Week 20 Photos Week :)

皆さん今日は！元気ですか？

私は元気です！

Hahaha okay just kidding! My whole email isn't going to be in Japanese. Well I'm not really capable of sending a whole letter about weekly events in Japanese quite yet! But anyway here's my week in English :) it was so wonderful! 

Monday-- (last Monday) Vainerere Shimai called me totsu zen (outta the blue) and asked if we wanted to go bowling! Heck yes we do! So we took a train to Kawasaki, went out for burgers and fries, and went bowling! *See awesome pictures below*

Tuesday-- I had my first Zone Conference. It was combined with all of the missionaries from Fujisawa East and West Zones. Probably the most missionaries I've been around since the MTC. We had lots of trainings focusing on recognizing the spirit and inviting people to be baptized. Really good :) trainings are so helpful. After Funakura 姉妹 had more leadership trainings so I went on splits with Hotu 姉妹 and Shindo 姉妹 again. Splits are not my favorite when it comes to the staying the night at another person's apartment. But hanging out with different missionaries is pretty fun :) They had a lesson scheduled with a cute girl named Sakura chan. She's in high school and she is so nice! We taught her the plan of salvation! She had lots of questions and I bore my testimony to her about the comfort from knowing where your going and your purpose on Earth. *See awesome photo below*

Wednesday--At Eikaiwa (free English class) we were teaching the grammar pattern "Have you ever...". So of course I was like, we are turning this into a game! So I taught my class how to play Have You Ever. Hahahaha. It was awesome! I died first because I haven't done anything too cool with my life yet, but our class was spitting stuff out like, "Have you ever been to Korea?" and "Have you ever eaten alligator?" So yeah of course I died first.

Thursday-- we had another lesson with Matsuda San. She read Moroni 7 as her homework for last lesson and she had tons of questions about angels. We explained that angels can be the celestial beings with God but also they can be people in our life too. She has two daughters and we said that they could be angels in her life. She had never thought of that before. Then we taught her about the blessings of sabbath. We told her that coming to church is hard but that it will bless her life and family so much. She's come to church before but she has a hard time coming because she lives far and that is her daughter's only day off of work. I felt super prompted to tell her how my young woman's leaders blessed my life. So I told her when I hated my parents when I was a teenager the only people who I'd listen to were my Beehive and Mia Maids leaders. ;) (thank you for being such a good influence for me!!!) we told Matsuda San her daughters will watch her example and she needs to be a good example if she wants her daughters to be good people. Bold but true eh? ;) After her lesson we went to a members house and helped her clean her home. Her parents were there from Nagoya and they know Motter 姉妹 from the MTC :) They said he first time they met her she was looking up all their words in the dictionary. Hahaha ain't that the truth. They made us lemon cake and lemon aid :) sooooo yummy!

Friday-- I went on splits to Odawara! On the train there I sat next to this cute Japanese girl named Mori San. She's in college working on her blood testing degree. We had to pass the dictionary back and forth to have a conversation but she was so patient with my Japanese! I showed her pictures of my family and she showed me pictures of her two dogs! Haha :) It was such a blessing :) after we arrived at the station she told me, "thank you so much for talking to me." And she waved goodbye to me until we were out of sight of each other. What a blessing! My companion for the split was Shitami 姉妹. She is Japanese too but she is the cutest! We were super good friends right away. Friday night we went to bible study class. We read the scriptures with their new member Natsuki chan who was baptized a couple weeks ago. She's the cutest! And her Japanese is impossible to understand haha. She had questions about the abrahamic covenant so I did my best trying to explain it in Japanese. After she told me she didn't understand at all and I told her that is okay for now. Bahahaha. I didn't understand it until like two years ago myself anyway.

Saturday-- I finally got to visit Mariko San my grandma's friend! She brought us to her house and we looked at all of the pictures they had with my grandparents. They went to Catalina Island, Huntington Beach, Cannon Beach in Oregon, the Grand Canyon, Mt. Fuji, and Temple Square. They were going on and on about how beautiful the temple is! Mariko asked about what we believe so we taught her a few basic things about how our church is centered on families and that we are all god's children. She says she believes in God and knows he's been helping her make the right decisions all her life. :) she is just like my grandma Yasuko! They were so loving and so excited to meet me! We talked for a long time and they printed out pictures of Mt. Fuji and temple square for me and Shitami 姉妹. They love MOTAB :) they're so cute! They played it for us and blasted it in their apartment :) *see photos below*

Sunday-- okay this day blew my mind. We have 4 investigators right now and only Akemi San comes to church every week. But this week Matsuda San came too! We were freaking out! We think it's because she felt how important it was from our lesson! Yayayaya!!! So we sat through church and then when sacrament ended we turned around and there in the back was the Kikuchi Family! They had come late and slipped in the back! Holy freak! #peeingourpantsfromexcitement #thechurchistruepeople! This week I sent them an email with a spiritual thought attached. I do this every week for them but this week I had the thought to send them a part of a talk instead. So I sent them "Stay By The Tree" part #4 from last conference. When she emailed me back she said: 

今、メール見ました。
とても感動し涙が目からこぼれてしまいました。

本当にいつも有難う。

Which translates to: Right now I just saw your email. I was totally brought to tears. Really, always, thank you. 

Holy crap! And Funa Shimai said that my mail must have convinced them to come to church. A freaking miracle. Miracle. 

The Lord knows what his children need and I am just the tool. Honestly, I can't do this without the spirit. Live your life so you are worthy of his companionship every day, every day, every day! 

Love Sister Fordiani

Burgers and bowling

Teaching Sakura chan

Our district this transfer
Me with Mariko San and her husband!
Me and Shitami Shimai
I got the package today! Thank you! And forgive my getto-ness in the
one with the poster from the ward. The photos and notes made me bawl
my eyes out! Thank you so much everyone! I love my ward!