The Miracles are coming with me to Urayasu :)

Konnichiwa!

I can officially say that again because I am now in Urayasu! A Japanese area! Speaking Japanese! Whoooooo!!!!

My last few days in Oizumi were crazy! We tried to visit a few people one last time and I had to pack all my stuff. It was rough, but I was able to say goodbye to almost everyone!

Marli and Abraham

On Tuesday, my last day, we had a party at Ping Pong and a bunch of people came by to say goodbye! The Elders even went out and bought food to celebrate a little bit. Dayane and Sayuri stopped by and gave me a cute neck warmer and gloves and everyone signed my bye-bye book with the sweetest messages. It was so fun! We played Ping Pong and took pictures and had a great time. Marli invited us over for one last Peruvian meal before I left and we were able to eat good food and teach her a really good lesson about the Restoration! She really understood it and had some good thoughts and questions about it. I'm sad that I won't be able to watch her progress more, but Sister Pourre told me today that she went to church on Sunday and that makes me so happy!

Wednesday was a strange day because it was the first time on my whole mission that I was alone! Crazy!!!!! On Transfer Day, the missionaries transferring are allowed to travel by themselves. It was so awkward. I'm so used to having a companion to back me up. It took me about 2.5 hours to get from Oizumi to Urayasu. I had to wake up at 5:30 to finish packing, have one last breakfast with Sister Pourre (CRYYYYYY) then walk to the station. It was a sad goodbye, but I look forward to seeing her again someday. She was a great trainer and I will miss her!

Naomi and Duda

I arrived in Urayasu about 10:30 and it is soooooo different from Oizumi. There are so many more people and more buildings, more everything. I met Sister Chinain and Hitomi Shimai (a super cute Recent Convert) at the train station and then we saw the church before going back to the apartment.

FUN FACT: The Church has 3 stories and used to be a Pet Store :) I will send a picture next week!

Another FUN FACT: Every night at 8:30, we can hear the fireworks from Disneyland. :) Also, one of the members in the Ward is a Disney Prince. I haven't met him yet, but apparently he is great.

That day we walked back to the church to help Yamamoto Shimai make Piñatas for the kids she works with. It was so fun because she speaks English (yay!) and we were able to talk about a lot of the people in the Ward. She gave us a lot of good advice, and even though I didn't know anyone at that time, I started loving them anyways!

Pinatas

Partway through making the piñatas we got a phone call. It was a miracle phone call! A woman called us saying she investigated the church about a year ago and she wants us to teach her more about the Book of Mormon and her daughter wanted to come to the Halloween party again this year. We were so excited! Later, we found her in Area Book and apparently she was not contacted earlier because her phone number changed, so it was amazing that she called us because she still has a desire to know! Her name is Takagi-San and she is so amazing! We were able to have a phone lesson with her later that week and she was so excited when we shared our favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon.

A bike parking lot in Urayasu

Friday was filled with more miracles. We had a lesson with Maria Shimai's niece who just moved here from the Philippines. We had to take a train and a bus to get to their apartment, and then we got on the wrong bus so it was super crazy and we were so late, but they were really nice about it. It's been getting cold here so they made us some hot chocolate! The niece's name is Bernadette and she is so sweet! Maria Shimai asked us to teach her some Japanese so we started out teaching her the Hiragana alphabet, and she picked up on it so fast. She learned the whole thing in like 30 min, it took me a solid 3-6 weeks in the MTC. We were also able to share a little message with her. She is really amazing. Her being in Japan is inspiring her aunt and uncle to come back to church and she wants to come too. It really is a miracle and we are excited to keep working with her as well!

Later that night was Mission School! In Urayasu, every Friday night they have 3 hours of Mission School. Hour 1: Eiken (an English test) Preperation, Hour 2: Kodomo Eiken (children's English class) and more Eiken help and Hour 3: Free Time where anyone can come learn anything. There is a chart with all the missionaries' names and the things they are good at, so people can come in and ask for help learning basically anything. Some people want to learn piano, others want to learn other languages. This week Sister Chinain taught French to two members and I taught another girl Spanish. It was way fun and I realized that I remember more Spanish grammar than I thought I did.

Elder Kenley (our District Leader) told me later "I now know that you actually know Spanish." Hahahaha, good to know that you now believe that I do actually speak Spanish, that I didn't just make it up.

I guess now would be a good time to introduce my fellow missionaries.

My new companion, Sister Chinain

Sister Chinain (Pronounced Shi-Na) is my new companion. She is going home at the end of December. She is from Tahiti (isn't that so cool!), is fluent in French, has been here one transfer, and it amazing!!! She loves to dance, she makes good food, her mom sent her a ton of soy milk so we are really blessed, and we accidentally twinned the first 3 days I was here. Sadly we don't have pictures, but if that isn't companionship unity, I don't know what is.

Elder Kenley and Elder Kooymen are the first set of Elders in Urayasu. Elder Kenley is my District Leader and he is hilarious. Elder Kooymen was in the MTC with me, but he was 1 transfer behind me. We played frisbee a few times when I hurt my thumb.

Elder Akagi and Elder Payne are the other two elders. Elder Akagi was in my MTC district, so that was a great reunion! Elder Payne transferred here the same time that I did, so we are both newbies in Urayasu.

Zone P-day

So those are the missionaries in Urayasu! They are all great missionaries and I look forward to a great transfer with them.

Continuing with the week though, on Saturday we had our ward Halloween Party and it was so fun! There were games on all 3 levels and kids running all over the place. The decorations were spot on, and although missionaries weren't allowed to dress up, everyone else did and there were some great costumes. The missionaries created a Halloween Race for the kids and it was really fun! I met a lot of Ward members at the party. There are a lot of people in this Ward so I really need to work hard to learn all their names. It was great to just be able to talk to people though. It really built my confidence because I seem to remember more Japanese then I thought I would. There is still so much more I need to study though! Ah!!!!! I have forgotten so much!

The Halloween Party was really good though. I'm glad I was able to meet some members because on Sunday I missed church. Why?

BECAUSE I WENT TO SAYURI'S BAPTISM!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

We woke up at 4:40am to get to the Kumagaya church by 8:00. It was so early, but so worth it.

As soon as I got my transfer call last week, I called President Nagano to see if I could still go to Sayuri's baptism and he said yes. I am so glad he did because it was the highlight of my mission so far.

Sister Pourre asked me to give a spiritual thought before the baptism so I gave a little talk about baptism and the Holy Ghost in Portuguese before the baptism. It was hard, but I did it! Then the actual baptism happened.

In that moment when Sayuri was baptized, I felt so much joy, I thought I was going to burst. I think that I was able to feel, just for a moment, just how much our Heavenly Father loves us. I felt so much joy and happiness and love for Sayuri, there is no way to describe it. I truly felt like my heart was going to explode, I was so happy for her. It was amazing to watch her grow over the last few weeks and to have this desire to receive baptism. I am so so so thankful that I was able to see her take this step and come closer to her Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It was such a memorable moment. I want to be able to feel like that all the time. Sayuri is such a special special girl and I will never forget her. She is amazing and I am so thankful that she allowed me to be a part of her life.

Sayuri's baptism

After the baptism, we came back to Urayasu and there was another miracle! They were having a shokujikai, basically like a little party after church. Sister Chinain and I were so happy because we didn't have lunch and we were starving. It was another chance for me to meet some more members which was so great!

That night we went to FHE and we were able to eat more and build more relationships. This Ward is amazing! They are all so excited to do missionary work and to help us in anyway we need. They really inspire me to be a better missionary.

I am so so so excited to be here in Urayasu. It is an amazing area with a fantastic Ward. Sister Chinain and I are ready to work hard this transfer and see some miracles! Let's go!!!

Love you all, see you next week!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai