#66 "Dreams Do Come True In Yokkaichi City"

Sister Takahashi (left) and Sister Johnson (right) in Yokkaichi (Jan. 2015)

Well this week was another busy one!

Monday was filled with meeting a couple of people who wanted to say good-bye to Sister Kittaka, and I joined them as we packed her all up, and headed to transfers the next morning.

Tuesday was just strange, it's always strange when you receive a new companion, it always takes a while to get used to their style of work, their style of living, and for me this transfer it's now an adjustment to always be speaking Japanese. Hahaha hopefully my Japanese improves... Anyways, Sister Takahashi is from Hokkaido, Japan. She's 25 (all of my companions have been older than me!) and she was working right up until she left on her mission. She's currently on her transfer 8 (I'm on 11, if you were curious) so she's been a missionary for a while now, which makes mission life absolute bliss (it's nice to not be training for a while). From what I've seen this week, she's a fantastic missionary!

Wednesday we did our weekly planning session, and I introduced her to all the people I knew, which wasn't a lot. I've only spent 6 weeks here in Yokkaichi, and those were with another person who had also only spent 6 weeks trying to take all this information in! It's a LOT to take in for those short 6 weeks!! But I warned Sister Takahashi that I don't know anything and that we have no one to teach here anymore, so it's going to feel a lot like we are "white washing" (when you come brand new to an area with your companion, starting from scratch. I've heard it's really really hard). But so far, we're just fun!

Thursday we did our PMG study with Yuki, who's filling out her mission papers right now. It's so exciting to watch people prepare for missionaries! Especially from this side of the work. This week we talked about the Spirit and how it really is the key to missionary work, without it, not much gets done. I've realized that the Spirit works with me a lot more than I thought he was, all I had to do was listen. After that lesson, we headed about an hour out to visit a recent convert, Nishino. She's a really cool grandmother! But for reals, this grandma has the coolest style - she bought us awesome socks for Christmas. Also her hair is fun-dip-bright-deep blue-green. She is SO COOL. But we heard about her family life, and this woman is so strong. She's been through some very hard trials in her life. I didn't really know what to say, mainly because I wasn't understanding the big hospital terms, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that people just want to be heard; that's why we have two ears and only one mouth. So I listened to her, and hopefully, she knows that's just me loving her.

Friday was a leadership meeting that happens at the beginning of every transfer, and pretty much takes the WHOLE day. I was soooo tired, but that doesn't make sense, because I did nothing but sit, and listen, and teach, and listen some more! Oh well, it was spiritually uplifting.

Saturday was just the DAY OF MIRACLES! That was it's name, the DAY OF MIRACLES! so that's how I refer to Saturday, as the DAY OF MIRACLES! Seriously, dreams do come true in Yokkaichi city. So what made this DAY OF MIRACLES a DAY OF MIRACLES? I'll tell you. WELL, that morning we visited two less-actives, who both told us they were too busy to chat, but that they would like us to come back another day, so we rescheduled a specific date and time to come back (woot!). THEN, we received a message from an investigator that we hadn't heard from in a long time (woot!). THEN, we met with another investigator for the first time and talked about who God is and how to pray, and then we asked her to pray every day to feel God's love and she said she would (woot!). THEN, we went and talked to a lot of people at the train station, but one girl said she actually is interested in our message and is willing to meet with us, so we set up an appointment to meet her at the church next Saturday (woot!). Then we made it home, only to receive a phone call from an investigator who had just been messing with our hearts, telling us he has no interest, and then calling us and telling us that he misses us - we love him, but he's hot and then he's cold, he's yes then he's no, he's in and he's out, he's up and he's down, and you get the picture - BUT he called us and asked us to meet him at the church in thirty minutes to chat. At the church, he told us he apologized for having not come to anything lately, but he said he would be coming to our English class that week and then he gave us yakiniku (delicious meat.) as an apology (woot!). THEN we had some time to clean out our records in our apartment (woot!). Overall, just really and truly a DAY OF MIRACLES.

(And Sunday was just exhausting, I ended up getting a migraine and having to lay down for a good chunk of the day... But)

I had a really great week! I hope you did too!!

#65 "Beauty and the Beast"

Well it's been a while since I've written so let me give you an update!

New Years was super fun over here in Yokkaichi! The members know that it's a hard time of year to work, so they set up appointments for us for the entire week!! I think I gained a couple pounds, but I also gained so much love for this ward.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else to really tell you about, we didn't have much happen these past couple weeks. To be completely honest, the work has been hard. People have been dropping us right and left, and I can't tell if it's because of the holidays or if they are simply done with the missionaries.

Within all of the confusion and holiday haze, I did figure out that it's a new year! Happy 2015! It's strange to think that the year 2104, my solid year of work, is over, and that in a couple months I'll be home. Strange, right?

Well with the start of a new year, we also had transfer calls, and... Sister Kittaka is OUT. She's heading to Hamamatsu to be companions with Sister Hamamura (hamahamahamawhat?). I'm lucky to be safe in Yokkaichi. I've got a Sister Takahashi headed my way, and I'll tell you more about her once I get to know her better. For right now, I just know that she's Japanese, she's a little bit older than me (25ish) and she's been up in Nagano. I also know her English is super good, and she has the cutest style. Needless to say, I think we'll get along just fine!

All I do know is, it's the new year, and I have no one to teach this gospel to, so something's gotta give. It's "bittersweet and strange, finding you can change" as the story of Beauty and the Beast teaches, but hey, isn't that what new year's is all about? I've got some self-assessments to do, improve my skills as a missionary and hit the streets.

Look out, Yokkaichi, she was the new girl in town!