Hey Family,
First off I want to say that I LOVE you sooo much. My heart and my mind were with you this last weekend-I will be honest I was a little trunky. CONGRATUALTIONS JUSTIN AND AMANDA!!!!! Just I can't believe you are actually married and that I missed it. I seem to miss the big things in your life like when you came home from your mission and your wedding. But know that I still love you the same as ever. And Amanda welcome offically to the family. I have thought about you as a sister for a long time but now it is offical. You carry the Dolan name. Wear it proudly. haha Also Megs I heard that you did a great job on your talk as I knew you would. Now you need to prep yourself for giving the same amazing talks but in spanish. Because it will happen. My ward asked me suddenly to speak and share my testimony when someone couldn't make it. But you will be fine, much better than me I am sure. I also heard about the awesome party reception. I would think of anything less for Justin and Amanda. I am so happy that everything turned out well, everyone was happy and had a good time. I was praying for you all. I am soo happy you had so much fun. :D Now the next step to work towards is the Temple Wedding. Make sure you make that the first priority because if you do I know that great blessings will follow. :D
Ok so onto my week that had many things happen.
Well first off I went to Kamakura last week whichi is where I bought Dad his swords. Which speaking of whichi I cannot believe that they got there so fast. They told me it would get there in a week maybe. That is great. I am glad that you like them Dad. And they are real replicas of a Samuri sword. Last year a Samuri movie came out (which I plan to buy before coming home) and the swords are like the ones in the movie. Glad they got to you safe. In Kamakura there is a giant buddah which I sent a picture of. I love seeing places like this becuase it really reminds me that I am actually in Japan. If I come back with any of you that is a place we for sure need to go to. Because also in Kamakura is a big shrine and you are able to see Mt. Fugi from the beach. Unfortunatly we didn't have time to go to the beach and so I didn't see Mt. Fugi. Next time. :D It was really fun because we went with both the Kanagawa Elders and the Kohoku Elders. It was a blast!!!
Tuesday was an interesting day. I was feeling frustrated and stressed about different things and the relationships in the apartment wasn't the strongest and basically just felt like nothing was going right. But the Lord showed me how much He loves me because we visted a member and she has her own business whichi is aroma therapy massage. She mixed up some aromas that was supposed to be soothing and relaxing and it worked. It started relaxing me and I felt a lot better. She also gave me a nice hand massgae. I just felt like that was such a huge tender mercy from the Lord. I never knew how much I would like aroma therapy. haha And He even showed me that day a little bit that what I am doing here is good thing. He has actually been showing me that for the whole week. Right now we literally have no one to teach. We don't have any investigators or any potential investigators. But despite that I feel very strongly about helping the members and strengthening them and getting them into doing missionary work. I have received many answers about it but there is still always the thought of what other missionaries will think and then the numbers always come out 0 so even though I know in my heart that what I am doing is what the Lord wants sometimes little doubts creep up that I am messing up and not being a good missionary. I know I know that isn't true. and I am working on it. Believe me I am working on it.
Wednesday we had the best zone meeting I have ever had on my mission. So before I explain why I don't think I have explained what the Japan Tokyo South Mission theme is. It's: Obedience is the price, Faith is the power, love is the motive, the Spirit is the key, CHRIST IS THE REASON. So in the meeting we talked about how Christ is the reason why we are here on missions. You may have heard of this activity (because I have before) but it was my first time experienceing it. The zone leaders asked one Elder to do 10 push ups for each person so that they can have an ice cream. Elder Hill went around the room very slowly and asked specifically for each person if the elder would do 10 push ups so that they can have ice cream, it was like, "Elder Schumaucher, will you do 10 push ups so that Sister Dolan can have a coolish?"There were about 16-18 missionaries. I think in total it was about 160 push ups. And guess who was the very last one. It was me. So when it got to me the Elder was of course very tired and his arms hurt a lot. He was huffing really loud and doing them very slow. I was crying so hard because I imagined Christ doing that for me. After He suffered so much pain for everyone else He suffered even more for me so that I can be cleansed, be made strong and returen to His the the Fathers prescence. You can not imagine the spirit that was in there. The zone leaders than talked about how that is why we are here. To share this message. Christ already suffered for the people here. And whether they reject or not it will never change the act that He performed. We need to share with people what was done for them. That is our responsiblity and that is our Reason. I think the same is true for all members. I shared that in my talk on Sunday. I told the members that it is our responsibility as Christ disciples to share the message to everyone. We cannot take the choice away from them. It was a very powerful meeting and I can't fully explain my feelings from it. But know it was amazing.
From Wednesday through the weekend we were busy visting members. After the training we visisted 2 members and do practice lesson using the new training that we received. Thursday we met with our Ward mission leader for a practice lesson and Friday we had 3 appointments with members. It is amazing the change that is starting to take place in the ward. They are allowing the missionaries to come to their homes and share with them messages. Which is exaclty what I want and makes me happy. And this week we have a lot of meal appointments set up with members. I am excited. And speaking of meal appointments, we had one on Sunday night with a family from Bolivia. They are the cutest family ever and just so you know Megs when I told the father about your mission he said the Uruguay is the best place in South America. :D But this family is very cute and have many kids. And that is the funny story I want to share with you. We were asking about their children and their ages and their ages go 10, 8, 4, 2, 1 and 5 months but the mother is 2 months pregnant. Shocked? Ya so were we when we heard. And that is when the brother said that he tries for self control but there is nothing you can do about it. Haha we were dying of laughter when he said that. Us and the Elders couldn't believe that he said that. Funniest thing ever.
As you can notice from the title of the e-mail is that it is becoming very HOT!!!! This weekend has been between 38 and 40 C which is about 100-105 degrees in F. But with the humidity it feels hotter. So right now I don't look pretty at all because I am sweating from every pore and there is really no helping it. I will send a picture to show you what I mean. And if you zoom up on my face you can seen the sweat. Just make sure that this picture doesn't end up on facebook.
This week I was also able to learn more about companion which shed some more light on why she thinks the way she does and do things that she does. I don't want to share what she has been through in an e-mail but she has been through A LOT in her life. It is my first time meeting someone who has been through so much. I have really learned from her to be humble and also have learned the power of the Atonement and how it can change a persons life. Ever since I have learned more about it things between us have been better - at least better understanding. Sometimes it can still be hard but now I am able to understand and have more patience for her and for myself.
This week has been really amazing with the Lord showing me how much He loves me and how much of value I have to the mission. I can't even explain it. And the strongest I felt was when I was in the Celestial Room in the Temple today. My chest was literally burning and I felt so much of His love. It was truly amazing. I can't believe that I only have 1 more time to be going to the Tokyo Temple but how blessed I feel that it is in my mission and I have been able to go and it has helped me have the desire to go every week when I am home.
I love you all and you have no idea how much I miss you!!! Until next week,
Love,
Kenzie
