Week 10

Hello everyone!!!!

I AM IN JAPAN! And I am as happy as can be. The mission life is awesome, the humidity is real, the bug bites are real, the sushi is real, the exhaustion is real, and I am loving it all. This week was kind of crazy because it was mostly traveling and then learning a whole lot about my area and then getting thrown right into the middle of it. haha So hopefully this next week will be a little more normal. But I am serving in Abeno, which is right in the heart of Osaka. It is so amazing here, and the people are seriously the best. I can already tell that I am going to love it here. My companion is Isom Shimai, and she is so awesome. She is from West Valley UT, and we get along really well. She is into soccer and fitness and all of that jazz, which I am excited about. I am her first trainee, so it is an adventure for both of us! 

As for this week, I am just going to share a couple of things! 

So on Saturday, we got to go to play soccer! Which was so much fun. One of the elder's investigators has a program that holds free soccer practices for people. So to support him we went and participated. I know you all are thinking that we shouldn't be wasting time like that, but we made sure we were reaching out to people the entire time (and we got permission for it haha). We ended up getting like 7 people's contacts, and a couple of them I am really excited about. I loved it because I was able to connect with the people through soccer because obviously I am limited with the language. There was one girl who I became good friends with and she was asking about Jesus Christ, so we are hopefully going to meet with her sometime this week! So that was super awesome. A lot of people don't have an opportunity to play their sport ever on their mission, and I was able to proselyte while playing soccer on my second day here. So blessed, haha. 

On Sunday, I, of course, went to my ward for the first time. I had to speak and give a little intro about myself in sacrament, so that is always fun. But this ward is like the dreamward, I am telling you. For example, the Relief Society and Elders Quorum dedicate one lesson a month, on how to improve missionary work in our ward, and how they can reach out to people so that us (the missionaries) can teach them. Like what?!?! We have already received 2 referrals, in the past couple of days. You never realize how important ward members are to the missionaries until you are serving. So they seriously are the best. Even though I have no idea what they are saying to me 90% of the time, I can just feel their love. 

On Sunday night, we taught Kana Chan and Noe Chan, they are two 16-year-old girls, and they are so cute. My companion has taught them a couple times, and they are just learning so fast. We talked about prophets and dispensations, and they asked us who the prophet is today. We told them about our amazing prophet, President Nelson, and general conference. They both wanted to watch some of it with us, so that was amazing. One of them commented in our lesson," Wow it is so awesome that God loves us so much to give us a prophet today." Seriously, Golden investigator. But she is so right, we are so blessed to have modern-day revelation, and I am so excited for this General Conference! 

Well, that is about it for this week, hope everyone is doing amazing! 

Love クリステンセン姉妹

Sushi

 Soccer!

Isom 姉妹

A cute letter from my trainer!

Roommates- Grover 姉妹 and Macaspac 姉妹

We also got the following pictures from Carl VanGils (our dear friend and past Bishop).  His Stake Young Men's President was picking up their daughter from Ellie's mission and was able to meet Ellie.  This was a text I got from his wife: "Hi Sister Christensen! My name is Sylvia Bartholomew. We are on a train right now with our daughter headed to the Bamboo Forest in Kyoto! I wanted to let you know that your daughter is so sweet and in very good hands right now. She is with my daughter's companion, Isom Shimai, and she is wonderful. Your daughter looked very happy and she did a great job bearing her testimony. I gave her a hug for you!"

More from Ellie as we e-mailed back and forth:

I am in ABENO, which is supposed to be one of the greatest areas ever. And I can already see why. It is right in the heart of Osaka, it is the most city-like area in the mission and is one of the most flourishing places in the mission (gospel wise). It is kinda crazy that I am serving here because I am brand new. When people asked where I was going in the mission home and I said Abeno, they were like, Oh my gosh you are so lucky, what a place to be born in. When you are brand new then you say born, and when you leave the mission you say that you died. And when you are being trained they call you a bean. haha So I am one lucky bean, just chilling in Abeno! 

My companion is Isom Shimai, she is awesome. She is from West Valley, and we are super alike. She has two younger brothers, the same age, and she loves soccer and the outdoors and all of that same stuff. I know we are going to have such a fun time together. This is actually her first time training, and she was super surprised when President Smoot called because she is so young in the field! But she is amazing for sure. 

Oh another funny story, so the Japanese people are seriously so nice it is insane. They are just always thinking of others. So one night we were walking home and one way we start a conversation with someone is by complimenting them. And my companion was like, hey I like your earrings. And the lady just looked at us and with no hesitation, took off her earrings and gave them to us!! She would not take no for an answer it was hilarious haha.　We were able to sneak a treat into her purse and run off without her catching us, so that was fun. But this just how the Japanese people are, at first they look kind of intimidating to talk to, but once you start talking to them, they are the sweetest people ever.