Week 29 - Akashi, Japan

Hey, so General Conference! WHEW!!! Now I`m just so sad it`s over! It was good, since my area is in the Kobe Stake we went up to the Kobe stake center (which is where the mission home is located) to watch it. It was way fun to see so many missionaries there, and also I got to meet Utsumi Shimai`s family!!! They were way nice! Also this is amazing, one of my investigators from Kichijoji, Megumi san, moved down to Kobe after the earthquake to stay with a friend while things calm down in Tokyo. I knew she was going down to Kobe but didn`t know where. Anyway she ended up coming to General Conference all by herself!!!! She hasn`t had contact with any members since the earthquake (she moved and got a new phone because her old one broke, so nobody was able to contact her) but she heard about it and looked up where she could watch it online and then just came!!! Amazing, huh! If I hadn`t been there and seen her nobody would have known she wasn`t a member and she could have just come and gone unnoticed! Miracle!

Today for P-day we`re going to do a little sight-seeing. We`re headed up to Kyoto right after this. Kyoto is where the old capital is and it`s known for it`s beauty. Probably if you`ve seen any pretty pictures of Japan, they`re from Kyoto! So that should be fun and since the cherryblossoms have started blooming, and apparently today is the `peak` of their bloom it should be gorgeous as well!

Kohatsu shimai and I: companions for a short while, but I was able to still learn a lot about faith and diligence from her

A bunch of rental futons that the mission had to get, the night before we left. Missionaries were sleeping all over the church and mission office floor the night before we left for our new missions.

How we found out where we would be going.

President Albrecht and I right before I got on the bus to leave.

All of us headed to Kobe on the bus ride down.

The Akashi missionaries. Sister Murdock is the one next to me.

My new area: Akashi, farmland with large clusters of house/apartments in between. You can`t see it too well in the picture but right behind me are tons of fields and those houses were pretty far away.

Working on the farm.

My district and President and Sister McIntyre when they came down for interviews, she baked us Easter cookies.

Megumi san and I, with a lovely cherryblossom tree behind us.

Utsumi Shimai`s family and Gantumur shimai, who also lived with us. :) Oh and my zone leader popping in in the back.

Anyway hope you all are having a fabulous week!

Love you all,

Sister Benne