Transfer 11, Week 6: November 10, 2013 -- The Last One

Well... This is it!  My last email home as a missionary!  I can't even believe it's over...  It's been a crazy year and a half and I would never change a minute of it!  I've loved every second and It's definitely changed my life. :-)

I only have 2 stories to share this week and not much time to share them.  So here we go. :-)

Akiko:

I talked last week about Akiko's birthday.  It was an amazing experience for her and she really did feel SO much love.President Wada called her and talked with her about Baptism to which she said she'd think about it.

Well, this week I was on kokans with Sister Barnes in Yamato.  We decided we were going to go visit Akiko and see how she was doing.  It was a surprise visit so we weren't even sure if she'd be home... but miracle number 1, she was!  She thanked me for making her birthday the most memorable birthday she's ever had.  She also thanked me for the present that I gave her. (A pocket-sized hymnbook)  She said it was the perfect present.  It's too small for her to read the notes, but just big enough to be able to read the words to the hymns... and since it's so small she can carry it with her everywhere she goes.  I talked with her about her birthday and she mentioned a phone call from a man who's name she couldn't remember.  She said he mentioned something about baptism and said "I realized that right now in my life there are so many roads in front of me.  I have to choose one of those roads or I'm not going to progress... I've decided I want to be baptized." :-D  YAAAAAAAAAAY!

Ayda:

On Sister Feist's second day here in Japan we were walking back to the apartment after a very long day of dendo. Both of us were pretty tired. As we were walking back I we began talking to this woman near our apartment. It turned out she was from Iran and had been living in Japan for quite some time. When she heard that Sister Feist had just gotten to Japan she quickly gave us her phone number and said (in perfect English) "If you have any questions or need any help call me!"

We've kept in touch with her ever since then. We came to find out that she was really really busy with work making it hard to meet. Apparently being a model, an actor, and teaching belly dancing is pretty busy. Finally though we were able to make an appointment to meet with her this week. When we got there, both of us were pretty nervous about meeting her... We walked in and of course the first thing she did was offer us coffee. We explained to her quickly about the Word of Wisdom and she said "Wow! That's amazing! I love that! Our bodies really are special." We went on to talking about her modeling job and what it was like and she said "Actually it's really hard. A lot of times they try to get me to wear those really sexy clothes, but that's just not me! I don't like wearing immodest clothes. Like you said, our bodies are special!" She went on to teach us pretty much the entire Law of Chastity. :P We talked with her about how we believed in Eternal Marriage and she said "Wow! That's so good! I want to learn more about your church!" We ended up at the end giving her a Book of Mormon (which she offered to pay for) and committing her to read it. It was incredible and the spirit was there so strongly.

Those prepared people really are out there if we keep searching. Although we may not immediately recognize them as prepared, if we just open our mouths and do those 10 meaningful contacts, God really does put them in our path. :-)

It's been amazing week and I'm so sad to have to leave.  I don't want to go!!!

I love you all so much.  I'm looking forward to seeing you all in 2 weeks. :-)  The church is true!  God lives and loves us SO much.  Everytime I look back on any of my experiences on my mission I can just feel it with every part of me.  God knows us and loves us.  He wants to help us and he always has his hand reached out to us.  I'm so thankful I have had this chance to be his servant and I can't wait to be his servant for eternity.  I have LOVED being a missionary so much. I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to be here among the Japanese people.

Love you all! See you soon. :-)

Sister Christine Grosland

PS: Isaiah 41:10

Transfer 11, Week 5: November 4, 2013

I officially have 2 weeks left from today... How weird is that to think about.  In 3 weeks from today I'll... still be in Japan actually.  x)  But! The next week I'll be back in America... Weeeird.  I don't really like to think about it... I feel like I'm on this emotional roller coaster right now. Some days I'm like "Yeah!  Let's dendo! I never want this to end!"  Other days I'm like "I can't do this for 2 more weeks!  Just send me home now!"  It's been kind of a rough week in that sense...

But let's get to it. :-)

Tuesday:

Sister Feist's BIRTHDAY!  :-D  It was... a really long day.  x)  We started off the day with a Halloween Party by a few of the members for their English Classes.  It was really fun, but really stressful. The kids were all around 10-13 years old and they really don't know much English.  So while the teachers would be giving them directions in English they would just start talking to each other instead of listening... I felt really bad, but tried to make it fun.  When that was over though we were approached by several of the Mom's.  They heard that we taught a free English program at the church and were really interested in coming!  :-D  Yaaaay!

When that was over we went out to the train station to do a kubari-kai (Handing out flyers like crazy! :P).  I saw this woman holding a baby and complimented her.  She stopped and complimented my Japanese and asked what I was doing in Japan.  I explained that we were church missionaries and she said "Wow!  That's interesting!  Did you hear about what happened down in *insert name of place I've never heard of before*?"  I was kind of taken back and said "No..."  She went on talking about what had happened... I'll be honest though I didn't understand everything that was being said.  Here's what I understood.  Some man out in some random place was supposed to be executed.  They put him under a guillotine and let it drop, but it didn't kill him.  The blade couldn't cut his neck.  Then he stood up and faced the crowd and started preaching about World Peace.  She said "Christ died on the cross, right?  You see!  He had no power.  This man has real power and all the world is seeing that now!  Nobody practices Christianity!  All Christians are now starting to worship this man!  There are Christians all over the world who pray to their God and they still have bad things happen to them right?  That's because your God doesn't exist.  He's not real.  Someday when you're going through a hard trial and your praying to your God and you don't get an answer, read this news article and remember what I told you."

-sigh-  I hate getting dendo'd...

After she left I told Sister Feist about what happened and went back to my spot to continue passing out fliers.  About 10 minutes later Sister Feist came up to me and told me about the man she had just talked to.  Apparently this man was even more rude than the woman I had just encountered.  He had said to her "You worship Jesus Christ?  Tell me something. Why wasn't Jesus married?"  Sister Feist tried to answer saying something about how we think marriage is something very sacred and special.  His response: "Yeah, that's 'cause you guys have like 60 wives each!  You should have done your research before you came out here!"

Needless to say, we both walked away from that kubari kai not feeling extremely genki...  Then we headed to the church for a lesson with Miki.  We walked into the church and headed into the cultural hall to set up when... SURPRISE!  A surprise party for Sister Feist!  :-) I've been planning this surprise party for nearly a week now.  I worked my hardest to make it happen and it all worked out lovely!  We had 2 investigators come as well as 4 of our PI's!  Sister Homem bought some DELICIOUS food that we all ate and the Elders brought a bunch of games to play. :-)  It was definitely the funnest part of the day. x)

Wednesday:

We've started a new activity on Wednesday mornings that I've been calling "Mama Eikaiwa".  There's a woman in the ward who has a bunch of friends who really have an interest in learning English, but because they have 2-year-olds in the house it's impossible to come from 7-8:30 on Thursday nights.  So instead we've started teaching them in the mornings!  :-D  This week was the first time we've tried it and it was definitely a success.  We ended up actually talking about the Word of Wisdom with them. :-)  It was way good.

Then we had a mogi lesson with Sister Meguro that was really good.  I learned the Japanese word for "Living Water".  It's so interesting because you here that in English and we think water that's alive or something.  In Japanese what it means is water you need in order to survive.  You drink the water and you live. I love Japanese!

Thursday:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  We had a really fun Halloween.  In the morning we were trick-or-treated by a nearby preschool.  SOOO cute. x)  Then we had a gyoza making party with Fifi (the girl we met at Friends Circle last week!)  There were 10 people there in total and of those 10, 4 of us were members.  We were able to give out a Restoration Pamphlet and another woman really had an interest in the church it seems! :-)  Success!

Then that night we had MUSIC NIGHT!!!  Whaaat!  :-D  It was a lot of fun.  There were about 70 people there total (Not including missionaries) with very little advertisement. About 40 of them were non-members.  It was a lot of fun. :-)

Friday:

I went on my first kokan of the transfer! First of 4.  The next one actually starts tonight!  Sister Ellingson and I worked together here in Fujisawa.  It was way fun.  We went to see a few of Sister Ellingsons old investigators and also had a mogi lesson with one of the members.  Loved it.  That night we had a lesson with Hiroko.  She's been reading the Book of Mormon and LOVES it.  She just finished 1 Nephi 5 and she said she really relates to Sariah.  She said that Sariah felt really real to her.  She's starting to find answers on her own in the Book of Mormon as well as applying what she's reading to herself!  I LOVE it!

Saturday:

We had District Meeting and then at 5pm a BAPTISM!  And guess who came... Toshiko!!!  Oh my gosh it was an incredible miracle.  This was the first time that Toshiko has been able to see a baptism service and she said it really touched her.  She said that she could tell baptism was something really important and that she felt something different watching it. :-)  Next baptism : Toshiko!

After the baptism we went to a members house for a dinner appointment.  Sister Feist got to eat octopus for the first time.  x)  I asked her how it was and she answered "Chewy."  Hahahaha!

Sunday:

Akiko's birthday!  I got her a present from the temple store last temple day and gave that to her.  She came a little bit late to Relief Society so I also announced her birthday to all the sisters in Relief Society and asked them to wish Akiko a happy birthday.  They all did. :-)  Akiko was so overwhelmed she started to cry.  She said that at her age nobody remembers her birthday anymore and she felt so loved that people cared about her enough to simply wish her a happy birthday. :-)  After church I also had President Wada give her a quick call to wish her a happy birthday which he gladly agreed to.  He asked her how her birthday was and she again talked about how much love she felt and how happy she was at church.  She said "I can tell by the feelings I get around all of you that this has to be true."  President Wada asked her if the missionaries have invited her to be baptized yet and he asked her to talk to us about it.  She said she would. :-D  Seed planted!  I've been waiting for this since June!!  We're hoping to meet with her and invite her to be baptized really soon. :-)

And that was my week!  It's been a really long week and I'm REALLY tired.  I'm definitely starting to feel a year and a half's work catching up to me. Just a little bit longer now!

Love you all so much!  Hope you all have had a fantastic week!  See you all very soon!

Love,

Christine