Monday, October 30, 2017

He Knows...

Jordan has always been strong.  She was strong in her work ethic when it came to working out for swimming and improving every season.  She was strong when she had some pretty tough hurdles to overcome in high school.  She was strong when she made her decision about the role the church would play in her life as she entered college and she has been unwavering in her commitment to work hard on her mission since she made the decision to go.  This week and what she went through will make her stronger, even if it's not a good thing to have to live through.  I'd say to enjoy reading her email but this isn't the kind of email that's very enjoyable.  Thanks for reading.

こんにちは、
I'm going to just cut right to the chase; this week was probably the worst week of my mission. It seemed as if I literally fell from cloud 9. While missions are the best thing ever and there are so many happy times, there are also some really heart breaking times. This week was full of those heart breaking times.

When I was on Cloud 9:
On Tuesday, we went to dinner with Ryoko, a member and another investigator and it couldn't have gone any better!! They all became bffs and made plans to hang out again! Fast forward to Thursday and Ryoko passed her baptismal interview with "flying colors" according to our district leader. We planned the baptism with her after the interview and she was so excited. She filled out the baptismal form right then and there! Fast forward to Saturday and Ryoko comes to the ward Halloween party. She had so much fun with all of the members and fit right in. What could go wrong?

Falling:
Fast forward to Sunday. Sister Morelock and I get to church a few minutes before missionary coordination meeting is going to start, and we open our tablets to the most heart breaking message we've ever received. It was from Ryoko, saying, she can't be baptized today. She said she feels the need to follow her parents because she loves them a lot, so she needs to be Buddhist. She told us that she loves Jesus Christ and heavenly father, but she needs to follow her ancestors. She needs to be Buddhist. We were completely shocked. We've talked about her family before and she's never had a desire to be Buddhist.
From there on out everything became so much harder. We went out and smiled and greeted all the members. We had to tell everyone the baptism was canceled. We had to be nice when someone asked us that day, "how is the work? Do you see any baptisms? How many baptisms have you seen?" We had to report on the baptisms and confirmations that took place in our zone. Everything just hurt a little more. 

I can't put into words how hard this was. I can't put into words how I felt.  However, through all of this hard there is good because we have the gospel. I'm grateful for the things that I learned and am still learning through this experience. I'm grateful for the simple truths the gospel has such as, Jesus Christ knows exactly what I'm going through; He knows. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love Ryoko. I don't know what's going to happen with Ryoko within the next week, but I have complete faith that someday, maybe not this week, or next week, but someday she will get baptized.

Sorry for my somberness and not-too-happy of an email today. Now you have a glimpse into what every missionary feels at some point: heartbreak. And let me tell you, this heartbreak is the worse kind!

"Jesus, who suffered the most, has the most compassion for all of us who suffer so much less," Elder Bednar. He knows. 

愛しています、
Wunderli 姉妹

Today I'm grateful for Yagi kyodai, zone p-day, my district leader's personal goal pray for Ryoko all the time, cream puffs, and avocado socks. 

Pics:
1. Zone pday @ harajuku 
2. This ice cream doesn't melt! Even in hot chocolate!!
3. Puri kura land 
4. Harajuku 
5. This is normal in Japan 
6. Halloween party
7. The look of satisfaction after they won the mummy wrapping contest
8. Missionaries aren't allowed to dress up in costumes so we switched name tags and became each other 
9. I love Japan 
10. Puri kura with my favorites











After this week, Jordan can use the support of your positive thoughts, prayers, emails and snail mail more than ever.  Thanks for reading.  Hopefully next week will have happier news including some good progress with other investigators.







Monday, October 23, 2017

Coming Out With the Win

Just a short email this week since she had a late p-day last week but there's still lots of good stuff in it.  Thanks for reading and ENJOY.

こんにちは、
Long time no see ね? oh did you all know that sarcasm is not a thing in Japan? One time I said long time no see to a member that I just saw as a joke and they didn't get it at all, in fact they thought I was going crazy. So there's that fun fact for you. Anyway, this one will be a short one because my last P-day was just a few days ago soooo not toooo much to say.

Busy, busy, busy.
We have been crazy busy lately. We are literally working from the moment we make up to the moment our heads hit our pillows. Even on pdays!! I'm slowly dying, but I'm dying happy so it's okay :) 
Here's a glimpse into our pday mornings:
6:30am get up and get ready and bike to church
7am weekly call in with sisters
7:30am weekly call in with sisters
8am district leader weekly call in
8:30am district leader weekly call in
9am district leader weekly call in
9:45am Tokyo west weekly call in with the assistants
10:30am Tokyo east weekly call in with the assistants
Sooo many calls and this isn't even half of it :`( gotta love it :)

GAME-DAY
Okay not the game day you're thinking of ;) but go utes. For missionaries, our game day is church!! We spend all week trying to get our players ready for game day or our investigators ready for church. Sometimes the players play a bad game and we, as the coaches, are pretty disappointed, but sometimes the whole team plays way good and we win the championship bowl. Yesterday, the second one happened. WE HAD 4 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH. We were so busy; sister Morelock and I had to go on splits and we were just running around trying to get members to talk to our investigators and also making sure our investigators were getting taken care of. It was amazing.

Also, there was a baptism for the Elders' investigators after church and 3 of our investigators stayed for that. One of the investigators said that the baptism was "magical." This Sunday was her first time ever at church and she loved it. Nabeko (our Chinese investigator) loved church and the baptism and stayed after we even left to have dinner with the members. And then there's our MVP, Ryoko, she loved church and the baptism and is so excited for her baptism this coming Sunday. She told all of the members that she was getting baptized next week, and she talked to the bishop for 20 minutes about her job. Her baptismal interview is this Thursday and if all goes well, her baptism will be this next Sunday.

Choose the right y'all.
愛しています、
Wunderli 姉妹

PS. I'm safe from the "super" typhoon. Haha it was just a little more rain than usual. Nothing we couldn't bike in ;) 

1 and 2. My favorites 
3. Dominos pizza. Tastes like America. 
4. The "we all hate natto" club at English class





Thanks for reading and thanks for your support.  Jordan really appreciates your kind thoughts, emails, snail mail and prayers.  Keep them coming so that she has the strength to finish strong.  Back with more...next week.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

My Tribute to My Eternal Friend

Well this is WAY later than normal, but I'll let her tell you why in the email. Today is a very COOL day because two months from today, my Jordan will be home.  I can't wait.  Time hasn't slowed down yet, but it will, especially as we get within a couple of weeks and I anticipate that last day to be MURDER.  At any rate, this email may be among my top 3 favorite of hers if it's not my favorite because of the tender mercies she listed.  Thanks for your support and enjoy reading it.

こんにちは、
Gomen (sorry) y'all! This weeks email is wayyyyy late. We didn't get a pday at all on Monday and when we told our district leader that he told us to take another day for pday. The only problem was we had exchanges the next day, interviews the day after, a lesson and weekly planning the next day, MLC the next, and then by that point having a pday would be pointless. So today, Thursday, were squeezing in some pday hours.

Ryoko, Ryoko, and more Ryoko ♡♡ 
Basically this whole email is just going to be me telling you all how awesome Ryoko is so bear with me. We've had three lessons with Ryoko this week and she is right on track for her baptism next week.

•Lesson 1 - The Word of Wisdom: Before we even taught the word of wisdom, she knew that it was a commandment to not drink coffee and tea and she told us that she didn't know if she could do it. We told her not to worry and that we would talk more about it today. We read D&C 89 (the word of wisdom in the scriptures) with her and after we read it, we asked her, "What do you think?" She looked down at the scriptures with wide eyes and a smile on her face and tells us that she knows she needs to do it. We asked her why and she said that God has asked us to do it and he will bless us if we do it. She then said from now on she would keep the word of wisdom.

•Lesson 2 - Law of Chastity and eternal marriage: She didn't know that you could kiss, hold hands, have a boyfriend, etc., until the end, but still was willing to keep it. Is that some strong faith or what? She said that she thought the law of chastity was so important. She wants an eternal family and soaked up everything.

•‎Lesson 3 - Law of Tithing: Agreed to keep it before she even knew what it was because "it's from God." Her only question during this lesson was, "how can I and how often do we pay tithing?"

Ryoko has been keeping all of the commandments, praying everyday, reading the book of Mormon everyday (she even asked some members what chapters they would recommend to read), and this next week she will have her interview to be baptized. The only "problem" we've run into with her is church attendance. She loves church and wants to go, but it's been so hard with her job.... sooo what does she tell us?! She is looking for a new job so that she can get off work on Sundays for church and to get off Fridays for English class. What. Yep. That's Ryoko in a nutshell. I can talk about her for dayzzz.

Tender mercies from the week:
• We had a dinner with an investigator and a recent convert (we secretly want them to get married) and in the prayer the recent convert said, he goes, "I really want nabeko to be a member so please help her to get baptized." :`) melts my heart.
• ‎We had 3 full day exchanges and we are still alive.
•‎ Managed to learn so much about the sisters and myself on exchanges.
• Had interviews with President and sister Nagano.
•‎ Found 10 new investigators :)
•‎ I tried pig ear. Taste was good, texture was weird.
•‎ A girl that we had just met bought us ice cream and then became a new investigator. I'm tired, but wow I just love being a missionary. LET'S GOOOO DENDOOO! See ya in a few days! Read the blue book. BYEEE. 

愛しています、
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics:
1. Shibuya 
2. Nakano
3. Lesson w/ Ryoko ❤❤
4. The investigator who bought us ice cream
5. Guess who??
6. They're going to get married
7. Pig ear
8-12. #nofilter
13. Weekly planning in 45 minutes in a cafe
14. I love these filters 















As always, thanks for your support for Jordan, especially your emails, snail mail (she LOVES that), and prayers.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.  I'll be back next week with more.  






Monday, October 9, 2017

Miracle-Go-Round

Lots of good stuff in this week's email.  Jordan was hit a bit hard last week with the tragedy in Vegas - she lost at least one friend that I know of and had some others who were injured or otherwise impacted.  It was a bit distracting but she told me that while she's looking forward to coming home and getting back to a normal life, she also wants to redouble her efforts and finish her mission strong.  She has such great resolve and her heart is in the right place.  Thanks for reading and enjoy.

こんにちは、
What a miracle-seeing, conference going, delicious food-eating week it's been. I know I say this a lot...but....I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

Here's a glimpse into my life this past week:
愛するRyoko: Wow she is doing so good. We were finally able to have a member come to her lesson! We started teaching her the commandments and it couldn't have gone more smoothly. First of all, the member that came is literally perfect for Ryoko. They are going to be best friends. It's been decided. They have the same voice, say the same things, have the same hobby, and Akira (the member) even served as a missionary in Ryoko's hometown. Doesn't that just sound like a recipe for best friends? So anyway, the lesson... well we taught her the simple commandments, one of those being prayer, and Ryoko, not the member, but Ryoko bore her testimony on prayer!! She said she loves the peaceful feelings she gets when she prays. Next was the book of Mormon.. Ryoko has been struggling with this one, but luckily Akira had the perfect explanation of the book of Mormon to go along with such a sincere testimony that made Ryoko want to read it. We talked about baptism and confirmation, which we has talked about before and we asked Ryoko if she had any questions and she goes, "just one.. How long is the prayer for the confirmation?" She sighed with relief when we told her that it's only around 3 minutes hahaha. Ryoko said the closing prayer and in her prayer she told her heavenly father that she wants to repent more and to keep the commandments and asked for his help. Wow. Her prayers get me in the kokoro (heart) every time.
Miyuki: Holy moly, it's always an adventure with Miyuki. We were again not able to meet with her this week because she was too busy to meet. But the good news is she came to general conference the whole time on Sunday and loved it! In between sessions, we had lunch with a ton of members (the whole YSA group provided lunch for the missionaries and our investigators). Well during the lunch, members had to introduce the investigators after talking with them for a little while. The member that introduced Miyuki, said that Miyuki said that she's excited to get baptized. Hahaha oh miyuki. We have to meet before you do that! She has a strong desire, but is unbelievably hard to meet with. Pray for Miyuki.

God's timing:
There we were, at lunch with an investigator and it went an hour longer than anticipated. We didn't know how we let that much time go by!! We quickly ended our lunch and went to pay for our food. Well that was when I ran into Kirin. If anyone remembers Kirin, props to you because it's been awhile, but Kirin is Chinese and she's 22. She is super interested in the gospel, we had a lesson with her and she said she would read the book of Mormon. The only problem was, the day after that lesson, she went back to China for 3 weeks and then we were never able to get into contact with her after that. But now here she was! She recognized me, ran up to me and gave me a hug! She told me that she wanted to meet. So we will be meeting with her next week. But if we had left the restaurant any earlier, we would've missed her! God's timing! Also, we originally weren't going to go to that place to eat. Our investigator originally wanted to go to somewhere else, but then found out that place was closed for lunch (what kind of place is closed for lunch?), so she picked this one instead. Craziness. 

Other highlights that I don't have time to go into detail about: 
We also had zone conference and general conference (we watch it a week late because we have to wait for translation) this week and both were so spiritually uplifting. Also, all of our other investigators are doing great! We had 3 people come to church this weekend, woohoo! I also had sushi bowl again incase you were wondering. :)

Love you all, but God loves you even more.
愛しています、
Wunderli 姉妹

Pics:
1. Tokyo zone conference.. dang I'm short
2. Comp pic ❤
3. Instead of parking lots for cars... Japan has parking lots for bikes 
4. Two on the right are Bffs Ryoko and Akira.. How cute are they??
5-7. We went to a members house for pday and to sue taught us how to paint with ink. So cool.
8. By yours truly :) 
9&10. You can buy the weirdest things in Japan.. like individually, peeled corn, and a notebook that is also a pillow. Love Japan :`)




 












Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Mama Mia

Well...again it's later than normal but who knows what normal is anymore.  She explains why her email is late in the email along with some other good stuff.  Today, 2 is my lucking number.  Not that I'm counting, and thankfully, time is still going by pretty quickly, but today Jordan is 2 months, 2 weeks and 2 days from being home.  Anyway, thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoy this weeks update from her.

こんにちは、
Wow what a week. My mind is going about a thousand miles per hour right now, so forgive me of my bad writing skills, and lack of an email today. Also, forgive my lateness; we changed our pday to Tuesday because of how crazy busy we were on Monday

Ryoko: We had a lesson with her this past week and taught her the plan of salvation. She came to the lesson and looked a little sad, and told us that her friend had passed away of pneumonia while she was in her hometown. What a perfect time to teach the plan of salvation. The crazy thing is, we had originally planned to teach her the plan of salvation the week before and then begin the commandments this week, but due to the shortness of time we had to rearrange it and teach it this week. Well that was completely God's timing! He new exactly when Ryoko needed to hear the plan of salvation. After the lesson, Ryoko told us that it was ,"the perfect lesson" and, "exactly what she needed to hear." We're starting to teach the commandments from here on out so please pray for her!! 

Mamma mia Miyuki: About 99.9% of my stress comes from Miyuki. Love her, but wow. Now I know how my parents felt/feel about me! Well she finally decided to message us back after a few days of not responding to us last week. She messaged us on Tuesday saying she was coming to church. We messaged her back and asked if we could meet before Sunday for a lesson. She said she was busy but asked if we could meet before church on Sunday. Great. We texted her back and Sked her if 9am worked. No response. Messaged her again on Saturday, no response until 8:45pm (15 minutes before curfew), she said yes she could meet. On Sunday morning, we rushed to find a douseki (a member for the lesson), and we called the elders and told them we wouldn't be able to go to DCS (missionary coordination meeting). At 8:55am, we got a text from her saying that she has to cancel and she's so sorry and she wants to meet some other time. Ughhhh. We haven't been able to meet her in forever. Well luckily sister Nagano (the mission presidents wife) came to our ward today and we were able to talk with her about it. Long story short, we started a group message with Miyuki and sister Nagano and because Miyuki has so much respect for sister Nagano she actually replies. Sister Nagano has got our backs, everything is going to be okay.

There were more things that happened this week, but I can't focus and you're all probably bored of my emails by now ;) 

I also heard about the shooting in Las Vegas. Wow. I was speechless when I read my mom's and friend's emails. I'm praying for everyone in Las Vegas that was effected by the shooting. It's times like these where I am especially grateful for the gospel and the hope and light it brings. 
愛しています、
Wunderli姉妹

Sorry for the lack of pics also. Whoops. 
1. MLC (missionary leadership council)
2. NABEKO came to church :) 
3. Sushi bowl. I have an addiction.
4. I love Sara so much. Also kou kyoudai has been a member for 2 months but he's the best member present ever. What a homie. 






As always, feel free to share your thoughts or questions in the comments section and thanks for your support.  Jordan loves the emails, snail mail,  and thoughts and prayers on her behalf.  Next week the blog post will likely be later than normal since I'll be on my hunt for an elk to put some fresh meat in my freezer.  Make it a great week.