Hello dear, wonderful sweet family of mine!!
I am glad to hear that everyone liked the gifts that I sent them and that they arrived there safe and sound. I was really worried about them, especially since it contained my memory card and flashdrive. Hopefully you'll enjoy the pics and videos. There were a lot. I look forward to the time that I can sit down with everyone and expalin about each picture. :) Mom I still haven't recieved the package that you sent me. I am hoping that it will get here soon and that it didn't get lost or anything. Justin, thank you for the video of Charlie. That was such a fun video to watch and made me even more excited to meet him. It made me smile so big Jen when you told me that Jackson will just start talking about me and my mission. That is so adorable and I am so happy that he isn't forgeting about me. Mom, Dad, your trip sounds amazing. It will be fun to go back there as a family. That last trip was one of the best. I am glad you are having fun at college Megs. It is just so wierd to try to picture you there, on your own, being an adult. When did that happen?? haha And way to call it Mom and Dad about Corey being the next Bishop. The bishopric sounds like they will be awesome and really help the ward become a home. That is great.
So my first news for today. I BOUGHT A NEW BIKE!!!! Yay!!! My old bike, the one that I got from another sister, quite francly, sucked. I am surprised that I made it through a transfer on that thing. It was killing my legs and knees. It was bad. But today we went with Sister Adachi to the bike store and got myself a new bike. Oh and it is heaven. It is nice and light and the seat is super comfortable. I don't feel like I am pulling a train just to go. I am really excited and now dendo (mission work) is going to be a lot more fun because I won't be dieing. Yogatta (I am happy).
Ok, now on to this last week. So Monday (just to warn you I am slipping into elder calhoon when I tell about Monday ;) ) we did some area book dendo. We called and we calle dpeople. Some of them were from as far back as 2004. So we call and we call and guess what? nothing. I think only one person answered. So we call some more. One person picked up, but it was the wrong number so nothing. The last person we called was aman form the Phillippines who has wife and 2 children and spoke english. Sister Lundy spoke with him and shared with him how we have a message about families. He didn't seem to understand so she invited him to church. and guess what? He said he would come and bring his two children with him. Yay, we obtained 3 new investigators. We were so happy and excited to be teaching to a family. But wait, what is this? They acutally do not come on Sunday. They call us from the train station and tell us they will walk to the church and meet us there. But when sacrament was about to start they were still not there. We called to check where they were. And can you guess where they were at?? At a catholic church. He thought we were from the catholic church and that is where he went. Turns out he is catholic. So they did not become our investigators after all. But we will not give up that easily and will call him again this week and ask if we can share about our church. (ok, end of callhoon speak haha)
Tuesday was probably the hardest day yet on my mission. We had a mogi lesson (practice lesson) with a member and we did plan of salvation. I have yet taught about agency and the fall of adam and eve in japanese so I gave myself that challenge. But the time was very short to prepare and so during the lesson I couldn't say anything and was getting confused and just saying things over and over again. I was sinking lower and lower through the lesson. I wanted the day over and done with. But after the lesson the member gave us feedback and told us what we can do better as teachers. It was good advice but he only focused on the things that we did wrong so it brought me even more down. So by the time we got home that night I was spent. Emotionally, spiritually and physically. I did the only thing I knew I could do. I knelt down by my desk and poured out my heart and soul to Heaven. I have never cried so hard while being on my mission. I needed help, I wanted to become the best tool ever in the hands of the savior. I wanted to really help people. I felt like a failure. I even started wondering why I was sent to Japan. Why not some english speaking mission. I was that down. But the next day the Lord slowly started blessing me. He showed me things on what I can improve on in my studying, he gave me peace and comfort and always reminds me that I have only been here for 7 weeks. It is ok. So I have been feeling A LOT better. Sure Japanese is still really hard but I am getting there. I am starting to have more patience for myself and doing better at studying. He is watching over me!! :)
One of the blessings He has provided me this week to help make me feel better and know that I can do this was giving us a wonderful investigator like Priti. Friday night we stopped by his apartment to give him a Bible. and we ended up doing a mini lesson in the parking lot. So far it is one of my favorite moments. Here we were on a cool summer night, sitting in the parking lot and I became a tool, a vessel for the spirit. Priti said that he really wants to know all the important things that Christ did for mankind. The most important things and he was saying that it doesn't talk about it so far in the Book of Mormon. I opened my mouth and told him that yes it does. It talks about the most important thing that Christ has ever done, the Atonement. From there the spirit took over. I gave no thought to the words that I would say or how I should say them. I just looked at him in the eye and spoke about the atonement and what it means to each individual and bore testimony of it. The spirit was powerful. O so very powerful. I could see it working inside of Priti. I was so grateful to have become a tool in the Lord's hand. And He granted me that blessing the next day as well when we had a real lesson with Priti. The spirit led the discussion and made things clear to Priti, such as faith and prayer. And Priti told us that he wants to be a member of baptism!! That made us so excited!!! That was the committment we wanted to leave with him. We tried to pick a date but because of his work schedule the next sunday that he is free is October 7 and before someone can get baptized they need to come to church twice. We will think about it some more and there are still a lot of things he needs to know and have. Like a testimony of Joseph Smith. But it has been so amazing to see him changing. This is what mission work is about and I am so happy to see it. We hope to see him baptized on October 7. We will even talk to President Budge and explain to him about his work problem. But no matter what happens, He is watching over everything.
That is all I have I have time for today. Sorry the e-mail isn't longer. But know that I love you with all my heart and miss and pray for you everday.
Thanks for being the best family this world has ever known!!! :D
Love,
Kenzie
p.s. On thursday night for music night that happens every thursday we did Karaoke. That was really really fun!! :)
