Kenzie Says "Kon'nichiwa": April 14th

Hello!
Update on another week that just flew by! The days go by slowly and
the weeks pass in a blink. We are already half way through this
transfer!
We weren't able to watch General Conference last week because it hadn't
been translated into Japanese yet. So.... Conference was this weekend!
I LOVE conference. We were able to watch it in English as long as our
investigators had friends to sit with. Conference was perfect. I
really felt my heavenly Father's love for me as I watched it. I came to
conference with questions and other things I was pondering about and I
left feeling comforted and feeling like each message was meant for me!
I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who continues to speak to
the world through modern day prophets and to us individually through
the Holy Spirit. Some of my favorite take aways from conference....
Our God is so merciful and loving and gives us so much... We are
eternally indebted to him.. We can show our gratitude for his plan and
the sacrifice of his son through gratitude and choosing to be
obedient. He never fails us, so we have no reason to doubt. We have
every reason to trust and to obey. We can choose to be happy through
continuing to accept the plan... The atonement of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. We can find happiness through love and kindness and service.
We can strengthen our families through righteous actions and committed
worship. We can serve The Lord by serving his children... Those we
meet each day. We can create connections with our families in
eternities by getting to know our ancestors and allowing them the
chance to accept proxy ordinances and by living and loving and
teaching our families today. Our Savior is the example we should
follow if we want peace and joy in this life. His love covers all the
sorrow and pain we experience... It is never too late to turn to him
and receive of his support. Living the gospel doesn't mean we will
never experience challenges... It just means we will have the hope to
carry us through and the perspective to realize the great spiritual
strength and blessing it is to pass through this earthly test. We have
such divine potential. I'm so excited to continue to study and apply
the messages of general conference. The messages were truly meant for
the world. Share your love for the gospel and for God with your
friends! Help them along the way and serve others the way Christ
would. This conference helped me realize that God loves us no matter
what. We are doing great, but we can do more and become more than we
are today.
So the whole stake comes together for general conference and watches
it at the Kichijoji ward building. It was so fun to experience the
love and fellowship of the saints. In between sessions everyone pulls
out their bentos and eats together. On Sunday all the wards grouped up
in the gym and ate together. Brother Inagaki made a gigantic pot of
spaghetti for the entire Kichijoji ward and we sat at a Ping pong
table to eat :) it was so cute.

Elder Leftwich and Sister Merstrand and the ward table!

Paella... made by the lovely Sister Feist and Sister Reeves
(We love shopping at the import store and making exotic food!)

After conference, Sister Merstrand and I were on a split and we went
on an assignment to visit a sister in the hospital. She is from the
Hibarigaoka ward but the hospital is in our area. We took the bus and
went to the hospital to visit this lady we had never met. She had just
had hip surgery. She was so sweet and really appreciated our visit. We
shared with her our favorite talks from conference and prayed with
her. She really wants to receive lessons from the missionaries. She is
a recent convert and still feels like she doesn't understand a lot
about the gospel. Members from the Tokorozawa ward were there to visit
her, too. It meant a lot to her to hear uplifting messages and receive
the support of members.

Sister Feist and me at Inokashira Koen while the cherry blossoms were in full bloom!

Sister Merstrand and I were on another split earlier this week. We
took the trains to visit a recent convert in the ward and to teach her
about temples and family history. She is such an amazing lady with
such a strong testimony. The gospel has really been a blessing in her
life. Sister Merstrand and I felt way successful to be just transfer 1
and 2 and to successfully use the public transportation system to find
our appointments and fulfill our missionary purpose without relying on
the experience of our trainers. Whoop!

Sister Harper and me, hiking Mt. Takao!

We were able to meet with Sayaka San this week. She won't be able to
make her baptismal date, but she is doing everything she needs to do
to be prepared to receive baptism soon. She is reading her scriptures
and praying and prioritizing church attendance. She really wants to be
certain of her decision. She has great faith. She is still a little
uncertain about the existence of God, but she believes that it is a
miracle that the missionaries have come into her life. She loves
studying the Book of Mormon and the Bible. She really wants to follow
the prophet and she is coming to learn that obedience brings happiness. More happiness than finding success in her job or through other ways she would usually seek happiness. She is a deep thinker and
really intelligent. She really wants religion in her life. I feel like she is teaching us when we meet with her!

CUTE helmets, with Sister Sasaki.

Selfie with Sister Sasaki on Mt. Takao!

Really cool experience meeting with a lady named Oomura San this
week... Sasaki Shimai and I tried to meet with her last transfer but
she was never feeling well enough to meet. She is battling cancer and
she feels like she has gone through a lot that is unfair. She doesn't
have a lot of confidence in herself and has a hard time accepting
love. We had just met her but we expressed our love for her. She was
so shocked. We explained that we could also feel the love that her
Heavenly Father has for her. She asked if she could pray and ask God
for an answer to why missionaries who just meet her always say they
love her! She doesn't have faith in Jesus Christ, but she has a desire
to repent. The word repentance in Japanese has a slightly different
meaning or connotation than the word in English. It's "kuiaratameru"
kui means regret or guilt and aratameru means to change. And that's
what repentance truly is.. Change for the better. It doesn't
necessarily mean we have committed something terribly wrong. It means
we have the desire to do better and be better and improve our lives.
As we prayed with her she said she could feel God's arms wrapped around
her. She says she feels really good in the church building and when
she meets with missionaries. She is beginning to recognize the Spirit
and that is so exciting! I felt so much love as we visited with her. I
asked her to pray in her home as well so that she could continue to
feel that love. She said she is really stubborn so it will be hard for
her to develop faith, but she says we can certainly meet her again. It
was a miracle!
Wednesday was Sister Merstrand's birthday. She turned 22! Reminds me of
my favorite Taylor swift song :) we had a "Thai/tie" party during
lunch for her. We wore ties and mustaches and made Thai spring rolls!
It was cute! We love a good themed party :)
One of the recent converts the other sisters are working with gave us
the most awesome present this week. Her boss's daughter apparently is
really classy and updates her wardrobe often so she was getting rid of
4 white coats. So each of us sisters got a barely used white coat.
They are so cute and all the nihonjin are always wearing white coats.
I don't know if I'm classy enough... The arms are a little short and
maybe I'll get it dirty, but we love them. Pictures to come later...
We go out and street and meet people and Sister Feist and I call it
"white coat dendou". Kichijoji is a classy place.. I think we are
getting more people to talk to us these days ;)
I'm grateful for all of you! I think about you and pray for you. Thank
you for keeping me in your prayers, too. I love you!! Peace out 🐭