Monday, October 27, 2014

On Monday, October 27, 2014 Sister Johnson wrote:

Hi Momma! TWELVE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow! Shinjirarenai! I can't believe it! The end of my mission has finally come! Don't get me wrong. I love being a missionary. But.... when it's time, it's time. The plans for the next week are normal; this is my last normal week of being a missionary! So I am going to spend all my time loving the members and experiencing real Japanese things! I am going to start today by going to get my last Japanese haircut! My hair has gotten insanely long and suuuuper annoying so I am going to get it chopped. Haha, not too too short, but just enough to be cute again. Japanese haircuts are the best. They seriously massage your head for half an hour. BEST. Tomorrow, we are participating in a cooking class with a member, and then we are going to visit an old woman in the ward that is my favorite, Sister Fujimura! I love her so much. Then on Wednesday, we will ride out into the rice fields and visit some more members, and I will also be teaching my last Eikaiwa class! I will miss teaching English to Japanese people. It is really a fun time. Then on Thursday, we have our weekly visit to the old folks home for community service, and there, I will meet my friend, Fujisawa San! She is the cutest little old woman. I don't know what it is, but for some reason, I have really connected with the old ladies here in Morioka. I love listening to their stories. After that, we will go and eat Wanko Soba, which is something unique to Morioka and is basically a soba eating contest!! I AM SO EXCITED! I am going to miss soba really bad. So that will be fun. Then on Friday, we have our last zone training meeting, so I will see some of my missionary friends for the last time. That will be sad, but it's okay. I will write them when I get home. On Saturday, we are having a ping pong tournament with our less-active, 85-year-old friend, Brother Kikka! I am so excited for that! It will be a hoot! He is such a cool man, and I love talking with him. Sunday will be pretty regular, just fast and testimony meeting. Then, next week will be super busy I think. I am not sure when I am leaving Morioka, but it will most likely be the morning of the 5th. I don't think I will get to see people I love from other areas, except Kamisugi. I will probably be going to Eikaiwa in Kamisugi that night, so I will get to see all those people, which I am very excited about. We will see what happens. Then, I will be at the mission home on Thursday for my last interview and testimony meeting with the sisters I came to Japan with! Tui Shimai and Luk Shimai and Gass Shimai and all my other lovely sisters will be there with me! It will be a great time. Then, we leave on Friday morning! Crazy. I am excited; it will be a fun last few days in Japan.

This week was a good one for the most part! Last Tuesday, Sister Hayashi and I were in the Morioka Times, a local newspaper here! It was so awesome; we went for a walk around the lake in front of the church, and right when we got there, six beautiful swans came and rested on the lake! Apparently, hundreds of them come from Russia for the winter and make a home on the lake, and I guess that these six were the first to come! There were people all around us and the swans were absolutely beautiful. Then, a woman came up to Sister Hayashi and I and started asking us questions about the swans, then about who we were and what we are doing here in Morioka! She was so nice and so cute, and the next day, we were in the paper! The full name of the Church was listed, the fact that we are volunteer missionaries was listed, and it had our names and ages and information and everything! It was so awesome! Nothing has really come from it yet, but it was great publicity and a great way to tell lots of people about who we are! So, that was fun.

Eikaiwa this week was really awesome! We have been seeing some really great success this transfer. Last transfer, there was only one American here in Morioka, so the Eikaiwa program died. It was really sad when I first got here. But we have really been pushing to make the program better, and this last week, we had over 20 people come!! That was the biggest attendance I have seen the whole time I have been here! It was great to have new students come; one of them was a 22 year old college student named Yuuki San. He came in and he was wearing a Colorado State University sweatshirt! I was so blown away! But when I went to talk to him, he told me that he had no idea what it was! Haha, it was a great bonding moment, and I am looking forward to seeing him again this week.

This last week we had the Halloween party and it was a great success! We had about 60 people there, half of which were nonmembers! It was so awesome and so much fun! It was a little bit hard to pull together, but we managed to do it, and we were able to make lots of new friends. It was a good week, and I am grateful that I have another great one planned!

I love my Savior. I love His words, His life, His light. I love that I have an opportunity to be His hands here in Morioka. I love that He trusts me enough to do the things He needs me to do. I have found so much joy and peace in living His Gospel. My Savior is my compass. He is my chart and He is my north star. I love Him, I serve Him, and I rejoice in Him.

I love you Momma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TWELVE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO! We can do it! LOVE YOU!

Love Shak