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