Kenzie Says "Kon'nichiwa": July 15th

Hey y'all! Best week ever. We are exhausted. There is a reason we have
these days for preparation. We tried to skip it and we couldn't do it.
Haha we are realizing that the work is more fun when we really work.
You know it's been a good day when you feel like you deserve 8 hours
of good rest.
Tuesday: we had zone conference in kichijoji. It was awesome... The
best part was practicing teaching the first lesson as a whole group!
Learned more Japanese and learned how to explain complicated churchy
things to people who don't even have an idea of who God is. That
evening we met a potential investigator. We had met a family from
America. The wife is Japanese and the husband is American and they are
in town for a few months staying with her mother because she is having
a baby soon. We were able to share a bit of the message of the
restoration and give a Book of Mormon. It turns out the wife isn't
interested in coming to church or meeting with us, but her husband
wants to meet and learn more about our faith. So we've had to find an
English speaking sister in the ward to come teach with us. She is
actually married to an American, too and they have two really cute
young girls.
Wednesday: we met with our friend, Misako. She took us out to sushi
and invited us in her home for an English lesson. We introduced the
half English and gospel lesson program and she was so excited. She is
open to learning whatever we can teach her. She also wants to come see
our church. She says she doesn't necessarily believe in God, but she
has a bible and thinks she will probably believe in God if we teach
her about him. New investigator!
Thursday: we taught Tomoe about faith. We shared Alma 32 and talked
about how we can do an experiment to see if God is real and to "grow"
our faith. We compared our faith to a seed and explained how if she
wants the flower to grow she will need to water it, give it sunlight
and nutrients, etc. our faith will grow if we pray, read God's word,
and attend church. We gave her cute handouts about sunflowers and a
pack of sunflower seeds. Just as the sunflower follows the sun... We
too must follow Gods Son, Jesus Christ. She was excited and felt love
from us. We are building a good friendship. She is a violinist and has
interest in playing for church. This week she wants me to play piano
with her! We also visited Takahata Shimai for lunch and a mogi. We
made sushi with her and it was delicious but we ate SO much. It hurt
to do anything afterwards. Haha we practiced teaching about baptism
and she shared her ideas with us. And.. Gave us a referral! Is this
real life? Afterwards we visited a member to deliver a birthday card.
She wasn't home and her husband had forgotten it was her birthday haha
but when we saw them again on Sunday they kept thanking us for
stopping by. As we left their apartment we met a nice lady who used to
live in Salt Lake and has visited temple square a few times. We showed
her pictures of the temple in Tokyo and invited her to come to church
with us!
Friday: one of our eikaiwa students invited us to Japanese class. He
singled out sister Bryson and I cause we are young missionaries and
need the most help haha but it was a kind gesture. And we went! Killed
two birds with one stone... Language study and made lots of new
friends. They were so nice... Just moms who volunteer their time to
help foreigners learn Japanese. The lady who taught me told me about
all the fun places to go in the area and all the good food I could
cook at home. Later we went to visit a less active for her birthday.
Turns out the address got deleted from our map app and so it just led
us to the general area but not her house. We were trying to find her
home when we saw a cute green French style house. I decided to ring
the door bell. In Japan they talk to you through an intercom instead
of coming to the door. They just say, "hai" and wait for you to talk
and often they can see you with a camera. Anyway the general
translation of what I said was "hi, we are American. You have a very
nice house." She answered, "hold on a minute" and came to the door. We
met her husband too. We explained that we were looking for our friends
house and saw hers and really liked it. She was so nice... She walked
around with us to try to find it and when we couldn't, invited us into
our house, gave us cold drinks and looked at a map with her daughter
who was visiting. Her daughter and her little boy walked with us to
find Goto shimai's house. The daughter is visiting from America. She
is married to an American but she wanted her son to meet his
grandparents. As we walked we were able to learn about her religious
background and interests. We invited her to church and she said we
could come back to visit their home anytime. When we got back on our
bikes it started pouring rain. Of course we didn't bring our rain
suits cause we thought the typhoon had come the night before. Anyway,
we were just going home for weekly planning so we biked through it...
And got soaked and got laughed at by so many people. It was hilarious
and sort of fun.
Saturday: we helped clean the church in the morning and practiced
teaching with the elders. We visited our "new investigators", Genki
and Regine. We brought them treats and brought a note translated into
Tagalog for Regine. We were able to meet Genki's mom and invite her to
church. We asked if they read the bible. His mother says she doesn't
really have time, but Regine pulled out her Tagalog bible and was
excited to show us! We introduced the Book of Mormon and gave our
Japanese one to Genki. He opened it up and started reading... In
Isaiah. Haha.... He kept reading for a long time and finally stopped
and said "I understood". We were thinking, "really? Cause we
definitely didn't!" Haha they asked us to come back the next evening.
After our lesson with them we rode our bikes to try and visit the
referral from Takahata Shimai but we hit the big highway that is
supposedly the boundary between us and the north mission. So... They
live in the other mission... President Wada texted back and gave us
the go ahead to visit but we had already decided to be obedient and
turn around. As we rode our bikes home we saw a friend we had met a
week or so before. She was so excited to see us. We stopped and talked
to her and she asked if we were hungry and then invited us into her
Yakitori shop. She introduced us to everyone at the restaurant as her
friends who volunteer at the church around the corner... We are called
sisters but we aren't real sisters. It's because God is our father so
we are all brothers and sisters. Way to go lady! Doing our job for us!
The food was yummy and we were able to talk with everyone there and
tell them about the activities at church and invite them to join us.
As we left, we met a lady right outside the restaurant. We said good
evening and she started talking to us, explaining that when she saw us
she thought that her son would want to meet us. He knows English and
uses it for work but would love to talk to natives and get practice.
She asked us if we go to the Yakitori shop every Saturday so she could
run into us again. We said it was actually our first time but we
recommend it. She walked us to her home which was actually pretty
close by. We met her cute dog and her husband and they invited us in.
We introduced the family English program and exchanged contact
information and she told us to please come back again, making sure we
knew how to get to her house again!
Sunday: the other sisters' investigator got baptized! It was amazing!
She was sooo prepared. Sister Hathaway came because she was someone
she had worked closely with for most of the teaching process. We are
forming good relationships with the members and so many of them are
excited to help us and invite us into their homes. We visited Genki
and Regine again and this time met their nephew? Cousin? Anyway, we
gave Regine a Book of Mormon in Tagalog and she read along with us. We
used the scriptures to teach about baptism. Regine spoke a little
English and said she prays every night and she wants to follow Jesus.
We really want to get in touch with the Filipino member in our ward so
we can work with Regine. We think she is touched by our efforts to try
to communicate with her.
Monday: we went to hirata shimai's for lunch. She is soooo cute. I
love her so much. She is the only member in her family and never
married. She has health problems and gets her blood cleaned and goes
to the hospital like every other day. She knows a tiny bit of English
and likes to use some of it. She doesn't like cooking at all but woke
up at 4 in the morning to cook for us. She was so surprised when we
said her food was good. Haha I felt so much love from her. She doesn't
have a lot of gospel knowledge. We shared a scripture about the
atonement and she was so surprised we knew what it was talking about.
We sang hymns together at her request. She wants to learn more of the
hymns. She has this weird piano thing that you can play if you blow
into a flute thingy at the same time. It was really hard especially
because I was trying hard not to laugh and then couldn't breathe. I
will send a video! Monday evening we met an investigator from
kichijoji and her friend who lives in hibari area for dinner. We ate
Indian curry together and shared a message about blessings from God.
They are such cute girls. Their conversion is more of a social
conversion, but missionaries and friends at church showing love will
help them cultivate interest and desire to learn more.
Anyway it was a fantastic week. 3 new investigators and lots more
teaching opportunities. Thanks for your prayers. Remember to thank God
for all the miracles he is performing in your life! I love you all.