turned 8 on thursday and had his baptism yesterday!!! He is my favorite japanese boy in the whole world and if you saw him smile I think your heart would probably melt into nothing because there is just so much joy in his face. Especially when he was baptized and Maeno choro pulled him out of the water and the perfect joy of the gospel was ALSO filling his tiny little body. And so much joy was emanating in the room and I imagine heaven to feel that way. 

That set the tone for an awesome church service and Tateishi shimai attended ALL THREE hours of church!!! And was actively participating in relief society and during gospel principles she went with her friend/visiting teacher/family research specialist to do family history work. And my heart is so happy! and she came to sacrament and the ward is awesome and fellowshipped her as they have been. 

ALSO a really awesome lady in the ward, who we have recently been working with a little bit because she has a less-active daughter, made us really cool baby dolls that are made of kimono material and I should've taken a picture of it, but it's way cool. and her daughter came to sacrament meeting!!!! and the ward was awesome and fellowshipped her and she said she'll be back next week. ALSO a family of less-actives came to church! We used to work with them a couple transfers ago but they dropped us out of the blue and sent us lots of really heart-breaking messages, but sometimes they show up to church and glare at us and refuse to talk to us when we greet them, BUT yesterday we complimented their sparkly hair pins and one of them smiled at us and complimented us back!! and we invited her to the international party and she looked super interested. woooo!! the Lord softens hearts!!! 

ALSO there's another less-active sister we've trying to contact for a few transfers and we finally got a hold of her and when we tried to set an appointment she said 'I think I'll come to church this week and we can set up an appointment there!' WOO!! And she came for sacrament! Literally the entire ward lit up when she walked in. And the previously mentioned awesome lady came up to her and her face was so beautiful. It's the face you see on fathers when their sons return from their missions, or that you see when moms are way proud of their children for doing some act of service or doing well in school. And they embraced and sat down together next to us. The opening hymn was Nearer my God to Thee and I turn to the less-active and say, '' this is my favorite hymn!!'' and she says ''mine too!! They played this at my baptismal service!'' WHO PICKS THESE HYMNS??  Every calling is inspired. The spirit was there and she was crying and I patted her back and she cried more and we bonded and after the meeting everyone in the whole ward came and greeted her and welcomed her back and this ward is awesome and I love them. 

There were so many miracles throughout the week and so many instances where we could see the hand of the Lord and the angels surrounding us. I wish I had time to tell you about all of them and not just about sacrament!!! We started teaching this amazing woman who we'll call K san, who has been struggling with really severe eating disorders and anxiety problems for a few years because of an abusive relationship that she fled from. God lead us straight to each other-- I know that from my heart. We gave her a church tour and a small lesson about the gospel blessing families and individuals and at the end when we prayed she was just weeping and felt really strongly that she needed us in her life. This work is miraculous. And it's because it's true!!!! 

I hope you are all having a wonderful week!! That is super sad that Braxton Miller is out for the entire season. Is he a senior this year?? I'm reppin my Ohio State pride snuggled in my futon. 

You are in my prayers. I love you all!!! 

p.s. picture #1 is of me and flower shimai whose last week of church was yesterday before returning to thailand this next week. she has the same birthday as Bryan!!! 

and picture #2 is the pacific ocean with some earthquake clouds. apparently they always appear the day after earthquakes