Kenzie Says "Kon'nichiwa": September 15th

Hey y'all.
It's the beginning of another transfer with yet another companion! At
this rate I'll have 13 companions by the end. I'm on number 7 already!
Anyway, her name is Sister Shitami. She is from Sapporo. A way cold
place in Japan. The weather has gotten really cool here and she thinks
it's hot. Haha anyway, she is really cute and doesn't speak English at
all.... So this forces me to learn Japanese for sure. It's really
exhausting actually. She is a brand new missionary and way nervous to
be out here. It's interesting to be the one showing her the ropes when
she's the one that actually understands what's going on around us..
She just hasn't had any experience being a missionary, yet. Way crazy
and slightly intimidating. But she is really patient and encouraging
and I'm grateful for that.
Tuesday: exchange with sister eyring. She is so fun. Always has so
many jokes... It's good comic relief for the stress of being a
missionary. We visited a less active together, rang a few doorbells
and experienced rejection, and talked to as many people as we could!!
We even came back with a sketch some man had drawn. We said hello and
he reached into his bag and gave us a sketch of some sheep and tried
to give us some explanation but we didn't understand it.
After we exchanged back, sister Merstrand and I visited a million
people so she could say goodbye. Transfers are a way good opportunity
to get your investigators to meet with you ;)
Wednesday: we were able to teach three lessons! Good day :) we met
with Tomoe, hirata Shimai, and Terumi San. Each lesson went way well
and Terumi is progressing well towards her baptism. Earlier in the
week she had given us a sweet note that she had worked really hard on
to write in English. She expressed her gratitude for praying at the
church and preparing for baptism. In our lesson this week she thanked
us for telling her that she is a daughter of God and that he loves
her. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to teach her. I'm grateful to
be a daughter of God!
Thursday: went to the mission home to pick up my new companion! There
were only 3 new sisters who came in and all three are Japanese! We ate
together and had various trainings and were there pretty much all day.
We came home and started planning for the week.... It's always hard
when transfers come and you have to update your companion on the
background story of all the people you're working with.
Friday: we visited to potential investigators and less actives and
attended district meeting. Tried to talk to a bajillion people and I
just had to stop and pray that at least one of them would say hello
back to me. It's really hard to try so hard and be ignored.
Saturday: we visited a less active for her birthday. She lives forever
and a year away and the bus doesn't come very often. So we were stuck
in her area for an extra hour and a half and there was literally no
one on the street so we had no choice but to go "housing". We saw lots
of success because we gave many people a choice... But no potential
investigators.
Sunday: Sunday is usually the most exhausting day for me, but I
magically had lots of energy. Church was great... Spoke with lots of
members and set appointments with them. This ward is so great about
helping the missionaries. We visited an English class student and his
wife after church. We weren't able to teach them about the church and
they didn't express a lot of interest but I really think one day they
will be willing to learn more. It's really cool... He actually met the
missionaries for the first time in this area when he was in junior
high. It is no coincidence that he has this relationship with the
Mormon church!
We "heart attacked" a less active family's door and I guess they heard
us because as we were leaving we heard the door open a crack... So we
ran!!! Haha way fun.
We had dinner and played games with the Abe family. They both
converted to the church when they were 18. They have three cute little
girls. They wanted us to come teach their 7 year old daughter about
baptism. She wanted to know how she can help her girls have a desire
to go to church and be baptized. She had lots of questions about what
it was like for us to be raised in the church and if it ever felt like
we were being forced to go to church and follow the commandments. I'm
really grateful for the things my parents taught me from a young age,
but I'm also grateful for the freedom of choice that we all have. I'm
grateful to have been able to learn for myself the truthfulness of the
gospel of Jesus Christ and make my own decision to follow him.
Monday: we had a great lesson with fumiyo and kana. We gave them a
Book of Mormon story reader for children and taught them how to read,
ponder, liken, and apply the messages of the Book of Mormon to receive
Gods guidance and feel his love. We used the story of Lehi's dream to
help them understand how to study God's word and apply it in our lives
to experience happiness. We always have so much fun studying with
them. They are so sincere and we are grateful for our friendship with
them. They are so willing to pray and always excited to learn about
Jesus. They love all the pictures of him and think he looks cool.
Haha.
I love you so much!