Maryandra got to celebrate her birthday one day early at Eikaiwa,
(English conversation class), with a lot of her favorite people in
Sagamihara! She wrote in her e-mail:
Wednesday:

We are going to celebrate my birthday today

instead of tomorrow, because of transfers....

eikaiwa was pretty fun. The after party was kind of sad. 

Everybody was so sad that I was leaving, 

which I find very interesting, because
they'd never said much to me,

so many other people that I can't
remember all of them, came up to me to offer their goodbyes.
But the coolest part of the day was that, for the first obvious time
in a while, The Lord showed His ability to time things perfectly,
because, when Tachibana Shimai asked to leave early because she wasn't
feeling well again, we left a few minutes later, only to run into
a dear investigator, as she tried to catch us, having just send and read the
letter I'd put on her post box earlier today. It made me so happy to
be able to give her a few good hugs and say a proper goodbye, and so
she could be properly introduced to Tachibana Shimai. It was a perfect
handoff! I'm so happy The Lord was merciful enough to His very
imperfect servant, to give me that good memory! Now, I can leave this
area in peace, having tried to fix all the things I messed up well
enough to give the next sister missionaries a chance to see some real
miracles! You're welcome, future sisters!







Maryandra enjoyed her birthday morning, opening cards from her family, etc.

Soon, though, she was on her way to her new area, Fussa!

Here are her thoughts about her birthday from her e-mail:

Thursday:

Well, hey,
guess what? I'm all by myself, on a train going to a station, 40
minutes away. Never done this before. Kind of nervous. So far, today
has not felt remotely like a birthday, though I enjoyed the things
you'd sent me this morning. It's felt... Well, weird. The fact that
I've left Sagamihara for entirely new territory, ( new stake, new
climate, new companion, new ken, new atmosphere, everything) hasn't
really hit me yet. Yikes. Oh well. I just don't really know what to do
for the next 40 minutes, as I try to balance my bags on my lap and
type with one hand.... Well,that went better than I expected. I was a
little confused when I got off at higashi-Fussa, where I was told to
go, because it looked like nothing more than a small platform with a
bridge, which is pretty much what it was, but the other three sisters
quickly found me and we walked the short distance to the apartment,
which has many similarities to my home, Sagamihara, and it made me
happy and sad at the same time when I looked at my new desk, they had
decorated it for my birthday! It made me so happy that they
remembered!




I'm so glad that
at least the other sisters are nice! They said we're going to go out
to dinner soon! Cool! It makes it easier for me to deal with not being
in Sagamihara. I hope that I can survive being without a nihonjin (Japanese),
in such a large group. And having so many Americans in the area.... I can
remember wanting to go to one of the "base" areas earlier in my
mission, but that was only because I couldn't speak Japanese. But when
I got better at it, I became okay with not doing it after all, and
what do I get but the unpleasant transfer call that I will be leaving
my beloved hometown and coming to another new, totally foreign area.
Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about the district. There are four sisters,
and four elders.  But the thought of
associating with Americans the way I have to with Japanese is really
scary! I didn't sign up for this! What am I doing? So, yeah, I guess
my birthday was kind of weird. But it could have been worse, I guess.
A lot worse, I'm sure. I could have gotten lost, or mixed up on the
train, or something. But now, basically I'm just tired. Well, I'll see
you all tomorrow, okay? Love you! Bye!.....

Saturday:

I'm still not over my culture shock. In fact it's gotten worse. In
fact, it got so much worse that for a few minutes, I was on the verge
of having a panic attack. This does not bode well for me when I return
home at the end of my mission. I just discovered that the reason I've
been shy my whole life is because I find Americans terrifying. What a
weird thought. I'm terrified of my own race. The only exception are
missionaries. I'm not joking. I literally wanted to run away and hide
my self somewhere, and I nearly passed out as we were crossing the
train tracks to come to the station. This area is really nice. I like
it, but where did this sudden fear come from? It keeps me from
focusing, and I need to try really hard to even open my mouth and
talk. To anybody. Not just the Americans. It's been a most unusual
trial. So unexpected.

Sunday:

So, we don't have church till 1:00 here in fussa, which means we get
to do a lot of things in the morning. It's so nice! We just had a
lesson/family eikaiwa with this cute mom and her one year old boy.
He is so cute!

A couple of random facts. 

One, you can see MOUNT FUJI from our apartment!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAHHH!!!!! And you can see it really well on a clear day! It
makes me so excited! I can see Fuji San! And the other one is
something that sister horrocks told me today. She said that, when we
go to the temple from here, we get to pass through main city TOKYO!!!
I'm soooooo excited! I can't wait! Also, did you know that in our
mission, the area known as Yokohama is the first ever area in Japan to
welcome missionaries, and see success!!!! Whoa! My mission may be the
"newest" but technically, it's the oldest, and most historic! That's
way cool! Whooooooaaaaa!!!!! Anyway, I can't remember anything else,
so I need to go for now.
Hopefully Maryandra will keep adjusting better each day to Fussa!

Maryandra had a pretty full week, and just loves her current area, Sagamihara.  

Too bad she won't be there much longer!  Here are some excerpts:

Wednesday:

So, we had a RECORD of contacts today, and all
because we deduced to do absolutely everything mission related. You got
that right. We went to the park with the intention if doing some park
dendo, and finding no one there, decided to go explore the surrounding
area. We went into a cheap mini drug store (no, not that kind of drug
store! Though they do have those too:(...) and talked to two young
mothers with adorable children! Then, at the top, we found a ¥100
(hyaku yen) shop, and on a whim bought some touchable bubbles,
badminton rackets and recorders (yes, in Japan, you can buy all sorts
of amazing things like that that are high quality and durable for the
equivalent of a dollar! It's amazing!) We also talked to an old lady who was on her way
to a swimming sports club, of all things. She was really cute! We went
back to the park after trying to check out the area and do some
housing, and in the process talking to a cute old couple who own their
own vegetable shop in what looks oddly like a garage. (You counting?
Keep going)

Anyway, we arrive at the park, and go to the swing set. I ate my ice
cream I bought, and play my recorder with tachibana Shimai. We talked
to the mom and her son sitting on the neighboring swing set in the
process (or tachibana Shimai did, anyway. I was kind of far away) then
I scored high points with five elementary school boys when I started
playing with the touchable bubbles. They seemed to come out of
nowhere, and they tried to kill the bubbles, and all that, and as they
flocked around me, one of them read my name tag, and I said "yep, that's
right! I'm a church volunteer! [have some more bubbles]!" And went on
again for another five minutes. Still counting? 

Well, after that, we

went and played with our badminton rackets at the top of the park, and
these two random old men walking with their dog came up and talked to
us. One of them could sort of speak English. Kind of funny. One had
the face of a turtle mixed with a raisin, and the other had hair that
was bald on the top but long on the sides, like one of those crazy
would-be inventors/mad scientists. After that,  I talked to a lady who
exchanged my eikaiwa flier for a random pack of tissues before
hurrying off to catch her train. What the? And I also talked to a
little girl who spoke amazing English because she is going to an
English speaking school, and her mom, who came out of the cafe where
the girl was waiting. Tachibana Shimai talked to one other person. As
we go back to our bikes, we talk to another lady who was holding an 

adorable pet poodle with a random doggy shirt that had whales on it.
After that, we had three new people show up at eikaiwa! Whoa! And
then, as we came back to the apartment, we talked to another lady as
she came home from her shopping! Whaaaaaaat!!!!! The best part about
today's whole finding thing was that it wasn't just one specific set
of finding; it was some of all, and something completely different
from all of them! 

Thursday:
Okay, is it just me, or is time trying to kill me? Am I really going
to be twenty in one week? O.o What?! Ooooooohhhhh boy, that's
scary. But... Ummmmm... Yeah. Anyway, just had to freak out for a
second. I'll see you later today!

Sunday:

I'll tell you something that just cheered me right up! Nishimura
Shimai came up to me and gave me certificates to baskin Robbins,
because she remembered my birthday is coming up soon. She asked if I
was doing anything on that day, and I said I didn't know, but it's
transfer day, so I may or may not be very busy. She said "ooh, I
really hope you don't transfer, but if you did, I would miss you!" It
almost made me cry! But I feel so happy to know her and her amazing
family! I love them so much!...

Monday:

If I had to stay the rest of my mission here, I would be okay with
that, really I would! Or, if I could somehow only go to areas where I
would cross oaths with people like the Nishimura family, or someone
that dad knew, I would be okay. In fact, that would be really really
fun! But I'm just not ready to leave yet! Ooooooohhhhh........

Oh my gosh, guess what? I'm crying so hard right now, because I'm transferring to Fussa. My new companion will be Sister Jorrocks. She will be becoming sister training leader, and we were admonished to go and talk to absolutely everyone! I'm trying to be happy, and I'm sure it will be fun, but I'm just trying to get used to the idea of not being in Sagamihara anymore. Yikes! But I am sure it will be great. Once again, completely surprised. Maaaaan!!!!!??!?!?!?!??! But I've only ever heard good about her, so this should be good. But my insides are totally deflated. Ooooooh, ooooooouuuuuuuuch!!!!!!!!!  I'll be okay someday..... Fussa is on a base, so that should be pretty interesting.

The next post will be all about Maryandra's new area and new companion. 

She will also be 20 years old by then!  She'd been afraid she'd have a busy birthday, 

and you can't get much busier than a transfer! She will really miss Sagamihara!

Maryandra had some fun eating watermelon this past week, apparently!!!
She and Sister Tachibana had many adventures this week, and an opportunity 
for service when they were in a threesome:

Wow. Well, we just had one of the most interesting and

amazing experiences ever. It truly shows The Lord has perfect timing.
We were having a rough time with housing and so we decided to save
that for Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and street instead. While we
were making our way back to try and street on our way to the eki, so
we could make it in plenty of time to machida, we saw a lady fall
sideways while riding her bike. We hurried over to her as fast as we
could. We helped her move her things over to the side of the road, and
get comfortable and call someone to come and pick her up. Her shoulder
was really painful, she said. She kept saying "it's okay, I'm sorry,
I'm so sorry!" But we refused to leave her. How could we, in such a
situation? Shoulder broken or dislocated, raining, no one else
stopping to help her. We waited with her for almost twenty minutes
before the emergency aid ladies came, and we helped them take her to
the car, and then get in, and brought her bike with us to the aid
vehicle. She was in pain and almost crying, but she was so thankful
that we stayed with her. We felt really bad that we couldn't help her
more. She was worrying about how she would be able to take care of her
small child and go to work at the same time with her shoulder so bad,
and no one to help her, and I felt so bad! We couldn't do anything
more for her than sit and wait with her until help came, hold an
umbrella over her head to keep her out of the rain, bring her bike to
the big van, and make sure she was safely situated before handing over
her bike and other things and leaving. It was quite the experience.
But it taught me a lesson. Even though we didn't say we were church
volunteers or try to tell her about the gospel, she knows what kind of
people we are, because we cared enough to help her, out of the other
people who just walked on by without looking down at her. She and the
people who came to help her are always going to remember this, and
know that at least three young women, complete strangers, cared,
enough to see what she needed, and to help her not feel lonely as she
sat there in pain and wondering what to do. At least she didn't have
to do it alone. Yes, that was a very big personal defining moment for
me. I'm gonna remember it for a long time. We were a sober group that
went to the station. Not sad, exactly, just humbled.

Maryandra is also learning a lot about herself and her relationship

with her current companion:

I am trying to feel better. I think the reason why there was so much 

unspoken conflict and disagreement before is because
we were both trying to do what we are best at. Mine is streeting and
housing and those other means of finding, while hers is building
relationships with the ward and teaching lessons. Soooo... Yeah, of
course those things are both good, but we are struggling to find a
balance with it, because that's all either of us wants to do, is our
strong point. I don't know. It's not exactly contentious, but it
definitely isn't perfect, either. I'm just not openly disagreeing
right now, because there have been many times this transfer where I've
had to eat a slice of humble pie myself. I need her in order to teach
lessons, and she needs me if we are gonna find people on our own. It's
funny, because I used to hate finding, in any shape or form, but now
it's my favorite, maybe because I can actually understand and speak
some semi okay Japanese now, and talking to people has become a lot of
fun, rather than my biggest, lifelong fear.


Here are some other deep thoughts from Maryandra's e-mail.


I realized that my real mission has ended up being helping people,
helping them be okay, with whatever they need. I've done that in some
way with many of my companions. So, anyway, I will do what I realize I
have been called here to do. My purpose as a missionary is to help
others (and that means any and everyone of my friends) to come into
Christ, in anyway I can.  The missionary purpose states it as such,
and every missionary is best at helping a certain kind of people. Some
are great at baptisms. Some are great at finding. Some are great at
bringing back less actives. Some help their companions. Some are good
at making friends, and paving a path for future missionaries to come
in and do what they, in turn, are best at. I'm finding lately that I'm
a good companion. Not to quote myself, but others. I definitely don't
feel it myself, but what I want is for others to feel happy when they
are around me, because I want them to relax and find peace. Even
though on the inside I'm far from peaceful, the knowledge that others
have felt peaceful through me is a comfort. So, basically what I'm
trying to say is, I don't feel like I'll get to see a person go
through the entire process of finding, teaching, baptizing, and fellow
shipping and eternal progression. But what I will see is others
strengthened, so that they can do those things. Not like I won't try,
or I don't hope for a baptism, don't get me wrong. I feel like that
could happen, but I just feel like I was called here for a different
reason than one might think. And that is, not so much to bring others
into the fold, but to bring them back to the fold, or to strengthen
others so they can fulfill their personal callings from The Lord.
These are my thoughts. I'm not disappointed about it. Just more of an
okay, show me who, and show me how. Now that I'm coming to terms with
it, I think it should all be uphill from here. I'm gonna work, and do
my best in the other areas of missionary work, of course, but I need
to focus on the people The Lord guides me to, and brings to my life.
And right now, that person is my companion.

Maryandra was able to pick up her birthday package from the Mission Home 

and open it on Saturday!!!  There is one thing that was wrapped, that she will 

wait to open until September 11, her birthday, but the rest she enjoyed seeing, 

like the Nutella and Swedish fish!!!

On Sunday several of their investigators made it to Church, so Maryandra's e-mail
ended quite happy!!!  But they are anxious about the fact that transfers will be 
announced by next week.  We shall see!!!

Maryandra and Sister Tachibana received some yummy fruit from the ward members this past Sunday! Maryandra has been missing grapes!  They had a busy week, but it somehow didn't seem like very much happened, in Mayandra's opinion!

Here is a little bit from Maryandra's e-mail to home:
Wednesday:

Eikaiwa (English conversation class) was really

interesting. I had so many people in my class that I had to shorten
our conversation time to three minutes each instead of five. I had ten
people In Attendance! What a record! But the funny thing is, I went
from lowest to highest, or most, attendees this week. Advanced class
usually only has four or five people total, so I was flabbergasted,
especially when I was the only who had numbers like that. But yeah, it
made eikaiwa very interesting today.

Thursday:
Well, theres's no doubt that I've definitely caught something. I think
it's just a cold, but... Yeah. It's not fun. Still, it could be much
worse, huh? I'll take advantage of my vitamin-C's, and try to stay
asleep more at night, and things like that, and I hope that this blows
over soon! 
Wow, today sure packed a wallop! The one day I would have been okay
taking it easy, and we end up having four visiting appointments. Sure,
it was great, of course. We just had to ride all the way to hashimoto,
then to kamimizo, then back to hashimoto again, and then tpreturned to
sagamihara. I'm bushed. And I can feel myself getting more sick.
That's not a good feeling. Yeah, we have zero conversations so far,
but we met with four people! That's a record! I really want to go out
and talk to people, but I'm not feeling that well. I'm wondering if it
would be a good idea to at least try and take a nap first, even though
that never works for me, or at least hasn't thus far? I don't know.
But I really feel like I don't deserve to rest yet. I committed to
president Wada that I would keep it up, and we would get more contacts
together, and work as a team! Ahhhh, torn...... But I forgot we have
to eat dinner before we decide anything. Man, biking from 9:30am till
4:15-ish sure beats the snot out of a person, not to mention how hot
and sweaty you can get. And sunburned. I forgot about that too. But
thankfully, it's mostly just my arms this time around. I need to
remember and think before I go outside to put on my sunscreen. But
hey, what's done is done. Worst case scenario, I'll just get more
freckles or an even worse farmers tan. Whoo! But it felt good to be
outside more than inside for once, the first time all transfer!
Sunday:

We got ahuge load of fruits and vegetables on our fruits basket this week,
which I find frankly amazing! And guess what? A big tub of grapes was
included! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!  And they're the normal American kind from
Costco, not the ones you have to peel!!! Yaaaaaay!!!!! We had a bit of
a rough time carrying potatoes, lettuce, grapes and peaches all to the
apartment, and fitting it all into the fridge 

Whoa. While
waiting for our ride just now inside the church, a mini earthquake
happened. It was over in less than two seconds, but it was really
weird. I couldn't feel it with my feet because the church has a strong
foundation, but I saw the walls shake all the way down the hall. Now
THAT was a weird sensation! To not feel the ground move, but
everything actually IS moving, and you see it, but don't feel it!
That's the exact opposite of motion sickness. And one of the weirdest
messages my brain has ever sent to me. Wow.

I'm feeling the beginnings of a sore
throat coming on. But other than that, I feel fine...... Wheeee! The
time spent at the ward members'  home was very fun! 
It was great. We showed them a Mormon
message about forgiveness. It's called "forgiveness: my burden was
made light." And then we shared the scripture Moroni 7:45-48. I
recommend you all watch that video as well! It's great! Anyway, now we
are finally back at the apartment. That was a long car ride. It took
about the equivalent of going from Orem to Lehi, except that there
were a lot more twists and turns, hills of ups and downs, and since
it's been so long since I've been in a car for more than twenty
minutes, I got that feeling that reminded me I sometimes get carsick.
Haha, but I was okay. We had somen for dinner... HAHAHAAAAA!!!!!
Whenever I tried to write somen, the auto-correct in my iPad always
changed it to women!!!! It thinks we ate women for dinner!... Yikes.
Anyway, yeah we had somen for dinner. It was delicious.

Monday:

It started raining as we came
back from doing shopping, and it now sounds like it has become rather
heavy. Yikes. Well, what better time than now to finally take a
picture of the view from the apartment? 

Maryandra got to experience some refreshing rain on the evening of doing splits with another sister from Tama.  They also went to the entrance of Hello Kitty Land.  Yes, it really does exist!!!

In the meantime, she is getting along pretty well with her companion of 2 weeks, Sister Tachibana.

Apparently the missionaries have a goal to make at least 13 contacts per day of proselyting. Here are a few excerpts from Maryandra's e-mail. 

Friday:

YES! YES YES YESSSSSSSS!!!!!! WE FINALLY DID IT!!!! 13 people! And almost all of them were amazing! Yes! I'm so proud of tachibana Shimai for gambarruing (hanging in there)! She's been working really hard since she got better, and we have done a good job today! It's been great! It was really hot though, unlike yesterday, which made it difficult and unpleasant, but we still did it! It was soooo great! I'm so proud of her! Yay!

However, I do have a concern/question. Seeing as I still haven't received the package from Curtis, there are two possibilities. One, they are holding it for some reason at the honbu. Two, the package never reached Japan because it didn't meet certain requirements and they threw it away. So, I have a few questions. Was the package in an envelope, or a box? Did it have a return address written clearly on it?

Anyway, we have a zone blitz tomorrow! I'm so excited! I'll explain more about that later. Bye!....

Saturday:

Okay, forget my worries of yesterday, because...... IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME!!!!!!!!!!!! IT FINALLY CAME!!!!!! I haven't opened it yet, but I will after I tell you a little bit about my day. First off, the zone blitz as a whole was amazing! We got 20 contacts per companionship! But before hat, on the train ride to Tama, I talked to a lady and I started the conversation by complementing her fan, and then saying that because my Fuji fan from Daiso is a little old and about to rip, I'm always complementing people on their fans, and before I knew it, she thrust it into my hands. It was just about the most awkward moment ever. But I didn't know how to refuse it, so I still have it. Whoops. I vowed that when ever that happens, I'm going to trade it for something else if they won't take it back, because it was soooo awkward. Yikes! Anyway, so yeah, lesson learned there. But at the zone blitz, we got split into pre-assigned groups to do a certain part of dendo ( housing, streeting, or kubari) with our family history papers and packets. I first got to go and house with my dear oldie companion, Funakura Shimai! It was great catching up on old times! She said that my Japanese has gotten so much better, and she said I have a lot of confidence! It was so great to hear that from her, because she was always getting after me for it in Hachioji:)

Then Maryandra told us about how much she loved the gifts from her brother Curtis!

Sunday:

We got to go to a member family's home, and we had a great time, as expected. For our short message, We shared 1 nephi 3:7. I talked about how at first when I was thinking of a mission, I was really really scared, but through reading the scriptures and finding verses like this, I was able to gain the courage I needed to come here to Japan, and how it's a good thing I did, because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have met them, etc. and how even though we don't know everything, Heavenly Father does, and He knows what's best for us. It was a great time! They are just a great family! Love them to death! But the return bike ride was a little scary at first, because we legitimately got lost, and it was dark, and we had to ride on this highway-like road for a while. Thank goodness there weren't many cars, but it was scaaaaaryyyy! And I was sweating so hard when we finally got home that my hair felt like it had just come out of a thunderstorm. Naaaaaaastyyyyyyyy!!!! So I took a good long shower as soon as we finished daily planning. But yeah, that's pretty much all that happened. Well, see ya tomorrow y'all!... 

Tuesday:

Well, okay. I've been wondering since yesterday if I have a sinus infection coming on, and now my stomach has become rather upset. And there's all these itchy bumps on my legs from I don't know what. I hope I'm not getting one of those random sicknesses again, like with the hives or hat throat thing I had one time. Great. But I'm still going to go to the temple! Nothing can keep me away! Im probably not feeling well because of stress or something. But it's not been an easy time lately, dendo (proselyting) wise. In most other aspects of life, everything is fine. Just the most important part is struggling like none other. It's the weirdest thing ever. But I hope we make it on time to the ten o'clock session! I always hate when we just make it. I've never yet missed one, and I never intend to. . . But I hope you guys have been enjoying your week! I can't wait to see all of your emails! Love you all! See you next week!

Miller Shimai

Here is Maryandra and her new companion, and a ward member!  It was a long, hot week!
She is slowly but surely getting to know her companion better, but they sometimes don't agree
on how to spend their proselyting time.

Wednesday:
Well, so far we managed to talk to 7 people before tachibana Shimai
needed a break. That's almost a record! :s anyway, I found that she
doesn't like housing, kubarikai, or any other method of outside dendo
besides streeting. And this season is not a streeting time, because
it's so hot and everyone's inside. So, logically, it would be a good
idea to house. We go and look for a good place to dendo. I get the
feeling we need to house, and so I say so. I gently persuade her
that it's a good idea, because NOBODY is on the street, they are all
inside, so it would be good to at least try... I'm keeping her happy by
mostly letting her count the contacts today. Meh....
... I enjoyed myself with her all day right up until it
was time to go and dendo. We talked about all kinds of stuff, from
studio ghibli to the bones we/our family members have broken, and it
was really fun. So, I think we would be good friends.

Saturday:
Actually, yesterday went pretty well after that. Tachibana Shimai felt
well enough to go and do more dendo, and we managed a total of nine,
so that's good, and after that, we went and had dinner with bishop
toriumi and his family. His three rambunctious boys are a combination
of our boys and the Mickelson boys, so it was a very enjoyable
experience. Maybe a little uresai, but still, quite fun. Oh, and I
forgot to mention that a bird pooped on my shirt just as we were
heading out of the church to go and do dendo. So we headed right back
to the church to fix it. I'm just glad it didn't poop anywhere else on
me:/ but I did take a few pictures, so I will send those to you. I
think that bird must have been constipated or something, because it
didn't splat like it normally would, so I was glad.






..... Wow, I am actually really physically exhausted! We managed to
work really hard today, and we have 11 or so meaningful contacts.
Unfortunately, none of hem were as meaningful as we would have liked,
but we did a lot of shop dendo, because it's rainy today, and neither
of us wanted to be outside. We went to a shopping mall in hashimoto to
get a birthday gift for a sister who just had a birthday. We got her a 
teeny tiny little totoro toy. Man, I can't
tell you how tempting it was to buy a big one for myself, but I was
smart, and didn't. You would be proud of me, I'm actually learning to
budget money Anyway, I'm glad we worked a lot. In only 3 or 4 hours,
we talked to eleven people. Yay! But I really do wish some of those
contacts were actually meaningful. A lot of the time, we're just
running around so we can account for our stats, which kind of stinks.
I can see why we have it, but it's really annoying sometimes, and
sometimes I find myself thinking more of the numbers than the people.
Yikes! But I'm always trying to work on that! Well, we

may be getting another typhoon in the next few days, since all the
rain that's been happening the last two days off and on, so I'll hold
on and be safe. I was gonna say I'll let you know, but you won't even
get this till Monday, so I'm just gonna stop right there before I make
myself look like an idiot But if anything else fun happens, I'll be
sure to let you guys know about it! Love you all! Bye!...
Monday:
Whoa, I can't believe it! My eight month mark as a missionary, and my
six month mark since coming to Japan! Whaaaaaaaat?!?! Honestly, I
never really thought I would make it this far. But I have, which is a
tremendous relief for me, and I feel like I can keep going. In one
month, I'll be....TWENTY?!?!?!?!?!?!? 0.0 what the heck? I sure don't
feel like it. But it stinks, because my birthday just happens to be on
transfer day:/ poo. But we will see what happens on that day. So, what
with today being pday and all, we are going to Kunitachi area, and we
will be having a birthday party for a ward member, with eating
tonkatsu, and making jewelery, and such. I hope I can make a lot of
fun jewelery. Tachibana Shimai showed me the really cool ones she
made, which made me really excited! I can't wait! Well, I don't think
I have anything more to say until the actual event, at which we will
also do emails, so I will see you later! Bye!
..... Kay, now we are in Kunitachi, about to start our jewelery making
party! I'm excited to see how this is done, because it's way cool,
mom! I want to try and do it with you sometime! It's the funnest! If I
end up making anything hat actually looks good, I'll send you the
photo, along with the other ones I'm sending! Love you! 
Miller Shimai

Maryandra had to say good bye to Sister Evans (the one in the blue dress), and hello to Sister Tachibana, of whom we have no photo yet!  She is thrilled to stay in Sagamihara, and loves the members and investigators there!  Some talented members drew these fun mini we's of the missionaries after conversation class this week, and everyone got a kick out of them!!!  Here are some excerpts from Maryandra's e-mails this week!
Tuesday:

We did a lot of visiting, today,

and went to that cute little pink clinic for the last time! I tried
not to focus on it of course, but the show on the big screen there was
about the different kinds of ancient Catholic Churches, and I noticed
that one of them is built exactly like he kingdom in Tangled! It was
way cool! Just slightly less colorful, because it's so old. Anyway,
random facts aside, we are now back safely at the apartment so that
Evans Shimai can do her packing:( Sad day. But oh well. Anyway, hope 

y'all are having a great time over there! Love ya! 

Thursday:
Sorry, I didn't get a chance to tell you more about yesterday, but we
had a goodbye party at eikaiwa for all those who were leaving, and we
all got a cool surprise when these nice artistic sisters turned the white
board around, and we saw that they had drawn all of our faces on the
board, so we took pictures with our "mini we's" and I will send them
to you. After that, we returned to the apartment, and we got packing
done and stuff.

Sunday:

Well at least Tachibana's a hard worker. We already have two or
three appointments with members set up because of her. I'll admit, I
don't like her cleansing of the area books and such, but it's just
gonna take some adjusting, I think. But anyway, the rest of the day was
better. I think the only thing that caught me by surprise was that a
nihonjin(Japanese person) has the capacity to be more sarcastic than an American. I
have never met anyone so sarcastic. 
But oh well. Oh, and I forgot to tell you this, but tachibana shimai's
dad served in the Fukuoka mission, and her mom served in the Sapporo
mission! What an interesting switch up, huh? I doubt that you or dad
ever met her parents, but if you did that's cool. Inoue Shimai and
tachibana choro? Ring a bell at all? Probably not, but still a cool
coincidence, huh?

And Maryandra closed her letter still trying to get used to her new companion!