transfers..... dun dun DUN

CHURCHHHHH

HEYYYOOOO!

Well folks.... I have some news. After 7 months in my favorite place ever and after a transfer of unforgettable memories with my best friend ever...... I have been transferred. All good things must come to an end I guess but WOW, to say I am heartbroken would be an understatement. I have come to love Niigata and the people here soooooo much and leaving is so so so sad. I remember my MTC teacher who told me basically that a mission sets you up for heart break.... you come to love a place and the people so much and then just like that, it's ripped from you....But then he said this, which I absolutely love. "I hope you get your heart ripped out over and over again Elders and Sisters. I hope it gets ripped out time and time again because if it does, it means you love the people."

Shae is going to miss everything about Niigata, especially the people she knows and loves there.

So that's what is bittersweet. It's so so sad because the people here have legitimately become like my family and I can't imagine life without them (especially my cute Mana chan), but it's also so sweet because I can realize again how lucky I am to have been able to meet so many eternal friends. Missions.... they mess with your emotions... that's for sure. ;)

Cutest ballet students (Koko and Shiori)

BUTTTTT onto the news you've all been waiting for..... (yes, I know you probably didn't want to hear my sob story but there it is;) I will be transferring to................................. URAYASU!  And I know that means nothing to any of you but to help it make more sense in your brain..... I am going to TOKYO!!  *woooo crowd goes wild* I will be training again! My new companion will be Sister Robertson. I am coming in halfway through her bean chan life, aka she is 6 weeks old in the mission field, sooooo yay mom lyfe round 2!  I really don't know much about the area except for that we are home of the one and only TOKYO DISNEYLAND (!!!) So am I excited for that? Ya. Can I even go? No. But am I still excited? Ya. ;)

This week has been a crazy one full of miracles and fun. We literally had meals with members for both lunch and dinner all week long and I almost died but it was a happy almost death because the members are AMAZING. Also. To make things better we had 8 people come to church! Including 2 FAMILIES!!!!! It was so so special and I am so happy to be able to introduce such a happy message over here. 

'Til next week from Disneyland.

THE CHURCH IS TRUE

xoxo

Modersitzki姉妹

Fun fact: Public bathrooms constantly play waterfall noises and rain forest noises (including bird sounds) so things don't get awkward..... #nice

If I haven't said it enough, I love these people!

Oh. (While skipping your investigator lol)

Such a cute companionship!

Here's to toki birds and bad English <33

Our mission president's wife sent us cookies in the mail. YEP I KNOW.

God's timing.... it's a cool thing

ONE YEAR IN JAPAN (with the cute sign Shoji Shimai made for me)

KONNICH.

Coming to you live from Niigata where we had a missile from North Korea fly overhead on Friday and then a lovely typhoon this morning. Hahaha. Fun stuff! I will tell ya that for free. ;) Adventure... It's out there people. ;)

This week was AMAZINGGGGG. So many cool things happened. Can I just say that WOW God is SO cool. Let me give some background. A few weeks ago a girl named Yukino came to our English class. We asked her if she had ever been before and she said she had when she was wayyyy young but then she recently decided to go to Australia for a few months to study English, remembered about our class and decided to come again. (Guidance from God? YEP.) Wellll.... we began talking with her about the gospel and she became a new investigator! YAY! 

Yukino herself with me and Sister Woolley 

Now onto this week. Sister Shoji and I were planning for our exchanges with the Sado Sisters. We both realized that we had scheduled Yukino for that day. Sister Shoji and Yukino have a really good relationship and so my immediate thought was that she should teach her, buttttt we decided to pray about it just in case. As we prayed I received the strongest prompting, "You need to teach her." It was sooooooo clear. I had no idea why, but you don't exactly fight a prompting like that;) So, we decided that Sister Woolley and I would teach her!

Now fast forward to Thursday night. We meet Yukino and as we start talking Sister Woolley (who happens to be from Australia and who happens to go home in 2 weeks) asks her where she is moving to in Australia.  Her response? Brisbane. Sister Woolley's hometown. Not only that, but the place she will be going to school is literally 5 minutes away from the Brisbane temple. WHAT! 

We proceeded to have one of the most spiritually powerful lessons of my whole mission. Yukino, although she said she has no knowledge of God and Jesus Christ at all, said that if she came to know this was true that she would be baptized. I KNOW, RIGHT?! SO COOL. 

There were so many other small things that played into the story, but overall my testimony was strengthened that God knows His children. God needed Sister Woolley to meet Yukino, and I am so grateful for the small prompting I had to be able to help with that. We really can "Become His Hands" and how grateful I am to be able to do that full time right now. <333

THE CHURCH IS TRUEEEEE

xoxo

Modersitzki 姉妹

Fun fact: You take off your shoes in a lot of restaurants too. This week we went to one and as we went to use the bathroom there were slippers right outside for people to use. LOL. Too good.

Casually come home and you're under construction

Free English Challenge with the Sado 姉妹たち 

Yakiniku (all-you-can-eat meat aka elders' paradise
with Sado and the Zone Leaders!

How do you not love this human?

A close-up version of the 1 year sign :)

japanglish and mysterious miracles

KONNICH.

Guitar update: I can now play 4 chords. Holla.

Hellloooooo! This week was AMAZINGGGGGG. I have never felt more effective and happier than this transfer. Every day is such an adventure but I am loving every second. I hit my year mark in Japan this week as well so WOAH at that. 

So a few weeks ago I mentioned my English was getting bad. Which YES it is. But this week one of the funniest things ever happened. Sister Shoji and I are known in our zone for having really good "Japanglish" when we talk to each other. We always talk in Japanese but sometimes slip random English words in visa versa. Neither of us recognize it and so we just communicate in this way, but the Japanese and American elders have started to tell us they can never understand because we speak so fast and just connect all of our words in Japanglish. WE LEGIT CREATED A NEW LANGUAGE HAHAHA. On a phone call this week Sister Shoji told our district leader "metcha ganbatta we". Metcha ganbatta means like we did our best and then normally you would say watashitachi (we).... but she just added it on in English. It made sense to us but the elders were soooooo lost. Now the whole zone is saying it so I mean hey... it works? Lol. I love having a Japanese companion.

Sometimes you have to have dance parties to the Joseph Smith CD.

Now on a little different note.... MIRACLES. One experience that was way cool this week happened in a strange way. Sister Shoji and I have been trying really hard lately to be as worthy as we can to receive any revelation God has to give us. So Tuesday. We got to the train station and were waiting for our train to come to take us to see our 2 investigators in Sanjo when they both right before cancelled. Uhhhh wut. Every missionary's worst nightmare. We decided to pray and have God tell us what He needed us to do because we now had a lot of time we were not planning on. We went to this little park and prayed to the Lord to tell us what He wanted us to do. It was SO cool as we both had ideas pop into our heads immediately. We were so excited to see what the Lord had in store for us because we knew it had to be something big due to the fact that both of our lessons were cancelled that day... Soooo off we went. And I am not kidding, the first 2 people we stopped had interest, one being a family who wanted to know how they could be with each other forever. HELLO. WE CAN HELP WITH THAT. ;) We knew immediately that the Lord had put them in our path. He works in mysterious ways. That's for sure.

Another mysterious way of the week. One of our Eikaiwa students wanted to bring the missionaries Japanese pears (aka the fruit of the tree of life), and so the elders invited her to church saying we would all be there! (Sneaky elders, I know right?;) Well she came. And we had a chance to teach her the Plan of Salvation for the first time. When we told her that she lived with God before this earth and that He loved her and knew her personally, she broke into tears. The knowledge that God is our Heavenly Father really changes things for people.... Saito san got to know about her Heavenly Father because she simply wanted to serve the missionaries and bring us fruit. Talk about mysterious ways...How lucky am I to be a part of this work?

God lives. THE CHURCH IS TRUE

xoxo

Modersitzki 姉妹

Fun fact: In Japan, if you want to call the police it's 119.... not 911. Just opposite... lol wut?

Guitar night in Nagaoka (!!!!)

Shoji Shimai told me to do a chill pose.
(fun fact: these signs talk about Jesus Christ and basically just say
REPENT IF YOU WANT TO BE SAVED and things like that. They're
all over Nagaoka and Sado... who knows why lol)

Where do they even come up with these pic ideas?

Our awesome 80-year-old HOMIE investigator who took us to lunch
randomly when we saw here on the street. Ikegame san.... LEGEND.

These pictures have become a tradition.

She forgot her sunscreen and didn't want to get tan soooooo.... mop.

happy happy happy

Today we did weekly planning on the beach.....
Can you say BLESSED?

HEYYYOOOO!

Wow. What a week. We had zone conference and exchanges and district (stake) conference and and and and and and and hahahaha wowzaaaaaaa, I think I might just fall over dead! We've been running around with our heads cut off. But hey at least I am dying happy...? 

So. There are just so many things to talk about but let's just start with this one... KIRIKO SET HER BAPTISMAL DATE WOOOOOO!! We fasted with her and a few bomb members and she decided she thinks she will be ready by November 5th. So it's set! YAYYYY! 

Our investigators are doing good. Remember Haruka? The one who jumped up and down when we asked her if she wanted to learn? Well we taught her about prayer and her face lit up. Before we could even commit her to pray she said, "I will try it!!!" That is one of my favorite things ever. Seeing people get excited about the gospel. Ah. It's the best. I'm legit not going home. Ever.

Zone play? Orrrrr elder day plus us? It's chill.

This week was zone conference like I mentioned earlier, so everyone came into town which is always soooo fun. Niigata zone is just something else. We are the furthest zone away from the mission office, and the smallest, so do we sometimes feel like another mission? Ya. But would I have it any other way? No. We have been so united. This transfer is fun too though because we realized at zone conference that every companionship besides Sister Shoji and I are mother/daughter, or father and son relationships. (Aka trainer/trainee).... Nuts. But to make things better, Sister Shoji trained a sister in our zone as well soooooo IS EVERYONE RELATED BUT ME? YEP. I was designated the strange aunt at this zone conference... so there you have it friends. Family. <3333 

Hahaha and with that being said....

THE CHURCH IS TRUE

xoxox

Modersitzki 姉妹

Fun fact: 

This week randomly at 6 in the morning we got a text/alert from the government saying a missile was heading our way from North Korea............. nice. But did we die? Nope. Holla! Niigata is also the closest to North Korea so DOUBLE NICE. 

Please notice the CRAB. Pic win!

Zone conference.

Exchanges with Sister Gray, who came to Japan 3 weeks ago!

Hipster. Am I right?

Practicing.

We literally are so old. This is not a lie. We had to
stop and take a break on the stairs because we were so
tired. TALK ABOUT GRANDMAS!

Just casual face masks... I love Japan.