Transfer 6 Week 3: April 14, 2013

皆様こんにちは!　皆様は元気？

This week was such a good week.  :-)  We saw an AMAZING miracle this week.  Like one of those miracles that you hear about happening to other people but never seems to happen to you kind of miracles.  ;) 説召します！

Hitomi:

Up until now I'm pretty sure I've said next to nothing about Hitomi姉妹. That probably because up until now we've only had 2 lessons during which she talked to us for roughly 45 minutes. :P  Well, we finally were able to have a real lesson the week before last where we taught her about the Restoration.  We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if Joseph Smith really was a prophet.  However, she kinda rushed us out so we weren't able to invite her to be baptized like we wanted to.  During that lesson we very briefly mentioned baptism, but other than that we said nothing.  On Wednesday after Eikaiwa we got an email from Hitomi that said "I'm interested in learning more about baptism.  What do I need to do to be baptized?"  (Sasaki姉妹 and I freaked. :P)  We emailed her back saying that baptism is a very sacred and special experience in which we make promises to Heavenly Father.  Before we can make those promises there are certain things we have to know and understand.  That's what our job as missionaries is!  She emailed us back and said "I want to be baptized in order to be closer to God and strengthen my heart.  Please teach me." WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  :-D We're going to meet with her on Saturday to talk more about what she needs to do to be baptized, but she came to General Conference yesterday and said she really liked what was said. (She listened to a good portion of  the Sunday Morning session.)  We're really excited to start working with her.  :-)  She could really use your prayers though.  She's very sick. Like... very sick.  Coming to church and meeting with us is very difficult because of how sick she gets.  Please pray that she will be able to heal enough from this illness to be able to come to church once a week and meet with us! 

On Saturday we plan on talking with her about the Priesthood and asking her if she wants a Priesthood Blessing from the Elders.  Hopefully she will accept and that will help, but your prayers are needed as well!  Please pray for her to be able to be baptized!

General Conference:

The only other really exciting thing that happened this week was General Conference!  I mentioned this during my first transfer I think, but here in Japan all the broadcasts from Utah are broadcasted here a week later.  They have to translate it into Japanese and such so it takes about a week.  But oh my gosh Conference was amazing.  We got a challenge from our District Leader to pray and ponder about a list of questions we wanted answered at conference.  He promised us they would ALL be answered.  He said that when he first heard that he decided to test it out by writing a really weird question. His question was "What color tie should I wear on Friday?"  Then during General Conference.  Elder Perry mentioned something about how he really liked his purple tie! 

Well, I decided to test it out this week if I would actually get answers to my questions.  I prayed and prayed for about 3 weeks before Conference and ended up with a list of 23 questions... All but one were answered.  The one that wasn't was "What kind of Ice Cream should we eat on P-day?" (OH!  About that.  So Sasaki姉妹 and I have been doing "English Day" and "Japanese Day".  We decided that if I could go all of Japanese Day speaking ALL Japanese then we would get Ice Cream for P-day!  I DID IT!) Unfortunately unless they have some kind of tomato Ice Cream I don't think that one was answered.. ;)  However 22 of my questions were answered. And not just answered.  Very specifically answered.  It was seriously like I had just asked one of the apostles that question and they were specifically answering me. :-)  Probably the coolest experience I've had with Conference. :-)

FAMILY:
I mentioned a few weeks ago about how I was SO scared something was going to happen to you all out there while I'm here...  One of my questions was about that.  Then in President Eyrings talk he said "As we give devoted service to Him, He draws closer to those we love in our families... You can depend on the Lord to draw closer t othem as you serve Him in faith... Even as they are attacked by satan and his followers, whose purpose is to destroy families in this life and in eternity... I can promise you that the Savior will draw close to you and bless you and your family with what is best... His arms are outstretched with yours to succor and bless the children of our Heavenly Father, including those in your family."  It was exactly what I needed to hear.  Heavenly Father really does listen to and answer our prayers.  :-)

Overall this week has been really good.  It had a few down days too where I really struggled, but I've definitely felt the Lords hand in my life this week.  It's like they said in Conference. "God doesn't expect us to be perfect all at once.  He let's us grow little by little every day."  It's okay that I'm not perfect, as long as I'm continuing to try to be better.  Keep trying and someday I can be as God as. :-)

Thank you all for your prayers on my behalf and on behalf of my investigators.  They are felt and needed!  Don't stop! :P  I'm sorry to everyone who has written me who I haven't responded to yet. I  have letters sitting on my desk right now from January.......... My goal today is to get at least half of them answered! :-)  I LOVE YOU ALL!

THANK YOU!

Love,

Christine

Transfer 6 Week 2: April 7, 2013

皆様おはいようございます！久しぶり！

This week was a really really exciting week.  Here we go!

 

Tuesday:

I emailed you all last Tuesday because we were on transfer week.  I spent all day Monday and Tuesday in an area called Hibarigaoka with the Hibarigaoka sisters.  All three of us were panicking the whole time because we were about to be made trainers.  Walbeck姉妹 had been a trainer before (she trained someone from my doki! (group of missionaries who came to Japan together)), but she didn't have the greatest experience from it...  It was really hard on her.   So she was NOT excited about having to do it again.  Talk about comforting right?  Well, we spent all day Tuesday saying goodbye to their investigators and members and such while I ran Kichijoji from my phone. x)  Talk about weird.  Finally at 9:45pm we FINALLY got the email telling us what time we needed to be at honbu (Nakano) in order to pick up our new companions.  In order to get there on time, we had to be up at 5:00am. yay...

 

Wednesday:

5:00am : Wake up and get ready to go.  Travel to Nakano.

8:00am : Arrive in Nakano and meet all of the new missionaries.  The whole time we were thinking "which one is mine?!"  Talk about nerve racking.  There was a point when the Hibarigaoka Sisters and I were alone again for a little while and we started talking about which ones we wanted. (I know... terrible right? :P)  That was when it kind of hit me that I might get a Nihonjin companion... So I started praying that I wouldn't.  I remember how hard my first transfers were and I really didn't want to be training someone I couldn't communicate with!  I mean, my Japanese is MUCH better than when I first got here, but still.  I can't speak that well.

11:00am : Training from President Budge.  He gave us all a training on how to treat our new missionaries... Again the whole time I kept praying "Please let her be a gaijin... Please let her be a gaijin..."   While praying, I remember having the thought come to me "Do you trust me enough not to give you a gaijin companion?"  I thought about that a lot, but eventually brushed it off thinking "Well, I'm getting an American so it's okay. Presidant Budge knows I can't do a Nihonjin companion."

1:30pm : We got our new companions.  You guessed correctly.  Her name is Sasaki姉妹.  When President Budge first announced it I was SO shocked and honestly a little disappointed.  I hadn't talked to Sasaki姉妹 at all before her being assigned as my companion, but I'd really gotten to know the other Sisters...  I made a promise to myself before going in to that meeting though that whoever my companion was, I would love her and try to be her friend... Which with Sasaki姉妹 was WAY too easy to do. :-)  I'm about 99.9% convinced we were close friends in the premortal life.  From the moment we started talking we've been best friends!  :-D

 

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all filled with visiting investigators and members and introducing Sasaki姉妹 to all of them.  She really is amazing.  SHE SPEAKS JAPANESE!  xD  I don't know why on Earth I was praying to have a gaijin companion!  How would I have survived!?  x)  Sasaki姉妹 is SO amazing though.  She's always smiling and genki.  Everyone who has met her has LOVED her.  She is defnitely here to work too!  She does everything I ask her to and, even when she's completely exhausted continues to help me out. :-)  I don't know how I got so lucky to have her. :)  As for the language barrier.... It's not much of a barrier actually. :-)  Sasaki姉妹 understands a lot of English.  Like a lot of English.  She keeps saying she doesn't, but she does.  She can't really speak very well, but reading and understanding are definitely strong points for her... which is kind of how I feel about Japanese.  So what it's turned into is I speak to her in English and she answers in Japanese.  :-D  We also do English/Japanese days which has been fun.

 

Basically I lucked out because my companion is pretrained and amazing. :-)  There have been 2 lessons I've learned so far this week from this whole experience.

1: GRACE.  I didn't think I'd be able to handle being the real sempai in the area, but somehow Heavenly Father has helped me. Before Sasaki姉妹 came I could not for the life of me wake up at 6:30 every day... but I'm proud to report that I have been able to follow the missionary schedule exactly all week. :-)  Heavenly Father definitely helps those He calls to do the things he has asked.  I couldn't do this without His grace.

2. TRUST.  Like I said, I didn't think I could handle a Nihonjin Bean... but Heavenly Father knew better than that.  "Do you trust me enough not to give you a gaijin companion?"  The fact is whatever Heavenly Father gives us in life will be for our good.  He made us.  He knows what we can do much better than we do.  Although we may not think we can do something, He will always be there to help us.  So if anyone out there reading this is praying for something specific, do you trust Heavenly Father enough not to give it to you?  Do you trust Him enough to say "Thy will be done"?

 

I know that this gospel is true and I"m so greatful for it. I'm so greatful I get this chance to be a trainer and learn so much from my AMAZING companion.  I'm looking forward to an amazing transfer with tons of miracles.  Stay tuned. ;)

I love you all!  Thank you for your prayers and your letters and your love!  I will never be able to express how much they mean to me so thank you!  I love you all!

 

Love,

Christine

 

 

Transfer 6 Week 1: April 2, 2013

皆様こんにちは！皆様元気？私はちょ元気だよ！

This week was actually fairly uninteresting. :P 

求道者Update!

Hasegawa: There hasn't really been a whole lot of progress with Hasegawa.  She's been reading 2 pages out of the Book of Mormon every single day since January and seems to really like it! We've been talking with her a lot about baptism and trying to push her to get baptized... but she's still too afraid to talk to her parents about getting baptized.  Please keep praying that she'll find the courage to talk to them so she can be baptized! :-D

Oikawa: Funny story here.  A few weeks ago at DCS (A meeting all the missionaries go to to talk with the ward leaders about our invesitgators and such.) the Elders were talking about their investigators... then they mentioned that they had a new investigator who just showed up at church one week named Oikawa!  x)  Oikawa has been an investigator for over 2 years, but apparently the Elders had never seen her.  They saw her at church and thought she was new so they introduced themselves and set up a lesson!  xD  It was way funny.  Anyway, we were told by our leaders that we should put a little less focus on Oikawa so there's not really anything happening with her.

Yuka: I LOVE HER!  x)  I love all our investigators! :-)   We've been wanting to get Yuka to read the Book of Mormon on her own, so we read with her the story where Nephi gets tied up on the boat.  She started crying and kept saying "I don't know why I'm crying!"  We tried to help her realize that it was the spirit telling her that it was true.  She agreed and talked about how impressed she was with Nephi.  We told her that she could have those feelings every day by reading the Book of Mormon every day. She said she didn't have time, so we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon for kids. (I don't know what it's called in English... In Japanese it's モルモン書物語. )  We told her she should read it with her 2 sons at night and she agreed.  Last time we met with her, she'd been reading with her kids but she had a lot of concerns.... Like how the Lamanites were cursed with dark skin... and how all the good guys had such hard lives... and how violent it was... :/  But she's still reading it I'm pretty sure... We'll find out for sure this week.

Naoko: Ahhhh!  Naoko!  Seriously, I'm spoiled with the BEST investigators ever.  Two weeks ago, Naoko stopped praying.  We asked her about it and got her praying again. She says she can definitely feel the difference between when she prays and when she doesn't.  Problem is, she's SUPER busy with work so she hardly ever has time to meet with us for an actual lesson... So although she's progressing, it's a really slow process.  This week she watched The Testaments and said she cried.  She also kept saying "I don't know why!  It just came out!"  I love her. :-)

Other than that we have various Potential Investigators and Investigators that aren't keeping commitments but those four are the big ones right now that we're working with.

I've got 5 more minutes for this email so I'm going to hurry and wrap up.

Transfer Calls:

Last week we got our transfer calls!  I'm... still in Kichijoji! :-) Yaaaay!  And my new companion is....

A NEW MISSIONARY!

Right now I don't know who she is.  x) But she's here in Japan now!  As of an hour ago.  That's why this week wasn't extremely exciting   Long姉妹 found out she was transfering so we spent most of the week trying to get everything ready to hand over to me and the new missionary.  We met with all of our investigators to say goodbye and everything. Then yesterday Long姉妹 got all packed and off she went.  Like I said, my new companion just got here today (I'll pick her up tomorrow and go back to Kichijoji) so I for yesterday and all of today I've been running Kichijoji all by myself... In Hibarigaoka (the next area over).  I'm not allowed to be alone so right now I"m in a 3人 with two other sisters who are preparing to train.  One of them is Nagamine姉妹 who came with me out to Japan!  I love her! And Walbeck姉妹. So much.  :-D  Seriously I'm so spoiled right now.

All three of us are super nervous, but super excited. :-) (Family: We keep saying that this must be what it feels like to be pregnant.  xD  Everything is about the Beans.  Getting the room ready, buying little things to give her when she gets here, wondering what she's like, feeling like we are nowhere near qualified to do this... Yup. ;D) I'm sure you all will see a picture of her on the mission blog before I can get one sent out to you!  I know she'll be amazing!

Thank you all for everything!  I'm sorry this email is so short.  We're super busy getting things ready for the new missionaries so I don't really have much time. I love you all though!  Have a great week!

-

グラスランド姉妹より


Teaching English:

Flowers from an investigator:

Out to lunch: