Week 64. December 21, 2014. Last transfer, good-bye to Kempner Shimai! :( New companion to train, from New Zealand. Japanese is way cool with an accent :).

Hey there.

So I have officially started my last transfer! How did that happen! As you probably already know, I am staying in Obihiro (poor people couldn't shake me off since I came in July!)  My new companion is Wallwork Shimai, she is fresh out of the MTC. Also, she is from New Zealand! Japanese with an accent is way cool, in case you were wondering. Sometimes when she talks to me I have no clue what she is saying. It's English, but not, ha ha. We are going to have a lot of fun and work really hard!

We were stuck in Sapporo for like three days because of an intense storm that hit Hokkaido, it pushed back transfer day, and almost stopped the returning missionaries from going home on time for Christmas! It all worked out though, probably thanks to all the prayers we said, the entire mission was in on it. :) We weren't in Obihiro for very long though, and our dendo was really on the slim side, but these next few weeks with Christmas and New Years is going to all be sort of weird.

Love you all, talk to you next week! And Christmas!

Ps, I miss Kempner Shimai!

Week 63. December 14, 2014. Last Transfers! Staying in Obihiro to finish mission. Will so miss Kempner Shimai!

Hey you all,

It is cold! I mean it, cold! And everyone keeps telling us that it will just get colder from here on out too, ha. And that is just fine! We don't mind. :) 

We had a zone training meeting in Kushiro again, it was good. We had an awesome workshop about how we are representatives of Christ, and even though we are all human and make mistakes all the time, we have a sacred trust in our calling and we are promised that we will become stronger and work miracles. It was neat, and just what I needed to hear. 

On Friday we met with Tsuruno san and taught her the word of wisdom. Even though I was really worried about it all since she drinks tea and coffee regularly, after we had finished the lesson she told us that it wasn't going to be a big deal. And then asked us if she had to give up eating meat too! Not sure where that came from, but we told her that she could eat meat if she wanted to, ha. Sparingly of course. Heavenly Father has been preparing her! I think she is going to make it to her date, easily. As long as we can get her to church and make her family be nice about it all. 

Ah yeah, I got my transfer calls last night. Looks like I will be dying in Obihiro, with a new companion. One fresh from the MTC. Training again! That was a shock! Kempner Shimai is going to a place called Asahikawa, one of the coldest parts of the island with a Nihonjin. She is going to be incredible. And I am going to miss the little potlicker so much! 

Love you all, see you in only one more transfer! 

Week 62. New investigators through miracles! Baptism date for Tsuruno san, and a whole family to possibly teach

This week was awesome! Since we decided to let some of our old investigators have a little bit of a break and put more time into finding those that will receive us we have seen some miracles! There were three PIs we found that I am really excited to go back and see, two of them younger women who we were able to give the Book of Mormon to, and a man who had moved from Tokyo that has a lot of member friends and used to go to church and still reads the Book of Mormon. I really felt the Lord's hand and guidance in showing us the way to go as we were looking for people to teach. 

We also were blessed to make a date for baptism for Tsuruno san. She recently has been doing a lot of studying on her own, including filling out the additional study questions in the back of the pamphlets that we gave her. She even tells us herself that she knows she needs to come to church, half of that battle is already won. I really am praying that she will get an answer to her prayers that the church is true, and that she will come to church. We are teaching her the word of wisdom next week and have a member coming with us. Things seem really hopeful!

Right now we are also in to process of getting a pass from the elders. She is a sweet little young mom named Yamamoto san, she is doing the free family English program with us with her friend, but last time her husband came too. With a combined effort from us and the Elders, we were able to get the whole family to come to church. I feel so close to my dream of teaching a family! I'm really grateful for the elders and all of the work they have put into them and that they are letting us work with them as well.

Love you all, have a good week! 

Week 61. November 30th, 2014. Dropping investigators, curry rice with member grandma that rides giant trike with helmet. Week culminates with Tsubaki Chan being baptized and primary program. :)

Hey everyone!

So we decided that we needed to go through and decide if we were going to continue to teach a lot of our investigators or not this last week at DKK, and ended up dropping almost half of them.  I've really been feeling like something wasn't quite right with how we have been doing our dendo recently, and now that we have done that and decided to go out and do more finding than we were before, I am feeling a little bit more at ease. Dropping investigators is really hard for me, but I think this is what we were supposed to do, it seems that the time just isn't quite right for a lot of them, and we need to be putting in more effort to find those who are waiting.

Traning is still going really well, I have been really happy with how Kempner Shimai is learning and how she can do so many things already that took me a lot longer to do. She is a very dilligent missionary, I know that it is going to serve her well. I have loved the time we have had together and would stay with her until the end of my mission if I could! But we both know that is unlikely. Her next companion will love her so much. I know she is really nervous about the next transfer (oh, wait, so am I) but I also know that what ever happens is the Lord's will and what happens happens.

Saturday night we went with all of the elders to a members house for a birthday dinner. She made curry rice for us all and we got to hear her conversion story and just enjoy being with her in her house. This sweet little sister is like 70 and rides a giant trike with a helmet, I guess that is how the missionaries started the contact, ha.

On Sunday we got to see Tsubaki Chan get baptized, she is the daughter of a family in the ward, only the dad is coming to church so they asked us to teach her the lessons. It was fun (and exhausting) to teach her and great to see and feel the special spirit that kids have. The primary program was also going on. I haven't wanted to have children anymore in my life than I did yesterday! They are so cute! Someone let me hold their baby, please!

Love you all, have a good week.

Week 60. November 23, 2014. Inspiring zone conference, a great week despite low numbers- including a big ward service project

Hey you people,

So we went up to Sapporo for three days last week for a big combined zone confrence. It was really great! Nakatsuka Kaicho did two, two hour long, workshops for us. I really love him and always get so excited to hear whatever it is that he has to say. He ended up talking about charity and love, as well as what we can do as missionaries to help people keep commitments. Lately pretty much all of our investigators have been really terrible at that, so I felt like it was all very applicable. Essentially, through really loving them so that they feel God's love through us and doing what we can in the way of teaching skills (following up, promising blessings, sharing your testimony, etc.) we can help them repent and change. It was really a good workshop! Wish you all could have been there. :)

Then we proceeded to have the most low week regarding numbers that I have ever had. No one was home for any of our scheduled lessons and we did some mogi lessons with members and then a big ward service project and went to the Elder's baptism. The things we did were all really good things, but sometimes it just doesn't show in your numbers at the end of the week. Which is just a reminder that numbers are not all that important because you can do good, effective things that aren't in your key indicators each week. Its about the people you are serving and helping them all feel their own worth and God's love.

I bet we do a bit better planning next week though, ha.

Well, love you all, hope you have a good, safe week!

Week 59. Yoshida san (bowling date :)) and gyoza with the Young Women on Sunday

Hey you people, how are you all doing? 

It was just another week in the life of Sister Johnson. We rode our bikes all over the place, talked to a bunch of people, taught lessons, almost lost half our fingers because we were not adequately dressed for the winter one day.. and ate a lot of really good food. You know, the usual. 

We met with Yoshida san again this week, it was our third time. She was able to tell us a lot of the things she believes and heard a bunch of concerns. We weren't able to do a lesson like we had planned, but it was really good to establish a relationship with her! She told us that we could come back and maybe meet with all of her family and talk about the Book of Mormon! She also scheduled a time that we could go bowling with her, ha.

At the church we had Family Night, a sister that is less active came with us and had a really fun time, she told us that she wants to come again next week, so hopefully we can get her to come back to church on Sunday one of these times. She was baptized like 30 years ago and fell away, but recently she had the desire to meet with us again and start reading! 

On Sunday we had a little party with the Young Women of the ward, ate gyoza and talked about some experiences we had in Young Women and how it helped prepare us to be missionaries. It was fun to take some time to think back and remember all the good times I had had, and all the awesome leaders. I am so grateful for them all and how they strengthened my testimony when I was a young(er) woman. 

Love you all, have a good week!