Monday, October 28, 2013

Missionary Work

Hey guys,
If you are wondering what Chisa is doing out there for eighteen months here is a video on what missionaries do on a daily basis. They are in the UK but I think most of the stuff is pretty universal :)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Kp6K1aFyU

Philippines!!!

Holy moly hello po everyone!
     Well I am finally here! Finally at a computer! Finally finally! Haha I have so much to say. Here comes the list. Let's hope I can remember everything!
1. Flying here
2. First thoughts of the Philippines
3. Getting to Baguio
4. We are Baguio Missionaaaaries
5. Transfer Meeting
6. Day 1
7. Day 2
8. Day 3

     Okay so I can't go into as much detail as I would like and there is definitely no time for error correction so I apologize in advance, I already know there will be mistakes. So on the morning of I forget which day, the Sisters (Bangerter, Tapusoa, Anien, Lowham) and I were to be at the travel office at 3:30 am giving us about 1-2 hours of sleep after we finished packing and cleaning up the room and stuff. So we got on the shuttle and headed to the airport. We got safely on our flight after Sister Bangerter and I split a much needed pork salad from the airport cafe rio lol. It was a 4 hour flight from SLC to Detroit. Then a 12 hour flight from Detroit to Nagoya. Then a 3 hour flight from Nagoya to the Pines. A grand total of about 20 hours! Luckily I slept for probably 18 of those 20 hours haha. The Lord was really helping me out with that. I did not hide my talent for sleeping and He blessed me for it haha. Is that sac religious? Sorry. Anyway, then we landed! 
     We were in the Philippines! Our feet were like elephants thanks to sitting for sooo long. But it's alright! Because we had made it! As soon as we got off the plane Sister Lowham turned to me and said "It's soo humid." I agreed but it felt good to me! And then after we got our luggage and got outside, that's when the real humidity hit us. I just turned to Sister Lowham and laughed. This was the actual humidity of the Philippines. And we were all taking a while to adjust to it. I asked Elder Jarvis how he was doing and all he could say was "I be sweatin'. Nokay lang." Hahaha to say "it's okay" in tagalog, you say "okay lang" So he decided to switch that to nokay lang. But besides the humidity, my other thoughts were quite scattered. Outside of the airport, where you get picked up at the curb, there were cars EVERYWHERE. And although there were only 3 lanes, there were 5-6 cars beside each other honking and trying to get through. An Elder next to me had about 5 heart attacks in the 20 minutes that we waited there. But we didn't have to wait for long before a shuttle came for us. But we had one shuttle for about 15 Sisters. I have a picture of that but I'm not sending any pics this week :/ I have too much to say and not enough time. Hopefully I will have less to say next week and will have time for pictures!
     So the shuttle got us and we crammed in there to get to our hotel. It was about 10:30 pm when we landed in Manila but as we got to the airport hotel there were still tons of people out and about. Eating, partying, just doing whatever. We went into the hotel lobby. Walang (none) aircondition of course. And we just wanted to get to our rooms and sleep. But somehow our shuttle with all of our luggage got way off course within the 5 minute drive from the airport to the airport hotel. So we ended up not getting to our room until about 2 in the morning. But seeing the mattresses on the ground made us so happy we wanted to cry haha. The idea of getting sleep while in a laying down position was so amazing. So we got right to bed and woke up at 4 to get to the shuttles that would take us to our missions by 4:45 ish. Although we were excited to get to Baguio, it was sad because that morning we had to say goodbye to Sister Anien who was going to Olon Gapo. We were almost angry that the MTC would put us together and then make us say goodbye. But it had to be done. And I know she is going to be a kick butt missionary out in Olon Gapo. So our shuttle left by about 5:30 and we were ready to get to Baguio! But first we stopped at the Manila MTC to pick up the missionaries from there that were also going to Baguio. I saw Jaron Chong there! I thought he was gone already but he was there! It was so nice to see him! The Manila MTC is right by the temple too so we got to see the steeple haha. I have a picture of that too. We were at the Manila MTC for way long though. We were back on the road at like 8 ish. It was supposed to be about a 7 hour bus ride to Baguio. We were to take stops every couple of hours to use the bathroom and eat and what not. The bus ride was actually really fun! We got to know a lot of the Manila MTC missionaries who were mostly natives. They were all sooo nice! They knew most of our names by the end of the bus ride! They are so accepting of everyone and yeah. Could not think any better of them. Awesome people. Then after about 3 hours, our bus broke down! We were broken down for about 3 more hours. Then got back on the road and 4 hours after that made it to the Baguio mission office! We were dead from all the travelling but still had interviews with President Balledos who is such an awesome and sweet man, and activities to get to know each other and stuff.
      But we got to sleep eventually. We sisters stayed in the Sister training leaders house which was nice and big. I fell asleep in my church clothes and everything. But then I woke up at like 5:30 and decided to shower. I had no idea that it was a bucket shower! I was sitting in the bathroom for a good 5 minutes just staring at the bucket in the corner. Trying to decipher what to do exactly. Was the water clean? Do I just dump it on me? Or do I dunk myself into it? All of the sisters were still asleep and I didn't stay awake to hear how anyone showered the night before. But I finally got the courage up and dunked my hands in the bucket and got to business. Greatest thing ever! I ended up feeling so much more clean that I would in a normal shower! It was like washing dishes except I was the dish! Great stuff. Ahh I'm running out of time! I need to hurry. Okay then the next day we had our first proselyting activity, and amazing race activity (which my team won of course!) and we went to the mission home for the first time! It was beautiful right on the beach! I will send a pic of that too next week. Then we had an orientation and a budong fight! Where you eat with your hands! Sooo masarap! And then we went to bed. I found out when I got home that night that the bucket shower was unnecessary. The shower worked just fine. I don't know what I was thinking haha.
     The next morning was transfer meeting. Tears. Maraming (many) tears. I had to say goodbye to my best friends of the last month and a half. I am now in the San Juan area of the San Fernando zone. My ward is San Juan 2 which my companion and I share with another set of Sisters. I met my new companion! Sister Tanner from Kaysville Utah! She is really sweet. After the meeting we ate some lunch and then got right to work! I met Brother Noto, a recent convert. Brother Manuel an investigator. Brother Johnny a recent convert. Bishop Javier. And Brother Lorenzo a creepy old man who I am pretty sure just converted because he loves missionaries. He isn't even in our area but he insists that we visit him because he loves Sister Tanner and he gives us Chubbys (chocolate candy) so we go to him when we are hungry. I will go more into detail about them next time! But the first three brothers that I talked about are sooooo soooo amazing. They all inspire me so much. By the end of that night I was so tired I was almost crying. Sister Tanner was sensitive and knew that she was that tired on her first night so she let me go to bed early.
     The next morning came way too soon. I woke up and forgot that I was in the Philippines. We did our first 4 hours of studies and had a delicious lunch. And after that we would normally go out proselyting or to a lesson. But Sisters Gaddy and Gerhards, the other sisters who are in San Juan ward 2 and who live with us had a baptism! So we went to that and had a service project after. Then we went out proselyting for a long time because apparently all of our lessons for that day were out of town. Then we had FHE, once again for investigators in Sister Gaddy and Gerhard's area but we decided to join because they end up being in the same ward as us. It was at a house where the wife is a member and the husband is investigating. At the FHE he accepted a baptismal date! We were all really excited because he had gone through 5 sets of missionaries before Sister Gaddy and Sister Gerhards started teaching him. We went home that night and I was really struggling. I felt pretty sad. When we are in lessons, teaching people, I am fine. Super happy actually. But then we get out in the streets and I start thinking about home and I get pretty down.
     Sunday was even more difficult. Our ward struggles with activity so in the primary room there is a little girl probably about 6 years old setting up the chairs. We missionaries set up the rest of the rooms. In relief society there were 5 sisters besides the missionaries. Gospel principles was good. Pretty full actually. About 10 people in there. And then about 30-35 in sacrament. I don't understand much still but I want to contribute. They had me bare my testimony in sacrament which was a surprise because Sister Tanner said I wouldn't be doing that for another couple of weeks. But it went fine. And that was probably my favorite part of the day. The rest was a real struggle. I wanted to just be able to speak Tagalog perfectly already. I wanted to understand the culture. When someone looks at me a certain way I want to know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I want to know if what I am inclined to do would be okay or if it would be impolite. There are so many things different about this place and I am taking some time to adjust. I got to plug in one of my cds yesterday and cottonwood lane came on. I heard Jacob's little 14 year old voice singing the line that he sang in the musical fireside and had a breakdown. I miss you all a ton. I miss the comfort of living that I used to have. I come outside and see someone ride by on their bike and realize that this is the home of so many people. And I feel better for a second. And then I get sad again. Some good advice I got today was not to compare here to home. So I am going to work on that. I am also focusing on patience with the language and getting accustomed here. And faith that with the Lord, I can do this. Scirptures that have really helped me have been 2 Nephi 4. Pretty much the whole chapter but especially the end. And D&C 121: 7 and 122: 7&8. 
     I know that this is where I am supposed to be. But that doesn't make this work any easier. This is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I miss so many things. But I know that it is going to get better. When I wish I were back home, I know that I am not showing the faith that the Lord needs me to show. This experience is going to make me so much stronger. Please pray for me. I pray for you all. I love you all. And I will talk to you next week.
Love, Sister Sawada

Monday, October 21, 2013

Last email from the MTC

Kumusta lahat mga tao!
     This morning as I struggled to wake up, (which was most mornings this last week) I realized that I am waking up in that bed only two more times! Ano bayan??? (what in the world??) It is such a crazy feeling. Although I feel like I have been here at the MTC forever, I just never thought the day would come that I would actually be going to the Philippines! I think I was convinced my mission would be here at the MTC haha. But luckily, reality is starting to hit me now and I could not be more excited! We actually got an email from Sister Reategui, a sister who left just before us, and reading it got us sooo pumped! Here is just a quick bit of her email that got us so excited. 
     "Well, I absolutely love it here. The people are so humble and they have already taught me so much. I have learned more than I ever thought and it hasn't even been a full week here! I laugh at the things I used to think were hard at home or in the MTC. It is totally a different world here! I have like 30+ bug bites all over me and I'm sweaty ALL the time and I have no idea what anyone is ever saying and I take bucket showers and wash my clothes by hand but every single hard thing is so so so SO WORTH IT for these incredible people here. Ah missionary work is the greatest ever."
     Isn't that just awesome?? Oh man after that we were like, okay and we are supposed to focus on classes now? Just get us to the Pines! Hahaha. So this week I want to share a small spiritual thought and then I mostly want to talk about my district. I have no idea what I have said about which Elder or Sister here but I absolutely love them all and they deserve to be acknowledged individually! So that will be most of this email :)
     So we are back at main campus! I could not be happier! Our first day back, we moved into our rooms which are so much bigger and smell so much better than at west campus! Then we got into our classroom and since it was an actual classroom, not just a bedroom of an apartment, we wanted to jump right into language study! We were able to conduct the best language study session we have ever had! It was just the best. The whole district was together and learning and ah man, being back at main has been awesome for us. I think throughout the moving back and forth, it has brought us even closer together as missionaries because we have had to be frustrated, flexible, and patient with each other and with the situation. But yes, so being back at main was great just from the first hour we were there, and then at dinner that night, Elder Waldron whispered to us that there was going to be a special speaker at the devotional that night. Our relationship with Elder Waldron is probably 30% serious, and 70% sarcastic/teasing and so of course he wouldn't tell us who it was! He wanted us to follow him around like little puppy dogs and he also wanted us to wait in line with him super early to ensure good seating. So we fulfilled his wishes and got in line really early. And I am so glad we did because the speaker turned out to be Elder Dallin H. Oaks!
     I was sooo excited when I saw that it was him because his talk from this conference was one of my favorites! And boy, he did not disappoint. He started off by sharing the three things that new missionaries struggle with. Changing, achieving, and becoming. We usually have to change our schedule, the music we listen to, and the things that we choose to spend our time on once we are missionaries. Then the things we want to achieve change quite a bit. We are setting goals for ourselves that we never thought we would set, like memorizing 50 vocab a day, or the entire first vision in Tagalog, etc. And the last thing we must do is become. Elder Oaks said there is a significant difference between being a missionary and becoming a missionary. In order to become a missionary, a change of heart must take place. I honestly believe that this change is occurring in me. I sure hope it is at least! 
     Then he shared the three reasons why we claim that we are the "only true church" on the earth. (I am not sure if this is too much to share on the blog but I wanted the family to know this. If you want to post it great, if not that's fine too) The reasons are that 1. God has given us the fullness of His gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. 2. The power of the Priesthood. 3. We have a unique testimony of Jesus Christ. (1) The fullness of His gospel includes the restoration, plan of salvation, and mainly the idea that enduring all experiences in life is made possible through the Atonement of Christ.(2) The priesthood is a necessity. We have a living prophet who holds this power and that is why we are the only true and living church. (3) And lastly, we believe that the godhead is made up of three separate beings. They are united in purpose, but not in identity. I wish so badly to just scan my notes and send it to you because he went into so much detail. But at the end he testified that the message that he shared with us, about the reason that this is the only true church on the earth, is the most important message for our day. So it's important y'all! He closed with his fervent testimony that the things he shared were true. He said something along the lines of, "to me, the miracle of Jesus Christ is incomprehensible. But the spirit has been a witness to me so many times. Enough times that I know this to be true."
     That testimony is a great comfort to me. I don't have to have a perfect knowledge of things to believe in them. Or even to know if they are true. Because then where would my faith be? And if I weren't exercising faith, would I be enduring to the end? Enduring to the end is literally a spiral staircase of faith, repentance, baptism (sacrament), and the Holy Ghost. So once I have stopped needing faith, I am no longer enduring to the end. I know this to be true. I know that through faith, even if it be a tiny spark of faith, we can come to know of the truth of all things.
     Okay time for pictures/sharing about my district! I will do those in separate emails. Ingat!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Week Lima

Kumusters pamiliya at kaibigan ko!
     To say that this week was full of CRAAAAZINESS would be an understatement. I decided last night that I would make a list of things that I wanted to share with you all so that when it came to writing the email today, I could just get right into things. First thing though, mama sorry if I confused you the last two weeks by writing to you on Friday, but my pday is actually Saturday. It's just that I had the RS Broadcast last last Saturday and General Conference this last Saturday and so I wrote to you on the Fridays of those weeks. But now I finally get a normal pday again! It is quite glorious. Sister Bangerter and I woke up and went for a run at 5:40. I know, crazy right? But that amount of crazy doesn't even begin to describe this week haha. I apologize that it's not going to have as much of a spiritual theme to it. I had some great experiences spiritually this week. But these things just cannot not be shared.
     Just so you guys know what to look forward to, here is the list of things I hope to share:
1. moving to main campus
2. general conference/devotional
3. being the oldest district/sister training leader/new missionaries
4. FLIGHT PLANS
5. Funny stories galoreeee (epi pen, nagpapatotoo, 6 plungers, knife story, "I only ate 5", and we will see if I have time to share anymore)
     Okayyy let's get started! Yes mom, you guessed correctly. Well almost. So Sister Char's zone moved to main campus this past Wednesday because that was the day that their zone received FORTY-NINE new missionaries! Can you believe it?? They are mostly going to Cebu I think. And they are also mostly international! From New Zealand, Tonga, Marshall Islands, Kirabati, and who knows where else. So exciting for them! On that same Wednesday, my zone received 2 districts, 12 new missionaries. So our zone is made up of my district and the other district that also came in on September 11. Then the 3 new districts that came two and a half weeks ago on the 25 and now these 2 new districts. The things is that the 2 newest districts moved right into main campus just like I did when I got here. But we 5 older districts are still at west campus! So Sister Bangerter and I and the zone leaders went to main campus on Wednesday to welcome them to the MTC and then left pretty much leaving them to fend for themselves for the next week! I felt pretty awful about it but we aren't getting moved until Tuesday. Strange huh? I would feel kind of lost if none of the older districts of the zone were around to help me out with things. But hopefully they are doing alright! So yes, I am moving BACK to main campus on Tuesday. In the main building of the MTC there is a picture on the wall of the group of missionaries that were the first to move to West Campus. I think I may write President Nally and suggest that there be a picture taken of us Philippinos and put up on the wall as the first group of missionaries to move into main, move to west, and then move BACK to main. Haha. It was frustrating because they didn't tell us that we were moving for sure until last night. But overall I'm happy because I liked main campus better. But moving to main means new address again! So it's
Sister Joni Chisa Sawada
OCT-23 (or 21 it really doesn't matter) PHI-BAG
2011 N 900 E Unit 226
Provo UT, 84602
     Okay that was a long one. I'm gonna have to hurry if I want to fit everything in! General Conference. Oh man general conference was soooo good! I'm sure everyone was like me and was nodding in agreement when President Monson claimed these sessions to be some of the most inspired sessions ever. Every talk had something I could apply to my life. Some of my favorites were Eyring, Scott, Oaks, Monson, Adrian Ochoa, and my number one favorite right now is Timothy J. Dyches. He spoke about when Jesus asked "Wilt thou be made whole?" I've heard that question before but never thought about it. As Jesus was healing the sick, He asked them if they will be made whole. Because whether they would be made whole or not did not depend on whether Jesus could heal them or not. He was prepared, and able to heal all of the people. But it was dependent on whether the people would allow it or not. This is the case too often in our lives. Christ is always there, always ready and able to make us whole. But whether we turn to Him and make ourselves willing to be made whole is up to us. There were so many more amazing things that I learned though! I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts and favorites! So all of the missionaries in the MTC were able to watch conference together on main campus. So we were there all day Saturday where we watched the morning, afternoon, and RS or Priesthood sessions. And all day Sunday where we watched the morning and afternoon sessions and then had our Sunday night devotional. This one was a very special one! Vocal Point performed for us! They didn't do their popular covers of songs that are on the radio and such but they all shared their favorite hymn and they sang the first verses in their amazing harmonies and then had us join along for the rest of the song. It was awesome. There are about 10 members of their group and almost all of them shared their experiences from their missions which were full of great advice and insight on missionary work, homesickness, getting along with a companion and more stuff like that. My favorite song they sang though was a medley one of the members put together. It is Come Come Ye Saints and Noyana (idk if that spelling is correct) The song Noyana is an African Song which means "Are you going?" So the mixture between the two messages of the songs and their awesome voices singing made me very happy haha. Look up the song if you can! I'm sure it's on youtube.
     Okay I pretty much covered this topic in the first paragraph so onto the next!
     Flight plans came in yesterdayyyyy!!! I am officially going to the Philippines everyone! We leave Monday October 21 at around 4 am...haha. So we got the flight plans and we were all stoked because we heard that other districts are having layovers in Tokyo and Hong Kong and I was like what if I get to go to Japan? I haven't been there in forever! But then we looked at our plans and we have a layover in Detroit Michigan. I mean I'm still pretty excited about that because I have never been there. But I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty bummed! Even the Elders in our district are laying over in Tokyo! It's like literally just my travel group. Haha what are the odds? Always against me that's what they are! Jk haha but Sister Bangerter, Sister Tapusoa and I like to joke around saying that our district, especially the sisters just get the short end of the stick araw-araw (every day or all the time) haha we joke about it but we almost feel like it is true. But we blame it on ourselves because we each individually have really bad luck and so the sisters in our district are pretty much doomed. Sister Bangerter is our Travel Leader and she says she will be really surprised if every goes as planned with our flying haha. So yeah from Detroit we go right to Manila! 20 hour flight baby! Honestly though we could have a layover in every state in the U.S. and I would be fine. I just can't believe I am actually going!
     Alright now here come the stories!! Are you excited?
     Okay real quick. This story is about Elder Loitz, the hilarious Elder in my district whose favorite thing to do is translate star wars quotes into Tagalog. So we were learning how to conjugate verbs into abbilitative/object focus or something like that. And we learned the word nagpapatotoo. When you put the accents on it, it sounds like a pretty sick rap. And we just hear Elder Loitz start to say nag-pa-pa-to-to-o ay nag-pa-pa-to-to-o and Sister Bangerter and I just start dying laughing because we realized that he was saying it to the beat/tune of "Don't Drop that dun-da-dun" or however you spell it hahaha. He was the last person we thought would know that song let alone put our Tagalog words to the tune of it!
     This isn't so much a story as just a gross occurrence. So I went into the Sister's bathroom the other day which only has one toilet, and when I lifted up the top, you cannot even imagine what I saw. But it was safe to say that thing was clogged yo. So I quickly dropped the top and ran back into class. And our classrooms are just bedrooms of apartments right? So like you walk in and there's the kitchen and the living room which is a classroom. Then three bedrooms which are also all classrooms. And there are two bathrooms which one is used for elders and the other for sisters. So when someone takes a long bathroom trip, you can smell it pretty clearly from the classrooms. This little treat in the girls bathroom stunk up the apartment so much it was pretty bad. The next day we see cleaners go into the bathroom. They leave pretty quickly and come back with goggles on, and SIX PLUNGERS! 6 plungers!! Can you believe it?? We were all dying.
     I don't have time for the knife story which I really wanted to tell but it's alright. I must go now. I had to share these things with you. I'm sorry it's not a typical missionary letter from me. But just know that the spiritual side of things is great too. Miss you all! Love you all!
Mahal Kita,
Sister Sawada

Monday, October 7, 2013

Week Apat!

Allllrighty!
    Where to begin oh where to begin. This week was even better than last week! To be honest I was kind of down last week. It may have been a little homesickness, I couldn't put my finger on it exactly. But I wasn't feeling like myself and it really affected the way that I was learning, teaching lessons, and interacting with my mga kasama. Then, on Sunday night, it came to me! I realized what the problem was! Every Sunday night we have a district meeting. That means that the 5 sisters and 4 elders in district 15 A sit down and we reflect on our week. We review the goals that we set the Sunday before and see how we did on fulfilling those goals. When our district leader Elder Waldron opened up his planner and read off the goals. We realized that we hadn't fulfilled ANY of the goals! We were stunned and embarrassed and I realized then why my week was so poopy. Because after we saw that we hadn't fulfilled any of them. We got rid of them all. We made all new goals and we fulfilled them every single day this week!
     My district is so much more than just my district. They are my foundation. They are my brothers and sisters. But at the same time they are my teachers and my students. I spend alllll day errrr day with them and if they are not striving to progress on their missions that I am a lot less likely to strive for that either. Of course I have personal goals that I am setting for myself on the side. But it is a lot easier to work on those goals with myself when others are working on other goals with me.
     For example one of our goals was to have an English fast yesterday. English fast, or as some of the teachers like to call it, a Tagalog Feast. It sure didn't feel like I was feasting! It was by far the most difficult thing I have done here at the MTC! My fellow sisters and I already do our best to SYL (speak your language) but at times like meal time and gym time, we like to give our brains a break and just speak mostly English. But we couldn't do that at all yesterday. It was like an ongoing joke all day yesterday that one of us would start talking and be like "Puwede po ba kami gagaling...wala" haha and "wala" means "nothing". Hahaha so we would start asking something and then realize we didn't know enough and just say "wala" hahaha. We also joked that it was the most quiet we had all been. Which is true! Especially with Sister Tapusoa who has something to say about everything haha.
     But there were still things that we learned yesterday besides the fact that we don't know the language very well yet. We learned how important it is to try to SYL alll the time! Just from yesterday, today I am speaking so much more tagalog in my conversations with everyone. It comes a lot more naturally now! It's pretty cool.
     Thank you so sooo much to everyone who is writing me! I am sorry if I haven't written back to you yet! I don't have enough email time to email everyone a response :/ but I'm trying to write letters to you all. I am almost done with my letters to you family on oahu peeps. And then I will move on to the next group of mga tao! But things here are always moving faster than I can keep up with sometimes so please forgive me!
      Now of course we will end with a little spiritual thought I would like to share. At our Sunday devotional last week we listened to probably the best talk I have ever heard in my life. I was bummed at first to see that I didn't recognize the name of the speaker and when he started talking I thought for sure I would be zoning out because it wasn't a very attention catching voice. But once I started listening to the things that he said, I couldn't turn my focus anywhere else. His name is Robert H. Daines. He and his wife are the the Provo Temple President and Matron. He talked a bit about women in the church. He mentioned that a group of sisters in the church are planning to get in line at the priesthood session at temple square in an effort to protest their feelings toward priesthood in the church. My jaw dropped when I heard about this. Brother Daines tried to explain how God's love for his daughters is so explicit and all we have to do is open our ears to it. But he didn't go on for too long about this topic. I think we was just using it as an example of a trial that we might go through as members of the church. It lead to my favorite quote ever! Which you all have probably heard, but it's, "the only way out of a problem, is through it." Can I get an amen??? Haha but seriously. 
      Unfortunately, that quote isn't fully true. There is another way out of the problem and that is to go back out the way you came in. This leads to my second story. So last week Wednesday our zone got 3 new districts. One is an all sisters district! I'm not sure how many of those exist but I'm sure they will become more common very soon. But in one of the districts a sister was having a really rough time. I guess from day one she was having separation anxiety. Unfortunately I didn't know about this until she was here for almost a week. As soon as I found out I tried to get her to the temple with her companion but President Smith said that he wanted to meet with her that night. But before night came, she went home. Right away I started asking myself what I could have done to keep her here. But I realized that in the end, it would have been her decision. She had to be the one to decide whether she was going to go through the problem, or go back out the way she came in. I will never forget this sister. I pray for her still now. I hope she can come back and face her fears. The Lord will qualify whom He calls. I know this to be true. Everyone here has a story. I am so lucky to be Sister Training Leader because I have an excuse to get to know the Sisters on a more personal level. It's important to get to know people before making a judgement about them.
     That's all I have this week. I don't even have any pictures! Ala! (Oh no!) But there will probs be some next week. Until next time! Love you all! Be safe! Say your prayers! Write me! lol joke lang mediyo (just kidding kind of)
- Sister Sawada

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Update to Chisa's address

Chisa has been moved to the Provo West MTC so her new address is
Sister Joni Sawada
OCT21 PHI-BAG
2025N 900E Unit 920
Provo, Utah 84602
 
If you want to send a dear elder her unit number is 920 still PHI-BAG mission but her departure date looks like its been moved up to OCT 21 :)