Haha no hi

 First of all, this is where Lucy is serving!! She's on a tiny little island in the middle of the ocean!  Here is a link so you can see where she is.... Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Happy mothers day! I will be talking to some of you on the phone in a few short minutes, but I thought I would shoot out an email anyway. This week has been so busy! One of my companions, sister Lynch, left last Monday. She was a missionary from Tokyo who had been transferred to Okinawa because of the earthquake, but now that things are settled down they're finally letting the Tokyo missionaries back in so they sent her back! She was really excited but I was sad because I loved her. We were only comps for about 2 weeks but it felt like forever, haha. Our new companion is Sister Hooker and she is equally as awesome. I'm still with Sister McIntyre, and she thinks that i will "kill her," which means we'll be companions when she goes home. She only has 1 transfer left :(. She is an amazing trainer, though. I love her so much. She is such a good example and such a hard worker. She really connects with people and is way fluent at japanese. I'm learning a lot from her.

We met a lot of really cool people this week housing and streeting. We were riding our bikes under a bridge and I saw this homeless woman shuffling around, and I asked my companions if we could stop because I am kind of fascinated with homeless people, haha. Her name is Higa-san. She lives under the bridge all by herself and she is about 80 years old I think. The cool thing was that we were crouched there teaching her about Jesus and showing her a pamphlet, and little by little other people started crowding around. At one point there were about 7 people sitting there talking to her, when before nobody had even stopped to talk to her. It was a really sweet moment for me. I was glad we were able to bring people together for this little old lady. I think it brightened her day a little. Now she's our friend and she says hi to us when we ride by :).

We also found a family named the Yamakawa family housing and we were able to turn them into investigators this week, which was really exciting. She is a single mom with three little kids. They are so cute. We have another investigator named Gopeipei who is from Taiwan. She's 25 and I love spending time with her. She is really open to religions, and she came to FHE, eikaiwa, and church! Yatta!!! 

The interesting thing about Japan is that people do not let you into their houses here. Even if you have a return appointment with them they just make us stand outside and share our lesson standing in the doorway. It's very interesting. I'm always nudging my companions asking them if I can say, "is it ok if we come in??" But they say its rude here to do that so we just stand there, haha. Its ok though. I love being a missionary here, but oh man it is soooo humid! I take a freezing cold shower every morning and night because I am just drenched in sweat as soon as I step out of the door. It's pretty nasty but it sort of makes me happy because that's the image I always had of hardworking missionaries growing up. You just do what you gotta do and don't complain about it! I love riding my bike. Its hard, though, because we stop people on the street and they get really scared because there are three of us and we jump off our bikes to talk to them, haha. I love the ward members. I admire them sooo much! It is seriously so hard to be a member of the church in Japan. People work and go to school every single day of the week, including Sunday. That's one of the reasons why its difficult to keep people active. they have to go to work! It's all about consistency and contact here. When people feel the spirit when you teach them, they eventually come back to church because they realize what they're missing. Being a missionary is hard but I love it!! I'm trying my best to learn Japanese. They speak so fast here!

Ok I think I'm going to get a call soon. I love you all!! Write me some DearElders or letters please!!!

Love, Sister Tingey