Transfer 5 Week 3: February 25, 2013

皆様こんにちわ！

今週はすばらしかったですね！あなた様たちも楽しい週があったこと望んでいます！

This week was awesome!  :-)  I hope you guys all had a great week too!

First, thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers!  I really felt the power of them this week!  You all are so amazing and I'm SO lucky to have so much support from home.  I love you all!  :-D

So 2 really big things happened this week... 1: My birthday!  And 2: The Announcement.  Here we go!

My Birthday!:

I had such an amazing birthday.  It was actually really weird to think that exactly one year before I was opening my call saying I was going to Tokyo Japan.  I remember thinking that I'd be spending my next birthday in Tokyo and I couldn't believe it!  Craziness!  :-)

Thursday night, Long姉妹 and I stayed up really late talking as we tend to do... (I'm such a bad example... Future missionaries!  Don't do that!  :P)  We ended up talking until midnight so Long姉妹 sang a half asleep happy birthday and then we went to sleep. xD  Friday morning, I walked into the study room to find a handmade card from Long姉妹　on my desk!  There's a picture attached to this email of it. :-)

Then, it was time for Companion Study.  We always start off companion study with a song and a prayer.  Long姉妹　and I have been singing all the hymns in order.  When I opened up to the hymn we were singing there was a big sticky note on the song and instead the words to "Happy Birthday to you!" were written!  Then Long姉妹　started singing Happy Birthday again.  xD

But wait!  There's more.  ;)

After Companion Study we headed to the church because we had District Meeting.  When I got there we greeted everybody and it was all exactly the same as normal.  (I hadn't told anyone but Long姉妹 that it was my birthday so I didn't expect anything. :D)  We sang the closing hymn and said the closing prayer and everyone stood up to leave.  Then the District Leader (Mori長老) said "We have one more secret announcement!  Today is Grosland姉妹's birthday!"  So everyone sang Happy Birthday and the District Leader had baked me a birthday cake that we all ate!  The other 姉妹 in our District had made mochi so we all ate that too!  It turns out that Long姉妹 called the District Leader on Thursday night while I was in the shower and told him to spread the word to the District.  :-)  Don't I have the BEST companion ever!? Then we went with the other 姉妹 to this DELICIOUS raman shop!  Of course we took pictures... on someone else's camera... We haven't gotten them yet.  xD

After that we went into normal dendo time!  The Kichijoji sisters got a referral a while ago that they tried to contact, but the sister wasn't home so we decided to try her again!  Turns out... she wasn't home again. :P  So instead we decided to go streeting and kubari and such. (I really hope that everyone understands my missionary language. :P)   In the middle of our kubari kai (Handing out flyers session :P)  This guy who was obviously drunk walks up to Long姉妹 and starts babbling at her for about 20 minutes.  xD  I asked her later what they talked about and apparently all he wanted to do was talk about the JFK Assassination...?  I laughed so hard.  You should have seen her face. x)

We also talked to a bunch of kids on the way home who said they knew who Jesus was! (Which is crazy in Japan...)  We gave them some flyers for Eikaiwa (English Class) and church and they said they'd talk to their parents about it because they really want to come! Yay!  After that we headed back to the apartment to do some study and follow up.

Back at the apartment, we got a surprise phone call from Naoko!  She said that she was really upset and needed to talk. She asked if we could meet in about a half hour or so and of course we agreed. We met at the church and she brought these super expensive delicious... things.  xD  They were like dumplings or something.  I don't really know but they were SO good.  Then she started telling us about her problem. We ended up giving her a quick introduction of the Book of Mormon and reading it together.  She kept saying she didn't know why her life was so hard.  She said she's trying so hard to be good, but she's still miserable.  We shared Mosiah 2:41 with her and as we read it she kept saying "That's exactly right!"  We promised her that by keeping God's commandments and doing what God asks she would be blessed with happiness.  We told her "This is what we do all day!  Teach people about God's commandments so they can be happier!  Won't you let us teach you?"  She agreed.  :-)  So from now on we're going to start having real lessons with her.  YAY!

But as if that wasn't enough to make an awesome dendo birthday...

All day we were playing phone tag with the Urayasu Sisters.  Finally, after Naoko's lesson, when I called them they answered... I was surprised to hear a Chinese accent singing Happy Birthday!  HELEN!!!!! :-D :-D :-D  I freaked out.  x) She did too though. ;)  She asked me how I liked Kichijoji and I said I loved it!  Then the best part of my birthday happened... "Sister Grosland, will you come to my baptism?  I will be baptized on March 31st!  Will you come?" I freaked out more and said "YES OF COURSE!"  Then I paused for a second and said "Wait... March 31st... Isn't that your birthday?!"  She gasped a little bit and then said "Yes!"  Next thing I new Facer姉妹 was on the phone saying "She's crying!  We'll call you guys back when we get home!  Tell Helen you love her!" Which of course I did. x)  Turns out the Helen was super surprised when Lundy姉妹 and Facer姉妹 remembered her birthday.  They told her "Of course we remember! We love you and want to help you!"  So then when I remembered it was her birthday too she got a bit emotional. :-)  I LOVE HER!  :-D

And that was my birthday!  Best dendo birthday ever! :-)

The Announcement:

Now for the big thing!  On Saturday morning we went to a Relief Society activity that started at 10am.  When we got there at 9:45 we got an email from the honbu (Mission... Headquarters?) saying that there was going to be a special announcment on the Mission Website from President Budge at 10am that we all needed to watch.  We were like, well... that's too bad. We'll watch it later. :P

During the activity I was standing around listening to some of the SA's talking (Listening to them talk is like a real test of your Japanese skills... They use so much slang and such that it's SO hard to keep up.  xD) trying to understand what they were saying.  I understood that they were talking about missions and mission presidents and stuff... and then they were like "I wonder what will happen to the missionaries in Tokyo! Sister Grosland!  Do you know?"  I said "Huh?"  Then they were like "Well, they'll probably split them too, right?"  Then it hit me.  I said "Wait, WHAT?"

With the increase of missionaries (We're about to hit 60,000 missionaries worldwide!) they announced the opening of tons of new missions!  Including the opening of the Japan Tokyo South Mission.  I'll tell as much as I know which isn't much...

President Budge will continue to be the mission president of the Japan Tokyo Mission, and his current Bishop (xD), Bishop Wada, has been called as the Mission President of the Japan Tokyo South Mission.  Kichijoji is going to be made into the Honbu for the Japan Tokyo South Mission.  Some of the missionaries currently in the Japan Tokyo Mission will be going to the Japan Tokyo South Mission.  This is all starting in July. :-)  That's about all that I know.

When Long姉妹 heard all this she started to freak out.  July is the start of her last transfer as a missionary.  She's worried that all of the friends she's made here are going to be sent to a different mission and she wasn't going to see them again...  As for my reaction to the announcment... I'm stoked. :-)  This to me is really just more evidence of the Lord hastening his work!  Every day I'm seeing more and more manifestations of how close the second coming is.  I'm excited because this means we're one step closer!! :-D  I don't even mind where I get sent at this point.  If there's one big thing I've learned so far on my mission it's that Heavenly Father knows what's going on a LOT better than I do.  He will put me where I need to be.  "I'll go where [He] wants me to go." :-)

And those were the two exciting things of this week! :-)  I hope you guys all had a fantastic week!  Again, thank you for the prayers!  I love you all and I'm praying for all of you! :-D

Love,

Christine

Transfer 5 week 2: February 17, 2013

Oh my gosh.  I'm going on week 2 of Transfer 5... that's SO crazy.  Time is flying so fast!  I wish it would slow down!!  Next month I reach my halfway mark... It's hard to believe.  There are times when I wish it would go faster and (most times) when I wish it would go slower...

Anyway.

皆様！おはいようございます！

今週は本当に楽しかった！いっぱい奇跡を見ました。楽しんでください！

So this week I figured I'd start with a kyudosha update and then fill you in on the fun stuff of the week. :-)  Here we go!

Naoko: Naoko was the first investigator here in Kichijoji that I met!  Her mom was diagnosed with Lukemia(Yeah, I know that's spelled completely wrong. :P) and her Dad is too old to take care of her so Naoko has been taking care of her two parents and their bakery for a long time now.  She feels super trapped and hates Japan.  She really wants to move to America and live there, but she feels like she can't leave her parents... Luckily, she recently started a new job selling watches so she's able to save up more money to someday go to America!  This week she's been struggling a lot.  We asked her if she wanted to meet sometime this week to talk and she agreed to meet later that day! (This was on Monday, my first day in Kichijoji.)  We talked with her a lot about prayer and invited her to try praying every day for a week. She agreed.  On Wednesday, during Eikaiwa we missed a call from her and then got an email. That day, her Dad left the apartment and just a few minutes later there was a major accident in front of her house.  She thought it was her Dad and ran outside to find out.  When it turned out it wasn't, she called us to tell us that prayer worked!  She said that she knows it was because she prayed that her dad was kept safe and she will 是対 keep praying.  We love her SO much!

Bi Shin: Bi is a woman from China who is super sweet.  I wish you could see her hair.  It's awesome.  She keeps it in a super big bun on top of her head that is HUGE.  It suits her though.  x)  She's met with the missionaries a few times now, but she's yet to make any real progress.  We met with her on Tuesday and taught her a lot about prayer as well. She admited to us that she doesn't believe that God exists.  We had a really powerful lesson where I promised her that if she would pray and just ask if God is there, He would answer her prayers and she would know He exists and loves her.  She agreed to try praying every day for a week to see if anything changes.  We invited her to come to church too, but she said that she can't.  Her husband would find out.  Apparently her husband is very much hantai (opposed) to all things religious.  She's been keeping her meeting us a secret from him and if she went to church he'd find out... Chotto mondai... (It's kind of a problem...)  We're not sure what to do there, but I know Heavenly Father will help us out.

Makita: This one is one of my favorites. x)  Makita is a missionary from another church.  She and her companion met the Elders on a street called Sun Road and stopped to talk to them.  She said she was interested in learning more about what we believe so the Elders got her contact info and referred her to us!   We met her this week on Valentines Day!  We went with her to 31 Ice Cream (Baskin Robbins) and she told us all about what her church believes.  We were a bit worried that she might've only met with us to try to dendo us... But then she started asking us about what we believe.  She asked if we could go to the church and take a tour!  We taught her about the Restoration and she said she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet!  But she also believes in her religion... Basically, she doesn't believe in the Resurrection.  She believes that Jesus Christ is just a spirit and that He doesn't have a body.  She also believes that the Second Coming has already happened.  The Spirit of Jesus Christ entered the body of this Korean man... who died last year... yup.  She's super interesting.  She asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon and kept asking us for different sections to read.  We ended up giving her like 6 chapters to read... but she kept asking for more! :P

Those are the three big ones!  We have a few others (Hasegawa, Yuka, and Oikawa are the names I'll probably use the most in my emails), but these are our focus investigators.

We saw so many miracles with our investigators and even just on our own!  For example, we had a lesson with Yuka this week and afterward it was raining SUPER hard... but we had a 45 minute bike ride back to the apartment.  About 5 minutes after we left Yuka's apartment my gloves were soaked through and my hands were freezing.  I was actually worried that (because I had such a long bike ride ahead of me) I could get a little frost bite from the cold.  I prayed over and over again that Heavenly Father would help my hands to stay warm.  After praying, my hands felt like they were holding on to hand warmers. By the time I got back to the apartment, my hands weren't even numb!  (Everything else was though.  xD)

I know Heavenly Father is looking out for us and loves every one of us.  :-)  The church is true!  Keep praying for me!  I love you guys!  Have a fantastic week!

-

Christine

Transfer 5 Week 1: February 11, 2013

皆様こんにちわ！

You guys ready for this weeks email?!  It's going to be fun!  ;)

This last week was fairly crazy...  It was my last week in Urayasu so we did our best to visit everyone we possibly could for 2 reasons... 1: to say goodbye of course. :P And 2: To help Sister Lundy and Sister Facer get the hang of the area and feel comfortable with each of the investigators. 

Helen unfortunately wasn't able to be baptized, but she still says she wants to and she's agreed to continue meeting with Sister Lundy and Sister Facer every week.  Thank goodness. :-)

Kaori actually came to church my last Sunday there!  She didn't come to Sacrament Meeting but the fact that she came for ANY of it was a miracle! 

Nishizawa LOVES Sister Facer.  They clicked really well thank goodness. :-)  Apparently they're going to be meeting with her later this week to make some Apple Jam and gyoza!  I'm kind of jealous.  ;)

I don't know if any of you remember Hiro from my third transfer or not... He's in the hospital right now, but he called us on Sunday and said a 10 minute long prayer over the phone that I would be kept safe and that I would like my new area.  It was really sweet of him.  :-)

And that was pretty much the state I left Urayasu in!  :-)  Saturday night Sister Facer, Sister Lundy, and I had a little goodbye party in the apartment.  We went to Pizza Hut (that I've passed like a million times but never noticed!), bought a "Large" pizza and some mochi and stuff, and blasted Motab. ;)  It was the best ever. xD

Noooow!  :-)

Transfer Calls came on Friday this last week.  When the phone rang, all three of us started screaming!  I was SO nervous!  I put the phone on speaker so all three of us would find out at the same time where I was going.  Elder Hamada was the one who gave it to me.  He said (in Japanese) "Sister Grosland!  President Budge and The Assistants have been praying about this next transfer for several weeks and we believe that this transfer call is God's will for you.  Are you ready?  Sister Grosland.  You will be transferring... to Kichijoji!"

All three of us freaked out.  Kichijoji was Sister Facers area before she came to Urayasu!  It is the heart of Tokyo.  Our mission 本部(Google translate that one. xD) is in a city called Nakano.  Kichijoji is the next area over from Nakano so it is definitely city!  It's been so fun!  There are SO many people.  I love it already!  I actually kokan'ed (Went on Exchanges) here when I got transfer calls last transfer so I'd been here fairly recently.  I love it though.  It's been a crazy couple of days.  :-)

Kichijoji has about 130 active members and right now we have about 7(?) investigators.  I met one of them yesterday (Naoko is her name) and it was so fun.  She really wants to be American. xD

As for my new companion...

Her name is Sister Long!!!  x)

No, not the same one from the MTC. :P  She's in Kobe.  I first met Sister Long on my very first kokan (Exchange).  For all my Space Center friends who read this... She's Matt Long's cousin. :-)  She is a spiritual giant!  I'm SO excited to be her companion this transfer.  She loves Doctor Who (Ronnie!  She freaked when she saw the TARDIS key chain on my backpack.  xD She's super jealous.) but when she found out that I liked it too she was like "It's too bad I'm consecrated or we would talk ALL day about Doctor Who!"  xD  She works so hard and is definitely here for all the right reasons.  I'm excited to work with her. :-)

This transfer is going to be really exciting!  We're pretty sure that next transfer both Sister Long and I will be made trainers so we've agreed that this transfer is about training each other to be trainers.  :-)

That's all I really have to talk about this week!  I love you all!  Have a HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!  :-)  Eat lots of chocolate and pretend I gave it to you!  ;)

Hope to hear from you!

Love,

Christine

Transfer 4 Week 6: February 5, 2013

Hey guys!  I've got less then 20 minutes to type out my week so sorry... I'll do my best.

This week has been CRAZY!  It started on Monday right after emailing you guys actually... We got a call from the President Budge asking us if it was possible for Urayasu to become a three-companion apartment.  In March we'll be getting an OVERFLOW of Sister missionaries and he said they were trying to compensate for that and figure out what to do.  We told him it may be possible. Tuesday we were having a Zone Conference in Nakano so we were going to spend the night down with the Nakano Sisters so we didn't have to wake up at 4am to get there on time.  While waiting for the Nakano Sisters we got another call from President Budge.  Talk about scary.  This time he said "I have a transfer call for you two!  Starting tonight, Sister Facer is going to be moving into the Urayasu apartment with you two and you will be a tri-companionship.  This is only until next transfer and then... Sister Grosland... You will be transfering somewhere else.  I could tell you, but that wouldn't be as fun."  xD

So, we headed to the Mission Home and spent the night there (Long story. No time. D:) .  Tuesday was the Zone Conference and that's where we picked up Facer shimai and brought her home with us!  So this week has been all about getting Sister Facer and Sister Lundy comfortable with all things Urayasu, and packing to get ready to leave..  Honestly I'm pretty nervous.

With this transfer announcement though we met with Helen and told her about it.  She said that she wants to be baptized before I leave which would mean she'll have to be baptized THIS Sunday.  I'm not sure how likely that is to happen, but I'm trying to keep the faith.

Honestly there was a LOT more that happened this week, but I just don't have time to write it all. Biggest news though... Elder Nelsen of the Quorum of the 12 is coming to visit our mission!  He said he wants to meet all the missionaries and he'll be coming on March 1st!  I'm so excited!

That's all I have time for, but I love you all!  Please pray that my new area will be just as amazingly awesome as Urayasu!  Hopefully I'll be able to email again next week, but I don't really know for sure since I'll be packing and moving...

I LOVE YOU!!

-

Christine