Transfer 3-Week 4: December 17, 2012

皆様おはいようございます！

今日はちょっと。。。仏じゃないけれでも楽しいと思う。

LOL!  Kay, I totally just started writing that without completely thinking about it. Sorry.  I've been writing too many emails in Japanese lately!   Also, last night we had exchanges and I was with Oseki姉妹 who is a Nihonjin.  I'm still switching out of my Japanese brain into English.  Forgive any random grammer/spelling mistakes today... :-)

 

So this week was rather rough... Everyone is right. Every single part of your mission is hard. Everything. The longer you're out in the field the more those difficulties change. They don't necessarily get harder or easier, they just change.  My first two transfers were really hard because of the whole not understanding what was going on and just feeling like I couldn't do anything right... This transfer has been hard because now that I kind of have a hang of what missionary life is like, it hurts more when we get rejected. :/  I've been searching through my journal for something super positive and amazing to share this week, but the fact is all of the big things that happened this week weren't really positive things so let me start off by clarifying: I'm totally fine.  I'm not letting this get to me. :-) 

 

Yamamoto:

Last week I wrote about the revelation that I got from D&C and I think I briefly mentioned that I was able to talk to 9 people about the gospel... I didn't tell you guys about who I talked to though! Right before the huge earthquake last week, we were handing out Eikaiwa flyers an eki.  There was this man there who was kind of looking at me funny... that's normal.  Well, I gave him a flyer and he sorta wandered off a little and read the flyer.  A couple minutes later he walked up to me and started asking a bunch of questions about Eikaiwa, and then he started asking questions about the church.  I got his contact information and we arranged to meet at the Urayasu eki before church so we could go together the next Sunday! Woo! :-)

However, before that Sunday came Wednesday, Eikaiwa.  Since this man (named Yamamoto) had an interest in Eikaiwa as well, I decided to call him and invite him to Eikaiwa.  He agreed and said he'd come!  Not just that, but HE CAME!  He was afraid to enter the chruch though.  He called us from outside the church and said "I can't come in, but I'm here."  We went outside and we were like "It's okay!  It's safe!  Come in!"  So we went in together.  This is when things kind of took a turn for the worst.

It turns out he had misunderstood why we'd invited him to come.  He thought that we were going to be having a lesson with him about the church, not Eikaiwa.  We told him that we could have a lesson after, and he said he liked that idea. So he went to the beginning english class... In the middle, he got up and stormed out of the church saying he couldn't believe it.  We called him after Eikaiwa to find out what happened... He basically chewed me out saying he couldn't believe I tricked him into coming to Eikaiwa and how I lied to him and he could never trust the missionaries, etc. etc. etc.  I apologized over and over again, but we haven't been able to get hold of him since then.  It was rough... Luckily, I have wonderful sweet amazing Lundy shimai who is beautifully amazing!!!! She really helped me not to take it too personally. :-)

 

Helen:

So, Helen is supposed to be baptized this coming Sunday... We haven't been able to contact her since last Wednesday. :/ She's been feeling really sick and she's really struggling with the Word of Wisdom... So it's looking like she's not going to be baptized this week after all... The most depressing part of that is that in 2 weeks, I'll likely be transferring out of Urayasu and I won't be able to teach her anymore... I'm praying that Heavenly Father keeps me here in Urayasu for just one more transfer.  Even if she's not baptized during that transfer, I want to find out what is going on with her. I don't want to leave! :(

 

Tamae:

Sooooo everything else that happened this week was just depressing so I'm going to end this email with the BEST thing that happened this week. Ready for the full story on Tamae!?

Tamae has been in Illya kyodai's fitness class for the last 10 years.  They've known each other for a REALLY long time.  :-)  Well, Illya was baptized. He told Tamae that he'd been baptized into this church and she was like "What?! What church is that!?"  So she went to find out.  She started meeting with the missionaries in April and decided she really liked what we were teaching.  She eventually prayed about it and felt that it was true. She wanted to be baptized, but she is the kind of person that refuses to make a promise if she's not COMPLETLEY sure that she's going to keep her promise.  So she refused to set a baptism date... Until October with Kuwahara shimai and I.  Her baptismal date is this Sunday.  Two days ago she had her interview with the district leader to make sure she was worthy to be baptized.  She passed!  :-D

So, December 23rd, (Joseph Smith's birthday) Tamae is going to be baptized by Illya kyodai! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

 

 

And that was my week!  Wooo!  I'm so glad I'm out here. As hard as this week was, I know that it's important and there's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be.  I love you guys!  Enjoy your snow! >:)

-

Christine

Transfer 3-Week 3: December 9, 2012

Hello everyone!  :-)   How is everyone doing this lovely day?  Oh, wait.. that's right.. it's freezing it Utah. >:)

Well let's get started with this weeks email shall we?

 

Job Offers:

So, this week was rather uneventful, but I did have a few good stories for you guys to share!  This one just made me laugh. Really hard.  On Tuesday this last week Lundy shimai and I went to visit a Less Active in the ward. We were worried we wouldn't be able to find her house so we left really early to make sure we made it to our appointment on time... Well, we were definitely on time.  We were about an hour early actually.  xD  So we decided to spend that hour streeting around her house.  :-)

While we were streeting we received a phone call from a man who we found while we were Denwa Dendoing (Uhmm... Looking through the List of previous investigators from like 10 years ago and calling them to see if they have an interest... Yeah. :D)  Lundy shimai was talking with him, so while she was talking I was just sort of standing around listening to the conversation.  Off in the distance I noticed a man who was sort of watching us.  It's not extremely uncommon... Lundy shimai has REALLY beautiful long blonde hair that attracts a lot of stares. :P 

While Lundy shimai was talking, the man walked up to me and started talking.  He asked me if I spoke English and Japanese.  I told him I spoke English and was learning Japanese. Just like I tell everyone. :P  He then proceeded to tell me (from what I understood) about how he was going to open an Eikaiwa (English Class) in Europe and was looking for people to be teachers there who were able to speak Japanese AND English.  He asked if we'd be interested. I politely explained that right now we can't accept jobs because we're working full time for God for the next year and a half.  He then asked "Well, how about after that?"  In effect I said "We'll see".  So we exchanged business cards and he went on his way.

After that, Lundy shimai hung up the phone and started laughing.  I asked her what she was laughing at.  She explained that the man on the phone had just offered us a job in China! xD  2 Job offers in the space of 5 minutes. We laughed pretty hard... but it didn't end there. xD

After we visited the Less Active's house, we stared walking back to the train station to come back to Urayasu.  On the way, a man on a scooter pulled over and started talking to us.  First reaction: What the heck?! That's what WE'RE supposed to do!  x)  Translating what he said from Japanese to English kind of sounds weird... so sorry.  :P  He basically said "Because you both were so beautiful I had to stop and talk to you!  I run a bar and I'm looking for foreigners to come and work for me! Are you interested?" LOL!! Job offer number 3. xD  Oh my gosh we cracked up.  We invited him to come to Eikaiwa though and he seemed sincerely interested!  We'll see if he comes this week or not. :-)

There ya go.  If I ever were to move back here to Japan after my mission, I'd be set jobwise. ;)

 

Earthquake:

So, I'm not sure how many of you guys heard about the 7.3 magnitude Earthquake or not here in Japan... but I was right by the epicenter.  That day, Lundy shimai and I got a strong prompting that we needed to go Chirashi Kubari (Hand out Flyers) in a station called Minami Gyotoku.  That's where we were when the Earthquake hit.  At first, I didn't actually notice anything.  This group of High School girls who were by me started screaming and bent over covering their heads, and that's when I started to feel it.  I looked over to Lundy shimai who was over by the bus stop and... she was just out there doing her thing!  xD She had no idea there was an Earthquake, she was just still walking around to random people offering them flyers!  LOL! She said after that she wondered why everyone was looking at her like she was crazy.  x)  Meanwhile, right next to her, the things by bus stops to cover you from rain and such were shaking up and down like they were going to break at any second...... and my companion is handing out flyers. ;)  Oh my gosh I couldn't help but laugh.  I loved it.  If you guys want more details on the Earthquake write me and I'll give you more! :-)

 

D&C 88

This one was probably the biggest experience of this week. I wrote about it to my mission President so I'm just gonna copy and paste. :-)

This week was actually kind of hard on me. Not nearly the hardest I've experienced out here but it was fairly hard. This week I received an AMAZING revelation. It seriously changed my entire outlook on missionary work and what I'm doing here in Japan. I was reading in D&C 88. In verses 51-60 the Lord tells the parable of servants in several fields and the Master promises to visit each in their own hour. While I was reading this it hit me that this parable was written for US. It wasn't a parable told over 2,000 years ago, this parable was told to a prophet 200 years ago! This is for US! Keeping that in mind I continue to read.

I reached verse 73 which says "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." I received a letter recently from a friend of mine who was in the MTC at the time of the announcement concerning the age change in missionary work. He said that week Elder Bednar came and spoke at the MTC and said "The reason for the announcement is that the Lord is hastening the work." AH! So, NOW is the time that the Lord is hastening the work. That revelation given to Joseph Smith 200 years ago is NOW being fulfilled. (And I'm here to participate in it!!) After that verse the Lord goes on to specifically talk to those who are called to spread the gospel during the time the work is hastened. He's specifically talking to us! Verses 80-90 talk about how we need to do everything we can to warn those around us because it's not long before Christ comes and they will stand before God and Christ to be judged. They're running out of time and right now we're the only people in the entire world who can bring them eternal happiness! In Tokyo, there are 180 of us trying to save the souls of 4 million people! When that thought hit me, I couldn't help but feel extremely overwhelmed. I kept thinking "How is it even slightly possible we can rescue them all!?" On that note, I had to end my personal study and Lundy shimai and I started Companion Study. During companion study, Lundy shimai shared a scripture she'd read during her study. 2 Kings 6:16 "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." We're not alone in this. Besdies. We've got GOD on our side! "With God nothing is impossible." 180 to rescue 4 million? Bring it on.

This seriously changed my entire perspective on why I'm here. With all the Earthquakes and everything lately I keep being reminded that Christ is coming. Christ will be here soon and soon it will be too late for these people! These people are my brothers and sisters and if I don't do my best to help them... Well, I just have to be my best! Which is why this week was so hard on me... I think because I got that revelation, I've started to be TOO hard on myself. Everytime I make any sort of little mistake I get really mad at myself... but I keep trying to remind myself, I can't be a perfect missionary all at once. Little by little I'll get better and better.

Anyways! That was the biggest thing of this week. Because of this though, I feel like I HAVE improved a lot as a missionary! I've always struggled with talking to people... It's like pulling teeth to talk to someone I've never met... Especially in Japanese... but the day I had this revelation, I was able to talk to 9 different people about the gospel and even give out a Book of Mormon! :-) I'm improving! Just slowly. :P

And that was my week!  I love you guys and I'm so grateful for all of your prayers.  You're amazing and I love each and every one of you!  Have a fantastic week!
-
Christine

Transfer 3-Week 2: December 2, 2012

皆さん！

尾はいよございます！

It feels like it's been forever since I wrote last!  This week was... Awesome.  xD  Again, Mom, you're going to hate this.  :P  It was fun.  I'm gonna get the depressing stuff out of the way first though. :-)

 

Saito Yoko:

Yoko is the lady that just walked into the church during my first transfer who you could tell in a split second was not a member.  I haven't really said much about her lately and here's why.  A few weeks ago we got an angry email from her saying that we had really offended her.  I could go into details, but I'll just get annoyed if I do. :P  So suffice it to say she was really offended.  We sent her an apology email and waited to hear back from her. We didn't hear anything... but we didn't want to give up on her.  So we kept emailing her scriptures and trying to meet with her.  She just kept giving us the silent treatment.

Finally, 2 days ago (Saturday) we got another email from her... Again, I'm not going to go into much detail, but she basically ranted about how we betrayed her and how she can never forgive us and how she'll never trust Americans or Mormons again.  The last things he wrote was "You don't have to reply to this email.  In fact, please don't."  I was SO upset.  Not necessarily because of what was said as much as the fact that we had lost her.  I love her!  I didn't want to lose her!  Lundy shimai must've sensed that I was really upset about it because she just said "It's okay.  It happens."   I knelt down and apologized over and over to Heavenly Father for losing one of his precious daughters.  While I was praying I had this thought go through my mind.  "It's okay my daughter.  Even Alma and Amulek couldn't save everyone.  You did your best and I'm proud of you."  I also had a few scriptures come to mind that I felt impressed to read.  Although I'm still upset about losing her, I know that I did do my best.  There was nothing else I could do.

 

There. Depressing stuff out of the way.  Let's get to the part that Mom's gonna hate. ;)

 

November 29th - Thursday:

November 29th started off as just a normal day.  We got up, we exercised, we studied, and then we started our weekly planning session where we discuss all our goals for the week and such.  We LOVE Weekly Planning.  Basically we just sit in the apartment for 3 hours wrapped in blankets, eating snacks, and talking about our investigators and what we want to do with them!  Best day ever. :-)  One of our investigators though is really really emotionally draining.  I've talked about her a little before. Ayaka.  Teaching her is just... draining.  Well, part of our weekly planning was to plan our lesson with Ayaka for later that evening.

After we planned we headed over to Ayaka's house.  We had no idea what was going to happen.  There were 2 possibilities.  1: We'd actually get into the house and be able to teach her or 2: Ayaka's mom would be home, freak out when she saw us, and slam the door telling us to get out.  Yeah.  Ringing their doorbell was fun.  ;)  It turned out her mom WAS home, but she reacted differently than expected... She was happy to see us!  She let us in and we got to teach!  The lesson went REALLY well and Ayaka said she felt the spirit!  YES! :-D  So it was awesome, but Lundy shimai and I were both pretty tired after.

Then we headed to the church for Illya kyodai's Life Class.  We were surprised while we were eating by Sashida coming!  :-)  It was the first time Lundy shimai got to meet Sashida! She's doing well, but she quit her job recently and is searching for a new one.  We talked to her for the rest of the time we were there.  After the class, it had started raining REALLY hard.  Sweet wonderful Lundy shimai looked at Sashida and noticed that she wasn't wearing a coat.  So what does she do?  My wonderfully awesome Christlike companion takes her coat off her back and gives it to Sashida and started walking back in her missionary clothes. :-)  We had no idea that it was going to rain so we didn't have an umbrella or ANYTHING.  I was worried about her, but Lundy shimai insisted.  So we started walking with Sashida back to her apartment, but she surpised us by going a different direction.... and taking Lundy shimai's coat with her. :P  I looked at Lundy shimai and we both just shrugged.  We were almost to our apartment anyway.  So we just kept going.  When we got outside the apartment building Lundy shimai smiled and said "Just so you know, my planner was in my coat pocket."  I laughed and said "Oh well.  We'll go get it tomorrow."   We walked to the elevator. "Oh... and my Passmo Card (The thing that lets us ride the trains) was in the pocket to."  I said "Good thing we're not taking the train anytime soon!"  We kept walking... We got outside the door of the apartment and Lundy shimai's face fell.  She looked at me and said "Oh no... and the key to the apartment..."

Yup.  That's right.  We were locked out.  The umbrellas were in the apartment, we had no spare key, and Lundy shimai had no coat.  I gave her my gloves and my scarf and we hopped on our bikes back to Sashida's house to get the coat... But remember, Sashida had surprised us by not going home... We had NO idea where she was.  We waited outside her apartment for about 15 minutes and then decided to call the Zone Leaders and find out what to do.  The Zone Leaders told us to wait there for a little longer and then if she didn't show up in about 15 more minutes to go to Shibuya and spend the night with the Shibuya Sisters.  So that's what we did.

We waited outside Sashida's house for a total of 45 minutes.  xD  She didn't show... so we went to the train station.  But remember, Lundy shimai didn't have her passmo card either... So, I paid for her to take the train. :-)  We ended up spending the night in Shibuya, one of the BIGGEST cities in Tokyo, with Kuwahara shimai and Dolan shimai.  It was a party.  xD  Needless to say though, I didn't get much sleep.  Friday morning, Lundy shimai and I were both exhausted.  (Thanks to Heavenly Father) though, that morning, ALL of our appointments for that day called us and canceled.  So Friday morning we headed back to Urayasu to Sashida's house, got the key, and spent the rest of the day in the apartment.

So from Thursday night to Friday afternoon we had spent about 5 hours outside in pouring rain, Lundy shimai with no coat.  We both got really sick from it and we've been taking it easy since then. :P

 

I learned 2 really important lessons from this experience though.

1: It's okay to take a break.  x)  At first when I couldn't work, I got so mad at myself.  I wanted to go dendo!  I didn't want to lay in bed!  Lundy shimai helped me realize though that if we don't take care of ourselves, we won't be able to be good workers anyway.

2: Attitude.  At first, I got really frustrated with Lundy shimai when we discovered we were locked out.  I started getting really grumpy... but I had this thought go through my head. "What good is being grumpy going to do?  Don't you think your companion feels bad enough for losing the key?  Why don't you try cheering her up?"  So that's what I did.  It was hard, but I spent the whole 5 hours talking to her about her mission and her family and... well... anything I could think of!  It ended up being amazingly awesome for us. We grew a lot closer as companions and I know  that it made a really bad situation MUCH better.  :-)  I learned that no matter how bad the situation, if you just try to remain positive and happy Heavenly Father blesses you!

 

 

And that was my week!  Awesome right? ;)  It's one of those crazy mission stories.  Love it.  xD

Thank you guys for all you do!  You're amazing and I love you all so much!  Write to you again next week!

-

Christine

Transfer 3-Week 1: November 26, 2012

Hey everybody!!!

Ah!  I can't even tell you how excited I am to write this email.  This week has been SO amazing.  Like I said last week, my new companion and I get along ridiculously well!  It's seriously been so fun!  We saw a miracle practically every day this week.  I'm so excited about it.  :-)

 

"I just got the strongest feeling..."

This actually happened just yesterday morning.  I just thought it was hilarious.  You guys might not find it as funny, but hey! Short random story describing my relationship with my companion right now. x)

Yesterday during our personal study time, we were both sitting at our desks completely silent while we were studying.  All of the sudden, out of nowhere, she turns to me get's these HUGE eyes and says "I just got the strongest feeling... I LOVE YOU!!"  xD  It was the most random hilarious thing.  x)  The best part was that right after, we both just went silent again as we kept studying.  xD  We laughed pretty hard about it.  So random, but awesome.

 

Thanksgiving:

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  I know I'm a couple days late, but hey!  Better late than never right? ;)  Thanksgiving here was actually... really boring. xD Thursday night we had Illya Kyodai's Life Class (I don't remember if I've talked about that before or not... Illya kyodai makes us some delicious food every Thursday and we discuss random "Life" topics.  This week it was things we're thankful for. Can't imagine why. ;D) and he made us a "Thanksgiving Feast".  It just meant that his usually completely healthy food was slightly less healthy!  Whole wheat donuts and chocolate milk!  Among other things obviously. ;)  That was my Thanksgiving!

But that's boring. What was REALLY exciting was the day AFTER Thanksgiving.

President Budge arranged for all of the gaijin missionaries out here to have a real American Thanksgiving Dinner with different gaijin member families in Tokyo.  Lundy shimai and I went to a family called the Keysers.  The Keyser family had invited a bunch of SA's (Single Adults) in their ward to come.  One of the SA's surprised us by bringing his two roommates (both of which are nonmembers). He pulled us aside and asked us to teach them if possible.  It turned out that was more than possible. :-D  They actually started asking us questions. :)  We taught them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and both of them seemed really interested.  When we offered them both copies of the Book of Mormon their eyes got big and they asked "ii desu ka?!" (Is this really okay!?) We said "Mochiron!(Of course!)" Then we got their contact info, set up an appointment to meet with them again, and voila! 2 new investigators!! :-D  Sad thing is, we don't get to teach them anymore.  They'll be turned over to the missionaries in their area, but hey! We found 2 new investigators! :)

 

Hiro:

This is the story I've been dying to tell you guys.  :-)  I know you're going to love it. 

Every night we have something we call Daily Planning where we do exactly what it sounds like!  We plan the next day! :P  Friday night during Daily Planning we were trying to decide where to go and what to do.  For whatever reason I just kept having the thought run through my head of "Let's go to Nishi Kasai station and Chirashi Kubari(hand out flyers)." So we decided to do that!

The next day we left the apartment and headed to Nishi Kasai which is about a 35 minute bike ride from the apartment and it goes over the Hill of Death...  We both had been bracing ourselves for it all day.  We went over the Hill of Death and rode for about 10 minutes further when I had another thought hit me strongly. "We forgot the phone."  (Let me explain quickly why that's a big deal.  The phone is the only way our investigators/other missionaries/President Budge can get hold of us.  If there was an emergency we'd be in HUGE trouble.  Also, if we did find an investigator at Nishi Kasai we'd have no way of entering their contact info...) I had this internal debate with myself... Finally I decided to stop and ask Lundy Shimai what she thought we should do.  Neither of us could decide. x) Both scenarios sucked... We decided to rock-paper-scissors to decide.  From that we decided to go back for the phone.  We turned our bikes around and started pedaling.  We went for about 5 seconds when... I really can't explain it... Every part of me just said "Nope."  I stopped again, looked at Lundy shimai, and said "Nope. We need to go to Nishi Kasai."  We turned around again and went the rest of the way to Nishi Kasai leaving the phone behind.

At Nishi Kasai we started chirashi kubari-ing.  For me, everything went completely normal.  I made some friends who had little interest in Eikaiwa or the Gospel, but told me all about where they bought that cute coat/hat/scarf/umbrella/whatever-they-were-wearing. ;)  Lundy shimai on the other hand...

When you're out chirashi kubari-ing there's a few times when huge groups of people will come walking past you.  You kind of have to pick and choose who you're going to offer flyers to.  After a while you can tell who are the kind of people who will accept a flyer and who won't.  Lundy shimai was in one of those situations. She was looking at all the people around her trying to decide who to give a flyer to, saw this guy who looked like he wasn't going to accept it, and offered it to him anyway.  Surprisingly, he actually took it without actually looking and walked off.  She was slightly surprised, but didn't really think much else of it.  About 10 minutes later, that man came running back up to her.  He told her that he'd read the whole flyer (which talks a little bit about what we believe in... mostly about Christ) and that he knew it was true and wanted to learn more.  He was practically begging to have a lesson!  So she got his contact info and wrote it down, scheduled an appointment to meet with him next week, and then came running over to me super excited to tell me we had a lesson!  It was awesome. :-)

Story doesn't end there though...

So that night we came back to the apartment and grabbed the phone.  About 5 minutes later, the phone rang.  It turned out to be the man from Nishi Kasai who's name is Hiro.  He said he couldn't remember our names and asked us to remind him.  We told him and then Lundy shimai felt prompted to invite him to our Outreach activity we were having at the church that night.  He got super excited and said he'd love to and he'd meet us at the train station in 10 minutes.  :-)  We dropped everything, went to the station, and waited for 30 minutes... but HE CAME! :-)  At Outreach, we introduced him to the Elders and decided we'd change up the activity.  Instead of playing Ping Pong, we watched the Restoration video.  Picture this. 6 missionaries, 1 investigator, and 2 members talking about the restoration. AWESOME! :-D  We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it.  We also invited him to Church.  He agreed and said he'd meet the Elders at the station at 10:45 before church. :-)

Sunday Morning at 5:55am the Elders got a call from him saying that he was at the church waiting for them.  6:30am he called us saying that he was at the church waiting for the elders.  xD He stayed there for 2 hours waiting for the elders.  When they got there, they watched Conference and had a lesson.  By the end of the day, he had a baptismal date set and is making plans to go to the temple next year.  He called us today saying that he's read all of First and Second Nephi and he can't wait to be baptized.  :-)  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?  AH!  :-D :-D :-D  Oh my gosh missionary work is awesome. Taihen, but awesome! :-D I love it!

 

Well, I think this email is long enough, so I'll end it here.  Two other random things, we met Ariel (Like the mermaid! ;D) yesterday and our goal is to get her baptized. ;)  Also, the day we were waiting for Hiro at the station, there was an 4.9 Magnitude Earthquake........ Lundy shimai and I were dancing with excitement at the time and didn't feel anything.... xD

 

So that's my week!  Things are getting better and better every day.  It's still hard, but in different ways now.  :-)  Missionary work is awesome!  I love Japan!  I love Urayasu!

I miss you guys a ton, and I can't wait to hear from you all!

Write you next week!

-

Christine

Week 12: November 19, 2012

Hey everyone! I have so much to write about this week!  This week was SO amazing.  I've been looking forward to this email all day.  You have no idea. :-)

 

Friends from India:

This week we had something exciting happen every single day.  I want to start with Wednesday though because I think that was the most exciting one.  :-)  So, Kuwahara shimai and I went to this train station nearby called "Kasai" to hand out flyers for Eikaiwa (English Class).  While we were there, I noticed this lady who was obviously a foreigner wandering around the station.  She looked a little lost.  I really wanted to go talk to her, but you know, missionaries have to stay within sight and sound of their companions.  I couldn't get this woman without leaving Kuwahara shimai (who was distracted talking to someone else).  This woman went up to one of the station workers and handed him this piece of paper looking completely lost.  He tried to help her and I saw the frantic look in his eyes as he realized "Oh crap... this woman doesn't speak Japanese..."  I kept my eyes on this lady hoping to make eye contact so that I could help. (Why I didn't just yell I'm not sure. xD)  Luckily the (really panicked) man looked at me, got this look of relief on his face, and motioned for her to come to me.  It turned out I was right, this lady was completely lost.  She and her husband were here on vacation from India, they'd never been to Japan before, didn't speak a lick of Japanese, and had no idea how to find their hotel.  I took her and her husband over to Kuwahara shimai, explained the situation to her in Japanese, and we decided to make the 30 minute walk with this woman and her husband to their hotel. :-)  So Kuwahara shimai and I grabbed their luggage and started off!  The whole time the woman kept saying "Thank God, Thank God."  I talked with the woman the whole way to the hotel and when we got there she hugged Kuwahara shimai and I really tightly and said "Thank God there were two beautiful girls like you two in the world willing to help someone in need."  :-)  We gave her a flyer (xD) and told her that if she ever needed anything to please call us.

I thought that would be the last time I saw her.  Turns out Heavenly Father has a different plan. :-)

This morning while I was getting ready, I got a call from President Budge's assistants.  They said "A woman from India called and said she met you and Kuwahara shimai.  She said you helped them with something and she has a present she wants to give you.  Here's her number, please call her."  So today, we went to go see her and her husband one last time before they go back to India. She was so sweet and it was SO good to see them again.  I love her so much!  :-D

 

 Saturday:

So Saturday was just exciting all around.  Saturday was the day of Transfer calls so if Kuwahara shimai or I was transfering we were going to get the call saying it on Saturday morning.  Friday night, both of us were SO nervous.  We were excited, but scared all at the same time.  I think I was worse off than she was since it was my first "real" transfer call, but yeah.  Calls are supposed to come Saturday mornings between 6:30-7:30ish... Well, the call didn't come. We were so confused.  It turned out that the Assistants and President Budge were in the middle of last minute transfers and they just hadn't gotten a chance to call everyone.  They sent out an email to the whole mission saying the calls would come "soon".  So Kuwahra shimai and I waited for about 3 hours for the call... We flinched anytime the phone went off.  It ended up we got the call during Illya Kyodai's fitness class.

"Kuwahara shimai... You will be transferring to Shibuya.

Sister Grosland... You will be staying in Urayasu."

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

I can't even tell you how happy I was.  I was SO excited.  SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!  :-D  So all day Saturday and Sunday was spent letting Kuwahara shimai say goodbye to all of the ward members and our investigators and such.  The whole time I had to try to hide just how excited I was because Kuwahra shimai was all upset about it.  Oh well.

 

Neeeew Companion!:

So as of yesterday I have a new companion.  :-)  Here name is Sister Lundy.  She's from Colorado and is freaking awesome.  Last night we talked for 4 hours straight getting to know each other.  Here's what we've decided in that time.  I'm Rapunzel and she's Cinderella and we're both the best kind of nerdy. :-)  To give you an example of how just awesome this girl is, I have to tell you a story from last night.

For one reason or another, the Elders were talking about the Tron soundtrack.  Lundy shimai smiles and says a bit under her breath "Ah! I love soundtracks!"  I turned to her super excited and said "You DO!? I LOVE SOUNDTRACKS!"  Then she turned to me, got this huge grin and said "What?! NO way!"  We started talking about our favorite soundtracks (Her favorite video game soundtrack was Mass Effect and Assassins Creed 2. ;D) and she asked me who my favorite composer was.  When I said Hans Zimmer, she looked at me and said "Okay, I can just die right now.  Isn't he amazing!?"   I said "Yeah!  It's been SO weird being here were nobody has heard of him!  They all ask me 'Who's Hans Zimmer?'"  She laughed and said "I know right?  That's like asking who Mozart was!"  xD Oh my gosh I love her.  :-)

 

Kyudosha Update:

Helen: She's made HUGE progress this week!  She has stopped drinking Coffee!  Talk about a miracle!  She said she's started drinking Hot Chocolate instead!  Thank goodness!  We're still trying to help her through the Black Tea addiction, but she says she's excited to be baptized on the 23rd of December.  :-)

Tamae: Tamae has been a little sick the last couple of days. :(  But when we met with her on Sunday she said she's FOR SURE getting baptized on the 23 of December.  She said she wants Illya kyodai to baptize her.  We're so excited for her. :-)

Ayaka: She's also making a lot of progress.  She called us this week and said that she wants to be baptized, but she's not sure what church she wants to be baptized into yet.  She says that she's considering our church, but she doesn't want to join until she's sure it's true.  Major step though!

 

Those are the three big investigators right now.  :-)

 

 

And that was my week!  It was an awesome week.  I'm SO excited to work with Lundy shimai here in Urayasu for another 6 weeks.  It's going to be such a fun transfer and I know we're going to see a ton of miracles!  Assuming we can learn to speak Japanese. ;)  I love you all so much!  I'm sorry I've fallen behind on letters lately... I'm going to spend most of today writing letters so hopefully you'll be getting some soon!  I love you!!!!!

 

-

Christine

Week 11: November 13, 2012

こんばんわ！！！！

皆さん元気ですか？　今日はP－DAYです！

So, first off I have to apologize for how late the email is this week.  This is the last week of the transfer so this week was our Temple Trip!  :-)   We're pretty nervous/excited about transfers this time.  A lot of things are going to be changing around this transfer because all of my doki (the missionaries who came out with me) are finishing their 12 week training program.  Generally speaking, after a missionary finishes the training program they or their trainer transfer to another area.  That means at least 22 sets of companions will be changing this transfer.  It's going to be very interesting.  Likely, I'll be staying right here in Urayasu for the next transfer, but who knows for sure. President Budge (The mission President) is kinda unpredictable.

 

This week was amazing.  We had so much fun.  I'm pretty sure I haven't said anything about this in any of my "big" emails, but this transfer I've been... well... struggling with my companion.  This week was the first full week we got along.  :-) I mean, we had our spurts, but overall we really got along well this week. :-)  I think what really helped was that this week we had exchanges.  Exchanges were a blast!  This time, I stayed in Urayasu and Kuwahara shimai left to the other area.  The girl who came to Urayasu to be my companion is named Mizoguchi shimai. Yup. She's a nihonjin. :-)  She was SO sweet.  I didn't know this at the time, but apparently she has been a trainer for 3 American-jin.  She was so patient and SO sweet.  So so so so SO sweet.  The really depressing part was when I found out that this is her last transfer and she goes home on Monday next week. :/

 

We also had the Primary Program in church this week. Oh my gosh it was fun.  Those kids are so freaking cute.  I just can't get over how cute it was. x)  The best part was that they sang all the same songs that my primary class was learning before I left.  It was so fun to listen to all the songs in Japanese!

Kyudosha Update:

I haven't really done one of these for a couple weeks... Sorry about that... Unfortunately our list of investigators is getting smaller and smaller...

Helen: She was supposed to be baptized this last Sunday... Unfortunately that got put off again.  On Monday after I emailed you guys, we went to dinner with her.  We talked with her about her baptism and what we could do to help her. She told us again she doesn't want to be baptized because she's not living the Word of Wisdom.  She says she doesn't believe the Word of Wisdom comes from God.  She doesn't want to follow it because she loves coffee and tea... :/ Taihen. (It's rough.)  Luckily, we were able to talk to a bunch of the members about her problem and they were able to find some coffee with no caffiene and some tea with no caffiene.  They actually bought a ton of it and gave them to us to give to Helen. :-)  We talked with Helen about it on Friday and she said she'd try it out and see.  We have her baptismal date set for December 23rd now, so pray for her.

Tamae: YAY!  AH! Love this girl. Love her. Love love love love love!  x)  I think I told you all that she's decided to be baptized... If not... She decided to be baptized!  December 23rd. :-) Joseph Smith's birthday.  She's such a sweet girl and I love teaching her.  One thing about her I don't think I've said.  She's actually in Illya kyodai's super advanced fitness class.  She's known Illya kyodai for about 10 years now... About a week ago Illya kyodai started asking the missionaries questions about getting married in the temple.  He specifically said he was thinking about getting married in about a year or so.  That same week Tamae asked us during a lesson to know more about Temple Marriages... Hmm. ;)  Maybe it's just coincidence that she'd be temple worthy in about a year...

Catherine:  So, sad day. Catherine lives in a different area... She's such a kin-jin. (Golden Investigator). Like really.  We taught her Word of Wisdom this last week.  During the lesson she said "OH NO!  I drink Sake (Japanese Alchohol)... and Tea... -sigh- Okay. I understand. I'll stop." That was it.  A slight freak out of "Oh no." and then a "Okay.  I'll follow it."  Then she asked "Are there any other commandments I need to follow?  Tell me now, because I want to follow them."  :-)  I LOVE her!  Unfortunately like I said she lives in a different area, so she's being taught by other sister missionaries and will be baptized out there.  She comes to our Eikaiwa (English Class) every week becasue she likes ours more so we teach her then, but she'll be baptized in an area called Inage.

 

Like I said, our investigator list is getting smaller and smaller... We have a lot of Potential Investigators, but not very many progressing investigators... We're doing our best, but we'll see what happens.

 

I love you all and I'm so excited to hear from you soon! Keep writing me!  I promise I read EVERY LETTER I get from you all.  I just never get a chance to respond anymore. Hopefully that will change with this next transfer. We'll see. :-)  I love you all.  Thank you for your prayers and your love. :-)  Talk to you all again soon!

 

-

Christine

Week 10: November 4, 2012

Well, good news everyone.  I'm still in Japan.  :-)  Hahahaha!  This week started off really really rough, but it's gotten better.  I'm happy.  :-)  I really wanted to thank all of you.  So much.  I can't even tell you how much I appreciated the letters of encouragement and all of your prayers this week.  I really needed them. :-)  I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends and family back home cheering me on.  I know you guys won't let me fail.  Thanks everyone.  :-)

 

Haaaaappy Halloweeeeeen! :D

Happy Halloweeen everybody!  I hope your Halloween was full of fun and excitement!  Halloween here was... actually really boring.  :P  Apparently in Japan, Halloween is pretty much just another day.  A lot of people aren't even sure what day Halloween actually is.  They just set out pumpkins because "they're in season".  :P  On Halloween night we went to visit a Potential Investigator and on the way we passed a ton of kids.  Kuwahara shimai looked a the kids and said to me "Wow!  Lots of kids!"  I just laughed and said "Well of course!  It's Halloween!"  She gave me a really weird look.  I got kinda confused and said "Trick-or-treating?"  She smiled and said  "TRICK-OR-TREAT!  ...What mean anyway?"  xD  Apparently they don't go trick-or-treating in Japan.  Most people don't even dress up.  Sooooo.... Yeah.  Halloween was pretty boring.  Oh well. :-)

 

Indian Food Place:

So, this actually happened last week, but nothing else really exciting happened this week and I forgot to write about this last week so here we go!

Last week I told you all about the temple experience with Helen.  It really was an amazing miracle.  :-) Well, right before that I had a really fun experience.  Helen took us to this really really yummy Indian Food resteraunt.  When we got there though, there were TONS of foreigners.  Like tons.  That was really weird for me.  I'm so used to being the only foreigner in the room. :P  It was kinda a nice change to not be the only one who was being stared at by the Nihon-jin.  :P  Well, as we were getting ready to leave a huge group of Arabian men came in and sat at the tables next to us.  They made me feel slightly uncomfortable because they kept staring at me... I've kinda learned to just get over that though.  I get stared at a lot in Japan.  (Stupid white skin. :P)  As we stood up to go, I accidently made eye contact with one of the guys who was staring at me.  I just smiled and said hello.  He smiled and said "Hey.  Where are you from?"  I told him I was from America.  He asked what I was doing in Japan and I explained that I was a volunteer for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He just kept smiling and said "Good luck."  Simple as that. 

Helen, Kuwahara shimai, and I walked over to cash register and were getting ready to leave when another one of the men came up to me.  He put out his hand for a handshake and smiled REALLY big.  He shook my hand and then said "I just want you to know. Jesus Christ is not the Son of God."  He then proceeded to tell me all about Muslim beliefs and how everything I believed was a lie.  He said "I hope some day you can visit my home country and study more about Muslism.  That way you will one day learn the truth."  I just continued to smile and shake his hand praying that Heavenly Father would help me know what to say.   Thankfully, he ended his speech by saying "Best of luck to you and my God be with you."  I just said "Thank you.  You too." and left. x) 

The reason I wanted to share this was because I think this was the first time I've really had to stand up for what I believe.  Although I may not have been able to say anything super profound or even really help this man much, I hope that the fact that I didn't argue with him or try to pick a fight planted some small seed.  I went home that night and prayed for him.  I know he said that to me because he sincerely wanted me to believe what he believes.  It was no different than what I do every day right now.  I prayed that he'd be able to be happy and that someday he would be able to hear my beliefs.  :-)

 

 

I love this gospel.  So much.  :-)  I love to see the happiness it brings to others.  This week Sashida was confirmed and receieved the Holy Ghost.  We asked her to join us in a lesson with a less active member.  During the lesson she bore her testimony.  It was the first time I've really heard what she believes.  It was so powerful.  It's been SO amazing to see her go from this shy, sad woman to this friendly, always smiling woman.  :-)  I've seen the happiness change Helen.  I love it. I love watching the light in their eyes grow bigger and bigger as they learn more and more.  This gospel is amazing and I'm SO lucky to be out here spreading it.

 

Thank you all for you love and prayers.  Please keep praying for me!  And send lots of prayers this week Helen's way. She's going to be baptized this coming Sunday.  It's going to happen. Pray for her!

 

I love you all so much!

-

Christine

Week 9: October 29, 2012

Hey everybody!

Here's this weeks email.  It's short because I have no time... sorry. :/

Car Ride:

I rode in my first Japanese car this week.  It was freaking weird.  The steering wheel is on the wrong side and everything is backwards.  Soooo weird.  x)  It totally threw me off.  It was a lot of fun though.

Music (of the) Night:

This week the ward had a music night!  I'd been asked to play the violin for it.  I was super stressed out because I haven't played the violin in public for roughly 5 years... And to make it better, it was Canon.  I played that song in Junior High and hated it because I was so bad at it.  :P And to make matters worse, missionary life is super busy and I didn't have any practice time until the day of the performance.  We practiced for 2 hours and then we had to perform.

All I can say is Heavenly Father really is a God of miracles.  I made it through the song and it actually sounded pretty good!  I was so proud of myself!  It was seriously awesome. :-) 

Sashida:

Sashida got baptized on Sunday!  About an hour before her baptism we got a call from Elder Nakamura (The district leader) saying Sashida had called him and wanted to put off her baptism. We told Elder Peterson (who would be performing the baptism) and he said "Leave it to me."  We prayed really hard and literally 2 minutes after the prayer we got a call saying she was on her way.  The baptism service was great.  She looked so pretty. :-)  Loved it.

Helen:

This one is the biggest miracle of the week. Last week was supposed to be Helen's baptism, but as I said that fell threw... which sucked. :/ We scheduled another lesson with her for Friday this week and decided to take her to the temple.  We decided to extend the baptismal commitment again, so we looked at the calander to decide what day. Kuwahara shimai asked me what day I thought was good.  I felt like we should go with November 11th. The other problem was that we didn't have a ward member to come with us to join in the lesson.  We prayed that when we got the temple we'd find someone who would be able to join our lesson.  When we got to the temple, nobody was there.  We were about to just teach without a member, when in walked this really cute couple.  It turned out Kuwahara shimai knew the man!  She asked him and his wife to join us in the lesson and they agreed.  They turned out to be the perfect joint!  They said exactly the things Helen needed to hear and it really brought the spirit.  At the end of the lesson we extended the baptismal commitment again.  When we said the day, Helen's eyes got really big and she looked at us in complete shock.  She said (In Japanese of course) "How did you know?  I already chose that day, but I didn't tell anyone!  How did you know?!"  It really was incredible.  The spirit was so strong.  I'm so glad that we were in tune enough with the spirit to be able to help her. :-)

Well that was my week.  At least the highlights. Things are rolling along and I'm looking forward to transfer 3 in 20 days!  How weird is that?! I miss you all a lot.  A lot a lot.  I can't even tell you how much I miss you all!  Please keep writing me!  I'm sorry I haven't been able to write you all back.  I seriously have a stack of letters that need responses, but I haven't been able to... It's a really long story that I'd rather not get into over this, so I guess if you want to know, you'll have to keep writing me.  ;)

Love you all!
-

Christine

Week 8: October 21, 2012

Konnichiwa Minasan!

Look, I was nice this week and put it in Romanji for ya.  ;)   Here's this weeks email!  Enjoy!

 

This week was one of the hardest weeks I've had so far here in Japan.  There were a couple of days that I was going to call the mission president and tell him to send me home.  It was really bad... but every time it got that bad, Heavenly Father sent something to help me.  Every single time.  :-)  I'm okay now.  I'm sure I'll continue to have days that are just hard, but I'm gonna keep going.

 

Catherine:

We had an amazing miracle this week.  Every week we teach an Eikaiwa.  We hope that new people will come to Eikaiwa that we can teach.  It's one of the most effective ways of finding here in Japan.  This week, a chinese girl named Catherine came to Eikaiwa.  At the end of every Eikaiwa we share a brief spiritual message.  This week we let one of the members do the message just because we thought it'd be fun.  The girl who did it (Her name is Ribeka) bore a really powerful testimony on how Heavenly Father loves us.  After we prayed and everyone started to leave, Catherine came up to Kuwahara-shimai and I and asked "When is church?  I want to come!"  YAY!  So, we gave her the details and said "We'd love to see you!"  That's happened a couple of times, but it's rare that the person will show up again.  :P  Catherine did. :-)

Yesterday, Catherine came to Sacrament Meeting!  We had a short lesson with her after (Teaching about the Restoration) and it went REALLY well.  She's a really shy girl who doesn't talk much, but she's really smart.  Because she doesn't talk much, she spends a lot of time just pondering what you're saying.  At the end of the lesson we asked her to pray to know if what we had taught was true.  She said "Yes of course!"  We extended the baptismal commitment.  She accepted.  :-D  To end the lesson we had a kneeling prayer and asked her to say it.  She said that was fine.  We knelt down, closed our eyes... and... she didnt' say anything... so we waited... and waited... finally I glanced at her.  She was whispering to herself in Chinese.  I realized she was praying, she was just... praying quietly.  Kuwahara shimai and I exchanged glances like "What do we do?"  We silently decided we'd just wait.  :P  Sure enough, Catherine ended her prayer with an audible "Amen." She started to get up and then all of the sudden, she just burst into tears.  The spirit was so strong.  We helped her to realize that what she was feeling right then was Heavenly Father answering her prayer telling her this is true.  She got so excited.  :-)  We're going to meet with her again next week. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

Helen:

Helen was supposed to be baptized yesterday... It ended up falling through.  She'll be baptized soon though. :/  Keep praying for her...

I hope that doesn't ruin this story.  :P  This was a really powerful part of my week though, so I want to share it.  Even if the outcome wasn't exactly what we would've hoped for.

On Thursday Helen made time to come to Illya Kyodai's Life Class (Dinner and talking basically).  It was the day she was going to be interviewed for baptism so Elder Peterson came from Shibuya to interview her.  We were hoping to have a lesson with her first so we could boost her confidence and help her feel okay about the interview... So we started the lesson.  The lesson went fairly well.  I've been in better lessons, but it wasn't really a bad lesson.  At the end, the spirit was there really strongly.  She said she doesn't feel worthy to be baptized.  We told her, have you asked God what He thinks?  She said "No."   "Maybe you should ask him."  We invited her to pray with us right there to find out what Heavenly Father thought.  We all knelt down and I closed my eyes.  Helen started praying... While she was praying, I saw this... shadow.  I can't explain very well... It was just this dark shadow.  I opened my eyes to try to figure out what it was, but nothing was there.  I closed my eyes again and the shadow had moved to where Helen was and it'd gotten bigger.  Helen had stopped talking.  After about 30 seconds of silence she finally said "イエスキリストのみなによってアーメン。"(In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.)  I opened my eyes and looked at her.  She was really really pale... I walked over and asked her if she was okay.  She shook her head and said she felt really sick.  She kept asking "Naze... Naze... Doushite..." (Why... why... why...)   Kuwahara shimai looked really worried.  She explained to Helen about Priesthood blessings and asked if she wanted one from Elder Peterson.  Helen said yes.  We pulled out a chair and sat her down.  Elders Peterson and Chin gave her a priesthood blessing. (Elder Chin speaks Chinese so he gave it to her.)  When I closed my eyes the dark shadow was still around the area Helen was in...  Then, in the middle of the blessing, the shadow just disappeared.  I really can't explain this well.. One second it was there and then next it was just gone.  After the blessing, Helen stood up feeling perfectly fine.  She smiled and thanked us all.

I just want to testify to all of you that the adversary is a real thing.  Satan and his spirits really are trying to stop us from doing anything good.  I know though, that if we trust Heavenly Father, He will protect us.  :-)

This week saw a LOT of miracles like Helen and Catherine.  We have 2 more baptismal dates and next week Sashida is going to be baptized (assuming all goes according to plan.)  Pray for all of them and pray for me.  This really has been hard.  I need all the prayers I can get.  :-)  I love you all.  Have a fantastic week!

 

-

Christine

Week 7: October 14, 2012

皆さん！こんにちわ！元気ですか？

It's so hard to believe that it's week 7 in Urayasu already!  I've officially been in Japan for 2 months this....... 28th.  xD  Whenever that is.  :P

 

So first off, I wanted to apologize about the lack of emails the last couple of weeks... It's been ridiculous.  Like I said, 2 weeks ago we went to the Tokyo Temple.  After the session all of the sisters got together and went shopping!  Woo!  Funny thing is though... nobody actually bought anything.  xD  We just went to this Forever 21, looked at stuff, and did our best not to listen to the new Maroon 5 song that was playing....  :P  It was actually really fun.  Then, last week, Kuwahara shimai wanted to go to the gym with the Elders so she could beat them all at Basketball.  x)  So we went there and my email time was cut way short... That and I received a rather exciting email that required my attention more than the big email.  :P  I hope that my family posted something for you guys last week!  If not, sorry.  I've been busy.

 

Now on to this week!

 

This week was rather hard on both Kuwahara shimai and I.  We went from 3 people with baptism dates to .5.  The frustrating part for me is that I don't even completely understand what the situation is so I don't know what to do.  All I really understand is that they said "I don't want to be baptized".  The .5 (:P) is Sashida.  She has a date set, but she keeps making excuses to not meet with us...  I'm pretty sure we're loosing her too. :/ As for Yoko Saito, she sent us an email that said ”私は回収したくない”。　which literally translates to "I don't want to convert."  Helen is going through a really really rough time too.  She's struggling with one of the commandments.   We're trying to help her through it, but for now she wants to postpone her baptism.  Her baptism was supposed to be the 21st of this month... Next sunday. :/  She says she wants to be baptized more than anything, she just doesn't feel like she can yet... Please pray for all three of them.  :/   And pray that we'll know what we can do to best help them.

 

The only other really exciting thing I have to tell everyone is about conference!  I've had a few people ask me lately how conference works in Japan.  What happens is that we watch it a week later than everyone else.  After they broadcast it in English from Utah, they translate it into hundreds of different languages.  It takes about a week for them to translate all of conference into Japanese.  So one week later it becomes available online and is broadcasted to Japan.  This session of conference was apparently unique.  Usually they only broadcast it to two churches in the Tokyo area. Nakano and Koiwa.  However this time, they actually broadcasted it here in Urayasu!  So we headed to the church.  They had set up this tiny projector and were showing it on a screen about the size of a kids blanket. Luckily the sound system is really good so even though you couldn't see very well, you could hear it really well.  I had to watch the Saturday sessions in Japanese.  There are some members of the Urayasu ward who only speak English, but since they didn't come, they didn't feel the need to set up the English one... Luckily though the Dendo Shunin (Uhmm... I think that means like Mission Coordinator or something. xD) Eto Kyodai let me use his phone to be able to read the talks while everyone listend in Japanese.  So it was good.  Sunday though, I got to watch it in English.  We went to the 3rd floor of the church and had 6 people gather around a tiny laptop with really bad speakers to try to watch it.  xD  Definitely a memorable conference session.

 

I loved conference. :-)  Especially the Sunday Morning Session.  Awesome.  Oh, and because everyone's going to ask...

OH MY GOSH!!  :-D :-D  YES!  I freaked out when I heard the announcement!!!!  There actually is this girl in the ward named Ribeka who just turned 19.  She's been praying for the last couple months to decide if she should serve a mission.  She told me that she's had a few moments where she felt like she should, but she just wasn't sure she would be able to at 21... Then the announcement came.  :-)  Yesterday, she showed me her mission papers and we both freaked out and cried a bit.  It was awesome.  That girl is going to be a fantastic missionary.

 

Honestly, Conference was the only super exciting thing that happened this week.  Takemitsu came to Conference!  That was exciting.  :-)  She said she enjoyed it.  She said she had questions so we're going to meet with her soon to talk about it.   I met a few of the other investigators that previous missionaries have been working with... Hahahaha!  This emailing thing is getting harder!  I don't know what to talk about anymore! x)  If you guys want to know something about Japan or like Missionary Life or something please tell my family and they can email me or something.  :-)  That way I'll have more things to talk about!  xD

 

Anyway, I love you all!  Keep praying for me okay?  I really need the prayers.  Thank you all for everything you do.  I'm so lucky to have so many supportive friends and family back at home. I miss you all so much.  Stay safe!

 

-

Christine

Week 5: October 2, 2012

皆さん！こんいちわ！元気ですか？

I'm sorry my email is late this week... I found out last Monday (Right after I'd finished writing everyone...) that this weeks P-day was going to be moved.  It turns out that once a transfer we get to go to the Tokyo Temple.  It's the last Tuesday of every transfer.  That Tuesday becomes P-day!  So this week, my P-day was  a day later than normal.  I felt bad because I didn't get a chance to warn anyone... 許してください！(Please forgive me!)

This week was exciting, but not all at the same time.  xD  Here we go!

 

Wakai Josei Dendo

This week we got to spend a lot of time with the wakai josei (Young Women).  They mailed (The Japanese equivilant of texting) us saying they wanted to come dendo with us! We were like "Heck yes!"  So twice this week we met with a couple of the wakai josei and taught them how to go streeting and took them with us!  It was A LOT of fun.  I really really needed it.  It was so nice to feel like I knew what was going on more than someone else did for once, you know?  It was so nice to be the one helping and teaching someone than being the one who gets corrected on everything I do. :P  I loved it.  Not just that, but it really helped me to build my relationship with the wakai josei. :-) Those girls have some freakishly strong testimonies.  They have to here in Japan.  While talking to them I found out one girl is the only LDS member in her whole school.  When I heard that I freaked out a little saying "Honto ni!?"   Then all the wakai josei gave me this look like "What? You know other members in your school?"  :P  These girls really have to have strong testimonies and high standards to remain active.  It's crazy.  I have so much respect for them.

 

Peter Pan

So, guess what.  Peter Pan got baptized on Sunday.  xD  I think I mentioned this in my email last week, so I won't go into a ton of detail.  The chorotachi have been teaching this guy named Jake who works at Disneyland playing Peter Pan, Prince Charming, Prince Phillip, and all the other Princes.  His fiancee (Kay is her name) is a member and has been trying to get him to take the lessons for a while and as soon as he did, holy cow. :-)  He's so amazing.  He's got a really strong testimony too.  It's so cool to hear his testimony.  The fun part was that he invited a bunch of his coworkers to come and see his baptism!  I got to talk to a lot of them about how they got involved with Disneyland and what it was like working there and such.  All of them were saying "Yeah!  You totally should work at Disneyland after your mission!  It's a lot of fun!"  :-D  We've decided we're going to have a Disneyland Party this month sometime.  We're going to have the Disneyland employee's all bring any nonmember friends they want and hopefully we'll get some new investigators out of it!  :-)  I'm excited!  I love that I can use these things that I love to help people.  So fun. 

 

Typhoon:I survived my first Typhoon.  xD  Oh my gosh it was scary. :P  Kuwahara shimai was just like "Woo!  This is awesome!" while I just sat on my "bed" praying "Please don't let the window shatter, please don't let the window shatter..." xD  This was on Sunday by the way.  We started off Sunday with 6 lessons scheduled and all 6 fell through.  Talk about depressing...  Then at 6:30 we had a FHE with one of the members.  On our way to the FHE was when the Typhoon hit... The timing was impeciable. Like seriously.  I KNOW Heavenly Father was watching out for us.  The rain started RIGHT as we got to an eki (A train station) that had a roof we could take shelter under.  Then we said a prayer asking whether or not we should continue to the members house... We felt like we should so we kept going.  Right as we started riding again, the rain became less heavy.  It was still awful, but it had definitely improved.  When it started we were in the rain (I kid you not) about 10 seconds and we were drenched.  After we left the eki it was like a rainstorm in Utah.

When we got there we were soaked through.  xD  We looked so pathetic I'm sure, but it turned out to be a really good experience.  I had a lot of fun and Kuwahara shimai shared a really powerful spiritual message. During the whole thing I was watching the weather out the window... It was definitely getting worse.  The wind was picking up and the rain had gotten really really heavy again.  I prayed and prayed and prayed.  "Please let the rain stop just long enough for us to get home..."  Then when it was time to go, the rain had stopped.  The wind hadn't, but the rain had.  :-)  The Chorotachi escorted us home to make sure we made it safely.  We got inside, sat down, and BANG!  The windows started shaking like they were going to shatter at any second.  I was so freaked out.  xD  Luckily after that it was time for bed so we just laid in bed listening to the typhoon outside.  So scary.  :P  But I survived!  Woo!

 

Kyudosha Update:

Tamae: AH!  I'm SO excited about this one.  On Sunday, we were going to meet with her and discuss baptism again.  We were planning on re-extending the baptism commitment and see where she stood.  Like I said though, all of our lessons fell through... However, she did come to Sacrament Meeting.  We talked with her just a little bit after to see how she was doing and she told us "I know I need to be baptized.  I want to be baptized by the end of this year."   Oh my gosh. When we got back to the apartment, Kuwahara shimai and I just started bawling.  Yeah, it's not very specific, but considering she wouldn't even say that much before this is a HUGE step and an amaing miracle. :-)

Yoko Saito: We couldn't meet with her this week so no update sadly... She's another of the 6 that fell through...

Helen: We met with her this week and she taught a yoga class.  It was actually really really really fun.  :-) She's a great teacher.  The lesson went really well and the spirit was so strong.  We taught her about the Restoration and she just ate it up.  I honestly cannot tell you how kinjin she is.  She's amazing.  We have discovered one hold up though.. She can't come to church.  It's not possible for her to get work off on Sundays... We talked to the bishop about it and he said that he wants to start having more of those special Sacrament Meetings at 7pm on Sundays for those people like Helen and Illya who can't get work off and just can't come at 11.  :-)  Murakami Bishop is amazing.

Sashida: I don't remember if I wrote about her yet... She was a referral from the chorotachi.  I haven't really known what to think about her lately... then yesterday happened.  Yesterday, right after doryo benkyo we got a call from Sashida.  She said she needed to talk to us right away and asked if we could meet her at the church in the next 10 minutes.  Obviously we were like "Of course!"  and headed over.  Thankfully we had no lessons scheduled for yesterday... When we got there she looked really... just sad.  We went inside and started talking.  I don't think I should go into many details... So really vague details... She couldn't go home, but she had nowhere to stay.  We didn't know exactly what to do so we called the Elders and they tried to help.  In the meantime, we stayed with Sashida and taught her and just visited with her.  Finally the Elders called saying we needed to take Sashida home.  She didn't want to (and I wish I could explain why, but I don't think I should.  Just know I don't blame her for not wanting to go home...) but we forced her.  We went with her and made sure she was okay.  We told her to call us again if anything happened.  We haven't heard from her at all today, so we assume everything is okay...  Yeah... That was exciting.  That's for sure.

 

Kojima Miracle:The amazing thing about the whole Sashida thing is that because of that, we actually ran into another lady named Kojima.  :-)  It was really a miracle.  We weren't going to be in that area, but because of Sashida, we were.  We talked to her a little and she's REALLY interested in Eikaiwa and wants to hear a little about our church.  :-)  We're going to go see a performance of hers on Saturday so we'll see how that goes.

 

 

Well, that was this week.  :-)  Like I said, exciting but not. I love you all! I miss you!  Keep praying for me and pray for my investigators!

-

グラスランド姉妹

Week 4: September 24

Konnichiwa Minasan!  Genki desu ka?  Osashiburi!  (Long time no see!)

 

I'm gonna get right to it this week.  :-)

 

Death by Mosquito Bites:

So, I only have 1 real complaint about Japan.... There are so many freaking mosquitoes.  I swear, I've never been bitten by so many freaking mosquitoes.  :P  The first day here I counted 12 mosquito bites. 5 on one leg, 2 on the other, and 5 on my arms... Now, I've lost count of how many mosquito bites I have.  xD  Oh my gosh my legs never stop itching.  It's ridiculous.  Hahahaha!  Anyway, I just thought a few of you might find that entertaining to imagine... Christine riding kids bike in a skirt trying to figure out a way to scratch at her mosquito bites while riding..... xD   I'm a freak.

 

Thursday's Miracle:

So this week I had a major miracle happen.  I don't know how many of you will really appreciate this outside my parents and my siblings, but just know, I really am not exaggerating about this one... I know I tend to overexaggerate on some things, but this I really am not.

One thing that's slightly bothersome about having a Nihonjin doryo is that her family actually lives around here... It kinda is hard sometimes.  The Nihonjin actually have special permission to go and meet with their nonmember family members and dendo (prostelyte) so this Thursday we went to visit Kuwahara shimai's uncle.  I wasn't too sure about it, but I don't really get a say as the Junior Companion... I kinda just get dragged around.  Well, it turned out to be one of the highlights of my week.  :-)  Her uncle was kinda awkward around me since I'm American and he's never met a gaijin (foreigner) before.  He took us on a tour of his favorite parts of the area.  It was SO beautiful.  I can't even describe it.  I'm gonna try to attach a picture to this so you can get an idea, but a picture really doesn't do it credit.

It was awesome.  :-)  He took us out for about 3 hours or so of bike riding and sight seeing... but I didn't know that's what we'd be doing... so I didn't bring my water bottle.

At around 2:30, I started getting Heat Exhaustion... which led to the beginnings of a migraine.  :/  I didn't have my medicine or any water, and neither of the people I was with would understand the words "Heat Exhaustion" or "Migraine" so I was stuck... I didn't know what to do.  I figured I'd just fight it and pray really really really REALLY hard I'd make it home.  Luckily, I made it back to her uncle's house and then the migraine really struck.  Nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, the whole shibang.  Oh, but the story doesn't end there.

After that, we didn't have time to go to the apartment where my medicine was because we had a fireside we were going to with a less active member that Aoyagi choro (From the quorum of the 70) was in charge of.  Which meant, not only did I have to fight a migraine with no medicine, I had to be social and pretend like there was no problems.  I had to smile and laugh and talk to all the other missionaries and everyone else who was there.

Here's the miracle...

I did it.  :-)

I don't know how I did it.  I felt so sick and I felt so dizzy.  My head was throbbing and I wished I could just fall over dead...

But I made it back to the apartment (at around 9:45pm...) took my medicine and went to sleep.  I slept the whole night (another miracle) and then I woke up on Friday feeling totally fine.  I still had some slight nausea, but my migraine was completely gone and I was totally fine... I can't explain it.  It was a miracle.  :-)  Thank you all for the prayers.  I know that it's because of those prayers I was healed.

Like I said, I don't know how many of you will truly understand why that was a miracle outside my immediate family (and probably a few Space Center peeps), but it was a big part of my week this week.

 

Kyudosha Update!

So far, most of the people who have written me have said "I love to hear about your investigators!".  I see how it is. ;)

I'll try to give you guys a kyudosha update every week, but it's kinda hard.  I talk to so many people right now it's ridiculous, but I'll do my best.  :-D

 

Tamae: There's not a lot to update you on with Tamae.  She's been given all of the lessons and we've extended the baptismal commitment a few times, but she says she still doesn't feel ready.  She doesn't feel like she has enough faith.  The temple really helped and she had a major change after listening to Aoyagi choro speak in Sacrament Meeting last week... but she's still not sure.  We're doing our best, but progression with her is slow.

 

Yoko Saito: AH!  :-)  She's so kinjin. (Golden Investigator!)  We met with her again yesterday.  Normally when we meet we speak English, but yesterday we spoke Japanese the whole lesson, so honestly, I didn't understand hardly anything that was said.  :P  All I know for sure is that we went into that lesson planning on teaching about Sukui no Keikaku (Plan of Salvation), but in Relief Society they'd talked about Chie no Kotoba and she had questions about that.  So we taught her Chie no Kotoba, Junketsu no Rippo, and the 10 commandments.  Talk about a change. :P  We asked her if she'd obey all those commandments and she said "Ganbarimasu." which basically translates to "I'll do my best."  She's awesome.  :-)  Yesterday we had 2 baptisms!  (Not me, the Elders. :P)  I invited Yoko to come see their baptism so she could understand.  I think it was really good for her.  She told us after "Wow... you really are Christians.  This really is Christian!"  x)  It was great.

 

Helen:  We met Helen for the first time this week.  :-)  Helen is Chinese, but she's been studying Japanese.  She's another real kinjin.  I can't understand her very well because her Japanese has a Chinese accent... Japanese is hard enough by itself!  xD  But again, we went into that lesson planning on teaching the Restoration.  We had been practicing all morning because it was going to be the first time that I was REALLY going to participate in a Japanese lesson... that didn't happen. :P  Suddenly we were teaching her Iesu Kirisuto no Fukuin (Gospel of Christ).  I know it's what she needed though.  Although I didn't understand exactly what was being said, I DO know that the spirit was their and I felt it.  I know she felt it too.  I participated a little, but mostly it was her asking a lot of questions and Kuwahara doing her best to answer.  Whenever she didn't know an answer, she'd ask me in English and I'd explain in English, then Kuwahara shimai would translate.  At the end of the lesson we extended the baptismal commitment (Which again was NOT according to plan.  At all.  We specifically were told by the Elders that we should take it slow with her.) and she said "Zehite uketai!" which translates roughly to "by all means I want to receive."  :-)  It was such a good experience.

 

Those are the three big ones right now.  :-) We have a few PI (Potential Investigators) like Meguri, Takemitsu (My Disneyland buddy!), and Sashida but Helen, Yoko, and Tamae are the really big focus ones.  So there's your kyudosha update!

 

With the chorotachi, they're actually getting ready to baptize another one of their kyudosha on Saturday.  His name is Jake, but really... HE'S PETER PAN!!!!! He works at Disneyland and plays Peter Pan!  How cool is that?!  So fyi.  Peter Pan is getting baptized on Saturday.  ;)  So awesome.

 

 

Well, that's really about it for this week... Thank you all for your support and your love!  And again, those of you waiting for responses still... I'm sorry!  I only have 4 hours or so on Pday and 2.5 hours of it is writing emails and shopping!  I'm doing my best!

 

I love you all so much!  Thank you for the prayers and the thoughts! You're amazing and I couldn't do this without your support!

-

Christine