Hello Family!
Thank you for everyones e-mail. I love getting them. One of my favorite parts of the week. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I can't believe that you are actually building a house Just. That is way awesome. Where at? I hope you enjoy my room. Just to warn you, the matress ain't that great. Amanda, I think April sounds wonderful. It is a beautiful month and gives you plenty of time. So you have that figured out, do you have a baptism date chosen?When? If not, get on it girl. It is your soul we are talking about haha. :D So Megs, when can you start your papers? I would imagine sometime in April or maybe even late March???
So this week was my first week in Shibuya and it was great. My good sense of direction is kind of lost here. I get very turned around because a lot of the buildings look the same. So I just follow Nishihara shimai. She has been here for 3 transfers so she knows where everything is. Speaking of her I absalutly LOVE her!!! She is so cute and such a big help to me. I feel bad sometimes because I am always asking her questions about Japanese but she is very patient and kind and always willing to help me. This transfer is her 10th so she has 2 more left after this one and so will be going back home in February. She is from Hokkaido which is in the Sapparo mission. Her dad was released recently as a Bishop. She is wonderful!!
So this last week I learned how to street. That is basically the prime dendo that we do. And I will tell you what it can be scary. Well at first. Once I get over my first initial fear I am alright and can do it. And even though my japanese is getting better I still wish that I could speak more and understand more so that I could contribute more to the conversation. I just need to be patient with myself which isn't one of my strong suits.
We also had Eikaiwa on Wednesday and in this area the class is HUGE. They actually have 4 classes and they are very organized about it. Everyone sigsn in and fills out a form where they mark different areas of the Gospel that they are interested in learning about. That is how we find a lot of people. Tonight for example we are teaching a lesson to a new student that came last week. It is a great finding method.
Last Friday we taught a lesson to a girl who is friends with a member and goes to institute here in Shibuya. This girls name is Sayaka (the one we taught) and she is super sweet. We ended up teaching her lesson and even talked a little bit about baptism and the Holy Ghost. She wanted to see the baptismal font and she had a lot of wonderful questions. She is someone who we call kinjin (golden investigator). Unfortunately she doesn't live in our area but we will probably still see her sometimes. I didn't say much during the lesson and at the beginning that was really bugging me that I couldn't understand or speak as well as I wanted to. But then I put a stop to the thoughts and just focused on her and tried to focus on the spirit. I figured as long as I can feel the sprit that is good enough. The spirit can promt me what to say. So even though I didn't say a whole lot I know that I said what the spirit wanted me to say. That is the important thing.
Saturday and Sunday we watched conference and I LOVED IT!!! I've been longing for it for a long time and it was so good to finally watch. It was kinda of wierd not to be in Salt Lake but to see it on the screen. haha All of the talks were wonderful and I felt the spirit touch me deeply with some of them. What was everyone's favorite? For both the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions we had potential investigator come with us. She is from America and has been here for two years. She has been going to the Japanese ward for the last few weeks or so and came with us this last weekend. She watched both sessions with Nishihara shimai in Japanese. Her Japanese is really good and she wants to learn more. She is amazing. On Saturday I told her that the talks are online and she can read through them so that night she read through all of the sessions, including the priesthood and really enjoyed that. Next time we see her we are going to invite her to take the lessons. I am excited. Her name is Chelsea.
So having an English ward in the area is not a bad thing at all. We have a lot of dinner appointments with everyone and so that means home cooked american meals. So good. Like last night we went over to the relief society presidents house and she made us homemade pizza, real pizza!! They have pizza here in Japan but they put weird things on it like fish and corn. They love corn. Anyway, so last week I realized that what I have missed from home is chips and salsa. Yes I am my mothers daughter and miss it. We had it at a members house and I about died I was in heaven. So I like having a English ward. :D
Other then that there isn't much else to say. I am really excited about being in Shibuya and feel like we are going to see some amazing things this transfer. Wonderful miracles. It will be good. If everyone can just keep praying for me and to have success that would be appreciated. And I do thank you all for your prayers and love. I feel it everyday.
I love you all!! Until next week,
Kenzie
