Week 74 - Senzokuike, Japan

Hello!

I don't have much time today, but I just wanted to say hi!

This week has been great! We had the conference with Elder Oaks and he talked about receiving revelation and how a lot of people misinterpret revelation. It was cool to get an apostle's take on how to receive revelation from our Father through the Holy Ghost.

Also, on Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to a wedding reception. One of the members in my current branch got sealed to one of the members from the Kichijoji Ward. Miki helped me out so much when I first came to Japan, reminds me so much of Beth. Anyway, it was such a happy occasion and I'm so happy for her! It was fun too to see quite a few Kichijoji members as well! Good little reunion!

Anyway I love you all!

Sister Erin Benne

Week 73 - Senzokuike, Japan

Hello Family!

How's it all going? Did everyone have a good Valentine's Day?

In Japan, Valentine's Day is a little different. On Valentine's Day, girls give things to the boys. However, there is a whole other seperate day called, White Day, where the boys then in return give things to the girls.

Anyway, it's been a good week. We got a little bit of snow the other day, but it quickly melted.

Tomorrow, Elder Oaks is coming to Tokyo to speak to our mission. I'm so excited, it will be really good!

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Sister Erin Benne

Week 72 - Senzokuike, Japan

Well Hello Family!

This week has been a good one. It's starting to warm up, which is REALLY nice, but well, it's still February so most likely it'll get cold again (oh and when I say warm, it's been in like the 40's maybe 50's). However, people are a lot more willing to talk to you on the streets when it's warmer out, so we've been able to talk to some really great people this week and found a new investigator! I'm excited to see where she goes. One of the goals Sister Edstrom and I are working towards this transfer is just coming home happily exhausted every single day, and it's been great! I'm exhausted, but happy, so I think we're doing pretty well on it!

Next week Elder Oaks is coming to our mission and we will have a conference with him! I'm excited! How lucky I've been since being here. Exactly 1 year ago Elder Holland came and spoke and now we get to hear from Elder Oaks! Cool!

Anyway I hope everything goes well for you this week!

Love you!

Sister Erin Benne

Week 71 - Senzokuike, Japan 3＝3＝『( ・＿・)』(running man)

Hello 

How was everyone's week? Dad said the Super Bowl was this past Sunday. I forget like things like the Super Bowl happen as I'm here.

Missionary life has been good this past week. I absolutely love Sister Edstrom, we're having so much fun as we're hitting up the streets searching for people to teach. It's amazing how many miracles we've seen. I love it! I'm just trying to work so hard these last few weeks. I want to make sure I didn't miss anything I was supposed to do or anyone I was supposed to talk to while here in Senzokuike or Japan. It's like with cross country. You've run the race, you see the finish line flags, but you haven't made it across the line yet. All that's left for you to do is to dig down deep and give it your all, sprinting, pushing against all pain so that by the time you finish you have nothing left. You do this so that when you cross that line you can say honestly say you did your best and you have no regrets. That's what I want to do for my last little while here in Japan as a missionary. I want to give it my all, sprint to the end, so that when I'm done I can look back and say I've done my best, I have no regrets.

On another note, I think you will be proud of me. Why? Topic: Sushi. So most missionaries when they come to Japan have the chance to eat sushi maybe 2-3 times. It's expensive so it's not on a commonly eat list for missionaries. Somehow, however, this is not true for me. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to eat sushi on my mission. Today, was no exception. For lunch we went out to eat with some members and a potential investigator to a sushi restaurant. We received a nice big bowl of sashimi (slices of raw fish) over rice. And guess what, for the first time it wasn't horrible. No I still will not go out on my own to buy sushi, however, finally after over a year in Japan, I was able to get down a whole meal of sushi without gagging! Count that one for the record books! As we persist through hard things, miracles happen. Sometimes, it takes a month, to overcome it, sometimes a year, sometimes more. But as we persist, we can in the end overcome.

Love

Sister Erin Benne

Week 70 - Senzokuike, Japan ( ^ _ ^ ) v Peace!

Well, Hello There!

It's always a happy day when I get to read your letters! So I guess the big news for this week is transfers. You'll never guess where I am! Okay, maybe you will since I think the only places in Tokyo that you know are areas that I've been, but still... Anyway to finish things off, I will be staying in good old Senzokuike! That will make a total of 7 1/2 months being here! I was really happy about that, it would've been hard to leave this area with only 6 weeks left.  My companion however did change. I'm now with Sister Edstrom. She's way cute, from Utah, and has just this awesome bubbly personality. She's on transfer 3, and transferred from Kichijoji, so we share the same first area! I can already tell this is going to be a fun and miracle filled transfer.

It's funny to think how the first half of my mission, I jumped from place to place so quickly, but I've stayed in one area for the last half of my mission (I've now seen 4 companions come and go here  ). I think there is definitely things I needed to learn from all the moving around. Hopefully I learned everything I was supposed to.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love you lots!

Sister Erin Benne

P.S. Today is my half-birthday! It's a good day! hehe  

Week 69 - Senzokuike, Japan \ ( ' --' ) /

Hello Family!

 

So the subject line, I'll quickly explain. It's a Japanese emoticon (?), they're a little different than American ones, but can you see it? It's a face with arms stretched up like saying Hello! or ready to take Christ's outstretched arms of mercy, which ever way you look at it. Hehe...!

 

Well, this week it snowed for the first time this winter! Brrr! It didn't stick, but well, it still wasn't the funnest to ride my bike in. I love snow, however, so I happily danced around when I saw the flakes falling. It was definitely worth the frozen face. I have come to really love those moments where I could be bitterly miserable due to the cold, rain, or other circumstances and yet choose to laugh and be happy. There comes great power in how we react to our surroundings and the choices we make when not neccessarily the most comfortable thing or our personal preference happens. We, ourselves choose our attitude. We choose whether we want to make the best of our situation and continue pushing on with a positive attitude or if we want to grudgingly finish our task. Today, we were out about 30 minutes by bike from our apartment when it started raining. Neither Sister Barbour or I had our rain gear, but we needed to get back home and the only sensible way was on our bikes through the rain in the cold. When we got to our apartment all I could do is laugh with amusement as I rung my skirt out and peeled off layers of tights, socks, etc. I think back to a year ago and wonder would I have found it as amusing, or more miserable. One thing I love about what my mission has taught me is how to laugh at the difficult things that you can't change. There is no point in being unhappy about something that you have no control over. I hope I can continue to remember that even after I come home from my mission.

 

This weekend is transfer calls. Next week starts my last transfer. It's a scary thought. It all goes by so fast, everybody said it, but I never believed it.

I love you all!

Hope you have a good week!

Love,

Sister Erin Benne

Week 68 - Senzokuike, Japan

Hello Family!

So I'm coming to you a little later than usual...that's because today we went to the temple. We're allowed to go to the temple once a transfer, and well, since the temple is closed on Mondays, when we do go, we switch our P-days to tuesday. Despite it being p-day, it's been a really busy day! Running from here to there, but that's okay, we're settled down now for about an hour or two!

Things have been going well here in Senzokuike. Lately we've really been struggling to find investigators, all of our previous investigators seemed to disappear during Christmas and New Years, which has been hard, but it seems that things are picking back up now. We've been able to find a few new people that I think have quite a bit of potential.

We have a conference this week with President Stevenson, the area authority here in Japan, on Thursday. It's going to be good, and we're all excited!

That's about all I can think of to say right now!

I love you all! Hope you have a good week!

Love,

Sister Erin Benne