and I thought last week went by fast....

Konnichiwa!!!!

This week was amazing!!!! As is every week, but we had so much fun
this week!! It went by so quick! crazy! And today ive been out now for
11 months! wow!!! thats hard to believe! still feel like a its been 3
months! time is flying by!

So wednesday we went with sister hirano in our ward for lunch with 5
of her english circle friends! they were so dang cute! and the
absolutely adore us! We went to one of the ladies houses for lunch.
She was so happy to have us! We had met them all last week for lunch
so we all felt like long time friends! hahaha! The lady whose house we
went to, decided that she wanted to dress my companion and i up in the
tradition japanese kimono! its a long beautiful robe that takes about
20 minutes to put on correctly and is impossible to do by yourself. So
i had two ladies dressing me :) they were so excited to have us wear
their traditional clothing! They made us take a million pictures
afterward and kept posing us in the right way hahah! These cute old
ladies made us wear them while we eat too.. not fun because part of
the outfit is a corset hahah! didnt eat much that day... it was so
fun! no matter where i go i always become friends with the old
ladies!!! and i love it!!! they are so sweet and treat us like their
granddaughters! sister requilman and i sang hymns for them and we all
sang together "love at home"! they liked it so much they asked for
copies! so cute! no matter out religious differences we can all say
how grateful we are for our families<3

Saturday, i got to go home!!!!! i went back to tsukuba!!!!!!!!!!!! man
i love that place! kamagaya is great too but nothing can compare to
tsukuba!! Justin Sena is the little boy i was teaching before i left.
We were mainly focusing on his mom and dad who are less actives but
started teaching justin because he is now 9 years old and needed to be
baptized! well the day finally came! i actually wasnt planning on
going because we had so many different plans for saturday! But all of
our plans somehow cancelled.. Akiho was supposed to come with us to a
members bbq but she didnt show, then we were supposed to visit a lady
at a different members house but she didnt show either.. all signs
were pointing to us going to tsukuba! and when i got there i really
felt like this was where i needed to be. Maiann, justins mom, was so
happy to see sister kelley and i who had come back to tsukuba for
justin! we all just hugged and cried! Maiann will always be so special
to me! i went to her home for three transfers every single week! She
always so badly wanted to come to church and we tried everything we
could to get her there! But this is exactly what she needed! Her son
is the biggest example for her now and will be able to help her and
her family more than anyone! i am so proud of justin! Justin was so
sweet when he saw me! he ran and gave me a big hug! i love this family
so much!! ive never seen justin so happy!!! the program was amazing! i
got to join the missionaries and sing! Being home with all of my
tsukuba ward members just brought warmth to my heart! they became my
family and still treated me like we really are!
and...... i got to see my yoko!!!!!!!!! my 82 year old soul sister! i
called her from the train and said i would be there in an hour and she
had to come meet me! she was so shocked! hahah! so she came to the
church!! i ran up to her car, ripped the the door open and attacked
her! hahah! we both just cried! goodness how i love that woman!!!! we
sat and talked right up until the baptism. She gave me a cute little
spoon and said she has one just like it so its like a best friends
necklace! we will be best friends forever!
I am so glad Heavenly Father allowed me to be able to go back to
tsukuba for that day! Seeing the people that matter so much to me
meant the world! i am so thankful!!!

Right after the baptism we rushed home and went to a members house for
dinner. Sister Yano is a hoot! on the member records all it said about
her was that she really really likes donny osmond. thats about it.
walked into her home and.. yup its true. Donny everything everywhere!
and you all thought im obsessive... hahahah!!! She told us that she
got baptized because of donny! hahahah!!! she liked him before she
knew about the church and when she met the missionaries she said yes
to baptism right away! hahaha! she goes "did i know who christ was?
no. but i knew who donny was so i was baptized!" hahahah!!! she
however is the strongest lady ive ever met! shes in her 50s and never
married. But her testimony is beautiful! she brought in the spirit
more than we could have ever dreamed! i love my ward members!!! they
make being a missionary that much greater!!!

Sunday Akiho came to church again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ahhhhhhh!!!! sooooooo happy!!! and she loved it!!!!!! fast and
testimony meeting was perfect! everyone shared such great experiences!
It was all perfect for her! Sunday school we pulled aside a member and
taught Akiho a lesson. She emailed us a few questions earlier in the
week so we took the time to study for thema nd answered them on
sunday. How i love member present lessons! especially because were not
japanese.. hahah! not just because they can actually speak the
language but they understand how every investigator feels because they
were one too at some point. Our member bore a strong testimony and
Akiho had a beautiful glow about her! we were ready to extend a
baptismal date when a member interrupted us said they needed the
room... ugh... were seeing her again tomorrow so hopefully we can do
it then!!!! pray for our dear Akiho!!!!! <3

love you all!!!! praying for you all daily! take care!!!

Sister Christensen

its nice to actually be busy

Konnichiwa!!!!!!

This week went by wayyyyy fast! i cant believe its already pday! we
had such a good week!!!! like so good!!!! Our friends our amazing!!

so last tuesday we had an appointment with Akiho! shes the one who
didnt show up at church on sunday but we met for lunch! it was wayyy
good!!! we asked her what she wanted to learn about and she said
everything!!! our lesson was a little long.. hahha but we all felt the
spirit so strong! she said she wants to keep learning with us!! so
happy! she is our first progressing investigator!!! hahaha! finally!!!
white washing is hard!!!! bad news though.. she might not even live in
our area.. but the kamagaya church is the closest to her home so we
will see what happens! i love her!
tuesday we also found out from the elders that the italian man we
found and gave a Book of Mormon to has a baptismal date!!!!
sweett!!!!!!! Giovanni is the greatest man alive! yayyyyyy for all the
miracles!!! last transfer hard work is finally showing!

wednesday we went with a member (janet :)) to one of her friends
little concert. She and a few other old people put on a cute little
show for about the ten people that came! hahaha! Some of janets other
friends came too so we spent the afternoon with a great group of cute
old ladies! they are my favorite! after the show we all went to lunch
together! these cute ladies liked us so much that they said we could
join their "circle" and we are going to one of their houses on
wednesday for lunch!! hahahaha!!! they are so cute! im so excited!

wednesday night and thursday night our bishops wife asked us to help
her teach her english class. She teaches 17 different classes in her
home and has over 100 students! shes crazy! so we got to go help!! she
told them we didnt understand any japanese (which is too far from the
truth hahaha) but they all freaked out!!! It was so funny! they were
so concerned, even though they all speak pretty good english! at the
end one cute girl goes "please dont forget me!" oh we just died!! so
cute!!! hopefully we will get to help out the bishops wife each week!

Thursdays huge miracle was that our cute high school investigator
Yurina finally replied to our email!!!!!! she said that "she has been
sick in the brian" hahahah her english is hilarious! she was so happy
that we never stopped emailing! ive learned a lot about tenacity on my
mission. hahah! we never give up on anyone!!! im so excited that shes
back!!! she still loves us!!!! thank heavens!!! we will hopefully get
to see her this week!!! miracles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

friday we visited our favorite less active, sister morita! gosh i love
that woman!! she just thinks we are so weird but loves us! she read
from the Book of Mormon and was so excited to tell us about what she
learned! she said she wants to be more loving. I asked her how she was
going to work on it and she said it would probably help if she went to
church hahahah!!!!!!! thats the answer!!!!!!! goodness this woman just
needs to come! she said little by little. we are taking things slowly
but its working! shes feeling the spirit! and shes feeling gods
love!!!!!!

and sunday was the bestest day of my life!!!!!!!!! why????because
AKIHO CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!! finally!!!!!! ahhhhh!!!!! everything went
perfectly!!!!!!! every single member came up to her and introduced
themselves! so sweet! she was so dang popular!!! the members all want
to help the missionaries but dont know how. well they helped us out a
ton at church! she felt so welcomed!!! she stayed for all three hours
and like two more hours after church talking with people! everyone
loves akiho! (she loves high school musical, therefore who wouldnt
love this girl???!?!?!) we had lots to talk about :) each meeting was
perfect! in sacrament they talked about enduring through trials,
Sunday school was on faith, and relief socirty we discussed elder
uchtdorfs talk "come join us" hahah! i think she was getting the
point. She loved church!!! she said everything is really new but she
liked it and the friendlyness! she will hopefully be coming back this
sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that night we had a dinner appointment at one of my favorite members
house! i asked her to make me mexican food and she did :) heheh! the
sweet member also invited Akiho! so all the missionaries and akiho had
tacos for dinner!!! soooooo good! japan has everything.. except
mexican food... ugh.
but the dinner was perfect! we transitioned into a little message
perfectly and talked about prayer. I love the testimonies of members!
missionaries are sometime seen like robots. this is our job to say
these things, but the members testimonies had something that we could
never do! i am always so impressed with japanese members because like
90% are converts. They each have such special and sweet conversion
stories that they love to share! it was an amazing night!!!!
afterwards we got an email from akiho that she had a great day and is
so grateful to be our friend!!!! ohhh how i love this girl!!!! were
meeting her again on thursday!!!!!

i am really so grateful for this church and the wonderful people that
it draws to it. I love being around the members! they are so strong! i
miss the wonderful members back home who have strengthened me and my
testimony! so grateful for all of their righteous examples! keep up
the good work!!! :)

love you all!!!!
Sister Christensen

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