Transfer 9 Week 2: July 21, 2013

Heeeeey everybody!  :-)
I hope you all had a fantastic week!  I know that I did. :-D  Let's
get things going shall we!  I apologize for any not correct English or
weird sounding english... xP

Tuesday:
I mentioned in last weeks email that transfer calls were moved.  We
used to do them on Saturdays and transfer on Monday, but now transfer
calls will be coming on Tuesdays and we transfer on Thursdays.
Tuesday was transfer call day... I was waaaay nervous.  I had no idea
how things were going to end up.  I got even more nervous when we
got an email from Sisters Imano and Ellingson saying that they got
their call and were both staying!  The
fact that we hadn't gotten ours yet meant that SOMEONE would be
transfering from us...  We were afraid to say the prayer to end our
companion study because we knew the phone could ring at any time.
Sure enough, as soon as I started to pray the phone rang. x)
Here are the results!  Sister Stankosky transfered to an area called
Hibarigaoka and I'm still in Fujisawa!! Yaaaaaaay!  I'm still a Sister
Training Leader and on top of that, I've been made a trainer again!  I
was pretty stressed out about it... Talk about pressure.
Well, that meant we spent most of Tuesday packing.

Wednesday:
We spent ALL day packing and cleaning the apartment.

Thursday:
We woke up Thursday Morning to the sound of the doorbell.  Sister
Homem had come to give my companion and I a ride to the train station
so we wouldn't have to walk carrying all of my companions stuff.  That
was at 5:15am.  Then at the train station our Ward Mission Leader met
up with us and helped carry my companions luggage halfway to
Kichijoji. :-)  I LOVE FUJISAWA WARD!
When we got to Kichijoji, I said goodbye to Sister Stankosky and met
up with the other Sisters who were going to be made trainers.
This time being made a trainer was completely different than last
time!  Last time it was this HUGE ordeal that took nearly all day to
figure out.  This time, we were done with everything by 11:30am. :P
My new companion is.................... Sister Miwa!!  Oh my goodness
I love her so much. x)  We make kind of a funny companionship though.
She's super tall and used to do athletics so she's pretty buff. ;)
Put that next to tiny wimpy me and we get a lot of stares. x)  She
doesn't really speak English.. like at all. :-)  She understands about
half of what's being said most of the time, but she can't quite speak.
 So if I talk to her in slow English, she'll respond in Japanese. It's
way fun. :-D  I can already feel my Japanese improving.  My goal is to
be fluent by the end of this transfer. Hahaha! :-)
Sister Miwa wants to be a PE Teacher after her mission, but coolest
thing ever, she used to study Astronomy as well!  She actually went
and worked at an observatory for a summer!  It's been way fun being
geeky with her. ;)  She's already a way good missionary too.
Seriously, the only stress I have with her is that she can't translate
what she's saying to other people. ;)  Waaa. :P

Friday:
We had to wake up again at 5am to go to Kichijoji, this time for
another mission leadership council.  The MLC was WAY good and I
learned a ton, but I was way exhausted.  Two days of waking up that
early was killer.  That took up most of the day.

Saturday and Sunday were normal days and not much happened... and now
it's Monday!

Sorry, I'm way out of time so I've gotta wrap it up here.  I love you
all so much!  Thank you so much for everything!  Love you!

Love,
Christine

Goodbye Sis. Stankosky!

Hello Sis. Miwa!!

Transfer 9 Week 1: July 14, 2013

Hey guys!
I'm sorry, I don't really have time for a long email this week...
Luckily very few exciting things happened this week.  I'll just
summarize quickly.  Sorry it won't be as exciting of a read. :P

We were supposed to get our transfer calls this last Saturday, but we
got an email from Honbu earlier in the week saying that our transfer
days are moving to Thursdays instead of Mondays.  We'll now be getting
our Transfer calls on Tuesday (tomorrow morning) and transferring on
Thursday! Craaazy.  So although today marks day one of transfer 9, I
don't know yet where I'm going to be on my 9th transfer.  We'll find
out tomorrow!
This week I went on exchanges with the other Sisters living with us in
our apartment.  Sister Imano and Sister Ellingson!  It was a WAY cool
experience.  With Sister Imano we saw SO many miracles.  We were able
to find 3 really solid potential investigators (who they are still in
contact with).  With Sister Ellingson we both had an amazing study
time in the morning and learned SO much from each other.  While out
proselyting we both got heat exhaustion though and ended up not
getting a whole lot of work done... Oops.
Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night with a massive
migraine that kept me up for about 3 hours.  I didn't get much sleep
making Saturday and Sunday really hard to get through...
Biggest news of the week though.  We got a call from Honbu about my
return date!  I will be coming home on November 19th, 2013.
CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY!  I don't even know what to think about it.  I'm
trying NOT to think about it!  I loved the way the AP's put it. "To
make your Thanksgiving Turkey taste even better, you'd better work
your best until then!"
So Transfer 9, 10, and 11 HERE WE COME!  Bring it on. ;)

I love you all!  Have a great week!
Love,
Christine

Transfer 8 Week 3: July 07, 2013

Hey everybody!!
I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all a ton! :-)

This week was such an amazing week!  I`m not even kidding when I say
that this week changed my life.  So let`s get started!

*Tuesday:*
We met our new mission president this week! :-)  My new Mission
President is President Wada.  Back in the MTC I was told that part of
the reason you were sent to the mission we were sent to was for our
Mission President.  While I really liked President Budge, he sort of
just felt like another boss kind of thing.  This week when we met
President Wada, I really was able to confirm to at least myself that
this IS exactly where God wants me.  The Tokyo South Mission is where
I`m meant to be because President Wada is the Mission President. :-)
President Wada is Nihonjin, but he lived in America for as long as
he`s lived in Japan I`m pretty sure, so he`s fluent in both English
and Japanese... but the most important thing (of course)... his wife
is an ANGEL!  I love her SO much!  If I`m lucky, I will grow up to be
a Mom like her.  She`s so sweet and energetic and loving!   They
seriously feel like parents to me.
President Wada`s focus for the mission is really interesting too.  He
said "If you go home having no converts, but having a firm belief of
the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, I feel that is success."  The
best way I feel I can describe it is that he's going to focus on us as
missionaries and OUR testimonies, because he knows when our testimony
is unshakable, we want to share it with others.  He has himself a
REALLY powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Sorry, short version: I LOVE President and Sister Wada!!

*Wednesday:*
The day that the new Sisters came to Fujisawa, my companion and I
decided to stop at McDonalds.  While there, I complimented this girls
shoes and talked with her for a little bit.  Then she left and a
little while later we streeted into her again!  We were able to get
her email and everything so we were way excited!  On Wednesday we met
with her and her friend to go get some lunch!  At lunch we talked
briefly about Jesus Christ and about who he is.  It went really well
and they seemed to have an interest!  We'll be meeting with them again
this week on Wedesday! :-)

*Thursday:*
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!  I hope your guys' 4th was amazing!  This
years fourth of July was SO fun. Because it was on a Thursday it meant
EIKAIWA!  (English Class!)  I spent all of Weekly Planning working on
this Red, White, and Blue paper chain to use as decoration.  We had a
picnic at the church for dinner where we ate TONS of sandwiches, sang
the National Anthem to begin Eikaiwa, had a short class and then
partied!  Sister Imano and Sister Ellingson prepped this HUGE party,
but in the end we only had time to play Mafia.  It was WAY fun though.
 The Elders got everyone all riled up and everyone started accusing
each other of being the mafia.  It was hilarious. x)
The best part of Thursday though was Sister Homem.  Sister Homem and
her family are all Brazilian and LOVE the missionaries.  We all call
her our ward mom. :P  She's always doing things for us and trying to
help us in any way that she can. I LOVE HER!  Well, she came to
Eikaiwa carrying this huge bag with 'Disney Store' written all over
it... and who does she walk up to with it? ;)  She said (In Japanese)
"I noticed on your paper that your birthday was in February!  I missed
it!  Here's a birthday present!"  That's right.  I got a birthday
present on the Fourth of July for my February birthday. ;)  Well, I
was good and waited until I got back to the apartment to open it... I
attached pictures of what she gave me. Oh my gosh I just about died.
Seriously.  My roommates all laughed at me. xD  Best belated birthday
present EVER!


*FRIDAY (the day my life changed)*
Friday morning I woke up at 5:45am to get ready for Mission Leadership
Council in Kichijoji at 8am.  The Mission Leadership Council consisted
of all of the Sister Training Leaders, the Zone Leaders, the AP's and
President Wada.
The training from President Wada lasted 6 hours and during those 6
hours, President Wada taught us nothing but things from the Book of
Mormon.  He said "The Book of Mormon is about you.  Each one of you.
Let me show you."  We started by reading the story of Ammon slowly...
verse by verse.  He taught us how to, while reading the Book of
Mormon, really apply it to ourselves.  He would read a verse, stop and
then ask us "What can we learn about Ammon from this verse?  What kind
of person is he?"  I'd never done that before.  Stopping verse after
verse and just thinking about what that one verse said.
Then he had us practice teaching from the Book of Mormon.  He had us
read 1 Nephi 1:1 with our "investigators" (Another set of
missionaries) and apply that verse to them.  We practiced over and
over and over and over again.  Then we came back and talked about what
we had practiced.  President Wada talked with us all about the power
of the Book of Mormon and how it had changed his life. While he was
talking, I looked down to the Book of Mormon I was holding in my hand
and just remember thinking "What kind of a book IS this?".
I've prayed many times to know whether or not the Book of Mormon was
true.  Every time, I just haven't really felt anything... but then,
sitting there looking at my Book of Mormon, all of the sudden it hit
me.  This overwhelming confirming feeling that the book I was holding
in my hand was the Word of God. I've never felt anything like it
before in my life.  I've heard since I was little that when you feel
the power of the spirit you KNOW it and you can never deny it.  I've
felt the spirit many times in my life... but never so strongly as I
did sitting in the living room of the Mission Home, staring at a book
in my hands.

The Book of Mormon is true.  It is the word of God.  It really is
about me, and it really is about you.  Whoever you are, read it.  Read
it over and over and over again because I guarentee there will be
something new you learn every single time.  God gave us the Book of
Mormon as our guide in our life.  No other book can bring us closer to
God.

We've had 2 lessons since I had this experience... Both were
incredible.  One of them, a girl named Miki, promised to read the Book
of Mormon and pray about it.  Then, she accepted the baptismal
commitment. :-)  Miki will be getting baptized on August 3rd.


This week has been such an amazing week.  Full of ups and a lot of
downs and a lot of ups.  I know that God is there though.  I know that
He is definitely guiding us in this work because I couldn't be doing
this on my own.
Isn't being a missionary the greatest thing ever!? ;)

Thank you guys so much for your prayers and your support!  I love you
and I miss you all so much!  I hope you had a great Fourth of July and
have an even better week this week! This Saturday we will be getting
our transfer calls, so look forward to hearing about that! ;)

Love you all!
Love,
Sister Grosland (Christine)

 Sister Imano and Sister Ellingson

Fujisawa

Transfer 8 Week 2: June 30, 2013

皆様こんにちは！
I hope you guys all had a fantastic week.  :-)  I miss you all so much!
With the whole mission split I'm pretty sure they're hanging on to all of
our letters... I haven't gotten a single letter for a while now. I hope
everyone is doing well!
This week was... A week. ;)  I don't really know what to talk about in this
email today... So I'm just going to go through every day! :-)

*Tuesday:*
Guess what!  Today's July 1st!  Even in Utah it's officially summer now!
;)  Well, I don't remember if I mentioned this in my earlier emails or not,
but when my companion and I moved into this apartment there was
*nothing*here.  Like nothing.  One of the biggest things that we were
missing was an
Air Conditioner.  Japan is *way* humid and hot during the summer so we've
been begging honbu since day 1 for an air conditioner. Well, we finally got
one this week!  Only problem is, in order to get it installed we had to be
in the apartment while a man installed it.  Just a little not okay. :P  So
we called the Relief Society President that morning and explained the
situation.  She also asked us about our Futons (because we only had 2).
She got it worked out so that she could go buy us 2 new futons for the new
sisters as well as coming to sit in the apartment with us for half the day
while the Air Conditioner was installed. So Tuesday was spent studying... a
lot... However, we did get to talk to the man who installed the Air
Conditioner a bit and gave him a Book of Mormon!  :-)  Yaay!

*Wednesday:*
We had 2 appointments set for Wednesday, but it was REALLY rainy.
Like it was pouring..  We were lucky the member who was our douseki
even came. (I don:t know the English equivilant of that yet, sorry.)
So both of our appointments cancelled and we ended up spending the
whole day streeting around the train station.  Both of us were pretty
miserable and SOAKED.  We decided to take a quick break and buy some
french fries at McDonalds.  (McDonalds Dendo anybody?)  While there we
met this girl named Sekiko!  I talked with her for a little while, but
we didn:t have a lot of time so she ended up leaving.
We finished our french fries and headed back out to work.  While
walking around, we ran into Sekiko again!  We ended up getting her
email and phone number and we:re planning on going out to see her this
week sometime!  YAY!
Also on Wednesday, the new Sisters came!!  We have 2 new sisters
living with us now.  Sister Imano and Sister Ellinson!  Sister Imano
is on Transfer 2 and is from Sendai Japan, but she lived in Hawaii for
a year and so she:s completely fluent in college-age English.  ;)
Sister Ellinson is Transfer 1 and is from Alaska!  They:re both WAY
cute and I LOVE them!  It:s been a ton of fun getting to know them the
last couple of days. :)
So on Wednesday we spent all evening getting them moved in and comfortable. Woo!

*Thursday:*
On Thursday President Budge came to Fujisawa to give us all a
`training`.  Basically what he said when he got here was `I want this
to feel like Family Home Evening.`  He gave us a quick training and
talked about how even though we were going to the South Mission both
he and Sister Budge still love us and we:re all amazing missionaries
and such. :)  Both of them were super depressed, but the feeling
around our Zone was one of excitement... Like this thrill of something
new is about to happen. I wish I could explain exactly, but most of us
instead of feeling sad or rejected were just... excited.  Excited to
be the start of something brand new. :)
Well, the ByeByeBudge Party ended up most of the afternoon.  Then we
had English Class in the Evening.  It was kind of a mess because we
didn:t really know who would be teaching what class or anything... but
that:s okay.

*Friday:*
Was really quite boring... We did Weekly Planning.  Yosh. ;)

*Saturday:*
We had a Ward Softball Game we went to in the morning at 8.  I didn:t
sleep very well on Friday night so I was completely out of it all day
Saturday...  Like completely out of it.  After the game we headed to
this Relief Society activity they did.  Here:s the kind of scary part
of my week, ready? :P
In the middle of the activity my head started to hurt a little bit and
I was like `Great. A migraine.`  I took my hair out of the ponytail I
had it in to loosen the pressure on my head which helped.  Then in the
middle of a game we were playing  I started seeing spots in my right
eye.  The last time that I had that happen was before I graduated and
it usually means that a REALLY bad migraine is coming on.  Like the
kind that last a couple of days.  I hurried and took my medicine, but
the longer I was standing the more I was losing vision.  It was the
weirdest sensation to have both of my eyes open and not to be able to
see out of one of them. It was the end of the Relief Society Activity
too, so we were spending the whole time shaking peoples hands and
thanking them for coming and such...  I was just praying the whole
time that I was making eye contact with them with both eyes. :P
Well, because of that my companion and I decided we should go back to
the apartment and rest. (Thank goodness too.  I don:t know if I
could:ve made it the rest of the day if we hadn:t.)  So we came back,
studied, made thank-you cards, etc.  I feel awful though.  I want to
be a good example for these new missionaries living with us, but I
just wasn:t able to that day... Guess I:ll just have to make up for it
this week!

*Sunday:*
We had a lesson with a friend of a member named Akiko!  It was such a
good lesson.  This woman is so prepared.  She said that her friend
never once said a word to her in the 10 years they were friends about
her church.  She said she was so confused by it!  She said she started
thinking `why doesn:t she tell me?  Does she think I won:t fit in
there or something?`  So she decided to go check it out.  Then when
she came she expected everyone to be like `GET BAPTIZED`, but thusfar
nobody has said a word to her about how she needs to be baptized.  She
asked us why.  We explained to her the importance of baptism and what
it represents and such and explained that it has to be her own choice.
 Nobody here could or would force her.  We would just invite. :)  We
talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and as we were
talking she was like `I:d better read this, huh.`  It was so cool.  :)
We also got to watch the Hastening the Work broadcast which was WAY
cool!  I:m SOO psyched to get to use Facebook!  I figure, we:ve
already got laptops out here in Tokyo... We:ll probably be among the
first to get these new update things. :)  I:m SO excited.

The Lord is DEFINITELY hastening His work.  Every time I think about
all the amazing changes happening to the missionary program I can see
it.  It:s not going to be long now before Christ comes! (Our Zone
Leaders have started to place bets as to when it will be. xD)
I:m so excited to be a missionary at this time!  There really hasn:t
been a more exciting time to be a missionary. :-)  To anyone out there
reading this who are preparing for your missions, get excited! It is
the hardest thing you will ever do, but it is the GREATEST thing you
will ever do.  I wouldn:t trade it for anything.  :-)

I love you guys so much!  Hope to hear from you all soon!
OH!  And here:s the new address for the Tokyo South Mission:
Sister Christine Grosland
Tokyo-to Musashino-shi
Kichijoji
Higashi-Machi 1-7-7
Japan

If you accidentally send it to the wrong address they will forward it
down here to me, but it will take longer. :-) Just FYI.

Love you guys!
Love,
Christine