Dear Family and Friends,
This last couple of days have been interesting! I completely forgot about transfer calls, but they actually were coming to us through email! Hooray for transfer emails! Well, on that note, I better announce what's going down! I am.... Moving to Shonan! Which is right next to the ocean! I'll finally get to see the ocean for the second time in my whole life! Hooray! (The first time was when we were all on the bus from the airport to the Mission Home, and the Elder who was AP at the time, Elder Call, pointed out the Tokyo Bay. ) Well, I should talk about the whole week. We had a lot of things going on, like Companion Exchanges, and transfer calls, preparing for Elder McCarty's last Sunday! He's going home! He's been my zone leader for practically my whole mission, except for my second transfer, and then this last transfer, he was a traveling Assistant with Elder Rockwood. It will be sad to see him go home. Him and Sister Clark, and Elder Fernelius! I've now worked with all of them. But the others I haven't worked with, but I know are Sister Feist(I read her blog to help me prepare for missionary work in Japan!), and Sister Jones, who is my current Companion's trainer way back when we first came. My new companion will be the first missionary I ever met at the MTC! She was the one who picked me up at the curb where I was dropped off. :) it was cool to learn that she was going to Japan Tōkyō South mission too! Lastly, I want to talk about the amazing conference we had in Nakano this last week. Actually, it was yesterday! I felt like I was learning at the feet of the Savior. I'm so grateful that I could go. The conference was a special conference, and Elder Ballard came to Japan, with Bishop Gary E Stevenson, Elder Ringwood, Elder Aoyagi, and Elder Whiting. It was so beautiful. You could feel so deeply his love for each and every one of us, and we got to shake his hand at the very end, even though there were over four hundred of us! I hope I may never forget the days I have the privilege of shaking hands with a special leader called by the Savior to help direct and guide us. I hope you all know that the Savior lives and died for us. Do you understand that? If you do, then join the ranks, and be a missionary. As long as you understand that, you are a missionary, whether or not you are called to be a full time missionary. This is God's work. Have you prayed to know whether the missionaries are true messengers from God? If not, get on your knees and ask. That's all it takes. Get on your knees, and pray from your heart to know if we are true messengers. This work goes on, with or without us, but it is up to us to grab the tools, and join in the work, because the harvest is great, and it brings great happiness and joy! I love this work! And I love you, all of you! Thank you! ブレーク姉妹より Dear Family and Friends.
There is no time for email today, but I'll do my best to give you the best email I can! So, we've been in HACHIŌJI. It's close to the end of the transfer. We have a super awesome conference coming up, and it will be in the Japan Tōkyō Mission. We'll be going up there for once! Hooray! Elder Ballard is coming. It will be a great conference. I am excited. Well, we haven't been able to reach the same amount that we did last week, as far as inviting people to church, but it's been a great week! Let me see if I can remember. We had lessons, and activities, and it was just amazing. There were a few Valentine's activities, but we had a Meet the Mormons movie night! :) yeah! We watched Meet the Mormons in English with our English class students, and with many ward members who came. I really love that movie. On Thursday, we had president interviews. It was a good interview. I learned a lot. I really love this mission. On Friday,there was a sister training meeting in Kichijōji, which was spectacular. Sister Padelsky(my trainer), Sister Hokanson(my follow up trainer), and Sister Gappmeyer ( if I spelled it right..... Was my senpai at the mtc!) taught an exercise training. It was great, hilarious, and exhausting. We learned how to exercise pray, exercise reading scriptures, and to run away from dogs that don't like us, and it was a great way to learn different exercises to practice in the morning, especially when one runs out of ideas on exercise. Then, there was the movie night! It was great! The next day, there was a talent show in Takao! Hooray Takao! I sang a Capella "lead kindly light" and totally botched the words. ^.^ the only ones who noticed were the missionaries, which makes up about half the people there. ^.^;; Though after, people came and told me it was beautiful. Then, there was church. And I love church. Well, I'll leave it there. Today, I had the opportunity to share my testimony with a girl on the train, and felt it strong. I know this church is true! I love the joy I have from it! Want to share more, but I have no time this week. Still waiting for the new iPad to come. ^.^;; So I'm using my companion's today. Love you all! Sister Blake Dear Family and Friends,
What a week this has been! I went on Exchanges with Yamaguchi Shimai, and we decided to Heart Attack the Bishop and his family. Secretly. Well, our cover was blown when we made it to their neighborhood, and then we saw a girl happily running up to us to give us a big hug! It was one of the bishop's daughters! "What are you doing near my house?" She asked. We didn't want her to know we were going to heart attack her house. "Missionary work" we said, which didn't seem to appease her, as she continued to press for questions. Eventually we broke, and asked for her help to keep it a secret. "You'd better hurry! Mom's going to be coming home any minute!" Oh no! We ran and taped all the hearts onto the door, only to get caught by the other daughters, and then have the mom come home. We tried escaping by running behind the house, but we were totally caught! She saw us! It sure was fun though. It snowed twice these last weeks! It's fun to introduce my companion from Australia to things like, "oh, watch out, here's a patch of Black ice" and stuff. :) guess it doesn't snow there. It's fun to tell people who we are, and what we're doing, and then to invite them. We had another Family History blitz, where many missionaries get together and all work to introduce people to family history! It was fun! We had so many great conversations! That day was Saturday, and we had district Meeting in the morning. I feel like so much happened! Oh! And I received an awesome letter from the Young Women's group in my home Ward!,!,!! Yay! Happy Valentine's Day! At first, I couldn't put the puzzle together at all, but somehow today, it just came together! Thank you! It was the first week that we were able to give our hearts out to missionary work and see the results firsthand. We talked and invited 38 people to come and see what church is about, by actually coming to church, or learning for themselves through the lessons we teach, on Saturday. I can't express how impossible that seemed just the days before when we couldn't even ask three or four people in a single day. I know that the Lord inspires us to make goals, and then He gives us the means whereby we may achieve them. Our goal that one day was 50, but even though we didn't meet the crazy goal, it made us work hard, and we saw miracles. I love the people here, and we really want to help Hachioji, not just on the outside, but in the inside, too! Love you all! Do your best to hold to the iron rod! Sincerely, Sister Blake Picture! Christ is the Reason for Love! :) Dear Family and Friends,
How is everyone? Are you as well as I am? Are you happy jolly? Well, it's been a week of great and mighty miracles. Even just today, there were so many. I am grateful to be doing the work of the Lord, and to have "embarked". (D&C4) Well, as a highlight to the week, I was asked to be a translator at the Zone Meeting this last week. It was rough, but I enjoyed it. I think that those I did translation for understood at least parts of it. Well, what do I say about the work? It's really superduper amazing in Hachioji. Love you all, Sister Blake |
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January 2019
Sister Blake
"You are hereby called to serve in the Japan Tokyo South Mission." Categories |