Loving Life!

Brooke drew this picture for someone who loves Winnie the Pooh!

Hello everyone! Im glad you're all doing great! I'm so happy I'm staying in Okegawa! And Sister Bettridge is awesome! She has a very similar personality as me so it has its challenges.... We are both very indecisive so it takes us forever to decide what we want to eat.  We've realized we both need to become more decisive people. She also likes to give massages so this will be a fantastic transfer! She's known as the Princess Missionary because she's so graceful, tall, and elegant. I love her! And to answer some questions, it is different not having a native speaker but then again I kinda like it. Whenever we would talk to people everyone would just talk to Sister Teruya because they knew she would understand but now it's pretty even and we help each other understand. Sometimes one of us gets one half of the conversation and the other gets the other half. Sister Bettridge is transfer 7 so not too far ahead of me but it's going great! Also, just a quick note, when I was at the mission home President Nagano was talking with me and he said I'm capable of training right now......Yikes.

It was hard saying goodbye to sister Teruya but I'll see her again at the temple. Lots of ward members were really sad she was leaving and it almost got to the point where it felt like they wished I was leaving instead (it probably wasn't the case but I am dramatic). But then Sister Bettridge and I went to visit the member who wasn't able to go to church for a year, Yoshi Shimai, and when she saw I was still she looked at me and said, "you're staying?!" Then she gave me the biggest hug I've ever had since I've been to Japan. I love her so much! It brought tears to my eyes knowing how happy she was I was staying.

So Olga is very hard to meet with sometimes but she has been coming to church on a regular bases. She loves church! We have been trying to set up appointments but she is busy. Finally, we realized she wants to learn how to play piano. Guess what? Sister Bettridge can play the piano! So we have an appointment with her today already to teach her and hopefully we can get some lessons in! Yay!

So very interesting miracle happened yesterday. We decided to go housing just around our apartment because Sister Bettridge's bike still wasn't here. (By the way my area is pretty big, it's kinda like if my area was Apple valley, Victorville, and Hesperia.) But we were walking and then we chose one humble looking apartment. The 3rd door
we knocked on was Ubahara San. She was this really very nice old lady and was talking with us. She eventually let us in the genkan (entry way) and brought out a meshi book (kinda like business cards, everyone uses them here in Japan and I'm getting some soon) and we looked at it and she had a bunch of meshis from missionaries! They looked pretty old and she also has an LDS version of the bible and she gave us one she had in English because she said it's too hard to study. Anyways, long story short, we think she used to be a member but became less active and moved away and is now "lost" per-say. Anyways, she knew a lot about missionaries and is kinda interesting but very sweet and we have an appointment with her later this week!

Thank you all for your love and support! I can't believe at the end of this transfer I will be half way done... Crazy! It isn't as bad as I thought being the senior area companion. It's crazy how I'm blessed to know where places are just from being there one time. It's definitely all the Spirit! I love you all so much!

Love Sister Lacey