Here are a few excerpts from letters from Maryandra, to give everyone an idea of what she is experiencing! She writes really long letters, just like her mom, and so these will be just to give everyone an idea of what she is doing and enjoying so far while she is serving in her first area!  Meanwhile, we are waiting to get more fun photos from Miller Shimai.  It seems like e-mails from Maryandra Miller Shimai come later and later each week, but we'll be publishing more soon!

From the e-mail of February 23, 2014 

In the evening, we went to the ward activity, which was ping pong
night. That was way fun! Even though both me and my team mate were
really bad at ping pong, we somehow made it all the way to the final
round, before being savagely beaten by The other team, who actually
knew how to play:)
Friday, we went out streeting, and would you believe it? The second
person we talked to said she was interested in learning more from us
about the church. She even showed us where she lives and gave us food.
O.o! She's a really nice person, and Brown Shimai and I are very
excited to begin teaching her the gospel!

Sunday ( also known as yesterday) was a really busy day. President
Wada came! And he gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting! It was really
good, even though I couldn't understand a lot of what he said. We also
had a family who sort of came to church. This great family, who each had
different interests, came for a bit, but both the mom and dad left
before first hour, and the daughter left before third hour, which was
sacrament meeting. At almost 5, we went and taught a lesson to a less
active family. We did a little bit of finding after that, and then
came home.

So far, what I love most about being in Japan is the food, and the
people, and my surroundings. Like I said, Hachioji is exactly like the
studio ghibli movies! There is almost nothing that I dislike, except
that, being in a big city-place, I can almost always smell pollution,
and I've never enjoyed that smell. But still, that's not even bad.
I really like doing kubarikai, which is where you talk to people on
the trains, and I think riding the trains are fun. Oh, and also,all
the little children are absolutely ADORABLE!!!! Especially the tiny
babies!!!! Oh my gosh!!!!!! Soooooo cute!!!

From an e-mail of March 3, 2014

So,next cool thing. A week or so ago, we met with this great family
before church. Only the daughter ended up actually coming, and she
didn't stay the whole time. We were really bummed, because we thought
she had lost interest. But later that week, we were walking in the
rain doing housing, and we met her dad completely by chance ( or so it
would seem ) and we talked a bit, and he was really nice, and we were
happier and less miserable. That night, she texted us and said she
was going to come to church again on Sunday! And she did! And she
liked it! And she stayed the whole time! She agreed to do some
lessons/ eikaiwa, and we taught her for the first time yesterday, and
we definitely felt the spirit. She said she had always felt like
something was protecting her all her life, and she seemed to
understand and like what was being taught. We have another lesson
scheduled for next week, and she says she will come to church again!