Transfer calls! And the results are...

I'm staying in Senzokuike! And so is Yamauchi Shimai! This will be our third transfer together, which is the longest I've ever been with one companion. I'm way relieved - transfers aren't my favorite thing - and we currently have six investigators with baptismal dates in this next transfer so we have a lot of work to do. The thought of not being here for that/having to do it without her was a little scary. This area didn't have much going on when we got here, and we've been so blessed to watch the miracles happen one after another.

Well, I'm not sure what to even write about anymore. We've been really busy teaching and visiting lots of members, which our ward mission leader asked us to do. There's been a lot more talk lately about member-missionary work, and I really hope things are finally going to change. Our bishop changed a few weeks ago, and the new one is young and wants to put a lot of focus on missionary work. Our ward is great with helping us when we ask, but we still don't get too many people coming to us with referrals, which is the best way to find investigators who are really ready to hear this message. Of course, I can't really say anything because all the people I've ever referred to the missionaries total to zero, but I swear I'm going to be better at reaching out when I go home. Watch out, friends.

Funny thing this week: we were talking with some of our Chinese friends at Japanese class, and somehow we started talking about Chinese food, and fortune cookies came up. They didn't know what we were talking about so they Googled it, and it was their first time either seeing or hearing about one. I mean, I knew Panda Express wasn't exactly authentic, but still!

Big awesome miracle this week: We didn't have any investigators come to church this week (Ru went to a different ward while on vacation with his family), which was kind of disappointing, but then right before the third hour FOUR people showed up. One of them was Shi, our investigator who might get baptized this month, and then a grandma with her daughter and grandson, who had come to Eikaiwa a couple times. The Izu family. They loved church, and without us even mentioning it they started asking about what would happen if they got baptized and joined. They also said they'd be coming again next week. Sometimes it takes an arm and a leg to get someone we've known forever to come to church, so to see people come on their own free will and enjoy it so much was awesome.

We're still really trying to get more people to come to church. Other areas in our mission have been seeing huge miracles - one ward had 50 investigators come last Sunday! I think there might have been some special event. But 50!! Incredible.

Something interesting is that this week we've taught a lot of people who are/were Protestant, which is unusual. It's fun to get to actually use the Bible when teaching, which is something we almost never do here. It's kind of confusing for people to learn to study the Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament, D&C, etc., so we usually just focus on Book of Mormon.

Love you all! I'm excited that this week doesn't involve a lot of goodbyes. Two missionaries from my district are leaving, which is sad, but a lot are coming in from my old MTC district so it'll be a happy reunion.

Until next week,
Anna

Here's a picture of some skirts an investigator gave us. When all your clothes start to rip and fall apart, The Lord provides.

元気ですか？(How Are You?)

Hello again,

This week was awesome. I think I forgot to mention this in previous letters, but Elder Cook came to Tokyo for various meetings this weekend, and I got the chance to hear him speak twice!! We had a two-mission conference with all the missionaries in Tokyo and Tokyo South missions on Saturday, where he and also Elder Maynes spoke. Then, because I'm in the Tokyo Stake, I also got to go to a special stake conference where Elder Cook and his wife spoke. Everything was translated line-by-line. Definitely an amazing experience. He talked to the church members about how to strengthen their own testimonies, and to the missionaries about a lot of things, but I especially remember his emphasis on teaching the plan of salvation. It's my favorite lesson to teach - getting to answer the questions of the soul.

I think one of my favorite moments was right after stake conference, when Elder and Sister Cook were shaking peoples' hands as they left, and the 11-year-old girl next to me saw her dad shake Elder Cook's hand. She immediately started tapping her mom, excitedly saying "look, look, did you see that? Did you see Dad?" So when Elder Cook came near where we were I nudged her forward and she got to shake his hand too - the look on her face was priceless. Pure awe.

It was funny - a lot of church members assume that we've all met the prophet before, and live right next to a temple, and belong to really big wards. Sometimes I have to explain that not all of America is like Salt Lake.

We saw lots of miracles that weekend after the conference, and I'm convinced it's partly because of the blessing Elder Cook left on all of us. Shi agreed to be baptized next month if she comes to know the church is true, and so did Misa, a new investigator who's 14 and super cute. One of our main purposes as missionaries is to help people change their lives through baptism and I have to admit, sometimes it's hard feeling like I'm not doing my job right if no one is progressing towards baptism. Like I'm failing them. We always need to work to recognize what things are in are control and what things aren't. We control how many people we talk to each day, and what we say to them, but we can't control whether or not they accept our message.

I went on splits with Ikeguchi Shimai this week, who's going home in a week, so it was good to get one last chance to work with her. She's so sweet, and I'll miss her a lot. We had a fun day with a lot of weird things too, including visiting a less-active who showed us this magic hydrogen-water machine thing she swears by. Apparently drinking the hydrogen-infused water gets rid of all the free radicals in your body and reduces cancer risk and makes everything better... No idea if it's true or not but it'd probably sell well in America along with ten-dollar bottles of acai juice and all of Doctor Oz's recommended products.

Anyway, we also met a couple at Denny's who we'd found in the area book and turned out to be super enthusiastic members of some Buddhist group and loved to argue about everything. According to them, a supreme creator (God) can't exist because something had to have created Him first. I asked them what they thought the very first thing was, from which everything else was made, and they said there was no start - it just is. Um, okay. Probably not calling them back.

The humid season is starting, and sometimes I feel like I'm walking through a rainforest. Even when the sun isn't out, it's just so muggy and hot out. There have also been some crazy downpours and thunderstorms, which means nobody is outside to talk to. I know I shouldn't be complaining because soon it'll be a lot worse, but still not super fun. My hair looks crazy all the time and soon it'll be too hot to wear makeup, so yikes. At least Tokyo seems to have better air conditioning than Oyama did.

We were busy teaching last week and hopefully will stay busy next week as well. I definitely prefer teaching to finding, although it's been fun meeting new people at the Senzokuike park this week. There's one man who walks his monkey around on a leash sometimes - haven't gotten a picture of that yet but I did get one with a semi-famous pig last week. His name is Tonjiro and he has his own twitter. Not the best picture but Tonjiro was too busy sniffing out food to look at the camera, so oh well.

There was also a cool piano/flute concert with traditional Japanese music that apparently happens every year at Senzokuike park, with a bridge crossing the lake as a stage. We met an investigator after the concert and got to see the last ten minutes of it as we looked for her - there were singers wearing kimonos in canoes, and everything was lit up. Way cool.

Next week are transfer calls, and like usual I have no idea what's happening. Our district usually takes bets beforehand but I honestly don't even know what to guess. Stay tuned!

Love, Anna

Tonjiro the Tweeting Pig

Senzokuike Park

Hello

Ohayo gozaimasu...

With temple P-day and going on splits twice, this week seemed to go by in seconds. I think I already wrote about last Monday and Tuesday so I'll start with Wednesday: We went on splits with the sisters in the Tokyo 1st (English) ward. They share an apartment with the sisters in Shibuya, just like us and the Tokyo 2nd sisters. We all have the really nice advantage of getting roommates who aren't working in the same ward, so there can't be any sense of competition. I don't really remember feeling any competition between the sisters in Niigata either, but there were a few times when we'd be struggling to find new investigators while the other sisters found tons and one can't help thinking "we're in the exact same area, so I must be doing something wrong." Anyway, I had fun teaching in English even though it was kind of strange.

Thursday we switched back, visited a less-active member and did weekly planning before heading out for dinner at a member's house. And she is awesome! She told us that when she was younger she would share the gospel with her friends all the time, and that 22 people she referred to the missionaries got baptized. 22! Apparently it would usually start by people asking her why she was so happy and full of light all the time, and she would tell them how church brought her joy. And I believe it - the woman radiates light. She recently got remarried and told us her husband wasn't a member of the church... yet. She had perfect faith he would be someday soon.

On Friday we had zone meeting, which was all about unity. Recently a lot of districts in our mission have been getting together and making goals, praying for each others' investigators, and doing other things to help them all work together - and have been seeing crazy miracles. Some areas consistently have over ten investigators at church every week. We've been working really hard to help people come to church more, since that's one of the most important steps they can take towards conversion. It's kind of hard to know if the church is true without ever going, right? So that's been a recent goal.

We also got to see Mo again, who's been reading some of the Book of Mormon, and taught Ru in the evening. His whole family participated a lot in the lesson and it was awesome. Before we left they had us try some "beauty juice" that is really expensive and apparently works wonders for your skin. The secret ingredient is pig's placenta. It didn't taste too bad I guess, but smelled awful.

Saturday we taught kids' Eikaiwa, met some new friends in the park, taught and ate dinner with a new family who moved into the ward.

Sunday we went to church, where Yamauchi Shimai had a talk, and got to go to Young Women's. During small group discussions I messed up reading one of the kanji in the textbook so I talked about experience for a while when the topic was supposed to be modesty - a little embarrassing but they were very forgiving. After church the single adults had a potluck lunch which they asked us to bring American food to, so we made rice crispy treats and mashed potatoes. Easiest things possible. May came to the English church again, and it was a nice day so we talked to people in the park.

Observation of the week: we've been talking a lot about choosing to be happy now. So many people are in the middle of trials and are waiting to be free from them before they'll let themselves be content. It's so sad - nothing is holding them back from happiness but themselves! Life isn't perfect, and if we keep waiting for everything to be perfectly resolved we'll be waiting forever. Yamauchi Shimai and I talked about Elder Wirthlin's talk this morning, "Come What May, and Love It." Sometimes it's easy to be happy and sometimes it takes a little effort, but it is always possible. We were created to have joy.

I'm very happy here and hope you all are too! Have a great week.
Love, Anna

Hello!

Hello family,

Another week has come! I had a lot of fun Skyping you for Mothers Day (which I actually don't think I ever mentioned since it was early... Happy Mother's Day, mom!) and have been very busy this week. My thoughts are kind of scattered today so I'll try to organize them into bullet points.

Funny things:
Getting corrected on my chopstick method when a member and her husband took us out to ramen. Unfortunately you're supposed to hold a chopstick like you do a pencil, and I haven't held a pencil correctly since I started writing. I can get the job done but apparently it's not very beautiful.

After I finished the opening prayer at kids' Eikaiwa, one of the 4-year-olds kept his hands clasped together, muttering things for about thirty seconds before opening his eyes. I think his first time ever saying a prayer. His mom asked him what he was saying and he told her he was asking Santa Claus for presents. Eh, he's almost there I guess. This was the same kid who lifted up Yamauchi Shimai's skirt last week.

Cultural experiences:
I ate raw horse meat. It was kind of sickening, but an investigator and her boyfriend took us out to a really nice place and we somehow ended up making a deal that if we ate the meat, they'd come to church. We do what it takes.

Participating in Radio Taiso, a dance aerobics/stretching fusion that happens every morning at the park near our apartment. Over 100 old people go to it every morning, wearing their spiffiest jogging suits.

Feeling an earthquake while we were in the temple today. They took a rest during the winter, but now that it's getting hot again I guess they'll return.

People I met:
Abu, a girl about my age who was crying on a park bench so we went over and sat down next to her. She'd just gotten her heart broken and told us all about it. Even though she's Buddhist she appreciated us sharing about God loving her and being able to helps her through anything. There is truly no hardship that the gospel won't help us through.

Mo, a funny older lady who waits in line next to a local bakery every day around four, when they sell the day's bread ends for really cheap. She took us to a Chinese restaurant and we taught her about the Restoration. She didn't seem to interested at first, saying she just liked us, but then she said she wanted to come to church and accepted a challenge to read out of the Book of Mormon. You never know.

A lady in my ward who'd been unable to come to church for years because of work, but has just quit her Sunday job a week or so before we called her out of the blue. Then she came to church that week and had a good time - not a coincidence!

May, who moved here a couple months ago from Syria. She's an architect and an amazing artist. She was so happy to meet other people who speak English!

Sad things:
Ru's family decided to wait until his uncle comes home in a couple months from his mission so that he can baptize him. So it will happen eventually just not this Sunday. I know he's ready and of course I'm disappointed and hope it turns out okay, but this is their decision, not mine.

Miracles:
The day after we met May we went with her to a baptismal service the ward was having for an 8-year-old. We also showed her the church and she loved it! Especially the art. We went with her to church the next day, to the English ward (she got to meet the English sisters, and soon we'll pass her off to them to be taught) and she loved that as well. My first time going to church in English in a long time and it was strange. The members were so kind and welcoming though. Two of them invited us over for dinner with her - for that night and the next week - and we're not even in their ward! We taught May about the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith before dinner, and we set a goal date for her to be baptized if she finds out that it's true!

Pictures: the cute kid who got baptized; a gift from one of the other sisters' investigators. In natural ink!

Well, times up and my hand hurts. Typing on an iPad isn't the most fun. Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Anna

Cute boy who was baptized.

Canned squid?  In natural ink?

No Subject (May 4, 2014)

Hello, everyone. Just thought I'd say upfront that I don't have any pictures this week, and I left my journal at home so my memory isn't 100%. But you'll see me on Skype soon enough so it's all good!

We had a really busy week. Our main focus is still Ru, who's an awesome kid and still wants to get baptized but keeps not coming to church for various reasons. This time he had a cold. The Japanese people are very cautious when it comes to colds. First, they'll wear a white surgical mask everywhere they go (or maybe a black one, if if they're a rebel. I've seen it), and then refuse to travel anywhere. Although my view is probably skewed because people tend to make up excuses to avoid missionaries sometimes. Maybe if it was for someone else they'd tough it out.

Anyway, Ru is way funny and reminds me of little brothers. This week when we went over for dinner he claimed to have an allergy and ran around holding his nose, pretending to barf, until he found out the food actually didn't have peppers in it and made a miraculous recovery. We really hope he can just come to church these next two weeks, in order to get baptized on the 18th. If I need to bribe him with candy, I'll do it. Haha. He always has a good time at church, it's just getting him there that's hard. Seems like that's how most people are.

Other highlights of the week:
- Mission Leadership Council, where we discussed how the work has changed since using the iPad and Facebook. So weird! I had no idea about any of this high-tech stuff when I put my papers in.
- a huge ward barbeque at a seaside park, which was really fun and provided lots of good teaching moments for us. It was an hour and a half bike ride there so I earned all the yakisoba I ate.
- having an investigator show up to our lesson in a kimono, when we've only ever seen him in Western clothes. He said it was his "casual wear"

Actually, Kay's (kimono man) lesson was a really cool experience. We started by reading part of the Book of Mormon with him, and after asking a question he sat there for ten minutes in silence, reading and pondering. Missionaries always say "the Spirit was so strong in that lesson!" and of course I've felt it before while teaching, but never like that night. It was like an extra presence in the room that we were all aware of. Kay is usually pretty talkative but he could feel the power of the Book of Mormon and was unable to speak for a long time.

Time's up, but I'm looking forward to talking to you soon. Hope everybody has a great week!
Love, Anna

This photo is recently published in the mission blog (but taken several months ago) and the caption is "These sisters in Niigata are excited about the new technology and its capabilities!"  They are Sister Crane, Sister Amituanai, Anna and Sister Wigginton.

No Subject This Week

Hello all! I had a busy week so I guess I'll just give a rundown of it now:

Tuesday - had a zone leadership meeting with the ZLs/DLs that we joined over Skype. It only stalled once! Probably a record for me. Amazing how quickly technology can improve. We also visited a really sweet older lady I'll call Daly who used to take the lessons about six years ago. She invited us in and was really funny and chatty - I think she was really happy to have some company too. She said ever since her husband died a few years ago she's been bored, and she showed us her notebook where she keeps a tally of all the games of Free Cell she plays on the computer. It's a lot.

Wednesday - we met Yas, a local Protestant minister, at a nearby park. The other sisters had met her earlier and referred her to us since she's Japanese. She was really nice and interesting to talk to. In some ways easier to teach, since she already believes in Jesus Christ and knows church vocabulary and all that, but in some ways harder because she asks questions we're not used to and always wants to know what Bible verse backs up what we say. I have to admit it's been a while since I cracked open the Old Testament. I know that's a challenge English-spreading missionaries deal with a lot: not wanting to look ignorant when people grill you on your Bible knowledge. "You don't know that verse? Are you even Christian?"

That afternoon, we had a complete opposite experience when we went to the house of one of our Buddhist investigators, surprised to find a ton of people there, all ready to watch some Soka Gakkai movie with us. Obviously some miss-communication there. We told her multiple times beforehand we can't watch movies, and that we were coming to teach her about our church, but I guess she forgot. Kind of embarrassing because we brought a member with us too. It ended up being okay, and we taught her a lesson, but she still can't believe in God because nothing can possibly be higher than oshakasama (Buddha).

Thursday - We taught one of our less-active members in the morning and she's making great progress! She's come to church twice in a row now - all we had to do was ask. In the evening we went and taught Ru, who had recovered and was back to his funny, mischievous ten-year-old self. I love that kid. We also met his dad for the first time, so progress there. He was very nice.

Friday - started the day with district meeting, where I did a short training and talked about something I learned from one of the Elders in a different zone last month: broccoli dendo. Basically, the idea is that Japanese people are busy all the time, so if someone tells you they don't have much time or it's hard to meet, you tell them, "your life is like broccoli!" Obviously that sparks their interest/makes them think you're even weirder. You then explain: just like the top of broccoli is made up of a million little leaf things, we have lots of things we have to do every day. Eat breakfast, exercise, shower, go to work, wash the car, laundry, etc. But if we focus on those things, and only water the top, the broccoli will die. The most important part of broccoli is the stem - if the stem is healthy, the rest of the broccoli is healthy. If your life is broccoli, what do you think the stem is? And... Yeah that's pretty much it. It's just supposed to help people realize priorities. Most people will answer that the stem is family. We've used this a few times, but it can be kind of confusing so I changed it to a flower and made a visual aid to help explain it.

On Friday we also taught Nak, a cool lady we found in the area book. She also studied nutrition! The member there with us was awesome at fellowshipping and insisted on walking with her to church that Sunday, since they live close. And then she came! One of the reasons why members are so important - people usually don't have a problem blowing us off but they'll keep a commitment if it comes from a "regular" person.

Saturday - we went on splits, and I went to Nakano with Sister Crane, my former roomie in Niigata. So that was fun. We had a lot of interesting activities that day, including a big Eikaiwa get-together in the park (always draws an interesting crowd) and participating in a concert for the Candle Mamas, a group of 8 ladies who are church members in the Tokyo Stake. They sing a variety of types of songs, including opera and Latin and Japanese folk songs, complete with fun little dances and activities. They're actually really good. It was kind of intimidating to follow, when it came time for us to sing a few hymns at the end. I swear once you become a missionary everyone assumes you're musically gifted. Unfortunately not the case. The best part of the split was teaching Mari, a new investigator that Crane Shimai randomly met on the street a week ago. We taught the Plan of Salvation and she was super interested, saying she couldn't believe she hadn't heard it before.

Sunday - good day at church. Spent the afternoon and evening visiting and teaching various people, and it all went well. Daly got really sick so we left some jam with cards by her door, and we also heart attacked Nak's house today for her birthday. Classic sister missionary stuff I guess.

Again, no new pictures. Here's a selfie from a few weeks ago. Also my homemade visual aid.

Love you all!
Anna

Anna and Yamauchi Shimai

Visual Aid

やほー

Another week rolls on by... We're now on week two of the new transfer already. No major changes I guess except for the new elder in our ward and the new sister in the English ward (our roommate). Her name is Sister Gates. I'm glad transfers are all over with. It's always the duty of zone leaders and sister training leaders to figure out where everyone will go to meet up and switch companions, trying to keep traveling distances to a minimum and making sure no one is ever alone. It's a nightmare. We made a conference call with all the other sister training leaders and tried to figure everything out and make our plans mesh. I didn't really have to worry about this in Niigata because the plans are really simple: everyone leaving gets on the bus.

We stayed pretty busy this week teaching lessons and contacting people in our area book. Met another eternal investigator - she'd been taking lessons and coming to church off-and-on for years. She knew all the hymns, had met everyone in the ward, and even had a picture of the Salt Lake temple in her house! Still claims to be Buddhist. Boggles my mind. We meet so many people who have never been to a Buddhist worship service and don't even know what they believe, but can't stop self-identifying as one.

Funniest thing that happened this week: discovering the Senzokuike Park cat society. There are ten feral cats that live in the park, and a group of who knows how many older ladies have a rotating schedule that dictates whose turn it is to feed them every day. Someone comes every day at breakfast, lunch, and dinner to give each cat its meal of dry food. The cats all have names and "territories" where they usually are, which makes it easier to find them I guess. I really shouldn't say "feral" cats because they have grown extremely comfortable with humans and expect their meals now at the same times every day. Pretty chubby kitties too. We've met two members of this club now, each of whom has multiple cats of their own at home. And now, I at last know what I want to do with my life. These ladies are hilarious.

We taught three of our Chinese investigators this week, which was fun. I continue to adore every Chinese person I meet here. They've all been so kind and willing to listen to our message. Sometimes language barriers are an issue, but I know that the most important thing is for them to be able to read the Book of Mormon in their own language and know that it's true. Everything else will follow.

We sort of had a glimpse of the importance of the Spirit to help investigators learn at Zone training this week. The Zone Leaders planned a cool simulation where they asked us if we wanted a kit-kat, and if we did to follow them into another room. When we got there we all sat down, a little confused, and listen to them tell the story of Joseph Smith and bear their testimonies on the Restoration. The room was very quiet, and I was just watching sort of in awe at these two missionaries simply but powerfully explaining what they believe, and I felt the Spirit just enough to know it was there. Afterwards they explained that this is what many of our lessons are like - the people we teach want something from us, which is why they meet us. At first they're probably a little confused that what we're teaching isn't quite what they expected, but they feel the Spirit there and want to know more. I think Yamauchi Shimai and I were actually supposed to be "in on it" but their email instructions weren't very clear so we got to experience everything and learn along with all the other missionaries. It was one of the highlights of the week.

I felt like what I learned at training was especially important for River, who we taught again this week. She is very sweet but scared she doesn't understand enough. We invited her to be baptized this month but she feels like she has to "study" a lot more, and will be ready maybe in September. If a perfect understanding of the gospel was a prerequisite for baptism, then we'd all be doomed. The beauty of the gospel is that it can never be 100% understood while we're alive on this Earth, which gives us a lifetime to continue to learn and progress. We're never "done" and we never flat line.

Easter was yesterday, which was nice but not much different than any other Sunday. Even some of the members didn't know it was Easter. Probably the most exciting thing that happened was when a fire extinguisher exploded, leaving the upstairs looking like a winter wonderland. At least the talks in church were on Easter topics, one of which was given by me - scary! Ten straight minutes of speaking in Japanese at the podium in front of all those people. Actually it wasn't too bad, although I didn't like that I had to read most of it. Whenever I gave a talk at home I'd just write out bullet points and then kind of make it up as I went on Sunday. But I didn't feel quite comfortable enough to do that in Japanese.

I had a little bit of help with my talk when I went to Japanese class on Saturday and did a practice run with one of the senseis there. After I finished we talked about resurrection and how we'll be able to see loved ones again after we die. At one point she started crying a little, told us her son had died 20 years ago and it would be nice if she could believe something like that. She says she's not looking for religion right now, but I think our message came at a needed time and hopefully her heart was softened. She even came to church to watch me speak! It was really sweet. She said she had a good time. One of our Eikaiwa students (the one who gave us Tom and Jerry toilet paper) also came, dressed up in a sports coat he said he hadn't worn in a long time.

Not much planned for today - after our busy P-day last week we're taking some time to relax. I bought a scrapbook so maybe I'll start working on that - I've become a sentimental old fool. Definitely starting to feel old. I'm on transfer 7 now! I remember thinking I'd be a first-transfer missionary forever.

Sorry no pictures... I'm just too focused on the work to have time this week.

Love, Anna

Anna bids farewell to Niigata.  This is not recent but we just received it this week from Anna's friend Sister O. who took such good care of her there.