Transfer Three

Lucy and her new companion, Sister Uchida

Haisai!

Look at those happy smiles! They are going to do miracles together!

Looks like they're welcoming new missionaries Japanese style.  So silly:) Love the hat strap.

 

Guess what?! I'm already in my third transfer! Sugoi!

I really can't believe it. Time is a-flyin'. Sister McIntyre's mission ended on Thursday and she flew back to the States this last Friday. She was such an amazing trainer and I feel so lucky to have been able to learn from her! Plus we basically became best friends, so dendo-ing with her was incredibly fun. We worked really hard and met so many amazing people! I love her! The only good thing about her leaving was that I inherited all of her clothes, all of which she inherited from her trainer last year, so you can imagine how incredibly glamorous I look everyday.

Good-bye Sister McIntyre! You were loved!

Well, in place of Sister McIntyre my new companion is....(drum roll)...Sister Uchida!!! We were in the MTC together! She is from Saitama, Japan and is basically the cutest Nihonjin alive. We spent a lot of time together in the MTC and became really good friends, and flew to Fukuoka together in April. In the airport during our layover in San Francisco we sang hymns together and then when we arrived at the mission home we both remember saying, "I hope we become companions someday!" Yappari! We are so excited. We are both only in our third transfers, but we became "co-senior" together this transfer! Scary! 

Scared Lucy surrounded by Elders and Sister McIntyre looks like she's rushing to the rescue. haha!

 Before I knew who my new companion was going to be I was really nervous because with Sister McIntyre leaving I would become in charge of the Naha area and would have to teach my new companion everything and basically take the lead. I was super nervous but when i found out Uchida shimai was coming I felt incredibly releived. Even though communication is sometimes hard because my Japanese is horrid, we get along great and the last three days have been amazing! We spent her first day here planning like crazy and talking about all of our investigators and who we wanted to visit this week. It took about 9 hours (sister Uchida was a sport and didn't even take time to unpack her suitcase before we jumped right into talking about the area) but I have been super grateful for that planning session ever since because Uchida shimai has pretty much been able to meet all of the "Naha VIP's" in just three days due to strategic planning and good use of time. Our first day of the new transfer was all on foot because her bike hadn't come yet, but we visited a ton of people who live close by. Sister Uchida is so friendly and has a really incredible testimony, so everyone immediately fell in love with her. Phew! Haha.

Lucy's super shiny green shirt with darling sistas and goofy looking Elders

We made a lot of new goals for this transfer, including how many people we want to talk to each day, how many Book of Mormons we want to give out a week, how many lessons, etc. It's really fun because we got these little devices we can hook onto our bags, and whenever we talk to someone we punch it so it counts how many we have by the end of the day, haha. This transfer is going to be amazing! She has a lot of really fun ideas for creative dendo, too. My favorite is "sanbika dendo," which we have been doing a lot of in the past three days. We choose a hymn during personal study, and then every person we visit that day we sing that hymn to sometime during the visit. One of our mottos for this transer is "Use our talents!" Dakara, we are going to be doing a lot of singing and such. Yay! We also have two theme scriptures for this transfer: D&C 50:26, 64:34. We both feel extremely humbled what with becoming senpai (senior) and not really knowing how to dendo, so we are just going to learn together and do our best! We love verse 26 because although we are extremely inexperienced, we have been ordained of God, and set apart as missionaries. Through that power we can accomplish great things! However, in order to be powerful tools in the hand of the Lord we must become servants to all we teach. We also loved verse 34 because we both really want to give our ALL to the Lord this transfer. If we let him, he can use us to find and teach all those who he is preparing here in Naha. We just need to give him our whole hearts and have a willing mind. I'm so excited.

Doing some shopping.  What are those? I really like that lady in the background.  lol.

Lucy and her new sweet mission bling

I never understood why Sister McIntyre was always sitting at her desk looking through the area book, writing things down, and on the phone 24/7 until she left....haha. I thought I was working really hard before but now I feel a huge responsibility to keep track of everyone, contact the right people each day, schedule appointments and lessons, etc. It takes forever! I suddenly have zero free time, but its all fine and dandy. One thing I have realized since coming to the field is that staying motivated, having a positive attitude, and having fun is a lot easier to do when we're EXTREMELY BUSY and working REALLY REALLY HARD. Seems like that wouldn't be the case but I have found that the days I am the most satisfied at night right before I go to sleep are the days when we were so incredibly busy I thought I was going to fall over dead.

Lucy with her investigator that's getting baptized mabe?

We had a really amazing dinner last night with Oohama-san at a member's house named the Kinjo's (everyone here is named Kinjo). She jointed for our lesson teaching the Law of Chastity. Preparing for that lesson was hilarious because neither of us had ever taught it before, and Sister Uchida had never met Oohama-san before...but none of that really matters if you teach with the spirit and have an awesome joint and companion! Her baptism for July 23rd is still set, so mark it in your calendars!!!!!!! I'm so excited!!! She has so much faith and I have seen such a change in her since the first time we met her. It really is incredible how the knowledge of the gospel has the ability to completely change a person's life. I have never witnessed that in someone other than myself until now. This gospel is so true! I'm lovin' life here in Naha and think of my family all the time I love showing everyone pictures from home and telling them about all of you. I love you!!! Ganbatte! Talk to you next week :)

Ward Family

Love, Sister Tingey