Konnichiwa! Last Monday Mackenzie shimai and I definitely thought we would be together for another transfer in Wakayama, but Tuesday evening we got a call from the assistants to the president of the mission saying that Mackenzie shimai would need to pack super quickly so that she can transfer to Takatsuki in Osaka on Thursday morning. It was super sad-- we were way excited to be together for another transfer; she's become one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. It was a really big shock to us and also all of our investigators and less actives that also thought we were staying, but all things are done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things and she is saving souls in Osaka now. And I miss her. But I'll see her at the taikai next week! President Ringwood is coming to our mission!!

My new companion is named Sister Broadhead, which is extremely difficult for japanese people to say. I think it's my favorite thing of my life when they try and pray for her and they mumble under their breath and say a couple things like Brawnheaddo and burokkoheaddo and then give up and say ''headdo'' shimai. She's very patient with them.  She is a 10th transfer missionary but will be going home after her 11th transfer but I really admire her because she isn't getting trunky but really wants to work hard these last 2 transfers and finish strong on her mission. She is from Lehi, Utah and is very friendly. She was actually in my district for a transfer when I was up in Toyooka so we knew each other a little bit before she came. It's way different going from training to having a 10th transfer companion and there are lots of things that I really like and also that I really miss. But we're going to continue to see miracles. 

Tateishi shimai is continuing to progress and we talked to Bishop this past week and he was on the same brain wave as us and had an interview with her. She will be making 2 small changes and then she is going to be temple worthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She came up to us after and was so excited and told us that she was preparing to go to the temple with Bishop and my heart exploded. I love her from the tips of my toes. She is doing so well!!!!!!!! 

We've been working steadily with a super cute 13 year old less active, the daughter of a recently-returned active mother in our ward. Her name is Megu chan, so naturally, we're best friends. She got baptized last year and doesn't understand a lot of the doctrine and doesn't come to church because she is exhausted from school and wants to sleep. We were also doing a dance activity with her because she does ballet but because we are in shortage of professional ballerina, we started drawing out scriptures kinda like what we used to do in seminary. She got super into it and is really learning a lot about faith from Alma 32 and asked us lots of questions about eternal life which are my absolute favorite questions to answer. 

Also! You always hear stories here of missionaries housing and finding perfectly prepared golden Filipinos who know about God and believe in Him and love Him with all their heart. Well. The Lord inspires His missionaries to find these people and sends them to less-actives' homes where they no longer live. So then the missionaries house the floor until someone is there and they ask if they know the neighbor/less-active. I'm going to go back into 1st person: so we knock on this door and it opens a crack and a FILIPINO WOMAN asks us to wait a minute and closes the door. 20 minutes later she opens the door again and invites us inside and is the nicest lady you've ever met and she asked us if we spoke english and gave us coke and we sat down and she told us her entire life story from when she was 15 until today as a 47 year old woman. She is incredible and has the strooooongest testimony of prayer ever and needs this gospel, as we all do. God saved her life and the life of her son and she said she doesn't want to be baptized but it's okay because we will teach her about the restoration of the priesthood. Unfortunately she is going to be in the Philippines for the next 8 days, but I'm expecting amazing things from her!!! And so is her Father in Heaven!!!

There were lots of cool experiences this week including going bowling as a ward. I think half of my heart withered away because it was so worldly inside the bowling alley. But it was also super legit but wayy different from american bowling alleys and I definitely understand why our last mission president banned bowling. But we got an okay from our current president! And also it was way awesome to have fun with the ward. 

Thank you always for your emails and updates! It's weird to imagine that it's currently September. the weather here is still really warm and sunny and feels like summer in Michigan. But it's cooled down a ton and we moved our futons back into the tatami mat room and just sleep with the fan on instead of placing ourselves under the air conditioner in our study room. 

I love you all!!!! God lives!!!!!!!!

Daniels shimai