Let the freezing of the noodle begin...

Hey, hey, hey!
 
How is everyone doing? It's getting cold here in Hokkaido. Getting ready to be the frozen noodle again here pretty soon! ❄️❄️❄️ I hope you all have fun festivities planned and don't eat too much candy.
 
This weeks scripture is one of my favorites! I found it along time ago and got super excited when I remembered it today. 

It's Alma 29:1  "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!"
 
Later on in the chapter Alma asks why he would want to be an angel. It goes on to explain that angels speak to people in their tongue to their understanding. That's the wish of my heart. To speak to people as an angel would. So they understand and feel Gods love.
 
This week has been all over the place. Monday we went to the doctor and he told us we didn't have lice so we partied for two days and then found it again..  So we have to start the whole cleaning process over again. Yay! Also this week is transfers. We have no idea what's going to happen. We're thinking we'll either stay or they'll postpone our transfer until the 10 day treatment ends. Honestly have no idea. But then again I can never guess transfers. The only thing is this next transfer will probably determine my last area..  Not nervous at all :)

Let the freezing begin

We also had a surprise snow/rain/hail storm. Never experienced thunder and lightning with snow falling. It was super weird but playing in the snow was fun. Hackett Shimai got so excited!  Just you wait little bean, you don't know the meaning of snow yet ;) 
 
Yesterday was probably one of the busiest days of my mission. Osokawa San came to church! We haven't talked to her in a long time and she never comes when we invite her but she randomly showed up yesterday and basically said "teach me". It was crazy! We went to primary with her and her son. No matter where you are in the world primary always has that one little boy and his friend that won't do anything. :) so cute. Church ends at 1pm and we had an appointment at 2pm so before church we were thinking we had time to go home eat lunch really quick and then go. But then Osokawa San came and we had a meeting. But an angel made us sandwiches which we ate standing next to our bikes before our appointment. It was nuts. But I loved it so much. Busy days are my favorite! I feel like an American missionary with appointments and stuff.
 
Last night I called Ozawa San to see how she's been doing. She is reading the Book of Mormon on her own and asked all kinds of questions about Joseph smith! I almost cried. She's so ready for baptism. We are working on getting her to church right now but after yesterday I know she'll come! I keep thinking back to a year ago when Muratta Shimai and I found her. I was so tired and cold and just wanted to go back to the apartment and eat. But Muratta Shimai said we have 10 more minutes let's keep going so we did and the last person we talked to was her. You really can't give up. You have to keep going until the fourth floor last door. So you can find the Ozawa San's of life. Seriously love her so much. She's like my best friend.  We laughed like crazies yesterday :)   Miracles never cease.
 
I love you all so much! Thanks for all your love and support.
 
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
 
Sister Zollinger

View from our apartment

Floods and hurricanes and all kinds of shenanigans

The elders are angels and hear-attacked us and gave us three boxes of our favorite ice cream :)

Hi-hello!
 
How is everyone doing? I hope everyone's been staying safe. I don't really know what's going on but I hear there's been floods and hurricanes and all kinds of shenanigans happening in the world recently. I'm praying for you!
 
This week has been incredible. Honestly the miracles from God never stop.
First this Saturday was Ozawa San's birthday! So we heard she hasn't been told "happy birthday" in over 10 years, so we sent her a text message while she was at work and then when she got home we called her and sang happy birthday. She was sooo happy! The next day we made plans to go see her with Tsuchiya Shimai. We showed up in infamous party hats and sang to her. It was so fun. Then we started talking about Joseph smith. And that lead to baptism and Hackett Shimai gave a beautiful tatoe using the gate. After a lot of testifying and crying and miracles and guidance from the spirit she's accepted to be baptized on January 1 so that her family on both sides of the veil can be together forever. It was so special!
 
This lice and hardship has really caused me look past myself and see what other people need. It's so hard sometimes not to get caught up in what you want and you need. To not say "poor me I'm having a hard time" but to say "how can I lift some one else" "how can I make him/her smile and feel Gods love". The scriptures really are true, if you go looking for yourself you'll never find it. But if you lose yourself for someone else you'll discover how much of yourself there is to find.
Because of this everyone is progressing. Moeka Chan prayed, Oota San came to church, and Kisaka San read the Book of Mormon. The field is white and through prayer and heavenly help we are harvesting!
 
On Saturday Elder Bednar came to speak to us! It was so incredible. I learned so much and felt the spirit so strong. He really is called of God. God is listening to and answers our prayers. I've never felt that as strongly as I did on Saturday.
 
To sum up this week I chose John 3:16 for my ponderizing scripture.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever    believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".
 
Believe in Him.
 
I love you!
Sister Zollinger

We got a fancy futon heater to help the cleaning process and I was a little cold the other night and decided to try it out.

Spent a little bit of last pday in the massage chairs. (Probably spelt that wrong..so sorry)

Mouth, gentlemen, bean, put together...

Ate at McDonald's, because yes.

John 16:22
"And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you".


Good morning. Isn't that an awesome ponderizing scripture!? Conference was soooo amazing! So many talks of Love, Christ, Joy, Repentance.. So many different things. If that doesn't show how much our Heavenly Father loves us, nothing will.  My favorite was about joy. For the past little bit everything I read joy in the scriptures I circle it. So this morning I looked up the kanji thinking it was going to be super cool but turns out it's just
mouth, gentlemen, and bean put together.... I got nothing. But! Rejoice means singing joy!

Combing for days - literally!!

So there's a cool one for you. :) This was super special when I read it this morning.  We are going to have sorrow.
We are going to have hard times.
BUT,
We will see our Savior again.
When we do our heart will rejoice.
This joy, nothing, can take away from us.


This week has been crazy! We have hardly left the apartment at all. We washed all the futons last week but turns out we did them wrong so we had to start all over again and then it rained delaying out cleaning. But we have the last two of the 13 futon hanging outside right now :).  Then in Wednesday we thought it was Ozawa San's birthday so we made cookies and got all ready, sent her a text at work saying happy birthday and then she texted us and said her birthday isn't until the 15...we ate the cookies. Then on Thursday we had interviews in the new honbu!  But we read the time wrong and showed up two hours early... So Nakatsuka Shimai stood above us and picked through our hair like a monkey and asked if it was getting better yelling every time she saw something. But then she drove us to the store so we could buy new pillows. She's an angel!

However, I. Have. Never. Seen. So. Many. Miracles.
Everyone, is progressing! Two of our investigators came to general conference! And they loved it!! Kisaka San came and after asked about the Book of Mormon and about prophets. Tsuchiya Shimai left work early to be there for her! The lesson was so powerful! Then Honami Chan came with the little amount of time before work to see it and after said "wow, I want happiness like that!" It was so amazing and special.

Hackett Shimai and I have grown so close too. Seriously can talk to her about anything. And we talk, about everything.  I know we needed to be companions right now because we couldn't have done this with anyone else. We are praying everyday to get rid of this quickly so we can go out and dendo.

Heavenly Father is there. And not only does he bless us after the trial but during as well. My testimony of that is being strengthened right now.

I love you all a lot!

Sister Zollinger

Odori Zone is the best! This was taken before the lice, back when we wore our hair down still :)

New Things

Good Morning in America. I hope you all enjoyed conference. Unless you're in Japan then who's excited for this weekend!? Sister Zollinger is too excited!! I love conference. Seriously my favorite two times of year.
 

Speaking of times the prophets speak to us, here read this scripture!
Mosiah 2:22 "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land".
That's it. All we have to do. Keep the commandment=BLESSINGS Simple right? God loves us ね

We went to the Zoo!!

This week has been so fun, crazy, interesting..
I got to go to my first Mission Leader Training and Conference on Thursday and Friday. It was so cool! The spirit was so strong. When we sang the hymns and mission song the power was so strong! In the end one Elder stood and bore his testimony and said when missionaries sing the heavens open and you can hear the voices of angels. I definitely heard some angels singing. I'm giving my first workshop tomorrow I'm a little nervous but super excited! It should be really fun.  

 

Made this for my workshop. This is my brother Mark and his son Traydon.

A few weeks ago I sang at Brother Uchida's baptism and after a member of the bishopric came and asked me if I would sing again but in English. So Hackett Shimai and I practiced a little but not a lot because we didn't think we would perform for awhile. Then we saw him randomly on Friday and he said will you sing on Sunday. We were super surprised and threw something together super quick and it turned out pretty good! It was so fun. But after that bishopric member bore his testimony about a girl on his mission who said I want to bear my testimony in my native tongue so she did and he understood no words but was moved by the Spirit. So when I sang before it was in Japanese and for the same reason he asked me to sing in English. He said, "I didn't understand the words but I felt the spirit and was moved". It was super special.
 
Other than that Hackett Shimai and I found out we got lice from a girl in her MTC district. So we've been scrubbing and washing EVERYTHING in the apartment. It's been oh so much fun. I don't know what it is but Hackett Shimai and I have some great stories to tell from these two transfers together. Getting separated for 40 minutes, hit by a car, and now lice. All while in Japan :)

But we've also sang our hearts out, biked in the rain and shine, testified on the streets, in houses, on porches, in cars, on rooftops, and sidewalks. We've loved and felt loved. Nothing is better than this year and a half we have to serve God.
 
I love you all!

Sister Zollinger

Keiko San!!! Baptism day.

Saw Kita Shimai! She stayed the night for mission leader conference and we sat together all day! Love my MTC comps!