Week 16 Bird Poop! すきじゃない！

こんにちは！

This week has been crazy eventful haha. A new companion, being area
senpai (I'm the oldest companion in my area), figuring out how to
communicate! So crazy! But through all of the hair pulling stressful
moments of "how the crap am I going to do this" I know that God never
leaves us alone to battle new challenges. Ever. He gives us challenges
so that we have the opportunity to be humble and turn to him. As soon
as we do that, and put our worries in his hands they become as light
as a feather! Pray everyone! Plead for guidance and strength and you
will receive both :)

Last Tuesday, I went to Hodogaya with Shindo Shimai to spend the night
there. My companion is sister training leader so she has lots of
trainings. So I get to go to different places a lot and go on splits
(spend the night at other missionaries apartments). Haha and that's
after the prophet discouraged sleepovers ;)

Wednesday I had to teach Eikaiwa all by myself! Since my companion
can't speak English she couldn't help me teach at all :) but I loved
it! And I'm pretty sure that teaching is what I want to do with the
rest of my life yes!

Thursday and Friday were pretty stressful and insignificant haha.
Everyone was sick (not me thankfully) but I was stuck stressing about
all of the people we needed to meet with and contact all day. Not fun.

Saturday was the day we finally got in the swing of things as a new
companionship yay! My companion is so loving and she has a different
out look to her Dendo that is a lot more inspired! I'm so excited to
learn from her! Her testimony is insane and she's an awesome teacher.
I love her already!

Sunday was so funny! We found out that three members had their
birthdays this day so we went on a heart attacking mission! We heart
attacked all their houses. On the way to the last house I had my iPad
sitting on top of my bag with Google open so I could navigate all of
the crazy small roads of Japan and a bird pooped right on top of my
iPad! It was a lot of poop. So we had to take a detour and stop at
7-eleven to clean it up. (7-eleven is everywhere in Japan. There is
seriously one every 3 miles at least. See picture below haha)

Monday (yesterday) we were at a members house eating cinnamon rolls
and teaching a lesson when the whole house began to shake.....
EARTHQUAKE! It was legit. It was pretty big but only lasted for 30
seconds hahaha soooooo cool! My companion was shocked when I told her
that was only the second earthquake I've been in hahaa. They happen a
lot here :)

Today! Temple P-Day baby!!!! The temple is the bomb. And Tokyo temple
rocks especially because all of the little workers are soooooo
adorable! Japanese obaachans are so cute and little :) I'm so glad I
have my own cute Japanese obaachan :) I love you grandma!

Hahaha that was my week! So crazy but so fun! Missionary work rocks. I
feel like I've been doing this my whole life already! Did I have a
life before this....? Wakaranai.....

Love Sister Fordiani

Bird poop!

We were housing a huge apartment and it was pitch black so I said we

should answer the door with the light on our faces and say, "こんばんは！私たちは教会の宣教師です" in a creepy voice haha!

 Tokyo Temple!

Week 15 Transfer Week 2

Hey everyone! This weeks starts transfer 2 for me!

Monday was so crazy after Skypeing my family for Mother's Day. We went shopping for food for the week and I was feeling all eh after Skypeing, so we went straight to the tempura part of the market and I bought karage my number one favorite food here and ate it for lunch! Then I was fine to dendo again all day haha :) 

Before I talk about transfer calls, I just want to say how amazing missionary work is. The number of miracles we see a day is insane! Like literally insane. This is the coolest thing I've ever done in my whole life!

The best miracle this week happened on Wednesday and Thursday night. So Wednesday we just happened to hear about a baptism in Kamakura happening Thursday night like last minute. Of course we, Gazdik Shimai and I, freaked out because it was close enough for us to bring someone to it! And we immediately wanted the Kikuchi family (Emiko San-the mom, Chinatsu san and Ayano san-are her two daughters) to go, no question! They are ready to get baptized but they had a spiritual impression that they have to get baptized on April 4th so their date to get baptized is in a year.... but it's a date! Anyway, they haven't been to Eikaiwa the whole transfer but this week they just happened to show up! Gazdik Shimai literally begged them to come. They said they wanted to, but their so busy, so they'll call us in the morning. We prayed all night about it, and in the morning when the call came Emiko San (the mom) said she could go! We got to teach Emiko San in her car on the way there and we haven't had a decent lesson with them all transfer either. She needed a lesson way bad! When we were heading to the baptism another miracle happened. Last minute her daughter Ayano San said she could go too. When the baptism took place Ayano San said she felt a zing in her heart, and Emiko San said that the testimony, given by the sister who was baptized, was so strong. Miracles! And then they came to church Sunday for all three hours and invited us over for dinner last night at their house. SO AWESOME! 

Okay transfer announcement!!

I'm staying in Yamato! BUT I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Funakura and she's Japanese! So she doesn't speak any English! I'm so lucky because everyone says she's the best and it's like super rare to get a Nihonjin companion! Especially since I'm still a bean chan! What?!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love Sister Fordiani

Matsuda San our investigator :) 

Youth sports night! We played dodgeball in the chapel hahaha it was crazy! 

Yumi San our new investigator hahahaha she's crazy and soooooo funny! 

I might dye my hair red next week!

Okay bye :) 

Week 14 Mother's Day

Hi everyone!

Monday: crazy p day! We went to the big Buddha in kamakura! Kamakura
is so pretty! You can smell the sea breeze there and it's so green!
Yamato is more like Tokyo feel, more city and stuff! I was introduced
to my favorite food Monday too! It's called karage! It's just like a
big potato pocket but they are so delicious!

Tuesday: we visited the Akasaka family! We had sushi and I had real
Japanese sushi there for my first time. They were really excited about
that. They are my favorite family in our ward!

Wednesday: we had a cookie activity where we made American cookies
a.k.a. chocolate chip cookies! We had 7 P.I.s come and one previous
investigator and one less active! Yes! They loved the cookies!

Thursday: we went to a sewing class where the ladies made us little
dollies haha it was an activity that was trying to be a finding
activity but it didn't work out too much like that!

Friday: I made yakisoba for dinner! It's been ages since I ate it!

Saturday: we had a zone blitz in Yamato and it was crazy because there
was golden week festivals at the Eki and there were tons of crazy
people around! Two drunk men came up to me and it was really
frightening haha they were loud and I couldn't understand why until my
companion told me they were really drunk .....oh!

Sunday: we saw crazy miracles and found three new p.i.s and handed out
three book of Mormons! That doesn't happen ever!

I've been learning Spanish and Japanese sign language too! A lot of
the people we meet are from South America and there are a lot of deaf
members in my ward! Haha maybe I'll come home with three new languages
under my belt ;)

I'm so grateful for trials that help me become more and more like
Christ. As we go through hard things we sometimes can imagine how
Christ would've felt. I know this mission is going to help me relate
more to the savior and I'm so grateful for everything he's done for
me. I'm so happy I talked today with my family too! That was the #1
best thing of my whole life! I can't wait till Christmas for us to
talk again!

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers!

Love Sister Fordiani

 Here's our area Yamato!

Anna's talking to us in this picture.

Week 13 Milk!

Hi everyone!

So my thought for this week is blessings. God gives us so much help
with life. It's a wonder that we still think that life is hard. You
can see evidence of god's blessings everywhere! If you feel like it's
hard to see what God has done for you, as you lay in bed right before
you go to sleep count 10 blessings of that day--events or physical
objects-- and then you'll realize how much you actually have!

This last Thursday Wada Kaicho came to our area and gave us all
interviews. I sat down and he asked me how I was and I just started to
cry hahaha which has been like a daily thing here. There is lots of
things to get used to and change in life is a pain! But he was able to
calm my fears and help me see that I'm running faster than I have the
strength for. He told me to stop doing that. So if any of you feel
like just exhausted like take a day for yourself and make sure you're
not sprinting the marathon!

Okay this weeks story. So I'm lactose intolerant which is really hard
to get people to understand here because it's a really big word haha!
Well we're teaching this woman, Akemi San, who is like way spiritually
prepared for our message. But she has a bit of a mental disorder I
think because she's a bit off like personality wise and she screamed
at us for asking her age and called us bad names haha. Anyway, we get
done teaching and she brings us food. In Japan if people give you food
you have to eat all of it. And the treat she brought us was this huge
like HUGE cream filled puff thing. So me and my companion panic
because we don't want to offend her again. So my companion is like
take pills and just eat it! So I like down two pills for lactose and
that was the most condensed milk/cream I've eaten in my whole life on
that one puff I swear. It was like enough to fill a water bottle. We
prayed a lot that night that I wouldn't get sick. I should've been bed
ridden the next morning but it was a miracle, no symptoms! Gods
blessings yo!

Anyway I love you all and thank you for the support and prayers. I feel it!

Love
Sister Fordiani

Week 12 Tokyo Temple Day!

I had a crazy last week! We had splits first of all so I took a train
to Kamakura and served for a day there. We visited the cutest girl who
had two huge dogs! She lives in Ofuna. In Ofuna is the biggest statue
of a white lady that is really pretty but she glows at night and it is
really kinda creepy. In Yamato it's just city pretty much, but in
Kamakura I was blown away by how pretty it was. We stayed five minutes
away from two temples that were magnificent! Of course I couldn't go
visit them. But we can go on p-day some time! I'd like to go back to
Ofuna and Kamakura sometime!

We have been having lots of success finding people the lord would have
us teach. I know that cause we are really obedient and he trusts us.
We are so busy that the days go by really quick! I love study in the
morning especially personal study. It sets up the day to be a good day
:) even if you feel like you don't have time, I challenge everyone to
at least read five minutes from the Book of Mormon. If you have to,
wake up just five minutes earlier in the morning to get some study in.
It's the truest book in the whole word and it changes people's lives!
Like mine! I'm definitely way happier in my day when I read the
scriptures!

In my mission sisters are only allowed to teach and street women so
all of my investigators will be girls that I talk about haha. :) Namie
chan is my favorite. We taught her yesterday and she is trying to
prepare herself to receive a patriarchal blessing exactly a year after
her baptism which is May 17th :) she also got baptized on her
birthday! She really wants to serve a mission but has been inactive
forever. She says she finally feels like she's coming closer to God
again and she doesn't want to be separated from the church anymore. :)
she is already being a missionary too! She is teaching her friend the
gospel and she brought her to church with her last Sunday! I have a
testimony that people are placed in our path that only we have the
ability to help in exactly the way that they need it. So reach out to
those around you because only you have the experiences and gifts that
could help them :)

So parents, I can skype for Mother's Day May 11th or 12th so we need
to coordinate a time when your available with the whole family. So
figure out a time that works for Japan and America. So in America it's
the 10th or 11th and from 5pm on works cause it'll be in the morning
here. Tell me as soon as you can which day works and I'll talk to you
for 40minutes. I can read emails throughout the week just can't
respond to them:)

Thank you everyone for the support and emails :)

Oh and I went to Tokyo Temple today! Easily the most beautiful temple
I've been in! The visit was so peaceful and much needed! Everyone get
to the temple! (Sorry no pictures I forgot! We were in a rush!)

Love Sister Fordiani

Week 11 Week 2 Japan

Okay the spirit is the best seriously! We do everything with it. We
have found so many people this week by the spirit. My companion is
teaching me all of the things to say to be able to talk to people and
I'm starting to recognize words in what people say now. But I still
don't understand about 95% of what's happening around me :( but it'll
get better and better in time. I pray for charity and the gift of
tongues daily haha so I can speak to people and charity so I don't get
frustrated when I don't understand what they say back.

The members here are seriously amazing. So I have an extreme fear of
standing at the pulpit in sacrament meeting. Yesterday the ward asked
me if I would stand up and introduce myself and bear my testimony
about missionary work. So basically I was extremely scared. Like after
I had to leave the sacrament room and take deep breaths and calm down.
But I managed to say, "my name is sister fordiani. I have six people
in my family, two brothers and one sister." Then I bore my testimony
on temples cause those were the only words that came to mind haha.
After all the sweet ladies came up to me and thanked me for you
testimony which only caused me to start crying again haha but I'm so
grateful for them! One of the sisters who is stuck in her house with a
terrible disease had her husband bring me soy ice cream because we
call her almost every day and talk to her :) she wrote me a cute note
too!

Today we went to an all you can eat restaurant and totally stuffed
ourselves full of Japanese food. It was an investigators birthday so
we all went out to lunch with her. She's deaf and so is her friend so
I've been learning some Japanese sign language haha. Her friend who is
a member can read lips so that is how we speak to them hahaha super
crazy! But it works and they are the funniest to hang out with. The
make noises and burp really loud but they don't know they do because
their deaf hahaha.

Okay I have tons of pictures to make up for last week! Thanks for all
the emails!

Lastly I just want to say that even though I can't speak the language
I can show people I love the through service. That's been the best
way. I can't wait to serve more and meet new people every day :)
Japanese people are the best and I definitely have the best mission :)

Love you all!
Sister Fordiani

The elders and sisters serving in Yamato branch speaking Japanese 💕

Week 10 First Week in Japan!

Okay everyone go to the Payson temple open house! I'm pretty sure that
it is open to the public right now :) the temple brings so much peace
so I know that going to the temple open house will really bless your
day that day and I promise you'll feel a lasting peace inside :)

If you haven't please watch or read general conference! I watched it
two weekends in a row and it was so awesome both times with tons of
wonderful advice. (Once in the MTC and once in Japan) my favorite talk
was Elder Bednar, Elder Packer, and Elder Holland's talks :) but if
your only going to watch one, watch Elder Holland's talk :)

So I'm in Japan! Super cool yo. I'm going to be brief cause I have two
weeks of writing to cover since I flew here last Monday/Tuesday.

The flight was sooooooo long! It took us 10 hours and 45 minutes to
fly over the Pacific Ocean (and I peed at 33,000 feet in the air!) is
that appropriate to say as a missionary?! Probably not sorry!!!!

I'm in Yamato shi. My first area. My companion is sister Gazdik she's
really great and she's fluent so she's training me :)

Radio taiso is the best look it up on YouTube. We did that the morning
we got here in Kichijoji so funny and fun!

I bought my bike yes! It's blue :)

Everything I've eaten is so good! Ramen rocks! And we're going out for
sushi tonight!

We have taught a lot and even though I don't understand what's going
on 90% of the time, I'm really happy. Which is ironic :) but I know
this is the lords work and he'll provide a way for me to accomplish
the things he needs me to do here. This is the spot he started me in
for a reason so I'm going to serve the best I can yo find his sheep :)

Thank you for the love and emails :)

Love sister Fordiani