Fwd: 2nd Transfer Week 4

From: Lindsay Sanders <lindsay.sanders@myldsmail.net>

Date: December 29, 2014 4:15:04 AM MST

Subject: 2nd Transfer Week 4

I have a lot to talk about and not a lot of time. Forgive me for my lack of explanantions and such....... we had such a busy week and we have so much going on! I love the holidays!

First, I want to tell you more about my companion SIster Smith. She is the coolest girl ever. She is from Canada and is a dancer/hipster. I am learning a lot from her about how to be a true hipster. She only drinks from a mason jar and has really steki glasses. She has always wanted to serve a mission. Cool story: Sister Smith`s first mission call was to Ukraine, speaking Russian. But, because of the war going on there, her call was changed 2 weeks before she was supposed to report to the MTC. She found out because she went online to Missionary portal and the flag had changed to JAPAN. She kind of freaked out. Then her stake president called a few hours later to tell her about the change. Ukraine and Japan are SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER different in case you didn`t know. But she knows she needs to be here and I am so happy that she is my trainer this transfer! We are always laughing and we met the coolest people this week. Because it@s New Years, there are so many people visiting from out of town. Lots of people form Tokyo are visiting right now! It`s so fun!

ALSO, I have to say thank you to my ward for sending me the Christmas package! It came on the 26th! AH I was so happy and i cried many happy tears! Even though most of the ward doesn`t know me, I could really feel of your love and I am so grateful!

All of the moms and grandmas in my ward here in Nihon pinch my cheeks and tell me that I have a baby face. It`s nice and all, but it`s been like this for 10 weeks now and my cheeks hurt. Pray for me. Haha they are the best though! They had this plan to help us gain weight before we talked to our families on Christmas so our mom`s wouldn`t be worried.... I was like oh so THAT`S why everyone invited us over that week........ Haha I am doing fine and staying healthy. Biking all day helps burn off all the rice I eat. ;)

I have another story that is a little bit more serious: We were housing this apartment and we are about to knock on a door and all of the sudden a woman is screaming and we hear a kid crying and the most brutal beating is going on behind this door. Sister Smith turns and looks at me and we both freeze. I wanted to run and get away as fast as possible. Nothing has ever scared me that bad. Sister Smith bows her head and begins to pray for this family. I join her. We were on that doorstep for 10 minutes. The screaming stops and everything is quiet. Sister Smith goes to knock on the door. I stop her and say WHAT ARE YOU DOING? She goes and knocks on the door anyways- very softly. The door opens and a little boy probably 8 years old pokes his head out. He had tears on his cheeks. Sister Smith asked him if he was okay, and we gave him a chidashi (pamphlet) and told him that No matter what trials you may have, God remembers you. You are never alone. He bowed and closed the door. This experience has forever changed me. I am glad SIster Smith had the courage to knock on the door. I don`t know why I had to be there for that experience, but it is not a coincidence that we were right by their door at that exact time.

I hope you all remember that God knows you. He knows what you are going through- all the things you can`t control. He is with you always. 

In this New Year we have the opportunity to have a fresh start. I am so excited for this year, because I get to be a missionary ALL YEAR! I am so excited! I have a lot of goals for my misisonary work, but also for my life in general. I feel like my misison has changed me so much already. I hope no one recognizes me when I get home! Heavenly Father is changing me into the person that He knows I can be. Happy New Years! Love you always!

-Sister Sanders

Fwd: MERRY CHRISTMAS MINASAN!

From: Lindsay Sanders <lindsay.sanders@myldsmail.net>

Date: December 25, 2014 3:01:21 AM MST

Subject: MERRY CHRISTMAS MINASAN!

Wow, what a week! But first I want to say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Thanks for allt he love and prayers on my behalf. I feel it everyday! I am also SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy that I got to skype with my family today. All of us misisonaries are smiling really big today.

This week we had lots of opportunities to teach about the true meaning of Christmas and we had so much fun! We shared lots of scriptures and did lots of Christ-centered lessons this week. (Actually, we always teach about Christ, so... nothing really different). We stopped and talked to every single woman we saw! We also found a FAMILY that wants to hear our message. I`ll follow up on that next week!

I don`t have a lot to say, sorry! But I just want to talk about how happy I am. More importantly WHY I am happy. I have SO many blessings! I have an awesome family. I have friends that make me smile SO much! I feel so much love from home with my ward/stake/friends/family. Seriously, I love you guys. Thanks for chekcing up on me every once in a while! I also know that God is our loving Father in Heaven who has a plan for us. He gave us His Son so that we would be able to live with God again. I LOVE my Savior, Jesus Christ. As we think about Him, I hope we can all remember why we have a reason to feel peace. 

I love you all! Missionary work is going great here in Japan! I love it so much!

Merry Christmas. Peace and Blessings.

--

Sanders Shimai

Fwd: 2nd Transfer, Week 2

From: Lindsay Sanders <lindsay.sanders@myldsmail.net>

Date: December 14, 2014 6:54:39 PM MST

Subject: 2nd Transfer, Week 2

Konnichiwa from the Land of the Rising Sun!

Today it is SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We rode our bikes to the church and we were freezing! We have the heater turned on full blast! I am super genki and happy! PLUS it is the Christmas season, so we get to talk about Christmas and Christ to everyone! We are having so much fun!

My Candian companion, Sister Smith is super fun! She is really outgoing and loves to talk. We are completely different, but we are figuring out how to work together. I have a lot to learn from her.

I will tell you how Yamaguchi Kyodai is doing since he`s been baptized... HE IS DOING SO GREAT! We are helping to prepare him to receive the priesthood. We are teaching him the After Baptism lessons. He comes to all the ward activities and is making friends with the older people in the ward. It is so cute. I am so proud of him. I sat with him during Gospel Principles and he was looking through the book, so I asked him what his favorite Chapter was... and he flipped through it and scanned over each page, and at the end of class, he shows me The Atonement chapter and says, `This one is the best!` His English is getting really good too! 

We do Mogi lessons with members (practice lessons), and this week we went to my favorite member`s house: Tsuchida Shimai! She is the sweetest most beautiful japanese grandmother I have ever seen! She is really helpful with the things I need to learn. During this lesson, I got to bear my testimony about the Savior. This was the first time I feel like I did this well! Ah she was so excited and then made us eat all of her fruit!

The thing about doing things with members is that they always want to give us food! It is so sweet though. We are so blessed to have a lot of support from the members.

This week I did a junkai with Sister Doi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is an amazing misisonary. SHe has so much love for everyone! We did a service project by singing CHrstmas songs at the Childrens Hospital. It was so fun!!! 

We have 2 progressing investigators this week: Aki san has muscular dystrophe and uses a wheelchair. She is a referral from an investigator. She has been praying and keeping her commitments! She is starting to see God`s hand in her life! There is also Goto san who I stopped on the street. She is super cute and LOVES Perry the Platapus. We really bonded over that! We gave her a Book of Mormon the first time we contacted her on the street, and when we met, she had read to 1 Nephi 13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That`s a huge deal! She said `You know that feeling when water is completely still? That`s how I feel when I read this book`. AHHHHHHHHHHHH she is amazing! She is extrememly Buddhist, but she still wants to meet with us! 

We are having lots of CHristmas parties in the upcoming week! OH We also sang at Tenjin and the whole program went perfectly!!!!!!!!!! It was super stressful, but it all worked out. We sang SIlent Night to close, and it really brought The Spirit. I got to talk to a lot of people who were walking around and we found some really cool people that we are meeting with this week!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for your support and prayers! I feel them and i am seriously so thankful! I am so lucky to be a missionary this Christmas. I have been super busy, but I think about how much I love my family. Christmas time is normally the time when families can be together. It is hard to be half a world away, but I know I am supposed to be here. I get to help other families be together forever! I LOVE YOU FAMILY! Dad, Mom, Jackson, Ben, Ryan, and Meredith! I hope you are all having so much fun and that you talk about your cool older sister serving in Japan. Tell them I ate PIG BRAINS this week. Usou ja nai. Haha! (NOT a lie!) But seriously, I love you so much! Please watch He is the Gift. I get to share it with people everyday and I get chills EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Remember the Reason for the Season.

Ai shite imasu. Iesu Kirisuto ga watashitachi no Sukuinushi da to akashi shimasu. Watashi no mokuteki wa hitobito ni Kirisuto no susumeru koto desu! Iesu Kirisuto ni shitagau toki ni motto shiawase ni naru koto ga dekimasu.

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Your missionary

--

Sanders Shimai

2nd Transfer Week 1

From: Lindsay Sanders <lindsay.sanders@myldsmail.net>

Date: December 8, 2014 10:32:11 PM MST

Subject: 2nd Transfer Week 1

This week has been crazy, but I still love being a missionary and riding bikes and I have a new companion!

Her name is SIster Smith and she is from Canada! She loves dancing and laughing and eating yummy food and having fun! She is an amazing missionary and loves everyone. I am so excited to get to work with her! She has been serving for 6 months now and is so good at Japanese! I LOVE HER! We are still both fairly new to missionary work, but we have been working so well together. We have to rely on the Lord for help... or else there would be no way we could do this.

I will tell you about a cool experience: We found a woman named Aki san who has muscular dystrophe (is that how you spell it? They don`t have spellcheck on these computers for English, just Japanese...) She lives at the hospital. We went over to visit her and she asks me `Do you play the piano` I said, `Yes, a little bit` so we follow her (she is in a wheelchair) to a big room full of other paitents and there is a small piano in the corner. She asked me to play for her, so I asked if it was alright if I played Christmas hymns. I asked Sster Smith to sing with me. I HAVE NEVER SEEN AKI SAN SMILE SO BIG! We found out that before she was sick, she was a concert pianist and had a great career, but now she can`t really move because it hurts. I told her that it was an honor to play for her, and I gave her my mini copy of the hymns that I always carry with me so she can practice when we are not there. That reminds me, Ineed to get a new one from the Honbu! That was the first time I felt like I was able to use my talents to help someone. It was such a special experience.

This week we had Mission Conference, and so the whole mision was brought to Fukuoka to hear from President Heaton who is the director of the mtc. I got to see a lot of people! I saw my MTC Comp, Sister Mills, and my doki- Elder Agnew, Elder Rostrom, and Elder Soares. Elder Soares and I cried when we saw each other! I missed him! He is my best friend and basically brother. He is doing great by the way! I also met Elder Knighton who is friends with Emily Robinson! That was exciting! Anways, the training was really great! I took some notes.

President Heaton actually served in the Fukuoka mission, so he spoke to use in Japanese!

He talked about being an instrument in the Hand of the Lord and read Alma 29: 9-10. It was amazing to think about how the Lord doesn`t really need my help to do this work- I am just allowed to be here. But then He has called ME here... Me, Lindsay Sanders, who likes to sing, and isn`t very good at sports, and is super imperfect............. Here to the Fukuoka area to bless the people here. I am needed here. I am not always sure why... I personally can think of other missionaries who would do a much better job than me... but the Lord needs me here. I am trying to focus on my purpose at a misisonary. I invite others to come unto Christ. This Christmas season is so special because we will have the opportunity to think about the Savior.

I love Jesus Christ. I am starting to understand the Atonement. Everyone please go and watch He is the Gift, and then I challenge you to EMBRACE THE GIFT. Whether it be to pray, or think about Christ, or to call the missionaries, just do it. What do you have to lose? Or even better, What can you gain? I will tell you: You will gain more happiness than you could ever comprehend. You can feel peace about where you are and where you are going. You will feel love despite whatever you think is wrong about yourself. I testify of the Savior, that He lives and Loves YOU. He knows YOU. (insert your name here) is important to Jesus Christ. So important that He died for you. 

That is my testimony. That is why I am here, so far away from my home and my family, to tell people this. I wish I had told you this before I left, but I am telling you now as a representative of Christ (I know, that sounds serious, but it is true. I wear his name every day) that you are important. If you want to know Him, just ask. He will hear you. I promise this in the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Love you! Merry Christmas!

-Sister Sanders

--

Sanders Shimai

More Mission Pics

Pictures~Highlights so far :)

Fwd: 1st Transfer Week 6 Shokuji, Baputesuma Kai and Mountains to Climb

From: Lindsay Sanders <lindsay.sanders@myldsmail.net>

Date: December 1, 2014 9:48:00 PM MST

Subject: 1st Transfer Week 6 Shokuji, Baputesuma Kai and Mountains to Climb

Sorry about Saturday and my lack of good emails! The internet stopped working, so we got permission to finishing emailing today. We had a great week.

I have no idea when I will be able to email next week because of Mission Conference. THE WHOLE MISSION IS COMING TO FUKUOKA! It will be so exciting! But yeah, I cant tell you when I will get to email next. It will be sometime next week. SO sorry!

This week is transfer week, which means Sister Nelson is going home, and I am getting a new companion........... SISTER SMITH! She is in our district, but is currently in Nakagawa, but we are already friends and I love her so much! I am excited to get to work with her! She is on her fourth transfer, so we will have a lot of Bean power. Beans are new misisonaries. She is allergic to gluten, so if you have any recipes that don't involve an oven, please send them!

SUNDAY WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY MISSION SO FAR! Yamaguchi san was baptized! It was a beautiful day! I will send a picture. He said I feel like I have truly changed. So many people from the ward came to show their support. It was great!

We went to 3 Shokujis this week. Shokujis are meals at members houses. You know in the Half Blood Prince where Dumbledore has to keep drinking the poison because if you try to dump it out, it just comes back? That is what Shokujis are like for me. They give us SO MUCH FOOD. And they are super offended if you dont eat it all. So we had the first course of salad, then a full plate of sushi, then fried taco (taco is octopus), then some kind of thick stew, then nabe with squid guts, and THEN we started a 3 course dessert: Glazed bread, chocolate cake, then a huge kaki which is a Japanese fruit. I thought I was going to die. It was all yummy, but these were full plates of all of these things. Then we had to bike up Temple Hill, which is what I will tlak about next.

So Sunday was the busiest day of our lives, but we had 20 minutes to get to the Honbu (Mission Home) from our dinner appoijnment, which is about an hour away, so Sister Nelson could do her exit interview with Kaicho (President Gustafson). The Honbu is underneath the Fukuoka Temple, and the temple is at the top of a lovely hill. Which means you have to go uphill both ways to get to it. It is sooooooooooooo steep. Not to mention the wind has really picked up... and it had just started to rain. It was a trial. My legs were shaking because we were riding so fast up this big hill. my skirt was blowing up in my face (I was wearing like 3 pairs of tights, so I was modest), and I was going to throw up, but you just are not late to an appointment with Kaicho. All I could do was pray. We got to the top of the hill and saw the statue of Moroni on top of the temple, and I had the sweetest peace come over me. 

We all have mountains to climb. My investigators have mountains to climb. God intended for this to happen. It might be hard, but the view from the top is sooooooooo worth it!

Have a great week! Love you all!

-Sister Sanders

--

Sanders Shimai