A Week of Fun

Hi Family,

well another week has gone by and I can't believe it. The time is coming too quickly for me to say goodbye to this life and to the people that I love dearly. It is getting harder as the time passes passes more. But that just makes me enjoy everyday that much more. 

Well on for this last week. Opening up a new area requires patience, especially when you know that you are only going to be here for such a short time. It is basically just trying to help my companion figure things out and train her to be able to take over the area. But It requires a lot of trust and reliance on the spirit and a lot of good planning. 

But it does help that so many members are really excited to have sister missionaries in the area. We visited one member this last week who has officially one the title as #1 member. She didn't give us good or gifts all though all of those things are really nice. She prayed before we came over to know who she could refer to us. Who would be ready to hear our message? She gave us 3 names!!! 3!!! That is the most I have ever received during my mission. She is awesome. We even went to one of her friends house right then and met her and now she is trying to set up another appointment for the this week. Again AMAZING!!! This is what missionaries want and what really makes missionaries happy. Just so you know. So always be thinking and praying about people you can refer to the missionaries. Do it!! haha

Another fun time though that we had this last week was on Saturday we went and had sushi with some older members in the Japanese ward and then ended up buying us both a new pair of shoes and taking us to their house and giving us a ton of Japanese items for free. My companion got a kimono and we both got a lot of obi pieces and I was offered a Japanese harp but I of course turned that down. I was really surprised. We are living the dream in this area really. We get food, souvenirs and referrals. What more could a missionary ask for? :D

Yesterday in the English branch I spoke in Sacrament about Missionary work. That was so weird to give a talk in English but I was able to give it really well. Spending 18 months teaching has helped make me into a good speaker I think. haha It was really fun to speak and I felt the spirit strongly as I spoke. That is all that I wanted to do. Is teach and speak through the Holy Ghost always. 

Well I love you everyone. Sorry this e-mail isn't really descriptive but if you have questions you can ask me. I am getting to the point of just liking to read e-mails more than write them haha and of course chatting. :D

Love you all,

Kenzie

  

Yamato

Hey everyone, 

I am happy to here that Megs got off safe and sound for this week. I can't believe she is gone and off on her very own adventure. I am very proud of her. 

So Sister Ellingson and I are doing wonderful!!! We moved into our apartment last Thursday and it is soooo nice. It is nice and big and filled with light. It has been hard because we haven't had any blankets, sheets, pillows and some other things but we are getting by and it really is a pretty apartment and it was just 5 min from the church. It is very close which is very convenient. 

I love this area already. It is a great area and I can already tell that this area was meant to be my last. It has been great!!!

We got a lot of referrals from the Elders when we first came in and one of those referrals was a family with 3 children. The dad is a member but has been less active for years and his children are 12, 11 and 8. The Elders set up an appointment for us when we came in for this last Saturday and so we were able to meet with them for the first time and teach a lesson. The lesson was ok not the best though it was fun meeting the kids. It is my first time teaching kids and one of the kids is autistic so it was hard, strange enough. We need to keep the lesson a lot more simple so hopefully we will be able to do that the next time but we were able to make baptism dates for them and that will be in 2 weeks so we are hoping we can get them to those dates. We may have to push it back but we will see. The kids are really shy but nice and they are a cute family. 

Saturday night I went to one of the american bases for a meal appointment and I had a little bit of shock going back into America.haha It was so weird. From that experience I feel like this area is going to be a great blessing because the Lord is slowly integrating me back in American culture. haha On base we met with a few families and went to a park and had a bbq with hot dogs and hamburgers and there were some other families near by meeting and it was a lot like an american summer night. It has been so long since I have seen that. It was weird but really nice. The families that were with us are really nice and fed us some great food. Like I said, I like this area. :D haha And the Lord is just continuing giving us miracles and it was a GREAT time to be a missionary.  

Sunday was soooo much fun!!!! We went to both of the wards and it was fast Sunday and since we are both new we were able to give our testimonies and hear others. The Zama branch's (english) testimony was fabulous just filled with so many testimonies about missionary work and about members sharing the gospel. The spirit was sooo strong and I felt it for the rest of the day in both wards. In my heart I felt so grateful for so many things. It is amazing how much the Lord has given me and how much he has helped me recently. I have just felt so much of His love in my life recently and have felt Him so near. I can not even describe the feeling. Last night I was thinking about how much time I have left and was getting sad. Even though I am excited to see you all and for some other things I am also a little scarred to come home. Just very unknown and wondering if I will be able to stay the person that I have become and remember the things that I have learned. But last night after having a long conversation with Him I felt Him draw near unto me and could feel His peace, love and assurance that He will be with me when i get home and everything will be ok. He will continue to guide me and I will be able to continue to follow Him. I really love balcony time. :D

Today was also a great day filled with the spirit because guess what?! It was my LAST Temple pday!!! My last time at the Tokyo Temple as a missionary. I felt so much of the spirit and all I could think of was my mission and how great of a blessing it was. I thought about all the trails I have gone through, all the wonderful people I have met and the growth that I have gone through and was just filled with so much gratitude!! I have been so blessed this last year and a half and have learned and grown so much. I know now that i had to come on a mission to become the person I am now so that I could receive blessings for my future. I am starting to see how the blessings in my patriarchal blessing will come to pass and it is all because I have served a mission and I will forever be grateful for that. How great is the Lord in providing this opportunity for me!!!

Family I love you sooo much and I look forward to seeing you. In some moments i can not believe that I have been away from you for 18 months and other times it feels like an eternity. How strange time is. 

I love you with all my heart, until next week. 

Kenzie

Light of Christ

Hello my wonderful family,

I want to first off say THANK YOU!!!!! Thank you sooo much for the prayers and fasts that so many did. I really felt it this week and I am soo very thankful for them. You will never know how much they helped. I will try to expalin how they did in todays e-mail.

Well first off, Tuesday President Wada came and picked me up in Kouhoku and took me to the area Fujisawa to meet my new companion and to say goodbye to my last one. I didn't know how hard it would be to do that but I felt the strength of the Lord with me and He gave me a very clear, specific way to say goodbye. She acted like I thought she would but I was able to get through it. But I will say though that Tuesday and Wednesday were the hardest days I have ever experienced on my mission and even my life. I felt very alone and still had a hard time feeling the spirit. I knew that God was there and still cared about me but I wasn't hearing anything from Him. I didn't understand why. I really was in the pit of misery. I could feel the adversary's spirits surround me and trying their best to pull me down. I can't even describe the dark state I was in. I didn't feel like myself at all. The mist of darkness is very real and was very strong. I couldn't find my way out at all. I tried to shine a light but it was barel a glimmer. I was lost and just when I was about to give up the fight I found the true source of light. I was able to find my Savior and His light shone so much that the darkness dispersed entirely. His light filled my soul as I really took upon myself the atonement and gave it all to the Lord. Ever since I have been the happiest that I have ever been, since even before my previous companion. I am enjoying life and the mission. I am enjoying my companion and teaching by the spirit. I am goofy and fun. I can see it in my eyes how different I look. Now looking back I can see that before a week ago when I would look at myself in the mirror it was very sad. There was so light in my eyes and my smile didn't reach deep down. Everytime I looked in the mirror I thought I looked ugly and I couldn't understand it. But now when I look at myself I can't help smiling from ear to ear. I can see the light of Christ in myself. I can see the Daughter of God that I am. I am beautiful, even with no make up my hair a crazy mess. I look at myself and just smile. How amazing is that light of Chirst? How Amazing is the Atonement? Through it I was able to get out of the deepest darkest pit of despair that I have ever been in. I know that my Savior lives and I know that through Him we can recongnize who we really are and be filled with joy that can not be described. HOW WONDERFUL IS MY SAVIOR!!!!?

Ok now on to my wonderful companion and area. Well I am actually still in Fujisawa. Our apartment won't be finalized until this Wednesday and so we will be moving in on Thursday. But my companion and I were able to go to a ward party on Saturday and meet some of the memebers. And I am SOOOOOOOO excited to be working with them. They too are really excited to getting sister missionaries. All of the members were so sweet and kind. I really feel like this next transfer we will be able to see many miracles and do wonderful things. I have a feeling that this next and last transfer will be my best one. Oh and the church is HUGE. It is like a temple. I will send a picture so you can see it but it is so nice. AHHHH so excited. Now about my angel of a companion. Her name is Sister Ellingson and I absolutely LOVE HER. She is so much fun and we have been having a blast together and we are both really really excited to get to Yamato and work and see miracles. We are like little kids just waiting for Christmas. We just want to get started!! She is from Alaska and is on her 3^rd transfer. Her and her family besides her dad converted when she was 11 or so. She has a great testimony and she is already one of my best friends. We are going to have a really fun 6 weeks together. Tonight we are having a movie night and eating popcorn and cookie dough. It is going to be a party. We are super excited for it. hahaha

I have really felt the Lord in my life and I have felt your prayers and love. Thank you soo very much. I really needed them this last and they helped so much. I love you all sooo very much and look forward to seeing you. Love you with all my heart,

Kenzie

  

Happening

Hey family,

 

Glad everyone is doing well. :D

 

So I probably won't have time to cover the whole week. But their are 2 things I want to cover the most.

 

First, last Wednesday we had a 2 zone conference with President and Sister Wada there and it was amazing. They are truly inspired from God and I really feel their love for us. At this conference I gave my last testimony. It was so hard and so unreal that it was happening I couldn't believe it. It was a great day filled with the spirit.

 

Now let me tell you about the opposite side. Friday night was the scarriest night of my life and which is why I am actually doing another emergency transfer and going to a new area tomorrow with an american companion. So I have actually been sugar coating my relationship with my companion. It has been hard. There has been no love or the Spirit and I have felt like I have been walking on a mine field the last few weeks. Well on Friday I found a mine and it blew up but I didn't even say anything. I will skip over a lot of the details and the before events but basically on Friday night after we all went to bed I heard my companion in the other room crying and then screaming. Not just screaming like a normal person would if they were mad but it almost seemed like a mental outburst. And that is when she came into the room I was sleeping in by throwing open the door and screaming and yelling at me and Sister Hathaway and then falling to the ground and screaming and pounding the floow. I am not exagerating when I say that I seriously thought that she was going to kill us. Sister Hathaway thought so as well. When it was obvious she couldn't be calmed down by us we called the President and told him what was going and he ended up talking to her and then to me. But while he was talking to her I was shaking like I never have before and even started hyperventalating a bit. No words can descibe how scary it was. It was like horror movie. I coundn't sleep at all that night and felt sick to my stomach and it didn't help that after she did calm down and was talking to us normally she told us that she actually had the thought of killing us and thought she would. When the President talked to me that night he asked if I could stay with her for another 2 weeks (transfer days are really next week) and I told him that I could but Saturday morning when I woke up I was still terrified and didn't want to be alone with her. I called the President to tell him about my feelings and he invited me to the mission home to stay for the weekend with another sister who needed rest any way because she isn't feeling well. So I have been staying at the mission home since Saturday and I just got back to my area today to pack and be ready to transfer tomorrow.

 

I knew that I was missing having the spirit and love around but I didn't know how much until I went to the mission home and just got overpowered by it. Words can not describe my love for President and Sister Wada and how grateful I am for their love and concern. They really do feel like parents and how grateful I am for them because being with them made it easier to go through what I did. Yesterday after dinner I had a interview with the President to expalin again what happend and my feelings and that is when he told me I would be split from her but the details would have to wait till the morning which I got today. But last night he did ask again if I would be willing to stay until November. I prayed hard about it and talked to Sister Wada a lot about it and I still felt like I need to go home in October so that is when I will be home. But I am being transfered to another area called Yamato which has a japanese branch but also a military branch. My companion is american and on her 3rd transfer so it will be fun and I am really hoping I can have the spirit and love back for my last few weeks on the mission. I want to end strong. But it was nice staying at home because I was able to get a lot of much needed sleep and rest. I loved it there. It made me excited to come home to you guys and have that feeling again.

 

And I hope my companion can become better and get the help that she needs. She has been through A LOT in her life. Things you wouldn't even believe and even though I am scared and would prefer not to see her again I still want her to let go of those past feelings and really accept the Savior's Atonement. I pray that she will be watched over.

 

Well that was bacially the eventful stuff from this week. and now I have to get ready to transfer. I am excited and nervous but it will be good. I feel that the Lord is watching out for me.

 

I love you all,

Know that I am ok but still stay a prayer for me.

 

Love,

Kenzie

Buddah, Atonement, HOT WEATHER and more

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

  

Summer Festival

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

Dendo Kit

Hey Family,

Hope you all had an awesome week! Staying safe in the heat. It is getting hotter here but it has also been raining a lot. But it is still hot and humid. I am looking forward to the cool Utah October weather. Great time to return home. :D

Sister Tada and I have been working on building relationships with the ward members since before it was kind of hard. So we were able to visit many members and do mogi lessons and talk about missionary work. One member we visited showed us her very own dendo kit (missionary kit) that she takes with her everywhere. She carries flyers, pass along cards and the missionaries phone number's. After visiting her I started thinking a lot about her dendo kit and I came up with the idea that when we visit memebers we should give them their onw dendo kit. A lot of members want to do missionary work but don't know how and don't have the tools to use. I am really excited about this and think it will really help the members. My goal before I leave is to have every member have a dendo kit and to have more fire for the work than when I first came here. Right now I feel like that is my purpose here. We have no investigators which has been hard and we of course will continue looking for new investigators but I really feel like the Lord wants us to strengthen this part of Zion and has given us this oppurtunity to focus on the members. I am exicted and feel very strongly about this. We gave our first one to a family on Saturday. The wife was baptized 2008 and the husband 09 so we talked about their conversion and talked about the power that they have. Really this work is members work. The missionaries are a resource, someone to help. Many people think the members job is to help the missionaries but is the other way around. I have learned that so strongly on my mission. I am determined to be a great member missionary when I go home. The family accepted the kit and said they would do their best to use it. It should be good. Funny story while visiting that family. They are a 3 year old son and when we walked into the house he had on no pants or diaper or anything. That was a funny site to see. His parents kept putting his pants on but he would keep pulling them off and then while we were sitting down talking to them he would come up behind me and climb on my back. It was really funny.

Besides the awesome revelation we received about how to help the members that is basically it. Not much really happend this week. Accept for the hills continually trying to kill me. I've mentioned the hills right? They are big and long and everywhere. My body will be in a good biking shape when I get home and will look good that is for sure. haha

Well I love you all. I can't believe it is the end of July, next week Justin and Amanda are getting married and in a month Megs leaves to start her adventure. How fast time goes which makes it even more important to hold on to and enjoy the moments that we have. Because too soon they just become memories. Enjoy every moment of this week!!

Love,

Kenzie