Hey Family,
Wow, I can't believe Justin and Amanda are getting married this week! That is so crazy, where has the time gone. And then Megan will leave and then I will be home. So many things happening in the Dolan home. :D Mom I liked the video of Charlie jumping over the fence. Well,,,at least the fence looks pretty right. haha I hope everyone will enjoy this week with family and take joy in this special occasion. Don't let stress and the hecticness get in the way of this special moment. I have learned that on my mission. Take the joyful moments when you can and always look for the joy in anything. I know it is a lot of work with the farewell and wedding so close to each other and also a lot of family but how often do we get to have all the family together. Not often. And I am very jealous that I will be missing everyone. So please just enjoy this week. Don't get stressed or angry or frustrated (I say this because I know the Dolan's) This is a special moment, enjoy the ride.
Well this last week nothing much really happend. My companion became sick and for three days had to take it easy. I was able to do splits with our roomates though and went with the other Japanese sister and did some streeting and such. That was really fun. It has been a while since I have done that kind of streeting. It was still nerve racking but I enjoyed it. I was feeling the joy of just inviting. But we have been able to visit a lot of members last week and we have a lot of appointments with them for this next week. Yesterday I felt the spirit really strong and it helped me to see the little bit of success we have been having. The atomosphere at church now is lot different then when I first came. We still don't receive referrals from the members or anything so there is still a lot of improvement but I am feeling more of the members love and they are allowing us to come over to their house more. I can feel a change start taking place. And while I was sitting in Sacrament meeting and praying about how we can do better to find investigators I looked around at all the members and could the investigators that they have for us. Many of them are part members and if every member just brought one to two friends to church each week the membership would double and we would see wonderful success. I could feel the spirit of the Lord pushing me to work with the members. Get them fired up with missionary work and so be bold and straight with them. I felt the Lord's promise that if I do my part He will do His. I really want to help this ward. My love for them are growing more and more. They are so sweet!!
This last week waas summer festival and that was a lot of fun. On Thursday we ended Eikaiwa early to go and watch the fireworks. They were in another city but we could see them from close to the church. They were really good but it was kind of sad because it was really cloudy and so some fireworks went high into them and would explode but we couldn't see them. But it was still fun to see. Our eikaiwa students were really excited to watch them. haha And then on Saturday we went to a part of our area with the Elders to do a kubari kai but there was a summer festival down by the river and so we watched and then the Elders and I actually went down and tried dancing. It was so much fun and a lot of people were amazed to see 3 foreigners trying to dance. My companion was filming the whole thing and said that many people were telling thei kids to dance so that they could teach us how. haha I have a video of us dancing but it is too long to send so you will just have to wait. But it was really fun to take part in the Japanese culture. And today we are going with the Elders to Kamakura which has a lot of shrines and ninja shops. It should be really fun. I am excited.
Well that is all for this week. I love you all and enjoy the weekend. I will be thinking of you.
Oh and next Tuesday will be temple pday so that is when I will do e-mails.
I love you,
Kenzie
