When you can't even say your own name

Ushiku Transfer 10 Week 3

Konnichiwa!

This past week was full of things! My brain won't work at this point. I can't think of a better word than things. Haha ^^

Zone Conference

We went to Matsudo twice this week (twice the nostalgic feelings...sorry normally I would use a really common Japanese word here instead of nostalgic, but so that all of you can understand I will stick with nostalgic). We had both Zone Conference and Exchanges so yay!!!!!!

Zone Conference was amazing! Sister Nagano gave the best training about the different tactics that Satan uses, everything from lies to manipulations to fear. It was an amazing training and something that is really relateable to missionaries. As missionaries, we don't have access to a lot of the normal ways that Satan tempts people, such as through books or TV or friends, but because Satan never gives up he finds new tactics to try and stop us from doing the work. I have definitely felt him use these tactics in my time as a missionary and so I really related to the training.

Sister Missionaries at Zone Conference

I think that one thing that really stood out to me was how easy it is for Satan to twist our good actions and thoughts and turn them into things that harm us. One thing that I have noticed in my own life is that I love to serve others and do little things that will make them happy, even if it's just writing a note, or doing a small chore that they normally do. One way that Satan has twisted that for me is by sometimes making me feel like I have to do everything for everyone else and I can't let others do things for me. Satan takes our good intentions and twists them just enough that they are no longer what Heavenly Father wants for us. However, when we can recognize the tactics Satan uses, we can change and stay on the path that Heavenly Father wants us to be on. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and his plan for us! He truly just wants us to improve. He just wants us to use our time here on Earth to learn and grow and do our best to become like him.

It was an amazing Zone Conference!

Sister Honda and I also had the chance to do the musical number. We decided to do "His Hands." Sister Honda sang and I played the piano and the Spirit was so so so strong. I almost started crying while playing the piece. Heavenly Father really blessed our abilities. We did not have much time to practice beforehand, so he blessed us to be able to play and sing, but even more important than that, he blessed us so that we could bring a special Spirit to the meeting.

Ai Shimai

Two days later, we returned to Matsudo and had exchanges! One miracle from exchanges was that I had the chance to teach an AB (after baptism) lesson to Ai Shimai!!!! I taught her as an investigator and went to her baptism and it was so amazing to continue to see the changes she is making in her life after baptism. This is the first time on my mission that I have had the chance to teach a recent convert that I also taught as an investigator, so it was a special experience for me.

One other miracle that Sister Fernelius and I saw was while we were waiting for the train. We decided to go talk to a high school girl and we found out that out of all the people we could have talked to, she was the one person who did a homestay in PROVO and HAS BEEN TO BYU and WENT TO CHURCH!!!!!!! She totally knew the church and even asked us if we were on missions right now. IF THAT ISN'T A MIRACLE I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!?!?!?!?!?!? Heavenly Father led us to her! She wants to go to college in California and study Business, so it was the perfect match. We exchanged Facebooks and when she comes to America (she wants to visit her homestay family) we are all going to meet up at BYU. YAY! That was such a kiseki!!!! (Miracle...sorry...I can't English anymore.)

As for some cute and random things:

On Monday night, we were biking home and we saw some construction workers on our street getting ready to do some road work at night. They had a bunch of giant lights that looked like mushrooms and each had its own generator and we were just dying! I tried to take a picture because they were so cute, but it isn't super clear. They were amazing though.

I bought a pack of hi-chews and I started opening them from the bottom, but then I realized "This is Japan, there has to be an easier way" and sure enough, on the other side there was a little tab to pull and it opened. I love Japan. They think of everything. Sister Honda died when I told her. Let it be known, in Japan, there is always an easier way.

Birthday Party after church

On exchanges, we stopped by McDonald's for dinner. I'm not the biggest fan of McDonald's, but they had a Black Thunder McFlurry and I died!!!!!!! It was so good!!! I love Black Thunder. Fun fact, I can't speak Katakana which is funny because Katakana is basically just saying English words with an Asian accent, but I am the worst. So I am trying to order this McFlurry and I'm supposed to say "burakku sundaa" but I just couldn't do it...it came out too American...I ended up just pointing at the picture because I couldn't do the katakana. I was half hoping that the girl at the cash register didn't read my name tag and realize that my name is also "burakku" (katakana for Black) so essentially I can't even say my own name. ^^

We had an Eikaiwa party!!!! It was super fun! The 2 Brazilian girls even brought Brazilian food and I died, I was so happy.

Miyake Shimai's birthday

This week was also Miyake Shimai's birthday. She is the Peruvian who comes to both the Japanese and the Portuguese wards and she basically loves me because I can understand everything that she says in Spanish. We made her this cute banner and surprised her on her birthday by coming to her house and singing Happy Birthday in Spanish. It was so cute!!!

Murakami family

Then on Saturday we had a huge kiseki!!!!!! Yay MIRACLES!!!! So Sister Honda has a lot of relatives that live in this mission and she has met many of them throughout her mission, but there is one family (the Murakamis) that I worked with in Urayasu who she has always wanted to meet. They are her second cousins. Well, Saturday morning Murakami Shimai called us and invited us to dinner in Ushiku. They were coming all the way here from Urayasu just to eat with us!!!! We said yes and were so excited.

However, throughout the whole morning, we both felt a little iffy about it because we had a large chunk of time blocked off for it and because they weren't an Ushiku member family we felt awkward about it. We counseled about it and called her back to tell her that we would only have 1 hour (that's how long we have for dinner) to be with them. Normally with members we would do a lesson and be able to stay for 1.5 hours, but we didn't feel good about it. She was completely fine with it and as soon as we got that all squared away, the Spirit came right back into our companionship.

Well that night, we met for dinner and it was amazing! I missed the Murakamis so much!!!!!!!!!!!!! They got to meet Sister Honda and I got to see them again, and the two oldest daughters both wrote me notes and I just died, I was so happy. As we biked away, we were both very grateful for the commitment we made to being obedient (only 1 hour for dinner) and we were able to have the Spirit with us as we went housing that night.

Nao Chan did our hair at the party

I can testify that obedience is key to missionary work. Obedience is not annoying, it is not something that we should play around with saying "I don't have to keep the rules" it isn't something we can just do 90% on. 100% obedience brings blessings. That night, as we were housing we came to an apartment with the door open so we called in "Excuse me!" And this adorable family came out. We sang "I am a Child of God" to them and the Spirit was so strong. I hope that it was an experience that those two little kids would never forget. I won't forget. The Spirit was amazingly strong and I know that if we hadn't been obedient earlier that day, we would not have been able to have the power to sing like that. Obedience brings blessings.

I am so so grateful to be here in Ushiku. I can't even begin to tell you how crazy busy this past week has been and I won't even try to explain what happened yesterday (long story short we had two churches, I went on splits with 5 different members in one day, we almost set a baptismal date and went to a birthday party). I love it here and I love the people so much.

I am grateful every day to be a missionary in the Japan Tokyo Mission. Thank you all for your love and support!!!!!

Love,

ブラック姉妹
Black Shimai