This week was crazy!

24 August 2014 Sanjo

Good-bye Skabelund shimai

I think transfer week always is crazy actually. We spent the first half of the week scrambling around trying to see everyone Sister Skabelund wanted to see. Then on Thursday we took the train to Niigata and she got on a bus and left me! I was really sad to see her go. I miss her a lot!

While I waited for my new companion, Nitta Shimai, to get to Niigata I got to dendō with Dunn Shimai. I'd never worked with her before she is amazing! She only has a few transfers left. We had a lot of fun in the few hours we spent together. We had a fun time handing out chirashi at the train station and then we ran off to an appointment. Back story: a lady received a eikaiwa chirashi somehow and called the elder missionaries to see if some missionaries could come to the Eikaiwa class SHE teaches. She wanted native speakers there. So we went! The lady ended up being really young and she spent a few years in America. In Utah. at Snow College. Chance? I think not! We had a really fun eikaiwa class. She teaches six or so kids. Usually they aren't very well behaved but for us they were haha. As a thank you we got McDonald’s gift cards. Everyone here thinks we love McDonald’s...

After a fun day with Dunn Shimai we headed back to the bus station to wait for the bus with all our new companions to get there. It came early! Nitta shimai and I had to run to catch a train so we could make the hour ride back to Sanjo.

The rest of the week has been really great. It took us a couple days to get into 'our' own groove. It made me really nervous! But it's all good now. We both want the same things for Sanjo and Sanjo group and I am really looking forward to doing it with Nitta Shimai. She is an amazing missionary! And her nihongo is soo good. I'm really excited to improve mine. I understand so much and I can write and read a little. Speaking is my biggest challenge and so this transfer that is what we are going to work on. I can't wait. I know I just said this, but she is seriously such a good missionary.

Sunday at church: Ogura Shimai, Yasuko San and Momoka Chan! Yasuko San loved church! It made me so happy! And she fit right in! She made comments and talked to everyone. And when she left she said she'd be back next week!

Me, Yasuko san and Skabelund

I love her. She has this light in her eyes and every time we visit I leave feeling happy. She emanates light. She learns things so quickly. It just clicks for her. It's so amazing watching her develop a relationship with Heavenly Father and feel the spirit. It's so special. I feel so lucky.

After sacrament meeting Momoka Chan and Ren Kun (elder's investigator) left. Then later, as Nitta Shimai and I were about to leave, they came back to church! They didn't have any plans so I suggested we watch a movie. We fed them pancakes (we had had a pancake breakfast that morning) and then Momoka Chan, Nitta Shimai and I watched the restoration video. After it ended Momoka Cham was just silent. And she wouldn't look at us. I'm thinking "oh nooo, what did we just do?!"

Finally we started talking. We asked her how it was, she couldn't answer. It looked like she was going to cry. More silence, then we asked what she felt. She didn't know it, but she felt the spirit! And when we asked, she told us she had interest in learning in learning more! She answered very quickly too! Ah! I'm so excited.

Also, I loveee the restoration video. It was in Japanese so I didn't catch everything but, I absolutely love it. I love Joseph Smith and I'm so grateful that through him the gospel was restored. I love the Book of Mormon and I love studying it and the Bible every morning. It's just a blessing. I feel like my knowledge has exponentially increased since I came on a mission. I don't know where I'd be without the church in my life!

Funny story of the week: Ren Kun and Momoka Chan have crushes on each other...I think...typical high school romance. But, on Friday Momoka Chan came to ping pong night. Ren came running into the church saying I brought a pretty girl, I brought a pretty girl! Yuji Kyodaii, thinking it was a girl for HIM, came running out of the church and upon seeing a high school girl became very disappointed. He said his heart was racing hahaha.

Sanjo is still beautiful. It is finally cooling down...I think and I am looking forward to wearing fall clothes again! And not sweating all day, every day! I don't think I've sweat so much in my life!! But, it is totally worth it! Being a missionary is so good. It's hard. Really hard. But really good. So worth it.

I love you all!

Sister Molinari

Cows and kaus

11 August 2014 Sanjo

This is our last full week of the transfer. Transfer calls are next week! Ah! It has flown by. On Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat. Again. We will see how long this one lasts...


Tuesday went to an old folks home for service. Its name translated is frog house. Haha. They are a bit surreal here. Everything is so clean and everyone is so smiley and a little robotic. And they lock everything! I was a little put off by that. I understand it's for the old peoples' safety..but still. We would walk through one door and it would lock behind us, go through a hall, unlock next door, walk brought then it’d be locked behind us. What if the people working there hadn't wanted to let us out????

We sat with a bunch of old ladies who were very sweet but a little senile. They just told us over and over how beautiful we were, how kind it was for us to come, and after a few questions about church the
conversation would loop again.

The climax of the visit was probably when I started coughing. I couldn't stop! I just kept coughing and coughing. My eyes were watering and everyone was staring. And I just couldn't stop coughing. I felt soooo bad! All the workers were probably wondering why the heck I was there. All the old people were gonna catch a cold from me!

Wednesday was a super day. During district meeting Sugawada choro and I both got to do trainings. I really liked Sugawada choro's. I felt like mine was a little scrambled. It's amazing what being sick does to
your ability to think. I talked about how God has a plan for each of us. We each came to earth to accomplish certain things.  He gives us trials as a way to prepare us to accomplish those things.

We had another amazing lesson with Yosuko San. And guess what!? She is getting baptized in September!!! She is just so prepared. On Thursday we had taught her how to pray and then invited her to do so. She told us Wednesday that after she prayed she felt calm. And then she told us she had been thinking about church and decided this was the best church for her and she wanted to become a member. Ahhhh!

She wants to learn everything from the beginning. And so that's what we did. We talked about how God is our Heavenly Father, that he has made a plan so that each of us can return back to Him one day. That Jesus Christ is essential to that plan, and how when he was on earth he taught the gospel. We told her about the great apostasy and the need for a restoration of the gospel. It made perfect sense to her.

One of my favorite moments in the lesson was when we were talking about prophets and why we need them. As missionaries we use this object lesson to show the need. We hold our fist out and say it represents God. Then we have someone else hold their fist out. It represents them/ other people. You ask them to follow your fist with theirs. Usually they can do it. Then you tell them, "we can't see God. Close your eyes!" And they need to try and follow again. It's much harder to do it this time. Then we take a pen and say it represents a prophet. Then we stick the pen in each fist. They are connected! And It is easy to move and follow "God" even though your eyes are closed.

Well, we didn't make it that far with Yasuko San. We told her to close her eyes and asked her if she could still follow God. She answered with so much confidence "yes." She didn't get it. So we explained it to her again and then asked her the question again: can you follow God? Once again she answered with a confident "yes." By the third time (with a reminder that her eyes were closed) and another yes we had all
started giggling. It was pretty funny.

The whole lesson was pretty surreal. She wants to be baptized! And she is so excited and ready to learn. She even invited herself to church before we could. And told us she would read and pray every day. We
didn't need to invite her to do much!

One of the funny moments of the week: I had done something..I can't remember and Skabelund shimai looks at me and says "mischievous cow." I was sooooooooo surprised and taken aback that she had called me a cow! "Cow????" As I said it I realized it wasn't cow it was kau; which is Japanese for face. She was commenting on my mischievous face. We got a really good laugh out of that one.

Today we went to Yahiko mountain. At the base there is a shrine. It was a beautiful place!! I adore Japanese culture. It's so rich and spiritual. And beautiful. I'll send some pictures!

This week has been wonderful. I love Sanjo! I love the miracles we are seeing. And my companion is pretty great too.

Love you all!

Sister Molinari

Wow, What a Week!

4 August 2014 Sanjo

こんしゅ！

I love the sky in Sanjo!

I feel so blessed and incredibly lucky to be here in Sanjo! I haven't gotten over how beautiful it is up here, miracles continue to happen and despite the hot weather and inevitable sweating that comes from it sister Skabelund and I are having tons of fun. I've gotten in the bad habit of riding my bicycle with my mouth open. In part because it's hot and I'm often panting and in part because I can't help but smile/ my jaw drops open because of the beauty here. I've had one too many bugs fly into my mouth this week though...so lesson learned.

My favorite miracle this week was a lesson with one of our investigators, Kobayashi San. She suffers from depression and has known the missionaries for a very long time. We met with her, and this lesson was going to determine if we should keep meeting with her or not. Well, after the lesson, I'm excited to say we will keep meeting with her. We started the lesson by singing I am a child of god. She really liked it. We were planning on re teaching her that we are all children of God. He loves us and he wants us to succeed in this life. In order to do that he has made a plan for us! So I am a child of god is a perfect song to lead into that.

But, what Kobayashi San likes from it was the chorus :
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.

She said she really wants that help and guidance and direction in her life. She wants courage and she wants to stop being a burden on others. We told she could; through Christ and his atonement. Our lesson plan was quickly derailed and we talked about Christ instead. But it was perfect. During the lesson both Skabelund shimai and I had a strong impression to invite Kobayashi San to baptism. So we did. She didn't say yes, but she didn't so no either. I'm excited; I think we are on the right path. The gospel could bless her life in sooo many ways, and I think she understands that. She also understands baptism is a big deal. And that is more than ok with me. At the end of our lesson she told us she felt so much better and happier than when she had come. She walked out of ready to face the world.

After the lesson was over, sister Skabelund and I decided Kobayashi San should be a priority. The next day during district meeting we got a call from Kobayashi San. She was headed to work and was really nervous. She called us because she knew we could make her feel better.

This week we had exchanges. I got to go with sister Clark to Nagaoka. Sister Clark was companions with Dopp shimai a few transfers ago! We had a lot of fun. Sister Clark knows the perfect balance of work and fun, and understands that having fun isn't a bad thing. I love her Japanese too! It's very simple, nothing fancy, but she uses it well.

It was inspiring. It was a good reminder that I don't need have fancy Japanese to have an

effect on others. Sister Skabelund has fancy nihongo and i realized I've become very self conscious of mine. But, I don't need to be! I made a goal to speak more. And so I've been trying.

Right after we split for exchanges we hopped on the train and found what we proudly refer to as a kinjin; someone who is excited and ready to hear our message. She was college aged girl who was soooo excited to go to church. She was even willing to pay to get in! I'm excited to hear what happens with her. The nagaoka sisters have an appointment with her this Friday!

Last Sunday we found Yokoyama shimai (An inactive member who hasn't been to church in 60 years). She told us who she remembered from church there were two names. One was a Takizawa shimai. On Saturday we found her!  She doesn't want to go to church because there is no one her age. I'm really hoping we can get her and Yokoyama shimai together and then they can come back to church together. Each of their husbands have passed away, and they are living all by themselves. They'd be great for one another, and the gospel would be great for them again.

After visiting Takizawa shimai we left ready to go to the fireworks in Nagaoka. It was a ward activity and we were catching a train with them to go. Well, sister Skabelund hops on her bike, ready to go and looks back at me, who is rifling around in my bag looking form the key to my bike. It wasn't there. And there was no way my bike lock was coming off. Sister Skabelund didn't know what to do. I picked up my bike, lifted it over my shoulder and said let's go. My bike is a beast of a bike, it's huge! And I carried it for about a mile, from where we were to the station. It's what we call the walk of shame. It was a very, very long walk. I have bruises all over now, but, I did it! We had told the members and other missionaries to just leave without us, we would meet them there, but when we go to the station they were all waiting for us! I love my district and church members. They are the best. I was a very grateful but sweaty mess. On our way to the station sister Skabelund and I joked about how I just needed to one up her bicycle story. It was funny. Hopefully the one-upping in done though...I don't know what could happen next....

Fireworks were amazing!!

The show in Nagaoka is one of the largest in the world and five hundred thousand people come to the festival! It was packed! It as fun looking around  to everyone gathered. A lot of the girls were all dressed up in their yukatas and all the old women and men were in traditional ones as well. There were quite a few couples who went dressed in traditional festival wear as well. I loved it. Sadly, It was the most drinking I'd seen in Japan and there were some characters there too.

We watched the fireworks from the bridge. They were HUGE; so big and so colorful. It was one of the best ward activities I'd been too. It was fun. I'm really grateful that we got to watch them.

Sunday we had another miracle lesson. We surprise visited an investigator of ours and ended up teaching one of the most unique lessons I've ever had. We sat outside, she was on a Chair and sister Skabelund and I were on the ground on little rugs. The wind was blowing a storm in, and we were surrounded by rice fields and the sounds of cicadas. We were also accompanied by her very large cat. It was picturesque and we felt the spirit so strongly too. She is the sweetest little old lady. She has a pure heart. She believes in god and when we asked what she wanted to learn on Wednesday she said the commandments so she could be more obedient! We talked about soo much and she believes it all.

I still love my companion. I just feel so lucky to have her. I'm so grateful to be here and work with her. And I love the miracles Heavenly Father is blessing us with and allowing us to be a part of. It's fantastic.

I love Sanjo!

I love being a missionary!

And I love you all.

Sister Molinari

Miracles Happen

28 July 2014 Sanjo

Hello! I can't believe it’s Monday again already! Wow! This week was full of exciting adventures and a few miracles too.

I'll start with our big adventure. 

Wednesday we had a zone meeting and on our way home had a miracle! We found a college girl who wants to learn more about the gospel! We talked for our entire half hour train ride and at the end we asked if she wanted to learn more. She said yes!

We said "really?" It was shocking. Everyone is always too busy or Buddhist. But she wanted to learn more!! Sadly she lives in another area though, so we handed her over to the sister missionaries in that area.

After lunch and some paper crane making we set out to visit Hoshino shimai. We were already gonna be late but she told us no worries, later was fine. Sister Skabelund almost got hit 3 times and we very quickly became lost. Finally we found the river we needed to cross, and started to cross it. On the bridge Sister Skabelund stopped and said it felt like something was stuck to her tire. She spun her wheel and I gasped in horror! There was some giant chunk of metal jutting out of her wheel!!

She reached to pull it out and I exclaimed "don't touch it!" But it was too late. Pstzzzzzzz....sister Skabelund said we could keep riding and so we keep riding...ptszzzzzz...and the tire became even flatter very quickly...we were so far out we decided to keep going..on foot and pushing our bikes. 

We thought we were close!

We went down the bridge and walked for a few more blocks, took a left and ended up In front of a huge shrine. We took a picture and then continued on our way..we didn't make it too far before an obachan asked us if we were ok. We said we were but she saw Sister Skabelund’s tire and exclaimed daijoibu jinai!

She asked where we were going and we showed her. She didn't think we were going the right way. So she told is to follow her and she brought us over to her across the street neighbors. Out walks another obachan and then an old man in just his underwear. Don't worry they were married. They looked at the map and we figured out that we weren't even on the map! We were wayyy off. It was about 30 minutes away by walking! It was already 8:00. Ah!

We called Hoshino shimai and she ended up talking to the old man in his underwear. They figured out where each of us were BUT her car couldn't fit both our bikes. At some point during all of this the original obachan that found us wandered over to her house then wandered back.

She had called someone for a truck!

A little while later a HUGE white truck shows up and a younger looking boy pops out. She had called her grandson and he was gonna take us to Hoshino shimai's home! He loads in the bikes and tells us to get in. But, as missionaries we can't be in a car alone with a guy so we explained this and the obachan says no big deal and climbs into the back of the van and sits with the bikes!

We sat in the front. It was a little awkward...getting into the van was too! It was pretty high off the ground. So sister Skabelund and I and the grandson sat in the cab while the obachan sat on the bed of the van with the bikes. It was pretty funny.

As we were driving we talked to the boy a little bit. Haha he tried to flirt a little bit. My favorite moment had to have been when he asked how old we were..21 and 22. He was shocked. I asked how old he was..30. Hahaha. We invited him to eikaiwa.

We got to hoshino shimai's house and they took the bikes out. From the back of the van the obachan waved and said goodbye. It was soo funny. She was sitting Indian style and waved both hands at us with this huge smile on her face. I think she was planning on staying back there for the ride back..luckily her grandson didn't let her.

We got to do phone lessons with quite a few less active members. And one of our less active members, Ogura shimai, is really progressing! It's exciting. She wants to come to church but can't because of work so we asked her to pray about what she should do and then fast. We would fast with her too! We called her Saturday night and all prayed together to start our fast. I'm excited to see the outcome and what answers she receives. She is really ready to take a bigger step. It's exciting.

Sunday evening we found another less active member who I think had managed to fall off the map; Yokohama shimai. She hasn't been to church since she got married. Sister Skabelund and Linquist Shimai accidentally found her 2 transfers ago. And when they housed into her she did not hesitate to say she wasn't interested. This time was soooo different. She had had a complete change in heart. We re-invited her to church And testified.

I handed her a map so she could see where the church was, it was one of the ”I'm a Mormon” flyers, and she just kept staring at it and flipping it over and opening it. It was a really sweet moment. We prayed together before we left, the spirit was definitely felt by her. And we will be visiting her again this week! And if we can find a member to give her a ride I think she will come to church too!

We almost didn't even go to her house. But we decided to act on what was possibly a spiritual prompting Skabelund shimai was getting and it turned out just right! And because we went there, we were able to see the last two people we wanted to see as well. Perfect timing!

This weekend I have really felt and seen Heavenly Father's hand in the work. He is preparing people for us to find and helping us lead his lost sheep back. I love it. I love my companion and I love Sanjo.

I love you all too!

Sister Molinari

This Week Went By So Fast!

21 July  2014 Sanjo

Sunset in Sanjo

I don't think I've experienced a week fly by this fast before! Every time I checked my watch, hours had passed by. It's crazy. I guess it's a good thing though, it means I'm having fun.

Sanjo is still as beautiful as ever. It has been super rainy here and on Saturday the sky finally cleared and it was amazing! I knew there were mountains surrounding us, but it didn't know how beautiful they were! I feel so lucky to be here.

We did soooo much this week and had sooo much fun! We probably laughed too much..but, there had been no "peeing of the pants" so I could always be laughing harder. Some of the funny moments this week:

First, I was trimming my eyebrows really quickly in the morning one day and accidentally lopped of the end of my eyebrow! I've been drawing in the end every morning! I guess I wouldn't have had a real Japan experience without having to draw an eyebrow on..it's what all the nihonjin do!

During a lesson this week we were talking about how we have developed relationships with God. I talked about prayer and feeling His love and then I said I've seen god's hand in my life but it more literally translated to "in my life I have seen God's hand." Of course I was talking about how He has a hand in my life, each of our lives, but it didn't translate well, and our investigator’s eyes got really REALLY big. "You've seen God's HAND???"

Looking back, we probably should've just let her think that I'd seen God's actual hand...could've worked in our favor. Haha, just kidding.

Sorry I don't have much time...other highlights of the week..

We had a root beer float party (most of the nihonjin didn't like the root beer), someone on the train told me I looked like Emma Watson, one of our investigators told us that "you are special...not so ordinary girls" and we saw lots of mini miracles! We ran into 4 people..maybe more..who had previously been in contact with the missionaries!

One of our less active members came to church! My favorite mini miracle was, one night, we were looking for a member Yamamoto shimai. We had no idea where she lived. As we were wandering around this old lady starts talking to us and tells us she knows a Yamamoto! Well, we didn't have anywhere else to go so we decided to check where the lady had told us.

 
Turned out it was the right Yamamoto!!! What are the chances?!

Tonight we have family home evening. It's so fun. Sister Skabelund and I are teaching the lesson. We are talking about how we all create a Plan A for ourselves but sometimes we end up doing Plan B. And Plan B isn't always what we wanted. But, in the end Plan B ends up being better than Plan A ever could've been. It's because Heavenly Father knows what is best for us! And even if Plan B doesn't seem right or like what we want, we end up getting the most out of it.

I'm a perfect example of that. I never EVER planned on going on a mission. But here I am! And I love it! I've seen so many blessings already and I have learned soooo much. It's been hard, but great. And although it wasn't what I planned, I wouldn't change it for anything.

Ahh this is a lame email. Sorry!

And sorry I didn't reply to anyone individually either...I'll try to next week!

Next week I will do better!

Love,

Sister Molinari

Live from Sanjo!

14 July 2014 Sanjo

Dear Everyone,

I love Sanjo! It's great. It's a beautiful place. I feel like I'm finally in Japan. If you go an hour one way you hit the ocean and then in every other direction you see mountains and hills and trees. It's gorgeous!

This past week has been crazy. So after transfer calls I began packing. What an affair that was! I'm glad it's over. Then we made phone calls - lots and lots. Everyone was really sad to hear I was leaving. I was sad to be leaving them. We spent the next couple of days visiting everyone. It was a very busy few days. I finally got to see Shimura San again. TWICE. It was such a blessing. I was so grateful for that. She was too!

She dressed Hubner shimai and I up in a yukata and took pictures. It was fun. I visited a lot of members too. I love them so much.

While leaving an area was hard, all the love I felt as I left was wonderful. It really makes you feel like you've done good.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering..I was not affected by the typhoon. I left Oyumino just in time!

Thursday morning it was raining, but one of the wonderful members brought us to the train station and Sister Hubner and I began our journey. Well, Sister Hubner's journey lasted about an hour, then I said goodbye to her and continued on to Tokyo with another sister who was also going up to Niigata.

We got to the mission home and after lunch we went to catch the bus we would be riding for five hours (yup you read that right). 

It was a beautiful bus ride! I felt like I was leaving Tokyo behind and heading into the real Japan. 

Up here in Niigata is how I pictured Japan I love it! We drove through mountains and over rivers. It had been raining so everything had fog hanging over it. I felt like I was driving into a movie!

Skabelund shimai and me

I met my companion, Sister Skabelund, at the train station. She is the cutest thing ever! 

Her mother is nihonjin and her father is American. And so that makes her... adorable. She has been out for 8 transfers..almost a year. She has really great nihongo and is so sweet and kind. I am so excited to be companions with her and I'm so excited to be up in Sanjo!

The rest of my week flew by! I can't believe it's another week already. So, I arrived Thursday, but the day was over by the time we made it back to the apartment (which I also love, wood floors and tatami mats in the bedroom!). 

Friday we had district meeting, I got to meet everyone else in my district. I think Jensen choro ed. note: from my MTC district) is about as excited as I am to be in the same district. It's really nice having a familiar face around. I like my district. There are some really awesome missionaries up here in Sanjo. After district meeting we weekly planned. I'm excited for this transfer. We have big goals and I really feel like Sister Skabelund and I can achieve them together (with help from Heavenly Father of course). 

After planning, we made dinner. Boy, there was not much in the apartment. We finally found some instant soup packets and then a few pieces of vegetable that could be added. I asked if we had anything else. Sister Skabelund said we had some potatoes. That'll work! She hands me the bag and starts laughing...they were baby potatoes!!, three baby potatoes. It was the saddest sight ever. But we got a really good laugh out of our ever-so-pathetic soup.

Saturday was my birthday! I thought transferring was the perfect escape but Jensen choro had made sure everyone knew it was my birthday. The elders had made a cake for me! And one of the members here, Yuki shimai, brought me a present. For lunch/ dinner we cooked with an investigator from Vietnam. We made all sorts of delicious food! It was fun!

That night we went to a neighboring town...I don't remember what it is called...Kamo? We took the train to go visit someone. She wasn't home, but when we returned to the train station there was a girl about our age sitting down waiting for the train. We went and sat down next to her. She stood up and staggered away. I was a little worried about her. She was walking ridiculously close to the edge of the platform. She lit a cigarette, smoked for a few minutes and came and sat back down. I really wanted to talk to her. So I did! 

We all talked for a few awkward moments and then the train came. She walked away and Sister Skabelund and I followed after her...it was a little weird of us haha. I decided to sit down next to her and we continued talking (there were only two or three things I didn't understand!!!!)

We didn't talk about anything super important, but we gave her our number and I really, really, really want her to call. Or, I want to run into her again. Her eyes were so empty. It was so sad. I think she was already drunk, and she was meeting a friend to drink more. I'm pretty sure a boy too. She just seemed so lost; drowning in the world.

It just got me, I don't know how to explain it. But I've been thinking about her ever since. And I'm praying we will find her again. Sorry that isn't really a happy story...yet.

Sunday I got to meet all the members. They are quite a bunch! But I love them already. We got to teach the young women’s class. There are only two young women in our "group"(it isn't even big enough to be a branch!) and they are sisters. They are so nice. We talked about Christ and what He means to us, who He is and we watched a video. We could feel the spirit so strong! It was a really wonderful lesson.

 
I love it up here! I’m so happy and excited to be here! And excited for this transfer. Things are looking good.

I love you all!

Sister Molinari

Kobayashi family 

Transfers!

7 July 2014 Oyumino

Aoyagi shimai..the seventy's wife! I love her! 
(Me & Hubner shimai)
(ed. note: 70 is a particular group of church leaders)

 Hello everyone!

I have exciting news. I’M TRANSFERRING!!! I’ve been assigned to Sanjo, Niigata. No one wants to go to Niigata. They all think you get stuck up there. But I didn't mind at all! I'll just spend the next third of my mission up there and leave just in time to miss winter. It gets very cold there in the winter. And the snow is measured in meters not centimeters. I'm very grateful I get to go in the summer. And I am sooo excited too!

Sanjo is farm country, rice fields, mountains and a tiny town. The ward...well, the ward isn't a ward..it's a group. But that is gonna change! I'm also in the same district as 2 of my "doki" or missionaries from my MTC district. What a treat! The only thing that could make it better would be if Dopp shimai was there.

This week was pretty great. I finally got my voice back! Yay! And boy was I ready to have it back. After almost two weeks....I was over the no voice thing for sure. Especially since you need your voice as a
missionary!

Tuesday we had a zone conference. It was great. We were taught about being diligent and staying connected to our purpose. There is also a lot of new things being rolled out here in japan. After Elder Cook came here, he and some others have been busily working on new focuses for us as missionaries and ward members alike. One new focus is retention. They are really pushing retention of new members. And second is reactivation. Here in Japan there are 7,000 active members in church and...are you ready for this 17,000 less actives. WOAH!!!!

 
Elder Cook wants us to be teaching 20 lessons a week. And with that many less actives or not all active members there is no reason we can’t be teaching that many lessons. I'm a fan. I love teaching.  The third focus is changing the mission culture. And being diligent was part of that.

So I left zone conference feeling ready to go. I want to be more diligent. There is a difference between going through the motions of missionary work and actually doing it diligently. I spent a lot of the week trying to do the later. While we didn't find anyone ready to be baptized, we did find quite a few cute girls who will probably come to eikaiwa, I got to tell someone I really believe that Jesus Christ lived and had multiple conversations in Japanese all by myself. It's been great.

There has been a crazy change in my nihongo abilities. While I still am not the best at speaking, I can understand sooo much and reading has gotten easier, remembering kanji (ed. note: Japanese characters) is easy too. It is exciting!

I've been translating one of our pamphlets during language study time..well not really translating. It is written in Japanese and uses kanji. So over the kanji I've been writing how to say it, but not what it means. On another page I have all the kanji I don't know and the English. On the first page it’s a long list...but, each page I go through the kanji list gets shorter. I'm remembering a lot from the page before! And the things I study have come in handy each day throughout the day. I also don't need a word for word translation once I know the kanji I can understand the rest of the sentence usually. It is sooo exciting. The gift of tongues is real. I would not be able to learn this quickly without Heavenly Father's help.

We had a really fun Relief Society (ed. note: the Church’s women’s service organization) activity this week. It was all the Relief Society women in the stake and they invited the sister missionaries to come sing. It was a little hard to hit the high notes but I managed to sing! That was a blessing in and of itself. It was an introduction to Relief Society and a little bit of history of it too. I LOVE Relief Society! How lucky are we to have such an awesome organization?

When a nihonjin doesn't believe what you're saying they will exclaim "oo-soh". It directly translates to “liar” but it doesn't really have that feel. Anyways, one of the members said it to me cuz I said we had a meeting and she couldn't believe it. My reply was "ie, senkyoshi desu." (No I'm a missionary). She just looked at me like I was stupid, but all of the Americans laughed.

This week we had a very exciting eikaiwa. Sister Hubner and I decided in honor of Fourth of July that we would do an America class. We had words like barbecue, parade, fireworks, statue of liberty...we didn't want them to think we were shoving America in their face so for the activity we had everyone make flags. If they had their own country what would their flag look like? While they were creating them I heard a BANG come from the other classroom. I made a comment to Sister Hubner that someone had fallen. I didn't think again about it.

After everyone's flags were created we had a parade! We had talked with the elders before class; they knew we were gonna come parade through their room. So I lead the way, patriot music playing, and 16 kids following behind me and head towards the other room. I quickly popped my head in to see if it was ok to come in. Nope! So we continued on, parading around the community center, waving to all the mothers sitting outside (I don't think anyone really understood what was going on..). Music is playing, confused children are chattering and the community center workers appear and look at us SO confused. Then we head back to the room and take a seat. We gave the kids candy and sent them home. After that we headed into the other classroom.

Turns out that bang I had heard was a lady hitting her head on the floor. While playing a game, the lady had gone to sit and her chair shot out from under her and she hit the floor. Because it was a potential head injury an ambulance had been called and she was taken away. While all this was happening, thanks to perfect timing, there was patriot music and children waving flags amidst it all. We added to the confusion and created the perfect storm. It was really exciting. Except as I reread this it doesn't sound at all exciting. Guess ya had to be there...

Sister Hubner and I were sitting across from each other one night and I was reading a phrase I had taken a picture of. It was out of one of those learn English phrases books for nihonjin...they have weird stuff. Anyways I had found a particularly odd one and taken a picture of it a while ago. I read it out loud: "Your nose hairs are sticking out"

Sister Hubner's response: "What?!"

It was pretty funny.

I've really enjoyed being in Oyumino! I'm gonna miss everyone soo much. And luckily I've been told how much they are all gonna miss me too all week. It makes me feel like I did ok here. One eikaiwa mother, who isn't remotely religious, even told me she would pray that I stayed here! So sweet.

Next week I'll be writing from Sanjo!

Love you all!

Sister Molinari