Week 49 Middle of January Life

Hi!

It's the middle of January and it is cold! Now I don't have a lot of
room to complain because I'm not in Hokkaido and we don't have any
snow yet, but being cold is not a fun thing! We battle it with layers
of tights skirts, shirts, jackets, and I have yet to layer coats so
that's good! Humidity just pierces through it all and makes you freeze
anyway!

This week was literally probably the best week of my mission so far!
We found and taught two new investigators who are already progressing
making our pool of progressing investigators 4 people! This has never
happened on my mission before! I love each person so much it hurts! We
have Sayuri Itou San and Selena Crespo San from before, and this week
we found Jessica and her beautiful Bolivian family of 5 and Hiroko
Shimizu San!

The Spanish speaking elders actually housed into Jessica in the
beginning of December, and she said the sisters could come back to
teach her. We haven't been able to though because Wallace Shimai and I
don't speak any Spanish haha. But when we went on splits we had a
Spanish speaking sister come to our area and go with me to her house.
She didn't remember the elders at all due to the length of time
between contacts, but she still let us in and let us teach the
restoration! I could barely help teach at all because she only speaks
Spanish but we practiced in the morning and I introduced each part of
the lesson and the Spanish speaking sister then explained everything
after that haha! Whoo! Maybe I'll come back trilingual? (Not) 😉 We
are going back tomorrow to teach her the plan of salvation!

We were handing out English flyers at Chigasaki station later that
night when I met Shimizu San. She has a background in Christianity and
a love for English so she loved the Family English Eikaiwa program I
introduced to her. She told me very strongly that she is not looking
to join a church, but that's okay because when we met with her again
that Saturday, we introduced the church anyway through teaching the
restoration haha! Yes! The Family English program we do is 30 minutes
of English class and 30 minutes of gospel study/intro to our church
and beliefs. When we taught the restoration it literally answered all
of her concerns! She didn't realize we were the Mormon church until
the end when we introduced the Book of Mormon! But that ended up being
a blessing because lately I guess there has been horrible newscasts on
TV saying bad things about our church. 😔 she said if she knew we were
Mormon beforehand she would've never said yes to meeting with us... 😳
holy miracle. At the end we read the promise in Moroni 10 and as she
read it out loud she all of a sudden looked up at us and said, "Do you
feel that!? It just all of a sudden got way hot!" Oh my! The Holy
Ghost filled up the area of the tiny study we were in! AND THEN after
all of that we asked her if we could meet with her again because we
were really ballsy for teaching her when she said not to haha. (We
said that it was an introduction to our church so it worked out) and
she said NO. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE. She is so prepared and this
will bless her life so much! So I asked why! And she said when she
studied before she took a lot of time to investigate and we don't
wanna waste our time and she doesn't wanna waste our time either. I
was filled to the brim with love for this woman already, but in that
moment it overflowed and I told her I knew God loved her so much and
he wants her to be happy. And because he loves her, we do too and we
want her to know the truth for herself. The spirit was guiding me
because she paused and said, "Okay, I'll meet with you one more time."
 This whole lesson was a miracle but shoot after that I we were so
exhausted we went out to eat cause fixing food sounded like torture
haha! So that lesson will happen sometime this week... Pray for us and
this amazing person!

Though the lessons we taught this week my testimony was strengthened
in this gospel so much!  It is true. The gospel answered all of our
investigators questions and the spirit we felt together was so sweet
and pure. I'm so blessed to have this missionary experience. It has
been worth all of the tears and heartache! I can't wait to watch these
two special daughters of God progress on their journey to find lasting
peace and happiness which I testify is only found in the gospel of
Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is
Christ's perfect church once again restored to the earth through the
prophet Joseph Smith. Until next week! I'm sorry that was ridiculously
long!

Love Sister Fordiani

The mission at Christmas conference
Dendo with the nekko chan!

Week 48 New Year

Hi everyone!

I had a great new year! We were really busy but we have two new
investigators and I got to go see the sun rise on the very first day
of the year! It was the very first sunrise and Fuji San was in the
background! Way beautiful! We got permission to go to the beach💛 we
also had a zone meeting and Christmas party where I saw all of the
missionaries who were in the MTC with me! We took a picture together!
Yeah transfer 7!  Plus my old companion met Elder Clinger when she
went home to Fukuoka!
I hope everyone has a wonderful new year and remember that as you set
goals work on them slowly and don't stress yourself out with all of
the different things you want to change in your life! Plus if you go
to God in prayer he'll help you too. God loves you so he will help you
achieve your goals.
Love Sister Fordiani

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.