Sunscreen, Conference Sessions, and Senile Sweethearts

This past week flew by! It's been a sunny couple of days mixed in with some rain storms. Its super interesting to see how far Japanese people go to prevent getting any sun burn or tan. Even my companion, who is naturally pretty dark, puts sunscreen on her feet and hands and face each day before we go outside because she wants to stay as light as possible. And pretty much all Japanese people use skin whitening soap. It's such an opposite from America where all anyone wants is to be tan. It's funny the slight culture differences that exist in other parts of the world. Conference this past weekend was SOOO GOOD! I just wish it would have been like 4 times as long as it was. I was so sad when it ended. I really loved Elder Hollands very first talk about standing up for what we believe with courtesy and courage. I've come to the realization that one reason I'm here in Japan is because people are extremely polite and kind even when they have no interest. Let's just say that if I had someone spit their food at me or throw potatoes at the back of my head, I don't think I would be able to be very Christ-like. God knew I could only handle somewhere like Japan. I also LOVED Thomas S. Monson's talk about Charity as well as that one talk, I don't remember his name, but the one that talked about our 4 minutes. This life truly is shorter than we realize, and we've gotta prove ourselves now! There's not enough time to procrastinate until the end because we really just don't know when that will be. Every single day, every hour, matters. It made me really want to cherish my time here more than I am. This past weekend we went housing in a nearby neighborhood, knocked on the door of an old woman who let us in and gave us some drinks. At first we were super excited to talk to her and see what kind of potential she might have as a new investigator, however, in the first 4 minutes when she asked us 3 times if we had already eaten dinner, and then kept trying over and over to give us more food, we realized that she probably wasn't 100 percent there. So after explaining to her that we had to leave, she told us that she would come with us, and walked out the door with us. Not knowing exactly what to do, we walked down the street a little bit and told her we were going to talk to someone else and thanked her for walking with us. She still wouldn't go back home. She insisted on following us. We couldn't just leave her, nor could we exactly bring her with us to do finding, so we ended up walking around with her for probably 40 minutes trying all sorts of methods to get her to go back home. Eventually we just walked back to our bikes with her, got on them and told her we had to go home. We then biked away, and looked back and watched her make her way back home. Just thought I would add that experience to let you know some of the strange experiences we have on a day to day basis. Japan is great. My companion is great, and this gospel is perfect. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter this Sunday! Continue to pray for the people of Japan and the missionaries! Arigatou Gozaimasu! Wells Shimai