June 28
Dear everyone.
I don't know what's happening right now.
I'm transferring. To Osaka. I've been in Japan for over 6 months now and I still can't say the name of this new area. Because it's really long. It sounds like I may be going to somewhere that may actually be considered city. Or at least inaka.
Also, I'm becoming a trainer. (Specifically, a second trainer, so a dad). Also, my trainee is Japanese and probably doesn't speak English. And somehow I have to make decisions and stuff.
Also, I'm becoming a tech sister! Which is like my dream! All of my previous companions can testify to that.
But basically things are changing. Dramatically.
They're also replacing the two elders in my area with two brazilians (which is a crazy step, because the elders have a lot of investigators and were teaching a lot of lessons) and one of gem has already spent 4 transfers in this area and was here the first transfer I was here.
Also, my companion is training a new missionary here.
We'll be on Facebook in 2 weeks now, i's been officially announced. I'm excited to use this tool to help hasten the work. And I guess I'll be training people on it too.
So this week was that big Sunday we've been preparing for all transfer! Literally this transfer, it's been all we've been working on in every spare minute always. We've prayed a lot, we've invited a lot, we've taught a lot, ect. The mission president took the long windy 7 or so hour drive to our area with a Brazilian who could translate to Portugese. We prayed. We called everyone again. Church started and... In our congregation of usually around 50 members...
21 nonmembers showed up!
We did not make our goal of thirty, but it ended up that members really piched in, and there were a lot of people I hadn't even seen before who showed up. Hopefully this leads to even more strong people to teach for this area. :)
We also had some cool things happen with investigators this week -
One of our investigators pulled out 3 pages of questions that she thought of while reading the intro to be Book of Mormon. I love when investigators do their homework. :)
That Brazilian from last week is way strong right now. He has a long of questions, but him and his wife are way considering baptism. They're all in, and in order to know if this church is true want to live like Mormons to see what it's like, aka, reading, praying, going to church. I love people who just get it.
We went housing at one point, and ran into this girl who said she might come to church. Which is good, but 99% of the time they won't end up coming. So we left and decided we might head back a week or two later to follow up. But then, the next day, we get a call. She wants clarification on where the church is. We try to tell her, but she speaks Portugese and only a little Japanese, so we struggle a bit. We have one of our friends call her, and we are able to get a ride arranged for her to come. Then she comes, and has fun. Sometimes things just work. :) excepting her to be an investigator REALLY SOON. (We haven't had a chance to follow up really.)
On the other hand, one of our recent converts is struggling. He encountered a lot of hantai (opposed) influences from his neighborhood telling him that he shouldn't be Christian because he is Japanese. We haven't been able to contact him much recently.
I learned how to say come to church in Portugese. Probably badly and with a bad accent. But they'll probably still understand so that's okay!
I'm going to miss Izumo, but it's treated me well and I'll always remember it. Off to my 3rd area and my 5th companion in the field!
July 5
It turns out, I have been sent to the suburbs of the city. Still way bigger than anything I've been to before, but think maybe a little bigger than downtown Boise. Big even compared to Meridian, but compared to the heart of Osaka is nothing.
My new companion is a gem. Way relaxed and cute, and has a lot of energy. Willing to get things done :) I sent a video of her from my airdrop. I was expecting her to talk in Japanese in it, but she attempted English and did really well, so yeah :)
My new area is a really big Ward. The bishop is great and so are the members. We got a huge basket of food on Sunday from them and also a lot of dinner appointments. We're really well taken care of, I just wish I could be better at remembering names...
Our apartment here is huge. Honestly, 4 missionaries could live here easily and 6 could squeeze in. And my companion speaks the language, so no worries about not understanding things and showing up to the wrong place poor whatever. So basically I have everything a missionary could want.
...except investigators. That's irony. (Maybe? I don't actually understand the meaning of that word)
Yeah, not sure what's happened recently, but we seem to not have any really any leads or anything from the point I came in. So what we're calling this transfer is super finding transfer. We're going to try every way to find that any missionary has ever thought of. I'm actually a little excited. Think contacting on the street, through English, any funny connection you can make, housing, area book, visiting members, less actives. We have time to try all of it. Hey, if everything works out like everyone is saying, maybe we can even try finding through Facebook.
Yeah, but any prayers would be appreciated.
So in all reality, the last while hasn't been too eventful.
My investigator broke my heart. She's 15 and got really attached to me and my companion. When she heard I was transferring she called and cried, and then wrote me a letter (in English somehow) telling me if I ever needed help, to call her. I'm going to miss her.
Also, saying goodbye to the lovely Ward Members and Mae chan was sad.
And probably the most interesting thing that happened, one of our investigators told us he did what we told him, and prayed to know if this church was true. And then told us that a light appeared and told him that asking questions is a really bad mean thing, and he needs to stop asking us questions. Also that he shouldn't trust or put his faith in anything but himself.
I'm not sure what to do about him... Pretty sure that was the opposite of the spirit.
Anyways, love you all!
Sister Williamson
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| Go Idaho! On transfer day saw Elder Kartchner & Elder Roylance |
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