Week 25

Dear everyone,

What a crazyyyyy week.

You probably don't want a day-by-day account of my life, but in case you do, here it is.

Tuesday: 2-mission conference down in Kichijouji with the Tokyo South Mission.  Elder Evans came and spoke to all the missionaries.  He talked a lot about the decision being made to lower the age change for missionaries, calling it a revelation change, not merely just a handbook change.  It's one of the greatest miracles of the Restoration, he says.  And we get to be a part of it.  Whoaaaaa.  We then had a Christmas party at the Honbu (mission home) and partied like a bunch of missionaries (aka watched the Grinch Stole Christmas and Budge family home videos).

Friday: We streeted ALL DAY near the church building, stopping people everywhere and trying to share a message with them.  Just when we were about to turn home, a lady called out to us (unusual) and asked us if we were the Mormons (also unusual) and then asked us if we knew Sister Nagamine (I almost fainted).  "SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND!" I said.  Turns out this lady was an investigator we had been trying to contact for 2 months but was impossible to make contact with.  She lives far away from us so I don't know what she was doing in our neck of the woods with a bottle of sake ... but let's say it was a miracle.

Saturday: We were handing out chirashis at the eki and a random lady came up to me and handed me two loaves of bread.  That was nice.  Sister McAllister heard a scary story about sisters receiving treats with tracking devices in it so we froze the bread, I'm not worried.  Also, we had Thanksgiving dinner (which I had not been counting on at all--after all, it is a very American thing).  Some families from the ward held a mini shindig at the church with the missionaries.  Turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie, in the most American way possible.  #exceptweatewithchopsticks #thankgoodnessforcostco

Sunday: Sister Nagamine called with a self-referral that she had met two months ago in Chiba and had randomly received a call from, saying she wanted to meet with the missionaries.  Super pumped, we headed off to Chiba, only to be met by two 20-something-year-olds who wanted to show us their temple and for us to pray to their god, who actually is not a god but some sort of aura that floats around.  I realized very quickly that they were trying to convert us ... some offshoot of Buddhism that I really didn't really get the jist of.  Pretty gutsy, I'll admit.  Trying to convert 3 Mormon missionaries and a ward missionary?  I appreciated the effort because they were trying to just to do what we do every day of our lives, but we just bore our testimonies and were out of there.  They declined our church tour, haha.  So that was really fun.

Monday: We three discovered all of our little sisters are studying at the same university, so naturally we had to set them up on a blind date with each other.  Today I just got a picture of all the pure joy and now they're BEST FRANDS!  (Refer to pictures for this to make any sense).  

Big Sisters Serving as Missionaries

Little Sisters Studying at Brigham Young University

Well here's my churchy bit.  

At the conference Elder Evans talked in depth about the Doctrine in Christ, specifically as written in 2 Nephi 31.  We talked in depth about verse 13, which says ..."follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent ..."  I think we often think about it as being genuine in our desire to follow Christ, like praying with sincerity (see Moroni 10:4),which is absolutely true.  But if we have real intent, it also means having enough faith to do whatever He will ask.  Whoaaaaa.  Not, I will follow if it is convenient, but I have enough faith to do whatever the Lord will ask me to do, even if I really don't want to do it or have no idea how to do it.  I know that probably sounds like blind obedience to some people, but that's completely missing the point of faith.  I know I'm not doing Elder Evans's talk justice, but it just really made me reassess how much faith I really have, and what I have faith in, and what I'm willing to do for it. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my sermon,  And now it's time for this novel to end.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all in the US, and enjoy some jello salad for me.

Love, Sister Willden

(Monday, November 25)

Pic 1: Sister Dunn and I, prior to her first experience with raw fish.  Mmmmhmmmm.

Pic 2: Chiba Zone.  We're finally getting used to being able to kneel on the ground for long periods of time.