Week 32, April 27. 150 contacts this week, and seeing beautiful Sapporo on top of mountain at night

Hello everyone!

This week has been really good, the weather has gotten a lot warmer
but we do have some wind blowing. (skirts are so dangerous!)

We had a great Zone Conference, Aoyagi Elder came and talked to us,
after the conference we were so pumped that we ran from door to door a
few times, ha ha. Also at the conference we were told that Elder
Christofferson is coming next month to speak to our mission! I am so
excited! It's been a long time since we had an Apostle come, I am a
lucky missionary. :)

The other day while we were going down a hill on our bikes I stopped a
girl. She was super nice and funny and we were able to make an
appointment with her for next, next week. She wouldn't tell us her
address, but she told us she would meet us in front of the nearby
store, ha ha. We did get her phone number though!

This week we did a lot of contacting.. In fact, we contacted 150ish
people, which is a record for me! I am hopeful that we will find some
one to listen soon.

The other day a member took us to the top of a mountain to see the
view of the city at night. Sapporo is just beautiful. I am a very
blessed girl to be able to serve here.  I love this work and I know the
gospel is true.

And I can't wait to call my mom in a few weeks!

Love you all!

Week 31- April 21. A new Japanese companion and Springtime in Teine- the bikes are out!

Helllllloo! 

I have a new companion, her name is Fujita Shimai. She was Miller Shimai's trainer, and she went to school at BYU Hawaii and is very good at English. I love her as well, she's a great missionary with a lot of love for everyone. I think this is going to be a really great transfer. We made three appointments in two days! That doesn't really happen very often, I'm hopeful that they'll be good ones. I think that together we are a good combination, people seem to think we're interesting anyway and let us talk to them for a minute. 

The weather has been pretty good as well! Which is a good thing since we have officially (it actually happened this week, after all of my talk). And, I have realized a few things since beginning on the bike. First of all, it's pretty much all uphill to Teine from my apartment. And second, my morning yoga hasn't been preparing me well enough for the bike season. It's going to be a good thing, but it might kill me. 

We didn't really have any lessons or much this week, just adjusting to a new companion and feeling very blessed. I love being a missionary! I hope you are all well!

Week 30- April 14, 2014. Conference Love and Transfer Week!

Hello,

What a great conference we had this last week! I can hardly wait to get the Liahona so I can check them out again. We are so blessed to have a living Prophet on the earth at this time. I know that he, and his Apostles are really called of God, and that we can learn what it is that our Heavenly Father wants us to know from listening to their words.

My very favorite was President Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude. I loved when he talked about how gratitude is an expression of hope and testimony. I have decided that I am going to make a more conscience effort to have gratitude, no matter what circumstances I'm in. Sometimes I get caught up in looking towards, or worrying, about things that are coming but not actually here yet. I am resolved to keep my mind on the now and be grateful for every minute I'm given.

The sister meeting was really good as well! The little video clip they showed may have made me cry (I'm turning into my mother!) and of course President Monson's about love. 

I also loved Elder Scott, W. Craig Zwick and of course Elder Holland and Elder Eyring.

What a beautiful conference!

Besides conference, this week was pretty average. We were able to meet with Nunokawa san, but were not able to have a real lesson. She talked a lot about the church she's already a part of, and insisted on sending us with a magazine from her church. That was a bummer! She still loves the Book of Mormon. I don't know what to do yet, but we'll keep trying.

Transfers are are this week, I am most likely to be getting a new companion! Changes are scary, sad and yet so good.

I love you all so much! Have a good week!

Week 29- April 6, 2014. Hope and Faith, Ether 12:4.

Hello!

 

Spring is tricky this week. We thought it was here, and then the snow came back with a vengence. Today seems promising though, I feel like this next week will really be a good one.

 

While we were housing this week we found a very hard woman. She grilled us with questions from the bible in very hard Japanese. I had no idea what she was talking about most of the time. She ended up telling us to go away at the end saying that we probably didn't know what we were talking about and that we just were wasting our time. It was hard to take, but she was not willing to really listen to anything we had to say. I was so frustrated because I don't like my weakness in language to come across as a lack of testimony.

 

We were due for a little tender mercy from our Father in Heaven, and he was ready to give it to us. We had planned to go to For You, a member's cute little restaurant with the best food for dinner. When we got there we found Nunokawa san, an old investigator that Murray Shimai had re-found last transfer. She has been sick for awhile and I hadn't met her yet. She told us that she had just called us but we didn't answer. So she was just as surprised as I was to see us. We were able to talk with her for a long time and share some scriptures. She's had some hard things happen to her when she was younger, which has left her a little bit scarred. I was able share Ether 12:4 with her about how we can have hope in this life, and how it comes from faith in Jesus Christ.

 

That night she called us and thanked us but she had to leave a message since it was after 10. We called her back and we are trying to make an appointment with her for next week.

 

We also met with a cute little grandpa, Murehisa san, who speaks perfect English. He didn't really want to listen to our message, so it might be hard to meet again, but it was a lot of fun.

 

It was a good week here in Teine! I love you all so much!

Week 28- March 30, 2014. Les Mis, Paul McCartney loving grandma and dendo-ing with Evans Shimai.

Hello!

Spring is coming! The bikes have come to us too, we will be riding soon! It was really out of the blue, actually... one day it was blowing snow in our faces and the next it was all sunshine. Of course, we still have colder ones but for the most part we are in the clear! Good thing, It is April tomorrow, after all. :) 

We went and contacted a referral from the Elders this week, a little old Grandma named Tomita san. She told us pretty quickly that she wasn't interested in our message, but that she wanted us to come in and talk to her. That's always a really hard placed to be put in. We have to make sure that we are doing what we came here to do, teach, but on the other hand, people never usually even give us any time to talk to them. We went in and talked to her for a while, and I love her! She recently got back from a trip to England with her daughter. While she was there she saw Paul McCartney! It came and did a sudden concert and she just happened to be there! She also saw Les Mis. and started putting the movie on for us, which we couldn't watch, ha ha. She's also into art, so she asked me to draw her something and gave me some colored pencils to do it, ha ha. We now have a reason to go back, I just hope we can find a way to share some of the message with her... I want to hang out with her one day after I'm not a missionary! 

This week we also got the chance to work with Evans Shimai, it was a lot of fun! We visited an investigator who wasn't home, heart attacked a member and stopped by and saw an old NA who we invited to the RS party. Evans Shimai was so awesome though! She is so bold, she went to the next door neighbors or the not home investigator and tried to get them to come out and talk to us by telling them that we thought their house was pretty, ha ha. The NA that we visited, Sakai Shimai, also was able to go to the party and she had a lot of fun. Hopefully some of the members will be able to pick her up and take her to church from now on! 

We went to a birthday party and the Sawaguchi Family's place for Elder Takemura, it was a lot of fun! We ate "omrice" the most Mexican food-y Japanese food I've ever eaten (I will get the recipe) and chocolate cheese cake! Yoshizawa Elder also did some magic to end the night, it was a lot of fun! 

All is well here in Sapporo. I love you all! 

Week 27- March 24, 2014. A possible fifty year wait for baptism and the Holy Ghost at work. Too good Japanese food!

Hello Americans!

We finally were able to meet Sai san, a potential investigator from
the end of last transfer. She told us that she wanted to come to
church when the snow melted and the roads were safer. We're going to
go back and try to make an appointment to teach her before that
happens though. I am really excited about her!

Another thing I am really exicted about--during our Eikaiwa (English
class) prep at the Seiyu, big Walmart-y store that is also a small
mall, I almost ran into a lady when we were walking. It's pretty
normal to almost run into people here, since they are usually shorter
than me and walk really quickly, but this time it was different. She
just stood there and looked at me with this really surprised look on
her face. But we kept on walking, wondering why I got such a strong
reaction, when a few seconds later the same lady stops us and (in
perfect English) launches into a story about how she had listened to
the lessons 50 years ago, and is still in contach with her Elders. One
of them had emailed her recently and she just happened to have looked
at the email earlier that day. So then she ran (almost literally) into
us today, and felt like she needed to talk to us. We were a bit
surprised. We invited her to Eikaiwa, but she told us it was too far,
and that in fact, the Elders had called her earlier that week and
invited her. She talked to us for a minute and quickly made her exit,
leaving us a bit confused but glad all at the same time.

So, we were very excited when she ended up coming to Eikaiwa that
night. :) We weren't able to make her commit to anything, but we
talked to her about the Holy Ghost a bit afterwards, and how many
times things are not just coincidences. If she doesn't come to Eikaiwa
this week, we are going to drop by her house. I feel like her 50 year
wait for baptism has finally ended. :)

And one last good thing! When we were knocking on doors the other day,
we randomly found another potential investigator! She was the one who
came to church my first week in Teine because Evans Shimai invited
her. It was completely unplanned, but really awesome. We almost didn't
stick to our plan to go housing in the area, since we had gotten lost
and we were running out of time to do all the things we wanted to. We
stayed strong though and kept looking for the area, and boom, we found
her! Out of all of the places we could have gone, we randomly found
someone we'd talked to before. It was actually a bit awkward, ha ha,
we had no idea what to say to her, but I don't think we went there on
accident.

It was a week full of surpises. Also, I ate my first okonomiyaki. Oh
my goodness. It is sooooo good! I will be making it for you when I get
home! I will maybe put a picture in here. The food here is just too
good sometimes.

Well, I love you all, that is a wrap. Have a good week, read your
scriptures everyday. Bye-bye!

Week 26- March 16, 2014. Knocking and Member Meals in Teine :)

Hello Family and Friends, 

How is everyone! I am doing good here in Teine. We have spent a lot of time finding this week, I guess it's pretty normal here. We don't have any solid investigators, but we are doing our best to find someone to teach. I still miss Shinkotoni and Amada Shimai though! 

This week we spend all the time finding! It was sort of long, but what can we do? Just more finding until we find the right people. 

The ward members are so sweet though! We had so many member meals this week, honestly, we ate more out than we did at the apartment. We went to the Bishop's house for dinner, they made us homemade gyoza, so good. Bishop Onno told us that he wants us to have fun while we dendo. He feels like it's really important. And honestly, it's been a goal for me this transfer. I need to relax and just enjoy my time here. It goes so fast! I am already starting my 8th month! 

I wish I had more to say this week, but all we really did was knock on doors and eat meals with members! I hope you are all doing well. I love you all and I pray for you! Have a good week!

Love, Megan