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

Pic 1: Yoshida San and company.

Pic 2: Post-lesson KFC with Eva Shimai (who got baptized in August!) and Ramo chan (who got baptized in July!) and their lovely family.

Pic 3: We all thought this dress looked cute on the rack, tried it on, and then decided it was probably the most unflattering thing we had ever worn.

(Monday, December 16)

Week 27

hi.

so the computers are broken so we are having to borrow the elders one laptop so I'm not sure I will be able to email today, but i just wanted to let you know i'm alive.  we just got transfer calls and i'm staying in chiba and training a new missionary so that will be fun ...

love you!

(Monday, December 9)

Week 26

Dear everyone,

I wish you all a belated happy Thanksgiving and happy Black Friday.  Thanksgiving is not exactly a high priority here (it is after all an American holiday) but that is okay.  We made it special in our very own way.  

Here are a few highlights of that day.

• Had a mogi lesson with a member (mock lesson where the member pretends to be an investigator so we can practice Japanese / teaching).  She used to be a tour guide all around the world and loves Michelangelo so she and I became quick friends
• Made a Thanksgiving feast.  And by that, I mean we made weird sweet potato casserole out of the random ingredients we had on hand, rolls from the freezer, and berry cobbler courtesy of Paula Deen.  (As in Sister McAllister had a recipe from the lady).  For added nutritional value, I made some miso soup.  



Happy Thanksgiving Day

•  And then we ate it all in 5 minutes to make sure we stayed within the 60 minutes allotted for dinner.  Mmmhmmm.

Tokyo Temple in Hiroo

Today was pretty great.  We got up at 5am and headed over to Hiroo to visit the Tokyo Temple for our once-a-month trip.  I got to see all my bestest friends again and eat a real American burger.  It was topped with cooked apples and cinnamon.  

I'm quickly realizing that this letter is turning into a food diary, so I suppose I shall say something about the work, which I do happen to love more than food.  

Yesterday was also pretty great.  We Chiba sisters met most of the zone in Yachiyo (fun fact: which also happens to be the town I was born in) to BLITZ (aka find new investigators for the area).  I was temporarily on splits with dear Sister Day from Georgia, and we walked a ways out to not infringe on anyone else's proselyting.  We walked past a cute oldish Japanese lady with a cute oldish dog and remarked on her cute oldish dog, and lo and behold she was GOLDEN.  She just happens to be Christian and just happens to like talking about Christianity she said and just happens to be looking for a church that isn't hours away.  She stops and says, No one in Japan talks about Christianity.  But they should.  We all need God in our lives.  We say, Yes we know.  She says, Come over any time and we'll talk about church.  I have all the time in the world.  (Of course this is a paraphrase as it was in Japanese).  Sister Day and I fainted.  Miracles!

In other news, I had my first official bicycle wipe-out.  No other parties were involved.  My skinny little road tires just couldn't handle the curb and I felt my life flashing before my eyes as I went sprawling right in front of Domino's Pizza.  The employees temporarily averted their attention from tossing pizza dough in the air to the random girl lying on the pavement, but I just got up on my bicycle and tried to pretend like nothing happened.  #thisiswhypianoprofessorsinsuretheirhands #butimnotapianoprofessorsoiguessitdoesntmatter

In other other news, we have a baptism this Sunday! More details to come next week. 

To close, my favorite scripture(s) that I stumbled upon this week, D&C 6:23-24, 33-34:

23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?  What greater witness can you have than from God?

24 And now, behold, you have received a witness; for if I have told you things which no man knoweth have you not received witness?

33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

I think I used to resent being labeled as a "weird churchy girl," but I currently find no shame in it.  If you have the gospel, you have absolutely nothing to lose, because it's true.  Amen.    

Love love love love, Margaret

P.S.  I know this isn't churchy, but I heard this quote from one of my favorite childhood authors and it made me happy.  And so I am going to share it with you. 

"If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."

-Roald Dahl

 IIt's like smizing (smiling with your eyes--thank you, Tyra Banks), except it works with your whole entire face.  Isn't that the happiest thing you ever heard? 

Also, this Friday, I have officially been in the mission field for 6 months.  WHOA. 

(Monday, December 2)

I had never been to Baskin Robbins until I came to Japan.

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.

Week 24: Christmas is coming!

Hellooooo minasan.

It's Christmas in Chiba!  Since Thanksgiving is not really a priority here, Japan jumped straight from Halloween to Christmas.  We spent last night doing a mitsuketaikai (handing out eikaiwa chirashis, literally translates to "finding meeting") at the huge eki in Chiba.  The elevator-music Christmas jingles kept us happy as we chased after people trying to invite them to eikaiwa / church / get baptized.  (I love you, Mariah Carey!)

Christmas means we will be able to more easily tie our conversations into the gospel!  Yay!  Not ... "Hey, your skirt / dog / weird stuffed animal is so cute!  Do you want to come to church?"  I didn't intend for that to sound sarcastic ... but sometimes that's what it comes to.

With Christmas approaching, it also means we unfortunately experiencing the joys of riding a bike with a skirt in the winter.  #wishiwasanelder #butnotactually  Since we don't sleep with the heater on, I've resorted to wearing pajamas under my skirt and curling up in my purple hoodie with a cup of Celestial Seasonings that I splurged on a couple of weeks ago during our morning study.  

Miracle number 1:  the elders gave us a referral this week, a lady who has lived next to the church for the past 30 years.  It turns out Sister Christensen and I had housed her very door a transfer ago but no one had been home.  Fortunately the elders had the same idea to house apartments near the church and voila!  She likes to meditate, has purple hair, and loves cats.

Miracle number 2: as of this week, the Chiba Ward has 8 baptismal dates set.  #bestchristmaspresentever

Tomorrow we're headed to Kichijoji in the south mission for a two-mission conference with Elder Evans of the Seventy.  Typical females ... we tried everything on in our limited wardrobes to find something general-authority-worthy.  I know it doesn't matter.  But it matters.

Since I probably won't be sitting around downing bowls of mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing myself with jello salad for Thanksgiving this year, here is my little bit on what I'm grateful for as a missionary.  There are so many days I find myself sitting on a street corner waiting for the light to turn green and I think to myself, Look at all these people!  They probably have noooo idea how much God loves them!  And then I want to just want to shake every person I see and say, Do you know? Do you know?  But then they would all think I'm some weird religious fanatic so I refrain.  #asiftheydontalready Yes, I know I'm on my little missionary soapbox now but it's so true.  Every day I wake up and think about how lucky I feel to have a purpose and know what / why / how I am, and what a blessing it is.  Don't take it for granted!  And if you don't know what I'm talking about, check outMormon.org.  

Until next week, love you love you all!

Margaret

(Monday, November 18)


Pic 1: Post-mitsuketaikai ... 

Pic 2: It's Christmas in Chiba! The cute lanterns right by the church.

Pic 3 : Our church building.  We were committed in zone meeting to carry around pictures of the church to show people so here it is ... Every Sunday when we greet people at the door it feels like a pep rally 

Week 23

Dear everyone,

Happy Monday.  We just got caught in a rainstorm on the way here without any rain gear so I'm feeling a little damp ... but such is missionary life.

Highlights of the week:

1.  Mission interviews: President Sister Budge made their every-other-transfer round to the Chiba zone and we had some nice one-one-chat time.  Sister Budge recruited our companionship to put together a musical number for a two-mission conference down in the South Tokyo mission with Elder Evans next week, which seemed non-stressful until we realized it was with 400 missionaries and a general authority ... I'm trying to remember what I learned in Performance Anxiety / Psychology 293 that I took at BYU.

2. Exchanges:  The lovely Sister Nagamine came to town, and Sister Dunn and McAllister were off to Narita to take her place.  There was lots of pillow talk, cookie dough eating, and some dendo.  But we decided it's significantly more difficult to stop people if you don't look American ... not that there's anything I will / can do about that, ha.

3.  Baptism!  On Saturday we hopped an 1 1/2 hour train back to Tsukuba, Sister Dunn's former stomping grounds, for the baptism of her previous investigator, and I was reunited with my dearest Sister Christensen.  At the baptismal service I ran into one of the elders who used to serve in Sado where Mamako and Papako (grandparents) live, except now he's married and has 2 children.  He didn't really remember me--probably because I was wearing a baseball t-shirt and had some scary looking bangs 10 years ago--but it was the coolest thing seeing how he was able to raise a family in the gospel and just how happy they all were!  

4.  New dendo strategies: we decided that for the sake of stopping people I put the companionship at a significant disadvantage out of the three of us so I hide in the bushes and sit on the phone and call investiators, potential investigators, pretty much everyone in our address book while the other two knock on doors.  I guess I'm not really meant for the phone either because I scared one lady who asked for all my personal information and said she was going to report me.  Good thing I didn't give her my social security number so I think I am safe. 

5.  (See diagram): A little tidbit of knowledge regarding time management from President Budge, who happens to be the previous CEO of Tokyo Star Bank.  (I know, he's so cool!)  Refer to the fuzzy diagram for this to make any sense:

1. High urgency, high importance: lesson plans for that day, eating, going to the bathroom, etc.
2. Low urgency, high importance: prayer, scripture study, studying Preach My Gospel
3. Low urgency, low importance: walking down the street without talking to anyone (aka wasting time)
4. High urgency, low importance: baking cookies for a lesson that day

Most often missionaries think that they should be working in region 1, when the most effective missionaries spend the most time in region 2.  Not that you don't need to eat / sleep / etc., but if we focus the most on being prepared far in advance, then we reduce stress and increase effectiveness of our efforts.  I know all you people reading this aren't full-time missionaries but I think it's completely applicable for college students, doctors, office workers, parents, aka everyone.

So file that away for future reference.  Some wise words.

To close, my favorite scripture of the week:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?" (Moroni 7:27)

NAY.

Have a lovely week!


Love, Margaret

(Monday, November 11)

Picture 1: Time Management 101

Picture 2: Post-planning de-stress session yoga

Picture 3: Yummmmmy

Week 22: and then there were THREE.

Hi.  Family.  Friends.  

It was quite the week.  Sitting here at the computer I'm having a hard time remembering quite what happened ... the blur of time seems to become more frequent the longer I'm out in the field.

I shall do my best.

SAYING GOODBYE.

On Thursday, Sister Christensen and I headed into downtown Tokyo to do a little switcheroo so she could go to Tsukuba and I could meet up with my new companion, Sister Dunn.  Sister Dunn is from California and likes chocolate as much as I do so it will be a smooth transfer I believe.  

We dragged a couple of suitcases and one bundled up bicycle through one of the busiest ekis (Akihabara) and annoyed quite a few people along the way.  Fortunately we ran into some elders who took pity on the poor helpless sisters and carried the bike all the way to the honbu (mission headquarters).  Sister Christensen has become one of my bestest friends, so it was sad but we'll see each other soon!

SAYING HELLO.

Once we arrived at the honbu (a little sweatier than when I had left the apartment), Sister Dunn and I met our brand-new missionary / trainee, Sister McAllister from Texas.  She's a fellow BYU cougar and likes to bake, so I think we will get along just fine.  She's such a doll (and happens to speak pretty well) so we pretttty thrilled.  With the influx of missionaries, the mission has an incredible number of threesome companionships, usually one Japanese and two Americans.  Unfortunately Sister Dunn and McAllister got the short end of the stick because I'm not fluent but I'm doing my best.  I had an incredible number of people tell me this week that my face looks Japanese but when I open my mouth they question their judgment ... haha.  

Working in a threesome has its challenges--it's not exactly comfortable having three strange religious gaijin show up on your doorstep unannounced telling you that "we can change your life!" We also pretty much take up the whole sidewalk when we walk places.  But we are making it work.

Funny coincidence, the Chiba elders also happen to be a threesome and one of the elders happens to be Elder Dunbar (who I have never met till this week), whose family is in our ward.  Small world!  

MIRACLES.

Miracle 1: Yesterday was probably one of the best days of my mission thus far.  The Y------ family, who I met the beginning of my very first transfer, came to Primary!  For the second week in a row!  And Sunday School!  And Sacrament meeting!  That evening, we went to teach them at their home with one of my favorite people, our ward missionary Ramoちゃん who got baptized last July.  We hadn't planned on setting a date during the lesson but she kept saying how she really just wants to get baptized (which sort of felt like smack in the face to extend a baptismal commitment), so I mentioned that December 8 looked like a really good day.  It just happens to be the week before I will likely transfer out of Chiba--call it selfishness on my part or following the Spirit, but she accepted!  Sister Y------, and she is so excited to get baptized so she can begin teaching her family about the gospel!  I almost cried (I know, weird) I was so happy.  

Miracle 2: Someone put a bag of marshmallow mateys in the fruit basket (the food donation bin for the missionaries) at church.

That's the week in a nutshell. I still feel awkward stopping people on the street and asking them their favorite restaurant and then inviting them to church, I still don't really like using the phone (probably something I will never get over), and I'm still not sure what to do when old men at the eki ask me if I'm married, but I wouldn't give this up for the world.  

Hey, go share the gospel today! 

Love, Margaret

P.S.  Spiritual enlightenment for the day:  "The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life.  The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life--the life God is sending one day by day."

-C.S Lewis

If we didn't have hard things, this wouldn't be real life.

Pic 1: Meet Sister McAllister.

Pic 2: Meet Sister Dunn.

Pic 3: Meet me and my Justin Bieber hair.  I just don't want to get a $50 dollar haircut.