Hello oh dear family of mine.
I absalutley loved the pictures and was soooo happy to hear how the baptism went. Once more Amanda I am very proud of you!! Everyone looked great. It is such a comfort to
know how much the Lord is blessing and taking care of everyone while I am away. It makes it easier to be away. But I shall be honest. Last week was a hard one. I didn't notice right away but I was sad and it wasn't until one of my companions pointed out that it may be hard because of everything that has been going on at home. Megan receiving her call and Amanda getting baptized. Don't get me wrong I LOVE hearing about EVERYTHING that everyone is doing. I am better now. I think it lasted like maybe a day. But that is a wonderful lesson I have learned on my missoin. What family really means and as I have met people here and seen where they are from and some of their situations it makes me very proud to be a part of the ol Dolan clan. :D
I did ask President Budge if it would be ok to skype/call before mothers day and he said it would be fine, whatever works for the family. So if I understood right Mom, you wanted to call me on the 10th which would be my 11th. So it probably would work best if it was like Christmas again. If I did the morning of my Saturday which would put you in the afternoon of your friday. Does that sound good? Also I wanted to do something a lil different then last time. We can start on skype to say hello but then just do the phone call. That way I can get a chance to talk to everyone one on one. Then when we end get back on skype and make the goodbyes. Is that ok? That way too we don't have to worry about the faultyness of skype. I can't believe that is in 3 weeks almost. I feel like I just talked to you at Christmas. How time flies. I am really looking forward to seeing and talking to everyone. It will be really fun. :D
Ok so for this week. Well this was great because we found 6 new investigators. And what is amazing is that they all kind of fell into our lap. One of our new investigators is a former investigator. She dropped us back in February but last week we felt prompted to call her. We did and she was so happy to hear from us. We met with her and talked to her more about the Gospel and what made her first want to meet the missionaries. She said that the sisters she met the first time seemed to be special and very kind and she wanted to learn why. We told her she can be the same. We encouraged her to pray and she did. She is really interested but seems to be hestitant becasue of her husband. She says that he isn't a church person. We really want to meet him and get to know him and find out from him personally what he thinks. So that is our goal the next time we meet her, is to set up an appointment to meet the husband
Another is a new Eikaiwa student that came last week and after class he came up to me and asked "why are there so many different christian sects?" Sister Hunsaker and I taught a little bit while there and invited him to church. He told us that he wouldn't be able to go because on the weekends he lives in Kanagawa but he surprised us yesterday by coming and we had a lesson with him after chruch. He has many questions and says he wants to find the right church that fits him. We taught him lesson 1 and focused on Joseph Smith. He really wants to know but we are praying that he doesn't have too many questions that can cloud the answers we give him. We set up another appointment to meet with him and he says he will come to Eikaiwa everyweek when he can.
Another investigator is from the Adachi area but recently moved here. He came to church on his own yesterday where we first met him. He is very nice and is looking forward to hearing more about the church. He is also very impressed with the ward members who welcomed him warmly yesterday. He too will start coming to Eikaiwa and we plan on teaching him after the english lesson.
Another is a referral from Ryu (one of our previous investigators) who is from China. When we met Ryu he was there and we ended up teaching him a lesson. He was very interested and when we asked him if he would be baptized after he knew for himself that these things were true he said of course. We are meeting both with him and with Ryu again this Thursday. I am excited. I love Ryu and her friend is very sweet. I really hope their hearts are softened even more and that they will embrace the gospel.
And finally one is a referral from one of the members in the ward. This investiagtor first met the missionaries up in Hokaido and was very impressed with them. He said they seemed different and he was curious about who they were and so wanted to learn more about what they were doing. We met with him on Saturday and gave him a very samll church tour and taught him the restoration a little bit. He really seems interested and wants to learn more. He also wants to go to Eikaiwa which is wonderful. Our class is starting to get big. I think last week we had about 11 people there. It is usually 6 or so. So I am happy to be finding all of these people who have both interest in the church and eikaiwa. The Lord is really pouring out His blessings here.
On Friday we had a 3 zone conference and I always love conferences. The chance to get together with the other missionaries and receive some great training. There President Budge also told us about the big changes that will take place this year. He told us of all the sisters that will be coming in and there a LOT!! It is crazy It will be crazy. There are going to be a lot of sisters training after their first transfer. He also told us that how we will be doing transfers will be different. Instead of doing them on Monday we will be doing them on Thursdays and the missionaries who are returning will be returning on Firday mornings instead of Tuesday afternoons. That means I will be leaving on Nov.1 Very close to exactly 18 months. Yippee!! haha The thing that stook out the most from the conference is the trainings. We were trained on how to become better teachers and President Budge said that a happy missionary is a teaching missionary. And it is because they always have that special spirit. You do not know how true that is. I think that is why I love Utusnomiya so much. I have taught so much here it is great. This last week we were so busy with meeting people I became exhausted. Missionaries are the teachers and the MEMBERS are the finders. If things were perfect then a missionary's planner would be filled with appointments with no room to find because the members would be referring their friends. And that is how the Lord would hasten His work even more. So I encourage you to invite friends to hear the gospel and give the missionaries around you the oppurutnity to take part in the teaching spirit. It is one of the best feelings in the world. :D
On Saturday it was really fun because we went with our recent convert, Kentaroh and a few other members and played tennis. I am not skilled at it at all but I did slowly improve as we played. Justin, you and I are playing when I get home. We didn't get the chance before I left but I am going to make it happen when I get home It is a very fun sport and a great work out!! I will send some pictures. :D
Working with 2 companions is very fun but of course with it comes some challenges. Especially when you are training someone with another person. SIster Vail and I have got into some little tiffs which left our poor bean in the middle of the tension. The most recent one we had was on Friday and I learned a very good lesson from it. Sister Vail wrote me a note about how we should train better I responded and she wrote again. From that note I chose to become really offended and so had the spirit leave me and caused contention amaong our companionship. I know it is only a short and fast explanatoin of what happend. But I learned a great deal from it and DO NOT want to choose that again. I ignored the promtings of the spirit that was telling me not to choose that path but I ignored it and chose it and it became worse. I love my companions and I feel very blessed to be with them. They are both teaching me so much. They are the best. :D
I love you so much and am so proud to be called your daughter, sister and friend.
I hope this week is amazing for you and know you are always in my prayers.
Love,
Kenzie
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