Tuesday:
Tuesday
was a pretty fun day. This last week was one of the Elders I work with
(Elder Merrill) birthday! That morning we had a fun Relief Society
Activity where we made Halloween Cookies! The Relief Society Presidency
asked us to come in and help with the activity and it ended up being a
miracle we were there since 3 of the women who came were nonmembers
invited by members! :-) Look at Fujisawa Members go! Ever since all
the talk of Hastening the Work the Fujisawa ward has picked up this
Dendo Fire that is incredible! We've been introduced to so many random
people this last week. It's been so fun. :-)
After the activity we took a bunch of the cookies and went to the
Elders apartment loaded with two bags of balloons and random other
things from Daiso (The Japanese version of a dollar store). When we got
to their apartment though we realized that we forgot to bring tape with
us. xD Not to worry though. We were able to tie half of the balloons
to everything. >:) It was hilarious.
Then that night we had a surprise party for Elder Merrill that Miki
came to! It was way fun. :-) About Miki though... She recently found a
part-time job and now she doesn't want to come to church... She's
basically dropped us... It's waaay depressing... We're trying to
help her build some strong relationships with the members, but it's
been way hard. All of the members are WAY good a fellow-shipping her
when they see her, but what we need is someone who will be her friend outside of
church as well. Someone who will invite to her things and call her
randomly to see how she's doing and such... Hopefully we'll find someone
like that soon. :-)
Wednesday:
I woke up Wednesday morning just feeling really really sick... Honestly, Wednesday
was just not the greatest day. We had an all white day (no plans...)
and just really bad attitudes. We went out and dendo'd but the whole
day just felt heavy. It kinda sucked. :P
Thursday:
Probably one of the hardest moments ever... All day Thursday
we had a Zone Conference. President Wada gave us all trainings for
about 9 hours. It was really helpful, but at the same time I couldn't
help but feel like a lot of what was being said didn't apply to me.
They were talking about the future of the mission... It was pretty hard
to focus... Especially because, since it was my last Zone Conference,
it was my turn to give my "Dying" testimony. (All the missionaries going
home bear their testimonies at their last Zone Conference.. We all call
it a "dying missionary".) I was SO nervous. I had NO idea what I was
going to talk about... I ended up bearing my testimony about one of the
hardest parts of my mission. I cried the entire time. xD I'm pretty sure every missionary in that room now thinks I'm a big crybaby. Whatever. ;)
After the conference was over I was approached by several people thanking me for my testimony. One
of the people that approached me was the Fujisawa Stake President. He
thanked me for my testimony and asked me to bear it again for a youth
Sacrament Meeting the next Sunday.
Friday:
In
the morning we were asked to go help out some of the members with
something they do called "Friends Circle". It's a bunch of 2-5 year olds
who all come together and play games and sing songs together and such.
:-) This week they were doing a Halloween Party and wanted us to teach a
really fast English Class and help out with Trick-or-Treating! :-) It
was SO cute. I loved it so much. :-) The amazing part though was
actually after it was over. After it was over a woman walked up to us
and introduced herself as a member of Yamato ward. She pointed out one
of the other woman there and said "That's my friend. This is the first
time I've invited her to any kind of a church activity, but hopefully
she'll come again. If she does, make sure you talk to her!" We made a
note and were about to leave... Then this friend (Fifi is her name) came
up to us and asked us if we'd like to make gyoza with her sometime!
:-D We set up a date to do it and now she's going to be teaching a
bunch of members how to make Gyoza. :-) We're way excited about it.
Not just because we love gyoza (:P) but this will definitely be a major
defining moment for Fifi in her life. She'll have a chance to make a
lot of friends with members of the church hopefully bringing her one
step closer to her Heavenly Father. :-D
Also on Friday
we had a lesson with Hiroko. Hiroko is still progressing really well.
She pulled out her Book of Mormon this week and asked us a few really
good questions! We ended up being able to teach her a little bit about
the Plan of Salvation and invite her to be baptized. She said no, but
she does still want to keep learning from the Book of Mormon. :-)
Saturday:
I
got really sick and was ordered by Sister Homem not to leave the
apartment. xP Honestly though there was a LOT of things that needed to
be done inside the apartment anyway so we just spent all day doing
inside dendo. We emailed all of our PI's, spent 3 hours updating our
Area Book, ate, sent out more emails, and just worked. I was amazed.
Although we didn't leave the apartment we were WAY busy all day. Talk
about a miracle. :-)
Sunday:
President
and Sister Wada came to church! Honestly, yesterday was just
jam-packed with miracles. I can't even tell you half of them. President
Wada really got the ward SO fired up about missionary work! We've been
approached by SO many people since he spoke. Yesterday 2 different
members talked with us about people they're hoping to refer to us. The
work is definitely progressing.
After normal church was the Youth Sacrament Meeting. It was sooo
cute. x) All these 12-18 year olds trying to conduct a Sacrament
Meeting all by themselves. :P It was pretty fun. I was waaaay nervous
to bear my testimony again, but as I stood up to speak I definitely was
able to feel the Gift of Tongues take over. :-) I don't know how I said
half the things I said, but it came out and it was good! After that,
we went out and dendo'd! President Wada has been having all of us count
how many Meaningful Contacts we have a day lately. It's this new thing
he calls "The Power of Ten". With about 100 missionaries in our
mission, if each one of us has 10 meaningful contacts every day
that's... A LOT of meaningful contacts. x) Yesterday, we saw a huge
miracle... 24 meaningful contacts. :-) I talked to 4 of those. xP My
companion is on FIRE! She's amazing. Love her!
Well, I've got to get off now, but I love you all!
I hope you all have a fantastic week! See you all in about 20 days or
so! :-D
The church is true!
Love,
Christine