tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66448251256972631512024-02-19T02:13:48.408-08:00Service with a SmileAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-46385852142863447582016-03-28T16:58:00.001-07:002016-03-28T16:58:50.126-07:00March 21 & 28 - Kyoto Area<b>March 21 - Kyoto Area</b><br />
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Painting and yard work? Have you actually started a garden?</div>
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Yeah, it's crazy. Apparently he [Ladd] bore his testimony because they all say how much they appreciated it. We have a lot to do here - mostly because the elders area is closed, so this is a sister only area. That means we have more less actives and stuff to visit. </div>
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This week...</div>
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So here in Katsura the members are really great about helping us teach and welcoming our investigators. We have a few investigators. We went with one of them to Fushimi -Inari, which is a really cool hike up the mountains. We had a really strong lesson with her yesterday too, and I have a lot of hope for her. </div>
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One of our less actives could NOT understand that Amulon was a bad guy in Mosiah 18ish because "he is a really hard worker." And did not seem to understand that enslaving Alma was a bad thing.</div>
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Mostly, this week the mission technology blew up and so it took a lot of time and effort to try and get it working.</div>
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Love you! </div>
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Kylie</div>
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<b>March 28 - Kyoto Area</b></div>
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Typing as much as I can. You'll get a double report next week </div>
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This week we saw a lot of miracles with our investigators. Firstly, M-san very simply agreed to be baptized. We were so happy! We taught him about the plan of salvation, and then told him in order to go to the celestial kingdom you need to be baptized. We then asked baptized, and he said yes. It was about the least dramatic lesson I've ever seen, but probably one of the best results. </div>
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Our other investigator, Y-san, took us to a shrine in Kyoto and we went hiking! She's been reading the book of Mormon and asked really good questions. She seems to really like the church and came to a relief society activity. She was going to come to church this week and we were very excited but she woke up with a stomach ache and we don't know when she will next be able to make it. Kind of a bummer but I love being around her. We're going to go see the sakura with her next week and I'm very excited for it.</div>
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Also, we met an American family this week. We were at the train station and there was a American wearing a Utah football sweatshirt so we wondered if he was Mormon. We talked to him for a bit and it turns out he wasn't but had some Mormon relatives. He knew some about missions and talked to us for a while. We helped them change his tickets to an earlier time, and they were very grateful. They took a picture with us and wanted to know if there's anything they can do for us. We said no, and they insisted on taking a picture to send to you guys, so you probably got the picture. </div>
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We met a random crazy person. She was walking down the street and singing high long notes. She stopped near us and started speaking to us in English which surprised us. She saw that we are church volunteers and put down her grocery bags put her hand up to the sky and started saying things like "peace peace peace. I want you I need you peace peace peace." It was really funny. </div>
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Love you!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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My wife and I are on vacation in Japan and bumped into your daughters while trying to figure out the subway system. They were extremely helpful and both appeared to be in good spirits!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-84774051059255853262016-03-28T16:48:00.001-07:002016-03-28T17:00:57.064-07:00March 7 & 14 - Kyoto Area<b>March 7 - Osaka Area</b><br />
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So we went to a shrine in Kyoto today - a bit far so not much time to write - sorry! </div>
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This week was a little harder investigator-wise. We heard a lot of excuses about why they couldn't be baptized or read the BOM or whatever... Working on it, haha. The elect will accept the message and the others just may need more time.</div>
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Had a cool blitz! That means all the missionaries in our zone assemble in an area and work! </div>
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Anyways, love you! </div>
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<b>March 14 - Kyoto Area</b></div>
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I finally got kicked out of Ibaraki. I spent 6 months there... I LOVE OSAKA. It's the place to be. Transferring is always a bit hard because it takes some time to adjust to literally your whole life changing in one day. </div>
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My new ward is a lot smaller. Around 30 people. The Elders area in Ibaraki closed, so it was a crazy last day trying to meet with their investigators and ours and pack and stuff. I'm going to miss Ibaraki a lot. I'm on my last transfer now - a weird feeling, seeing as how I've already done 11 + MTC. My new companion is English, and one more weird fact... She's met my Dad. In fact, almost my entire ward has met my dad. Yep. I'm in Katsura. </div>
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Katsura is a lot different from Ibaraki. There are no elders here, so we're in charge of teaching everyone, male or female. We're really busy. </div>
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The members are really sweet here though. I'm still getting to know people, and remembering names is hard, but I really want to make an impact on this area with the 6 weeks that I do have. </div>
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It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone. I'll never forget Ibaraki. </div>
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So far, in the lighter side of things, we met this Less Active who really loves South Dakota. He told me that I was a boy-like girl. My companion asked him if he meant a tomboy. He said no, a girl who is like a boy. Then he said my face also looks like a boys. We were dying. Also apparently he gives us soap a lot and very seriously gives us the instructions "these are NOT FOR EAT". And made sure we understood. It's nice that he's worried about our health.</div>
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There's a less active who randomly shakes your hand during the lesson all the time, like he thinks it's over. </div>
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...other than that things are pretty normal. I'm gonna work really hard these last 6 weeks!</div>
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Love<br />
Kylie<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-90123748389630959112016-03-06T14:30:00.002-08:002016-03-06T14:37:33.542-08:00February 22 & 29 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1457106176225_77369" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>February 22 - Osaka Area</b></div>
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Dear family, </div>
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A this week was really good! We had some really crazy things happen . First of all, do you remember our friend Lucky? She is Chinese and really good at English, and so we meet with her to teach English and then also the Gospel. Well, she invited us to her house to eat really delicious Chinese food. She picked us up from the train station and then walked with her to her house. As we were walking she mentioned that her boyfriend was home and that he would be eating with us. It kind of made me nervous because I didn't even know if he knows we're teaching her about Jesus Christ. So I asked some questions about him and it also turns out that he's quite a bit older than her. He's actually 40 years old. I had no idea what was going to happen. So we got to her house and he answered the door. He had been cleaning all the dishes and her house. Actually he was really really really nice guy and it wasn't awkward like I thought and so I felt a lot better after that. The food was completely different from panda express. She had kind of a sweet-and-sour chicken thing out but probably the highlight of the meal for me was tomato soup with like macaroni and stuff that you put in it. If you're wondering why that's exciting there's actually no tomato soup in Japan. It was a rare experience. I miss tomato soup. Anyways, we got to the discussion and he was super sucked in! His dad passed away last year and ever since then he's been more interested in religion. We left him with a book of Mormon, but unluckily he lives near Tokyo... We felt the spirit way strong - this is the beginning of his journey. </div>
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We also had an old lady talk our ear off for 2 hours.</div>
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I love the moms English we teach! Kids are way cute!</div>
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Love you all,</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<b>February 29 - Osaka Area</b></div>
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Dear Family,</div>
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This week while we were passing out English fliers at an ekky (like normal) something rather unusual happened. All of a sudden we heard a scream like "AAARGH" and saw probably the angriest man I have ever seen in Japan storming towards Barney Chourou and yelling really fast Japanese. He was waving a flier around and trying to get Barney Chourou to go into an Ekky with him... It was probably the most dramartic thing ever to happen at the train station. Lots of people just kind of... Watched. Barney Chourou was like "this is ridiculous, if there's a problem we should call the police" and the guy was like "watch out cuz I already have!" But they waited a bit and obviously no one was coming so... Barney Chourou said he was going to call the police and the guy was like "if you're gonna do that then there's a police station right down the street, let's just go now!"</div>
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So they went, and on the way Barney Chourou told his companion to call us to take his bags to the church (we did not accompany them to the police station) and the guy was like "be careful what you're saying because I UNDERSTAND ENGLISH"</div>
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He was crazy. And clearly didn't speak any English.</div>
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The police made the Elders apologize to them and then it was okay.</div>
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We went on a companion exchange. It was pretty normal, but fun. We made pumpkin in a soup, and somehow a poem to go with it:</div>
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pumpkin in a pot</div>
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watch out its pretty hot</div>
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take a sip, you better not</div>
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what else you got?</div>
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Nevermind I gotta mop</div>
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Talked to the sweetest old lady. I ping ponged (rang the doorbell) and asked to share a message. She said she couldn't open the door and we should wait for when someone else was home. I felt this was probably someone just dodging us, so I asked WHEN we should come back, like in an hour or another day? She said she didn't know, but she was SO sorry because she couldn't move and couldn't open the door and honestly started sounding really genuinely sad. She did want to hear! So I started sharing the message through the ping pong. It went really well for the first few seconds, until all the neighborhood kids figured out where we were and started yelling questions at us. My companion tried to distract them but they were SO LOUD. She said we could come back though! Mission accomplished.</div>
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Also we were able to get two of the moms to church... And also their kids. THEY WERE SO CUTE but caused the moms so much stress. They were crashing cars and wandering up and down aisles... I hope it was still a good experience. The ward was way chill about it though and for the most part we were able to distract them with prepared coloring pages.</div>
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Love you all!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-56464903120278842182016-03-06T14:26:00.001-08:002016-03-06T14:26:20.451-08:00February 1 & 8 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1457106176225_73327">
<b>February 1 - Osaka Area</b></div>
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P-day got rushed, so this email will be short, sorry! </div>
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I am still in Ibaraki! I only have one transfer left after this one, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I love it here though, and we teach a lot, so I'm really happy. I got a new companion, Salisbury Shimai. She's really blonde, and a big anime fan. It was her birthday last week, so we went to the Pokemon store (hence, no time)</div>
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Because of the above mentioned, for the first half of the week not much work got done. The standards have changed in the mission, we now transfer without a companion. But my companion was sick, so I went to pick her up. So, for the first time in a year I was alone for about 3 hours. It was weird, but also not that weird.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">No time. Love you guys. </span></div>
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<b>February 8 - Osaka Area</b></div>
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(So this week, Kylie's sister Elsie received her call to Japan Sendai mission leaving June 1. We were so eager to hear Kylie's response.)</div>
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Crazy! Japan! I never thought it would happen! Psyched! I guess I'll only overlap for a month with Elsie, but happy to stay around her! :)</div>
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This week has flown by! We had a surprising experience last week while housing a bit. One lady actually answered her door, and so we scrambled to introduce ourselves in the best freindly missionaries-that-you-want-to-talk-to voices that we have. The first thing she said was "I'm Buddhist". The second thing she said was "please come in"</div>
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Her and her husband were about to eat dinner. So they gave us some dinner and listened to our message. They didn't seem super impressed, but made a second appointment. Yeah! :)</div>
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Other than that, we had a BUNCH of investigators come to church, went to one of the fanciest sushi restaurants I've ever seen, and I got sick for a day.</div>
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Love you guys!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-17739206261756069422016-01-31T17:09:00.001-08:002016-01-31T17:09:11.005-08:00January 24 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1453734888820_200443" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
This week we had the special opportunity of hearing from one of the area 70! Elder Choi (but it sounds like Chey) </div>
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He is a way powerful speaker. "If you don't like it, you have to like it."</div>
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He concentrated on raising our faith. They wanted us to not just work for, but believe we can achieve one Baptism a week. Haha ganbarimasu! </div>
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We also went to trainers trainee training... My fourth time actually. We talked a lot about using PMG more. Which I should do (I'm not bad at it or anything but you can always use PMG more.)</div>
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Did I share anything before about the golden 9 year old we found on an exchange? We decided to visit her again, and in case any of you were wondering, yes she is just as golden as she was before. She came running to the door with her Book of Mormon (and then gave it back as a combination of not being able to read it and something about her mom). She was way excited to see us, and even though it was cold ran and got her jacket so she could talk. She liked learning how to pray, and we're going to give her a children's book of Mormon if we can the next time we see her.</div>
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We're working with a lot of people right now. We teach a lot of English and then messages to people. My area is amazing!</div>
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Also, I may or may not be transferring this week. I actually have no idea. We're getting called randomly this week instead of an announcement, so I'll let you know what happens next week.</div>
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I know that Christ is our foundation. If we truly walk with him, he will never let us down. I have a testimony of this. No matter what the world asks us to do or thinks, all that truly matters is how well we follow him.</div>
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Love you guys,</div>
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Sister Williamson </div>
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I love how you thought light that way. I've never thought about all the different types of light in the world. Thanks!</div>
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Please pray for people to keep commitments, in particular to come to church!</div>
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Can't wait for Elsie's call!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-10427814459345361622016-01-31T17:05:00.001-08:002016-01-31T17:05:48.740-08:00Dec 27 & Jan 3 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1453734888820_199918" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
December 27 - Osaka Area</div>
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Not too much happened this week. Normal stuff with investigators. We picked up a Muslim investigator this week. We went to visit her and she let us in and just as we finished a message (that she was interested in!) Her friend visited and also started asking us questions. Her friend was a lot less interested, but it was really interesting to see how similar they thought Joseph Smith and Muhammad's roles are in our religions. One of them wants to read the book of Mormon! </div>
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Other than that, we had a Christmas party in Kobe with a bunch of missionaries doing funny skits and stuff. We did a skit of a district meeting. I'll include my favorite two in the sharing. </div>
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It's weird to be an "oldie" on the mission. I don't like thinking about it.</div>
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Love you guys!</div>
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It was great seeing you!</div>
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Love, Sister Williamson </div>
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January 3 - Osaka Area</div>
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Dear family, Happy New Years!!!</div>
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Here in Ibaraki we celebrated by going to bunch of members houses and eating until we gained 50 pounds. Was so much raw fish. Which is okay because I actually like raw fish now. Also we ate pizza with corn and mayonnaise. Because that's the way we do it in Japan. But on a more serious note I was very grateful to be invited to so many homes, and the food was mostly super delicious. I'm still not a huge fan of curry sometimes.</div>
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Also we have an incredible amount of chocolate and snacks in our apartment for Christmas. we have like a huge box as big as the sister called Fuji Shimai just filled with candy. Life is good. This week went on splits a lot. We have this thing they called the blitz. Where every single person in the zone came and worked in Ibaraki for one day. At least it was supposed to be every single person in the zone. It turned into every single elder in the zone and just the sisters that we live with. It was a little disappointing but I got to go on splits with Fuji Shimai! When we went housing, we prayed to find someone who would be receptive and listen to our message. We knocked on door and introduced ourselves to the ping-pong box and a girl answered and told us she would go and get her mom. We waited and the mom actually open the door! (this is rare in Japan) we introduced ourselves and showed them our family pictures. They were very excited to see them and the kids swarmed around us and looked at all of our pictures. After that we shared a little bit about how this church has helped our family and bore our testimonies. The nine-year-old girl got very excited and started telling us how she knows that God exists because when she lost her keys once she prayed really really hard and then found them. We agreed that this was a great experience. We then shared our testimonies of the book of Mormon and how it has helped us become closer to God. The nine-year-old was so interested and wanted to read it, but her mom was reluctant to take it because it's a little bit hard for a nine-year-old to read. We suggested that the mom read it with the nine-year-old but the mom would have none of that. She accepted it though and the girl said she would read it by herself! We asked if we could come back after week and share another message with this kid but the mother said that probably it would not be a good idea. It was kind of sad but hopefully the nine-year-old reads the book of Mormon and when she's older can come to church and stuff.</div>
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The next day we went on another exchange with the sister training leaders. We had a very unique experience when visiting a less active. When we came her house she was eating lunch and wouldn't really speak to us. We asked if there was anything we can do to help her, and she told us that it would help if we went and bought her saran wrap. So we went and bought her saran wrap. Afterwards she thanked us and said we helped her so I guess check for helping someone.</div>
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Also I really really really love sushi now. I'm afraid this will turn into a problem when I return to America because our sushi is not that great. Sushi is the best.</div>
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Love you guys,</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lights at Christmas</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-77941227976919518162015-12-13T15:45:00.002-08:002015-12-13T16:05:52.747-08:00November 29 & Dec 6 - Osaka Area<b>November 29</b><br />
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I don't have much time this week. We went to a fun mall place area and ate lunch with some investigators today (one of the meals was a mix of pigs ears and liver... I ate a little bit) so I only have 10 mins to send emails. I love you!</div>
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This week our strongest investigator decided she wants to be baptized next month, so we're really excited for her.</div>
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<b>December 6</b></div>
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This week was really fun. We started off with a companion exchange with the Japanese sisters we live with. My first transfer companion and the Japanese first transfer companion were working together, so it was fun to see them try really hard at communicating with each other. They did a pretty good job, but it looked like a bit of a struggle. Me and Sister Y with had a lot of fun! (And ate Sushi! I have grown insanely in love with sushi) We decided to go pass out flyers at Eki for English conversation class, and she brought her ukulele. We made up a song about the class and sang it together while handing out the flyers. It was pretty great day. Sister Y really wants to do it every week now.</div>
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We met again with our really strong investigator, Sister I. it turns out she wasn't able to move the place where she's getting married so she can't go to church until probably March. So she won't be able to be baptized this month, but she will be baptized for sure eventually so not the worst thing in the world. I would have liked to see her baptism but I'll be there in spirit.</div>
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On Friday, there was an event at train station where they turn on a lot of lights for the Christmas season and had some people singing during performances. Some of the people we volunteer with were in it so they had us (our district) come up and introduce ourselves in front of everyone and sing a song with them. I didn't really know what I was doing but it was kind of cool. The lights they put up are really impressive, and really pretty to look at. </div>
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Also, when we went to our lesson again with one of our investigators, she brought a friend. Again. This friend was really excited to see us and was super supportive of everything were saying. She said her cousins were Mormon and she doesn't know very much about them but she didn't think we are Christian at first. But every time we said anything she really agreed, and actually asked us to come back in two weeks for her birthday party where she wants us to share a message. </div>
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Really we're just working really really hard and trying to help the Japanese people. I know there's people in Japan waiting for our message and prepared to accept it. We're focusing everything we do on trying to help the members also understand how they can share with their friends and not be afraid. If we all work as a team we can bring to pass miracles!<br />
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ALSO I FORGOT ABOUT OUR PRANK!</div>
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So, I love the speaker you sent me last year. (It's way nice - definitely using it in college and stuff too) At first I tried to use the Bluetooth to link to my phone, but I couldn't get it working because our phones are way low tech (texting takes forever). Anyways, just mostly using it with our DVD player, but then this week for the first time I realized it can link wirelessly to my iPad! So we played around with it, and the range is such that it will work perfectly even from opposite sides of the apartment (which admittedly isn't that far).</div>
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So we made a plan.</div>
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We made up a rap song, turned it up, and hid it in the Japanese sisters room. then, when they were planning, we hit play. I wish we could have recorded it, but we could hear them (eh? Eh?) and it was really funny.</div>
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Love you </div>
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Sister Williamson </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-87937401364601421332015-12-13T15:41:00.000-08:002015-12-13T15:41:01.259-08:00November 15 & 22 - Osaka Area<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>November 15 </b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This week has been pretty eventful. For one thing, we finally hit the</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">goal that the mission has been pushing. 20 lessons in a week! I've</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">been working towards it for a while, but this week we really really</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">really worked hard, and made it just barely. I'm so proud of me and my</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">companion, and hopefully we can keep it up. Hopefully if we can</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">continue to teach this many lessons, we will have some investigators who</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">can really progress towards becoming members and finding that</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">happiness that the gospel brings.</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">One funny thing that happened this week is we met one of the members</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">like we do every week, this time she decided to show us all of the</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">pictures that were on her phone. Over the last year she has taken</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">around 300 photos of her cat, Peeta. And nothing else. There were so</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">many pictures of her cat. The best was when she had a picture of her</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">cat dressed up in a Halloween costume as a cat. My companion was</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">trying really really hard not to just die rolling on the floor with</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">laughter. It was a struggle.</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Also, this week we had a special problem where we had a lot of of food</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">but no place but no weight but no way to bring it home. We tried to</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">fit all of the two bike baskets, but there was clearly not enough</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">space for the mounds of food we had. That is, until my companion had</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">either a genius or a ridiculously dumb idea. She grabbed her cheap</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">jacket belt and tied a mountain of food into my basket. It was very</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">precariously strapped together, and the plan was to bike very very</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">slowly back to the apartment and if anything started to fall my</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">companion would shout out really quickly to stop the bike and save the</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">food. It was maybe not the safest of ideas or of bike rides home, but</span><br clear="none" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">we managed to make it in one piece.</span><br />
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<b>November 22</b></div>
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This week we saw lots of miracles. It was really amazing.</div>
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First of all, we were finally able to get a doseki for our investigator who just moved in a few weeks ago, I Shimai. It worked so well. She just moved here, and doesn't have any friends. At the same time she has a three month old baby that she's taking care of, and is planning a really big ceremony for marriage (but she's already had the marriage just like the ceremony). Not really sure, sometimes I don't understand Japan, but what this added up to was a lot of stress for her. What's more, when we came in with the member she was kind of sick. Her voice was really really hoarse and she was in her PJs still. She looked super super stressed out. The member and her were meeting for the first time, but this amazing member asked her (seeing the situation) if there's anything she could do to help. This investigator paused for a second and started hesitantly ask if the member would drive to buy her some medicine. (Remember, this is in JAPAN. JAPAN, where I have seen old grandma's firmly refuse any help while they are trying to snow shovel their driveways by themselves with a SPATUALA) This investigator doesn't have a car right now (Osaka drivers are crazy, and the roads are really narrow. It's kind of scary to drive sometimes so it's not too uncommon) and as you can imagine, it's really hard when you're sick to walk to the store to buy medicine with a three month old crying baby at the same time. The member quickly agreed to do that and returned after no time. This was the start and amazing relationship between them. Expecially starting the lesson, the member helps so much. She explained a lot of things that are very complicated, and actually it turned into a lot about how to deal with the stresses of being a mom. Being a first-time mother alone in a new city without her own mother to help her know how to be a mother, this investigator was feeling very stressed out. I think this member provided exactly what the investigator needed right now, and it was a huge blessing. The member also set up an appointment for her at her house to eat lunch together with other members who live really really close and also have kids around the same age. Gold.</div>
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Also, do you remember the investigator we found with the two twin boys who kind of fell off the map? We were able to talk with him again, and he still has a lot of interest. He said he wants to research Christian religions right now particularly for his kids, and so was still interested in meeting with us. The only problem is that he doesn't have enough interest that he will set very firm appointment yet. We just keep kind of setting appointments until he'll finally manage to keep one. We do want to teach him, but it might take a little time to get to that point. (We have his phone number now though, so no more no contact)</div>
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On Wednesday it rained a lot. So much rain. On the way we met person from Indonesia named Linda. We just talked a little bit and exchanged numbers before she had to run to college. It turns out she normally bikes, and we only met her because it was raining. This isn't the end of her story, but I'll get to the rest of her a little bit later in the email, so bear with me.</div>
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On Thursday we had lunch with that I Shimai (the first investigator) and her member friends. It went so well. I'm really really excited to see her progress, she is really strong right now and she really loves the gospel. She just wants her husband to be able to receive that happiness with her. We went up to the member's apartment where the view is amazing and she is seriously like a professional chef. It was just perfect, we barely had even say anything. When you work with members it really does bring miracles.</div>
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As we were doing SKK later that day we noticed we received an email from a former investigator who we emailed around two months ago. She asked us if we were doing any sort of Thanksgiving thing, and said she would love to join. There wasn't really a ward Thanksgiving thing going on, but instead a thing with the members so we decided to see what we could do and then email her back. However much to our surprise around two hours later she walks into the room we were planning in. That's right. In the church. When we were planning. Out of nowhere. It was really really random and surprising. We talked with her for a while, and she told us a lot of her worries about her job. After just trying to be her friend for a while, she expressed a desire to start coming to church. Afterwards she asked us where we would be going and we told her we would be doing something called housing where we just walk around and try to find anyone who might be interested in her message. Her face got really really excited and she started reading her fingers around (she was eating pizza) and when she finished chewing she asked if she could come with us. We were really surprised, but I couldn't think of a reason why she shouldn't, so we told her to go ahead and come with us. So we went housing together. With an investigator. That we met two hours ago. She was actually kind of helpful. While we were talking to people with her she asked this one person who didn't show too much interest at the start a lot of questions, which gave us the opportunity to bear our testimonies again, and he also became an investigator. He has weak interest, so I don't know how long he will listen but I think it was amazing how we were able to touch his heart with our testimonies. After that she really wanted to house an area that she had moved out of. So we figured that we knock on any door, so why not the door where she used to live. Lo and behold, someone answered, and lo and behold it was Linda. That's right, Linda from the other day. I was afraid she would think we were stalking her. Actually she was really really nice and happy to see us so hopefully we can start meeting with her too because she said that we could come over anytime. As she was leaving for class right after she had a some candy bars and gave us all hugs. It was really cool. </div>
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The next day on Friday we had two appointments scheduled. Each appointment we went to brought a referral. First one was a mom who also wanted to come to the normal moms English class and have us teach her son too, but she was very willing to hear us talk about the gospel, and committed to try and read some of the book of Mormon. I hope she does, because I know that if she does she'll feel something special. </div>
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Afterwards we went to our friend Wilma's house to teach her and her daughter. But instead of teaching her and her daughter, we ended up teaching her and her friend and her friends daughter! They had a lot of questions about the plan of salvation. In particular, they really really really wanted to know what age we will be when we are resurrected. This was a very important piece of information to them. I explained that we would be a perfect state so probably not too old or too young, but they wanted to know the exact age. This was not a test, this was an honest question. I have no idea, I told him we should pray about it and maybe they would get an answer come up with that I had no idea. However it is a very good lesson, and they said that if the book of Mormon was true that they would be baptized. Luckily for us, the book of Mormon is true, so it's only a matter of time and effort.</div>
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On Sunday as we are biking to visit less active I saw the person on the road and I just knew I needed to stop her. So I did, and she started talking to us about the fact that were foreigners and asked us if we teach English. Normally I would talk to that person about English, but for some reason I just knew that I should get her to come to the church of me. So I talked to her for a little bit, and asked her if she come to church with me. She seemed a little confused, so I asked he if she had some time right then. She said she did, and I asked her again she if she would go to the church with us. She said if it wasn't too far from the station she woukd. It is a a five-minute walk from the station. So we walked with her, to the church and it was really really cool. She talked for forever, but she agreed to meet with us, and halfway through the lesson she turned around really suspiciously and said "did you know that I would be walking right there right at that time and planned to stop me?" We said that of course that wasn't the case because that's kind of impossible but whatever. When she heard that she asked unbeilivingly, "so it was a coincidence?" We assured her that it was in fact a coincidence. What she said next warmed my heart a little bit. She said that "it must've been God, he must've known I was worried about some things." I love that.</div>
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And then today, for preparation we went to the planetarium. I love planetariums. I love science. Afterwards a recent convert just took us to a really really high ferris wheel really really in the heart of Osaka, so we can see so many tall building and really far. It was raining a little bit, so it seems further on a normal day, but it was really really really really really cool. Little bit weird too, since it was the same area that I had been three years ago on my school trip to Japan. I want to the same hallway I walked through with high school friends, so is the kind of weird feeling, but really really fun.</div>
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I love this area. I hope I get to work here for a long time. </div>
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Love you all!</div>
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Know that I know that this gospel is true and I know that God helps his missionaries when they do his work and not just as missionaries but his members. I know he loves us, and knows how to help us better than anyone.</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-30706677904001332412015-11-15T16:23:00.001-08:002015-11-15T16:23:16.861-08:00November 8 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1447631899267_3042" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Yeah, this week I became companions with sister K, who is just way hardworking and fun. </div>
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Also there was this tech conference in Kobe that I went to and they split up me and my companion and it was way weird. It was just me and like 10 Elders for like 10 minutes, but then the mission president's wife came in and it was better. (And apparently I'm the new tech lead for the mission)</div>
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We had an investigator come to church last week! She's been avoiding coming for awhile but we retaught the sabbath day and she committed without a problem. She was way shy at first but by the end was laughing with everyone and holding people's babies and stuff. Also my trainer, sister M showed up and it was way fun to catch up!</div>
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We has to buy books and stuff for my new companion so that took a day.</div>
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We're now a 4 person apartment and it's way fun. There's always someone to talk to and they are both Japanese so there's a lot of Japanese happening.</div>
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There were also a lot of birthdays in the ward. We visited one and had a party and then went right after to visit another but got the address wrong and ended up walking an hour and a half to an apartment no one lives in. Go figure :)</div>
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And while we were steeting this random lady caught our attention and was like "be careful with your nose bone ". Yeah, she said that. In English. We were way confused.</div>
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That's about it for this week.</div>
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Love you! </div>
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Sister Williamson </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-18066214125343529942015-11-08T16:41:00.001-08:002015-11-08T16:41:50.116-08:00October 24 & November 1 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1447029226730_3322" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>October 24</b></div>
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This week we had zone conferences. And we're visiting members a lot recently. Nothing super special though. One less active we visited 2 weeks ago and gave her some banana bread. She was SO happy, it was incredible. So this week, when we visited and ended our message, she went and found something for us and gave it to us in a bag. I had no idea what it was, but we acted way happy and surprised. She was way pleased with herself. When we went back to our bikes, we looked inside the bag and... We found a pack of pads. Haha died laughing. </div>
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Also, highlight of the week. Taught a way good lesson while housing to someone who was interested. The only problem was... She was pregnant and is going to not be home for a while. Ah well, first step - taken.</div>
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Anyway, love you guys!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<b>November 1</b></div>
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This is an eventful Monday. Transfers came and... I am staying! Which I am SO GLAD. I love this ward. But I'll be switching companions again. A new missionary, so I actually know nothing about her at the moment. I bet she'll be awesome though. I didn't expect to train though, since I've trained two missionaries already. Actually every companionship in this district will be training. We're going to be a young mission. </div>
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Also, my apartment will be welcoming an extra 2 sisters. It was meant to be an apartment for 4, so not a hard adjustment. I'm excited.</div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1447029226730_4307">Miracle for this week. We were coming back from some mama-eventful housing, and I waved at this one girl. She yelled out to us and asked us where we were from! I responded with America and walked over to her and we started talking for a bit. She said she had some interest in our message, but had just woken up and so if she heard it it would just leave her head in a second. Which is a WAY dumb excuse, but we exchanged phone numbers and headed back to the church. Well, 15 minutes later, we got a call from her. She wanted to know if we had any plans. We did... But the plans were to go streeting to find people. So no, no plans. She responded that she was headed to the church right then. We gave her a tour, and sang her a hymn, and taught her a lesson. She way liked it, and felt the spirit! (She told us that video made her way happy)</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1447029226730_4335">I'm excited to really work through another transfer, and especially in such a strong ward as Ibaraki.</span></div>
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We visited a lot of member families this week. One of them teaches calligraphy as her job, and she made a plaque for me with name kanji!!! It looks way pretty, I'll get a picture. We're making better member records for missionaries so that this ward is a bit easier to understand.</div>
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This week, we had companion exchanges! It actually turned out to be really hard, we had a lot of appointments that day, but we managed to make the switch and teach a lot of lessons and learn a lot.</div>
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Love you!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-27105187761623277142015-10-25T16:26:00.002-07:002015-10-25T16:26:32.823-07:00October 18th - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_7118" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Tell Henry I play basketball a lot too - I'm in probably the only church in Japan with a basketball court. And tell him I challenge him to game of shooting hoops when I get back. I'm practicing ;)</div>
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English class. Here is also the biggest English class I teach. Every area is once a week, with varying numbers of students. Sometimes the only students are the Japanese Missionaries :) Here we get around 50 students a week, of varying ages, and half of them are 1-5 years old. Our kids English class here is huge, part in thanks to the coordinator who is American and has a lot of free time at work that she uses to plan activities for them. It's a pretty fun Eikaiwa, and about half of our investigators we're teaching were found through English. There's a pretty bimio curriculum we follow to some extent. The topics are good, it can just be a bit boring.</div>
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Let's see... This last week... Everything seems to run together in Missionary work after a while, so sorry all my emails have probably gotten boring.</div>
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We had a less active decide to come to church by herself. She had a really good experience, but she doesn't actually remember ANYTHING other than she loves Jesus Christ. Which, to be fair, is not a bad thing to remember. So points for her I guess.</div>
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Yeah, but she had a lot of questions for us about the Passion of Christ video which I have never seen but my companion has and is apparently pretty gory. So I could not answer her endless questions about why Christ was portrayed however he was portrayed in that video. But during this discussion, we realized she knows nothing about Christ except that she believes in him. She's Chinese, and might have been taught while she didn't speak Japanese. She doesn't know that he got baptized or resurrected, doesn't know if she believes we still live after we die, ect. So we're going to start with scratch from her. We taught a bit about the plan of salvation because she's pretty concerned with what a sad place the world is. She was WAY upset that everyone gets to be resurrected, kept saying that it would be better for the bad people to just die and stay dead. So it was kind of an interesting Sunday.</div>
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My old investigator (the wife of T-San) from my first area got baptized this last week!!! Way happy! Their family will be able to be sealed in a year, and I'm way happy for them.</div>
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Maybe I can even be there ;)</div>
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We also had a "day mission" event where we went on splits with some local youth and taught role play lessons and went finding and stuff. It was way fun, and I hope the girl I was paired with is excited for a mission!</div>
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Other than that, just the normal missionary week. Taught some moms while their kids were a terror and broke everything. But ridiculously cute terrors, so I guess it's okay. Taught another investigator who broke our heart with never coming to church ever. Ect, ect.</div>
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One thing I've learned this week is while sometimes we don't feel like we're really getting everywhere or making any difference, but we just need to be patient, because there's a point to everything we do. It may even be just so that we're more prepared to help someone in the future, we may be making more of an impact than we think. Anyways, the Lord's promises will all be fufilled, and we can have hope for the future. :)</div>
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Love you guys!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-24927232162656644712015-10-25T16:20:00.001-07:002015-10-25T16:20:33.618-07:00October 4 & October 11 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_5310" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>October 4th</b></div>
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Yeah, year mark. Way weird. Kind of can't believe it, kind of can. I just got here, but also my whole life has been mission, and Maizuru was so long ago. そして、日本語もちょっと話せるようになりました。信じられない。</div>
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My apartment is now 3rd floor, 2 bedroom, study room, kitchen. This one is pretty big too, it used to be a yonin a few transfers ago. </div>
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This week was just kind of an "getting into the area" week. It's weird to share a church building with a different area. There are missionaries EVERYWHERE. </div>
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This area's member records are not very good, so getting to know everyone in this HUGE Ward is difficult. We're concentrating on visiting members, and sharing messages with them.</div>
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There's a lot of interest in English here. A lot of the lessons we teach are paired with English, which is nice because we get to serve them, but difficult because their primary interest is not the gospel. The Book of Mormon changes hearts though. </div>
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We've been able to contact a few former investigators who have interest again, and make a few new appointments for this next week. </div>
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The mission has been such a blessing to my life, and I have grown so much in testimony and commitment. I'm grateful to know of my role in life, and find reassurance that God has a plan for my life. Simple, basic truths, but the more you understand them the more they mean.</div>
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Love, Sister Williamson</div>
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<b>October 11th</b></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_6498">It doesn't really feel like a giant city at all. Actually, it's not as big city as the heart of New York at all, think more Washington, but still pretty big. I'm allowed to go anywhere. Here, all of our investigators are Japanese. Our area is pretty large, and the wellness off of the people depends on the part of the area. :) In Japan, there aren't really rich and poor neighborhoods. They just all kind of live close and next to each other.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_6497">This week started off really eventful. We rushed from appointment to appointment from Monday to Wednesday. A few new people and also some regulars. One of the lessons was with a long time investigator. She stopped investigating because she got busy, but she's still keeping the word of wisdom and everything! She still doesn't have any time, which I would say is one of the hardest things that keep people from investigating. Everyone in Japan is CRAZY busy. Gave out a few book of Mormons. Worked with the ward a lot, got a lot of member support. We also had a few days that not much happened at all... The coolest experience we had though was that yesterday, my tire went flat, so we had to change our plans. It was Sunday, and we didn't have a pump or anything, so we just had to wait it out. We visited a less active, who was not home. We still had some time, so we decided to go housing a bit, and found someone who had some interest and told us we can come back! A young family with 2 twin boys. Super cute! Sometimes things happen so God can lead us to people. We went back today when he said we could, but no one was home. Still not giving up on them though.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_6454">And general conference was, as expected, wonderful.</span></div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-61374004538060534492015-10-25T16:11:00.000-07:002015-10-25T16:11:18.562-07:00September 28 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_2489" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Said goodbye to everyone I knew, packed my bags, and transferred! It's way sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I'll have new friends soon! My new Ward is HUGE. Like 100 people. And there's a gym in the church. There's 2 wards who attend this building. There are a few missionaries I've seen here before from my last areas, so there are a few familiar faces though. :) we have a lot of activities here though. It sounds like Eikaiwa is huge! And we have a weekly sports night in the gym that a lot of nonmembers show up to (again, becasue we actually have a gym, rare in Japan)</div>
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We have some fun investigators here, like some young moms and their kids, and I'm excited to continue to meet with everyone. </div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_2486">My new companion is F Shimai! She's way sweet! She's from Texas and is Polynesian. Her Japanese is way good and we'll have a good transfer.</span></div>
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We had a crazy good day, my last day! We had a bunch of appointments, ate sushi with a member, found a guy who was willing to learn more, handed out flyers at an ekky, and had a way cool conversation.</div>
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This conversation went like this:</div>
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*after having taken and read a little bit of our flyer*</div>
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The church of Jesus Christ... Is this your church?</div>
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Me- Yeah!</div>
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Wait, the Mormons?</div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_2494">Me- yeah, have you heard of us?</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_2456">Yeah, I've had some interest in religions so I've read stuff online... There are like Elders and Bishops....</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1445814255237_2464">Me- There's actually an Elder right here *pointing to Elder P who comes over*</span></div>
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This guy promptly freaks out like he can't believe it and we are superstars. Anyways, he knew all this stuff about temples and he word of wisdom and had a bunch of questions but then didn't want to meet and talk about them at all because apparently it's scary. Hopefully he musters up some courage and contacts us again though :) </div>
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And one funny thing that sometimes we do when we're handing out English flyers is just say random words to people and act like we're saying "do you like English?" Or something along those lines. Because no one understands us anyways and saying things like flying poodles to people is a rare oppurtunity that should not be missed. And they don't even notice. Because no one in Japan actually speaks English, as much as they study it. They all study it. But they don't speak it. </div>
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Other than that, not much new except moving in! Love you all!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-52569947189085279672015-09-26T12:42:00.003-07:002015-09-26T12:42:59.822-07:00September 13 & September 20 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_11089" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>September 13</b></div>
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This week has been kind of great but weird :) I was still sick, so had to rest for a day or two. I was basically knocked out for a few hours, but then I felt a lot better.</div>
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We met with this way cool person! K San! She came to the church because she was interested in English, but couldn't really meet at the time or the place of normal eikaiwa. So we met with her at a cafe this week, and it turns out she believes in God, sings in a gospel choir, has studied the bible, but isn't really sure like what religion is true or any of that. We've only met with her once, but we could tell how prepared she is. We're going to see if we can meet at a members house first.</div>
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We also met with a few less actives this week. M San, a gaijin from Colorado, who doesn't believe in God and thought religion is boring so went less active. There is also I Shimai, who is way nice and receptive, but is having a hard time doing things at the moment. I love meeting with her though, because she's way nice.</div>
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We had a way fun p-day this week. The whole district got together and played games (I made a missionary version of Avalon that everyone got into) and sports in the morning (I learned how to throw a football and there was a way fun slide). It was way fun :) </div>
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Love you all! Write more later! </div>
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Williamson Shimai</div>
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<b>September 20</b></div>
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Dear family, today was transfer calls!!!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_3022">
And... I am transferring! Apparently also becoming a trainer again. F Shimai. She's from California. I'm headed to another area in Osaka. Which is the heart of the city apparently. A Ward of like 100 people. Think like New York status crowded. And a real church, with 2 wards attending the same building. I'm only associated with one of them, so that's normal, but everything will change again. Hold on to your seatbelts! That's 7 companions for 8 transfers!</div>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_2912">
This last week we decided to attend seminary... And decided it needed some strengthening. A few kids come... But they all looked way sad and slept and refused to even pretend to participate. So we decided it could use some missionary strengthening! We're going to try and show up most days, and see if we can lend some spirit :)</div>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_11358">
Just like a few transfers ago, we had a day to invite friends to church! And a lot of members way helped out! We saw some less actives back, and some new faces. It was way good, and everyone's really starting to catch the missionary spirit. I'm excited to see where this takes people. </div>
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One cool experience we had was being able to talk to a less active for the first time in a long time! We were teaching his mom when he came in and tried to BOLT. But his mom was way nice and got him to come drink juice with us and he relaxed a lot and we had a nice conversation. :)</div>
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Anyways, next week will be crazy! I have no idea what's going on!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_11363">
Sister Williamson</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super big slide on Pday</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-24348437960321409342015-09-26T12:38:00.000-07:002015-09-26T12:38:05.746-07:00August 30 & September 6 - Osaka Area<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>August 30 </b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">To Elsie: You still in on the mission thing? There are fun times. There are things I've done and people I've met that I will remember forever, and friendships that I can't imagine not having had. But it is also the hardest thing I've ever done. Really really hard. It feels like years. You don't just give up what you're doing/career/stuff, you give all of yourself. All your hobbies, all your time, all your energy. You have to be prepared for that too. I always saw missionaries just doing their thing and thought it was way carefree. But it is exactly opposite. </span><br />
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<b>September 6</b></div>
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This week I got way sick! But we had a bunch of lessons that I really wanted to go to, so I may have pretended not to be sick, and just went anyway... It was kind of hard but also super with it. We were able to eat with less actives and investigators lots this week! It was super fun! I'm not always sure how to help investigators out, but I know that showing them love is half of the way.</div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_10781">But we were really blessed this week to have a really cool experience giving away a Book of Mormon. An investigator who before had really only expressed interest in English was super touched to be given a Book of Mormon and way proud she had one. I have no idea how it happened really, but it was super special, and just testified to me strongly that the spirit can touch people's hearts.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_10783">There's a member that we teach who this week really was able to understand the atonement just a little better and it really touched him.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_10785">We also visited members who live in a care home and just sang songs with them and told them stories. It was a really cool experience, and I hope we're able to go back sometime.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_10787">We were also able to make a bunch of appointments this week for meeting new people, so hopefully we get somewhere with that! :)</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_10789">Things are going! </span></div>
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Love,</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-10662862823932215442015-09-26T12:30:00.001-07:002015-09-26T12:30:09.495-07:00August 23 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7196" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
This week!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7212" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
I've been struggling feeling like the work is progressing here, so I decided to make a miracle board again (where we write one way the lord blessed our efforts each day.</div>
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Just seeing them helps us remember all the cool things that have happened, and since we're in a position to notice them, we are sent more!</div>
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Here's our coolest experience from this week:</div>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7257">
One day, me and my companion settled down to do some SKK. We planned for our investigators, and it wasn't particularly exciting. But then, our phone buzzed. We had gotten a text from a number! We did not know this person, but they had decided to text the missionaries.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7259">
"Heroo! Are you still in America?"</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7260">
The intended recipient was probably not still in America, but we weren't letting the mystery texter go that easy. And it was in English! An American, maybe?</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7261">
"Yes! This is Sister Williamson :)</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7262">
But, I'm sorry, your number isn't put in our phone right now, so I don't know who you are…"</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7263">
"Oh I see it. So M--- and C---- went back to US? I'm S---- by the way."</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7264">
I knew these people! M Shimai and C Shimai were both serving still! This means that he was a (semi) recent contact and that I could try to form a connection!</div>
<div>
M and C Shimai are awesome! They are still in Japan but C is now in ---- and M is in -----.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7265">
How did you meet them?"</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7266">
"They gave me bible near by Nara.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7267">
Are u missionary too?"</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7268">
This person was both a gospel contact (I had assumed interest in English class or something by the tone of it) and seemed more interested in talking to missionaries than these specific people. Easy opening!</div>
<div>
"Yeah, I am :) That's cool! Did you get to read it at all?"</div>
<div>
"To be honest, not much. It's hard to read it in English myself"</div>
<div>
This person has an English Book of Mormon! Not really sure why, but had tried to read it!</div>
<div>
But I had no idea why he had English... Maybe a phillipino or something who understands English just a little better than Tagalog? We asked, and he was Japanese. :) Also found out that he lives in a different zone...</div>
<div>
"Why were you interested in the Bible?"</div>
<div>
"Oh why? How can I not Lol"</div>
<div>
This person is golden. For sure.</div>
<div>
After asking if he'd like to meet with missionaries in his area.</div>
<div>
"Do you have time to talk bit?</div>
<div>
Can you speak Japanese?"</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_7269">
Yes and yes. We got a call, and to our surprise, it was a guy the whole time! Basically he kept saying he really wanted to find truth and really wanted to meet with missionaries. He remembered our book after attending another church with a friend, and has some questions and so started texting us. So, in spite our our efforts to be super smooth in the phone conversation, being blunt would have worked just as well haha.</div>
<div>
People all over are being prepared to receive the gospel, we just have to keep our eyes open.</div>
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Also, T-San came to the church for the first time for a lesson! It went super well! We gave him a tour of the building and then talked about his questions.</div>
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We taught a lesson to the guy who delivers the liahonas! He's way cool!</div>
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Also we've heard from the members that one of the moms who comes to Eikaiwa decided she really likes it and invited all her friends and their kids to come so we'll see what happens there. Our Eikaiwa might become huge. We heard because one of the mom's called the bishop about it apparently and asked if it was the same Eikaiwa.</div>
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We went and did a service project! Basically swept this weird water thing... I don't really know. But it was fun and we talked to lots of people.</div>
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And finished up the week with Stake conference, which included awesome talks from our mission president and 8 sisters attempting to sleep in the same apartment.</div>
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And then there was a ward activity where we all watched meet the mormons! And none of the people we invited came... But it was okay because I understood a good 70%ish of the movie so yay Japanese!</div>
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Love you all! </div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Service!</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-87661824976276739752015-09-26T12:25:00.003-07:002015-09-26T12:30:49.741-07:00August 16 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1443293931821_6267" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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My new companion is Sister P from Utah and she's really blonde. Even more than me, so we're stick out pretty badly here. We haven't worked together for too long, so not super sure, but it seems like she's 1. Obedient 2. Loves service 3. Laid back 4. Thinks about others 5. Steps out of her comfort zone. This'll be a good transfer (though I way miss my little trainee!)</div>
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We're trying to meet this girls parents. Then we'll see.</div>
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This week was really fast and then slow. Since S Shiami was transferring, a lot of people agreed to meet with us. We were able to visit and talk to pretty much everyone on a list she made of people to visit before she left. And she has a lot of family for the ward, so actually her cousins were coming to stay at another one of her cousins house anyways last weekend, so they went to Church and she got to see them, then for p-day the members drove us around and showed her places where her mom grew up. Not the most exciting, but it was cool for her. Then she transferred, and in came P Shimai. This is the first time my Japanese has ever been better then my companions, so it's kind of a weird experience having to make sure she stays in the conversation. We've done a lot of just contacts together so far, and she's fun to work with. Then on Sunday, one of the people who used to be a missionary here came and visited! We visited some investigators with home, and she had a dinner at the church where she invited some of her old investigators to. It was way fun! And one of the best ways to contact old investigators! :)</div>
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I love you guys!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kylie Shimai & S Shimai</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-31892449260049891142015-08-12T10:54:00.000-07:002015-08-12T10:57:56.035-07:00August 9 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_9897" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
August 9</div>
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So, it's time for another transfer. It looks like my companion will be leaving me. She's headed out to her second area, and I'll be here to welcome Sister P. That's 6 for 7. (Six companions for 7 transfers)</div>
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This week we were really able to see the work advance. Some of our investigators started progressing, and we found a new one! A twelve year old who has been to some activities with friends before, seems way cute. :) Also, we talked to a less active who wants to return. :) </div>
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We had a Natsu Matsuri! (That's like a summer festival)</div>
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It was way fun, and lots of the ward came. </div>
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Yeah, this week wasn't too eventful, but it was a good one. Just doing our things :)</div>
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Love you all,</div>
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Sister Williamson<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrUIy44J7afxwi2_VJLPa_5sW2FkzY0X0fEfXrM3560KIsDLXM80xXSCHUYRPe9nbELbND20AoQSR0GkGAVqdjnZ-kXoCNTrTEjpr2XcmluL6BIh5aCoMmJf4kNXFE7TpuYtFlzaNH36B/s1600/IMG_0060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrUIy44J7afxwi2_VJLPa_5sW2FkzY0X0fEfXrM3560KIsDLXM80xXSCHUYRPe9nbELbND20AoQSR0GkGAVqdjnZ-kXoCNTrTEjpr2XcmluL6BIh5aCoMmJf4kNXFE7TpuYtFlzaNH36B/s320/IMG_0060.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Goodbye H Shimai</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-26717607236063355232015-08-12T10:44:00.000-07:002015-08-12T10:56:08.908-07:00July 26 & August 2 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8096" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>July 26</b></div>
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This week not too much happened. We didn't have a lot of time. We had Zone Conference, District meeting, and Trainers Trainee Meeting in Kobe.</div>
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One thing I forgot to mention is, in Japan, if you hear a car playing music, it is not an ice cream truck. That is a garbage truck. Their garbage trucks play really cute little tunes.</div>
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My investigators from my last area got baptized this week! Wish I could have been there but it's a huge step :) way proud of them.</div>
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Yeah, but today we went to Koyasan, it was pretty cool. You get kind of used to them in Japan, but it's always fun to see all the foreigners hanging out.</div>
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Sorry, kind of a lame week report!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<b>August 2</b></div>
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This week was a good week. Still mostly concentrating on finding. We had about half an hour on Friday and we ran into a young couple who seem GOLDEN - lots of interest, young, like the idea of God and said hey want to meet. The only obstacle right now is that we'd had a hard time contacting them, but they were so genuine in the contact that I'm not too worried yet.</div>
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We also found a guy who went to church in Boston - he opened the door and knew immediately who we were. It sounds like he had some doubts about Joseph Smith and liked coffee too much to join, but is willing to study again even though he "doesn't think he is going to change." We'll see if he does or not, but we'll never know what the spirit can do if we flinch at every obstacle. </div>
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Our investigator T-San has been coming to church a lot recently. He's from Vietnam, but his Japanese is really good. He's really hesitant to join until he gets an answer, but is progressing pretty well. Has a lot of concerns about things like Adam and Eve.</div>
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We rededication the mission after our fast this last Sunday! Way cool experience, everyone basically found a quite spot in their area and said a prayer to rededicate it to the Lord. I'm not sure what blessings will come from it, but Welch Kaichou is really trying to push an attitude change along with it to hit a new level of success not seen in a long time. And I think we can do it. :) </div>
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There was a giant fireworks festival this week too! It went too late for us to see all of it, but we got to see the first half with a member. :)</div>
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Yeah, this week's been really good.</div>
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Ok, another fun fact about Japan. We found Walmart. It's called Seiyuu here, and seems different at first, until you notice that it has a lot of international foods stocked around, and the baskets and check out screens literally just say Walmart. It is Walmart.</div>
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And we had an adventure (kind of) this week. My companion used the phone after church and then put it down and forgot about it. I thought she had the phone, so we blissfully went off on our way to dendo. (Missionary work) We discovered it's loss at around 9:07 in our apartment, and didn't really know what to do. We couldn't call anyone to ask, and leaving the apartment after 9 is breaking the rules, so we decided to hang out and run over to the church for excersice first thing the next morning.</div>
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Well, apparently the elders thought we died. We woke up around 11:15 to the elders at our apartment knocking to like make sure we hadn't vanished. (Which if you know anything about being a missionary, that's like a way dramatic thing. The only other time I've had that happen is when the elders wanted a church key because they were locked out of their apartment and had to sleep at the church) I feel like it was maybe a little too worried about us not answering for around 4 hours, but I guess it's nice to know if we do get kidnapped or something the elders will figure it out in no time flat.</div>
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I guess that's it for this week!</div>
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Press forward!</div>
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I love you guys!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_9729">
Also go read The Call to be Christlike by elder Holland. I found it recently and thought it was way good.</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PDay at <span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Koyasan </span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-38537909700173488062015-08-12T10:18:00.002-07:002015-08-12T10:54:42.382-07:00July 19 - Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_7983" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
This week (or last week, I'm not %100 percent sure) marked my halfway point. Way weird. It seems like no time but also for forever. Like I just got here but also like I've always been a missionary. And I've made so many friends that I can't even imagine not knowing.</div>
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This week we had a TYPHOON. Which sounds scary, and might be scary in other parts of Japan, but here just meant that everyone freaked out and it rained nonstop for half a week.</div>
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So basically what I'm saying is that EVEN A TYPHOON will not stop missionaries from working. So ha weather.</div>
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This week I had a companion exchange! Me and H Shimai partied it up (visited people in a typhoon) and had a really good Koukan.</div>
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In case any of you are wondering - yes, I can get by in Japanese. I can hear it pretty well for most topics, but I have a really hard time speaking it still. All the grammar is easy to learn the rules for, but hard to memorize well enough to not make simple mistakes in daily speech. I can get my point across, but it sounds really weird. Not a problem though. :) </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8006">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8005">
I had an idea a while back about Eikaiwa that I tried this week.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8007">
So basically, back in Izumo a problem we had with Eikaiwa was that we had a lot of new people come a surprising amount of the time - but only once and would never come back. It was way sad, because it takes a few times for a person to come to Eikaiwa before you can get them to notice and feel comfortable about the church part of it long enough to be able to talk to them a little more about the church part of missionary work and see if they have interest. We'd kind of try awkwardly to let the new people know if they had any questions about that sort of thing, we'd be happy to talk with them. But it wasn't really effective at all. So I figured, if we did a little 10 minute message 15 minutes after class ends about some small interesting subject that anyone who has interest in can listen to, we could see if new people (or even older people) have any interest in a way that doesn't seem overly directed towards them in a scary way. So last week, (4 new people came) we announced before class started that for anyone who has interest, we want to explain why we pray before Eikaiwa and what we beleive about prayer in a separate room after class. There wasn't really any reaction. After class, everyone kind of went barabara and I was trying to decide if I should announce it one more time to remind everyone just in case (I really wanted it to work) or just drop it and decide it was a bad idea, when, 3 of the girls talking to Saijo Shimai randomly asked her "hey, when's that prayer thing happening? We want to hear it."</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8008">
Which made me the happiest camper in the world. </div>
<div>
And then when the last girl saw the 3 girls coming in she decided to listen too, and we had a really nice little lesson about our relationship about Heavenly Father and why prayer is important. It wasn't a lesson (I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to push it as far as giving a commitment), but I think could really help in identifying those with potential. Just barely thought to ask the mission president about it, so hopefully we can continue. :) </div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8009">
Had a cool experience this week though. Me and my companion were going to go visit this less active, but her key would NOT fit in her bike - which means no riding. We tried everything we could think of - praying, petting the key, sudden burts of energy, but nothing worked. So we gave up and decided to do things close to the church. We were able to meet with an investigator on the street (and drop her... But sooner than later I guess) and run into a way nice lady who gave us her phone number and asked us to come over and look at her flowers sometime. Not sure how much interest she has but it was way cool. Then, on the way back,we tried one more time... And with a lot of effort... The key fit back in! And on the way back we ran into a pi and a kid who comes to Eikaiwa who is also a pi.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8010">
Nothing too dramatic, but probably where the lord wanted us to be. :)</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8011">
Anyways, everyone, keep up the hard work!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8012">
Sister Williamson</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8012">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9FSSZtzwBcJYdSXDjZXeFVn_7kZHBo95iVGT3pJmynMIFojunFD6Mtksc-mJ-X7YuRdGSsSllfmtjrMkE2MVQroBt0To2tnbXb1q8VGdYCrX_mIZtNhMoPSjrSdjLmAgAjItc4_HuGpR/s1600/IMG_0034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9FSSZtzwBcJYdSXDjZXeFVn_7kZHBo95iVGT3pJmynMIFojunFD6Mtksc-mJ-X7YuRdGSsSllfmtjrMkE2MVQroBt0To2tnbXb1q8VGdYCrX_mIZtNhMoPSjrSdjLmAgAjItc4_HuGpR/s320/IMG_0034.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Williamson Shimai & H Shimai</td></tr>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_8012">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-84588505034366761212015-08-12T10:12:00.001-07:002015-08-12T10:12:34.413-07:00June 28 & July 5 - Izumo & Osaka Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4199" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>June 28</b></div>
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Dear everyone.</div>
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I don't know what's happening right now.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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Also, I'm becoming a tech sister! Which is like my dream! All of my previous companions can testify to that.</div>
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But basically things are changing. Dramatically.</div>
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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.</div>
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Also, my companion is training a new missionary here.</div>
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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.</div>
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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...</div>
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21 nonmembers showed up! </div>
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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. :)</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4220" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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We also had some cool things happen with investigators this week -</div>
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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. :) </div>
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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.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4224" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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.)</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4233" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4232" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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!</div>
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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! </div>
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4310">
<b>July 5</b></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4310">
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.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4311">
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 :)</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4316">
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...</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4317">
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.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4318">
...except investigators. That's irony. (Maybe? I don't actually understand the meaning of that word)</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4319">
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.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4320">
Yeah, but any prayers would be appreciated.</div>
<div>
So in all reality, the last while hasn't been too eventful.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4321">
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.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4322">
Also, saying goodbye to the lovely Ward Members and Mae chan was sad.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4323">
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.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4324">
I'm not sure what to do about him... Pretty sure that was the opposite of the spirit.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4325">
Anyways, love you all!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4325">
Sister Williamson</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1439398484987_4325">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-bFAPhQ-kDzN1h3LF9dwfWgxrrYZwDQ-Ddm3kQlqo8Q43gIF9DpmCFyDVK_iZZiLOUGs8uLCSzViq8AJ5pAJTyJPf_FDIwd8I3VGVvkbkBlHIOLJM7Er9k_tmpDUzNcpP2gd0nDyWN9y/s1600/IMG_0045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-bFAPhQ-kDzN1h3LF9dwfWgxrrYZwDQ-Ddm3kQlqo8Q43gIF9DpmCFyDVK_iZZiLOUGs8uLCSzViq8AJ5pAJTyJPf_FDIwd8I3VGVvkbkBlHIOLJM7Er9k_tmpDUzNcpP2gd0nDyWN9y/s320/IMG_0045.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Go Idaho! On transfer day saw Elder Kartchner & Elder Roylance</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-31347622379334323462015-06-22T10:48:00.002-07:002015-06-22T10:48:38.469-07:00June 21 - Izumo Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15484" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15483">Yeah, Father's Day is a thing here! :) </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15482">This week was full of miracles!</span><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15479">
We visited a lot of PI's, and former investigators, and a few of them were still really interested, so we're excited to work with them! On top of that, we received a lot of referrals from the ward this week. Particularly from one Brother in the ward who is crazy excited about sharing the gospel. One of them was a lady who works in the government, so we went and met with her and it was way fun.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15489">
The highlight of my week was a pasta party! We were able to get a lot of our investigators and less actives to come - they outnumbered the members there! It was way fun talking to everyone, and getting them loosened up about church things. <br clear="none" /><div>
Today we went to a lighthouse! The B family took us! They took a lot of pictures, and it was so much fun! I'll get them when I'm able to get on Facebook probably.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15490">
Working the work!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15491">
My favorite was this week, I taught my first official official lesson in Portugese. There are a lot of Portugese speakers here, so I've been kind of surrounded by it and working my way around it, but this week at church some members came up to us and we're like "hey, can you teach this guy right now?" And he was like "I want to learn more about the Mormons" and we were like "okay!" And taught him a lesson half in English and had some branch members help with the Portugese. Honestly, he wants to find the truth more than anything. High hopes for him and his daughter.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15492">
Love you all,</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15493">
Sister Williamson</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15493">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuJYmdPJEonRp7DpgcMemcYRI-Zz5FzjTrsmXXLJlScWDHSDNpmuKmzR8ul8ZlnPajPxm07j9Ohj7cxIrbYyEMlrWp84omGZHKFRiEASxXb94W-Nb1c0Fbf8xRl4F9X-Itr3VHXX_o2w1k/s1600/DV3U1610+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuJYmdPJEonRp7DpgcMemcYRI-Zz5FzjTrsmXXLJlScWDHSDNpmuKmzR8ul8ZlnPajPxm07j9Ohj7cxIrbYyEMlrWp84omGZHKFRiEASxXb94W-Nb1c0Fbf8xRl4F9X-Itr3VHXX_o2w1k/s320/DV3U1610+copy.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Japanese, now Portugese?</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-18956379745804949702015-06-22T10:40:00.003-07:002015-06-22T10:40:40.287-07:00June 15 - Happy Birthday in Izumo<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15363" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Here's a conversation from this week:</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15368" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Before church starts, 9:45</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15369" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Branch 2nd counceler(mark): Hey Williamson Shimai, are you ready for your talk?</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15370" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Me: Talk? I have a talk?</div>
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Mark: We didn't tell you?</div>
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Me: No... What's it on?</div>
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Mark: *checks paper* Journal writing.</div>
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Me: ... *feeling anxious*</div>
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Mark: ...</div>
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Me: ...</div>
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Mark: Missionary work</div>
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Me: Okay.</div>
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I have never been so glad to have gospel library.</div>
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So I spent the sacrament trying to put my thoughts together, and then went up there and just kind of tried to get my thoughts across in Japanese. I didn't do too badly in that respect, which means probably 1/4 of it was good Japanese, 1/2 was not great but understandable Japanese, and 1/4 of it was totally butchered Japanese. But I felt good about it after, because it was SO sudden. Trusting the spirt helped my message get across somehow.</div>
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One day my Japanese will not be broken, but for now I will make do and bug the Japanese Elders to correct my OYM's and keep praying for it to improve.</div>
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So I don't know how much of this I've written so far, but our branch has this thing right now where we're trying to get 30 nonmembers to come to church on the 28th and our mission president is coming up and yeah. So we are inviting EVERYONE to church and visiting the members a lot to encourage them however we can.</div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1434948618240_15383">One of our shigansha's this week was a boss! She was supposed to bike to church, but she lost her bike key, and so walked there for half an hour. She's been bringing her Book of Mormon to school with her, and bought a cover for it and made markings for where the different books start, and has already finished second Nephi. She loves church, and is way committed. We're still kind of trying to figure out who should be teaching these kids though, because they do live in the next area (the parents live in our area), which takes us a lot of time traveling to get to, but they are being taught as a family and the dad really wants the Shimai teaching them.</span></div>
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And also today is my birthday!!!! It's been way good! My lovely parents sent me a bunch of American food. Weirdly enough, the thing I was most excited about was the mashed potatoes. :) Mami Shimai drew me a picture! And the elders left pancakes at our door this morning. And then I went out and ate sushi and we bought me a really benri dendo bag. My companion's taken it upon herself to make me a cake and not let me help. (Though I would totally love to help) It's been a good day.</div>
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Love you all!</div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Today is Kylie's Birthday, 20!</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-88462146449065012772015-06-02T21:58:00.002-07:002015-06-02T22:07:12.563-07:00June 1 - Izumo Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1433305019755_11328" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
June 1 - </div>
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There was a way fun ward activity this week, we were able to get some less actives to it. Lots of basketball, ping pong, frisbee. Mostly I just played with all the toddlers though. We have SO MANY YOUTH in our branch. I had a lot of fun running and falling over and over - the kids loved it too! </div>
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Then today we found basically the Japanese free version of the discovery center. All the windows, tornado experiments, fun stuff, except super deserted. Way fun though! They had a bunch of optical illusions, and me and Burnett Shimai basically acted like 4 year olds while all the Japanese people wondered why gaijin are so weird. </div>
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A member invited someone to church on Sunday and SHE CAME. And she was way cool, and decided to stay for all three hours. But the funny thing is I don't even think her and the member are even friends, because he didn't really speak to her or sit next to her or anything. We had to ask him to get him to come to the same Sunday School class she was attending. But I guess he just invites everyone to church always, so I'm not going to complain.</div>
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We ran into a less active on the train on her BIRTHDAY. She was way happy to see us, and we invited her to FHE where we made her cake!</div>
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We also had interviews with the president! I always love when I get to see and talk to Welch Kaichou, and you can tell he has a vision for missionary work.</div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1433305019755_11786">With the Elders, something really cool happened with one of their investigators. He's a really genki old guy, really set in his ways, but super nice and loves religion (we found him and passed him to the elders, so I've been in lessons with him once or twice) The Elders are teaching him the restoration, and when they're talking about the plates, he gets really interested and says "buddism has something like that too!", walks over to his butsudan, and pulls out AN ANCIENT SCROLL MADE OF GOLD WITH ENGRAVINGS ON IT. It's written in old Japanese, so he has no idea what's written, but apparently it's been passed down through his family forever. I'm half convinced he has something like the Book of Mormon part 2 or crazy cool like that. I don't think i've even ever heard of golden plates (or scrolls I guess) being used in secular history. If nothing else, it's a way cool backing to the realisticness of the Book of Mormon having been written on golden plates.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1433305019755_11788">One member sent us A LOT of bread, because she works at a bread shop and I think there were leftovers that she could take home. I know that sounds small, but it was the best thing in the entire world.</span></div>
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Other than that we weren't really able to teach many lessons this week. Our teaching pools gotten a bit small, because any time where we would have been finding we're instead trying to get the area book all updated.</div>
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I know this work is the lord's work, and it goes at his pace, and he controls it. And because of that, it will never fail. He knows where his sheep are, and they'll be found exactly when they're needed to. A lot of times we stress over something we did well, or badly, but really it just comes down to how much we're giving and how much we trust the lord. Those are what matters.</div>
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Love you all!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1433305019755_11793">
Sister Williamson</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The field is ripe already to harvest - D&C 4:4 <br />They found the only wheat field in Japan :)</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06636112886701509026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644825125697263151.post-43642049590968663692015-06-02T21:49:00.001-07:002015-06-02T21:50:01.865-07:00May 17 & 25 - Izumo Area<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1433305019755_11216" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
May 17 -</div>
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Transfer day was today and for the first time... Nothing is changing! Same area, same companion. Our whole area is staying the same actually, so it's a little weird, but we're having a great time in Izumo, so we're happy, the members are happy, and I hope that our investigators are happy too! Haha. So we're going to have a little party today, which just consists of like... Being happy and eating doughnuts. We might see if we can find a science center or something. :) </div>
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This week was crazy! We were able to meet with so many people! And I now like sushi apparently. :) What happened is we were supposed to meet a less active for lunch (she seems really uncomfortable when we're in her home, but switches opposite when we meet other places). We didn't really know where to go, but we knew there was a pretty cheap sushi place nearby. So we decided to go there, and I hoped that I could just get like pineapple and the fried fish they sell. Except the less active took it upon herself to order basically everything on the menu for us to try! I was really nervous, except apparently that whole "you need to try sushi 3 or 4 times first until you can like it" was true, because basically everything was delicious! (Except for Sea Urchin, that stuff is nasty)</div>
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We have a really promising new investigator. She was an investigator from a while back, and here was no reason she stopped investigating that we can find. She still comes to English every week, so we asked her if she wanted to hear our message again... And she got SO EXCITED. She was lie, Yeah! The old missionaries gave me a bible before they left! Isn't that cool! I'll bring it! (What she had was a Book of Mormon, but yeah) Then she asked us a million questions during the lesson. It was way fun. We were also able to find our first investigator from streeting ever! She just seemed really happy to talk to us, and then all a sudden was scheduling an appointment! She has heard very little, so we'll see how it goes, but I'm excited to find out!</div>
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And that part member family we're teaching - they want to be baptised! We set a date, and they seem pretty strong right now. They love church - and the church members in the branch are being awesome fellowshippers. Everyone is pitching in to make room for them.</div>
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And I am experiencing the wired tan lines that come with being a missionary. The area under my watch is a weird white blotch right now.</div>
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We're working and happy here! I've really been able to see how the Lord will bless people when we give it our all and work! Love you all at home!</div>
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Sister Kylie Williamson</div>
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For Abby - a fun thing to translate.</div>
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本当に愛していますよ!日本語を良く勉強し、上手になっていますよ!</div>
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May 25 -</div>
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This week was pretty good. We found out you can buy pizza crusts in bulk for cheap, so we had a pizza party with two less actives! (They're really recent, they were active when I came in and then there was some branch drama and we're hoping everything will calm down) We had a fun ingredient bar, but the brazilians thought the pizza was running out when it wasn't, and so decided to use ALL the cheese. It was more like a pile of cheese than a pizza! Which looked good, but presented a problem, namely, that we needed more cheese for the pizzas! The Elders ran out to get cheese, but I guess cheese is expensive or something, because inserted they came back with a large amount of chocolate, Oreos, bananas, black thunders, and Milky's(the last 2 are Japan specific candies) So we piled those on a crust instead and probably set a record for the unhealthiest pizza ever. It tasted pretty good though. And then everyone came to church, which was awesome!</div>
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Our part-member family is wanting to be baptised sooner than their date, and they're accepting everything really fast and coming to church every week, so I think they'll be able to be baptized this transfer! Which is sweet because I'm getting to the point where me staying here is a litte bimio. The girls in the family have really taken to the Elders... Haha they have to be really careful. We've been basing our lessons with them on examples, videos, and games, because they can't concentrate on just a straight up lesson very well.</div>
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There was also this random guy who called us this week. He was just asking us questions like "you're missionaries right? What country are you from?", ect. He just seemed really bored and really wanted to talk to us. Also, he assumed we were in Osaka at first, which is pretty far, so it was way weird, but he seemed nice enough. Obviously, we keep asking questions to try and figure out why he called missionaries. When it came out that I came to Japan in December, he got really excited and asked if I knew Elder Cannon. Who I did. But yeah. Turns out he's already meeting with missionaries, and then got bored one day and took their phone number and messed around with it a little bit until someone answered. It's probably one of the most random things.</div>
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Also, we randomly ran into our good friend recent convert who hadn't come to church that day on a train. She was really happy to see us. It turned out it was her birthday! We're having a party for her today at FHE. </div>
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Everyone, thanks so much! Love you all! </div>
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Sister Williamson</div>
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