Week 47 Christmas Letter to Mom

Dear Mom,

I went to Mariko's house today (grandma's friend) so I don't have a
lot of time either. Thank you for sending me a letter! I can't wait to
get them all in the mail! Talking to you is like a dream and we only
kinda have six months left so remember how fast they last one flew? It
will go so quick! Mariko said my Japanese is fluent! She is
exaggerating! She called grandma with me in the room but I didn't
break any missionary rules because I want our family to get lots of
blessings. They asked if I wanted to skype grandma and I said I
couldn't. 😔 I hope grandma understands because Mariko said she
sounded sad on the phone. I can't believe you've read both journals! I
just finished my third one and my companion bought me a journal for
Christmas! She's so sweet! Mommy I love you and you have had the most
influence on me to make me who I am today so I am so grateful and I
hope that I can be half of the mom you are! I love you so much too!

Love,
Anna

Carter's package
Grandma fordiani's package
Caroling on Christmas Day right after we went to sushi!
The card says "sukuinushi ga umareta" which means "a savior is born" ✨
My favorite! Our family on Skype!

Christmas Facebook Message

メリークリスマス皆さん！日本に来る機会に感謝しています。このクリスマスだけ、私はイエス・キリストの代表者を費やします。本当に特別です！🎅🏻

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to spend Christmas in Japan! This is the only Christmas I will spend as a representative of Jesus Christ so it is really special! 🎅🏻

Week 46 Merry Christmas!

Hi!

I'm on the train to Tokyo right now because it's temple p-day! Wahoo! This week has had lots of fun adventures including a way wonderful lesson that we had last night with Itou San! I'll tell you all about it!

On Monday we celebrated my birthday by going to the Enoshima Aquarium! We saw jelly fish, sea horses, seals, penguins, sea turtles, and a dolphin show! (See movie below) it was so much fun! Then we went to Eggs and Things for dinner and it was so delicious!

We also had transfers so new missionaries came into our area. And we had our ward Christmas party! That was really fun! We invited everyone we knew and met! We had a lot of non-member friends show up and a lot of members brought their friends too! We were really busy talking to everyone and making sure that they were having a good night and getting to know the members!

Last night there was a family home evening in Kichijoji at president's house. We wanted to go with Itou San but the hombu is two hours away by train and she didn't get off of work in time. So we were like why not just skype in? So that's what we did! We skyped Elder Mukai at the hombu and we were able to participate in the lesson! It was a huge blessing! Then after the lesson we were able to study the scriptures a bit with Itou San and we had a really good lesson! I committed her to be baptized and we were able to resolve some of her concerns! She really would like to join our church! Yay!

Anyway, I am so grateful for this opportunity to live in Japan and for the many miracles I see every day. It's a blessing to be able to meet all of these wonderful Japanese people! Every single person I just love so much! And I know that love is not mine. It's Christ's love coming through me! Remember this Christmas everything he has done for us! He loves you. He knows everything, every feeling, happiness or sadness, that you and I experience every day. He truly is our Savior!

Merry Christmas!

P.S. I made a lemon cake, bought a frozen themed umbrella, and housed the 12th district from The Hunger Games ✌️😘

Sister Fordiani ❤️

Week 45 Happy Birthday! 20 years old

皆さんおはよございます！

Yesterday was my ai suru o tanjoubi! I wish you could've all
experienced the many "Happy Birthdays" from all of the cute Japanese
people I'm around all day! Their pronunciation of happy birthday is
literally the cutest! And they made my day extremely special!

Okay there is a lot to say because we had the most extreme week of
miracles on my mission yet! So please keep your hands and arms inside
the vehicle and get ready for this email!

We had transfer calls! Whoo! And I am staying with Sister Wallace in
my area of Shonan for another go! Yeah! We were really excited!

So on Tuesday we had a mission meeting where Presdient Wada changed
the standards for the mission to push us even harder to have more
faith to find. We emphasized having a prayer of faith and being
specific when we pray and really just being Christlike to everyone we
meet. It is so important when people meet us they have an opportunity
to feel the love that God and Jesus Christ have for them through us!

So on Wednesday on our way to the dentist in Tokyo, we implemented all
we learned on the trains and in the office and met some extremely
prepared people! I even got to talk about missionary work with the
dentist although it was pretty difficult with him working on my teeth
haha 😂

Then on Thursday we went to a neighborhood we had been planning to
dendou in because we had both felt really special about this specific
spot! When we went we knocked on doors for about 2 hours. We had a
couple good conversations with people but no one was really
interested. We were about to go home and I had this really intense
feeling that we needed to stay here for just 30 minutes more. Then I
remembered a less active member lived close so I assumed that was what
the feeling was for. When we knocked on her door though she wasn't
home... So we were walking to start housing until we could catch the
next bus home and a lady was out walking her dog! So we started a
conversation with her and she said she is coming to church and we
talked about the importance of baptism and how when we are baptized we
make a promise with God and we bore our testimonies about how church
really blessed us and our families! Her name is Hiura Satsuko. (So she
didn't end up coming to church yesterday because she is sick *cough,
cough Satan*... but we are going to visit her this week)

Then later that day we were handing out Eikaiwa flyers at the Eki and
we met another woman named Megumi Oki who's mom is a member in another
ward. She had been to Utah for a home-stay and because of that her mom
investigated the church and was baptized! Her sons go with their
grandma to church stuff all the time, but she never has been
interested in church. We testified that she could really get lots of
blessings for her family through church, but she wasn't sure. However,
she definitely agreed to come to Eikaiwa and brush up on her English
and maybe our ward's Christmas party too! Yay!

On Saturday we had Ozawa San's baptism! He's been taking lessons from
the elders and he is just the best guy ever! I Love Him! He cried
during the program and when he bore his testimony he said in English
"this is my number one happiness!" He said he's never been happier in
his whole life! And after we all went out for okonomiyaki!

We invited Itou San to his baptism but she couldn't make it because
she was at the hospital! 😩 but later that night we had a little get
together with one of our Eikaiwa students at his house and Itou San
came! His name is Ali and he is from the Middle East! He can speak
Persian, Turkish, Japanese, and English! Holy cow! We all had really
fun eating popcorn and talking! When we were planning for our
spiritual message for his family and Itou San, we felt like we should
teach about Jesus Christ and his life and miracles, but at first we
weren't quite sure why (but we find out later-keep reading)! As we did
we really had a good conversation! And they were all basically
teaching themselves from the pamphlet! Hahaha :) then all of a sudden
Ali said, "Hold on!" and he pulled up skype on his computer! He then
he called his older sister and told us, "She is super interested in
Jesus Christ and your church! Will you teach her?" Holy beep! Yeah we
will! So we just taught her really simply right there on skype! It was
getting late so we set another appointment for later, but man we just
got a new investigator from Iran! Wow!

Then on Sunday it literally was so incredible! I opened my package
from home in the morning (see video below) and we went to church
expecting Itou San and Satsuko San to come. Itou San came with
birthday presents for me! But when I called Satsuko San she said she
is sick. Dang it. So we went to relief society (church is backwards
here) and then a lady walked in with her son... So we told the elders
that Satsuko San is coming but they didn't realize that the lady that
walked in was different so we went over and sat with her because we
had never seen her before. She is from Spain and she lives close to
our church. She told us her son is misbehaving so she came to church
today with him so he can learn about Jesus and be a better person.
WHAT!? So she self referred herself to us! Holy miracle!

But wait it's gets even better! Today one of the members sons received
baptism! So Itou San and Roxanna (lady from Spain) were able to hear
all of the testimonies from fast Sunday and were able to see a
baptism! Oh my MIRACLE! I have no words for how blessed I feel to be
able to be the lords hands in Japan and in this area.

Then that night we all went to the bishops house for dinner! Itou San,
us, the elders, and the Gaitaus! We had a delicious dinner and the
bishop and his wife surprised me by making a jell-o cake with candles
in it! Then everyone sang to me!

That was my wonderful week! And my scripture I'm ponderizing this week
is "Doubt not but be believing" if we have faith we can do anything!

Love Sister Fordiani

Ward Christmas tree! Awh! Thank you!

Dentist! Whoo!

Itou san's birthday card! Read how stinking cute her English is! It kills me! She's still learning!

Week 44 No Time!

So funny story really fast. We asked this man if we could help him
harvest beans and he let me hold the stick and whack stuff but not
before he came up behind me and "showed me how to use it". It was like
those romantic movies where the guy shows you how to play golf but I
just felt violated hahaha! Have a great week! And our English class
singing in English 😂😂😂 Birthday present from Yamaguchi Shimai.

Week 43 Oiyama Mountain

Hello!

We hiked Oiyama Mountain today! Hence the no time to email! Sorry!

Music Night

今夜とても楽しかったです！ミュージックナイトで私達とイトウさんと一緒にクリスマス音楽をたのしみました。本当に嬉しかったです！も少しいクリスマスがあるのですごく楽しみにしてますね！

We had so much fun tonight with our friend Itou San! She is so sweet and we enjoyed listening to the Christmas music at the Music Night together! I'm so excited for Christmas!

Week 42 Those Small Miracles✨

皆さんこんにちは！

Things continue to be great here in Japan! We are just working every
day and seeing miracles as we continue to move the work forward in
this area!

One of the miracles is a wonderful lady named Sayuri Itou who is our
investigator right now! She was found by the elders as they were
handing out flyers for our free English class, before sisters were
brought back to this area, and after attending English class and
really loving it, she went online to our church website and ordered a
free Book of Mormon. So the elders brought it to her home and taught
her about the promise in the end of the book which says, "Behold, I
would exhort you that when ye shall read these things...and ponder it
in your hearts...And when ye shall receive these things, I would
exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of
Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a
sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will
manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And
by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
So she did and has been reading the Book of Mormon which leaded into
her wanting to investigate the church more!
Last week we asked her if she would like to be baptized next month
which is a giant step of faith for her so please pray for her!

More miracles are in our ward as we continue to build our relationship
with the members! A lot of the members are from part member and less
active families! So as we build relationships at church and visit
their homes we have been able to meet their family members! Such an
occasion happened last night when we helped a Sister Nishime move
homes with her family. She was moving within the same neighborhood but
all of us missionaries teamed up to help her family carry everything
to their new apartment. Her family aren't members and she had really
close family friends over too. As we were taking a break waiting for
the men and elders to bring the next truckload of stuff we started to
get to know Sister Nishime's friend a little better and she wanted to
get to know us better too. We told her our purpose and why we were in
Japan which led to a discussion on the gospel! She was interested and
as we sat and discussed how we believe God is our Heavenly Father and
how he loves us, the spirit filled the home and I could literally feel
God's love for her so strong in my heart. It was really special.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary and for Christ's teachings in my
life that help me become a better person. God loves me so much that he
shaped my life and gave me experiences before my mission so that I
would make this wonderful choice to come and serve his children in
Japan. One of those blessings he gave me was my amazing parents and
family. I'm so grateful for their example and I love my family so
much! All of them even though we're really spread out! I miss and love
all of you!

愛してるぜ❤️

Love Sister Fordiani

This is on a bridge by our house where the wind is up the wazoo!

Week 41 Busy! Busy!

皆さんこんにちは！

It is a beautiful Monday morning in Japan and I am just in love with
life! There is nothing that matches the joy that comes from missionary
work! It just fills up your soul with happiness!💛

Lately I have been learning how to be more patient and humble. I
recognized that if I chose to rely on the Lord everyday in my work,
that he would support me and give me strength. When I was a young
missionary, I was super excited to make it through each day and think
about all of the things that I was able to do by myself. For example,
if I invited such and such a number of people to church or hear our
lessons, or if I made it through a lesson on my limited Japanese. And
don't get me wrong, I was so thankful for the help I received from the
Lord, but I think being thankful and relying are two different things.
I guess I just didn't realize it until recently 😅 When I pray in the
mornings I plead for my Heavenly Fathers hand in my work and in my
life and I plead for his help with the language and to know where to
go, what to do, and what to say! And when we have righteous desires
the Lord always blesses us!

I have seen those blessings manifest themselves in so many ways in our
work lately. We have been given more opportunities to build
relationships with the ward and we have been guided to find new
people! There are so many that I cant type fast enough! Haha! 😁

I am so grateful that I am serving a mission and for the many
blessings being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints has brought to me and my family. I know God is watching over my
family and over all of you at home! When times get hard, hang in
there. God is mindful of you. He loves you. You are his child.

また来週！愛してるぜ。ご自愛ください。

Love Sister Fordiani

Week 40 Shonan!!!

Hello!

Right now I'm writing this on the way to the temple! Whoo! My new area
is even farther away from the temple, so we're on trains for about 2
hours to get there. Blech! But man is the temple worth it!✨

So I'm in my new area Shounan!💕 It's beautiful! We are literally a 30
minute bike ride away from the ocean and it smells like sea water
outside!🌅 Our Eki is called Hiratsuka Eki and it has amazing shopping
which I love and the area is flat! Compared to riding bikes in
Yokohama, here is a dream!

My companion is a star! 😘 Literally! She is so diligent and she will
talk with everyone and anyone! And oh my gosh is she FUNNY! The last
couple of days I have killed over laughing like 40 times! She's
awesome! She's from St. George, Utah and she went to BYU for the last
year and now she's serving! She loves like all the same stuff I do and
I know we're going to kill it here together!

Leaving my last area was pretty hard! I fell in love with all of the
people and the members were so wonderful! I definitely want to go
back! Maybe serve there again at the end of my mission??.... 😊 that'd
be good! When I first transferred I had home sickness for my last area
and district of missionaries because we became so close, but  the Lord
gives us new challenges and trials to make us uncomfortable so that we
can grow! And I'm definitely ready to grow more and become an even
better missionary!

At the beginning of the week we met with all of our investigators that
I was leaving! We saw Nora and she gave me this beautiful white
sweater, we taught Ana the plan of salvation and it went sooooo well
because we found the missionary pamphlets in Romanian for her online,
and we went to the art museum in Yokohama with Rie! At Eikaiwa I
taught my cute class of little kids one last time and had to say bye
to everyone there too! 😩 the tough thing is that I may never see them
again!

We are really focusing on creating a super strong relationship with
the members of our new ward so that we can help them with their
missionary work! Between visiting members we are finding people to
teach by talking to everyone! It's really fun! The sisters old area
book has tons of old potential investigators who we've lost contact
with since we were gone so we gotta go visit them too!

Today after the temple were celebrating Sister Wallace's birthday in
Yokohama! We're going to hit up the shopping and spankin' delicious
food! We're going to be running around like mad women to get
everything done on time, but hey! That's the fun of it 😉

Now I'd like to encourage all of you to "Catch the Wave"🏄 the wave of
missionary work!

"This wave of truth and righteousness is wondrous! It is not man-made!
It comes from the Lord, who said, “I will hasten my work in its time.”
This wave is empowered by a divine announcement made 193 years ago. It
consisted of only seven words: “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
Uttered by Almighty God, that announcement introduced a young Joseph
Smith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those seven words launched the
Restoration of His gospel. Why? Because our living God is a loving
God! He wants His children to know Him and Jesus Christ, whom He has
sent! And He wants His children to gain immortality and eternal life!

"For this glorious purpose, our missionaries teach of the Restoration.
They know that some 2,000 years ago, the Lord established His Church.
After His Crucifixion and the death of His Apostles, men changed the
Church and its doctrine. Then, after generations of spiritual
darkness, and as predicted by previous prophets, Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ restored the Church, its doctrine, and its priesthood
authority. Because of that Restoration, knowledge and essential
ordinances for salvation and exaltation are again available to all
people. Ultimately, that exaltation allows each of us to dwell with
our families in the presence of God and Jesus Christ forever!"

This is our special message to the world! I'm so thankful I can share
it and help families achieve the goal of being able to live with their
family forever! I know that this church is Jesus Christ's true church
once again restored to the Earth and through Christ's teachings we can
find the most happiness 😄
Love Sister Fordiani

Photos:

 Tons of pictures of us in the old district! Our last week together 😭

 Me with Harry Potters spankin' wand!!! 😆

 Us with Rie at the Art Museum

 Sister Yamaguchi's b-day!

 The new district at a members house! We drew each other for an activity

 Me and Sister Law! Two 1/2 Italians rockin' Japan! 🇮🇹❤️

The new district at the temple!

Week 39 Transfer Week! I'm transferring!

Hi!

We don't have a lot of time this week so I'm gonna get right to it!

Tuesday we had a lesson with Nora who is amazing! She is in the middle
of her chemotherapy treatments and she is so strong! I love teaching
her because she likes gospel discussions in English! 😆 were getting
her a bible so she can read it! She wants to read the whole thing!

Wednesday we had the best Eikaiwa! We dressed up and I was Harry
Potter! But the best part was all of the Japanese people's costumes!
They went all out and we weren't expecting a ton of people to dress
up! We trick-or-treated around the church building and I told a "scary
story"... I made it up on the spot and it was pretty horrible/not
scary. But good thing that I teach the kids class because at the end
Momoko chan raised her hand and said, "Teacher, I was really scared!"
😊🎃

Friday we went to the Tama area and to Kichijoji to renew Sister
Yamaguchi's drivers licence. It was just as long and tedious as the
DMV so that was fun... Not. Plus our train ride was 2 hours one way...
😑😐 but Elder Leach gave me some Hot Tamales cinnamon candy from
America so I was happy! Then after we went out for curry with the
Elders and had a district blitz!

Saturday we got our transfer calls! I'm transferring! I leave on
Thursday for Shonan area! Me and my new companion Sister Wallace will
be opening the area back up after it's been closed for one transfer.
And I'm in charge! Senior companion. I'm a little nervous but I can do
anything through the Lord who strengtheneth me right? (That spelling
is probably dame... I didn't check the scripture before I quoted it.)
We also went for lunch with a member to a ramen place, I helped an old
lady carry her flowers to the bus station!!!!, we had an Eikaiwa
meeting that was Way too long, and we had a Halloween party with the
young women in our ward!

Sunday I had to say bye to everyone which was so sad! 😭😞

Today we went to Hard Rock Cafe! It was a little taste of America and
the food was amazing! The Elders brought hot sauce so we did a hot
sauce challenge and I thought I was going to die. But I did it! 😆
I'll put that movie up later!

Sorry this isn't very spiritual! But I know that this new transfer
will probably bring many challenges and I've learned that if I put my
trust in my Heavenly Father I can do hard things!

Love Sister Fordiani

1. For your viewing pleasure 😂😂😂

 2. Halloween Eikaiwa

3. YW Halloween Party

4. Hard Rock Cafe 😛