And we got more cake to celebrate

*July 20

This week, we found the cake shop. THE cake shop. Cake is pretty serious business, too. But before that:

Monday: We milled around and went to Hatada's, a fairly cheap cake shop. Decent. That night, I got a call from our District Leader.

M. chourou: So, I'll show you the pictures tomorrow.

Me: ?? What's happening tomorrow?

MC: Zone Conference.

Me: :) ?? Zone... zone conference?

MC: ...Yeah.

Me: :) ... ... *cries silently and cancels appointments* But it's okay! Because we'll be touring the Imabari jou tomorrow with the SGG group like we had planned to tomorrow :D

Tuesday: Zone Conference! We got to hear our lovely mission president and wife speak. Then I showed C. shimai how to make hijiki. (sea kelp, soybeans, carrots, and some kind of fried tofu whose kanji I cannot read) We taught an awesome lesson before that.

Wednesday, we went and taught a bunch of people, and that was really fun.

Thursday, we had karaage (fried chicken) from Imabari's best fried chicken place (we think) with our Panamajin. Taught a pretty darn powerful lesson. I do want him to understand that, regardless of his beliefs, we'll stay friends with him, though. I hope that's not something he's worried about. Ate inside because a typhoon was moving in.

Friday, the typhoon was disappointing, but our gyoza party was cancelled. No people flying around or whatever else I may have expected a typhoon to be like, but we still stayed inside for a while and did SKK. BUT! We did eventually go out and teach. And we saw the BBQ family! 3/4 of them anyways. They were eating dinner, so we had to leave fairly quickly, but I'm glad we got to see their faces.

There's also a twelve-year-old who I was 90% certain just liked F. shimai. But we kept visiting because she hadn't outright shot us down. Anywho, we met her today (I think her mom likes us. Probably) and talked to her. We brought the salt dough we made last transfer for the BBQ family and played with it as we taught her a lesson. She was really into it. At the end, per usual, we asked her to pray. We always hope, but she usually looks away for like, five minutes and then turns us down. This time, she prayed.

And we got more cake to celebrate :D

Saturday, we were finishing up our weekly planning in the church, and then the W.s came in.

Us: :D?

Them: Hi, mind if we use this room to teach in right now?

Us: Sure.

We ended up sticking around with them and shared our stories about pioneers (olden and modern-day). Our student, at the end, got a call from her daughter. “ Oh, btw, it's my daughter's b-day.”

Us: *clicking on our helmets before she's finished speaking* *ride off*

So we got cake and brought the salt dough. Turns out the kid's nieces and nephews were over, and so we all ate the three pieces of cake together and played with the salt dough. Brought me back to my nursery days.

Youngest (about 2 yr old) “Sit down. Sit down.”

Me: *Squats down*

Her: *takes my glasses, puts them back on my face, repeats this process perhaps 10 times* *sticks red salt dough on my forehead*

2nd youngest: *takes glasses*

Youngest: “No! I'm doing it!”

Me: :) ...

Long story short, I'm now wearing my spare. But don't worry--I've bent the frame back and only the plastic pieces of the nose rest are missing, so it's an easy fix. Probably.

Sunday, there was more magic. That same woman with the birthday daughter came to church for the first time since...December? :D Then we went with O. shimai and visited someone I've never met before. It went well and we have an appointment on Friday :D Then we went and taught an elderly lady with another member and visited our beloved church member who hasn't shown up for the last three weeks. All of them were good appointments. I'm glad we did them.

I love you all! Go find and love that person who hasn’t been to church for awhile! They're wonderful and just waiting for a hand to get back on track.

Best of love,

Sanzu