McKenna in Japan!: Acts of Service

Sounds like everyone is doing really well at home. Thanks for keeping me updated! The other day we knocked on the door at a home and I saw that the Olympics were playing. I had no idea! Oh and another exciting thing on the sports front. Every Saturday we play soccer with our investigators and I scored a goal! The first time in my life! It was super exciting! I was sure after that happened I was going to get transferred or the world was going to end. Neither have happened yet. :)

Our Zone on Preparation Day!

Missionaries on the island of Okinawa with Elder Aoyagi.

The senior couple, the Cochrans are leaving! We will miss them! Sad day!

Every day before we leave our apartment Sister Takei and I always pray for opportunities to serve. But no one has ever excepted our help. Not once. But the other day we went out and it was pouring. Freezing cold and raining cats and dogs. We went out to find where a less active lived, but thanks to me and my lack of directional skills I turned on the wrong street (I feel like this is the start of every experience I share). On this street I saw a super cute old lady who looked like she needed help. We stopped and asked if she needed any help and she agreed! I was totally surprised. For the first time in 9 months someone said yes! I could have hugged her! Turns out that she has a bad knee and wanted help walking to the taxi station. We walked with her and then she asked for another favor. She asked us to go to her house just a minutes walk away and grab something for her. Of course we agreed. So we followed her directions and let ourselves inside. No one was home so it was a little weird! I actually opened the wrong door, but luckily Sister Takei realized that the name on the door was different. So we started searching in this house. That's when I realized I didn't understand what she asked us to look for. After Sister Takei's hand gestures and using our phone's dictionary I realized we were in search for her... dentures. Didn't see that one coming. Ha ha! We found them (and took some pictures of course! She was so grateful. As we were sitting there waiting with her a taxi never came. So we decided to say a prayer and almost immediately a taxi came up! It was a huge testimony to me about the power of prayer. I was so grateful that we were able to meet that sweet woman and help her. We stopped by this morning and taught her the first lesson. She loved it. She asked us to come back. Super exciting! I love miracles. Especially when they involve fake teeth. :)

This week we also had training from Elder Aoyagi. It was phenomenal. I loved it. All the missionaries on the island came to the training. Our apartment grew from the 2 of us to 8 sister missionaries. Scheduling showers was crazy and the entire apartment was covered in futons. Elder Aoyagi's talk was really helpful. He reminded us that when we teach we need to put ourselves in our investigators shoes. All too often our lessons are confusing, uninteresting and not understandable. It was nice for me to be reminded that the people that we teach have a very limited concept of God. We need to teach the basics and teach them well. I'm always trying to improve my teaching skills so I loved what he had to say.

I growing up with 4 sisters definitely helped prepare me for 7 roommates :)

Futons everywhere!

Reunited with Sister Lewis and Sister Coles

Our investigators are doing well. I am amazed to see their strength, courage and love of the gospel. Our wonderful investigator Takizawa Miyuki San decided that she is going to pay tithing! Church is still really hard for her because Sundays are a family day and her husband isn't 100 percent supportive. Our cute American investigator Sarah is doing well also. She is reading the Book of Mormon everyday. She is in 1 Nephi 11 already. She is a huge example to me! I love her. She's still a little apprehensive about the whole idea. With more sister's coming we might split up the military branches, but the thought just breaks my heart. I love all of these people! And with investigators in all three branches and wards I can't bear to leave any of them.