#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!

#64 "Your Heart Will Lead You Home"

Merry Christmas 2014 from Sister Johnson

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, mine was just fantastic! 

I don't know if I talked about it last year (is it weird to think that I was a missionary last year too? it sure is for me!) but I've realized that Christmas never really came last year. I put up some decorations, wrote some Christmas letters, and listened to Christmas songs, but as I held my breath for Christmas Day, nothing happened. It felt just like a normal day to me. I figured that was just how Christmas was for a missionary, but then this year caught me completely off guard. 

I wasn't even looking for the spirit of Christmas, but on Christmas morning, I found my heart was overfilled with love. I had opened the presents that my parents had carefully wrapped and sent to me a couple of days ago, I was listening to the music my dad had collected to send me months ago, I was wearing the socks and neck-warmer that the members of Yokkaichi ward had given me, and I just felt...love. 

In the Tigger movie, there's a song that says;

"If you feel lost, and on your own, 

And far from home,

You're never alone, you know. 

Just think of your friends,

The ones who care,

They all will be waiting there,

And your heart will lead you home."

Sometimes, to be perfectly honest, I do feel that way; I do feel lost, on my own, and far from home. But in that one hour in the morning, of opening presents and just feeling the love that my family had sent with them, and I remembered something that Thomas S. Monson said;

"The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than things. To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ." 

As I sat wrapped in the warm clothing that I received and looked on my wall at all the pictures of my friends and family that I taped up, I was filled with the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of Christ. In other words, I was filled with love. 

 I have learned that the spirit of Christ is the sweetest, and most incredible of all loves. Sometimes, if I ask God, I can have a taste or glimpse of this love. 

It is a wondrous love. 

May you feel the spirit of Christ at this beautiful time of year, as well as my love that I send from Nagoya, Japan.

#63 "Human Again"

For the first week, we were busy, in and out of conferences, going on companion exchanges and then I got sick, things were just crazy! But we finally made it through. Haha sickness-wise, I no longer have any idea what goes on with my body anymore. They say that when you finish your mission, you 'die', but then your body also literally falls apart. I've watched old missionaries just exchange all the problems with their bodies like a bunch of grandmas, and instead of just listening, now I'm joining in the conversation! Oh well, my body can rest later, I want to work!!

 In the second week, we were just busy with preparations for Christmas parties, missionary conferences and all sorts of caroling. I honestly get so tired by the end of the day, I just love the last thirty minutes of my day, when I get to relax and talk to my companion, the other sisters, and lay in my futon. 

So recently I was thinking about Disney's Beauty and the Beast (they're posters are everywhere in Japan, apparently they're doing the Musical in Nagoya right now) and I remembered a song from the extended version of the movie, that is actually in the musical, but it's called "Human Again". All the characters, the clock, candlestick, tea pot, and others sing about how they think the spell they're under will be broken soon, and they day dream about how nice it will be to become human again.

The clock, Cogsworth, sings;

"When I'm human again, when I'm human again, 

when the world finally starts making sense,

I'll unwind for a change...

...Wouldn't that be strange!"(The candlestick, Lumiere, cuts in)

(Cogsworth continues...)

"I can't help it if I'm t-t-tense!"

I may not be as tightly wound as Cogsworth, but when I hit up the real world again I can't wait to be able to relax some and see if I can also be human again!

Haha sorry it's short, but I promise more details next week! I love you all! 

 

 

(The picture is of, from right to left; Sister Yamashita, the wife of my mission president, ME, the strangest missionary you ever did meet, and Sister Ringwood, the wife of President Ringwood who came for a tour of our mission! It was good to see people from my home ward again)