Maryandra had a great week!

 Here is Mount Fuji, as seen from Maryandra's apartment balcony!

In case anyone was worried, the volcano that erupted on Saturday, Mount Ontake , was over 100 miles away from where Maryandra is serving right now, and they were just on ash warning for a night.  In her own words:

Oh yeah! You

may or may not have heard about the volcano erupting over in Nagano.
So, we have an ash warning, and are told not to turn on our air
conditioning or open our windows tonight. So, we will probably see a
very, VERY gray sky tomorrow. But, we will all be just fine, I want
you to know. But that definitely adds to those scripture prophecies,
doesn't it?

Here is some more about her week:

Wednesday:

Well, we have to take a mission-wide language assessment today. Yuck.
I just took the written part, and when my companion is done taking
the speaking part, I will attempt to do so. Yuuuuck! I can almost
always understand what a person is saying (unless they use new words)
but the speaking part is so much harder, especially if I'm around
someone who is better than I am, however kind or humble they may be. I
just get nervous, and I can't think straight, and sometimes I can't
think of words or what I even want to talk about. I often forget what
I just said. It's soooo embarrassing! But I'm enjoying listening to my
companion. She really is good! I'm glad I have her! She's the best!...
Well, that was interesting. I don't think I actually did too bad after
all, or at least, I did better than I thought I would. 

Eikaiwa (English conversation class) was awesome! I say it was

awesome because I

got to talking to this girl, whose come with her dad and
sometimes her brother(s) for just about five weeks. They're all really
awesome, and it's great to be with them every week. So, guess what I
did? I invited her to see inside the chapel! After my companion 
had finished doing something, we went in, and showed her
around. We explained a little about the sacrament, and the things we
do in the chapel, at church, and she liked it! We invited her to come
to church when she has time, and SHE MIGHT ACTUALLY COME!!!!!! I'm so
excited! I don't know if she'll come this week, but she has interest
in seeing what we explained about, and I invited her to learn more
when she has time, if she wanted to! That is also just an 'if'
situation, but I feel really good about it! OOOOOH, I can't wait., I
think the best of her! She's so cool, and so is her family! I can't
wait to see them at ping pong night tomorrow! Yaaaaaaay!!!!


 Here are some photos from an earlier English conversation class!





Friday:
Whoooooaaa, we had soooo much happen today! So, our plan for the day
after studying and district meeting was to go and see if we could
visit these two less actives who loved about a ten or fifteen minute
walk from the church. So, we went first to the apartment where the
one family lives. We found it, but decided to find the place of
the other person first, and see which one was better to do
first. But before that, we went looking for a garbage can to throw
away our leftovers from 7-11, and then came back. After that debate,
we decided to go with the first family. And it's a good thing
we did. They turned out to be home, which was awesome, and the mom
wants us to come over and do family home evening since everyone
in her family is too busy to come to church, and it was awesome to be
able to meet her! Apparently, it had been impossible to contact them
before, due to lack of phone number and good timing. Crazy cool, huh?
But the real miracle comes in just two or three minutes later, when we
went to the other person's appartment. When we got there, we realized it was
a scan lock-in. No way were we getting in. So, we decided to be happy
and put a card or something in her mail box. No sooner did we begin to
write the card than this woman comes out the door. I swear this was
all in slow motion. I'll tell it from my perspective. I had squatted
on the ground to rest for a moment (nobody else was around) and I see
this lady about to come out from the other side of the glass door. I
thought to myself "you know, I've had miracles like this in the past.
Wouldn't that be cool if this lady just happened to be our inactive sister? But
it couldn't be. Could it?" I rose slowly off the floor, it seemed, to
greet her in a more professional manner as she seemed to glide out of
the door and towards us. We smile. She stops dead in her tracks as we
prepare to speak, but then, seemingly as if in a dream, I hear her say
"are you missionaries?" I start to reel in my mind, and grin at the
same time, thinking "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?????? Could it actually be..."
And horrocks Shimai must have felt the same thing, because she asked
"are you sister Ito?" "Why yes!" Came the reply, and then I came back
to real time, about jumping for joy, as we proceeded to get acquainted
with her. The timing was sooooo crazy, I can't tell you
everything, but we got a good, almost 30-45 minute conversation with
her as we walked with her all the way to fussa eki, where we met none
other than the Yokota elders.  Whaaaaaaaat? So, she got
acquainted with them too! And then, we parted ways so she could go to
Tama and do her errands. We walked back to the apartment for
dinner,feeling as if we were floating or something. Can you believe
it? If we had tried her first, we would have missed her. If we hadn't
tried to look for a garbage can, or even hesitated as we went first to
the other family's then to her apartment and back, we would have missed her.
The crazy thing is, when she recognized us, she could have totally
chosen to not acknowledge us or anything, but she did, because she
still loves the church, her work schedule has just become really
brutal lately. Whoooooa, right?
Saturday:


The other three sisters are sick. Rowley Shimai has
a cold, and my companion and Christensen Shimai have stomach things,
but I'm still totally fine. It's great! I haven't gotten majorly sick
on my mission yet! Yay! Anyway, tell president Adams thank you for
wishing me protection and health when he set me apart. I can tell that
it's that thing that's helping me to stay safe and healthy. It's
protecting me, and so I really am thankful. Tell him that, if you get
a chance! Anyway, gotta go and get ready for bed! Well, see y'all
tomorrow! Love you!
Monday:

After study and shopping and stuff, we
will do our emails at sometime between three and five, and Ashley
wants to give us mani/pedis! I'm so excited! It's been such a long
time since someone's volunteered to do anything like paint my nails!
I'm so stoked!  I'm so excited! It's gonna be a great day, full of relaxing! I'm
so tired!.... So, we are here at the church, and waiting our turns for
mani-pedis from Ashley! I'm soooo excited! I'll probably type/send
more later, a long with a few talks I found interesting, but here's
where we are so far! Love you all! Japan is the best! Love the work
I'm doing! You're amazing!
Love,  Sister Miller