Wow!  What a great week!  I want to write all the details of everything, but there’s just not time.

Last P-day we went on a mountain hike up to a park with a giant statue with a long nose (supposed to be protector of the mountain).  They had a slide, playground area and a beautiful view up there, too.  It was pretty fun, and nice to get up in the mountains a bit.

On Friday we challenged Angel (Paul’s sister) to be baptized, but she declined because she believes her Catholic baptism counts.  The next lesson on Priesthood authority will be good.

Friday night, Kobayashi Chieko got baptized in the Chikumagawa River!  It couldn’t have been a more perfect baptism!  It’s the middle of rainy season right now (rains every day) and when it rains, the river turns brown (muddy), gets higher and flows faster, which would make the baptism dangerous.  We all prayed hard for no rain that day.  It didn’t ran a drop!  And the Lord blessed us with a beautiful sunset as a backdrop for the baptism service.  Kobayashi Shimai had also been having back problems lately and was a little worried, but as soon as she stepped into the water, her back stopped hurting!  She is so strong and happy!  She bore a wonderful testimony as well.  It just amazes me to think about how she was when we found her, and now she’s a member!  She seems so much happier now, too! : )

We go invited by our Brazilian members (Mayumi and Suzuki shimai) to go to the Tanabata festival (for gaijins).  It comes from China, used to be celebrated on July 7^th - has something to do with a prince falling in love with a princess or something.  So we went.  It was a lot of fun!  There were a lot of Japanese people there that could speak English - we gave out lots of Eikaiwa chirashis and even a Book of Mormon!  They dressed us up in kimonos, had food, sang songs, played bingo - I won some cool Japanese teki wooden doll-things - cool!  Angel came too.  It was a fun event.

Monday we had three first discussion appointments and all three got canceled.  Kind of depressing.

Tuesday we finished lesson 2 with Ken and challenged him to be baptized, but he said, “not yet.”  He’s been coming to church every week and to all the ward activities, and really likes it.  He believes the teachings but doesn’t see the need to be baptized.  We’ll keep working with him.

In the afternoon we went housing with Yaguchi shimai.  She took us to where some Brazilian’s live and I had a chance to speak Portuguese a bit.  She has a lot of f ire and really likes to dendo.

Wednesday we had DDM and Eikaiwa (one person from Tanabata festival came!). 

I love teaching this wonderful gospel!  My testimony strengthens as I do, and I get to see these people grow and change.  I love my mission!

Love,
Elder Pearce

P.S.  Yes, we did absolutely nothing for the 4^th of July.