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