Week 4- Getting to Work

Us with President and Sister Gustafson at the Mission Home the Day After We Arrived

A View of the Volcano Before the Typhoon

A view with us.

A Wild Walk to Church in a Typhoon

 

A Nearby Historic Shrine

Looking Out Our Window During the Typhoon

Monday was preparation day and we spent some time cleaning the closets and also weeding the garden around the house.  We became good friends with little bugs and spiders and they gave us a few welts to remember them by.  Tuesday we picked up the district leader and his companion, Elders LeFrandt and Guisinger, and drove them to Taniyama, about a half an hour away, for a district meeting with two other districts, four sisters and six elders.  We learned a lot about what the missionaries are doing and some of the challenges and miracles.  Wednesday was our evening English class and Melody's class was fairly good sized, Glenn’s class was only two people, but we had some good experiences.  Thursday we made an effort to contact a couple of the people who helped us last week.  They were surprised to see us and we invited them again to church and to English classes.  Friday we walked around the parks and the shopping center downtown and greeted people.  Saturday was our afternoon English class for which we had a really good turnout.  We also had another first, as we needed gas and ventured out early in the morning to a self-serve station and asked for help filling our tank.  Simple, but scary thing!  Later at night we met a young couple who we have been teaching and took them out for ramen downtown and had a good discussion on families and the gospel.  Sunday was a big typhoon day but we walked to our meetings, missionary coordination meeting, then fast and testimony meeting, which was well attended in spite of the storm.  We had an all you can eat gyoza dinner at the branch president’s house, Kimata’s, with all the other missionaries and an investigator and new member.  They are all great people. 
So we feel like we are getting into a routine, but there are new and exciting and challenging things each day.