Everyone! I am flying to Japan on Monday!!! WHAT THE HECK!!!??? Where has the time gone? I am so not ready at all hahaha. But that doesn't matter because if I have faith and press forward the Lord will take care of me and bless me for relying on him :) (but man is it scary!)
This week has been awesome! Last Friday we got our flight plans! We fly to the Portland airport and then to the Tokyo Narita airport! I am so excited because we'll be right by my family in Warrington! Auntie Shelly and Grandpa! A little bit of the familiarity of Oregon until I fly for like 14ish hours to Japan! We leave Oregon at 1:00 pm on Monday and then arrive in Japan at 4:00 pm the next day......... I won't meet my trainer until Thursday and then I'll be in my first area, first day on Friday! Crap I'm so nervous!
Okay so this week I have just had the most wonderful time learning more and more about Christ! In chapter 6 of the Preach my Gospel missionary manual, there are all of Christ's attributes listed out with a little self evaluation at the end you can take to see where you need to improve. If we, as missionaries, strive to develop Christ-like attributes in ourselves we won't have to worry about what we say because what we do and who we are will attract the attention of others looking for that light of the gospel in their life. If you aren't a missionary, study those Christ-like attributes and just pick one: patience, charity, obedience, diligence, love (and there are others) as you study it in the scriptures or in preach my gospel you will find yourself turning towards Christ.
Only through Christ's atonement can we really become new people. Christ's atonement is the center of God's plan for us to return to him. This week I realized how important the atonement is in developing our testimonies. I'll make this as simple as I can!
1. Faith in Christ: the decision to change our life and put our faith in Christ to use his repentace process takes a great leap of faith. Change is scary and sometimes really difficult and time consuming; however, if you show Christ that you are willing to change your life and follow him, he will be with you every step of the way. He never left you. He loves you.
2. Repentance: as we repent, wether it be through prayer or talking to preisthood leadership, we let go of things that have been weighing us down and holding us back.
3. We feel the atonement change our life: and our testimony develops of the change we experience. Happiness, peace, and the love of God come back into our lives (the best!)
4. Our testimony develops: this is like the most natural thing after expeirencing the atonement because you know for a fact that it has changed your life!
5. This was the next step for me: I desired to serve a mission to tell everyone about Christ's atonement! I know that Christ's atonement has changed my life. I have felt the power of change and I want more than anything else to share it with all of the people in Japan so that they can come closer to the Savior and feel peace knowing that someday they can live with their families forever in God's presence :)
This is key: Whether or not you have repented of something, Christ atoned for all of your sins. All of them. The ones you repented for and the ones you haven't.
I love the gospel and I've loved the MTC! My testimony has grown so much here and my understanding of the atonement. I can't wait to go to Japan and be so discouraged so that I can rely even more on the Savior hahaha :) I'll be okay!
I love you all and I can't wait to talk next week :)
Love, Sister Fordiani <3
These pictures are from our last temple walk last Sunday!
1. Our whole zone--most of us leave Monday for Japan!
2. The sister's with shakas
3. We titled this last picture of the Elders "What Even is Life Right Now...?" :')
These are from yesterday! We had to get the typical missionary MTC pictures haha :)
1. Brother Bingham our teacher taught us the last time yesterday! He's the best!
2. The typical map picture yo!
3. My like FAVORITE picture of Christ in the hall by the cafeteria. There are like 100s of pictures here hanging like 3 feet apart on all of the walls! So awesome! Its like an art museum!
4. That would be my Japanese tags!!! Aren't they so awesome! My last name is across the top! (I lost them for like 2 weeks but I said a prayer and found them ya!)
So on our last day we were looking through Brother Bingham's facebook pictures with him and we got to a mission picture where the Elders were behind the dressers..... we were like "WAIT YOU CAN DO THAT" so what did we do? Of course as soon as we got home we opened up the dressers and slipped behind the mirror to NARNIA! Heck yes!
***Mom insert... While I was reading her emails this morning, I realized I was on at the same time as Anna! Here's our thread:
***Mom insert... While I was reading her emails this morning, I realized I was on at the same time as Anna! Here's our thread:
Mom: Hi Anna! I love you!
Anna: Hi mommy! I love you too!
Mom: I love all the pictures!!! Dad's bringing you a bag today with the phone and other things. I can't wait to talk to you.
Anna: Aren't they awesome! I'm sending more in like five seconds to you okay? I'll pick up that package probably tonight or tomorrow! Thanks for being so awesome mommy! I love you sooooooooo much! I'll talk to everyone in the morning. That's when I'll call on Monday. So make sure your ready for the call okay? I'll be in the SLC airport. We don't have time to make any more calls until we get to Japan but that's expensive so my call will be in the morning. Don't cry when I call you okay or I'll start crying! I love you mommy :)
Here's the extra pictures Anna sent today:
I let Vainerere shimai borrow my dress so that they could be twins
Leach and Reed like to pretend their Klein's mom and dad.... their weridos
That is basically what descirbes our teacher Brother Bingham.
He's a weirdo all the time but so spazzy and funny!
Our district under the flowers!
The Elder's being models under the flowers
(left to right: Lundberg (the one who thinks livy is hot), Reed, Klein, and Leach)
Us with the Korean sisters we are best friends with and sweater boy breaking all kinds of mission rules with his head in the shot.
Pictures with our branch presidency but I look freaking nasty in all of those I'm sorry!
These are with Bingham kyodai the last day he taught us.
We found a picture of our mission president!
All of us on the beds and in the dressers hahaha
(all of these pictures are from bybee shimai's camera but I have to go right now! I love you mommy!)
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