Week 43 - Fussa, Japan

Getting to you early Monday morning today! We have a lot of changes going on in our mission right now, and one of them is that P-days will now be on Mondays, except for Transfer Days and Temple Days (and then they'll still be on Tuesday during that week). Crazy.

So this past week has been a crazy one, last Tuesday, it really was a typhoon that came through. It lasted for a couple days, so we got to mix things up and ride in the rain. Unfortunately though I ended up getting my first flat tire about 1 hour away from where we live. Luckily we found some nice people at a close by Honda who gave us shelter from the storm and also helped fix it.

We also had a conference where we got some training about the computers we'll be getting TOMORROW (at another full days worth of training) and have been preparing for a baptism that is this Saturday!

So yeah, one of our investigators Ethal is getting baptized! She and her son! I'm so excited and happy for her. She was at church yesterday just completely glowing from head to foot, and the transformation that has come over her and her three sons is miraculous! I am consistently stunned by the power of conversion that comes over people as they listen to the gospel and then change their lives accordingly. Ethals dealt with a lot throughout her life, and you can just see that weight being lifted from her shoulders as shes learned knew things and felt God's love and Spirit! So thats this Saturday!

So yes it's finally happening that we're getting computers here in the Japan Tokyo Mission! We've had a few computers in some of the areas already, but they've never had too many of the resources to get it fully swinging with those. You asked a few questions about the computers before so I'll try to answer them. Yes, we will have Skype, so on Christmas, I can Skype you. The main purpose for the computers is to see if it will help in teaching. People are insanely busy here. If they work they usually head into work before we wake up as missionaries and come home after we're asleep, so through Skype we'll be able to email/Skype them during lunch or some other break they have and follow-up or teach lessons to them (of course first priority will be to have those lessons in person). All our area books will now be electronic which will help keep things organized and will allow the bishop and ward mission leader to have access to see the progress of our investigators any time they want. Anyway the list goes on and on about what we'll be able to do. But yes, like you said it is on the dangerous side. They've taken a lot of precautions, building custom computers with security cautions, but in the end they're trusting us. President Albrecht has really stuck his head out on the line in trusting us actually. The First Presidency, Mission Council and others are watching us really closely. So if one person screws up, then they're gone. And we'll be filling out things that will create stats to see if the computers are actually helping more people to come unto Christ. If not then there's no point in having them either.

So those are some exciting things for the week!

Hope you're all having a great day!

Love you

Sister Erin Benne

Here are some pictures!

Mashito san's baptism!!!! Utsumi Shimai and I were both able to come!

Do you not see that thing of fish that I ate...it"s head and tail were still on.
Aren't you proud! But yeah, still don't like it...

Sister Derricott and I during filming

Sister Laird and I at our 4th of July Party, well a little before people came

Week 42 - Fussa, Japan

Well Hello! Another week in, and SO much to tell you!
Where to start? Well, hmm, so this might be an all over email because there is so much to say.

But, last wednesday I had the amazing opportunity along with 7 other missionaries, members of the PBO, and President and Sister Albrecht to go to a Shinto Shrine, Meijingju Shrine, talk to leaders of the Shinto religion, talk about our experience in Tohoku, and cleaning up the jinja, the temple that we helped clean up, and about why we became missionaries and what we do. It was an amazing opportunity and huge step for the church here in Japan. Shinto is the government supported religion here, and the church has been working for years to build the relationship between our church and the Shinto religion. So to have them invite us to talk a little about our church and then also thank us for our efforts in Sendai is amazing, and for me to get to participate in that, so cool! It was awesome too because we got to learn more about Shintoism too. They took us around the shrine and we were able to participate and learn what they do there.

Then the next day, well we, Sister Derricott and I, had been asked by President to be in Kichijoji for pictures, what for we weren't sure, but because we were late getting out Wednesday night and our apartment was 2 hours away, we just ended up staying at the Kichijoji sisters apartment which was closer, without a change of clothes or anything (because we thought we would be going back Wed. night to Fussa. Sorry I'm explaining this very oddly but it's sort of complicated and I dont have time to make it sound fluid). So we're in Kichijoji, wearing the same clothes we had sweated in the day before (because yes it is very hot and humid here), not feeling too clean, but still head to the church for "pictures". Anyway turns out, this is way cool, they wanted to film us, for a video to put up on YouTube about volunteering in Sendai. So I got to be filmed for a youtube video!!! haha I think that"s the video I sent to you, but since this computer is having problems, we can't view it, but if I look gross and dirty, the reason you now know! It was way cool!

Other things: I love Fussa, it's so fun! Plus this is interesting, Sister Derricott's dad is actually really famous here in Japan. So streeting's interesting sometimes because people are like, Derricott...like Kent Derricott? Anyway way fun. And it's really funny because we're finding all these old videos and pamphletts that have her dad on them and usually her as a little kid in them too! Its great! Which may bring up the question if she's lived in Japan. She lived here until she was 7 and then her family moved back to the states, so no she'd basically forgotten all of her japanese when she was called to japan. That's okay though, shes doing great with japanese now!!!
Anyway those are some of the highlights of the week!

Love you all so much!!!
Sister Erin Benne

Erin can be seen at the 2:21 mark

Week 41 - Fussa, Japan

FAMILY!!!!

Well believe it or not, my 4th of July didn't include many 4th of July celebrations. We did have our 4th of July English Class party which was a hit; I wore a red skirt, white shirt, and blue sweater that day, so I looked so festive in my American colors too! And then a few days later I did see a family with 2 little kids playing with sparkles! Haha but that's about it. Mainly I spent my 4th of July moving. Yup, I got transfered again... What are we on now?

It turns out that because of the earthquake they were'nt calling to many people to Japan. Makes sense, but thats hitting us right now (all the people who would have received their calls in March/ April would be coming to the field around now) Anyway that's put us kind of low on Sisters out here, and we had 3 more leave for home yesterday. Because of that, they had to take sisters out of some area, and well because there are so many missionaries in the Honbu (mission home), they decided to pull the sisters out from there. Which means I had to go. It's hard leaving, putting all of our investigators into the elders hands, I know the elders are good, but with everything that is going on in the office right now (Tokyo is will be the first mission to have computers in every apartment as of July 26!!! I guess we're the test group! So the honbu elders are going crazy getting ready for that among other things), some things that Sister Laird and I have been working on are going to have to get dropped. But I trust the elders and know they'll do their best.

My new area though is Fussa! It's great, and guess what I have an English Branch (and a japanese ward too)!!!!! YEAH! It's so weird! There is an American Air Force base right next to the church, so that makes the number of americans in the area, way high! We're not allowed to proselyte on base, but we can work with the members for referrals from them! It's weird have to do missionary work in English. I called the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader last night, and had no idea what to say, kept fumbling over words. My companion Derricott Shimai was just keeling over laughing. And we went grocery shopping today...I had no idea what to do, there was American food and the grocery store was huge (well, the same size as they are in the US, but, huge compared to here), it's blowing my mind! But it should be fun. I feel so strongly that this is were I need to be, a connection I didn't feel as strong in Nakano, this just feels right.

Anyway my companion is Sister Derricott, and she's American too! Before unheard of in the Tokyo Mission and now I've had 2 American companions here! Crazy! She's on her 2nd transfer, so I'm a follow-up trainer, a little scary but it'll be good.
So that's what's going on in my life right now!

Love you all so much!!!!
Sister Erin Benne

Week 40 - Nakano, Japan

Well, hello!

How's it all going? Guess what? I`m back and alive!!! We were finally able to get back out and start working last Thursday, which was such a relief after being stuck in our apartment for a week! I think we literally went crazy with excitement getting back to working, because by Sunday and Monday, we were completely exhausted, but that's not a horrible thing, right? Haha, we'll rest up a little today. It's been fun though! And we've seen so many miracles occurring from this experience. We had 2 people come up to the church while I was sick and they both now have baptismal dates!! One's a flight attendant though, and with that works a lot on Sundays flying around. Part of the requirements to get baptized is that you have to go to church at least 2 times before you get baptized. Please pray for her that she'll be able to get off at least 2 Sundays before her baptismal date. She's working so hard to be able to!

This Wednesday for our English class, we`re having a 4th of July Party. It's the last day of the `semester` so we thought we would do something fun. and hey, add in a little American culture! It'll be a good time! We're making pies today for a pie eating contest, hehe!

Other than that, transfers are this week...fast huh? but I guess with transferring to Kichijoji and then Nakano and then having the chickenpox, this has been a little bit of a different transfer. Haha come to think of it, I haven't had a normal transfer since my 2nd one! I don't really bother thinking about transfers anymore, whatever happens, happens.

So Dad, you asked if we`re still feeling aftershocks, yeah, they`re still going on. Earthquakes have really just become a part of normal life. Luckily, while some have been bigger, from what I've heard, there hasn't been damage. But well, I guess I don`t hear too much.

Anyway that`s about it for today I think. I love you all so much!

Love
Sister Erin Benne

Pictures from Sendai

My companion...
Haha she`s crazy! Sister Laird, she`s from Idaho, this is her 9th transfer so she goes home in 2. Strange because she`s the last foreign sister to have come to Japan before my group, only 4 transfers ahead of me, so slightly scary, how quickly this goes by. But yeah, she`s the most energetic person ever, so she`s hated being inside these past few days. But yeah, its been way nice, because she likes being active and doing sports, so we actually excercise in the morning (japanese sisters NEVER like anything to do with sports, I don`t know why) She wants to be a theater teacher.
Its been way nice having an american as a companion. Its just so different from having a japanese companion. You love them and you have fun, but because of the limitations of the language, and just how japanese people are, they don`t share emotions very well at all, its just a completely different kind of relationship. It`s funny I feel like I have a me and then a Japanese me. And it`s nice to just be me again for a little bit. especially since we`ve been stuck in the apartment, to have a companion you can speak to without opening up a dictionary, that`s nice.

Week 39 - Nakano, Japan

Well, hello!

Haha, so this weeks been a bit different from the rest if you didn`t already realize that... Can you believe I have the chicken pox??? Really of all the things to happen on a mission, I NEVER thought that I would get the chicken pox! Since we're not allowed to go outside, Sister Laird and I have basically been stuck in our apartment for the past 5 days, not really fun. So I don't have much to tell you, except for my story of how I came to realize I had the chicken pox, and how I've possibly infected the WHOLE mission, every single person in it actually.

So I was feeling perfectly fine on Tuesday until the night, when I had a pretty bad headache, not anything horrible, I'm used to headaches and usually can sleep them off at night, but Wednesday morning I woke up and still wasn`t feeling well. We go play basketball or some other game with the elders every morning for excercise, so we decided to skip out on that but continue on with the rest of the day. I was doing fine until language study, when I just became completely exhausted, so we decided to take an early lunch, during which I would sleep a bit and then have language study after, during our usual lunch time. I took a quick nap, and finished language study, but could just feel my body fighting with me. It was then that Laird Shimai made me take my temperature. It was a low 99.9, but enough to make Sister Laird nervous and send me to bed for an hour; I didn't protest too much. After that things just kept getting worse. My temperature went up to 101 and even though it's been way hot here, I was freezing in our apartment, putting on sweatshirts and sweats, piling blankets on top of me, and I'd still be shaking because my insides were just so cooled. With Ibuprofin we were able to get things under a bit more control and though I wasn't in top shape, I was feeling a little bit better, so we headed out that night at 5 for a few appointments that we had along with our english class. I got back that night, and remember thinking, wow, I know the mosquitos have come out, but sheesh, I got a lot of mosquito bites tonight!

Thursday: Thursday was Zone Conference, interviews with President, a day I love and everyone looks forward to like crazy, plus I was singing during it. I woke up that day, got in the shower, looked at my stomach and realized there was no way, a mosquito could have bitten me that many times during the night, and I didn't think it could have been any other bug either. I got out of the shower and went to Sister Laird and was like, "Sister Laird, I know we've been joking about me having west nile and chicken pox (believe it or not it had come up as a joke on Wed), but, um, I think I really do have the chicken pox.." And that's what started it all.

We headed up to the church for conference, went and saw Sister Albrecht and Sister Hobbs, to get their opinions, and the vote came back unanimous. However because we didn't think I was still contagious at that point, I was allowed to stay at the conference. I stayed for a while, for my interview, my song, and for most of the training until I was just so exhausted that I went to the Mission Office and slept on the couch (with Sister Hobbs as my companion and the other Sisters in training as Sister Lairds) there. I was out for most of the day after that, taken some Benadryl that knocked me out pretty well. Anyway I was finally woken up, and sent home with provisions to help me get better. Along with instructions from the mission doctor, and President and Sister Albrecht; turns out chicken pox have an incubation period of 2 weeks, before you show any signs in which you are contagious. And you continue to be contagious until all of your spots have gone through 3 stages: appearing, blistering, and then crusting/scabbing over.

I don't know where I got the chicken pox from, you have to come in direct contact with someone who has it, but with all the moving I've done it could have been while I was in Kanagawa/Kohoku, Kichijoji, or even if mine appeared faster, from Nakano. Last Monday, we had an all mission conference, Thursday we had a Tokyo Zone conference (Tokyo Zone includes about 40 missionaries), I also saw the whole mission when we went up to Sendai. Basically what this means is, in those 2 weeks, where I didn't know I had the chicken pox, I have come in contact with every missionary in our whole mission, and possibly given it to them... I don't even want to think about all the people I`ve talked to as a missionary. I guess there's not really very much I can do though right?

Since Thursday I`ve been doing okay- it's been itchy, but I've been doing everything I can not to scratch them and to help me get better as fast as I can. I think I've had a relatively mild case, maybe having had the shot helped with that! Now I feel perfectly fine, just waiting for all of them to scab over, so we're allowed to go back out and work! We've had the chance every now and then to come up to the office, which has been nice to get out of the apartment. Today's the missionary day at the temple, we were hoping so badly I'd be cleared by today, but with a lot of the mission being there again, President Albrecht doesn't want to take any chances, and well I don't want to get anyone sick either. Anyway, Sister Laird and I figured since nobody would be in the office and we have to come up here to email we would chill here for most of the day, a change of scenery.

I've seen a lot of miracles through this experience though. I've felt an overwhelming feeling that because I have so many people praying for me at home, that I'm getting better faster because of those prayers. It's been miraculous, as I've woken up the past few mornings and just have had spots disappear that were still in their early stages. We've also found 3 new investigators just by calling people up in the area book (a book containing a record of all previous investigators). Finding 3 new people in one week, in any circumstance, for our mission, that's huge! and we had another woman come up to church on friday to ask about eikaiwa and then she ended up hearing the first lesson, and the 2nd, and the third is scheduled for tonight. She wants to be baptized as soon as she can, so we have a date for July 3. Since I can`t teach her at the moment, Sister Laird and 2 elders have been teaching her, while I sit in the office. It's been amazing.

Hard things come, but God always blesses us.

Anyway that`s been my week...this is way long...haha, it seems I have a bit more time on my hands today, for some reason...

Thank you for all your prayers! I love you all so much! And I really am feeling better, I should be able to go back to work soon, I think!!!

Love you all

Sister Erin Benne

Week 38.5 - Chicken Pox

Hey All!

Bet you are all surprised to hear from me today!

Here`s why:

Remember how I've never had chicken pox? Welll.... That`s not true anymore! Haha, yup, I have chicken pox! I guess I haven't been to the doctor so I'm not officially diagnosed, but the itchy red dots all over are a pretty good indicator, I think. Anyway, I'm fine, just really itchy. Sister Albrecht, the senior missionary couple sister: Sister Hobbs, and my companion are all taking good care of me!

Love you all!

Erin