Week 46 - Senzokuike, Japan

Well hello there!

Haha, I guess the news you are all waiting for is where I am this transfer??? Maybe I should make you wait a little longer... Anyway I got my call Saturday morning telling me that I was headed to Senzokuike...the city. So yes, this is probably the most in the city I've ever been! You know how you see pictures of Tokyo, with the giant crosswalk that is always filled with people? (Yes I've been there a few times, it's 10/20 times crazier than Times Square), that's Shibuya (where Sister Derricott is now, which also holds the most expensive missionary apartment in the church, but has a huge cochroach problem...). I'm right south of there now. If that helps give a picture (our apartment also has a cochroach problem, we've already seen 2 in the less than the day that my companion and I came here...but that's missionary life. I think I was spoiled in Fussa with the apartment we had. even though the apartments are more expensive in the city, they get less and less pretty the more you go in) Anyway my new companion is Sister Yamada, she's from Hokkaido Japan, and hilarious! We're whitewashing, so neither of us know the area, so we should have a fun first few weeks here. We also have a fun assignment. We've been called as traveling sisters.

What that means is during this transfer we're going to go to all the sisters areas, do splits with them and give them training. President said we'll basically be Sister AP's because we'll be doing the same thing as the traveling APs that just got called for the same thing, but since sisters can't be AP's we're not APs. So that's really cool, an amazing opportunity. I think more so than the sisters learning from Yamada shimai and I, we'll be learning from them. So yeah for about 2 weeks we'll be out and about travelling the areas of Tokyo. I've heard they did this over a year ago, but it's the first time they haved traveling missionaries since I've been in Tokyo. So it's cool.

Also with the transfer, Utsumi shimai went home. How sad! I've realized, especially over the last transfer, just how amazing a missionary she is. And how lucky I was to have her train me. The mission's definitely at a loss without her.

Anyway so I'm doing good! It was sad to leave Fussa, but Senzokuike is an amazing area I can already feel it. I'm excited to be working here. Thank you for all your prayers over the past two weeks, I know it's helped make the transition easier.

It sounds like everyone is doing well and having fun!

I love you all!

Love

Sister Erin Benne