Tuesday, November 5, 2013

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

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