Okay family, where do I begin? This week was the first week of the new transfer! Monday we went out to eat with our wonderful Sekime member (not our area but she loves us so we're special) at Sweets Paradise that was fun! (Pictures in previous post). Woah! That was fun.
Tuesday began the wait for transfer calls. We had gone all day with out a call and then we met with Elders and they got really excited and they said they knew what was happening with calls. I personally had been looking forward to transfers a new start somewhere or with someone right? Right? Wrong. It was complete shock. Both the Elders and Sisters in Higashi Osaka are staying! It's way rare, and this will be a 3rd transfer with my companion sister Larsen...I love her but I have had a different
companion each transfer except the last so this will be a new experience! Yay! 😅😁
We then taught eikaiwa and biked home. Wednesday was a great day! We went to Fisher Shimais house and taught a great lesson. She is so kind to us and loves to talk. Her sister isn't a member because of mental health reasons but she was able to sing with us the hymns for first time in a long time. Her sister is so awesome, she loves sumo wrestling and she likes us because we ask her about it :)
Then at eikaiwa we had a great time. We had one student....it was awkward...mainly because of the recent changes made to it that people don't feel like coming. But anyway the advance class people came and they all speak English and usually one of them comes and sits in on our class so they can try out translating. Well we went through our lesson super quick and so we played a game where we have to guess the word without looking at it while the others describe it. It ended up being so much fun, because it was us, sister Kashishita and Joshy who loves to shout and joke. Then the advanced people came in at the end and joined in on our game. We were throwing words up there that I had no idea what they meant but they did and it was lots of fun!
Thursday we had SKK (weekly planning) and lesson with English students and then
biked home...not too exciting. The lesson was good though 😁✨
I don't even know what happened Friday....all our plans fell through and we ended up doing lots of finding but not much happened...we finished planning which takes freaking forever! Saturday was better. We had a great Mogi (roleplay) lesson with a member who told us of her conversion experience. Almost every member in Japan is a convert. First or second generations right, their testimonies of Joseph Smith,
the restoration and the Book of Mormon are incredible. That, I think, is my favorite part of talking to members, when they tell me of all the ways they were prepared before hand and how much they have changed because of it. It's so cool!
Then we went out to this one part of our area to see if we could meet with some PIs (possible investigators) and we saw this girl walking and crying, in highschool uniform. We immediately turned around and started to talk to her, asked if she was okay. We were on a narrow street so my comp walked with her and talked mostly I walked behind but then we were able to make her laugh and walked her all the way home. She was upset that she had messed something up at school. We hugged her and exchanged phone numbers and then we told her that she could pray, and we taught her how, then prayed with her right then. It was really good. The spirit was so strong. Hopefully we can go meet her again she was so beautiful!
Sunday was also great! The Elder's investigator came and she likes English so spoke to us for a long time but we had a meeting to go to but she didn't realize and so to help us out brother Kono just takes her away, with no words or anything or tact what so ever. She just rolled with it as well. It was so funny.
In Japan we have what's called a fruits basket where the members give the missionaries food, right, well in this area the last two transfers have been bare. Nothing, nada...which is fine but it helps because everything is so dang expensive and our new dendo Shunnin ward mission leader in English, got up in front of EVERYONE and said, "Our ward is known for having a bad fruits basket! That's embarrassing!! We need to do better!" Next thing you know we have so much food in our house now! :) so happy! Such a blessing!
Also at church we got to hang out in primary and learn about the new temple in Sapporo it's beautiful!!! So so so pretty! I want to go so bad!
We also had many people wish Liam a happy birthday! I don't anyone loves their family more than I do! Everyone knows that I love my family, everyone!
So the reason why we had Pday on Tuesday this week was because yesterday we had a Ping-pong tournament with the ward that lasted all day. It was so much fun!
Sorry this is short. For some reason it's really hard to write this email...so much happens but not enough time or brain capacity to write it all out.
Also I'm related to Elder Zachery Rackham Westhoff. I get a call during study one day and he shouts, "Sister Oswald what is your first name and your mom's name?!" I tell him, he has Rackhams in his family and so do I so he was curious. About half an hour later another phone call, "Hello cousin! We share the same great times like 8? Grandpa, Benjamin Rackham." He had two sons and they are the same amount of
generations down to me and Elder Westhoff. We told our eikaiwa students and they were like your ancestors must be happy and were like yeah, because we're doing that mission thing :)
We also ate out today, it was all you can eat....I'm so tired...,I hate and love food so much....anyway I'll leave you all with a scripture.
3 Nephi 11:11
And behold, I am the light and the life of the world;
and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given
me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the
world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all
things from the beginning.
He is the light. I know it. I know that my Savior is my light. I have a picture of Christ hanging on the wall above my desk and the other day I had been accused by a certain troublesome member....of not being a good missionary or something of the like. She always wants to find ways to get at us but it had hurt, it had tore me down and I cried. One of my favorite quotes is, "You could be the biggest, juiciest, most delicious peach in the world and someone is still going to dislike peaches." Her opinion of something that is not true will not deter me from who I am. As I sat in my chair trying to process what had just happened, I opened my eyes and looked to the wall where my Savior's
face was. There he was staring right at me. He's eyes looked into mine. I felt my worth quickly return to me, he then was my light. I stared at this painting for a long time. Tears fell again but this time realizing that he had drank my bitter cup, he is my light. I felt physical comfort. I knew he had my back. He is there for you. No matter what anyone else may say or that you may say to yourself. Your Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, is on your side! And he does heal, sometimes it's hard to understand, I find that I understand it most when I've done all that I can and things like to knock me down or try to. He will bear our burdens with us.
I love you all! So much!!
Love Sister Oswald
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