October 10, 2012

愛する兄弟姉妹、

 

CONFERENCEWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like I know that probably no one reading this email is as excited as me about this butlike I LOVE CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!! I also know that you have all already watched it since in Japan we have to wait a week for it to get all translated and stuff. BUT let's just say excited in an understatement. And yes, I already heard that ELDERS CAN LEAVE AT 18 AND SISTERS AT 19!!!!!! Cool. tell us that 3 years too late. haha but that is really exciting because I think a lot more people will go on missions now! Even though I didn't think the elders could get any more fetus then they already are. This will be interesting. You would think that is the biggest news I have this week but NOPE you are wrong! I feel like SO MUCH has happened I just don't know where to begin! Let's start with the reason that I am emailing on Wednesday instead of Monday. Well, my companion and I got a call on Friday morning of last week thinking that the mission office was just going to tell us that we are both staying in our area and staying companions. Usually when you are training you don't transfer so you can train your companion for their first two transfers. Well our mission president calls and and he is like, well Sister Swainston you probably think since you're training and stuff you won't get transferred right? I was like yes..... And then he was like, well you're WRONG! You are getting transferred! And then I screamed. Yep full on in my Mission President's ear. I apologized for that later.. anyway, turns out BOTH my companion and I got transferred out of our area to open a new area where sister missionaries have never been. We call it "white wash" in our mission. So not only did I have to transfer and leave my beloved people of Hodogaya and say goodbye to my friends (pictures attached are of us saying goodbye- one of them is of the single adult girls and one of them is one of the young women in my ward whom I LOVE) and get the area ready for two elders to come in who know NOTHING about that area at all, but I had to teach my first transfer missionary companion how to transfer and all the procedures and stuff and then we hopped on a train to go to our new area called Yachiyo. We got here and were welcomed with open arms! Apparently this ward has been begging for sister missionaries for a long time. Our bishop met us at our new apartment (in his white hummer) and then took us and the elders in this area to COSTCO!!!! I was dying. I got tortillas and costco rolls and I am in heaven.

 

Also I forgot, the day before we left Hodogaya we had a lesson with a CUTE little 16 year old girl that we are teaching and we made a baptismal date for her for next month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is on the bottom right hand side of the last picture that I attached. I fully plan on going back to Hodogaya for her baptism!! I love her!!!!  

Well, there are I think 1000 more things that I am missing but I think that is the biggest news for the week. I am in a new area, brand new apartment, (it's yellow) and still Sister Champenois as my companion. Kickin it. Well, gotta go! We are going to go visit a Potential Investigator we met housing yesterday! Livin the life!!!

 

LOVE,

xoxo

gg

Ariel