Shinkotown to Shinoro

こんにちは!

First things first... this week was transfer calls! My new area is Shinoro and my new companion is Sato Shimai!! I looveeee Shinoro. It's just outside of Sapporo and super Inaka (country). Sato Shimai is super sweet! I was really scared to be her comp because she's Japanese and my Japanese is not the best but we actually don't have a problem communicating. (which just means I'm really good a charades) The Bishop here is Ota Bishop!! He put the Angel Moroni on the Sapporo temple!! There's an awesome video about it so if you haven't seen it go watch it:) 

This morning I was watching the Mormon Message "Good Things to Come" I tend to watch it a lot because it's filmed in good ol St George:) but today I actually really listened to it and there's one part I really love "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come." What a blessing it is to know no matter how hard life can be, things will always gets better because that is what this gospel is for!! Better days here and in the life to come. 

I've seen so many little miracles this week and have had so many prayers answered (mostly me praying that someone will let us in before I freeze to death) it usually doesn't happen till the very last person we visit but hey "no witness until after the trial of your faith" right? Haha Heavenly Father takes care of His missionaries! 

愛してるよ！

リグビ姉妹

Basketball Champ

よよよ！

This week was 素晴らしい！Monday we had zone activity in Kotoni. We had a major snowball

fight and pied the leaving missionaries. Then we played that basketball game where you try to get the person in front of you out by scoring before them... I WON THE ENTIRE THING. Beat all the Elders and everything. I clearly missed my calling in life to join the NBA.

The next day we had zone training meeting and we found out they're changing the schedule for missionaries worldwide so now we will be out working for 10 hours instead for 8. We also talked
about how the best way for us to share the gospel is to live it. And through our example others will come to know Christ.

This week almost every person we've talked to has said "This is Japan everyone is Buddhist, you're wasting your time but good luck" literally every person. Word for word. It's been pretty frustrating. But one night we only had a few minutes left so we went down a street and knocked on 3 doors. All 3 doors were young families that had some interest in our message! It was so cool. We've been praying to find young families because Shinkotoni is 99% old people. It was a cool little miracle!

愛しています!

リグビ姉妹

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Things have been pretty slow here since we haven't been able to dendo the last 4 days due to the craziness that is New Years in Japan. We basically just spent 4 days playing monopoly and cards at the church with the elders. Gooood times.

Tuesday we had District meeting. I somehow ended up in the same district as my 7 favorite people in the mission. We can't make it 2 minutes without someone (me) on the floor laughing. And we all have ukuleles now so it's so much fun. This week we talked about testifying about things we love. It's really easy as a missionary speaking a different language to just kind of be a robot and say the same things to every person we talk too. But if we're not testifying about things we love and know to be true than that person isn't going to feel the spirit and if they don't feel the spirit than nothing we say matters.

I got to go to Kotoni for splits this week! I was with Oka Shimai and we went to visit an investigator at her store. Halfway through this 87 year old man walks in that speaks English with a New York accent and used to be a sumo wrestler/ taxi driver. He looked at me and was like "Where's your husband?" So I told him I was 19 and didn't have one and he just shook his head and said "beautiful" 100000 times hahaha it was so funny and a little weird. I think I'm going to stay in Japan forever just so I can get compliments for the rest of my life.😂

愛してるよ！

リグビ姉妹

"A deeper understanding of Jesus Christ will give us greater hope for the future and, despite our

imperfections, more confidence in achieving our righteous goals." José A. Teixeira

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

This week was super hectic and awesome! Monday we went to downtown Sapporo to see the light festival, then we decided it would be a good idea to walk all the way back to Shinkotoni (lols) we got super lost trying to find a house and it took the help of the police and us being late home (oops) but you better believe our stubborn selves found the house we were looking for!

We spent the whole week running around delivering Christmas presents and singing to less active members and our investigators. It was super fun and we saw some awesome miracles! Nobody really celebrates Christmas here so whenever we wish someone a Merry Christmas they just get super awkward and laugh and walk away- haha good times....

This week is Shogatsu (New Years) which is the biggest holiday in Japan. Like its CRAZY. So crazy that we're not allowed to leave our apartment from 12/31-1/4 . Yoshhh.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!! Talk to you next year:)

愛してるよ！

リグビ姉妹

“If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and

confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us." Gordon B Hinckley

こんにちは!!!

This week was crazyyyyyyy. So first of all transfer calls came.....I'm staying in Shinkotoni and my new companion is Hannant 姉妹 from Brisbane, Australia!! We're already having so much fun together. After Aussie and Kiwi companions and learning Japanese, my English makes noooo

sense- hahah ごめん

Saturday the most insane blizzard hit Sapporo! IT WAS CRAZY!!! I've never seen anything like it in my life. So much snow. We decided to go up to hanakawa and everyone we tried to visit was

gone so we were just walking around in this blizzard for 4 hours asking people if we could

shovel their driveways for them but no one wanted our help. We finally made it to a members

house and she let us in. I tried to take my boots off and my boot liners were frozen to my tights

and my hair was frozen to my scarf. Frozen chosen life😂. We ended up shoveling her whole

driveway. Just imagine two girls from places that never get snow trying to shovel a driveway full

of 5 feet of snow. It was so fun! Then we ended up getting lost trying to find the bus stop so here

we are again walking around hanakawa in a blizzard. We passed a group of middle school boys

and they walked us all the way to the bus stop and eventually we made it back to shinks!!! When we finally made it to shinks we went to the church and the elders were there shoveling so we

decided to run up a mountain of snow in the parking lot (videos to come) it was so much fun!

And it hasn't stopped snowing since...

We got to teach Yoshi San again. I showed him a picture of my family and he said "People who

believe in God are beautiful." Hahaha -I love him so much.

Being a missionary during Christmas is the greatest thing ever. We just get to run around telling

everyone we see about the real meaning of Christmas. IT'S THE BEST!

愛してるよ!

リグビ姉妹

We went bowling for a zone activity and you better believe I beat our zone leader!

MIRACLESSSSS!

Last Monday we found out that Lafaele Shimai and I would be going on splits together that night!!!! Tender mercy. MTC comps back it. We were sooooo pumped!! We walked up to Shinkotoni to visit Ochiai San. (Our golden investigator) she let us in and we somehow managed to have a conversation. Miracle. (Lafaele and I are still beans so we don't know much Japanese). Then she started making us ramen. By the time the ramen was done it was 8:30 and curfew is 9 and we were 45 minutes from our apartment. Do you see the problem??? So we ate that ramen faster than we've eaten anything in our lives. And this wasn't American top ramen were talking about... This was a giant bowl of Japanese ramen with eggs and bamboo and other things I was too scared to ask what they were.... After we finished we shared a message about finding strength in Christ and RANNNNN literally full speed in the snow back to the apartment. It was sooo much fun. and painful hahah. The next day Ochiai San called and said she loves when we come over because she feels so much peace. We told her that was the spirit and she agreed:) Miracle.

Wednesday we got to teach one of our Eikiwa students, Yoshi San. He told us he wanted to believe in God because the world is so scary and he wants to feel peace. We showed the Mormon message "Why we need a Savior" after he said "that is my first time watching anything like that and I want more things like that in my life!" Then we talked about the Book of Mormon and I told him reading the Book of Mormon is how I feel peace in my life and the days I forget to read I don't have that same peace. He said "where can I get that book. I will read it everyday." How cool is that??? Miracle. Teaching him reminded me how blessed I am to know what I know and how EVERYONE deserves to and needs to know it.

And for the best news... The first time I taught a lesson in Japan, we taught a 17 year old girl. Himawari ちゃん. She doesn't live in our area so we passed her to the missionaries in her area. She still comes to our Eikiwa every week and last night SHE GOT BAPTIZED!!! We are so excited for her!

Tomorrow is transfer calls which means I'll be getting a new companion and possibly a new area and be able to dendo again!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

愛してるよ!

リグビ姉妹

げんきよ

おはようございます!

Tuesday I got to go on splits for a few hours with Oka 姉妹 while Massey 姉妹 and Zollinger 姉妹 stayed in the apt!! It was so nice to get out. All the roads were covered in ice so we penguin shuffled all the way to Tonden. No one we planned to visit was home (just my luck) but we still had a lot of fun!

Spent Thanksgiving at the most American place we could think of...KFC.

Friday night we got a text from a random number asking if we could be friends... So we said yes and planned to meet up the next day. I was a little freaked out it was going to turn into the Saratov

Approach 2 but it turned out to be this 40 year old woman that literally just wanted some friends...It was still weird but she believes in God so were gonna try to teach her the lessons!

And that sums up the amount of times I got out of the apartment this week! Massey 姉妹 and I have been having nightmares all week. It's pretty weird. Kaichō thinks it's because we've been stuck in the same place too long haha shoot we've literally gone insane:/

Hope you all had a great thanksgiving and watched lots of football and ate lots of yummy American food. Now go spread the Christmas initiative for this year... #LIGHTtheWORLD. mormon.org :)

愛しています!

リグビ姉妹

"The purpose of faith is not to change God’s will but to empower us to act on God’s will. Faith is trust--trust that God sees what we cannot and that He knows what we do not....It means trusting that God loves us perfectly, that everything He does--every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds--is for our eternal happiness" Dieter F Uchtdorf