Week 55 - Senzokuike, Japan

Hello!

We had Chou san's baptism on Saturday! YAY! I'm so happy for her! We did have one problem come up, she's so tiny and the dress was a bit big on her that it kept bubbling up out of the water when she would get baptized (clothes have to be completely immersed under the water too). Anyway we finally found some white string stuff and tied her dress to her and after her going under about 10 times (yeah...) we finally got it to work, she was finally able to be baptized. Bless her though, her faith is so strong, she just kept saying in her english, I've been waiting for this so long, so long, just waiting. She's so cute!

Another amazing thing is though that we have another baptism coming up this Sunday. His name is Togo san. His wife is a member and so we've been teaching him with her. He's so funny and loves this gospel. Before a convert can get baptized they have to have an interview with the district leader. Anyway, he had his interview on Sunday and it took a little longer than usual, so we were a little worried, but it turns out apparently Togo san just spent the first 20/30 minutes bearing his testimony! Awesome! So we're excited for that as well!

So things here are going pretty smooth. Having fun and trying to carry forth God's work! 

I love you all so much! and love hearing from each of you!

Sister Erin Benne

Week 54 - Senzokuike, Japan

Well wasn't General Conference great?! So good, I'm so sad that it is over.... Now I just have to wait for the Liahona to come out with all the talks, so that I can read them all over again!

Crazy though, all the new temples being built, Elder Kikuchi (he's a member in my previous area Nakano) and President Samuelson being realeased from the 70! Who's going to be the next BYU President?

One more difficult thing about conference though is that you see a little bit of Salt Lake City and then a bit of American culture, and well, it makes me miss home a bit more. Quickly remedied though as we jump fully into the work this week. Sister Mano and I have decided to put in a power week, this week. Which means waking up early, taking only a half hour for lunch and dinner, and cutting P-day down to a shorter time, among other things. I'm positive we'll be exhausted come next P-day, but I know there will be a lot of miracles that follow it.

We have a baptism coming up this Saturday! I'm excited! Her name is Chou san, she's Chinese, so teaching her hasn't been the easiest thing, as we teach with Chinese pamphlets and from a Chinese Book of Mormon, and then communicate with all of our broken Japanese! But she's amazing and her faith is strong and she is so excited to be getting baptized. She is a huge blessing to me.

Other than that not too much exciting news...

Oh, I got a Halloween package from the Young Women in the O'Fallon Ward! That was so exciting! Will you thank them for me?! It was so thoughtful and I loved it!

Anyway, I hope you all have a good week! Love you all so much!

Sister Erin Benne

Week 53 - Senzokuike, Japan

WAH! I loved reading all of your emails of this past week! Everybody had so many cool and interesting things to say! Because it's just easier to write this all in one, I'll reply here!

Before: my doki - the people I was in the MTC with and came to Japan with

My doki now - one year later! My doki is the best!

Thanks for sending clips from the RS Broadcast. Sadly I didn't get to go to that, but I look forward to getting to read those talks when the Conference Liahona comes out here! What President Uchtdorf talked about reminded me about a talk that we heard in the MTC by President Bednar. He said that "a doctrine is simple and fundamental. It is a truth. A doctrine always answers the question of a "why". A principle is a guideline that comes from the doctrine, and it answers the question of "what". Applications answer the question of "how", which is our behavior and actions." He then went on to talk about how often as members we focus too much on the "what" and the "how" when really we should focus on the "why". When we focus on the "why" the "what" and the "how" automatically follow. The answer to all of our questions is ALWAYS in the doctrine. Anyway I thought it was cool that although it was two different apostles, almost a year apart, they both were united in what they were saying.


Anyway so this past week has been good, I got my new companion. Her name is Sister Mano and she is from Draper Utah! haha yeah, somehow I got the one American sister! But it's good, she's an amazing missionary and is working so hard to do everything that I ask her to do. And her japanese is 10 million times better than mine was when I left the MTC! So we're doing okay.

Sister Mano and I and the elders in our area!

And boy, am I learning a lot from her! The training they do in the MTC now seems to be completely different from when I was there, so I'm trying to soak up as much of this new training as I possibly can so that life here in the field and what was learned in the MTC is not too different for her.
We had an all mission conference yesterday, where they so lovingly gave us flu-shots, without even giving us a cool band-aid, but at least now hopefully we are all protected from the flu this winter!

Anyway love you all lots!!!!
SIster Erin Benne

Week 52 - Senzokuike, Japan

愛する家族！

 

SOOOOOOOOO, transfers..... for once I'm staying! Halleighlujah (sp?)! Yeah I'm way excited, I'll actually be in an area for 2 transfers for once! and actually well, I'm basically now guaranteed 3! They've started a new training program for new missionaries, which includes a 2 transfer program, so when you train, you're supposed to be with them for 2 transfers (of course there are some exceptions). Oh yeah, which by the way, I'm training this coming transfer. :) The new missionaries come in tomorrow night, and we meet them on Wednesday. We find out who our next companion is then. Yamada Shimai is also going to be training. She's excited, but sad to be leaving Senzokuike. She only has 2 transfers left, so she was hoping it would be her last area. However, she's whitewashing into a good area. There are 5 Japanese sisters and 1 American sister (who is actually full japanese, but has lived in America her whole life) coming in. So we'll see. I'm excited.

 

In other interesting news...we had a typhoon here in Japan. Usually in Tokyo they're not too bad, basically, like when a hurricane comes through Missouri, so we just put on our rain gear and still head out. But this past week, the center came right through Nagoya and Tokyo, so we had to stay inside. It was crazy, the wind insane, and we found out there is actually some sort of hole in the wall of our apartment, that when a typhoon that strong comes through water seeps in. So we had a mini flood going on... Really it wasn't bad at all, we just stuck a few towels there and it was okay.

 

Dad you talked about General Conference coming up this week! I can't believe it's already that time of the year! I'm so excited. It takes a week for translation into Japanese, so here in Japan we'll actually watch it the 8th and 9th. It's going to be way good!

 

And yeah, even when it starts to get cold we'll be on our bikes. We can use trains if we want, but really if you are traveling within the area, bikes are usually faster and trains get expensive when you go from place to place as much as we do. But it's good, you just pack on layers and I still have plenty of handwarmers from last winter that it's not too bad. I'm just happy it's cooling down now. Its such a relief.

Anyway, I love you all so much!

Hope you have a good week!

Sister Erin Benne

Week 51 - Senzokuike, Japan

Hello!

Well it seems it FINALLY may have cooled down here in Tokyo! A very welcome relief, when you spend most of your time outside trying to look somewhat presentable, but the constant heat and humidity take away all your hope of looking anything but sweaty! It's starting to get darker early to which means fall is on it's way! Oh how I love fall, and a fall in Japan, what could be better?

We got to go to the temple today! It was so nice; a quieter, slower pace than most days we've had this transfer (which by the way ends on Saturday). We have one more area left to visit: Matsudo. We'll be leaving for there tomorrow night. I've loved being able to visit all the sisters, it's been so fun. But I'm excited for next transfer when we'll be able to once again just focus on one area. Whether that will be in Senzokuike or another area that's the question. Yamada Shimai and I already know that one of us is going (President told us at the beginning of the transfer this would most likely be a 1 transfer only companionship), it's just a 50/50 chance on who goes. So we'll see!

Okay, so I figured it's been a while since I sent pictures...so here we go!

Welcome to Senzokuike!

As we visit some of the areas, not all of them are equipped to handle 4 people, wo we've found ourselves eating out of random dishes, pots, whatever. This was with the kokan with Sister Adams. Note the portion size on my chopsticks is not usual, just picture appropriate :)

Baskin Robbins---just like in the movies or cartoons, my 2 scoop icecream cone toppled over in the heat of the day :( Luckily however, I caught it in my hand and was able to stick it back on!

Sister Yamada and I today at the temple!

Anyway love you all!

Hope everything is going well!

Sister Erin Benne

Week 50 - Senzokuike, Japan

Well, I think this is going to be a short one this week, honestly, I barely even remeber at all what happened this week...I don't know if that's good or bad, time is just flying so fast this transfer.

We have interviews with President this week on Thursday, so I'm looking forward to that! It's always fun to talk to President and then Sister Albrecht always makes a giant chocolate chip cookie with American ingredients for each of us...it's always a highlight! :)

Other than that things have been pretty smooth. We've got about 5 more sisters areas to visit, 3 this week, 2 next week so that's nice. It's been way fun working with all of them, but the going from place to place wears you out more than I expected! I don't know what next transfer will be like, but I'm pretty sure I'll feel like I'll have so much more extra time!

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary for 9/11 was there much going on in America for that? It was also the 6 month anniversary of the earthquake/ tsunami here in Japan. There were a lot of prayer circles, memorials, and other things going on all over Japan. It's amazing, still 6 months after the earthquake all that the church is doing here in Japan, along with other organizations.

Anyway I love you all!

Hope you have a good week!

Love you!

Sister Erin Benne

Week 49 - Senzokuike, Japan

A fabulous week gone by! So much happened and so many miracles...we had 2 people we weren't expecting to come to church, call us shortly before and say they were coming. Along with the others who we had planned on coming it made for a blessing filled, slightly stressful day! But turned out amazing in the end.

We went to 3 different areas this past week, including Takasaki. It's more in the country part of Tokyo, a good ride from where we are in Senzokuike, but luckily we planned it so that we were going the same day as the AP Elders so we were able to catch a ride in the Mission Home van with them, made the trip a little shorter and a lot less expensive (one way train ticket is about 4000yen). Anyway on the way back I had the interesting experience to learn what happens to a car if you accidentally put regular gasoline in it when it needs diesel. Yup, luckily we were only about 3 miles from the mission home when we filled up for gas! We had just stopped to fill up quickly before getting back. Anyway we had just gotten back on the road when the oil in the car suddenly plummeted, we stopped the car, and then it refused to start again. So in the craziness of Tokyo traffic, I had the lucky experience to get out and push a car! Haha it made for an interesting night. There's a typhoon in Japan right now, so luckily at that moment it wasn't raining, otherwise we would have been soaked! Hopefully they'll be able to siphon all the gasoline out and the van's engine will be okay.

I also this week...got my dying letter...can you believe it...I still have a good six months left! I guess with foreign missionaries the traveling home plans take a little longer to plan out than the japanese missionaries. Yamada shimai, has 2 transfers left after this one (i have 4) and she just got hers a few weeks ago

Anyway that's about all!

Love you all!

Sister Erin Benne