Dear Dad,

I spoke with one of my very favorite mission companions on the phone the other day.

Do you remember Sister Suzuki?

And how much trouble we had at the beginning?

And how I begged the mission president for a transfer and he refused?

And he told me I needed to pray for charity?

So, I did.

We got on just like peas and carrots after that.

Anyway, she's been living with her husband in America for the past six years.

With a recent move from Provo to Tuscon and therefore, a general decrease in population of Japanese speakers, she's really had to focus on learning English.

Bless her heart.

We spoke for a little less than an hour and 95% of the conversation was in very slow but mostly correct English.

It was the cutest thing ever.

She kept telling me how hard English is and I kept telling her I understood because I'd had to learn Japanese in Japan without ever knowing any before I went there and she said that she appreciated that a lot more now than she did back then.

Toward the middle of the conversation she was telling me that her mother had passed away earlier this year.  And how much she misses her.  And how sometimes her four-year-old daughter sees her mother and how sometimes she can hear her mother's laugh.

I told her about you.  And my dreams.

Then she said this, "OH!  Neff chan!  I sink your faza and my maza ah communication in heaven!  Maybe zey ah communication about us, I sink!"

So, if you see Sister Suzuki's mama up there, please say hello. 

And if you're feeling like it, go ahead and communication about us.  But only good stuff, please.

Love,