Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Week 23 - Kichijoji, Japan

Blah! I officially hate transfers! They really are no fun at all! So here's what happened....

Thursday-Friday afternoon, I went on splits with another Sister here in Kichijoji. It was really good, and the Sister really is a good missionary, but I kept thinking, "I can't wait for Sister Utsumi to get back." I realized how attached I had become to Sister Utsumi (you spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week with your companion; I think you're bound to either love them or be really annoyed with them), so it got me thinking about just how much I didn't want to leave Kichijoji and I didn't want a new companion either. So by the time Friday night calls came, I'll admit I was nervous...

I think before, I explained how transfers work, your district leader calls you Friday night and says if anybody is leaving and then Saturday morning, you find out who and where you're going. Well Friday night we got a call telling us Saturday morning, we would be getting a phone call, in fact every companionship in our district would be getting a phone call, so things in the Kunitachi district were definitely going to change, but I didn't expect how much. If I didn't find the Friday night call/Saturday morning thing mean before, I now find it cruel. Haha, I had the craziest transfer dreams, Friday night and kept waking up. Anyway Saturday morning we got our phone call and it turned out that Utsumi Shimai was going to be transferred and I would stay in Kichijoji and Suginami with a new companion. Sad... Then we found out news about our district, of the 8 people in our district, 4 were being transferred and only 2 were coming in. The Kichijoji and Suginami elders would be combined and like me be over the 2 areas. One of the Suginami elders, Battye choro was staying, but his companion, one of my MTC district leaders, Shiozawa choro, and the 2 Kichijoji elders were leaving as well. This would make me the only person in the new district who knows anything about the Kichijoji area...a little scary for someone so "young" as me. But so far it's been good.

My new companion's name is Kohatsu Shimai (Nihonjin). She's cute, from Okinawa, doesn't like banana bread, and studied fashion design. She doesn't know English, so it's full out Japanese from here! Good, because, hopefully, with speaking Japanese round the clock, my Japanese will get better faster, but on the downside, with my limited Japanese, there is no one to really tell random things too, and planning lessons is a little more difficult. But it will be good, I know I'll learn a lot. Everyone says your follow-up trainer is the hardest companion you'll have, because you only know your trainer's "ways" and your stuck in them, I'm already starting to see that in the two lessons we've had, but I'm trying to be open, so that I can learn and grow as a missionary.

That's honestly the biggest thing that's been happening around here. We've been teaching lessons and they've been going well. It's been raining a lot, but we did have one or two oddly warm days that were absolutely fantastic!

Oh and this was exciting! A family took us to Sizzler (an American restaurant!!!!) for dinner one night. Because it was an American restaurant I thought it was okay to use American manners and everything! I love Japanese culture, but I don't think I've ever been so happy, to eat at an actual table, use a knife and fork and just have one big plate instead of a bunch of small dishes to eat off of. It was the happiest thing ever! And don't worry, I still can eat like a proper American girl! What a relief!

Anyway that's all for now!
Love you all!!!!
Sister Erin Benne

1 comment:

  1. :) I remember how hard transfers were. It was very difficult.

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