Week 43

SPRING IS HERE. It's the most glorious thing. We are starting to see
Sakura and other flowers blooming (see pic below, of my grandparents
yard this past week) and it's like a dream. (Except for the severe
allergies it's causing some of our investigators ... )

Some highlights:

KAITENZUSHI ROUND ONE: My dear grandma and grandpa picked up Sister

Mondano and me up and took us to the local kaitenzushi shop (or
conveyor belt sushi, if you prefer). For someone as indecisive as me
it meant staring for a long time before deciding what to nab off the
conveyor belt. I am taking advantage of all the tasty fish that the
island has to offer.

TWINS: I realized that nearly every one of my skirts had a huge whole
in it (thank you bicycle) so Sister Mondano and I hit a local shop and
nabbed these 300 yen (3ish dollars) shirts. Maybe not the most
attractive things you've ever seen, but there was something in the
novelty of matching that made it attractive.

KAITENZUSHI ROUND TWO: We took the ferry to Niigata again (this would
be the third week in a row) for a zone training meeting.
Post-training, six of us went for some sushi at Genki Sushi to make us
very genki (genki - happy/being fine/feeling well).

EXCHANGES: Sister Mondano and I went on exchanges with the Niigata
sisters. It was strange, being on the streets and actually having
people to talk to. Sister Wright and I had never talked to so many
people in one day in our entire lives.

THE WORK: The branch is slowly but surely growing (this week's count:

17!) We are praying every day to find a family (or multiple) and

priesthood holders to keep the branch afloat, because within a couple

of decades the current faithful members will be ... well, rather

elderly. Sister Mondano and I have been given charge to talk to all

the mamas on the island to build the branch. We have 2 baptismal dates

this month and several other solid potentials. Niigata is the only

district in the mission so we are working like crazy so that it can soon become a stake. Keep praying!

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Yesterday we were lucky to have a couple from the

district presidency come visit the branch and the sister gave a lesson

on parables in the New Testament (I loved it--even though it was in

Japanese, haha).  We talked about the Ten Virgins and why the five

with enough oil did not share with the other five who lacked. Simply

put, the oil wasn't something that could be shared. Yes, we are all in

this together #highschoolmusicalrunningthroughmyhead #soworldly but

this life is about preparing for the life to come, and that's

something that no one else can do for you.

Until next week!

Love from the island,

Sister Margaret Willden

(Monday, March 31)

Here is what was supposed to be last week's email

Happy Monday! Today I was riding my little bicycle through rice
patties just SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY that spring is here. Meaning, no more
wearing 5 layers of tights and feeling like the kid from "A Christmas
Story." It's the best.

This week I will organize my thoughts by way of photos.

Insert picture of salad)

FOOD: Earlier this week we were in Niigata for zone conference and hit
the local tonkatsu restaurant for some post-conference dining. I've
decided I'm not very good at eating greasy food (which isn't exactly a
problem I'm trying to resolve) I ordered a GREAT BIG SALAD and it was
the yummiest thing of my life.

(Insert picture of Sado)

BLUE SKIES: Isn't this the prettiest thing you've ever seen? I admit
to editing it. But still. The trip back to the island made for some
incredible photo ops.

(Insert picture of cereal)

MORE FOOD: We shall never go hungry! My favorite sister-in-law
Kristen's mother, Mickey, sent me the biggest package of cereal,
granola, and more cereal.  My concerns for lack of cereal once I got
to Japan were for naught.

(Insert picture of books)

SUBTLE STATEMENT: There was a mixup with an order and now I find
myself with 3 copies of "The Miracle of Forgiveness." I think there is
something I am supposed to learn. Times three.
#christmaspresentsforthewholefamily?

(Insert picture of dock)

TAKE 1: In honor of spring (and in an attempt to mitigate the effects
of the millions of treats we receive) Sister Mondano and I took a
morning jog and did some beachside yoga.

(Another picture on dock)

TAKE 2

(Me standing on dock)

"EXERCISING:" aka curbing "rice cheeks," a euphemism for "gaining weight."

(Picture of sister Mondano and I)

BEST: My cutest (and only) companion. I love her so much! Sister
Mondano has taught me so much about how to just LOVE. We pretty much
cry during every companionship inventory (tears of joy). We are not
ready for transfer calls to come ...

THE WORK: I love it. The week was full of miracles. After the zone
conference, we left directly from the port with our suitcases and my
massive box of cereal to go to a lesson with a lady nearby.
(Backstory: we had met this Japanese lady nearby when we had come to
the port specifically to find the rumored large population of
Filipinos.) Unfortunately, a no-show. So we dragged our luggage to the
curb and decided to begin our weekly planning session on the curb
since we were not exactly mobile. 20 minutes in, Sister Mondano
suddenly stands up and dashes across the street to talk a lady, who
just happens to be Filipina and just happens to know a sister from the
branch who lives about an hour away and just happens to have interest
in the gospel. The Lord has a plan bigger than all of us. Had we not
met the Japanese lady the week before and had she not cancelled on us,
we would have not had the answer to our prayers that we had been
seeking.

INSPIRATION: In regards to obedience, particularly when it is not
convenient. In the words of Jane Eyre: "I care for myself. The more
solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I
will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God. ... Laws and
principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are
for such moments as this. ... If at my individual convenience I might
break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth--so I have
always believed. ... Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are
all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot."
(Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (2003), 356). It's kind of dramatic, yes.
But commandments are called commandments because they are meant to be
kept, and it will all work out (D&C 90:24).

Well that's all I've got. It's scattered, but that was the week. Love
you all so much.

Sister Margaret Willden

(Monday, March 31)

Week 42 - Still in Sado!

Dear everyone,

Happy Monday! Today I was riding my little bicycle through rice
patties just SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY that spring is here. Meaning, no more
wearing 5 layers of tights and feeling like the kid from "A Christmas
Story." It's the best.This week I will organize my thoughts by way of photos.

(Monday, March 24)

Week 41 - Hello, Hello

Hello hello.

Another week, another roller coaster. I know I'm being dramatic but
... really. They weren't lying when they said being a missionary has
crazy ups, downs, and downright weird moments.

Ups: We set a baptismal date with one of our lovely Filipina
investigators. And by that I mean Sister Mondano set a baptismal date.
I mostly sit there like a rock because I don't speak Tagalog. She is
beginning to understand how much power comes from the Atonement and is
so ready to cast all those burdens out of her life.

Downs: one of our investigators texts us and says we can't meet
anymore. We refused to be broken up with over a text and went to visit
her, and she says she only meets with us because we "are nice and cute
and I feel bad that it's so cold outside." Ouch. Beyond that,
heartbreaking. Because we're pretty sure she felt something during the
lessons. But we're not giving up yet ...

Weird moments: Today we go to meet an old investigator. She
immediately walks back into her house and changes out of her pajamas
into a dress that says "UNHOLY" in huge block letters. She says, "Now
I look like you two." I attempt to explain the meaning of "unholy" and
we all die laughing.

Ups: Sister Mondano and I took the ferry to Niigata so we could Skype
into a conference in Tokyo. Some exciting (I think, I'm still not
quite sure how I feel) news ... the mission is finally going to start
using Facebook. I'm not sure exactly how many of Sado's inhabitants
actually use it, considering that the extent of the technology here is
brick-cell phones that resemble the Jitterbug. But it will help us
connect with the younger generation and when people ask us, "Do you
have Facebook?" We can finally say YES. (Just as a side note--it's
strictly for missionary purposes. We're still using email for family /
friend communication on p-days). A handful of the missionaries are
testing it out before the rest of the mission gets online, so don't be
alarmed if you start seeing activity from my account. Haha.
#facebookpurge

The theme of this week "Good intentions get you nowhere unless you do
something about it." Sometimes we're scared, confused, or just
downright lazy, but unless we actually implement changes in our life
we are not going anywhere. In a letter I got this week, a dear friend
who is off sharing the gospel in the Eastern Europe wrote, "You can't
expect to see change when you are going about things the same way." I
guess where I'm going with this is ... if we want to be happier, if we
want to have strengthened families, if we want to be more Christlike,
etc., it is not enough to just think about it. It's an obvious thing,
but sometimes we forget obvious things.
Just something I was thinking about as I was walking through a rice
patty the other day.

Thanks for all your letters and emails. YOU'RE ALL THE BEST.

Love, Sister Margaret Willden

(Monday, March 17)

Pic 1: Did you know that this is what happens when you microwave fake
Japanese butter for too long?
Pic 2: Happy blizzard. Love, the Sado Sisters.
Pic 3: The seagulls are attacking the ferry.

Week 40

Hi dear family and friends.

We thought spring was finally coming (Sister Mondano and I were
enjoying frolicking on the streets in just cardigans far too much) and
then BAM. It started blizzarding today. I guess this is a little bit
like home. (Dear family, at least we are freezing together.)

This week was FAST. Too fast. Sister Mondano and I joke that we sort
of feel like a married couple. I cook, she cleans, we hold each other
by the hand when we have to inch our way past vicious dogs to ring
doorbells (I tell you--it's terrrifying). Ironically, we also
discovered that the Gospel Library App on the iPad has the Institute
Manual for Marriage Prep. Don't get the wrong idea. It's more
applicable than you might think. Some good reading while we do leg
lifts in the morning. Ha.

I've been thinking very much about prayers. And how they are answered.
Lately we've been seeing it answered in the forms of other people.

The other week, we prayed to find Filipinos to teach. That day we ran
into five of them. That same day, one of those ladies had prayed to
God to know what to do with her life as she saw it crumbling before
her. And then we walked in the door. "You are angels," she tells us.
Just for the record, I don't really think of myself as an angel. No
angel has bedhead like I do.

Yesterday, I was sitting playing the sacrament hymn praying that two
of the five investigators set to come to church would actually show.
On the last line of the last verse of the hymn, the door slides open
and they come in from the drifting snow. (PS--Sado sacrament meeting
attendance is breaking records. It's not us, though. It's all a
miracle. Keep on praying ...)

This morning, I prayed for a little pick-me-up. (Let's just say
Sundays are not exactly a day of rest as a missionary ... ) This
afternoon, I got two emails from two of my very best friends. Call it
coincidence, fine. I like to say it's all little (or BIG) blessings
from Kamisama.

I guess the moral of the story is if you feel something, JUST DO IT.
Sometimes Sister Mondano and I will just feel like we have to do
something, and then we wonder if we should do it, and then we wonder
why we are wondering if we should do it. As I heard Elder Bednar once
say during stake conference at BYU, "If it's good, then quit worrying
about if it's the spirit or not. Just do it."

I just read President Uchtdorf's talk "Waiting on the Road to
Damascus." He says it best:

"Often, the answer to our prayer does not come while we are on our
knees but while we are on our feet serving the Lord and serving those
around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our
spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the
windows of heaven. By becoming the answer to someone else's prayer, we
often find the answer to our own."

Just something to think about. I remember one phone call with my
mother whom I love so much. It was a few months before I left for my
mission and I was stressing about something, probably something that
doesn't matter whatsoever. She just says, "The best thing for you to
do is just go serve someone." Well said.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for all your love and letters and
emails. They mean the world to me.

Love, Sister Margaret Willden

Week 39 - More Observations

We had transfer calls this morning, and it doesn't get any less
exciting / panic-inducing as time goes on. (PS I'm staying in Sado.
Still going after all the old grandmas and grandpas).

So I am organizing this letter into things that I observed / occurred
to me / were otherwise floating around in my brain this week:

1. Sado may be behind the trend by about 20 years, but at least they
have good taste in music. At five o' clock every day, this kind of
pitchy chime plays "Yesterday" by the Beatles and tells all the little
kiddies to go home. (Or have a dance party ... ) They also play Celine
Dion at the fast food restaurants around here.

2. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. This week, some ladies
started waving at us from their car. "Weird," we thought. People
normally just point at us and drive on. She handed us a business card
and asked us if we would meet her for lunch. What on earth. Lunch
turned out to be she and her friend trying to convert us to some
religion that I don't get the jist of ... something about Nirvana. In
addition to a sort of not tasty bowl of curry. I just pulled the "I'm
too dumb to read the kanji in the newspaper so no thanks card" and got
up and left. Not after attempting to testify. #swindlefriday I guess I
shouldn't have gotten mad, but that was an hour and a half and 650 yen
that I was never getting back.

3. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Again. We got a
referral from the elders, saying there was a lady who was way pumped
to hear about eternal families. I flipped when we go and visit her and
there's another old lady there, and they look at each other and mumble
under their breaths, "What should we teach them first?" They then
proceed to pull out the exact same newspaper that the two ladies from
the day before tried to give us. Testify, get up, leave.
#swindlesaturday

3. If it's too good to be true, it also might not be. Meet Koya San. I
think I mentioned her before. She wandered into the church because she
says the missionaries all have nice eyes and wanted to learn more. We
asked her if she would like to be baptized. She says, "Yeah what time?
I'll be there if I don't have anything going on."
#stillworkingonteachinghowimportantbaptismis But she's great and has a
lot of sincere desire to learn.

4. This week, we broke twenty people at church. It was a miracle. Once
we break thirty, we get to look for a new church building.

5. Missionaries are like professional stalkers. We were biking down
the street and one of our Filipina investigators who we hadn't been
able to meet in a while honked at us. We were housing about an hour
later and found her at her apartment. Fortunately she believed us when
we explained that it was a coincidence (or rather a non-coincidence)
that we found her, because she then called her other Filipina friend
to come over and meet us and she became a new investigator.

6. My decrease in Japanese language comprehension is due to the area,
not decreasing brain cells. There's a dialect here that even some of
the members can't understand. Sister Mondano says she can always tell
by the look on my face if I'm just pretending to understand when
obaachan is telling me about her rice paddy and I have no idea what
she's saying. I've gotten really good at just nodding my head and
"mmmhmmming" in acknowledgment when we hit someone who speaks Sadoben.

4. Ask God, not Google. Quoting a letter I got the other week. How
many times do we worry ourselves about decisions, whether big or
small--and not bother to ask the one in charge of it all? If there's
anything I've learned, it's that Kamisama knows a whole lot better
what we need than we do ourselves.

That's all I've got. Aside from the fact that I hit my 9-month mark
this week. HALFWAY.

Love, Sister Margaret Willden

(Monday, February 24th)

 
 Missionary bikes outside the Church

Week 38 - Observations

I stumbled on this the other day. And felt a need to analyze it. (High
School AP Lit ... I miss you!)

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

The Race of Life, William Wordsworth

I was just sitting here in this ferry, en route to Niigata for a
conference. Thinking. And it just sort of hit me funny. Here I am,
surrounded by about 60 middle-aged Japanese men, all in corpse pose on
this Barney-purple carpet taking an afternoon snooze. And how probably
approximately only 12.3% of the people in this room believe in God.
And for far too much of my life, I took the comfort and peace that
such knowledge brings for granted.

In my pre-mission life, I was more wrapped up in "Good heavens that
trill in my Chopin étude still isn't perfect," or "I can't get through
this week because I just ran out of Life cereal," or "TEXT ME BACK."
(I know. I have some repenting to do). And when I didn't have to think
about anything at all, it certainly was not the purpose of life, God,
etc., because I've always just sort of known. Known that a million
gazillion years ago, we were all in the Pre-Earth Life, and we chose
to come to this Planet Earth and follow Jesus Christ.

But even if we know, we probably don't do all things that we should
do. This very much includes yours truly. Just as Wordsworth put it,
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting."

WE JUST FORGET EVERYTHING. Or we're just lazy.

I have been going to church since the day I was born. But I am ashamed
to admit I have probably read the fourth Harry Potter book more times
than the Book of Mormon, can sing "All You Need is Love" better than
all the verses of "Love at Home," and still think about looking for
the biggest piece of bread during sacrament meeting on Fast Sunday
(we've all done it ... ). There are far too many times when we (I)
forget about the one who's in charge of it all, and why we as
Latter-day Saints do what we do. Earlier today Sister Mondano and I
were sitting at the bus stop chatting with a lady about the purpose of
life. You know, typical small-talk. Sister Mondano asks her, "Do you
want to be with your family forever?" The lady says, "Well I believe
that in my heart." And I say, "Believe if you believe, but that's not
enough." And then she sort of gave me a funny look and then the bus
came and she tried to run away from us.

This roundabout conversation I'm having with myself really does have a
point, I think. We have daily prayer, scripture study, and regular
church attendance because we need to be reminded--reminded that God is
God, and we are not. When we do these things consistently, we are
reminded of the why we are here and why it even matters. Investigators
often tell us,  "I didn't even care if God existed until [X] happened
in my life." Compelled to humility (see Alma 32:16 for the
clarification). I guess my point is don't forget about a loving
Heavenly Father until something MAKES you remember.

This is a whole lot of sermonizing, so I guess I will tell you about
the dendō we did this week. Read on if you're not bored.

We were housing in a blizzard and we saw an old lady walking through a
bamboo forest. We make it a point to chase literally everyone on the
streets (it's not that hard--we see like two people a day) and I "made
a phone call" while Sister Mondano started talking to her. She punched
Sister Mondano really hard for saying that Sado is a nice place. ("You
flatter too much!") As we walked away, we noticed this huge house. And
then this lady comes running out of it in the snow and is bowing to
us. I was afraid she was going to get whiplash. She welcomes us in and
then we realize that this house is a restaurant. She lived in New
Zealand, Thailand, and Vietnam to learn how to cook.  "I think we
should be friends," I think. Turns out she became Protestant years ago
after a serious illness and felt like she needed God in her life. She
is a cool lady. She also makes really good food. #notgoodforacidreflux

We also taught some other people. One lady walked into the church the
other day and asked the elders if she could learn about our church.
Miraculous, considering our church is on a forgotten little road. She
says it's the elders' rosy cheeks and sparkly eyes that sparked her
interest. #nocomment The work here in Sado is cruising. Unlike myself
on a bicycle in the snow. But I am not forgetting to count my
blessings. When we have the gospel, we've got it all.
Sister Margaret Willden

(Monday, February 24th)
Pic 1: お雛様 dolls that this random lady invited us into her house to look at.
Pic 2: Awkward Niigata Zone selfie. Unfortunately we are not equipped
with a self-timer.
Pic 3: Look at all this yummy authentic Thai food I got for 1000円! #instaham
Pic 4: I'm so happy!