Here is a little something from Maryandra's last letter, dated April 28, 2014.

Aha! I gave out my second Book of Mormon this week, while doing
kubarikai, of all things! It was the coolest! This lady sat down on
this thing I was next to, and since I had exhausted all my fliers, I
was hesitant to just go up and talk to her, but then I thought " well,
you're an idiot if you don't at least try. And remember your goal is
to have no regrets!" So, that spurred me Into action. I went up and
commented her on her shoes, which as usual sparked up the whole
conversation of where she bought them, and since she had shopping bags
where did she go shopping and such. And I don't even remember most of
what was said, but it turned out that she was interested in learning
about Christianity, and English, and she wanted to come to our
classes, and to church, to see our services. From there, I don't
really remember, but since I had been holding a Book of Mormon the
entire time, I just gave it to her, and after explaining what it was,
assuring her that yes, it is free, and yes, I have lots more, she took
it! Just like that! Sometimes, I think that I have beginners luck or
something, because things like that just happen sometimes, and
everybody says it's me, but I know it isn't. It's just the guidance
that I received to go stand there, at that time, doing that thing, and
voila! The scary thing is, though, that I was supposed to go on splits
to Tama for the day, but because the other sisters got on the wrong
train and decided to just do something else, I stayed with brown
Shimai and one of the Kunitachi sisters this time. If the Tama sisters
had gotten on the right train, all these things would have happened,
and we would never have found this 金人 woman!

That last sentence means "golden" woman!!!  She's doing great! She also mentions in 

her letter that they are moving the Hachioji sisters' apartment so that they'll have room 

for 2 companionships in that city.  We'll find out more about their new apartment next 

week, we hope!

Maryandra had a great Easter, and among her experiences she had this to write about:

Hey! So, guess what? Yesterday was Easter for us, and we had the most
amazing privilege! Guess who came to our ward for church, before going
to Kichijouji for a fireside? You'd better guess! There's only one more
minute left in my brain! So you'd better guess!....... YES! None other
than Linda K. Burton, the General Relief Society President!!! I was so
excited!!! And, we had one of our investigators make it just in time
for 2nd hour, so she got to hear her talk! And then, you'll never
guess what happened! After the meeting, I accidentally got in the way
of Brother Burton, but I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't see who
it was, until after apologizing in Japanese. Then I looked up, gasped,
and spluttered out "I'm sorry!" He was really nice about it, and he
shook my hand. Sister Ringwood, who was accompanying them,came up and
talked to me too. She gave me a hug and asked my name. And then Sister
Burton herself came up, insisting " I just have to say hello to these
missionaries!!!" I got a hug from her too! I was grinning from ear to
ear! She asked me how long I'd been out, and I told her just two
months, and she smiled and said "Oh my! Bless you!" It was the coolest
thing ever!!! After sacrament meeting, I introduced our investigator
to Brother Burton and Sister Ringwood, barely missing Sister Burton
herself. But out investigator was really thrilled! She's the cutest
thing!

There were no photos this week, but she sent such a fun letter!!!  :-)

Maryandra was able to watch General Conference a week later than the rest of us, but she loved it!!!
Here are just a few excerpts from her letter, that came a day late!!!

I got to watch conference on Saturday and Sunday, and it provided the spiritual

nourishment I needed! I really liked the Sunday morning session! I
think that one is my favorite this time around. I wish we could have
it again! Two days of bliss!
Yesterday, we were doing housing, and I saw a pot of flowers with
forget-me-nots in it. Those tiny flowers are so cute! When I saw them
I was reminded of the talk president uchtdorf gave a few years ago
where he used them as an analogy. I really like that talk.

I did finally find a post office, but whether I'll be able to find it again is a very good question. If I have the time, I will do my very best, though. At least
I know one exists here in Hachioji! Second, we got a random set of desk, 
chair and set of drawers yesterday. It's probably a mistake, because no one knows where it came
from, but if it is here to stay, we are probably going to become two
companionships next transfer, which is probably false, because our
apartment is already really crowded, and the study and futon room
would not fit stuff for another person. And, we still have about 2
weeks or so before we even have to start thinking about transfers.

Love you all!
Miller Shimai

Here is a little of Maryandra's letter from April 7, 2014.  She's loving the beautiful cherry blossoms!

We were able to spend about an hour and a half on a picnic with an investigator and her 2 year old daughter! It was a blast! I'll send as many if those pictures as I can! We went to this one little park place. Y a large hill to just sit, relax, and enjoy the Sakura blossoms! They are so pretty! Now that they're on the end of their season, the petals are starting to fall, and it looks kind of like snow. It's one of the prettiest things I've ever seen in my life!!!!

I loooooooove my new bike!!!I got a foldy bike!!! I named it Elsa, after the princess in frozen, because it's white, and also because, when I bought it, and the next day as I was picking it up, that song that Elsa sings called "let it go" was playing. Oooooh, it brought back sooooo many bittersweet memories, I tell you! I love Elsa! Elsa is my new best friend! We go everywhere.... More or less. Anyway, I also bought this owl bell and called it Olaf, after the snow man!! It hangs from Elsa's basket, and they keep each other company. It's the best!  

 

Maryandra is enjoying the spring blossoms in Hachioji, Japan!!!  Here are excerpts from her last letter:

Okay, I will tell you this. Being in a San nin has been just a little
bit like...... ONE OF THE BEST THINGS IN THE WORLD!!! And mom, you got
your wish. She is NIHONJIN!!! Her name is funakura Shimai, and she is
the cutest, bestest person in the world! She is from Kagoshima, which
she said is currently in the Fukuoka mission boundaries. How cool is
that! Anyway, it's been so nice having a third person around.

And funakura Shimai is, by the way, a spiritual giant!!! I
love her so much already! She has made all of our lessons a thousand
times better, and her testimony is so amazing! She is always nice to
me, and it's so nice that I have another friend!
Also, today, I might finally get my bike! That will be so handy for
housing, when we go to places that are to close for the train, but too
far for walking, of which there are a lot. I want it to get one of
those little ones that fold up, which will make it way easy when I do
transfers. If I get it today, I'll send you pictures. Okay, I love food cooked by
funakura Shimai, and it's really fun to help her cook the food, and
race to try nod get the dishes washed before her Japanese culture
asserts  itself and she insists.

We debated about whether to share these stories or not, but they made us laugh, 
so we're putting them in to help brighten anyone else's day!!!  I hope 
Maryandra won't mind!

So, I have a couple of funny stories to tell you. First, yesterday, it

rained really hard for a few hours, so our apartment steps were all
wet. I slipped and fell on my butt down two steps. I heard a
ga-thump-thump sound in my head. I got up really quickly and I was
okay, and forgot about it. It wasn't until last night, while lying on
my futon, when I felt the bruise, and I wondered where the heck did I
get that one from? Oh yeah! And then I just fell asleep.
Another story: we have this removable laundry pole that goes from wall
to wall in our apartment, and we moved it into the futon room to make
room for when we get funakura shimai's desk. Well, we must not have
attached it to the wall correctly, because it fell on brown shimai's
face the other night, and she woke up and screamed bloody murder. That
woke up funakura Shimai, who screamed, which woke me up, and I
screamed, but I was too tired to care, and so when we'd figured out
what'd happened, I just listened from my futon as brown Shimai
animatedly told me " at first I thought a burglar was beating me with
a pole! Then I thought funakura Shimai tripped and fell on me cause I
thought she was coming back from the bathroom! And it was crazy,
miller Shimai, because all of those thoughts flashed through my mind
in like... A SECOND!!! It was crazy!!!!" And then funakura Shimai
couldn't stop laughing for at least ten minutes after. And brown
Shimai sat up for a while, because she was afraid we woke up the
neighbors, and that someone would call the police or an ambulance. It
was really funny, because I don't think she was even totally awake,
since she went to sleep less than a minute after saying that.
Well, other than that, things have been relatively normal this week.

Love you all!

愛しています、!!!
Miller Shimai