Week 28: Gokiso, Nagoya; Companion/Trainee: Sister

I have been blessed!

If anyone was wondering this has been an emotion filled week.... you are correct. Holy cow.

On Tuesday I received the call from my mission president that I will be training. I said these exact words to him "are you sure president?" because literally what. So yes, I got my daughter, my beanchan on saturday night and I am seriously lucky! She is so ready to work and is the sweetest ever. I am just a little stressed.

Saturday evening was the best time of my life. 

First off I was reunited with ALL my missionary friends here in Nagoya. We had a mission conference!! I cannot even explain the boost that did for my happiness levels. I am so thankful for all those amazing people.

Second, Elder Cook spoke to us!! It was just our mission that he spoke to and you guys wow. The spirit was so thick you could almost see it. I want to cry thinking about it. He said SO MANY amazing things like wow. But a really special moment for me was when we (the mission) were singing a song for him that we had worked so hard on. It was a whole Tabernacle choir arrangement, so it was beautiful. Throughout the song I kept looking at him (I was in the second row!!) and at my favorite part I looked up and made eye contact with him and saw that he had tears in his eyes. Immediately my eyes flooded. It was really cool to sing for an apostle of Jesus Christ AND to hear him testify of Jesus Christ. I will hold so many things from that devotional super close to my heart always.

Random thought: anyone know the game crossy road? Well, I had a realization that it literally predicted my mission to Japan all the way back in high school. BECAUSE I got my highest score ever with the Samurai character. Random, but literally I think crossy road is a little magical!

Okay, I have to cut this email short because I do not have much time left. But I just want you all to know that everything is okay, you are okay! Life is supposed to be enjoyable, so make it!!! Lets do it together, because right now is pretty hard. I don't know about you, but wow, ya know? We just have to find the little things!

President Gordon B Hinkley said

"In all of living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured."

The words of a prophet everyone! Let's do this!

God loves you!

I love you!

Make it a good week!!!

<3 Sister Peterson

09/16/24

- The Nagoya Tabernacle Choir everyone...

- Indocurry.. SO DELICIOUS (that is chocolate in that bread)

- I love these sisters with every ounce of my heart!!!

Week 27: Gokiso, Nagoya; Companion: Sister Tulod

Hi everyone!

I currently have like a trillion mosquito bites on my legs and arms and it is like the worst feeling ever. I look like I have a disease, but it's okay... the work must go on!!

On Monday we had Zone Pday! We combined with another zone and rented out a gym for volleyball and basketball! There were about 40 missionaries and NO AC. That was miserable, but we didn't care because we were all having so much fun!

We had exchanges for 2 days with Rodriguez 姉妹 and Fujikawa 姉妹! The first day it was me and Rodriguez 姉妹 and let me just say, she is a transfer behind me, and knows just about equal to less than Japanese as me. It was a little rough, but we were able to do more than I thought we could!

The second day of exchanges was also Book of Mormon finding day!!! You guys, I think this was one of my most favorite days on the mission. There are too many miracles to share, but me and Fujikawa 姉妹 went finding literally all day. It was exhausting, but so fun. We went with the elders who had the crazy idea of "stealing" the Church's whiteboard and writing "what is the purpose of life" on it. We walked around a park for hours and had people write their answers on the board. We gave away like 30+ books combined using this method! Lots of miracles! Oh also the whole mission handed out 500 books!!! Amazingggg

My district went to Yakiniku!! It is a very well known type of restaurant where your table has a grill type thing in the middle and you can order unlimited amount of meat. You are timed, and it is pretty expensive, but wow I was so full by the end. Like seriously I ate so much meat i was sweating. AND I HAD GOOSEBUMBS WHEN I FIRST WALKED IN THE RESTAURANT. I think it is a must try experience in Japan, but for the price... I am satisfied with doing it only once. 

I also did the most cliche thing to do in Japan and that is have a sushi making party!!!! It was actually very fun! Everyone was saying my sushis looked so good. I decided I am okay with sushi, but I would never go out of my way to eat it. If it is in front of me, I will eat, but I will not choose it over other things. 

Japan Tips

- Out of all American singers, everyone knows and asks about Shawn Mendez, it's really random to me.

- yes, everyone watches anime 

- I have never really seen a man in just classic Levi type jeans. This could just be me not paying attention though

yay Japan

Mosiah 4:27

"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

This scripture has been on my mind a lot recently. It is important to not get ahead of yourself or to over work yourself. It says we should still be diligent, but not enough where it gets to be too much. Everything has an order in which it should be done, so we should not try to jump 3 steps ahead and skip the important 3 steps. It never works. I have been repeatedly reminding myself of these things ESPECIALLY when it comes to my Japanese! 

Everyone... God loves you!! You are His. 

I love you toooooo

<3 Sister Peterson

09/09/24

Week 26: Gokiso, Nagoya; Companion: Sister Tulod

Yes everyone, it is true.

2 in 2 weeks is crazyyyyy and they may be the only baptisms I see in my mission haha, they are hard to come by here in Japan.

This time our friend Yumii Oota (you-me oh-tah) was baptized! The missionaries in another area were teaching her when they realized she was in our area, so they transferred her to us. But when we started meeting with her, she already had a baptism date. So we taught her a few more lessons and that's it!  I am super happy and feel super lucky I got to be apart of her baptism journey even though my part feels very small. It feels like I haven't done much, but I like to think my testimony helped her at least a tiny bit!

Tsunami!!! Yes you read that right, we had a tsunami. Well, actually it got demoted to a tropical storm, but tsunami is more fun. Basically it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Just a whole bunch of rain for a whole 4 straight days. Our area got lucky with no flooding, but other areas got a bunchhhh of flooding. 

Everyone can relax and breathe now, I worked with Doc Martens and they SENT ME NEW SHOES!! They are so squeaky clean and fresh... and stiff. So please pray for my ankles, but I am so happy!!! Eeeeeeeeeks

Japan Tips

- Tsunami means the same thing as hurricane. Different parts of the world use this word! 

- The amount of times I have been asked "Trump or Biden" haha

- Almost every house/place you take off your shoes, there is going to be a shoe horn. You know the thing old people use to put their shoes on easier. I have actually grown to love them and I keep a mini one in my bag because Doc Martens are hard to put on sometimes!

- yummy in Japanese is 美味しい pronounced oishi!

yayay Japan

To be honest, these past couple weeks have been really hard mentally for many reasons. I find myself putting a lot of pressure on my own self and I get caught up in my head about small things that become huge the more I think about them. I have been trying to find what it means to feel inner peace and to be satisfied with the work I am able to do at this moment. 

I think as humans and for some, members of this church, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to always give our all. And then be satisfied at the end of the day. Well wanna know what I have learned? We are NEVER going to be satisfied if all we expect is our own 100%. We have heard it many times, but I know that if we do what we can, God will fill in the rest. This is something I have been trying to constantly remind myself...

Give yourself grace, you are just a human with good intentions doing the best you can.

I heard that from a very inspirational person!

God does not WANT perfect, he wants effort. Even if all the effort you can give is tiny. 

Everyone please remember, God is proud of you. He knows you. You are perfect in His eyes. He loves you!

I love you too!!

Make it another good week!

<3 Sister Peterson

09/02/24

P.s. shout out to those who send emails/respond to these emails, those small responses mean more than you know! 

p.p.s my 6 months is TOMORROW, watch out for the Facebook post!!

~I made the Baptism Program and am very proud of my work!

~ We visited a family from Peru, their mom was showing us Missionary tik toks and that "its okay if you have tik tok" haha ohh jeez

~fun fact: the red head lives about 10 min away from my home in idaho... but he went to rocky mtn high school 

Hi everyone, I am embarrassed now! 

I meant to say TYPHOON, not tsunami. I am in the middle of the city in Japan, so there is no real chance of getting hit by a tsunami... hopefully.

hehehe anyways, make it a good week!

<3 Sister Peterson