Going to the Grocery + Pictures from Summer

Ok so I think I'm resisting the culture here a little bit. It's tiring to go outside my apartment and see how every single person I see is so meticulously dressed up. Sigh. I miss my car because I can hide my appearance from point A to point B. For example, let's say I just wanted to go to Safeway (Oh how I miss Safeway, and the amazing cereal aisle), I could just change my pj shorts into a pair of jeans hanging around my room, and then walk out in some flip flops, put on sunglasses and just drive to Safeway, and spend 15 minutes in there, and drive back home. And nobody would care how I look (well because it's America) and I could sit comfortably semi hidden in my car, and with the sunvisor down, I would be more hidden...Lol and I just miss my car :( OH but today when I went out to the local grocery store...I had to walk of course, and it's like a 13ish minute walk there. And I just wore my bball shorts, a tank top, and just tossed a short sleeve jacket thing on and walked there in my flip flops, because I'm thinking like oh whatever, it's just the local grocery store, nobody will care, and who cares anyways if I'm not all decently dressed - I'm not! But walking there I start noticing, hrm I dont ever see anyone wearing basketball shorts just walking around...and then I start noticing how pretty people are looking, all done up and matching with make up...and I just look like an American college bum student. Sigh. I miss casual Southern California.

Welps, here are some pictures! The first ones are from climbing Mt. Fuji and the last one is from when my folks from Irvine Baptist Church visited me! :)

Trying to Focus

Hi. So the interns are all gone, and the next phase of my term here is starting. It's going to be in transition mode for the rest of this month I believe. My supervisors will be leaving at the end of the month, which I'll be so sad about! Of course we have great interim supervisors who will be taking charge, but getting used to a different leadership style takes time. The rest of this month is also a rest/take a breath/catch up with life sort of time. We will be meeting with high interest contacts/friends for this time, but it's not real pursuing like it was in the summer. It's much more humane. lol.

I don't know why, but I've been having trouble focusing lately. I get really lethargic and drowsy during really important times, and i don't want to depend on coffee to get me through the day :( so I try to stay away from that stuff as much as possible. Perhaps it's because there are too many people to worry about/pray about/to spend time with, so it's all just a big mess in my head. My head feels really unorganized, and I'm trying to get it organized through tangible means, such as writing info on slips of paper, but then when I try to start a system, I forget and then I start another one, and pretty soon I end up with 5 systems i started which I keep forgetting about anyways lol! I think I need prayer in this area...like that I can have a clear head, to organize my ministry here, and to actually get things done I'd say.

Today there were 5 Japanese people at church today :) It was good. I wondered if it'd be awkward without the interns and because my supervisors are transitioning out, but it was actually fine! We got to have worship for the first time in Y-san's house. So we moved from a karaoke church to a Japanese believer's home! She offered her home, and yay it was great :)

3 career missionaries and now 1 journeyman, all on my team, are sick. With some flu. So 3 missionaries were out of church today. I hope I don't get sick!!!

Thank you for reading :)

Wow can't believe it's August. sayonara to the interns/walking with Christ/P.R./Mt. Fuji result

Wowowow I can't believe it's August!!! August 7th will be my 4th month here, and 1/4 of my term (bc of the 2 months of training)!!! wow....

Yea, so summer is coming to an end, and tonight we had the sayonara party for the Go Tokyo interns (6 week program). It made me so sad to see people I'm starting to get to know better get ready to leave. It also made me sad because they will be able to get back to Express, American Eagle, Mexican Food, Prime rib...hahaha...however but a friend reminded me it is good because then they can move on to their next stage in life :). Yes it is good, and God will continue to grow them and draw them closer to Himself.

Talking about getting closer to God, honestly, I think I am on the verge of something...on the verge of getting completely blown away by God, or on the verge of a downward spiral...I know some of the core reasons why - I have been slacking on spending time in His Word and taking time to pray about things I need to be praying about, and I'm starting to depend on my own strength, which will leave me broken in the end...these will sound like excuses, and actually they probably are I'm just not completely accepting it right now though hehe, but i have no time!!! i have 23 unread messages in my facebook inbox, and i'm not even going to mention the notifications bar on the bottom right corner of facebook...my regular gmail has untouched emails also, oops i just realized my business email account has been overlooked too...yikes...i have no time!!! and when i do get home a bit earlier (which is like 10pm for me these days) my free time is spent on quickly browsing through my emails, doing mindless things like listening to music or talking with my roommates, or opening up my Bible...but not really searching through it and putting His messages into my heart. No excuse no excuse - my walk with Christ is the most important thing ne? why the heck am i here in the first place anyhoo right? i am so needy, i am, and i know only God can fill my needs, except I need constant reminding of this...

there are a lot of people/contacts I need to be following up on...please be praying about this for me and the rest of my team that will be remaining here...

also i didn't get to climb to the top of mt. fuji. i know i suck. ahhh. i do regret it although it was so hard. i wonder if ill be doing it again next summer to try to make it to the top again hehehe...

i think my parents will be visiting me in 2 1/2 months or something. yay!!

tell me if you are willing to buy me american supplies and then mail them to me...

and tell me if my English is getting bad. please correct me. i need to know!! haha