Week 36 - Kichijoji, Japan

Haha! Well I bet youll never guess where I am at now... We had transfers this past week and you might have been able to tell from my last email that I wasn't too worried about them, Saiki shimai and I had both just gotten to Kanagawa and Kohoku, so we were both pretty sure we were staying. I should have learned by now that you never know what the Lord has in store for you! So yes, I transferred and well I am back in Kichijoji! My new companion is Shibata Shimai; Saiki Shimai became a trainer .

Anyway, all the other missionaries have now returned to Tokyo and Sendai!!! [I've heard this is the first time in the history of the church that they evacuated a mission and then sent missionaries back relatively after] Of course not all of the previous areas are still open, but for the most part our mission is back to normal, however more improved with all that we've learned. Anyway, with all the missionaries coming back they were able to reopen the Musashino Zone [Kichijoji's zone]. When the AP called he said, they had prayed really hard and felt like I needed to be there to help reopen it, so here I am! I was excited to come back, but also a little sad to have only been in Kanagawa and Kohoku for such a short time, who knows, maybe I'll get to go back there again too! It's been really fun though, coming back. I know everyone and the area already, so it makes transferring and coming in really easy! The members have been amazing too, they deep-cleaned the apartment [which is huge because I'll admit a part of me didn't want to go back to Kichijoji because of the apartment...it's the oldest in the mission, so its definitely seen better days, but now its SO much better!!!], decorated it with welcome signs, and filled it with food. And it`s been so fun just seeing everyone again, I didn't ever get to say goodbye to them, so this is nice! Plus all of my beloved investigators!!!! I don`t have time really to talk about how all are doing, we'll save that for next week!

Anyway quickly: this weekend was Stake Conference and a member of the 70, Elder Ringwood, who was recently called to supervise over our area, and his wife came. Anyway long story short, the wife of one of the members of the area Presidency and Sister Ringwood, were set to spend the day together while their husbands were in meetings, but the translator was late, so I ended up getting to translate for about 2 hours for Sister Ringwood and Sister Oishi! It was fun. It's nice, I think I've finally gotten to the point that I'm okay with Japanese, obviously I still have so much to learn and I still sometimes get really frustrated when I want to say things and I don't know how, but well I understand so much more than I did when I first came to Kichijoji, and I think I'm just now realizing that.

Also during Stake Conference, I got to sing a solo! Crazy...Shibata Shimai and I were out visiting a less active and I got a call from a member asking us to sing in the choir and to be at church as soon as we could get there, what I didn't realize I was getting myself into was to sing a solo in the middle of that song! It was fun though... and Elder Ringwood told me I needed to tell you about it in my email home, that I sang a solo at stake conference in Japanese, so I figured I should follow a member of the 70, when they tell you to do things!

The time for going up to Sendai changed-hence me writing on my usual day...we're now headed up Thursday night, and will be there on Friday. We're not allowed to take pictures while we're doing service, but the PBO has official photographers who will be there so you can look for those at some point.

Anyway that's a lot of news for now!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Erin Benne