Hello family! Well today is transfer calls... I can't even believe it... I'm about to be on transfer 8! Where is the time going? It's way too fast... On Saturday night we got a call from the APs... No one ever wants to get a call from the APs the Saturday before transfers. It can only mean one thing... Whitewash. Ugh yep. We are whitewashing. Way sad. That means that both horio shimai and I will be transferring. We still don't know where. We will find out today sometime, so you will have to wait til next week to know! Ugh. So the last few days have been really sad. Just full of goodbyes. Plus horio shimai and I have had colds. We went to the doctor on Wednesday and he stuck this camera up my nose and into my throat... Way gross haha. I don't really have much else to report this week. We have been kind of stuck in the apartment since we both have been sick. It's been a hard week... But I have some cute pictures of our last Sunday that I'll send. I love you guys!
0 Comments
Hello! I hope you all had a fantastic week! I know I did! :) so let me just tell you about the happiest thing that happened to me! On Tuesday I got an email from Matsuyama shimai back in shimizu saying happy birthday! Which was way happy because gosh I love that family! Seriously! My favorite people I've met on my mission haha. And she remembered my birthday! Way nice right? Well it gets better! When we got home after our pday fun there was a package from her! It was full of hello kitty and kumamon stuff and this way cute card that haruto, her son, made me! Gosh! Seriously the happiest! But anyways!
On Tuesday we had pday and we went and played badminton and had lunch with nacchan and tamusan (I will attach a picture!) anyways. That was way fun! The elders came too and they wanted to do something nice for my birthday so they bought ice cream, and put it in their backpacks and took chopsticks from the restaurant we ate lunch at haha but then they forgot about it.... So we ate melted ice cream with chopsticks haha it was way funny! Anyways! Way fun! Okay besides all that! On Wednesday we had kids sokaiya and one person came haha it was a holiday so only one kid ended up coming. He was a little sad and lonely but it was fun haha. On Thursday I got your package! It was so happy! Thank you so much! I love you guys! Friday we had a special training just about how we can be better at dendo haha and then we had junkai... Umm splits? I think. Anyways we did that for an hour and I was companions with an elder... Way weird haha I did not enjoy that very much haha! But it was a good experience! Then we had a lesson with Okazaki shimai! Gosh I love her! She's 78 years old and got baptized in February! I'll attach a picture of her too! Anyways! Then Saturday gosh! Seriously crazy! We had a lesson with Sakai and we didn't even get to teach the lesson we prepared. So they have a baptismal date for May 17th and we asked them how they felt about it and they said they can't do it... So we spent the next two hours resolving their concerns... Which also made us very late coming home... Let's just say it was way close to 10 haha... But we were able to resolve their concerns and they're still getting baptized in the 17th! Way happy! Pray for them please! They're amazing! Okay then yesterday, Sunday! Way good... I had to play the piano in sacrament meeting which was horrifying because the opening song was a hymn only known in Japan so I had no idea what it was supposed to sound like haha. Then me and horio shimai taught Sunday school then after church we had a lesson with nacchan. Then we dendoed for a few hours in the rain so we got to wear our wait cute plastic rain suits haha! But we talked to some really great people! We also got rejected a lot, usually people just say "kekko desu" ("No thank you") and it's annoying haha so horio shimai made the kekko dance haha. Gosh. We seriously have so much fun together! Missions are the best! It's been so cool to just see how the gospel changes lives. Nacchan for example! Since she got baptized, just a month ago, she has changed so much she's just a happier person and there is literally this new light in her eyes. It's not just some coincidence, the gospel changed her life for the better and it's so happy to get to be a part of that. Anyways. This week was way fun! It's great to be a missionary! I love you guys! Hello family! Sorry this is gonna be kind of a short email but I'm sending it to you from my iPad haha so that's cool! Anyways! Thanks for your birthday wishes! I love you guys! And gosh I can't believe I'm 21... Gross haha. But my birthday was way good! We had 6 hours of iPad training haha. It was fun! Then today after email we are going to a "surprise" birthday picnic with the elders and some members haha! Should be fun! Anyways! This week was way good! Kinda busy but way fun! I will share a miracle with you! So we were dendoing and decided to take a break at a 7-11. And we went outside to eat our ice cream and Hayashi shimai rides by on her bike! She stops and talks to us for a while, btw her husband just got called as the new area seventy this past conference! Way cool! Anyways and Hayashi shimai is like I have some referrals for you! So we follow her and visit some people and bam! We got a new investigator! Way cool! The members here are so awesome! Okay and one funny thing! So we were housing this apartment building and on the third floor we had two way good totsuzen (unplanned) lessons and gave out two book of Mormons! Then we go to the next floor and this lady was like oh! Wait a sec! And goes in her apartment and comes back with news papers from her church and starts telling us about her church and how we were wrong and blah blah haha. It was quite interesting! Everyday is seriously an adventure! Dendo is the best!
Love you guys! Hello family! gosh, this week was so fast. And now it's week two of the transfer... but gosh! let me tell ya! I'm getting an ipad for my birthday! Yep haha on the 27th we have a special ipad training and then we get ipads! So next week I will be emailing you from my fancy new ipad haha. Anyways! So the whole mission is way excited about it! and Kaicho (Mission President) is probably way worried about it, but ready or not! Okay! Enough about that! let me tell you about the amazing week we had!
Tuesday we spent the entire day finding... we talked to 83 people but only actually talked to two of them. The other 81 were rejections... seriously. Finding is way hard for us right now. We just get super rejected. Sometimes people don't even let us say a word they just look at us and slam the door in our face. But me and Horio shimai have learned to laugh and just find joy in the small things. Wednesday we talked to 71 people but actually talked to 0 of those people haha. That's right, 71 rejections in one day. But we had kids eikaiwa (English class) which is the funnest, most exhausting half hour of my life haha. There are about 10 kids that come, but every once in a while there's like 15 or 20 and it's crazy. But they are the cutest kids ever! and I love them all. We just sing song and play games and it's way fun. And every Wednesday night Utashima kyodai makes us dinner and drops it off at the church for us so we have dinner with the elders every Wednesday night! It's way fun! The members here are so nice! They always give us food. Like every week Konishi kyodai makes us way delicious sandwiches and way... interesting potato salad haha... the ingredients are potatoes, mayo, tomatoes and apples haha... kinda gross... but every week without fail! so nice! Thursday we had zone training meeting. Which was way good! It was just kinda prep for ipads!! haha. And Thursday is our Eikaiwa day. I love eikaiwa haha. It's seriously so fun. I teach the way beginning class with Horio shimai. There are two students in my class haha. Nakano-san and Iwasa-san. They are grandpas haha. but they're the best! Last week we practiced saying Mcdonalds and hamburger for 20 minutes haha. And then Nakano-san asked me if I knew "the amazing song" and it took us a while to figure out what he was talking about, but he was talking about Amazing Grace haha. So he made me teach him the words to amazing grace and he made me sing it haha. gosh. really interesting people. but I love them! Friday was a fun day! We had a lesson with Okaza shimai. Gosh! I love her, she's 78 years old and got baptized a couple of months ago. Her memory is terrible so when we have our lessons with her she writes down every word we say haha. She is the cutest grandma ever! Then we went to visit Shimizu kyodai, he's a less active, and way cool! His job is like computer graphics or something, I don't know, but he makes these way fun commercials and he showed us a bunch, way talented! We also did some finding and it was way good! We talked to a lot of nice people and it was way fun! Saturday we had to do weekly planning. But gosh, we were so nervous all day because we had a lesson planned with the Sakai family! Sakai kyodai and shimai have been investigators for about 2 years. And me and Horio shimai really felt like this is the time for them! So we were determined to set a baptismal date with them.. May 17th to be exact! We planned this lesson so carefully and we even arranged for a member to take their son to their house for a play date. We found a way good joint, Sumikawa kyodai, but gosh, we were so nervous for this lesson. Anyways, the lesson was amazing! The spirit was so strong! There were even tears from Sakai shimai! Gosh. And they decided to be baptized! Gosh! finally!! Seriously so happy. It's the moments like these that make that 100s of rejections okay. There are a lot of ups and downs on the mission, but when it's all said and done, you really only remember the ups. Anyways, we are so excited for the Sakai family! They are awesome! But it's nothing me or Horio shimai did, it's all God. This is really His work, He's totally in charge. And He's nice enough to let us have the smallest part in it. I'm so grateful to be on a mission! It's totally the best! Anyways! I love you guys! and I hope you have a great week!!! Hello family! Sorry, I don't actually have that much time to email... but this week was pretty normal. Transfers happened, I'm still in Hatsukaichi, and Horio shimai is still my companion! So that's way happy! General conference was really great! We watch it a week later than you do, but gosh! It was really so good! And so many of the less actives we invited came! So that was a huge miracle! Oh, another miracle, so I went to the doctor on the Iwakuni base, and he called me this morning to talk about my blood tests and stuff, but somehow he told me about how when he was 8 years old he got baptized! and he even went to the temple a couple of times, but now he doesn't go to church anymore. It was kind of way cool, I mean really, what are the odds? haha. Anyways, I'm doing way good and so excited to be staying another transfer in Hatsukaichi. Sorry, this email is way short! but I have no time! Matsuyama shimai, from shimizu, emailed me and it took me a hundred years to email her back in Japanese haha. but I love you guys!! I promise to send a better email next week!
Hello family! Hope you all had a happy Easter ! Ours was pretty great! We got to celebrate with a baptism! gosh! It was the best! Nacchan is so awesome! She's 21 years old, only about a month older than me! Anyways, missionaries found her 3 years ago! and ever since she's been getting lessons and coming to church and reading scriptures and praying and keeping all of the commandments... she has basically been a memeber for 3 years haha. And for 3 years missionaries struggled to get her baptized. She had a lot of dates, she even got an interview once, but backed out at the last minute. But finally on Saturday April 4th she got baptized! And it was seriously the best! I don't know what I did to deserve to be there for her baptism haha but I'm so grateful for the experience. Nacchan is so great and I love her to death! And man, after her baptism this whole new light came into her eyes! Me and Horio shimai talked about it forever. Nacchan really had a change of heart. And it's so evident!
This week is transfers!! gosh. so crazy! I cannot even believe it. This transfer went by so fast! And now I'm about to be on my 7th transfer! I don't think you understand haha, I only have 11 transfers! gosh, it seriously feels like I just got here yesterday. And I had a little bit of a freak out moment the other day about how fast the time is going and Horio shimai just listened to me cry and freak out haha. She's awesome! Man, I hope we have one more transfer together. We have too much fun together! She really has taught me a lot and I'm so glad that I got to be her companion! She's amazing and taught me so much! And she teaches me fun Japanese! Only mom will get this haha but ぱねぜ!and we always talk to each other with ぜ at the end of our sentences haha. like いのろぜ or がんばろぜ!haha. it's way fun. and yesterday she told me that having a baby is like はなからすいか. haha. I laughed for a long time about that one. She told me that having a baby is like pushing a watermelon out of your nose haha. sorry, this email got way weird! but just know that I'm having such a good time with Horio shimai and we are seeing so many miracles together! I hope everyone is doing well and is happy! I love you guys! have a great week! and I will let you know what happens with transfers next week! ahhh. きんちょうしています!(I'm nervous!) Hello family! I hope you all are doing well! Well geez, this transfer just kinda flew by! It's week 5!... so next week p-day is on tuesday! haha. transfer 7! gosh. I'm so old! haha. But it's okay! I probably will not be transferring... but that's what I said last time haha. anyways! This week was pretty good! actually it was fantastic because gosh! We set a baptismal date with Nacchan! Yep! She's getting baptized on Saturday!! We are all SO excited! It's about time! She's only been an investigator for 3 years! haha. So that is way exciting! On Tuesday we had cleaning checks.. ugh that's always annoying. The senior couples come and check our apartments every so often to make sure we aren't being pigs haha. and on Tuesday Horio shimai finally got her bike back!! yay! Way happy! On Wednesday Nacchan had her baptismal interview! she did awesome! Thurday was weekly planning and Eikaiwa (English class)! Thursdays are kind of rough haha. we basically sit at our desks from 12 til 5 and plan for the next week and we go crazy! and then we have dinner and go to eikaiwa. well, when it was time for dinner Horio shimai was like lets make tako yaki! so I started making the batter but we realized we didn't have any eggs, but it was too late... so we were like ehh injanai! (It's okay!) but then we realized we didn't actually have anything to put in the tako yaki... so we put natto in it... gosh, it was a disaster haha. totally gross... and a horrible idea since both of our stomachs have been not so good. haha. but we got a lot of laughs out it! Friday was a fun day! We went to lunch with Okaza shimai, she's this cute 78 year old grandma that just got baptized last month! Her memory is horrible so she writes down everything we say in her lessons... so they are always way long. Well after that Okaza shimai took us to the hospital so I could see a doctor about my tummy troubles haha. He was no help but gave me some medicine to take after I eat... and it's not really helping haha but shoganai!(What can we do?) the show must go on. Then we had dinner at Miyazaki shimais! She's way sweet and made a feast for us! Gosh! then Saturday! that was the best day! The YW had a missionary activity so me and Horio shimai went on splits with the YW! I housed with Arisachan... she's 15 and way awesome! It was so fun! We talked to this one lady about the Book of Mormon and Arisachan told this lady about how she goes to seminary and how much the Book of Mormon has blessed her life and it was absolutely so powerful! So awesome! Then Sunday was church... gosh. we have church at 10 but we never leave until like 4 because of all the meetings and everyone that wants to talk to us about various things haha. but it's great! I love the ward here! and today we are going to Miajima! An island in our area! should be fun! anyways! that was my week! hope you all are doing well! I love you guys! thanks for your prayers! Hello! This week was way fast and crazy! But it was way good! So on Thursday we had Zone conference and got an awesome training from Kaicho (Mission President) and the APs. They talked about Easter and Christ and how awesome it is that we get to be missionaries and share that message with everyone. Kaicho talked about how we are imperfect people doing a perfect work and he talked a lot about grace and how it's through the grace of Christ that we can be missionaries and do His work. It was really awesome! Then on Friday we spent all day traveling to Fukuoka for the Elder Nelson conference/ ipad training! It was a very long bus ride.... but it was worth it! Because Saturday was awesome! Elder Nelson is way great! gosh, he just really inspired us to be better. It really was the best. We all got to shake his hand too! SO cool! Anyways, he talked about how we are really a chosen generation. He talked about how each of us were saved to come to earth at this exact time to do this work. I can't even express to you, how awesome his message was! But I think all of us left there with the resolve to be better! He talked a lot about how we as missionaries, need to also experience our own conversion on our missions. Everyday we focus on helping other come unto Christ and help them change their hearts, but at the end of our mission we should be our biggest convert. Gosh, Then we got ipad training because for real, we are getting ipads in a few weeks! haha. way exciting! Anyways, that was pretty much our week! But! on Sunday! we had a lesson with our investigator, Nacchan! and we talked about setting her baptismal date. She has been an investigator for years... and she's had a lot of baptismal dates and she's even had an interview once. So we are really trying to get her to commit! and I think we are making a lot of progress. I think! She seems like a totally different person than when I first met her. She's praying right now about what day to get baptized! We are praying our guts out for her too! Anyways, that was pretty much our week! Its great being a missionary! I love you guys! have a great week!
Well, this week was totally crazy!
On Monday we didn't really do much because it was raining. But we had FHE with the Kuroda couple and gosh they are so cute! haha. they are probably in their 60s or 70s and they are just the nicest people in the world! Tuesday it snowed... all day.. and it was ridiculously freezing! But we had district meeting which was way good! and after the district went out and ate lunch together. We went to this Okonomiyaki restaurant! I finally ate Hiroshima style okonomiyaki and it was SO good! A pretty normal day over all.... but then Wednesday happened. It started out totally normal, we did our usual study then we went and dendoed (proselyted) for a little while then we had to go to the church to set up for kids eikaiwa (English class). which was So fun! I introduced red light green light to the kids and gosh they loved it way a lot haha. it was the cutest. Well then we had a lesson scheduled at 6, so we were gonna head over to the area and dendo for about an hour before the lesson. We were biking there and crossed this busy intersection, our light was totally green just btw, we were in the middle of the cross walk and this car comes and hits my companion!!! I'm not kidding. I was biking behind her and just freaked out because there was nothing I could do but watch this happen! Luckily the car was turning so it was going pretty slow so Horio shimai didn't get hurt but her bike is broken. Anyways. The lady that hit her is 71 years old and she was way nice and helped us and we spent forever in the parking lot of this car store and the police came and talked to us. Gosh, and Horio shimai was way more calm than I was haha. For real. I was totally freaking out and then the police man asked me my name and I just stared at him all panicked and pointed to my badge haha. So Horio shimai answered all of the questions for me haha. gosh! It was just way too much! Then after the police, the lady that hit Horio shimai took her bike to the bike shop to get it fixed. So we are waiting for it to get fixed! Luckily this lady was way nice and paying for everything without a fuss. Gosh, after that, we went to the church for dinner, because we always have dinner at the church on Wednesdays and we were telling the elders what happened and Horio shimai realized her finger was bleeding, which was not related to the accident haha, but gosh, that was just enough for me and I started crying my eyeballs out haha. and Horio shimai was just laughing at me. Gosh! Such a crazy emotional day! But Horio shimai is totally okay. Just a little bit sore. gosh. crazy! Okay. then Thursday happened! We did nothing all day haha, not really, but kind of. We had lunch at this buffet with an investigator and a member, yeah... we spent like 3 hours there. Then we went home for weekly planning. and then we had Eikaiwa. and that was Thursday. Then I got sick and so we really didn't do much this weekend! We had a couple of lessons that went well! And this week we have our Nelson Choro (Elder Nelson) conference and Zone conference! Way exciting!! I will for sure let you know how it goes next week! I love you guys!! Hello! Well, week one was crazy! but fun! Let me fill you in on what's coming up in the wonderful Japan Fukuoka Mission. First! zone conference is on the 19th! I know you don't really know what that means haha but I'm excited! and second!!! ELDER NELSON, yes THE elder Nelson, is coming to our mission! so on the 21st the whole mission will be going to Fukuoka to hear from him!! So exciting!! Anyways!
Tuesday was one of the hardest days I've had on my mission I think. It rained literally all day. It poured rain ALL day. and it was freezing cold. So me and Horio shimai were out dendoing (tracking) in our rain suits all day and gosh. We were both in the worst mood. I was complaining in my head all day and just wanted to go home. We talked to over 100 people that day and only 4 of them actually listened to us and so we were both just feeling way discouraged. Anyways, we got to this one house and all this lady said to us was I hate Christ and slammed the door.... gosh. we both just stood there in silence for a minute, looked at each other, and moved on to the next house. well gosh, hearing that literally hurt me. I felt like I got punched in the stomach. I didn't understand how someone could say that about the person that suffered more than we can imagine for each and everyone of us. Then I realized how horrible I was being, and my attitude was not showing my love for my Savior. He suffered more than I will ever know for me and all I could do was complain about the rain. So I quickly changed my attitude and smiled the rest of our dendo time. It was a really humbling experience. It's easy to complain about all the hard things we have to do, but Christ, who did more difficult things than any of us will ever bear, never complained even once. Anyways, on Wednesdays we have kids eikaiwa (English class)! It's way fun! The kids are all so cute and just love us to death! It's 30 minutes of games and singing songs! haha it's way happy! Thursdays is our normal eikaiwa... there are about 10 people that come and they are all way old haha and two of them don't get along so we have to always make sure they're separated haha. it's ridiculous. But I love eikaiwa! it's always fun and full of laughs! Sunday was the longest day of church ever! gosh we had so many long meetings, and by the end I thought my head was going to explode from all of the Japanese!!! But I survived and it was okay haha. We also had dinner at the Hayashi families home. Gosh, they are so awesome! They have 8 kids, they are all grown and moved out, except the youngest one! She's 15 and so awesome! The ward here is so great! There are so many kids! It's the happiest. This little girl just sat behind me in church and braided my hair haha. it was adorable. People here are kind of cold though. When we dendo no one wants to listen to us. We talked to over 400 people this week... which is A LOT.... and only 1 of them became a new investigator. But ya know, it was totally worth it! Her name is Wada san. She's way awesome and loves to talk. We talked to her for a really long time and were almost late getting home haha. She's Protestant but hasn't been to church in a long time. After we talked she thanked us and told us that for the first time in a really long time she felt good inside. She told ust that her heart felt clean. gosh! meeting Wada san was most definitely worth the 400 rejections. God also blesses us for our efforts. He know that me and Horio shimai are working our hardest and our efforts are not going unnoticed. and I'm really grateful for that. Missions are awesome, and I can't believe mine is half done. Time flies WAY too fast. it's kind of a little sad actually. but even when the mission is over we never stop being missionaries! so that's happy! Anyways! I love you all!! Have a great week! |