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