Hi everyone!!
These weeks are starting to fly by, which really scares me. Lots of fun things happened this week yayyy!!
On Monday we went to Matsumoto Castle!!! So cool inside. The stairs were SUPER steep and there were 5 stories. I really am not sure how the old people did it. But it was lots of fun seeing a Japanese castle that was built like 400 years agoish.
On Tuesday, Takahashi Shimai and I knocked on houses for what seemed like forever with no luck. We came across a house with a cross on the door!! VERY rare in Japan. We really wanted to talk to them, but they weren't home 
very sad. So we kept going house to house. When we were walking back to our bikes we went past the house again and I was like mmm let's just try again, why not. As we were walking up this lady pulled in the drivewayyyyy. I was super excited. Even more excited when we got out of the car and spoke ENGLISH TO US AHHHHH!!!! We found out she is from the Philippines. She is Catholic and was confused on what the differences of our religions were. Testifying to her in English was one of the most satisfying things ever oh my goodness. We gave her a Pamphlet and asked if we could visit again with an English Book of Mormon and she agreed. Oh I just loved her so much. I really hope she will let us teach her.
We visited an inactive member on Wednesday and she was sooooo sweeeet. Gave us a whole bag of food and told us how much she loves the missionaries. She said she also loves the gospel, but she has been so busy and tired. We are going to try to work with her to get her active again because wow she was amazing.
On Friday we had zone conference!! It was so fun! We are the smallest zone and the last Zone Conference ever for President and Sister Chidester. We get a new mission president next month! Absolutely crazy, but I had such a good time. It was unfortunate that we were the only sisters there, the elders were kind enough though which was good.
Saturday we found another English speaking Catholic Filipino!! So exciting. We have free japanese classes at the church taught by a member and he said we would definitely come! The class consists of us 4 missionaries and another Filipino member haha. Hopefully this new guy enjoys it.
Japan Tips!!!- The Japanese people love hearing you try to speak Japanese. Even if you talk very very slow and pronounce things wrong, they will say "ใใใ" (jyozu) which means "so good!"
- Always know what days the garbage gets picked up and don't forget to take it out. Otherwise you will be left with bags of garbage for a while. Which is very unfortunate.
- Know how to throw trash away. Wash out bottles, cans, everything. The trash is organized, so pay attention to the pictures on the garbage cans.
- I know it's a lot about trash, but very important... there are hardly any trash cans in public places, so make sure you have room for your trash. And always be on the lookout for a trashcan!
That's all for this week!
I gave a talk in church yesterday! I first wrote it all in English then translated to Japanese. It was pretty short but I felt good about it. The members were all very kind and smiled real big at me, so even if I did do bad, I would not know.John 10
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
Took me a hot second, but I read this version at the pulpit..
14 ใใใใฏใใ็พ้ฃผใฒใคใใใใงใใฃใฆ、
Anyways, recently I have been loving the name "good shepherd" for Jesus Christ. We are his sheep, his little lambs, and he loves us so much. He knows each of us personally and by name. He bore ALL our burdens. That's how well he knows you. That's crazy. Imagine your best friend who can relate so well to you but times like 100,000! Imagine being able to talk to him. Oh but wait, you can!!! Prayyyy. Haha I liked that. But seriously, he can help you if you reach out to him for help. He loves you!
I love you!
Jeez this email was long, but I love you all!!
Do the emojis make the email less scary to read? I hope so. Have a great week!!
<3 Sister Peterson! 06/10/24
(The Japanese Calligraphy is from last week's email, sorry I don't really know what happened with my photos last week)
Also I got my Japanese tags!!!
