McKenna in Japan!: An amazing week, again!

Getting my ugly cry on when Sister Takei left! I am going to miss this girl!

Sister Wedekind was my companion while I was waiting for my new companion to arrive. I don't have favorite companions, but if I did it would be Sister Wedekind :)

I sent a bunch of pictures this week. I almost hate writing home, because I can't fit how wonderful my week was into just one letter. Hopefully the pictures will help supplement. The only picture I didn't send was the fighter jets, because I just looked at my pictures, zoomed in and I realized there was a huge red sign saying NO PICTURES. Oops! I'm jealous that you are all watching General Conference (a two-day conference broadcast from the President of the Church and other church leaders to all the church members worldwide. This conference happens twice a year, once in April and once in October)! We are a day ahead so we will be watching Conference this coming Saturday and Sunday. Conference is never as exciting as it is on your mission. We are all looking forward to it.

Sister Olsen with the hair I just cut for her :)

Sister Olsen trusted me to cut her hair! What?!

Companion unity!

Samurai swords

I think I'm OK with skirts for now. I went thrift clothes shopping and found one or two. By the time I fly home all my clothes will be in rags. But that's OK! Thanks for the happy birthday wishes! Turning 20 is a big deal in Japan. It's when you officially become an adult. Exciting.

I was super sad to hear about Jerry Isenhart. We were Spanish class buddies. That's really too bad. It's always comforting though to know that God lives and that we will be able to live with Him and all of our friends and family again. That is one of the greatest blessings of being a missionary. You have the opportunity to share that message with people everyday.

This week was really, really wonderful. Lots of exciting things happened. I have so much that I'll just outline it really quick.

We taught one of our investigators Rhea. She is a super cute 20 something girl who has loved learning about the gospel. She is just visiting Japan and her sister here happens to be Mormon. We asked her if she wanted to hear the lessons and she said of course! After teaching her a couple of times and after going to church she has really come to love learning and loves how she feels when she is around members. Yesterday we taught her with another recent convert Nate and it was an extremely powerful lesson. We taught about the plan of salvation and how families can be together forever. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! We set a date for April 26th. The neatest thing though was watching Rhea tell her older sister about her decision to be baptized. They both started laughing and then crying. It was really neat to see their bond and how happy they both were.

We received a phone call a couple of days ago from a former investigator that we had dropped 5 or 6 months ago. She called us in tears saying she was having a really hard time and wanted to meet. We were able to meet with her that day and she explained that previously when she had heard the lessons she was happy, and didn't have any problems but now that she was going through a rough time she had realized the need for religion in her life and she told us that she wanted to come to church and hear the lessons one more time. We were both really surprised, but super happy. I could see the change that occurred in her and as we biked back home I couldn't help but think that Heavenly Father really does know His children and that He is preparing them to receive His message. Even though Naoko Shimai wasn't ready a couple of months ago, she was now. And because we had met with her before she knew who to turn to when she was ready.

We went this week to visit another investigator. A couple that lives near the new church and as we did so we knocked on their door but were pretty disappointed to find them not home. We went downstairs and I got on the phone to find out where our next appointment was when we had a young woman walk towards her apartment door. I stopped her and started talking Japanese. She responded in English that she had no idea what I was saying and to hold on a second. That took both Sister Olsen and I by surprise. So we waited outside of her apartment for a couple of minutes a little confused and then she opened her door and let us in. That was really surprising! Japanese people never let us in to their homes. It's just not in the culture. We typically teach right outside, but she let us in and she explained to us that she had been praying last night to God for help. She had just come back from church and when she went to work her coworkers were all making fun of her because she believed in God. Then when she saw us as she was getting out of the bus she prayed again that we would help her. We shared a brief message and told her that God loves her. That He knows her and that's why we were standing outside of her door. She asked us to come back next week! How cool is that?!?! That never happens!

Octopus!

Making takoyaki with the takoyaki maker I found for $4 at the thrift store. Takoyaki is octopus meatballs (kind of).

YUM!

This week was super neat. I love being a missionary, I love serving others. My unofficial motto for my mission has been "fake it till you make it", because half the time I don't know what's going on. But, I've been really surprised lately that I DO know what's going on for the most part! Japanese is becoming less of a barrier and I've got a lot more experience in all aspects of missionary work. Maybe that's the wisdom that turning 20 brings :)