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

Transfer 8 Week 1: June 23, 2013

皆様こんにちは!

Guess what!  I'm using the normal computer this week so I can actually type!!!  WHAT!?  ;) Crazy, desho.  Don't faint.

This week has been... Hmm... Fairly boring really. Mostly this week we've been doing a bunch of "Mogi" Lessons.  In English "Mogi" means "Demonstration", but that doesn't seem to fit it quite right.  Basically they're like practice lessons.  We met with about 5 different members this week and had them pretend to be investigators.  They gave us feedback and helped us to get better at teaching. :-)  It was way good.  Other than that it was a fairly normal week.... Except for:

 

SATOさん:

About 2 weeks ago during a kubari-kai (handing out fliers) we met this woman named Sato.  She said that she had an interest in learning English, but wasn't able to make it on Thursday nights to our Eikaiwa(English Class).  We told her about the fact that we can teach one-on-one English Classes, but half of it would be English and half of it would be church things.  She flat out told us that she has no interest whatsoever in church, but if that was okay then she's fine with it.  We set up an appointment, but foolish us didn't get her email or phone number or anything to remind her.  We were SURE she wasn't going to show up, but we found a member 同席(Sorry, not sure what the English word is...) and prepped to teach her anyway...

Miracle of miracles, SHE CAME!  It was crazy!  We taught her all of lesson 1.  She seemed okay throughout the lesson, but then at the end when we asked her to read the Book of Mormon she asked "If I keep taking these lessons from you, do I have to join your church?"  She explained that her husband is very much opposed to all things church related and so it was impossible for her to join...  However, she wants to continue.  My companion and I were pretty sad about it, but we talked about her at DCS (This meeting we have every Sunday with the Ward Mission Leader and the Bishop) and found out that that's how the Bishop was converted.  He flat out told his missionaries "I'm not interested and I won't convert."... Now he's a bishop. ;)  There's hope!  :-D

 

SAWADAさん:

Last week I think I wrote about the member who brought her daughter's friend's Mom to church... Well, yesterday we had our first real lesson with her. Her name is Sawada and she is SO prepared.  Like... It's incredible.  At church they talked about the Priesthood and "The Final Judgement".  Two topics that we don't exactly send our brand new investigators too... but she loved everything about it and even cried a little saying she felt "warmth and peace."  While teaching her she said that since she was little she's been going to Buddhist Shrines and worshiping all of these other Gods.  She said "Is that okay? What are those Gods?"  We explained that they were all the same God. Heavenly Father.  We talked about how everyone can only see bits and pieces of the picture, but because we have the restored gospel we have the WHOLE picture.  She accepted it SO readily.  Seriously it was amazing. :-)  We're meeting with her again in like 2 weeks and I'm way excited. :-)

 

TRANSFER CALLS:

Okay okay okay.  I'll stop putting it off.  Here we go with the transfer calls. ;) The morning of Transfer Calls is always way intense.  Everyone is walking on eggshells all morning waiting for the phone to ring.  This time was almost worse because it was going to determine the rest of our missions!  We were both silent all morning and just did our thing... Then the phone rang.  It was our Zone Leaders!  They told us that we were both staying in Fujisawa for another transfer and welcomed us to the Tokyo South Mission!  That's right. I'M IN THE TOKYO SOUTH MISSION! :-D :-DThen we went into our Personal Study time... I was thinking a lot about this transfer call and what it would mean.  I found out last week that one of my investigators from Urayasu (Helen!) is getting baptized soon.  Now that I'm in the South, I won't be able to go see it... That was probably the hardest thing...

Then the phone rang again...

This time it was from Honbu.  We were way confused because we'd already gotten our transfer calls!  It turned out to be one of the Assistants.  He asked to talk to me and said "Sister Grosland! How is Fujisawa?!  What do you like about it!?  Well... I have some really big news for you and Sister Stankosky... Fujisawa -super long dramatic pause that Elder Olsen loves to do to us- is being made into an 8 missionary area.  There will be 4 Elders and 4 Sisters.  Sister Imano and a new missionary will be moving into the apartment with you and Sister Stankosky!  *Insert screams of excitement*  There's one other thing.  Sister Grosland.  President Budge and the Assistants feel it is the Lords will for you -super long dramatic pause (Oh, and this is usually what they say right before saying "TO TRANSFER TO _____!")-... to be made a Sister Training Leader!!"

AHHHHHHH!  :-D

I don't feel nearly ready to handle anything like this, but I also know that God doesn't ask us to do things we can't do. :-)  I'm sure God is going to help me this transfer, but I could really use everyone's prayers.  :-)  I can't do this on my own and I know that.  I'm relying on God's help.

 

So that's the big news!  Summarized: I'm staying in Fujisawa with Sister Stankosky and being made a Sister Training Leader (one of the first in the Tokyo South Mission).  2 New Sisters will be coming to Fujisawa as well!  I'm officially in the Tokyo South Mission!  My mission address will be changing.  I'm not sure what it is yet so I'll let you know when I do.  For now, keep sending them to the same address you all have right now and they'll get forwarded here.  It will just take longer...

 

I love you guys so much! Have a great week and know that I'm praying for you all!

I LOVE YOU!

Love,

Christine

Transfer 7 Week 6: June 17, 2013

Hey guys!  We:re using the Japanese computers again which have nothing
but Internet Explorer on them...  Internet Explorer isn:t exactly
compatable with gmail, so it:s in like the freakishly old HTML mode.
Yaaada. (Japanese slang for -GRRAAARHGH!- :P) 

Hey everybody!!
I:ve got 15 minutes to fill you all in on my week... meaning I:m only
going to tell you the really exciting bits!  Yosh!

WEDNESDAY:
We went on Exchanges with the Sisters from Hiro-o.  With the new
Sister Training leaders stuff and everything exchanges were a little
bit different.  Both Sister Julander and Sister Jensen came to
Fujisawa to dendo with us!  Yay!  It was a day of miracles.
Seriously.  In the morning we made a goal to find 2 new investigators
and give out 4 BoM:s.  We were able to find 3 new investigators and
give out 5 BoM:s!!!!  WHAAAAAAT!　It was insane!  I learned so much
from the exchanges.  Both Sister Julander and Sister Jensen are
fantastic missionaries.  I loved it!

THURSDAY:
ONE YEAR!!!  That:s right.  This week I reached my one year mark as a
missionary.  Can you believe it?  One year ago I was in the MTC with
absolutely no idea what I was about to get myself into.  ;)  We
celebrated by going out to eat and having ice cream and okonomiyaki.
(Look it up on Google. xD)

SATURDAY:
We got hungry and went to this store called Mister Donuts which is
really famous out here in Japan.  While we were eating my companion
started talking to the girl next to her.  She turned out to be way
good at English and has a real interest in the church!  She:s
seriously a kinjin!  We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she:ll
be coming to church this next week!  Please pray that she:ll be able
to make it!  Her name is Karen.

Other than that it was actually a pretty boring week... And I just
don:t have time really to go into all the details, but yeah!
This week is transfer calls... The transfer calls that decide what
mission we:re going to be in. AHH! Crazy.  I don:t really know what:s
going to happen with me...  So be excited for next weeks email!

I love you guys so much!  I hope you:ve had a fantastic week and I
can:t wait to write you all from wherever I am next week!  Thank you
guys for all of your support and prayers!  They really are felt and
I:ve needed them a lot this transfer.

Have a great week!  I know a year is a long time, but don:t forget
about me, kay!? x)
LOVE YOU GUYS!
-
Christine

Transfer 7 Week 5: June 9, 2013

Hey everyone!  Sorry, no Japanese today... i:m going to apologize
right now for the strange layout of this email...  The Japan Tokyo
Mission(s) is the only mission in the world right now to have laptops
in the apartment so usually I use that to write the email home... but
today we didn:t have time to go back to the apartment for emails...
Why you may ask?  BECAUSE WE WERE AT THE BEACH!!!  WHAAA!  :D  I was
way happy... and I am now officially a lobster.  x)  I:m pretty
burned... My companion keeps asking me if I:m okay because it looks
really painful apparently.  I:ll send pictures.  ;)

This week we saw so many awesome little miracles.

TUESDAY:
We went with the Elders to hand out fliers at Shonandai station.
While there I made friends with this girl named Saya.  We exchanged
contact information and I invited her to come to an activity we:re
having this next Saturday.  We:ll see if she comes or not.  She:s way
sweet though. :)

WEDNESDAY:
Elder Ringwood of the Quorum of the 70 came to tour our mission.  It
was an awesome conference and I really got a lot out of it.  One of
the biggest things we talked about though it seemed like was miracles.
 President Budge spoke and quoted another missionary who he had asked
how he kept working even when it was hard.  The elder said <I don:t
care whether or not I SEE the miracles.  I just work and trust that
God is doing His job up there.  Whether I see the miracles or not
doesn:t matter.>  I thought that was SO cool.  Lately we:ve been
seeing a lot of really little things going on, but not very many big
<miracles>.   I was getting kind of discouraged, but he really
reminded me that it doesn:t matter whether or not your seeing them, if
you:re working your hardest miracles are happening.  ((Thanks so much
for your email about that Dad.  I can:t even tell you how much it
helped. :D))
The other cool thing that happened.  On Tuesday evening we got an
email from honbu saying <Elder Ringwood wants to do interviews!
Here:s the list of those who will be interviewed.>  I was looking
through the list... District Leader, Zone Leader, Assistant to the
President, Me, a bean-- Wait, ME?! ;)  That:s right.  I was really
weirded out.  Like really weirded out.  Stankosky shimai says it:s
because I:m going to be made into a Sisters Training Leader and I said
<No way. Not happening.> :P  So Wednesday was the day of the
interview!  It turned out that it seemed like he was just doing a
follow up on our Mission President.  He asked me things like <Do you
feel like you can talk to him?> and <How would you feel if next
transfer you were sent to the South Mission?>

THURSDAY:
We had Eikaiwa... There:s this HUGE drama going on right now with
Eikaiwa.  They recently changed the Eikaiwa program to be that we
aren:t allowed to talk about church things during Eikaiwa.  Before,
they used to do things like reading the Book of Mormon together in
English, or singing a hymn at the start of every Eikaiwa class.  Now
the rule is, unless specifically asked a question, no disccussion of
churchlike things... Hoooowever.  In some areas, the members have
really taken that to the extreme.  Apparently in one area a class
started asking a lot of questions about the church and the missionary
teaching ended up being able to share the Restoration and pretty much
teach all of Lesson 1. Way cool right?  The whole class was
participating and it was a really uplifting experience for everybody
involved.  Well, afterwards that missionary was approached by their
Eikaiwa Coordinator who chewed him out for talking about anything
religion related during class.  The missionary responded with <Well,
they asked and everyone was participating. Did someone complain or
something?>.  The Eikaiwa Coordinator said nobody had complained but
that he was breaking the rules and was a terrible missionary and a
horrible representative of Christ and such.  The missionary fought
back saying <I am a full time representative of Jesus Christ.  I:m not
going to stop testifying of Him or teaching about Him for an hour when
they are ASKING me to talk about Him.>  Today when I was talking with
that missionary about it he said <I:ve dedicated 2 years of my life to
teaching about Christ.  I:m not going to just take a break from that 1
hour every Wednesday or Thursday.  This is the WHOLE reason I came out
here is to invite people to come unto Christ.  I didn:t come out here
to teach English.>
Well, that experience has turned into this big To-do and we:re not
really sure what:s going to happen to Eikaiwa because of it.
Honestly, I:m on the missionaries side right now... Eikaiwa is meant
to be a tool used for finding people.  The change of policy for
Eikaiwa was just to make it so that learning about the church is not
required, but a choice.  Like he said, we didn:t come all the way out
here to a different country to teach them English.  We came to teach
them about Christ.
But anyway, luckily fujisawa is not one of those areas with that
problem.  Our Eikaiwa was way fun! :P

Skipping a few days......

SUNDAY:
We set a goal this last week to have 4 people come to church... AND WE
MET IT!  YAY!  Miki and Emu (2 of our Eikaiwa students) came, a
teenager who has been coming to church off and on for the last several
years came, and a members friend!  She:s the one I want to talk about
in 2 minutes! :P
Her name is Akiko.
I asked Akiko why she decided to come to church today. She said that
all her life people have tried to force religion down her throat.
People have talked about all they believe and their different gods and
such... She said that this friend of hers had not once in all their 10
years of friendship ever tried to force her into her religion. She
said, <she:s different.  I wanted to find out why.>

I just want to testify to everyone out there reading this that your
example really is seen by all those who aren:t members.  Im SO
greatful for this member who was such a good example to her friend.
When I eventually come back (AHH! Don:t think about it don:t think
about it don:t think about it) that:s the kind of member that I want
to be. :)

I hope that you all had a fantastic week!  Can:t wait to hear from you
guys!  Thank you all for everything!

Love,
Christine