Phew!

Sisters? My new companion Sister Bettridge and me

Wow...well, I don't even know where to start. This week was crazy. Absolutely crazy. It feels like multiple weeks were all crammed into one week. Sister hall and I ran around like crazy on Tuesday visiting people and then Wednesday I dropped her off at her new area and went to get my new companion, fresh from America. The sister I was traveling with knew just about as much as I did in regards to getting to the hon bu and by that I mean...not much. Naturally we got lost and I was late for the trainer training I was suppose to be at. But, after a week of training I can't imagine I missed much, nothing prepares you for training. Oh boy! 

Tuesday it tried snowing. Luckily it hasn't tried snowing again. But, we can see snow on top of the mountains now...makes me a little nervous. We went and visited a less active and her son in the hospital Tuesday morning. THe son was getting surgery and she wanted the elders to give him a priesthood blessing. It was really sweet. The little boy seemed much happier after the blessing. After, she walked us out and wanted to pay for us to ride he bus back to the train station. It was raining. We assured her we were fine walking and started our trek back to the station. After a few minutes I heard someone calling my name and turn to see the less active running down the street with umbrellas for us. It was sooo sweet of her! I love her so much! We get to go to her house for Christmas Eve so I am very excited. We are planning something special for that! 

Tuesday night we had an amazing lesson with our investigator kikue. Every time we meet with her we find out a little more just how prepared she is! If only she had more time to meet! At the end of our lesson she told us that she has been studying religion for years and can't find the right one. She doesn't understand why there are so many forms of Christianity and buddism and other religions as well. We told her Joseph smith had the same question and after studying he received an answer! when we showed her a picture of Joseph smith she said she knew who he was! She had studied about Mormonism on her own before she ever met the missionaries! We can't wait to see what happens next lesson. I think she is super prepared and am sooo excited to teach her more. 

Wednesday I met my new companion! She is awesome I love her sooo much. Her name is sister Bettridge. She is 20 and from Utah. And she is already an amazing missionary. I love being her companion. She is so spiritual. And she is just as tall and skinny as me. Everyone thinks we are sisters. Ready for a cool story? So, when all the trainers came in and sat down I sat across from sister Bettridge. She says she thinks she knows me..and she did! She had been following my blog before her mission! So, while I didn't know her, she knew a lot about me. And then, we become companions! She told me the other night, that before her mission she had hoped she would get a companion like me! And now we are companions! Awww! I absolutely love her. She is so patient with me and just loves everything about a mission and Japan. She is so willing to try new things and her Japanese has already gotten so much better and it's already been a week. The gift of tongues is so real. I'm afraid by next week I will have run out of things to teach her in Japanese! 

Christmas cookie making activity

Because she is straight out of America I've realized a few things about myself. First, my English has gotten funny and really slow. I also understand Japanese English very well. I think she needs me to translate more often when a nihonjin speaks English than when they speak Japanese. It sounds perfectly normal to me! But I guess it really doesn't sound like English hahaha. I also learned that I am a terrible translator. As I've learned Japanese I tried to keep English out of it so a lot of the time I don't know how to translate something and so I do it in a weird round about way. Ah! But, I also realized I know a lot more Japanese than I've given myself credit for. And I can translate. That was a delightful surprise! 

So this weekend was absolutely crazy, we had so many appointments cancelled, and emergency appointments come up, a baptism cancelled, lots and lots of traveling and the climax of our crazy weekend was as we were headed homeSaturday night. On the train we started talking to someone, our stop came, we handed the lady we were talking to a flyer and I walked off the train but, sister Bettridge did not get off fast enough! I realized what was about to happen so I step back in and try to jam myself between the closing doors...well, the doors didn't care that I was in the way so I get squished back out, nihonjin are staring in horror as I get closed in the doors and then as they realize my companion is stuck on one side of the door and I on the other. I yelled to her to get off at the next stop and then watched the train ride away. Then I stood on the platform and cried for 8 minutes until the next train came. I was afraid that she hadn't heard me and was going to end up in ikebukoro! I prayed really hard and finally the train came and I was so relieved when I saw sister Bettridge waiting for me on the platform. We just hugged for a long time and I cried and apologized and then we went home. Worst trainer ever. Who loses their companion on their third day in the field?!?!? Yup, that's right me, sister Molinari!

Christmas cookies

Crying cookie? Missionary cookies

Luckily she still loves me, and things have finally slowed down. Today has been a wonderful relazed pday. And I look froward to a Week where no one gets lost on trains. I love training. It my opportunity to get retrained really. I've become painfully aware of all my mistakes and I'm just so grateful I can repent at the end of the day and start over. I love having a companion straight from the MTC. She is so full of fire and is so ready to work. And I won't let her make the same mistakes I made with Japanese. I remember all to well, my first months in the field. And I really want to do everything I can to make her first months great. 

I love you all! 

Merry Christmas! 

Sister Molinari