Once month down, one to go :)

Once month. 

Wow. So crazy! God is so good!! :) 

Sooooo, what has happened in the past 2 weeks? I don't even know. hahah

Saturday I went with Rosie, Abbi, and Yuuki chan to Shibuya and a few other places. We went to the busiest intersection in the world, I believe. It as a starbucks overlooking it, and every 5-8 minutes all traffic stops to allow hundreds of people to cross in all directions. We went on it several times-SO fun!! hahah! We visited a 7-story Forever21, where I purchased several adorable on-sale shirts, about 1/4 the price I'd find in America. You don't find loose and flowy chiffon blouses very often for $12 now, do you? :) We went there, did purikura, and then went to 109, a CRAZY mall. The styles are insane. Ridiculous things. And the ladies who work there compete in welcoming you the loudest with the most ridiculous nasal voices ever. Ew. lol But it was fun to walk through!  After that, we grabbed a bite to eat at a corner restaurant, met a Japanese girl who attended highschool in Aspen, Colorado, had the best American accent ever, and talked like Hannah Montana. It was crazy. lol! We visited Hiroshima, and then went back happy people. Abbi and I walked into the Noborito church to find Wam and Yuki's shoes in the shoe floor. We looked for them. Nothing. Oooookay....I went up to try on my shirts again (I love re-trying things on once I'm home. Happiest feeling ever!!), grabbed leftover spaghetti, orange juice, and Abbi, and headed back down. Abbi and I were talking, and suddenly I look over a few rooms down and I see a guy sleeping on the nursery floor. I shriek, and we start laughing as Wam and Yuki sleepily wake up and walk over, telling us a unique tale of how Isaac abandoned them last-minute and they ended up chilling at the church alone. hahahah Boys. Gotta love them! 

On Monday, I made a trip to the Military Base in Zama. Or at least...well, yeah. I got directions from one of the guys at Fuse on that Sunday, and directions from another lady, too. So I had 2 sets of different directions. I get out of the station I'm told to go to, and ask a police officer were 'Zama base' is. He pointed somewhere, so I follow. I walk. and walk. and turn around and walk the other way for a bit. I walk around the block, and across various intersections. Finally I go back to the station and walk around for a bit...I wasn't going to go to that officer again. I walk by the bus ticket station, so I ask the guy where 'Zama base' is. He tried to sell me a bus ticket. Okay. So I keep walking and finally see police bikes, and find the police station. It was more of an oversized box room thing. I go in and ask the man sitting at a desk, and he pulls out a map. YESSSS!!!! He shows me in broken english, and pulls out another map with actual english words on it! Huuuzzaaaaaah! So I walk about 15-20 minutes down a road, and next to the fence, and once I see the security gate entrance, I get super excited. I show my military ID, and pop in. Oh.my.gosh. American things. I seriously burst into tears while I was walking to the commissary.  For those of you who don't know, I grew up a military child. We went to the base somewhat often for many things, so walking around and seeing men and women in uniform, seeing military sports practicing/drilling fields, various signs and posts in english, and American shops to go into, plus American women at the store, made me cry. It was a blessing. So I was able to grab a bunch of groceries for about $10-15 cheaper than regular stores, because of the military discount a Commissary and Exchange store gets, and I packed the items into a bag for cold foods. Thank goodness I had it. It was HEAVY. SO heavy. every step was agony. I wished I had a strong man with me every step. Literally. So walking back 15-25 minutes to the station, and a 10-20 minute ride and walk back to the Noborito church just about exhausted me...hahah Oh well. I got groceries I've wanted since I came here, and God gave them to me for way less than I expected! :) 

Tuesday was pretty rough for the first half of the day. I cannot remember why it was so rough, but I just remember being down at the breakfast missionaries meeting, hating every moment. From people asking about my commissary trip, to 7-year-old missionary daughter Emmaly constantly tapping me when I was talking to adults. Aaaaaah. I was close to tears. After prayer, I quickly helped with dishes and headed to my room. Sobbing. Yeah. I really wanted to spend the entire day lost in my Bible and prayer. Unfortunately, I was called 10-15 minutes later to go to the Fuse meeting, but God helped cheer me up through that. 

Wednesday, Wam, Yuuki, and Yuki and I went to the bus station to see Isaac off as he left from his year-long missions trip here, returning to his home in Colorado. After that, Yuuki chan (the girl!!) came back to Noborito church with me. I let her have a bag of my cereal I got from the Commissary (Cinnamon Toast Crunch-a classic!), and she and Abbi and I went for a walk to the riverside where we sat and talked about girl things. about life, visiting each other once Abbi and I left, and also about Yuuki's experience with the Bible she got on Sunday!!!!!! Oh my goodness it made my day seeing her get her first Bible in English and Japanese!! <3  It was wonderful!! But she talked about how she has been reading it every day, and her life, since she met us, has been changing for the better. !!!!!!! We eagerly told her to just ask any questions she had about it. Biblical information found in the Bible is hard to understand for people who have never even heard of Jesus. Not even for a swear word.  Oh, and we also talked about boys. :) Here in Japan, they don't get married till they are like, 30. But she still knows what she wants. We listen the qualities of the guy we want (tho for me, I listen the qualities my guy has. I'm waiting for him and he for me. Very blessed to be his friend and fellow servant of Christ!!), and when I was done listing mine and my little story, goodness. Yuuki was squeeling. I love girl reactions to cute stories like that. :) heeheeee 

Thursday, instead of spending my morning at language class, which I honestly would have done-I really like my teacher. bless her heart. :)  I ended up staying home and reading Bible/praying for a bit more, cause my soul was still not at rest. At 12 I joined Rosie, one of the fellow missionaries, at Keisen, a all-girl's University in Tama City, location of the Hello Kitty World. :) We visited during lunch hour, and while walking around trying to find girls to meet and talk with, we saw 4 girls looking at us and talking to themselves. Invitation right there! We headed over and it turns out they speak English! We spent the hour chatting with them, and within 15 minutes, had received an invitation to go Karaoke with them!! This is very rare for Japanese people to readily and eagerly invite strangers to something so soon. It was lovely! Those girls were adorable. :)  After that, Rosie and I checked out Tama Center, walking up to the Hello Kitty world doors. Oh.my.gosh. Ok. So that place, just the entrance, is HUGE!!! I'm not even joking. I couldn't stop staring at it with wide eyes. It was amazing. So magical and just...amazing. If I was speechless, imagine what little children must feel! hahah!  After that, Rosie left to go do things, and I ended up browsing the 100Yen shop (dollar store), and going to Shinyurigaoka's mall, OPA, where they actually ended up have at 30-5o% off sale on all the stores! So I was able to buy a bunch of gifts for people. :D There was a store that had shorts and skirts for less than 1000Yen. Which is less than $12. I wanted one SO bad. The thing is, I'm like a tiiiiny smidgen bigger than Japanese girls, so those didn't fit. :( Oh well. Afterwards at home, I recorded purchases, and was joined by Abbi, who sat on my bed and chatted with me for a bit. 

Friday morning, guess what I did. The impossible. I woke up at 5:45. Yeah. Early. Know why? I wanted to facetime my best friend. :) We talked for 2-3 hours. It was so wonderful to see his face and just chat. You have no idea.   After that. Christine (the main missionary leader's wife here) and I went to the Commissary to buy groceries for the Friday Night Dinner the Noborito church holds. Now what we didn't realize, till my mom pointed it out, was that only Military members can use ID cards for benefits. I cannot let another person purchase something under my card, and they cannot pay me back if I buy something for them. Which is great for me!! God blessed me SO much with extra funds for the trip, and I wanted to in turn be able to bless those around me! So I tried to convince her to let me buy her things, and we ended up getting her at least 6 items!! Yay!!!! Someone tell her it would make my day to do it again! hahah We got ingredients for tacos and burritos (I thought that would be a fun meal to try), and it ended up being SO heavy again. 25-35 pounds of food adds up. We ended up sharing the load, one person each grabbing a strap from that bag I had, and we made it outside the base to a bus stop. We thought we had just missed the bus, but as we were sitting down to wait 10 minutes, God blessed us with it's arrival-it was actually late! Praise God. :) So we cut about 10-20 minutes of painful carrying, by that bus. Oh my goodness! hahah  After we got home, I prepared some of the food, and went down to my room. Within an hour I developed a sore throat, a headache, and my body was killing me everywhere. The week before, one of the other girls at the church was sick, so I guess I got that. I didn't attend the dinner, and on Saturday I was feeling slightly better, so I hung out with Wam and Yuki and their friend when they stopped by, went with them for sushi (I've actually been craving it! hahah!), and watched a movie with Hugh Grant afterwards. :D :D :D My first movie since the plane!!! Aaaaaaah!!! Made my night. 

Okay, I'm going to have to end this post, since it's long, and my fingers are killing me from all the fast typing. SO much to tell! :) 

Till next time! Check back within a day or two for the next one!!