I'm sorry, I don't have a ton of time this week because we're going to the castle in wakayama with the elders and one of our eikaiwa students buuuuuuut I'm going to send some pictures to make up for it (:

1. THE TAMA DENSHA! there is a train station in a place where a lot of less actives live that is shaped like a CAT and this is one of the trains that goes to it. haha there are lots of people that come from china and korea to ride it. AKA GARRETT GODFREY WHEN YOU SERVE IN KOREA YOU SHOULD GET PERMISSION FROM YOUR MISSION PRESIDENT AND COME!!! (: inside is full of cats. it's ridiculous. and so japanese.

2. this is in that city-- we went to an all you could eat with a bunch of members and less actives. there was sushi and cotton candy and cow tongue and takoyaki (octopus stuffed fried dough) and tons and tons of meat and curry and everything else. I tried the tongue. and it was chewy. and awful. and I will not eat it ever again.

haha round #1!

number 2!

so this is my first okonomiyaki ever and it was probably my favorite food I've eaten in Japan besides sushi and pumpkin. hahha it's like pancake batter with TONS AND TONS of cabbage and ginger and lots of vegetables and delicious things thrown inside. and then you cook it like a pancake, throw special sweet sauce on top and you eat it with fish flakes on top. hahah it's gross though because when the fish flakes get hot they move back and forth kinda like a fish swims in water. nevertheless it was delicious. The young women and young men made them for the missionaries on saturday <3

haha this other picture is of the elders and two of their recent converts (the men in the back) and our angel sent from heaven who has stronger faith and better prayers than anyone I've ever met ( in the teal) and we're inviting her to be baptized tomorrow and setting a date for the 29th. SHE IS AMAZING. I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER. she realized by herself in the last lesson that there is a difference between the gift of the holy ghost and the influence of the holy ghost which we've been helping her recognize the past few weeks. and she asked us to explain it to her and she's like ''wow i really want that. I love feeling the holy ghost's guidance. I didn't realize that you could have it all the time.'' haha we also figured out that she got the Book of Mormon from the elders in april and she's read all of it and is half way through again. when she was little her parents were super bukkyo (and still are buddhist) and she felt like God existed and she wanted to pray to Him but didn't know how so she tried anyway and convinced her parents to let her go to a catholic high school where she learned all about God and prayer and the Bible and she's the most prepared person I've ever met in my whole life. Sometimes I forget people like her exist. We just have to find them (:

okay, one more forwarded picture email!!

our mission president and his wife came and said good bye to our zone because they are leaving on the 27th this month. It was one of the worst days of my life saying good bye to them, but we also had a zone conference and just seeing them made my life a jillion times better. I really wish I could accurately express to you how wonderful they are and how much they've influenced my life and testimony. They've raised my vision for myself and my mission and their influence is so powerful and I never want them to leave but they have families too. I was able to hug President Zinke and soooo much love just flowed into my soul. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I love him.  There are a million reasons why I was sent to Kobe and I don't know very many of them, but one of them was to learn from him and his wife. He is a True Disciple. and his wife is a True Disciple. and I cried a lot that day because I love them and I'm so full of gratitude towards them for all that they've done for me. I want to keep them in my pocket forever. Also, our zone made a little poster for them and attacked it with toy story stickers during lunch. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my heart.

thanks for your email!!! I'm super proud of Lizzy and Bryan!!!!!!!! I wish I could've seen their games. hahahah I'm going to disregard the part about my mission being half way over next week because I'm going to be here forever. I don't think it's possible for me to leave. But I will welcome visits and packages <3

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a wonderful week and go watch ''Because of Him'' on lds.org and share it with all of your friends.

love,

meg

this week has been crazy awesome but I don't have a lot of time so I'm going to copy and paste part of the letter I wrote to my mission president.

This week was incredible. I don't really know where to begin. Our soon-to-be shigansha, Yuko Shimai, is amazing and after we taught her about eternal life and the obstacles and the solution of the chart through 2 Nephi 31, pointing out many of the things you pointed out to us at Zone Conference. It went super well (: She really understood everything super well and afterwards emailed us and expressed so much excitement to meet with us and learn about God's will for her. The next day we asked her to meet later in the week and she responded that she wouldn't get off work until  a later time and then send a really apologetic text and then sent another asking if it was okay if we could meet every day at 7 pm. Unfortunately she's gotten sick since, but we're excited to progess even more with her!!! She wasn't able to make it to church yesterday despite our prayers and fasting so I believe God has a bigger plan in mind. 

Also yesterday we had a really cool experience. An elder that had served in Wakayama 8 years ago came back to the area as part of his business trip. He invited 2 women that he taught and baptized but became less active and we were able to meet with them and they kinda jumped onto me and told me that they want to do a family home evening every week with us and the bishop and his wife. So we're looking forward to meeting with those less active teachables. Also after church we went to visit another family that he had taught and become less-active. We had just been given this address from the ward and we had contacted them. The dad said we could come back and was super friendly so we were excited to re-visit with this returned missionary. When we went, the mother and father were both home and the returned missionary had a really joyful reunion with them. We were there for probably an hour just building kankei and they were telling us stories of when he taught them. We ended up being able to teach a soft less-active lesson and we exchanged numbers and are planning on coming back sometime this week. 

We also had another lesson with a less-active this week and it was awesome!!! She also has a daughter who was sealed in the temple to her and her husband when the daughter was three, but they fell away before she was baptized, so she is actually a non-member. We were able to meet her and start to build kankei and we have a really good relationship with the mother who is a less-active. The less-active work is steadily starting to pick up and we're moving from genkan conversations to inside their house with calpis and connections to Christ. I'm so excited. (: I love Wakayama. I love working here!!!! I love being a missionary. 

It's starting to get really hot and I'm trying to figure out how to not be gross. hahah I'm not used to the heat. Hontou ni hisashiburi desu. We sweat standing inside our genkan praying and it's just gross.

I love you all!!! read your scriptures! pray! go to church and renew your covenants!

love,

meg