Amazing Miracle

Hey Family,

 Well the first bit of news is an amazing miracle that took place in our area. Last week was transfers and no I didn`t get transfered but there was a change. So before me and my companion were working in two areas, two wards. Well they split the area and so now me and my companion are just working in the Kouhoku ward and two new sisters came and are working in the Kanagawa ward. How amazing is that!!!? So our apartment has become a 4 man and if you think that our apartment is that big I can tell you no. We have been sleeping shoulder to shoulder and my companion has been working at the kitchen table. It is a very tiny apartment but with the amazing miracle that it is I will take it. How amazing it is that I am allowed to witness the Lord hastening His work. He really knows this people and he really knows me. I was getting pretty stressed covering two areas. Now I feel I can give a hundred percent to Kouhoku and see wonderful things happen. I am really excited!!!! It is a wonderful blessing from the Lord. Because of transfers and with 4 people moving in we had to get the apartment ready so that is what we did last Tuesday and Wednesday. And Thursday the new Sisters came and we did weekly planning and then had Eikaiwa that night.

Friday was really fun because we went to a new part of our area with the Elders and did some housing and streeting there. We were able to talk to one mother who seemed to have interest but then she was pulled away by her children. She said that she would call us and I hope she does. On the way home from that area we stopped by Ikea and had some delicious fries and hot dogs. haha That night was children english class and it was great because a lady that elder Johnson and I talked to a few weeks ago about the class came with her son and she brought her friend who has three daughters. They said they had a lot of fun and will come back again. When they do we want to invite them to church and to hear the message. I was so excited about it. :D

On Friday night there was an interesting instance where 6 missionaries were talking to 10 or police men. We met the elders at one of the train stations because we were going to go together to the stake presidents house for a meal. On our way there the elder that was leading the group had a bike accident. There was a family standing near the side of the road on the sidewalk and the children were playing. The 7 year old girl pushed her 3 year old brother and that put in the path of the bike (which was going slow and he did notice them playing a litte rough). Anyway the boy started crying and his wrist seemed a bit swollen  but I didn`t think it was broken or anything. But the ambulance was called (that is the thing about Japan over the smallest things they go to the hospital like for a pimple or the sniffles) Anyway the ambulance came then two cops on motorcycles a cop car and a cop truck. Probably about 10 all together but they arrived at different times and kept asking for the same story and same explanation over and over again. They even drew circles on the sidwalk that made no sense but apparantly it was to map out what happend. It was pretty interesting. My first taste of Japanese law. They talked to us for about an hour.  My companion was pretty shaken up about it and yesterday was still not happy for a lot of different reasons. The boy ended up being ok just a bruise and the elder who hit him went to the hospital yesterday with Sister Wada to apologize and talk. The parents were nice about it and the father admitted that he wasn`t watching his son closly enough. So I am pretty sure everything has worked out fine and my companion is feeling better about things. I was able to help out the little girl who was crying and freakin out. Who knew that my psychology classes would come in handy. I knew she was freakin out because everyone else was so I just talked to her calmly and asked about what things she likes and everytime she was talking to me and looking at me she too was completly calm. It was only when she looked at her brother and everyone else that she would freak out. I was glad that I was able to help out in some small way. But it will be a memory I won:t forget probably. The Japanese have interesting ways of doing things.

I love you all so much. You are the greatest family ever. Oh and just to give you a heads up. There may be times that I will need to get on the computer early to do e-mails. Right now all 4 of us are at the church e-mailing but just in case I get on earlier I wanted to let you know. I love you all and unti next week.

Love always and forever from across the ocean

Kenzie

Coming Home

Hey Family,

Hope you all had a good week this week. Amanda's wedding shower looked like fun, especially since I was there. Haha the cut out looks great. It is weird to see a life size photo of me. Also thank you for sending JD's e-mail to me. He is doing wonderful and I am so proud of him and the person he is becoming and the wonderful success he is having. It made me glad to hear.

So for the first big news I know my return date now. It is October 8^th. That is coming up so fast I can't believe it. It was an interesting weekend with that though. The Assistants called me and told me that President wants people to extend so have me go home on November 22^nd. The way he made it sound was like I didn't have choice because he asked if I had any family issues that would prevent me from going home then. Obviously I don't and said that November was fine. After we hung up though and thinking about with school in mind I wondered if it would be ok. I ended up calling President Wada and talking to him about my concerns. He actually told me that I had a choice to go home then or earlier. And actually he would need permission from Salt Lake to have me stay at that long. He left the decision to me and told me he would do anything he could to help me out with school or anything. So I had to think of what to do. It weighed on my mind a lot. But after much thought and prayer I realized that November just didn't feel right. I knew that if I did it it would just be to say that I extended and I would probably end up regretting it. But having those choices was a blessing. It made me realize just how much time I have left and how much I absolutely LOVE my mission. I started crying a lot just thinking about leaving. Peoples faces and experience came to my mind and how much I have learned and grown. Serving a mission has really changed my life. I would not be the person I am not if I did not serve the Lord in this capacity. I thank Him everyday for trusting me enough to give me this responsibility and this “once in an eternity” experience. It is truly humbling. And the nice thing about going home in October is that there are some members who will be coming to Salt Lake at the end of that month. I am excited to see them and introduce you to them. They are the best!!

The other news it that I don't know about transfers yet. They have changed the way they do transfers. We get the calls on Tuesdays now and if you are transfering you do it on Thursday. So tomorrow morning I find out what is happening. Sister Tada and I both feel that we won't be companions. But whether that means one of us gets transferred or two sisters come here and they split the area I don't know. And speaking of my companion, this week has been good. We have had a lot of fun together. Since our talk last week the walls have come down and there is more love and trust. Still some culture differences of course but it has been good.

Sadly the work has still been slow. We were able to meet with Dakko last week and teach her a lesson. She had questions about prayer and so we read from the Book of Mormon together and explained the importance of prayer and reading the book of Momron. I was able to give my testimony and an experience with the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. There really is no spirit like the one you have while you are teaching someone and baring a powerful testimony through the spirit. It is the best experience EVER!! I am hoping that with this next transfer they will split the Sisters. Having two areas and two wards to cover is hard because of the areas is far and just riding the bike to get there takes up a lot of time. For the members and the peoples sake I am praying for a split. I feel like the sister missionaries will be able to focus more and have more success not having to split the focus. I guess I will see what happens tomorrow.

Last week we had interviews with President Wada. I can not say how much I love him. He is so great and that was the best interview that I have had during my mission. He helped me out so much and gave me wonderful love filled advice. It is sad that I only have short time with him but I plan to keep in contact with him and with Sister Wada. They really are the best ever. I love them soo much.

Today there was a BBQ for the Kanagawa and they also had a talent show and Narissa with her sister came. I really love her and I want to start teaching her so bad. She gave her presentation for her thesis last Saturday and we met last Thursday and helped her with it since it was in English. Now she has to wait for feedback on if they accept it or not and then she will start writing her thesis. So right now she has time and that is why she was able to come today. She and her sister are so cute. I pray for a miracle with them. :D

Well that is pretty much it for this last. I don't have my journal or planner on me so I can't remember a lot of details or experiences worth writing except for a lot of streeting. The work is slow but my heart is full of joy!! :D

I love you all so much and pray for you everyday.

Love,

Kenzie

  

A Week of Growth

Hey Family,

I am glad to hear that you all had a good 4th of July and had a good week in general. On the 4th we had Eikaiwa (free english class) and we kind of celebrated it. That was the day that we ended up having a party so there were balloons and food and games. It was fun. The Elders popped the balloons after the part with their pens so it was our version of fireworks. It was pretty funny. I will say serving a mission and coming to another country has helped me appreciate my own country even more, especially since that country is America. Don't misunderstand I love Japan. I love the people, the food, the culture but I am true to my counry. I am for sure more patriotic now.

So this last week we had a zone conference where we met President and Sister Wada but the interviews will be tomorrow. But he also came to one of our wards yesterday to speak so i was able to see him then. I LOVE President Wada. He is amazing. I am actuallly kind of sad that I have him for such a short time but he has come at a perfect time during my mission. He is just so full of love and is real about things and has a great love for the gospel and for each missionary individually. It makes me so happy. Sometimes President Budge had a business feel to how he ran things. He to is a great President but I think I connect better with Presidnet Wada already. :D So they talked about the return a little bit last week in the conference and the zone leaders talked about it with him as well in the leader training counsel that was held last week. What it sounds like is that President Wada wants to the missionaries who came together to go home together (and for sisters go home with the scheduled elders that was before) and what is sounds like the earlier date rather than the later. I will find out more tomorrow when I ask him personally but for now it sounds like I will be coming home at the beginning of October sometime. I will let you know more next week but that is the rumor mill.

So this last week I have learned many things. One thing that stuck out was how much I love my mission. Last week I had a dream in which we were at a zone meeting and instead of the usual transfer call we had transfer letters and we took turns reading the letters out loud. When I opened my I read in big black letters YOU WILL BE GOING HOME! TONIGHT! I was so surprised and stammered over my words saying why?why?why? I am not ready to go home yet all while I was bawling really hard.  When I woke up and thought about the dream it made me realize how much I really do love my mission ever though recently it has been hard with not much success and companionship problems. What I am learning, gaining and the people I am meeting are all worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Even knowing all of the tears and hardships I would face. Knowing how tired my body would be. I would do this again, I wouldn't even think about it. It has been a huge blessing in my life. And from thinking that I have thought a lot about where I am at right now in my mission and how I want to finish. I want to be sure to finsh strong. Not holding anything back. That also means taking better care of my body. The Lord has taught many different lessons this last week. Everyday I have learned something. How grateful I am for that. Even if it was a struggle. When I think about who I am now and who I was before I left I am different. I have changed. For that I will forever be grateful. I wish I could explain better the things that I have learned the things that I have felt. It was good, hard week for personal lessons.

This much I can tell you. I know that this church is true. I know that the Savior lives and helps us through trials. And I know that the Book of Mormon is a word of God. My testimony is solid on that. Through reading the book of Mormon we can have the spirit more in our lives. I know it, I have experienced it. What a great blessing and strength. Remember to be reading it EVERYDAY.

I love you all so very much.

I pray that this week is good for you.

Love always

Kenzie 

  

Saying Goodbye and Saying Hello

Hey Family,

Megs you looked absolutely beautiful in your pictures. Thank you for sending them to me. I must say though that you look much cuter than me and way more fashionable then I did or do. So unfair haha

With the weather being so hot be careful and drink a lot of water (Mom, lay off the D.P a bit. :D) Recently it has been cool here but I imagine the heat will come in a few weeks about the same time that I first came to Japan. Can you believe that is in two weeks. Crazy!! O and Mom I did get the package. I got it last week on Friday I believe. They really came on Thursday but I wasn't home so it came on Friday instead. Thank you for sending that. The mesh garments are great and I really like my pens and japan mickey pin. You are the best!! :D

Tokyo South Mission has officially begun. Saturday night President Wada arrived and tomorrow we meet with him in a conference then next week is interviews. In two weeks is transfers once again. The south mission will be receiving missionaries slowly so only 7 new missionaries will be coming in then. I still have the feeling though that I will be transferring. I guess we will see. We also offically said goodbye to President and Sister Budge last week. How interesting that I met them a year ago in the MTC thinking that they would be with me till the end of my mission and there we were saying goodbye already. How things change. But how exciting to be a part of this historic change and to say that I served in two missions. :D What a great opportunity.

This last week was spent A LOT on the bike. For two days straight we were on our bikes for a straight 4 hours and one of those days it was down pouring. Very wet. My butt became very sore. And in case I haven't mentioned how many hill there are in our area, well there is a lot!! More than San Fran. I think. So my body is spent. I now know why Sister Missionaries only serve for 18 months. I am starting to feel it right now. I don't want to go home but everyday I am looking forward to time to sleep. I am actually worried about the condition my body will be in when I get home. That is why I am kind of hoping to end in October instead of November. I don't think my body can make it that long. Please don't judge me. :D

This go around at training has been a little harder with my companion being Japanese. Just with the culture differences and she almost gets angry about learning English. We have had just a few tiffs. It is very interesting doing it in Japanese. And I have learned things from them. We had one this morning for example and I discovered that I am a very prideful person and when pride gets hurt I am not a nice person. It has been a hard lesson.

What has also been hard is that we haven't been having much success lately. We only really have 1 investigator who will probably be moving slowly and not much else. We have been getting out but we also need to talk to more people. I am hoping we will be able to do that this week. Sometimes I just feel like I am not where I should be on my mission. It stresses me out a lot. But I just try to remember what I have done and what I have seen and I feel better. I have seen many miracles on my mission and met many wonderful people. I have changed and grown a lot and I know that the mission is shaping me to be the person that I will be for the rest of my life. Of that I am grateful. I love Japan and the people here and I feel very blessed to have come here. It is the best thing I could be doing with my life right now.

I love you all and pray for you every night.

Love,
Kenzie

Dear Sister Dolan, you are hear by called to serve in the Japan Tokyo South Mission

Hey Y'all,

 

It is official. I am now in the south mission. This is the very last week of being apart of the Tokyo Mission then next week President Wada comes and I will be apart of the Tokyo South Mission. And here I thought that I would have one mission President for my whole mission. haha how wrong is that. I look forward to serving under President Wada. I know him from when I worked in Shibuya and he is very nice. It will be fun and I feel very honored to be right in the middle of the Lord hastening His work. It is exciting to think about.

So since I am in the south mission this next next transfer is only going to be 3 weeks long because then new missionaries who have been called to the south mission come. I am guessing then I will be transfered and will be transfering. There is one Sister just above me in transfers but next to her I am the oldest Sister missionary. That is weird. They saying in this mission is that missions are not acutally hard but what is hard is the saying Goodbye part. How true that is. Even just to other missionaries. But how grateful I am to be here and working with amazing missionaries. In my mission now there are only about 78 missionaries. It has become so small it is wierd. But it will get to 250 before long I imagine. But whether I see that nor not I am not sure. Wierd to think that I could only have 15 weeks left if I do end up returning in October. Making each of those days count for sure.

 

So onto this week. Well I have been able to get out of the apartment which has been nice. Last Wednesday we wanted to visit a less active whose birthday it was that day so we got on our bikes and rode. Getting to her house ended up taking 2 hours and the way home was an 1 hour. When we got closer to her house there became less to none hills but on the way home (which I was pretty tired for being on the bike for two hours) we went up many many hills and I was spent. It has been along time since my body has been that tired. My companion has been very nice and gave me a massage. That wil be on one of the first things that I will do when I get home. It felt great.

Friday we met with one of our invesigators whose nickname is Dakko. We met her a few weeks ago. She met the Elders and she came to church and that is where we met her. Anyway we met her and asked her how the Book of Mormon was going (We talked the last time we met with her about the Book of Mormon. She is Christian (likes the King James Bible) but was confused as to why there was a need for the Book of Mormon) She read the assignement we gave her but she still had some questions so I opened up the Book of Mormon to 2nd Nephi 29 where it talks about the Bible. After she read it she said that she understood. Which was great. She then opened up more about her life and what was going on. She is going through A LOT of hard things right now. I had no idea how I could help her so with the power of the spirit burning very hot and bright indise of me I invited her to speak to our Bishop and promised that he would be able to help even if it was just to listen. She agreed and came to church on Sunday and after church she spoke to the Bishop. The Bishop was great. He was very kind and patient and gave her great counsel. Encouraged her to continue listening to our message and to come and speak to him at anytime. When she walked out she looked much better. Like she was free, the burden was taken away.  There is certainly a power given to the Bishop and it was great seeing that. And it was great working with him. Him helping her with her life problems and then we helped her with the gospel questions. I love her. She told me that she sees me as a daughter. Isn't that sweet. :D

 

Last Tuesday was the very last PDAY temple day as the Tokyo Mission. They told us that even though we will be in a different mission we will still be able to go to the temple but last week was the last time we could say goodbye to people because we didn't know who would go to the south or the north. It was fun and a differnt feeling behind it. I will really miss those temple trips. They will be different as well because everyone would go at different times during the transfer. Many wonderful memories. I really am so grateful to have a temple in my mission and to have had the chance to have gone so many times during my mission. What a huge blessing.

 

Well that is basically it for the week. Not too much has happend. My companion is nice but I have forgotton what it is like to be with a native. Different cultures and mindsets. And she doesn't know ANY english so that has been kinda hard trying to explain my feelings in limited Japaense. My head has hurt this last week I won't lie. haha The last few days have been very difficult for me but I got an answer this morning which has greatly helped me and so I have made a turn around. The Lord knows us personally and knows what we are going through. He will give us answers even if it is not for a very long time and it seems that the Heavens are silent. He hears them.

 

Well, I love you family.

Be safe and drink a lot of water, July is coming.

Love you,

Kenzie

 

  

 

Emergency Transfer

Happy Fathers Day Dad!!!!!! Hope you had a great day today! :D

 

And Hello to the rest of you!

 

Well this last week was very interesting. And this e-mail may be short because of it.

 

First off, we stayed in the apartment once again for most of the week. If we had an appointment or a meeting we would leave but if we didn't we wouldn't. Like last Wednesday Sister Harding was not doing so well so she slept the whole day and just studied or even did a little cleaning. My brain is starting to hurt a little bit from all of the studying. haha But anyway, Sister Budge called on Thursday to tell her that there were no results from the C.T scan that she did and the next thing they would be doing would be calling her parents and seeing what they would like to do. They called them that night and then they called on Friday morning and talked to Sister Harding and everyone decided that the best thing to do would be for her to go home and have some more tests done. A few hours later Presdient Budge called and said that they were trying to get her on a flight for...TOMORROW (meaning Saturday, this was Friday). Talk about sudden notice. They also wanted us to have her see a doctor and make sure she was ok to fly and wanted us to stay at the honbu tonight. We also had a 3rd companion because we were doing exchanges so we had to meet up with her companions, then go see the doctor and then go to the honbu after an hour in half of crazy fast packing that we had to do.

It was insane.

Staying at the honbu was a weird experience. We arrived and President and Sister Budge were not there so we hung out with the office couple, Elder and Sister Harrison. I adore them!! They are the cutest couple ever and Sister Harrison is the happiest person I have ever met. So it was fun to spend time with them. Satruday I spent most of the day at the honbu. Sister Hardings flight wasn't leaving until 1 am and the Harrisons were going to take her to the airport. They walked me over at about 5 to catch my train to go and meet my new companion who is....Sister Tada.

Sister Tada is very cute and I love her. She is Japanese and was a convert when she was 19 (now she is 26). Her conversion story is amazing and she had been through soooo much. I will have to tell you another day. She is still on her first transfer (this being the last week). And my guess actually is that we will only be together for 4 weeks. President Budge told us that this will be our transfer most likely which means I am in the South Mission which means we have another transfer in 4 weeks. At that time I am assuming a lot of Sisters will be coming in and both of us will be training. But I guess we will see. But I am really looking forward to working with her and actually getting out and talking to people. During study I got a lot of fire for the work and now the desire to work hard and do my best till the end is really strong within me and I want to work hard, talking to people at every moment right up until I am at the airport in Salt Lake. I want to share this fire with everyone that I see. What a great feeling it is. I am ready to get out!!! :D

 

Despite always staying inside and not being able to dendo I am grateful for this transfer because I have learned a lot of things, especialy the kind of person and member I want to be when I get home. I read a lot from Daughters of My Kingdom (the relief soceity book) and D&C and they both spoke a lot to me. I made goals and plans for what I want to do and who I want to be when I am home. Now that isn't me being trunky (though I will admit having hours to myself has made me get just a little bit) but it was a good time to plan and a lot of what I learned could be applied to what I was going through and also what I could be going through for the rest of my mission. It was a great learning experience. Just like all of my transfers. It is interesting though because Sister Tada makes my 8th companion in the field. Crazy right?

 

Oh and want to know something interesting. Sister Stubbs-my mtc companion- may be in the Tokyo mission. The area I think that she is in right now will be in that mission. Funny huh. Here I will be leaving that mission and she will be going into. haha She wrote me a letter saying that her parents are very seriously considering moving to Utah. That would be fun to see her. :D

 

Well that is the exciting and interesting news from my week. I had an emergency transfer.

 

I love you all and everyday I look forward to being reunited. My family has become the most important thing to me (besides the gospel) and my love for everyone just grows stronger.

 

Love you,

Kenzie

Think! Think! Think!

Hey Everyone,

 

Hope you all had a good week and are all in good health. Can you believe that this week makes it the middle of June. Crazy. July will be here before you know it. Months have turned into days now and days into seconds. Such a wierd feeling.

 

Well on for this week. Well the most exciting that happend this last week was we had a 3 zone conference on Wednesday in which Elder Ringwood of the seventy and the North Asia Area President came and spoke to us. It was a really good conference. He had us study Moroni 7 a lot before the conference and then we had an open discussion about it. It was really good. I notice a lot of things from the chapter that I didn't notice before. I encourage you all to study Moroni 7 and see what new insights you get into it. We also had Q&A in which the mission split was brought up. So we still find out which mission we will be in on transfer call day (22nd) but it was also said that the Tokyo south missionaries transfers will be getting off set so there is a possibility of going home earlier or later from your expected release date. So if that is true and I stay in the south mission I could be home in early October or a few weeks later in November. Thought that was interesting information. I can't believe it will be next Saturday that I find out. So wierd. I kind of feel though that I will be staying the south mission's area. I guess I will know for sure next week. Anyway the conference was good. I really enjoyed listening to Elder Ringwood. He gave wonderful talks and the spirit was very strong. I came out feeling rejuventated and having a stronger desire to do better. :D

 

So this last week we weren't able to get out pretty much at all unless we already had an appointment set up. Sister Harding became too sick to go out. Towards the beginning of the week I was getting a little frustrated wondering what I was supposed to and how I should continue fulfilling my purpose as a missionary. I talked to the Lord A LOT. Asking for His counsel. I was finally told that my purpose during this transfer is to serve my companion and help her and to also take advantage of the time to study more. So that is what I have done. Last Thursday it was hard because we stayed inside all day up before Eikaiwa at 7. When she woke up I asked her if she was ok and that I was worried about her. She started crying and said that she wasn't sure. We had a talk about it in which she felt like she needed to go home and get better. She didn't like not going out. We called President Budge that night and told him about what was going on and he told her that he didn't want to give up yet. So we went to a doctor on Friday and he told her that he wanted to do a C.A.T scan and that is what we did early today. Went to the Red Cross Hospital. We won't know the results for a few days but we are hoping and praying that the doctors will be able to figure out what is wrong and help her so that she won't have to go home. This has been a very different transfer and I am learning a lot.

 

With the extra time to study I have been thinking a lot about where I am right now in my mission and where I want to be when get home. It has been interesting having so much time to think and exam myself even more. There have been many ups and many downs that has come with that but it has been good. I am very grateful to have this time to refocus, to see the growth I have gone through and to determine the growth I still want to go through. And we do have a few investigators that we have started teaching one of them being a referral that the Elders gave to us and who came to church yesterday. We have an appointment with her tomorrow and it should be good. She is christian and seems to pretty open in learning more. I am excited to teach her. It is the best to teach. :D

 

Oh there is one interesting story. I was reminded about how some BYU people are. Right now there are about 13 or so students from BYU doing a study abroad and staying with some of the members for about 2 weeks. They came to church yesterday and we talked to a few of them. They are all in there 2 year of Japanese I think at the Y so they know some but not too much. Anyway we were talking to two of these girls and one of them was telling us how much she admires us and how great our Japanese is and how she hopes to be able to speak like us. Her friend then turned to her and said that their level of Japanese was actually the same level as returned missionaries from Japan. Her excuse was that it is because a lot of missionaries don't know kanji (the chinese characters) but they do. K, I know I am a missionary but that made me really annoyed that she said that. Comparing a 2nd year college class to missionaries who have lived in the country from 18 months to 2 years. But then this same girl proceeded to teach me about the train system so it would be less confusing when she has been here for 4 weeks or so and I have been living here for almost a year. She annoyed me. And I really did forget what some BYU people were like. WOW. I have been out a long time. Scary to go back. haha

 

Well family I love you and hope you have a great week!! The time is becoming shorter and shorter till I see you and I look forward to that day but I am happy to be here and learning the things that I am.

 

Love you all,

Kenzie