Maryandra had an interesting week, some parts boring, some parts almost too exciting!
In Maryandra's words:

Tuesday:

Well, as of today, I finally opened that box of mike and Ike's that you sent for me birthday! I did as you asked, and made them last all of September! Yay! So far, they are delicious!... Well, I had quite the scary experience today, but I will tell you that after a bit of explanation. I got to go on splits with sister Rowley today, which was really really fun! We spent a while at the church and made cards for the people we had planned to visit. The visiting part, however, was a whole different thing altogether. It took forever to look up the addresses on google maps, and then we realized just how long it would take to get there, but we decided to go to the closest house first. So, we went to the home of one family, and just dropped a card in their post box.

. . . We went back to hajjima and were waiting for the train for half an hour almost, and when it finally came, one of the personel told us that, sorry, this train will be out of service for 55 minutes, so we will have to go to line number two instead. 

Miffed but resolved, we went determinedly all the way over to line number two, but just after we got there, Rowley Shimai, who was looking behind me, told me that we needed to leave. She saw someone she'd met before, and he was a stalker and we needed to get away from him. So, as carefully and inconspicuously as possible, we made our way to the other end of the platform. But as we turned around to check, to our horror, we saw him weaving his way towards us! It was then that we both were just like, okay, we need to go, right now. Rowley Shimai led the way, and we went back, weaving in and out and around people and objects, getting faster and faster until we reached the escalators, and then we just both lost it for terror and started running, taking two steps at a time as we tried to reach the main platforms again, and once there, we raced straight for the nearest bathroom. Once inside, we cowered against the wall for a few minutes, panting. All the other women in the bathroom stared at us. One or two looked like they wanted to help, but couldn't speak English. We waited in there for a few more minutes and decided that we were too in shock to visit the other person today. After using the restroom to take up more time and look more normal, we were about to head out again when we got a call from the Fussa elders. They wanted to ask about something I didn't know about, but I told them we had to wait for a bit and explained why. They were like WHAT? And were about to come over and get us, but we told them that we were going to check, and finding that the man had gone, we told them it was okay. So, we made our way to the platform that would, instead, take us to Higashi-Fussa eki. 

While there, we talked to this cute little student, who was really sweet. She has actually met missionaries before and done some kind of activity with them. I'm not sure if she meant missionaries from our church or what, but we gave her a flier and our number. Unfortunately, she didn't end up giving us hers, so we can't contact her first. Shoot. But it helped is feel better from our harrowing experience.

Wednesday:

Wow! October sure got here pretty fast! Why is time speeding up? Does it seem as fast to you guys as it does to me?  

Well, nothing happened at all, as far as missionary work is concerned, because we ended up stuck at the church for a long time, I would say about three and a half hours, updating our iPads to the new update, which took forever to load and it was horrible!

Friday:

I am super super excited to go to the general women's broadcast tomorrow in kichijouji! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!..... So, I'll see you later! Bye bye...

Ah, well, the only thing that happened besides the lesson is that on the way there, I fell off my bike while trying to get onto the sidewalk. But I'm not hurt! Not really, anyway. I'll send you a picture of my hand. It has two tiny little hickie-like marks on it that don't hurt one little bit! And my shin rubbed the pavement a little, but I didn't notice it until just barely. Lucky I am! And my bike isn't even damaged! It's awesome!

Saturday:

Oh boy, was the general women's conference good! I loved it! I especially loved president Uchtdorf's talk. It had a lot of what I needed to hear. But it really made me excited for general conference next weekend!  

(The missionaries in Japan get to watch General Conference one week later than we do in the United States, in case anyone reading this blog didn't know that!)

I loved the women's conference! I really loved the song that those cute little Korean girls sang! It struck a chord with me, because that's not too far from where I am, and I've been privileged to meet a few people from Korea. They are so sweet! And I really REALLY loved that other video with the young women who bore their testimonies about the temple, especially the little JAPANESE girl! I could understand her! Yay! She looked a little familiar, too, but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen her before. Anyway, it was a really great opportunity!

Sunday:

It's been raining non stop today, because a typhoon is passing right through this area. Like, right through our mission. And, it's a super typhoon. With gale force winds. Good luck with not freaking out about that. We are cautioned not to go outside tomorrow unless we get an all-clear, so who knows when I'll get this sent off to you, but rest assured that I will!

And Typhoon Phanfone passed through Sunday and was gone by Monday afternoon.  Maryandra and all of the other missionaries there around Tokyo are safe!!! :-) Pocky sticks are one of Maryandra's favorites!