Greg's E-mail

Last week I emailed on Tuesday, so I will continue from there in the things that are going on. It was kind of a tough week in a lot of ways, but a very good week in a lot of other ways. We had three appointments with people fall through, which was way hard. One of those was Imai-san. She went to Nagoya to visit her brother who works down there, but when she got to his apartment and knocked, nobody was home. When she called him, he totally forgot she was coming, and had picked up an extra work appointment/meeting that night. She was really devastated. That night we called her and she asked us to share our favorite Book of Mormon scriptures, and our number one favorite scripture about Christ to cheer her up. I shared the beginning of Mosiah, and 3 Nephi 12 for each topic relatively. It is amazing to see someone run to the scriptures as their first relief from a worldly issue, before they are ever baptized!

This weekend, we also had another appointment with Rumiko-san, and we did a sweet personality test by drawing a tree with fruit on it. The existance of roots, what kind of fruit you drew, how thick the trunk was, and whether you could see the top of the tree on the paper were all fundamental aspects of your personality. Apparently I'm a very self-stabilizing person, with clear goals, but I have a need to share myself with others too much. I thought that was mostly accurate.

Also, Uncle Reo came to church in Gifu this week. He called Mission President and asked for permission, then was able to Google Map directions and ask people along the way. It was a pretty neat experience for both of us, and I got a lot of neat advice and heard some stories I hadn't heard before. He took some pictures with us, so you will likely see those soon, if you haven't already.

LeeAnne is doing well, she was expecting (hoping for) her mission call this weekend, but it didn't come. She is working hard (as usual, she is way good about that) and preparing to serve. Sounds like she is about halfway through the Book of Mormon, and is getting pretty excited about the call coming. I think she is serving Japan Fukuoka, Greenhalgh thinks she is serving Japan Sapporo, and Elder Silva-Muniz (who was in the MTC with me) thinks she is serving in Brazil. Only because he is Brazilian. Guess we will find out next week!

I guess the last interesting thing is our dinner we had at the Bishop's house last night. It was kind of a practice family home evening/planning session. Multiple members here are starting to do monthly 'open' family home evenings, where anyone can come and bring friends, etc, and we are training them on how to do it. It is going to be way fun. Before it gets too much colder, we are going to teach the kids how to play capture the flag one FHE night, and they are all going to bring a couple friends, and we are going to bring two of the people we are teaching. It should be great fun, and a good way for nonmembers to realize we aren't as strict and weird as people think we are.

Anyway, that's really all I have for these week. I still need to reply to Derek/Jacob/Kathryn etc, so I'm going to do those quick before time runs out. Love you all, and thanks for keeping in touch! Talk to you soon!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan