Kenzie Says "Kon'nichiwa": December 28th

Hello :)

Christmas was so fun! Talking with y'all was one of the highlights! I LOVE my family :) Can't wait for Christmas 2015!

We had Mission Conference on Christmas Eve in Kichijoji. 210 missionaries! It was awesome! President Wada and Sister Wada spoke and we got to watch Meet the Mormons. It's seriously amazing. You must watch it. Some sisters from the Musashino Stake helped Sister Wada with the food and they fed 210 missionaries sooo well! We had a gift exchange and of course my gift was thoughtful and so cute, but I got a really big bottle of hot sauce. But Sister Eyring got a baby head on a stick so I felt better! Hahahaha anyway it was just really fun to celebrate Christmas and feel the spirit among an army of missionaries :)

Eikaiwa Party: We held English class on Christmas Eve cause well, it's just a normal day for everyone so they came! We had a Christmas themed English lesson and sang songs and did a gift exchange and ate lots of dessert! It was really fun! And delicious!

One of the students in the class complimented my "japanese performance". I can speak polite Japanese and bow well I guess. Anyway, next he knelt on the ground and bowed to me... Like literally the most polite bow I've ever seen. Haha I just teach free English, yo!

Christmas Day was so fun and happy! Skyping with the family was of course a highlight but Brown Shimai and I had a miraculous day. After skyping and study we went out to spread Christmas cheer! We had a list of about 8 people we wanted to visit and plans for each one of them for messages to share/gifts to give/lessons to teach, etc. and we visited everyone! It was busy and exciting. We ended up teaching a less active and our investigator, Suzuki San. The less active member even came to church yesterday!

Our lesson with Suzuki San was wonderful. We had planned on sharing a quick Christmas message and setting up a return appointment. We shared the message and used some HTBT and it was feeling like she was giving us all the "I have no interest in learning further" cues and the conversation was really headed in the direction of "oh okay we get it. You're Buddhist. Let's just be friends." But then I asked her how she felt when she used to read the Bible. And the atmosphere changed! Brown Shimai asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon and when she said no we suggested that we read it together. She went to get it and we started from the introduction. She had lots of good questions which lead to the opportunity to teach a simple overview of the Restoration! She said she had been to church before several years ago and loved the family environment and understood the messages in her heart. She says that right now she isn't sure that she will attend church or be baptized but she wants to continue hearing the message. She said she will read the Book of Mormon.

On Friday I went on an exchange with Brox Shimai. She is great! We had a really busy day. She said she wanted to improve on teaching lesson 1 simply to practice what she learned in the training at zone meeting. We had the wonderful opportunity of teaching lesson 1 four times together! We had 3 member mogis and then a lesson with a less active member. It was a miracle. My testimony and confidence was strengthened and my faith that God guides us and there is power in our calling was also increased. The less active member we taught was baptized at 16, actively attended church for 2 years, and about 10 years have passed since then. She has forgotten everything she learned at church and even the reason she was baptized. But she feels the spirit so strong when she meets with the missionaries and she wants to remember! She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying... Finding her testimony again! Brox Shimai bore powerful testimony and the spirit was strong as she testified to the less active member that the message we shared was what God wanted us to share with her specifically today. She teared up a little bit and remembered that she had been able to feel God's love powerfully in her life when she was living the gospel.

Sister Brown got invited to a Japanese Culture Conference! I was jealous but hopefully she'll teach me everything there is to know! Merstrand shimai's companion also went, so she and I split and worked on a assignment we were given at the last leadership conference. Our mission currently uses the tools from the Tokyo mission for teaching eikaiwa and has never created our own handbook or given trainings to missionaries on how to have an effective and professional eikaiwa. We studied the materials from several old books and have started to create the handbook and studying ideas for training our mission and improving this service opportunity to increase the number of students, have member participation, and invite these friends to learn about why we are here in Japan giving our time and service for 1 1/2-2 years.

On Saturday night we went to look at the Christmas lights in Tama... Right by Hello Kitty Land! We went with 2 single adults(one returning member, and one active member). We had so much fun and the 2 singles were able to strengthen a friendship. And both came to church on Sunday! After looking at the lights and taking lots of pictures we saw it was crepe day at the crepe shop so we ate and shared a daily message we had prepared for them.

Great quote from President Monson: “By learning of Him, by believing in Him, by following Him, there is the capacity to become like Him. The countenance can change; the heart can be softened; the step can be quickened; the outlook enhanced. Life becomes what it should become.”

The purpose of our lives is to learn! When we learn of God and become like Him we prepare ourselves to return to our heavenly home :) I know He lives and he loves us and he wants us to be happy! Because of our Savior there is power to change. This week as we look back on 2014 and think about the change we want to make in the new year, we can think about the Savior and how we can make room for him in our lives.

Love you!

Love,

Kinz