Eight Months!

Wow, 8 months already! Time is certainly flying. Only 10 months left!

As for my week, not too much happened. We were able to teach about 7 lessons this week, which is a record for me! The average in my last two areas was two a week. We have some investigators here who are actually almost ready for baptism, we just have to keep following up on their commitments. There are a lot of great, prepared people here in Yokosuka.

We have also done a lot of door-to-door knocking this week, which I actually haven't done a lot of in the past. I thought I would do a lot of it when I came out to the field, but I don't! We've found more effective ways of proselyting. So I've been trying to learn from the good, old fashioned door-to-door approach. It can be exciting sometimes!

Another record breaker for this week is we had 3 dinners at members' homes, and they were all from the ward so it was all American food! I'm still kind of in shock about having all this American stuff around me again. The members were really great. They all live on the military base, so I got to go on for the first time! One night we had dinner with the bishop and his family. Their son is getting baptized here soon because he's turning 8, so they wanted us to teach him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson! The mom was so nice because she kept thanking us and saying how grateful she was for us to come and teach him because she said it was a great review for the family. That was one of the moments where I felt really grateful to be a missionary. I want to do that for my kids someday; have the missionaries teach the gospel before they get baptized.

The only really other thing that happened this week was we had lunch with the senior missionary couple here in Yokosuka. They took us to sushi, and it was really fun to get to know them. I really learned a lot from both of them! Mom and Dad, if you ever want to do a senior couples mission, please do it! They said they had to sacrifice a lot, but they are super grateful for coming on a mission. I have a lot of respect for them!

That's all for this week! I love you all, and miss you so much. I'm always praying for you! This church is true; I have no doubt about that. Have a good week! Love you!

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

Where's Your Nametag?

Hello!

I made it to Yokosuka safe and sound! I was actually a little sick with a cold the day I transferred, but I'm feeling a lot better now.

My last week in Machida was really busy and really sad. I said  a lot of hard goodbyes, but I was still excited for the next adventure! If you remember B Shimai (the sister from New Zealand), she transferred at the same time as me. We spent all three transfers together in Machida. She became my really, really good friend! I hope to see her again soon!

Just a little bit of information about Yokosuka. From Machida, it takes about an hour and a half to get here by train. It's pretty far! Here are two southern most points in our mission. Yokosuka is one of them, so I'm pretty far away from everything, but that's ok! Yokosuka is beautiful! It feels like Hawaii here. I live on the 13th floor of my apartment building, and the view is beautiful! I live pretty close to the military base, and there are a ton of Americans walking around. Also, there is a lot of American food in our apartment because the grocery stores on base are American. It's like heaven around here!

My first few days here have been some of the busiest in my entire mission. There are a lot of investigators here, so we are busy with lessons. It's great! Since I am senior companion now, I felt a little bit of pressure because I can't speak Japanese fully and we have to teach all of these lessons. My companion is great, though! She talks a lot too in lessons, so I'm super grateful for her! She's very obedient, which is good. Hopefully there we will see a lot of miracles because of that!

We had stake conference this past weekend, and there were a couple of sessions. The first session was on Saturday night, and we went to Kanagawa for it. I saw M Shimai and M Shimai there! It was so fun to see them there. Now regarding the title of this email, the stake president got up and spoke really easily and powerfully. He first had missionaries stand up and talked to us, then he had all the members stand up, too. He asked them, "where are your name tags?" He then said, "it's on your heart." He talked a lot about member missionary work and he said every member is missionary. I thought it was a really great talk, and it really touched me. Everyone is a missionary! We can all help people come unto The Lord.

Then on Sunday, we went to the English ward for their stake conference, and it was all in English! Afterward, we had a potluck of American food! It was incredible! The members I the English ward are really great and welcoming! Yokosuka was only opened up to sisters 4 transfers ago, so we are still pretty new. They love sisters! I felt very welcomed!

I also got to experience something I feel not a lot of missionaries get to experience, and that is a Japanese funeral. One of the members in the Japanese branch died last week, so I was able to attend. It was really different from American funerals. A lot of Buddhist people came because they wanted to see what a funeral was like in a Christian church. It was super sad, but at the same time there was hope. I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation! The man that died had a wife and a 17-year-old son, so I know they will get to live together again someday. The gospel really does being peace, hope and love into everyone's life, and that's why I'm here in Japan. I want to share that love and hope with everyone I meet!

That's about all for this week. I'm looking forward to my first full week in Yokosuka! I love you all so much, and I miss you! I pray for you, as well as the rest of our family, everyday. Talk to you next week!

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

Transfer 5!

So, we got transfer calls today (which is always super nerve wracking), and the verdict is...I'm not staying in Machida. I'm transferring to Yokosuka branch, which is a military base in Yokohama, so that means there will be an American ward there, I'm pretty sure!  I'm super sad to leave Machida because I've really grown to love the  ward as well as the friends I've made here, but I'm excited for the  new adventure that awaits me in Yokosuka! My new companion will be  Sister J. She's from Australia!

We were able to meet with our investigator, U San (the one who  struggles with tea), this week. We taught her the Plan of Salvation,  and we asked her about tea. She said she hasn't been drinking it! It's  been two weeks now, and she hasn't had it. I was so excited! I knew my  struggling to not eat ice cream was for a reason!

Not a lot else happened this week. I went on splits in Sagamihara,  which was super fun. I learned a lot from my friend, E Shimai there!  Funny story for the week: when I was on splits, we were about to pray to begin daily planning, and all of the sudden E Shimai freaks out!  There was a super gross, pretty big bug on the ground! So we freaked  out for about 10 minutes, and she was finally brave enough to grab the vacuum and get it. Since it's turning summer, I'm pretty sure that's  the first of many bugs I will see. Gross!!!

 Can you believe it's been a year since I got my mission call? I was  thinking about that the other day! Time has seriously flown. I spent  all those days worrying and thinking about it, and now I'm here in  Japan, loving it! I'm so grateful for this experience to be a  missionary. It's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done, but I  wouldn't trade it for the world. I've learned a lot more about myself, the gospel, as well as the Savior.

Not much else happened this week. We had a big activity with the ward  where we made some Chinese food called, gyoza. It was delicious! One  of the ladies in the ward brought a friend whom I talked to for a  little bit.

That's it for now, I think! I'll let you know how my first week in  Yokosuka is next week! I love you all, and I miss you!

 Lexie
 ダンジー姉妹

The Lord Hastening His Work!

Hello, my wonderful family!

Rain season began this week, so it's been raining everyday! When it rains in Japan, it pours! I've never been so wet before, but it's fun! It will last until the beginning of July, so I'll try to keep dry!

Anyways! This week has been a really interesting dendo week because we've been super busy. We moved into our new apartment! It's so nice! We spent all Tuesday and Wednesday moving, so things were crazy. I love our new apartment though! I have a mattress! I forgot to take a picture, so I'll send one later. We live like 2 minutes away from the church now, so I'm way happy. Perfect timing, too, since rain season started two days after we moved in!

Also, my companion has been sick for a little bit, so we stayed inside a lot for this week.

Also, another cool thing happened this week. Our entire mission got Facebook! It's really exciting to se everyone on there. D&C 88:73 says, "I will hasten my work in it's time." It's for sure hastening now! Great thing are happening, and I'm excited to see the miracles that happen because our mission is using Facebook!

We also went to Yokohama today! It's our Zone Leader's last Pday, so he wanted to do something fun. So we went to Yokohama! It was so fun! We went to the Nissan headquarters, as well as Pokemon world. We explored the pier a little bit, too! That's definitely a place we will need to go when you all come! I want to go back!

That's about all for this week! Transfer calls are next week, and I fear it's my last week to be a junior companion, but we will see what happens! Transfer 5, here I come! I love you all and hope you have a
great week! I miss you! Love you!

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

 

 

7 Months and Machida Music Fesitval

Hello, family! What a hot week it's been here in Japan! I'm pretty much sweating as soon as I walk outside. It's gross. But rain season is right around the corner, as it's June now, and then it just gets hotter from there. Oh boy!

We are not letting the weather stop us from dendoing, though! We had a really busy, exciting week this week! As you saw from the pictures, we went with the I family to lunch, which was so fun! And the food was delicious. They were so nice!

On Tuesday, I went on splits with one of the newer sisters in the mission, so that was way fun! We also got a call from the mission office that day saying we would be moving into a new apartment on Tuesday. We were so excited, but also a little overwhelmed. Our apartment right now was an Elders apartment about a year ago, and it's had missionaries in it now for about 10 years, so it's really old and it's actually pretty big. So we had a lot of cleaning to do! B Shimai(From New Zealand) has lived in that apartment now for about 4 months, so we are actually kind of sad to leave it. Even though it's old, it grew on us! (Literally, the mold has grown on us). Oh well, on to new adventures!

Wednesday we had a really cool experience happen. It was after English class, and pretty much everyone but Y, a few other people, and the missionaries had gone home. As he was about to get in his car, Y couldn't find his keys. We all decided to say a prayer, and the Elders' investigator offered it. After he finished saying the prayer, all the missionaries were frantically praying in our hearts that we would find the keys. At that point, he had checked his bag about 3 times, but he checked it again, and sure enough, there they were! It was a really cool experience, and I think it really built the Elders' investigator's testimony about prayer. It sure strengthened ours! Another thing that happened Wednesday, we met with our investigator, U, who wants to get baptized but keeps drinking tea. We told her that if she stopped drinking tea, we would help her by stop eating ice cream, that way we would go through this together. I thought it would be easy, but I've never been more tempted to eat ice cream in my entire life than I have the past couple of days! I hope that she is able to stop drinking tea.

Thursday was fun because we got to go and eat crepes with some of our PIs. That's about all that happened that day.

Friday we went to visit a member in the hospital, and her roommate, whose mom we've given a Book of Mormon to before, just came back from getting two new casts on her legs. She wanted us to draw Mickey and Minnie Mouse on it, but I'm terrible at drawing, so I was way nervous! My Mickey turned out all right, and I'm really thankful for that fun experience. Those are one of those things that I feel like only happen as a missionary. I also hit my 7 month mark!

Saturday was amazing! We had a big music concert here in Machida, and about 200 people came! There were lots of musical acts, including a gospel singer coming and all of us getting up and dancing! Also, the missionaries all got up and sang a song together, so the spirit was really strong. We had a blast there!

We had another lesson just today with our Investigator, U San, and her son (the missionary) was able to join us on Skype, so it was a really powerful lesson!

Not much else happened this week! I have to go because we have a lot of cleaning left to do! I love you all and miss you so much! I'm praying for you everyday! Thank you for all the support! Love you!
愛しています

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

Combined Mission Conference

こんにちわ! みんあ元気？先週は素晴らしかったです。

Hello family! How are you all doing?

This week was great! Not a ton happened. We didn't have a lot of appointments, but we made some for this week, so I'm excited!

We started off the week by going to the temple on Tuesday, which was amazing! I love, love, love the Tokyo Temple! Fun fact: it's the most expensive temple in the world. Then after the temple, I actually got a pretty big headache from out of the blue, so we stayed home the rest of the day.

The next day I woke up with the same headache. Even though my head was bothering me, we continued on as normal. We went on splits that day, and I was with a newer sister here in Machida. She's actually going through a pretty hard time with dendo right now too, so we pretty much just talked the whole day and gave each other advice. It was much needed because after we finished talking, my head felt better! I guess I just had a lot of pressure and stress built up in there. My head's felt better since then, so I'm way happy we went on splits.

On Friday, we went to Sagamihara (the city next to Machida) for a "Questions of the Soul" event. It's an event that President Wada puts on around the mission, and we watch clips of a movie and talk about a gospel principle. This time we watched a movie about Ghandi and talked about charity and faith. It was great, and the spirit was really strong! We brought one of our friends who really seemed to enjoy it.

Saturday was the best day ever! We woke up at 4:50am to get on a train for the Combined Mission Conference, where Elder Cook (of the Twelve)and Elder Maynes (of the presidency of the Seventy) spoke to all the missionaries in the both Tokyo and Tokyo South mission. Before the actual talks thought, we got to spend about an hour just talking to all of our friends, which was way fun! A lot of good reunions. In all, there were about 400 missionaries there. The talks given were incredible! We were so spiritually uplifted. At one point, all the missionaries stood up and sang, "Hark All Ye Nations," which was so powerful. We were all ready to talk to all of Tokyo after that! We got to shake their hands too, which was incredible. We may be getting a new apartment soon! Wahoo!! Can't wait for that!

Sunday was great too! We had a baptism for two of our ward mission leaders kids who turned 8! It was so cute! It reminded me of my own baptism day a long time ago, and it reminded me of how it's so important for my own kids to be baptized when they turn 8 (but that's in the very far future).

That's about all the exciting things that happened this week! I love being a missionary here in Japan. It's changed my life, and I know I'll remember it forever. The church is true! I have no doubt in my mind about that! I love you all and miss you! Have a good week! Talk to you next week!
Love,

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹

The Lord's Hand

Hello family! Again, it was so great to talk to you last week! I absolutely loved it!

Pretty interesting week this week! I think I've felt a lot of stress in the past couple of days because I've been trying to adjust to being area senpai, which is a little intense, especially because I'm only transfer 4, but that's ok. President Wada said to, "not get too comfortable where I'm at," so I don't know what that means, but I guess we will see! Our mission is really growing, so I suspect I'll be training next or the following transfer.

Sorry, little rant there. As for this week, I know it's been really guided by The Lord. We've done a lot of less active member visits, which has been an adventure trying to find their houses. On Thursday though, I actually got a little frustrated because things weren't working out I planned. We couldn't find one person's houses, we were late, all these things were happening. But guess who I ran into? E! It's been like three months now since I've seen her, so it was a really happy reunion. I know The Lord placed her in our path. It was a really amazing miracle! We talked to her for a little bit, and she might come to an activity we have at the church in a couple of weeks. I hope I get to see her!

Another thing that happened this week was E Shimai's birthday! She's one of the sisters that lives with me. She turned 22 this week, so we had a big party! We invited some of our friends to go bowling with us, so that was way fun! We decorated the apartment all cute too. It was so fun! I think she had a great day!

One other cool thing happened this week. We were out talking to people just yesterday, when the Elders called us. They said they had met a woman outside of the church who had met the missionaries 10 years before. They said she wanted to meet with us that night! So we were went over to her apartment last night! We talked to her for a long time. She had a baptismal date before but missed it because she couldn't stop drinking tea. She said she still had interest in studying this church and being baptized! We are meeting her again on Friday, and we will start teaching her the lessons again! That was a huge miracle that the elders found her! She said she actually was thinking about the missionaries when she saw the elders, so she ran towards them to talk to them. I'm praying that we can help grow her faith so that she can get baptized!

That's about all for this week! I get to go to the temple tomorrow, so I can't wait for that! Also, Elder Cook (of the Twelve) is coming to our mission on Saturday for a combined Tokyo North and South mission conference. Cool, right?

I hope you all have a good week! I love you and miss you! Thank you for all the support! I pray for you all everyday! Love you! 愛しています。

Lexie
ダンジー姉妹