New Companion

Ushiku Transfer 11 Week 1

Konnichiwa!

Welcome to the new transfer! Featuring my new companion, Sister Savage!!!!! It's weird not having Sister Honda here to reflect on all the things we did the past week as we write our emails, but she is having a great time in Yachiyo so it's all good!

During Sister Honda's last few days, I was still recovering from my really bad cold, so we spent the days sleeping and packing (I slept, she packed). However, we also had the chance to go say goodbye to some of her favorite members.

On Tuesday, we had the chance to go eat dinner with the Koikes and the Matsubaras and it was so cute and sad at the same time! Koike Shimai made us a really good dinner and we just talked about their mission experiences and our mission experiences and it was so great. Also, I brought a lot of Disney stickers with me on my mission and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them because I still had a lot so I decided to give them to Koike Shimai's two daughters, Mi and Leah, and they were over the moon! They were ecstatic. It was the cutest thing ever!!!!!!!

We also had the chance to go to Eikaiwa in Ryuugasaki. This Tuesday our Kodomo EIkaiwa class in Ryuugasaki was canceled because there wasn't room for us, but because it was the last Tuesday of the transfer we wanted to go so that Sister Honda could say goodbye to Nao-chan (one of our investigators that goes to Eikaiwa in Ryuugasaki). That was also sad, but there was also a miracle that happened!

So, we always start and end Mission School classes with a prayer and so on Tuesday we decided to play Rock Paper Scissors to see who would pray. There was only us and the Elders, a few members, Nao-chan and her older brother Kota, who is also an investigator. Nao-chan won and she gave a great prayer! But then, at the end of class she was like "I said the opening prayer, so Kota you have to say the closing prayer." He was a little shy about it and said that he didn't know how, but Nao wasn't having any of that. She taught him how to pray using the same hamburger analogy that we used to teach her almost a month ago!!!! And then he prayed!!! Wow! She remembered and then taught her brother! That was a really cool miracle. We are so proud of her! <3

Graduation

We also had another miracle this week! Because some of the new missionaries coming in had visa problems, they couldn't come until Wednesday which meant that Transfer Day was moved to Thursday! This meant that both Sister Honda and I were able to be at the Graduation for our Eikaiwa Basic class! They were so sad last week when they found out that one of us would be transferring and might not be there for the Graduation, but when we were both there, they were so happy!

Miyake Shimai - like my mom, but Spanish

The Graduation was really great! We gave them all certificates and then gave a presentation about graduations in America and they all loved it. It was such a blessing to be able to see them all grow over the past 2 transfers and really rise to the challenge of moving onto the next level. I love them so much! Over the next 5 weeks, Sister Savage and I will be doing a lot of finding to find students for our new Basic class starting in November. We are excited!

This leads to Transfer Day! It was so sad saying goodbye to Sister Honda. Even though it's only for 6 weeks, I already miss her! <3 Hehehe

The morning of Transfer Day it was raining so so hard and my new companion's train got delayed. Well, Sister Honda had to leave on her train and through a series of events I ended up waiting with the Elders for an hour until my new companion came.

Sister Savage

So a little bit about Sister Savage! She is from Highland, Utah, loves singing and art, is a Transfer 3 missionary (she has only been out 3 months) and is amazing! She has so much energy! It has completely reenergized me. I don't know how it happened. In fact, sometimes I feel a little selfish because I feel like I'm stealing her energy, haha :)

We have seen so many miracles together already! The main miracle day was on Saturday. Our amazing investigator Nodoka-chan was supposed to come to both the Women's Conference and the YW activity right afterwards, but she caught a cold that morning and couldn't come. So that changed all our plans for the rest of the day. We ended up watching the Women's Conference in Spanish with a YW who just moved in (well I watched in Spanish and Sister Savage read it in English on her tablet) and then we went out finding.

The actual finding time was just full of miracles. We were talking to this one college student at her apartment when all of a sudden her cat ran outside. We spent like 10 minutes trying to help her catch the cat and she was really grateful for our help. She studied Christian religions at school so she took a pamphlet, but doesn't really have time to meet. However, her neighbor (a family of 4) said that we could come back next week!!!! Yay!!! Miracles!!!

Mission School

The biggest miracle of all though was that we stopped this one girl on the street and started talking to her in English. Her English was way good and she was a middle school student so we invited her to Eikaiwa. Well, the next day, we got 2 calls from a random number and when we finally called back, it was the girl's mom! Apparently their whole family used to come to Eikaiwa a long time ago. When the girl gave her mom the flyer we gave her and talked about how cute we were and nice and how we complimented her English, the mom recognized the church and gave us a call to find out more about our classes! They are really really interested in coming back and she wants to meet us! Her daughter has some confidence issues and other things so it meant a lot to the mom that we were able to boost her confidence and make her really happy.

We had no idea when we stopped her that all of this would come of it. I remember stopping her and just thinking "I don't want to scare her!" I just wanted to help her and invite her to English. I am so glad that we stopped her though and talked to her. God has a plan for everything. He needed Nodoka-chan to get sick so that we would change our plans and be put in the path of this girl. I really hope that we have the chance to meet her again soon!

Bowling

There are just so many miracles from this week. I think Sister Savage brought the miracles with her from Narita because on Friday we saw another huge miracle! We went out bowling and to lunch with a PI. She is Nao-chan's brother's girlfriend and she is just the cutest! We love her! Well, in the car ride from bowling to lunch we found out that she loves choirs and so we invited her to come listen to General Conference and to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She was so excited! She really really wants to come! She even said that she would bring Kota with her which is even better!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH ALL THE MIRACLES!!!!!!

It has been a great week here in Ushiku and I can't wait for this next week as well! We have a lot of great plans for this transfer and I'm excited to see them be put into action!!!

I love you all! Have a great week!!!!

ブラック姉妹
Black Shimai

Katsu and Karaage - two of my favorites