this week i'm thankful for miracles

KONNICH.

First of all, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Being completely honest, I totally forgot about Thanksgiving, but the members here sure didn't. We had 4 Thanksgivings.... in Japan. WUT. Seriously so blessed. I am so grateful to be a missionary right now. It's been an amazing experience that I will NEVER forget. So many things to be thankful for.

Soooooo.... I have 3 weeks left as a missionary. WHAT. This week officially started the lasts.... We had Tokyo Zone Conference and it was sooooo weird knowing that I would never have one again. President Nagano was going off about a bunch of new things are going to be happening in our mission and then kept teasing us who were going home. Let me just say..... IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL YOU'RE THE ONE GOING HOME..... LIKE SERIOUSLY WHAT. Still cannot believe it.

Look! Another pic in front of a Japanese church (!!) 

This week was full of miracles though! The first, remember that guy who randomly walked up to me last week? Well, that happened again. With a different guy. IT WAS SO COOL. This time he came up and started talking to me and told me that once upon a time he had chatted with missionaries online. He met some in person a while ago but then just kind of lost contact. He wanted to meet and learn again so bad, and texted me later that night saying that he knew meeting me was a sign from God telling Him he needed to study again. WHAT? I KNOW. SERIOUSLY SO COOL. In our mission though sister missionaries can't teach males, soooooo ya. Let's just say the elders are more than happy with us at the moment. Hahahah! 

Another miracle is the sequel of Miki. Remember her? The Mission School student who watched part of General Conference with us and was way interested? Welllllllllll... We had a meeting with her this week and IT WAS SO COOL. She said that since getting to know us and talking to us she has developed a huge interest in God and in church. At one point she asked us how she could receive power from God. Yep. THESE PEOPLE ARE SO GOLDEN. We talked to her about prayer, scriptures, going to church, and baptism.. I had the opportunity to testify of the atonement and about the gift of the Holy Ghost and at the time I had the prompting to invite her to be baptized. I did.... anddddddddd she said YES! WOOOOOOOOO! It was a soft baptismal invitation, but she is now planning on seriously taking the lessons, coming to church, and doing everything with baptism as the goal! We hopefully will be able to set a date soon!

MIRACLES ARE OUT THERE. I love this work...... You wonder why I don't feel ready to come home......

THE CHURCH IS TRUE 

xoxo

Modersitzki姉妹

Fun fact: All trains before the doors shut play a little song, and at the Disneyland station it plays It's a Small World and Zip A Dee Doo Da! SO CUTE!

When Disney is casually 15 minutes from your house by bike.

Biggest ferris wheel in Japan with Anderson姉妹 doing this nice pose? Idk.

Tokyo Sisterzzzz

I would be lying if I said we weren't tempted.

District dinner at the Rainforest Café..... WIN

Ya know, just making junior high school friends on the side of the road. lol.

this one goes out to the #modsquad

Sister Robertson and Sister Mod

KONNICH.

This week was a fun one, as always. It became about -847831829347 degrees this past week and so while we are consistently freezing our behinds off, the Lord is still good and there are still many miracles to be seen! :) I had a few way cool experiences but one was a "never forget," so I wanted to share. If any of you know me, you know how much my family means to me. I loveeeee them and they seriously are my best friends in the world. 

Well, a few weeks ago after Eikaiwa, an Elder in my District gave this Eikaiwa student a copy of The Family, A Proclamation to The World. We asked her if we could talk to her about it and she said yes! We met up with her this week and as we began talking about it, we realized that this was going to be a special lesson. This student is soooooo darling and is so close to her family. Her husband passed away about 3 years ago and she opened up about how hard that was knowing she could never see him again. 

This is Shae's Grandpa Dave walking around
the property in Poland where his dad grew up.

Of course we testified about the Plan of Salvation and that she, in fact, could see her husband again. Her face lit up and she said, "If I could believe that I would be so happy."  WELL LUCKY FOR YOU SAMI. YOU'VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE. YOU CAN! We began teaching her and it was sooooo cool. Probably one of my favorite parts of the lesson was when I got a prompting to talk about my own family and experiences with knowing the plan was true. I pulled out a picture from when my family and I went to Poland to visit the place where my great grandfather lived. (s/o to you Modsquad;) Just a background for all of you who don't know my family history; my great grandfather was from Poland and came to the states around the time of World War 2. I didn't really know him, but everyone in my family talks so so highly of him. About 4 years ago, my family and I went to visit the place where he lived, and when we found it, of course there was no building structure, just a forest. We weren't sure if we were in the right place, but then out of LITERALLY NOWHERE a couple appeared from out of the trees. We asked them what had been here and they described exactly what we knew was my grandpa's property, and, in fact, after that we were able to find actual bricks from the house! The Spirit at that time was something I will never forget, in fact it brought everyone to tears. I felt my great grandfather at that time and KNEW that I would be able to meet him someday. 

I have always held that experience super close to my heart, and sharing it with Sami brought me to tears. I KNOW the Plan of Salvation is real and that families really can be together forever. Sami now gets the opportunity to learn about this AND to make things better, she wants to do Family History work as well! WOOOOOHOOOOO! :)))))))))

Also, this week a man walked up to me and said.... AND I QUOTE..... "Hey. I'm not Christian, but I read the Bible and go to church sometimes.... I don't really know what is right or what Christianity is though... Could you help me with that?" You heard me....... I'll just leave it at that. 

'Til next week....

SAY YOUR PRAYERS

xoxo

Modersitzki 姉妹

Fun fact: So you know how there are pizza delivery cars in America....? Well here...? BIKES. They literally ride bikes with food deliveries on the back... NICE.

Just ya know.... missionary-ing around Disney

YOGA CLASS with my favorite members EVER
(Shae has permission to teach yoga as a finding tool. Pretty cool!)

Eikaiwa peeps

Idk either.

MEXICAN FOOD IN JAPAN ROUND 2

Mai chan and Yuka chan. They always braid my hair. Bffs? Kind of.

Yay @pretty views.

Sushi bowl. One of Shae's favorite things.

Hair braiding. :)

"Wait.....how long will I be under water?"

The Scramble. Wooooooo!

HEYYYYYOOOOO!

Ya know, as much as I would like to start off with a nice introduction to this email, let's just get to the good stuff. How 'bout it? I'm too excited to not. Soooo...... LISTEN UP.

Remember last week how I talked about having that feeling to set a baptismal date with Momomi and then how my District Leader gave me a training on it the same day? Wellllllllllll........ Here's the sequel. 

MOMOMI ACCEPTED THE INVITATION TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I seriously could not be happier. This past week after English one day we were having a lesson with her and a member, and the time just felt sooooo right. We were in the middle of talking about the Book of Mormon when we decided to read Moroni 10:4-5 with her. We stopped, inserting her name into the scripture and the spirit was soooooooo strong. After we read it we asked her what it would mean to her if this were true.... She paused, waited for a second and then said, "I think I would come to believe in it all." Ah. We invited her to be baptized right then and she accepted! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

Mission School, aka a missionary's version of a Saturday night
party (Momomi is next to me).

She then began asking more and more questions about baptism. We showed her the video of Jesus Christ getting baptized, and as we watched, I just had a moment of pure happiness. THIS is the joy they talk about when they talk about the joy of the gospel. I was probably talking 83192783 miles an hour. I was so so excited. She is so so special to me and I am so excited for her. She came to church for the first time, and came to a ward party this week. The members are obsessed with her, and I am just that missionary whose cheeks hurt from smiling so much. SERIOUSLY LOVE HER. <333

Also, just so you can all appreciate how great of a human she is... This week in English Class I asked her to make a sentence using the word "gonna." Her sentence? "I'm gonna go to church!" OKAY HI! WHAT? HELLO GOLDEN HUMAN. Also, when we were talking about baptism probably my favorite question she asked was, "Wait.... how long am I going to be under water?" She then proceeded to flail her arms and pretend to drown. PEOPLE DO YOU SEE WHY I LOVE THIS HUMAN? SHE IS AMAZING. Soooo funny. 

I wish I had more time to explain and go more into detail, but let me just say that I love being a missionary. 

THE CHURCH IS TRUE

xoxo

Modersitzki 姉妹

Fun fact: The police cars here sing.......Like they sound like they're from Disney or something.... It's like Disney is down the street or something;)

District unity, am I right? (and yes, an elder actually said something
way funny just to get this reaction.... HAHAHA golden!)

Ready for winter. And to be featured on Monsters Inc. 3 (!!)

The only way to weekly plan. lol.

Frenzzzzzzz

Creme brûlée crepe. Yum!

Let the lasts begin.......

SKY TREEEEEEE

HEYYYYOOOOO!

Yaaaaaa... if you read my title you know..... It's official. I AM OM MY LAST TRANSFER. I honestly cannot believe it and it started to hit for the first time today. AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Here's to going hard leaving everything I have got. But BIG NEWS! Or well, not so big news because A. I wasn't transferred, and B. Me and my companion are both staying here in Urayasu! YAYYYYYYY! GOOOOO TEAM.

This week. Where to even begin.... welllllll, I got way sick which was a bummer. We had to spend 2 days in this week. First of the mission though, so I mean hey. Pretty good if you ask me! (But also s/o to that flu shot.... thanks for NOTHING) Annnnyyyyyways. I really came to know that God consecrates our efforts because listen uppppp.

MOMOMI. She is doing so so good. She has been praying morning and night and saying she can feel God more in her life every day. We had a lesson and taught her about what the Spirit was and she was sooooo excited about it. It made me so so excited about it. There's just something about sharing such happy things with your best friends. YAY.

Lesson with Momomi, Ariha, and Rebekah (Momomi is in blue. CUTE RIGHT?)

Buttttt k. Coolest thing ever. So Momomi has not been learning for very long and she still is really in the beginning steps of the gospel, but this week while studying for her I felt this very distinct prompting that I needed to study about baptism and how to extend it to her. I made sure to write a nice hot pink note of it in my notebook so I could do it my next study. Well, I didn't tell anyone about that, but later that night we got a phone call from our district leader saying he had been praying about what to assign for trainings for District Meeting and at the very end of his study (same study that I had the feeling might I add) he thought about me, Momomi, and baptismal dates. He asked me to give a training on setting baptismal dates and when I told him I had been thinking the same thing he freaked out. 

Revelation is a thing and I am so so excited to see where this goes. God is at the head. I know that for sure! 

SAY YOUR PRAYERS

xoxox

Modersitzki姉妹

-The train line I take like every day is the most crowded one in all of Japan.... #nice

District Family photo (fun fact... no one got transferred... HOLLA)

They used this GIF on FB to remind people about their English class.
I thought it was cute. :) 

oh.