Kenzie Says "Kon'nichiwa": March 10th

hello everyone!

im on a super ghetto japanese laptop in the family history center at the church so hopefully i can write this email faster than using an ipad!!

this past week was really awesome! lots of miracles.

i was on exchanges with sister feist early in the week. we took a bus to another part of our area to visit a couple less-active teenage girls. the bishop sent us with an address, but we didnt even know their names. just that they were two young filipino sisters. we spent a lot of time trying to find the apartment complex, but in the process of asking for help and directions, we met a lot of wonderful people, had really good conversations, and found two new potential investigators. we finally found the complex and it was this gigantic building with ten floors. then we realized that the bishop had not given us the apartment number. we tried to call him, but he wasn't available. thats when a little boy walked by, sister feist started to talk to him.. she was really honest.. she explained that we were missionaries and we were trying to find the apartment of two teenage filipino sisters... and did he happen to know them? he was like, oh yeah.. i know their little brother. he was no older than 10 years old, just coming home from school, and he didn't act like we were weird at all. he just had us follow him and he knocked on the door of this family's house. he gave a school flier to the mom and talked to his friend through the door, while we explained to the mother why we were there. her girls were still at school, but we were able to leave a note for them and give them our phone number. it was seriously a miracle that we met that little boy and we able to find the home of this family.

another cool story: a few weeks ago, we were walking home and met this sweet old lady. she was out shopping and we asked her what she bought. she had just purchased udon... which is a really tasty kind of noodle. i told her i had never had it before. and that's how the conversation started. we talked about church and left her with a flier and she told us she lived nearby and pointed out where her home was. we never got her name, but after that we always said we wanted to find the udon lady. so... on sunday we did!! she sat with us and talked for a long time. she has so many thoughts about religion. she is buddhist and she loves reading books about religion. she has questions about creation. she did most of the talking and just enjoyed that we were listening. she didn't want to read the book of mormon because its too long, but we left a plan of salvation pamphlet with her and she told us to come back anytime. i couldn't understand most of what she said, but she has such a sweet spirit about her. and as i looked her in the eyes, i could really feel God's love for her.

i gave my talk in church yesterday!! woop! im not ever nervous about public speaking, but i was nervous that nothing i would say would make sense! haha but apparently... it made sense and several members thanked me for my talk and asked if i wrote it myself or if sister sasaki translated it for me. people were surprised by my pronunciation and accent and started assuming that my japanese was better than it really is. but.. it provided good opportunities for me to have conversations with members. i am starting to build relationships with church members and i can really feel their love and support. our investigator, pinko san and her son came to church! and they came to the baptism after church. Sister Wells and Feists investigator, Sister Iizawa got baptized! It was amazing.. the whole ward showed so much support and friendship and really welcomed her into the ward.

On friday, Sister Sasaki and other leaders had a meeting, so.. their companions went on exchanges. The sisters all happened to be transfer 1 and 2 missionaries. So it turned out to be a good adventure. I was with Sister Dansie in the morning. We tried to visit one of our investigators, but she wasn't home. So we left a note and spiritual thought in her mailbox and invited her to a fireside coming up. I was sad we weren't able to talk with her, but I was pretty proud of myself for being able to find her home! Later that day, I worked with Sister miller and sister wilde.. who both came to the mission with me so we are pretty brand new!! we spent the afternoon, finding.. talking to people on the street and inviting them to english class. we sometimes realize that being a full time missionary is kind of stalker-ish. haha people don't really say hello to random people, so we give so many people mini heart attacks or they completely ignore you. sister wells complimented this lady's purse one time and the lady clutched it close to her chest and walked away really quickly. the sisters in our apartment made a goal to be less creepy! but i can imagine how weird it would be if this random foreigner came and talked to you and barely spoke your language.

slowly but surely i am learning this language... as i hear it more and more, i can understand better how things fit together, but listening and understanding is still so hard. i am grateful for God's help. i surely would not know as much as i do without his strength.

sister sasaki and i do lots of role plays with members. this week we did the plan of salvation lesson and she had me take the lead and teach the lesson and she would bear testimony and add her own insights. im glad i have a trainer who has a lot of confidence in me and pushes me to do scary things! haha this week we decided that we want to do our role plays with less active members in the ward. out of the 10000 members in the tokyo south mission area, only about 3000 attend church, so there are lots of members we could visit!

random and funny: my name in katakana is Riibusu... lots of people try to figure out how my name is really pronounced in english. sometimes they recognize the name because of christopher reeves, but usually they think my name is sister leaves!

anyway... love yall.

love, sister leaves