on the sandwich and a steinway: Week 28: Transfer calls, BAPTISM(S)

Well minasan.

How was your week?

Sorry I didn't write last week. Technical difficulties.

This week was a crazy one in Chiba. Because yesterday, WE HAD A DOUBLE BAPTISM! The elders' investigator and our dear Yoshida San got baptized, and it was the happiest day on earth. President and Sister Budge came all the way down to Chiba for the service, and it was so packed with people!

It was also very chaotic. I felt bad for my new companion, who sort of just had to follow me around as I sprinted up and down the hallway trying to get everything ready. The service started out with the sisters singing a musical number. The beginning was supposed to be a solo by one of the sisters, but she got confused and started singing the words of "Abide With Me 'Tis Eventide" to the tune of "I Stand All Amazed" and it was the most awkward experience of my life. I think we started the song over about 3 times. My voice kept cracking as I sang because I was trying not to laugh. Sister Dunn and I have a really bad habit of laughing for no reason during hymns. I hope everyone just thought I was really moved. Then we discovered the font was inadvertently drained. (This was after it flooded during sacrament meeting and the entire women's bathroom was sopping ...) The men in the ward were running back and forth with pots trying to fill the font. It was wild.

But it all turned out okay in the end.

Other news.

I got a call from the assistants, and I am training another new missionary (super surprise #1!), and I am training here in Chiba (super surprise #2!) along with Sister Dunn and McAllister. I thought I was leaving for sure. I already said good-bye to some people. #doubleawkward

It's a little nostalgic, this whole having 4 sisters in our little baby apartment again. I sleep in the office by myself because there's no other floor space for our futons, but it sure is lots of fun.

On Thursday, I went to Shinjuku to pick up Sister Legge, who used to live in Utah but has basically been everywhere because her dad is in the air force. We get along just fine. We talk about Italy and food and how Japanese is hard. In the training for trainers at the honbu last week, the assistants said that 87% of the mission is either a trainee or a trainer. IT'S CRAZY.

On the way home from the honbu, I met this way lovely lady on the train, who's basically my Chinese counterpart. Because she watches Project Runway religiously and is learning Japanese. Except she likes going clubbing and works at KFC. I go to bed at 10:30 sharp and work wherever it is that I'm supposed to go (at least I try, anyway). I couldn't get her contact information but she has mine ... so stay tuned for further news as to what happens with her.

To close, would you like to hear some Henry Longfellow?

Okay, great. Here is an excerpt from "Psalm of Life."

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act, act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solmen main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,

With a heard for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

In other words, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not just an abstract thing. It is to be lived, to be put into action, to be a part of our everyday being. Today in Preach My Gospel I was reading about faith. God obviously has more power than any other being and can do anything whenever and however He wants, but generally that power is exercised in response to our faith. Are we doing our part? I know I can always do better. But I decided life would be kind of boring if I was perfect.

That is the end of my sermon for today. Until next time.

Love,

Margaret / Sister Willden / Magi-chan