Dear friends and family,
Sorry for the hiccup last week. :) This week has been pretty good. We had a lesson with a recent convert, and we hiked up the mountain to make it to her house. There's a tunnel there that has chairs in it (pretty random) and so we sometimes sit there to take a break. This time, we were talking to a wonderful lady the whole way up the mountain. We were walking the same direction, striked up a conversation and were talking the whole way up. I really enjoyed the lesson, though sometimes I still have no idea what's going on. ^.^ The next day was temple Pday〜hooray! It felt like it had been forever since I'd been to the temple. Wow. Loved it. Got to meet a sister from the Ward I had been in last year, in Kofu. We talked a while and encouraged each other. Then I met up with a couple other sisters I knew. I had a good day. That day was awesome. The next day, we were in the middle of weekly planning when we get a call from a sister in the Ward, saying she signed up for a meal with us on the missionary meal calendar being passed around, but we hadn't contacted her, so she just wanted to call and see if we had received it. Ahaha.. We hadn't! So, we had a surprise change in plans, and rushed over to their house. I'm borrowing an elder's bike right now because mine still hasn't made it here from Shonan area. ^.^ that had been another adventure, an lots of calls to the missiona office, Shonan sisters, and just all over the place. It's not lost, just the bag is too small for my bike and it just wouldn't go in this time around, so they're sending a bigger bike bag. Well, then on Thursday , we were both way under the weather. Ended up having to rest the whole day! >.< but we went to English class. Brother Lewis, who is absolutely fluent in Japanese taught our class for us. Phew. He is a great teacher! Whoa! I was surprised. It made me want to work on my teaching skills. Yeah! Friday- Pioneer Day. We had a celebration near the base. What an experience, and I mean it. There were Japanese Eikaiwa students and also a ton on American children. :) we heard a great pioneer story from Elder Thunell, who's wife I love so much. They're the senior couple here on the base. They don't live on the base, but they teach member families and such. They do a lot for us. Yesterday, they fed us lasagna. It was so good. And messy! Haha. On Saturday, we had a zone blitz. We all got together and dendo-ed ! (Dendo is the word for proselyte but is also means just missionary work, too. Yeah. Well, it sounds cooler in Japanese.) Lots of miracles. We met a man who was not going to talk very long. We approached him, saying, "we're church volunteer missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints," and he immediately rejected us, saying that he was Buddhist. But he was a kind man, so we got to talk to him for a little while longer about family history. He has actually done some researching on his family, which I think is quite rare. He made it seem like it wasn't, but anyhow, we talked to him for a while, and then we handed him a "I'm a Mormon" flyer with the church address on it. And he saw that and asked us, "Are you Mormon?!" (we had actually been talking to him for quite a few minutes by this time, but) He seemed pretty surprised! Then he told us of how he had been to Utah, and temple square, and just all that stuff. I don't know how God works, but I do know that He loves us. Wow. So my companion met a man, too (for some reason when we stopped couples, the men seemed to be more talkative about religion..) and then he came to church he very next day, had a great experience, and even posted about it on Facebook, about how he cried. I gave a talk yesterday, on the first principle of the gospel. Which is faith. I honestly wasn't prepared, but I figured that even if I spent a ton of time on it, I would probably change what I wanted to say anyway... And I did, a little. I got up, and started tripping over all my words. Nothing was coming out right. And then I shoved the Book of Mormon I was holding out so everyone could see, and began testifying about how this book helped my life. The Spirit was really amazing, and took right over. Today, we went all around the end of the peninsula, and saw a ton of ocean. Whoa! Love you all!Sister Blake 1 and 2- today's adventure 3- temple Pday Dear Family and Friends, Well, I've gotten used to being surrounded by Americans again. We found a lot of joy in our misisonary work this last week. Well, and my birthday was way good. What a great week. What a good welcome into the area. So, let's talk about the work. The work has been going well in Yokosuka recently. It was good to get together with a really nice former investigator, and then we went housing around. We don't have any real investigators right now, accept for maybe one or two. We are working on finding more who really want this in their lives. It seems stange. We're over two whole areas, but the people we have to work with are few. But, I have to say that this area has the biggest English Class I've ever been in. There were 30 some odd people there! Whoa! Everyone wants to learn English here, it seems. Well, that's no surprise, because the base is so close, and sphere are so many English speakers here. Then, he rest of the stuff to talk about is that I had a wonderful birthday, followed by interviews with President Wada, and then spending time at the beach with our friend, which was perfect. Haha. I was talking and testifying about the purpose of life, and then I paused and said, "it's deeper than the ocean." With a serious face, and both Sister Ogawa, my companion, laughed, and our friend said "that's so cool!" Haha.. It was fun. Then we ate at a sweets cafe, which also had real food, too, and not just sweets. It was.. Expensive. I would have cringed at the prices here before my mission. But it was SO GOOD! I loved the parfait we ate. Hey, I have another photo I want to send out, but I'll wait until next week. :) I love everyone. It's going to be a great transfer in Yokosuka, I know it. Sister Blake BTW-! Cockroach was found in our trap! Mwahahaha. We caught it. Now only so many to go (jk, it's not that bad.) 1- interviews, at our apartment! 2- for my birthday, a young women gave me fruity pebbles because she heard it was my favorite! >.< 3- parfait! Mike (my brother) sent me a picture that he drew, and then my companion decided we should take a live version, so we went to a sushi restaurant, and took a picture of the elders posing the same way!
Dear Family and Friends,
Who knew what a difference church would be in English as opposed to Japanese! I was so surprised! Whoa! It was a great week, and I actually didn't transfer until Saturday night. I got a couple of extra days in Shonan Ward. Oh America. Oh Base. Oh what a crazy transfer. OOOOOOK. lets start over. Monday. we tried to visit a lot.. and tried to hurry around to all the people. One of my favorite visits (on Friday) was a sweet older Japanese Christian lady who we met at the station a while ago, and she let us clean a bit around her house. She was so sweet, and sang "Jesus Loves Me" in English and Japanese for us, and then we talked about the Plan of Salvation together. We were there for a while, but a great visit. So, what else...? Well, all I can think of is all the visits with people we had, but then fell through, but one of the best things we did was change what we've been doing with one of our friends. We decided o make a plan and stick with it, and now she is progressing so steadily towards baptism. It may have to be pushed back a whole week, but she will make it. We met every day, and we were able to help her in a hard time, and members were present for every lesson, and it was just a great change compared to how we were moving so slowly with her. I am happy that I was allowed to be there and get that all organized and put in order. I am grateful. I came here on Saturday night, after a Luau activity at Fujisawa Stake Center. Then I went to church and we were there from 8:55-4:50. The English church is 9-12. Correlation Meeting is 12-1. The Japanese is usually 1-3, but there was Relief Society on Fast Sunday, so we stayed there a little longer. :) It was really great. There was one Sister in the Japanese Branch that really was kind to me. I am looking way forward to working with them. My favorite thing I read today was "On Being Genuine" by President Uchtdorf. A note I want to add. I know that the most important things for us to know are written and spoken by the living prophets. I trust in them and I sustain them with all my heart. Sister Blake |
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January 2019
Sister Blake
"You are hereby called to serve in the Japan Tokyo South Mission." Categories |