"It's not goodbye, it's see you real soon"

Hello from America! This is my final email. I’ve been back from Japan for a week now but, I wanted to send out one last email.

Here’s what my final week in Japan consisted of:

On Monday we received transfer calls. I was, to everyone’s great shock, transferring back to New York haha. Kubota shimai gets to stay in Kumagaya though. Yay! It is staying open! And I’m sure her and her new companion are going to see many, many miracles this transfer. Oh, I did write about Monday already…Ill add some pictures from the English Garden we went to with Takahashi San.

 


Tuesday was basically a run errands day. I had to get my suitcases sent off, sister Kubota wanted pieces from my bicycle so we asked the Elders to switch them over for us and then there was lots and lots of calling! We had to tell everyone about transfers and that Kumagaya sisters was staying open. Everyone was so happy.

That evening we went and visited the Kubotas one last time. Sister Kubota (not my companion) was really struggling with some concerns she had, actually we came with a little message planned and as we were sharing it I just felt like we needed to ask her what was wrong. It reminded me of almost a year and a half ago, where in the MTC, I felt the exact same thing during a lesson. So, I waited till my companion finished sharing her thought and then asked Sister Kubota what was wrong. She told us and so we had a special moment where we got to really teach to her needs. Well, kind of..there wasn’t an easy fix solution for her problem but we shared Helaman 5:12 with her and promised when she relies on Christ to help, he will and we can get through anything.

Here is Helaman 5:12 I love this scripture! I’ve used it a lot all through my mission. “And now, my sons, remember, remember that is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, ye and, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storms shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fail.” What an amazing promise  “a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fail”. We arentt promised that all our problems will go away, or that Christ will take care of them for us. But, if we rely on Christ we are promised we shall not fail. Satan is going to send his whirlwinds. It doesn’t say if he does, or maybe he will but WHEN. And if we are prepared, and have built our foundation of Christ we cannot and will not fail. 

Wednesday was transfer day!!I woke up at around 5:00 to finish packing and to get ready to go. Aroudn 8:00 we went to meet her new companion at the eki. Grabbed some of their things and headed back to apartment. Made a last minute trip to a corner store and then the Ishida family picked me and Sister Kubotas new companion’s old companion up and brought us to the eki. And then, we were off to the mission home. Naturally, we had a problem. Our train was cancelled..when does that ever happen?? Luckily we had help from a really sweet Japanese couple and then finally we made it, a little late to the mission home. And I was reunited with My Dopp shimai for our last few     days in Japan. I love her so much!

That evening we tried to visit one of her friends from an old area, no luck. But, on our way back we got to talk to this really funny old lady. She kept saying she was gonna leave, oh and the whole reason she stopped us in the first place was because we were beautiful. My favorite moment was when she would tell us numbers. She would hold fingers up to go along with the numbers BUT her fingers never matched what she said. Sooo funny. Then we finally said good-bye to her and headed to dinner, got yummy hamburgers and then we headed off to eikaiwa in the city. That was fun too.

The next day we headed to oyumino!!! Dream come true. I was able to see all the wondereful sisters from Oyumino. If I ever where to live in Japan, that’s where I would live. They are a family, my family. I love them so much.

That evening we had our final dinner at the mission home, had the opportunity to share our testimonies with the other returning missionaries and then it was off to bed! The next day we had breakfast and then before I knew it I was on a plane heading back to America. We landed in Georgia. Talk about culture shock, everything was so big, and everyone was so loud and rude. I was reading to hop back on the next plane to Japan.  

Some funny things Ive noticed/ experienced  since coming home:

1.       Everything here is either too sweet or too salty..blah!

2.       The ceilings are much farther away from my head

3.       Some things are just easier to eat with chopsticks

4.       Everything is so loud!

5.       When we were leaving the airport I had this frightening moment of “Daddy you are driving on the wrong side of the road!”

6.       At church while in the bathroom someone walked in and I nodded to them..we don’t nod at people in America.

      

     And LARGE has a whole new meaning in America!!

I ordered a large smoothie at the airport without even thinking what size it would end up being!

-

I can’t say it’s good to be home...I haven’t decided yet! But I can say that I am soo grateful for the last year and a half of my life. It was the farthest things from easy but I don’t think I would’ve learned or grown or changed in the ways I have if it had been. I love japan. I love their culture. I love the people. They are so busy trying to become westernized but I think we could learn a lot from them. They are kind and sweet and are willing to do just about anything for a stranger. They have a rich culture and beautiful beliefs. It became home and I am going to miss it so much.  But, I’m very grateful for the time I did get there. I’m grateful that I was able to share what makes me happy and was able to watch it bring happiness to others. God is our heavenly father and he loves us. Each of us. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we are from. And I’ve been able to see and experience that for myself. The gospel is for each of us. Doesn’t matter who we are. And The gospel brings us happiness. Im happy because of it. And while I may not be a missionary any more I wont ever stop sharing what makes me happy.

I love you all! Thank you for following me on my year and a half adventure. Hope to see you soon!

Love, Kirstin

Safely Home

15 June 2015, Rush, New York, USA

This is perhaps the final entry that the editor will make to this blog. Sister Molinari has returned home safely after having honorably completed 18+ months of full time missionary service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Sister Molinari and her mother. Grandparents to right.

She returned home very late Friday evening after about 14 hours of air travel and 5+ hours of layover.  She traveled back in time to arrive in Atlanta the same afternoon, a little less than an hour BEFORE, she departed from Tokyo!  

On the way home, we stopped at the stake center where she was released from full-time missionary service and became Kirstin again. Well, after this experience, she will never again be the same Kirstin, but at least she can be called Kirstin again. 

With grandparents and Uncle Mark

It was a long night for us as she started unpacking and sharing stories about people places and things. It was a long night for us, but even longer for her. She never went to sleep, since the sun was just about up and she wanted to go running and “needed to study”!

I will now relinquish control and maintenance of this blog over to her. We expect that she will make a final entry soon - once she wakes up!

It is good to have her safe at home.

Sister Molinari and her family, brother Nicholas, father and mother.

  

With "little" brother Nicholas

Happy with berries!

Happy family

The unpacking begins.

I am interested in hearing what you connection is to Kirsitn and this blog, particularly if you are from countries outside of North America. There are a number of followers from Russia, Poland, Ukraine, France and Turkey. I am curious to know how you found us and what attracts you to the blog.

Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below that you care to make about her mission to the people of Japan, on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on being a missionary or if you'd like more information on the church.

Thank you for your interest.

- the editor (and father) Gary Molinari

Just Another Wonderful Week!

8 June 2015 Kumagaya

Transfer calls were today! And guess what!? Kumagaya is staying open! Sister Kubota and I shouted for joy. We were so worried Kumagaya was closing! But it's safe!!!! Yay!

Today we spent the day with takahashi San from Sakado. It was so fun. I love her so much. We went to an English garden, had a picnic and took lots of pictures as we walked around. I forgot my cord...so no pictures. Sorry!

This week I also got to see Fukunaga Shimai and Kikue from Sakado too. It was so fun. I'm so happy I was able to see them. I love my Sakado friends so much.

Follow up from last week's big story...the owner of the dog we found came to church on Sunday! Yay!

Funny stories of the week: We were watching a movie with one of the church members who hasn't been coming a lot and at the end Sister Kubota says "I just love that movie. I cry every time I watch it...I've only seen it once." It was sooo funny.

Last night while I was praying sister Kubota randomly says "amen" and then she says "wait you didn't end yet, I don't know why I just said that." I quickly finished the prayer and then cracked up. She was a little tired.

This week we had a little extra money so we decided to go out and eat. We didn't know where to go so we asked the elders for their opinion. They asked what we wanted to eat and I yelled "MOOT!" I was trying to say meat but that just didn't come out..oh English...

We got to meet with our new investigator we found a few weeks ago twice this week. She is awesome! She loves christ so much and just wants to find truth. I can't wait to see what happens with her.

The theme of this week seemed to be truth. What is truth? How do we find it? How do we know when we found it? Truth is such a large abstract concept and so as we talked about it this week I noticed something interesting. Because truth is just so big we all expect big answers, A giant aha moment. we want truth to smack us in the face, scream and yell and say "here I am! I'm truth!" But, turns out that's not how truth works. We need to go to the source. And the source, whether you believe in him or not, is God. Ask and ye shall receive. That's his promise. And God always keeps his promises. But because we live in a hectic world, full of junk and noise we miss out of those answers we receive. Also, I think we all hold the truth, it's within us, it's just a matter of whether or not we choose to accept it and act upon it. It's like giving a present to someone. You give a present to someone because it makes them happy, you want that person to feel your love. It's no fun to give a present to someone who doesn't react. Or who isn't going to appreciate it. Chances are, you'll stop giving present s to those people. Same with truth. We are surrounded by it, it's within us. But, if we aren't gonna do anything about it, we'll stop noticing it and God will stop sending us signs of truth. People who have found truth and then decided they don't know anymore, think it is because they lost the truth or didn't know really what it was from the beginning. But, truth comes from God, God does not change, which means truth does not change, but, we change which means how we view truth changes. A question I posed this week, as we were teaching was "have you changed?" Because God most certainly has not.

This week was really fun. We got to spend a lot of time win members and hose we are teaching. We had so many prayers answered. Even little prayers. Sunday night we didn't have anything planned. Sister Kubota really wanted to teach. We called lots of people and no one picked up. we headed over tot the church to check our Facebook messages and decided to call our new investigator who hadn't been able to come to church that day. So we called and she asked what we were doing, we told her we were at the church and she said she was coming! Prayers, said and unsaid are answered. And we had a fun time together, singing hymns and then reading from the Book of Mormon. It was a really great way to end the night.

Sunday we had a little bye- bye party for me. That was fun. Sister Kubota and I sang and I didn't cry. So I'd say it was a success.

I love Kumagaya! I love sister Kubota! 

Love you all!

Sister Molinari

Konnichiwa!

1 June 2015 Kumagaya

We had an amazing week this week. Lots of miracles. I love Kumagaya! And sister Kubota. We have so much fun Together. I'm so sad I don't get to stay in Kumagaya longer. I feel a little jipped. The ward members are so great! I love them. But there is also so much to do here. It's not fair I have to leave!

On Wednesday we had district meeting. So much funny. The zone leaders came. One of the zone leaders used to work at Abercrombie,as we were talking about that it came out that he used to be one of the guys who stood out shirtless in front of the store. As he is telling us this his companion says " you know, when I walked by those guys at the mall, I never thought hmm he could be my companion some day." Everybody cracked up. It was soooo funny.

Then, as we were walking out we said hello to this old man. For whatever reason he decided he just wanted to talk to sister Kubota, who could not understand his old man nihongo. I kept answering his questions but he insisted on only speaking to her. Finally he got frustrated with her being unable to understand him and told her to go home and practice her Japanese and then dismissed her. We got a good laugh from that too.

Friday we had a zone blitz. We got together and ate lunch at one of our friend's restaurants. We broke ordering records. Her boss was very excited. And it was so fun to see how happy she was because we had come.

During the blitz we visited some members who have not been coming to church. This week we were able to get a hold of/ meet with two who sister Kubota and her last companion could not get a hold of. I love both of them. They are really wonderful girls. I'm excited to get to know them better is week.

On Saturday there was a giant earthquake. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone posted about it on Facebook. But Kubota Shimai and I....we didn't feel it. Hahaha. We were biking home. And had absolutely no clue it happened until the next day. So if you were worried about us, or me...no worries we are safe, we didn't even feel it!

Sunday was super awesome! It was our big Sunday challenge day. We didn't have anyone showing up...we sure tried though. Then one of the members who haven't been coming to church came A little late. She had missed her train and had walked at least two miles to get to church! I was so happy to see her! So happy!

We had a delicious meal after church with all the members. Went home made some calls, made paper swans and then headed out to dendō! We both felt like we should go in the same direction, so naturally we did. We rode a bit, locked our bikes up and set out to do some housing! Well, we didn't get very far when we saw an eikaiwa student.

She hasn't been coming recently. But, she drove by us, saw and then started telling us how she had lost her dog during the earthquake the day before. He'd been missing for almost a day and a half. They couldn't find him. After telling us she took off again. I decided we needed to find that dog. Luckily, Kubota Shimai had decided the same thing. So, we said a prayer and started wandering around. There was a large cemetery so we decided to look in it. No dog. I felt like we should get back on our bikes so we went and got them, and then I took a few turns based on what felt right (followed the promptings of the spirit) and we biked past a lady walking a corgi. Sister Kubota stops and asks the lady if that's her dog. It wasn't, it was the dog we were looking for! Ah! So we took the dog and reunited him with his mother.  Who was soooooo happy. Soooo happy. It took a little bit to find her house, we didn't know where she lived, just general area. But luckily the corgi knew so it was all good. She couldn't believe we had found it. Today we are going back with her to the lady's house who found the dog. I'm glad. The lady seemed a little heartbroken to say goodbye to Ketchupu. I don't blame her. He is the sweetest dog ever.

So what lesson can we learn from this story? Ask the missionaries. They can help.

I'm so grateful our prayers were answered. It made my day and a lot of other people's day too. Heavenly Father loves us and he is just waiting to help us.

After that we went and had dinner with the Ruichi family. I love that family. They are amazing! They are such a happy family. We had so much fun with them. And then as we were leaving they gave us two bags full of goodies. They will receive lots and lots of blessings for sure. They are always helping the missionaries.

I love you all!

See ya real soon.

Sister Molinari

Hello Everyone!

26 May 2015 Kumagaya

Today is temple p-day. Sorry I forgot to mention that last week. So much fun seeing everyone.

This week was a funny week. We had lots of appointments scheduled, made big goals and well, we sure didn't hit them. So many of our appointments canceled or just didn't show up. But, I can't say I'm too disappointment. Through plans not going as planned we saw miracles. We were able to follow promptings and see answers to prayers. It was a good week.

So on Monday we got to go see BYU symphony orchestra with a few of our friends. It was so fun listening to real music. Sister Kubota and I got all dressed up...in the same thing we wear everyday...you know, dressing up isn't to special when you wear a skirt and blouse every day. But, her and I decided to match. We looked cute. Forgot to take a picture though. We both had on our blue blazers and blue shirts. Uchiyama San, who we rode the train with asked if they were our uniforms! Haha.

My favorite miracle of the week was Saturday. We were supposed to have a lesson after eikaiwa. Well, they didn't show up. So we decided to visit Kurihara San. She was sick. Very sick. Like, ran to the bathroom to puke sick. Needless to say, she wasn't feeling up to a lesson so we headed home. But, I really didn't want to go home. Nothing had gone as planned. So I started thinking of who we could visit and a less active's name, Yo Shimai, who I'd never met, popped into my head. So, I suggested it to Kubota Shimai and we went. On our way I prayed that something would actually come out of it. We got there and she was home, knocked, no answer, knocked again and after waiting 5 or 10 minutes she finally answered the door. And, she let us in! We chatted
for a while and every time we tried to end the conversation she would keep talking! I think she is a little lonely studying all the time and she misses the missionaries and members. She even told us she misses church. She never eats dinner (cus she is too busy studying) so we told her we would come back this Wednesday and give her dinner.

I got to talk more about commandments this week. During a lesson, I just went on and on and was a little worried I'd spoken a bit too long. Our investigator, after I finished, asked "how did you come to have such strong faith in God?" I was so surprised by her question. And it quite honestly made my whole day. I don't think in my mind I'd put the two together. Yes, I keep the commandments because I believe in God, but I guess it's really much deeper than that. I know God loves me. He loves each of us. And he gave us commandment because he loves us. He has given us so much because he loves us. And because I love and believe in him, because I know He is there, I choose to keep those commandments. Sorry, I don't know how to explain how it clicked in my head...


I love Kubota Shimai! She rocks. We had lots of fun this week and laughed lots and lots.

Ah, No Time!

18 May 2015 Kumayaga

Sister Kubota and her exchange companion,
me and Dopp Shimai in background

Hello everyone! I am soooo sorry but I have no time to write today! We had a busy, busy day!

But, here are my two favorite parts of the week:

1. I GOT TO GO ON EXCHANGES WITH DOPP SHIMAI!!
It was soooo fun. I felt like we had never been separated. We just picked up right where we had left off, except that we can speak Japanese and had an entire year and almost a half of mission experiences to talk
about and share. I love Dopp Shimai. I love her testimony and I love watching her dendō. It's great and she is great. In the MTC our companionship was inspired. We were made and prepared for one another and we just help one another. It's funny we have served completely different missions. But, Dopp Shimai still knows exactly what to say to help me. It was the best. Something we both probably prayed for for the first four transfers of our mission haha.

2. MIRACLE
Sunday after church we had no plans. Nothing. So we went housing! I love housing. We talked to a few awesome people and quite a few not so awesome people. Right after we met a rather rude lady I heard his tiny little voice say "konnichiwa." I thought I'd imagined it! I looked at sister Kubota to see if she had heard it too and she had! But we didn't see anyone. We heard it again and finally found the source; a little girl was looking out her window and had called out to us. We talked to her for a few minutes, found out her parents weren't home but her mother would return at 8:10 that night so we told her we would come back.

Kubota and me

We headed back home and after dinner we would go back to the house. 

Side story: Sunday after lunch I felt like I should put an English Book of Mormon in my bag, in addition to my Japanese one, so I did and carried it around all day. After dinner I thought to myself Heavenly Father I carried this around all day, we didn't run into anyone who could read it. But I got the feeling to keep it in. So I did. 

Ok so we go back to the house, it was super dark and there was no ping pong (ed. note: intercom) and the gate was closed and "locked" so we didn't know what to do, finally we figured we might as well open the gate-oh well and opened it, knocked and waited.

A lady came to the door and I thought she was going to kekko us by the tone of her voice. But then, she switched to English! And we had an amazing conversation! Turns out she is from the Philippines. She speaks perfect English. We continue talking. Tell her about ourselves and why we are here and about church. I knew this is why I had the English Book of Mormon and waited patiently for the perfect time to bring it out. And the perfect time happened!

She asked if we study the bible at church and I said we did and this book too and then I pulled it out of my bag and told her this might sound kind of strange but I felt like I needed to put an English book in my bag today! Ah! So we talked a bit about it and then she felt like it was for her and an answer to her prayers because she had wanted to read a new book, almost ordered one but then felt like she should wait.

Whaaaa! Crazy! She kept telling us we were angels and answers to her prayers and God sent. Oh it made me so happy. So happy. And we are meeting her again Thursday. So excited. She said she would read a chapter a day from the Book of Mormon! She is so prepared!

Oh something funny... This happened while we were walking through a neighborhood. As we were walking we walked by someone's yard, it had a thick garden, and sister Kubota says "look! It's the garden of Gethsemane ...I mean Eden." Hahaha!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Molinari

What's a monk's favorite drink?

11 May 2015 Kumagaya

From our Japanese barbeque

 This week felt really long. We had lots and lots and lots of finding time. Actually it feels like multiple weeks happened this week. But, it was good. Finding with Sister Kubota is really fun. She's a pro. 

Last night we met the elders and headed over to the house of someone they had met who was interested. Since she's a woman they can't teach her. So we get to! She was really sweet. We had a really great talk and we get to visit her later this week! As everyone was talking I had a wow moment. Here are four missionaries, all except me are 19 and 20, in Japan, speaking Japanese all from different places and different walks of life. We were united in the gospel and the power that came from that was really special. It was a really cool moment. 

Ok, I don't have much time...so this week in a paragraph. Ready, set GO: after our crazy Brazilian sports days on Monday we turned it down a few notches and went to an actual BBQ. Japanese Barbecues and American barbecues are very different. The Japanese one is definitely yummier. I sat with the old people and sang them American songs haha. They loved it. I did too.

We got to meet with our super awesome friends: Kobayashi San and Atsuko San twice this week. They are so nice. I love them already. And they are both on the verge of something big. I can feel it. They are looking for answers, and lucky for them, the gospel has them.

We went to a member’s house, almost an hour away, all ready to clean. She had us tie newspapers and card board together...probably took twenty minutes and then she says “ok we are done, let's go eat!” 

Friday We played some ping pong, talked a lot about family history. Saturday was a day full of eikaiwa. Kids eikaiwa was lots of fun. We did animals. We went around the table asking the kids what their favorite animal was. My favorite answer came from our new four year old student he said "ALL OF THEM!". After, we had regular eikaiwa. That's always funny but sadly, I can't remember anything so you'll just have to take my word for it. Saturday night we ate some yummy tonkatsu with Julia and then went home, completely exhausted. Oh! We also made cookies! The oven didn't work so we used the mircowave. 

Sunday we gave the cookies we'd made to all the women in the ward. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! Church was really great. We are planning a luau for the end of June. I won't be there but the ward is getting excited. It should be really fun. We are gonna open it up to the community and invite Oyuzumi too! There will be hula and a haka (yes I know technically not Hawaiian...but they won't know the difference) and of course buta niku. pig. (ed. note: I have no idea what this is???).

After church we didn't have anything planned so we went finding. We had some really great encounters with people. I was really focusing on trying to find in faith. We saw miracles. We ran into a member, who was on her way to the Eki to pick up her daughter. Her daughter in not a member and she has had discussions with the missionaries before. So, we waited a few minutes and then got to have a really awesome discussion with her! It was so good. I was praying the whole time that I would know what to say, and I did. It was really good. 

We ended the evening by visiting a lady the elders had found. A am so o excited to get to know her better. She could recognize the spirit we had and I just know it is going to go somewhere. I started the email by talking about her and our meeting. 

This week there has been a big theme; Commandments. Something we hear all the time is that commandments are restricting  and not fair. People don't like being told what to do. Therefore they cannot become a member of this Church. I love talking about commandments. They say they are restricting and I say. They aren’t. They appear to be so and it’s hard. But, the freedom that comes from those commandments is like nothing else. The happiness that comes from them cannot be compared to anything else. And surprise, we are not forced to follow a single one of those commandments. We have agency. A gift that God gave us. We are free to choose. If we were being forced to follow commandments then we would not have agency, we would not have the freedom of choice. It is our choice to follow commandments. And every time we choose to follow a commandment we have just exercised that agency we have been given. We choose over and over to follow that commandment. And through those choices we are blessed. And we are happy. And we are free. When we choose not to follow commandments we may be happy. But, in order to keep that happiness, for it is fleeting, we have to choose not to follow that commandment again. And again. And again. And in so doing we have become a slave to disobeying that commandment. The only way to be happy is to do what God has told us not to. And he didn't tell us not to cus he wanted to be mean or bossy. He told us because he knows the source of true happiness.

 

I love telling those we teach that I've found that source of happiness. I've lived with and without it and I choose with. I choose to follow commandments. And I love promising them the same happiness I have. It's great! I absolutely love it. 

Alright that's all for now folks,

See you real soon

Love you!

Sister Molinari