I made it there on time, but by the time I changed into my church clothes I was a minute or two late. :/ Oops! I will get ready earlier next time! They read my name in this week and I was officially welcomed and became part of the ward. YAY! I was invited to the stand after Sacrament to do a short self-introduction and to bear my testimony. I did the self-intro myself (other than the word, "oldest"), and then Elder Preston translated my testimony. In my self-intro (jikoshokai) I said, "I am called Ann Carlisle. I am from the US, California and Utah. My family is big. I'm number one! (I was trying to say that I was the oldest, so then I turned to Elder Preston and said, "Oldest?" And he translated.)" I think that's it. Then I bore my testimony. I can't remember everything I said but I can bear another testimony! - I know that my Savior lives and I am grateful for His sacrifice for me. I know I was supposed to come to Japan. I bear testimony that my Heavenly Father is aware of me personally. I love the gospel! - and closed. :) Elder Preston sat next to me and translated the meeting for me. I'm grateful for that! (mmm)
Then I went to RS. It was nice and since they had given me a Lorenzo Snow lesson book in English I had been able to read the lesson beforehand. (GREAT lesson - #7 on trials.) I could tell by heading placement and paragraphs where they were reading so I was able to follow along. They even asked me to read twice. :) - In English. I was very touched at how hard they tried to include me. It was hard not to let my mind wander when people were making comments. I was trying to listen and then I would find myself thinking about whatever. So I would pull myself back to the moment.
When RS finished I pulled out 8 peanut butter cups that I had left over from my omiyage to give to the sisters. They were all so pleased and grateful. I was hoping they would take it as thanks for them inviting and including me. But no, I triggered that, "Must give back." *facepalm* I felt really badly as one sister pulled out cookies and shared then gave the rest of the box to me. I didn't know how to turn it down politely. I mean cookies are great and all, but they were HER cookies and I felt badly taking them. Then I received more apples from another family who also owns an apple orchard (and I found out that the ones who do live near the Choukaku shien!). THEN, my home teacher came in and was talking to me. He saw the chocolates and made some remark about them. So I dug in my bag and brought one out for him. They all exclaimed, "Ruki! Ruki!" (lucky) And I'd only brought 10 so ya.. Then he leaves and comes back with this weird cheese snack. Maybe they were all planning on sharing food anyway but I feel like I obligated them to do so and that wasn't my aim at all. :c They've already given me so much! I was trying to give back. It's like some twisted game to get even. *shakes head woefully* AARGH!
After that I hung out a little bit with the ward members and got to know them a little better and tried to talk myself into going to this cooking class I had said I would attend. I love to cook and it's run by a group that tries to get together English speakers and Japanese people who want to learn English so ya... It was at .. Aiina. LOL I told myself I would go so I finally got up the guts to get going and looked up a route to Aiina from the church. Off I went on my bike (after changing back into pants). Ya.. I got fairly lost. Following the navigation while on my bike is a joke! However I just made it reroute me. I actually only had to do that once so that's good. Then I got to a part of town I recognized. My long bike ride yesterday was a blessing in disguise! I came to that side of town and knew exactly where I was. My route directed me another way in which I would be able to take my bike all the way to Aiina but I felt more comfortable doing what I had done the day before. I parked my bike outside the station and walked through it to get to the upper part of town and then Aiina. I was 30 minutes late, but I made it!
When I walked in (I got directions from the front desk - thank goodness the mean girl wasn't there), they asked me if I wanted to do meat or veggie. I said either so they put me with a veggie group. Angel (one of our Interac guys) was in that group so we got to catch up. He knows some sign and it was nice to just be able to speak about whatever I wanted. He pointed out a few guys he thought were cute and we cooked the lasagna with our group. I was able to talk to some Japanese people and message someone back home. It was a really nice experience. The class was slated to go from 1300-1700 but my home teachers were coming at 1700 so I wanted to leave by 1600 to get home with enough time to do some prep work. Our lasagna finished right at 1600 so I ended up leaving at 1610 so I could eat a piece. It was delicious! The noodles were premade for us, but homemade. And one REALLY cool thing? Tofu all the water squeezed out plus salt, pepper, oregano, miso, spinach (cooked), and garlic spun up in a food processor was like a creamy spinach-oregano ricotta. Sooo good. So our lasagna ended up looking like this when it was finished:
 |
| Our vegetarian lasagna |
After they left, I washed my dishes and then sat down to eat some dinner (miso, mmm) and read a bit. Then I wrote this post. I will now get my stuff back together for tomorrow (lay out my clothes, put my stuff back in my bag, etc), probably read a little more then go to bed. Today was a good day. :) It was perhaps busier than any Sunday I've had since the mission, but I am telling myself to be thankful as I have many blessings and things for which to be thankful. Next weekend I will see some friends for Hanami and go to a ward party a week from tomorrow so there isn't much "relaxing" time in my future, but I am happy to be busy and not think on what I wrote in RS. -They asked us to write our trials on a piece of paper and I wrote: loneliness. Today I was not lonely and I'm so grateful to a Father in Heaven who puts people in my life who I can help and people who can help me. <3
Funny moments:
I realized when I was dressing that I was in BIG trouble. To bicycle to church, I had decided to wear pants. The members last week were saying that's what I should do so I wasn't feeling too awkward about the whole thing. I have 2 pairs of pants that aren't slacks. One pair is my Black Ops ones that I wore ALL the time at home but here I can't because I have to wear slacks. The other is my jeans. Since it was raining, I went with jeans. I put them on then they starting sliding down. I've lost enough weight now that this coming Saturday, I HAVE to get a belt. I considered tucking my jeans into my tights that's how badly they were falling down. However, I had wearing tights going for me as they are a bit... stickier? They hold to other fabrics. Needless to say, there were a few nearly identical experiences to the one I had when I was 12. (When my pants fell down in an intersection while I was walking my bike across the street.) Eep! I got pictures of my figure at the church to prove it and they are below.
When they had me stand up to welcome me to the ward, I had been asked to do a self-intro. I wasn't sure if it was yet so when they all welcomed me, I didn't sit back down. LOL I started to make as if I were going to go to the front and the sister sitting next to me was like, "No no! Sit down." Only in Japanese - and that's just a guess at what she said. But she was waving me back and looking panicked. LOL Whoops.
Also a funny moment I forgot from last Friday - I mentioned I had met some of the elementary and jhs students at lunch time. One of the elementary students came up to me and shook my hand then said to her friend, "Ookiii!" -She was saying my hands were big. I nodded and made a face of commiseration. She then was startled as she didn't think I would be able to understand what she had said. :D
[photos removed]
You HAVE lost a lot! Take care of yourself!
ReplyDeleteI am! Doesn't it show? ;)
Delete