Mountains to Climb

Hello family! Long time no see! 6 months now. Time has flown by for me! I'll see you in a year! But we have Skype time here soon, so I'm excited! I'm still not sure of the exact details, but I know it's only supposed to be a 40 minute Skype call, so that's kind of sad. I'll let you know more details when I find out more!

Things in Machida have been pretty good. Monday we went to an aquarium in Shonan, Tokyo, which was fun! It was a huge aquarium, and it was right next to the ocean. I got to touch a dolphin, so I was happy. I also got to touch a shark and an octopus! It was the weirdest feeling having it suck my finger.

On Wednesday instead of going to regular English class, M Shimai and I started an English Bible class where we read the Bible together with some of the English class students. It was a way cool experience! We read the last chapter in Matthew together since it was Easter recently. Because the Japanese people don't know a lot about Christianity, they didn't know about any of it, so it was really great to learn about Christ with them. I also learned something! You know the word "banzai"? It's a Japanese word that means "all hail" kind of. I had no idea! I thought it was just something you said when you jumped into a pool!

On Thursday we went to visit a member of our ward who is in the hospital. It was a great experience. Turns out she first learned about the church when her son was in the hospital and she was given a Book of Mormon. Now she wants to pay it forward and give Book of Mormons to everyone in the hospital while she is there! We were actually able to give out one and we met a Korean woman who wanted one too. The lady in the hospital was a great example to me because even though she is in the circumstances she is in, she is still so full of light and you can feel Christ-like love radiating from her. I learned a lot from her! Hopefully we get to go back and visit her again soon.

Saturday was a cool experience! We got all the missionaries in the zone together and we went to Tama for four hours to tell people about family history! We streeted, housed and passed out Family History papers. We had some pretty cool stories come from it! One elder talked to a guy who wants to talk to his parents more, and because he received a family history paper he can now! We also met a PI who has met with missionaries before while doing this. I had a cool story too! I saw two foreigner girls looking at a map, so I went up and talked to them. They were from Sicily, and they said I was the first foreigner to talk to them, so they asked to take a picture with me! It was way fun!

As for the title of this email, I read President Eyring's "Mountains to Climb" talk from April 2012 Conference, and M Shimai and I made it a goal to ask for our own mountain to climb as a companionship so that through a trial, we may be able to become the best missionaries possible. Nothing has really happened yet, but we are still working and being obedient as possible! One funny thing though, when we asked for a mountain to climb, we literally got one because we went hiking yesterday. We went to Mt. Takao and it was beautiful! We saw Mt. Fuji from the top. It was a way fun hike. The people that took us to the houses went on the hike with us too. I'm kind of sore from the hike, but it was fun.

That's about all for this week! I love you all so much! I'll talk to you soon! 愛しています

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

How to Talk Yourself Out of an Apartment Contract ‏

Hello, family! How are you? Everything in Japan is great, it's just been pretty cold here the last couple of days. Weird!

Funny story for the week! So E Shimai (a new sister in Machida from Alaska) went to visit a PI, but we had never been to her house before. So I asked a lady how to get there, and because she is so nice, she walks us all the way there! But turns out there are three of the same apartments, and she had walked us to the first, but we wanted to go to the third. So a nice lady working there sat us down and showed us a map about how to get to the 3 apartment. Now, our Japanese isn't that good, so we only understood about half of what this lady said to us. She did, however, offer to drive us to the apartment. Be politely said no, because we had our bikes. Then she offered to meet us there! At this point, we are thinking, "Wow, she is really nice!" When we get there, we say, "Our friend lives on this floor, thank you so much!" And she says, "That's great, the new apartment is on the top floor." So, the whole time she thought we were looking to buy a new apartment, when in reality we just wanted to visit our friend. It was really awkward when we finally explained that to her. It was way funny though! We laughed about it the whole day!

Some other cool things happened this week. Japanese people are the nicest people in the world because they want to do so much for you. For example, these people that we met at Rajio Taiso took us to a really old, Japanese house museum, and it was incredible! We were able to talk to them a little bit about the gospel. We had a way fun day with them.

For Easter yesterday, we had a great day! It's not a big holiday in Japan, but we had a lot of fun at the church. I actually had to talk in church, but then they had an Easter program after church where we watched an Easter video and had food. It was great! We had a couple of PIs come! We had a lot of fun! Also, that same night we went over to a member's house and had food with them. Then afterwards we all sat around a listened to music because that family has like a music studio. It was a blast!

One other crazy thing that happened this week! M Shimai And I were sitting in the church working on some FB things, then all of the sudden the stake president comes in and asks us to introduce ourselves. When we walked around the corner to see who it was, we were super shocked! It was Sister Linda Burton! Like the General Relief Society President!!! She talked to us for a little bit and gave us a hug! It was incredible! We also met her husband! (Fun fact: he went to Bingham High School). That was a once in a lifetime opportunity! She was so incredible, I want to be just like her!

That's about all for this week! We are going to an aquarium today, so I can't wait! I love you all so much! Talk to you next week!

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

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Always Have an Attitude of Gratitude!

愛する家族。こんにちわ!

I know I said last week my email day was Tuesday, but just kidding! We decided to email today since Temple days are so busy. I'm so excited to go to the temple though!

It's been a pretty good week! I loved watching Conference as a missionary! It was amazing! I've never been more excited to watch it in my life! Sunday morning was great, and so was Elder Holland's talk, but I think my favorite one was President Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude. That even in times of trial, we need to be grateful and be faithful that we will get through said trial. I also loved President Eyring's talk about hope and making covenants with God. Conference was awesome!

We had a lesson with a lady who's son is on a mission right now, and he has been talking to her about the Book of Mormon over Facebook. She knows a lot about the Gospel, and she says she can't get baptized, but hopefully we will help build her faith and her desire to get baptized will grow. She's the cutest, and her son wrote us on Facebook and he said, "she loves you two." It's so cute! I hope she gets baptized in the future! We did a lot of passing out of English class flyers this week, so we talked to a lot of people. We talk to a lot of people because they're so interested why we are two white girls speaking Japanese.

Also, the single adults in our ward had an okinomiyaki party this week, so we invited a lot of our friends to it and we had a church tour. It was way fun! We met one girl on the street an hour before the party and invited her, and she came! It was so fun!

Today, we went with some of our PIs to the Ghibli museum, which is just a museum about anime. I'm not into anime, but it was a way cool museum! We will have to go when you come to Japan! It was so fun!

Not much else happened this week, but the Japanese missionary that lived with us got transferred. We are so sad! But the new sister that lives with us in Machida is way cute, so we are happy.

I love you so much! I'll talk to you on Skype in like a month!! Have a good week! I love you!

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

Hail, Cherry Blossoms and a Birthday‏

It was a really good week this week! M Shimai and I have been working really hard. I've come home exhausted every day, but it's the good kind of exhausted! Also, the two other sisters have been sick all week, so we have been trying to not get sick. Our throats started feeling a little scratchy a couple of days ago though, so we had the elders come give us a blessing. We've felt pretty good since then! The priesthood and priesthood blessings are awesome! Dad, I'm glad that you hold the priesthood and were always willing to give blessings. I know that's a huge strength to have in our home.

Weather wise, it was actually pretty cold this week, and we had hail, thunder and lightning yesterday, but there are cherry blossoms everywhere! The cherry blossom pedals are falling off the tree, so it looks like it's raining cherry blossoms. It's absolutely beautiful right now. We have a river by our apartment that's lined with cherry blossoms.

It was M Shimai's birthday this week too! She turned 22, so we had a big Taylor Swift party for her. We cooked her a big breakfast with pancakes and bacon and balloons, then we went and visited some people, talked to a lot of people because we passed English class flyers, watched the General Women's Broadcast (which was amazing, by the way), "heart attacked" our friend's house (where you put paper hearts on their doors with notes on them) because it was her birthday too, visited a nearby shrine, and came home where we had dinner and a cheesecake. It's not a birthday without a cake! She kept saying how it was the best birthday ever. Such a fun day!

A couple of other exciting things happened this week. We went with one of our PIs to a really beautiful park, and she told us all about different flowers. Grandma  would love Japan! Every Japanese person knows a lot about flowers! She actually was a little missionary herself because she told two people how we were missionaries and how they should come to church. We were like, "S San, that was great, but you should come to church!" It was really funny, and we had a lot of fun with her. We also met a girl this week that has been to our church in Okinawa, and we met her the first day she came to Machida! We've been able to meet with her twice, and she is way cool! We hope to meet with her more often! I've met so many great people here in Japan. I love getting to talk to people every day and meet so many different types of people. It's so fun! I've had so many fun experiences. We also had another Facebook training this week. It sounds like our whole mission should be using it by May! Exciting stuff!

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! I can't wait for conference next week! From what you've said so far, sounds like it's going to be great! As always! Talk to you next week! Thank you for all the support! I love you! 愛していますよ。

Love,

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹