Birthday week pictures!

it was 104 degrees, probably 90 prcent humidity in that last picture with the food...don't mind the sweaty missionaries :)

Birthday Week!

Well as you all should know, I'm training now, as a third transfer missionary, and it's FUN!  My best birthday present was Sister Willden, from Wisconsin.  She's half Japanese, and can understand most of what people are saying to us!  It's perfect!  So far we get along so great!  We're working on finding at the moment...all of mine and Sister Nagamine's investigators had to be divided between the two of us. (She's training too...four people in our tiny apartment!)  It's so weird being in the same apartment with my old companion, and we both have new companions.  Anyway, Sister Willden and I found a potential investigator yesterday! She's really interested in learning English, and we offered to give her a church tour as well. Hopefully we'll be able to meet her again! We felt so good after we got her contact info! First one of the transfer! Many more to come! 

 

So my birthday was actually pretty good, it felt like it was a weekend long birthday even!  On the day before my birthday Sister Nagamine and I went to the honbu(mission home) to find out who we were training.  On my birthday I woke up and there were four of us in the apartment! It felt like a major party already! (I even have my birthday banner hung up!) The morning of my birthday we went to Eva's house and taught her some commandments, she's getting baptized next week!  We're all so excited!!! That night we bought bikes for the new missionaries, and my cute missionary roommates made me a cute picture book!  Also the whole zone got on conference call to wish me and Sister Nagamine happy birthday. It was so nice!  20 missionaries wishing me happy birthday all at once! The next day, we all went back to Eva and Catherine's house and we had a little birthday party with good Philipino food and birthday cake :) (Catherine and Nagamine shimai share a birthday) And on Sunday, Chiba Stake President, Tabuchi kaicho, gave me and Sister Nagamine 'I am a child of God' necklaces!  It was so sweet of him, I don't even know how he knew it was our birthdays. :) haha

 

That's my week...seriously birthday all week, right?  Next birthday will be at the middle of my last transfer!  Which is so crazy!  I've been gone for 5 months already!  I hope it's going fast for you too.

Chiba!

So today will be a quick one!  I was senpai this week, senior companion, which has been really good preparation for the real deal that's bound to happen in a week. 

 

I'm almost positive I'll be training by next week....transfers are happening a week later than usual because new missionaries get extra training or something.  I'm kind of excited for the big changes!  I'm also super scared out of my mind!  But I think things will be fine. 

 

So this week we had lots of finding time, did some streeting at an international languages university where everyone's studying English and is super stoked to talk to an American!  We found a few potential investigators from that, one of which came to Relief Society, and a few more who want to do church tours before Eikaiwa tomorrow!  It was a good week for dendou!  We were so genki! and now we're super tired...

 

Today was temple pday, so we didn't get much rest, hence the shorter email.  

 

I promise everything's going great here in Chiba!  We have faith that we can see so many miracles and so many baptisms!  Japan's time is NOW! 

I wore rain pants today.

Last Pday I went to my first Japanese festival!  It was at a Buddhist temple, and everyone's just walking around eating food. I wore a Japanese yukata, I'll send pictures later. 

Found a few potential investigators and one new investigator, Chihiro...who now has a baptismal date, but since we set that date we haven't been able to contact her.  We taught Diana, who's Chinese, after Eikaiwa and commited her to be baptized as well.  She's unsure at this point.  But we're working on her. :)

Eva is so ready to be baptized!  Eva is Ramos shimai's mom, she didn't want to take missionary lessons at all when we met her, but we decided we would just TEACH and invite the spirit, and that will change her heart....and it did!  She's getting baptized August 25th, maybe earlier :) We also have a baptism set for August 18th with Sekihara san's son, who's joined in on that last two of her lessons.  He was being taught by other missionaries, they called us yesterday and said he told them he has decided he will be baptized in Chiba ward on August 18th. We didn't set the date with him, but if he wants it then he can definitely have it. 

We've also recently started teaching the Yoshida family!  They're so great!  I'm excited for their growth as a family. :) (mom, dad, two little girls)

Today was "zone pday"  this morning.  We had a skills challenge and a water balloon fight. I thought it would start my day of great and my day would just stay great...and it was great til about 5 oclock when I didn't have a specific plan for the day.  I guess plans are important.  We had a lesson with a new investigator Shimizu san, 58-super nice.  She's protestant and was so excited and interested in the fact that this is Christ's "restored" church.  She has always thought about restoration and I feel like she's excited to keep studying with us. :)

Buhbyeeee,

Love,

Sister Bagley

Atsui desu ne? (It's hot, isn't it?)

This week was TOTEMO ATSUI!  Japanese summer is soooo hot!  It's probably really similar to home actually, I just never had to be outside in it for long periods of time without a swimming pool.  So we're using it as a good excuse to start a conversation with someone.  "Atsui desu ne?" Get's em everytime.  ;)

This past week felt really long looking back on it.  We had training at the mission home on Tuesday where I saw mostly everyone from my MTC district. Of course, it's always fun to see my mission buddies. :) Then once we got back to Inage we had a lesson with Sekihara, our self referral.  She's able to meet twice a week and has a baptismal date set up for August 11th!  We just need to make sure she keeps her commitments and reads and prays about the Book of Mormon so she'll be ready by that date. It's so exciting setting baptismal dates! 

Thursday I went on splits AGAIN....but this time I was the OLD missionary. Me and Sister Brumley (1st transfer missionary) set out to teach all of Chiba the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was such an amazing day for both of us! I think we learned so much because we were on our own and didn't have our trainers to help us out and be our crutch.  Sister Brumley and I taught an introduction lesson for a member referral, Yoshida san.  Our lesson was at a member's home, which made it a little easier, but we were able to set up another time to meet with her and she said she would come to church! Which she did come to church with her whole family! But it was seriously a miracle day.  We were all over the place on trains, had the wrong address, met a new gothic friend, invited a Muslim to church etc etc and now Sister Brumley and I just can't wait til we're companions in real life!

Chiba Stake has so much dendou fire right now!  Their goal is to have a temple in Chiba in 10 years! I love this soooo much! I know it's possible!  I'm excited to help start it off!  Saturday, Chiba Stake had a Stake Missionary Meeting where President Budge came and spoke about the vision of Chiba! I couldn't understand a lot of it, but I can feel how much the member's are wanting to do missionary work, and it's exciting! 

Also on Saturay we went out into the country to visit Ramos Shimai and her mom, Eva.  We taught Lesson one: the Restoration.  And commited Eva to be baptized...she said yes!  We haven't set a date with her yet, but she said that she thinks that Joseph Smith's experience was real and was so excited to get a Tagalog Book of Mormon :) 

Sunday we had dinner at the Stake President's home with Ramos Shimai, Eva Shimai, and Sekihara san.  Eva was telling the Stake President that she really wants to go to church in Narita ward (the area we were in Sunday) and he said that she could come if she got baptized. She responded so quick, it was surprising!  But she said she'd get baptized, and was being completely real about it.  She's an amazing woman, we haven't set a date with her yet, but are trying to see if it's possible for her to attend that ward.  I'm sure either way she'll be dressed in white sometime in August. 

Our goal is to have a baptism every week, and I'm thinking it's possible! I have faith! 

Glad everything at home is great, I pray for you every day!  I love you all sooooo much!!!!!

Love, Sister Bagley 

Watashi wa shukufuku sarete imasu!!!

:)　Chiba's amazing. Amen.  Hontonni, The area is just jam packed full of people waiting to hear to the gospel. I can feel the miracles!  Chiba ward has such dendou fire, I'm so stoked to start working more with them.

This week was so goooood and it ended the best way possible! With a baptism! :) During the week Ramos 姉妹 had her last lesson as an investigator of the gospel and we made takoyaki!  Tako: octopus yaki: flour, eggs, pickled ginger, and cabbage in little balls!  I have pictures, it was so good!  But anyway Ramos 姉妹　is soooo cute!  She already has big plans to convert her mom and her sister and help us teach lessons. She's so pumped to dendou with us.

Also this week I was area senpai two times!  One time Sister Jack came to Chiba while Sister Nagamine was at leadership training and we taught a lesson to Mei chan, our progressing investigator.  Our member joint was Sister Kinoshita, the Chiba ward Relief Society President.  She's a miracle worker, that woman has such a strong testimony.  The lesson went so well!  We committed Mei chan to be baptized and she said if she feels it, yes!  Now we just need to set a date and :) :) BINGO! The next day I went on splits with Taneda Shimai, who barely speaks any English. Which I guess should be normal since I'm in Japan and everything.  But it was a hard day.  It was a white day, so we didn't have any lessons to teach or plan for. So the whole day was finding time.  We found a couple potential investigators and some people who said they'd come to Eikaiwa. One 18 or so Japanese girl with her mom started waving at me because she thought I was so cute and said she'd come to Eikaiwa!  Yay gaijin powah! We worked diligently all day and felt like our hard work didn't result in much, then the chorotachi called and said they have THREE referrals for us, three Africa-jin!  We're teaching them today, they speak English...so I'm leading the lesson.  BUT SERIOUSLY, what a blessing!  I'm so excited!  African-jin are such kin-jin (golden investigators)!

We have three new investigators this week, and will have three more by the end of today!  It feels so gooooood.  Two were potential investigators last week, but we've contacted them again and they're interested enough to have us come back :) One of them is Kikue san, who comes from a long line of home-ec teachers, she's 85 and she makes kimonos and is going to let me try one sometime!  :) YESSS! She's adorable, she's like 4'9" ish...tiny. One other referral was a self referral...her son took discussions a few years ago and she remembered recently and decided to show up at church, she also was able to come to the baptism, which went soooooo well! 

I had my first baptism!  Being in Japan DOES NOT mean that I'm not going to see any baptisms. Japan is golden and ready to be harvested!  Sister Ramos has an amazing testimony and I'm so glad I could be a part of her conversion.  The spirit was so strong at her baptism, and so many members came!  Which was so great, we need to get them pumped for doing missionary work :) Chiba hasn't had any baptisms in a year, so this is a really great start!  Takusan Baputesumakai ga aru koto ga dekimasu!  Iki masho! :)

Hope you're all Genki!  I love you all sooo much! :)

 

Ai shiteru yo!!

Love, Sister Bagley

ChChChiba!

So right now we have two investigators, and one is getting baptized on Sunday!  Ja...we need to find people to teach!  We were planning on going to the zoo today with some other sisters in the mission, but it was pouring rain half the day (good rain!) so Sister Nagamine and I decided to do our original relax P-day (once again).  I haven't been keeping up with my "one photo a day" goal.  Oops! 

We met an obachan (grandma) after our mitsuketaikai (hand out flyers to find new investigators meeting) who invited us over to her house for breakfast! It was a real treat, Japanese breakfast isn't your normal breakfast. We had marinated vegetables and cookies. Right now she's just a potential investigator. 

Chiba ward is SO GREAT, about half the members seem to speak English, and everyone's so patient and kind! And I'm beginning to learn exactly HOW small the world is.  There are two families in Chiba ward that lived in Michigan for a couple years!  One of those families was in the Ann Arbor 1st ward about 8 months ago.  Say whaaa???  Anyway, the ward is so excited to have sister missionaries again (there's one companionship of elders already in the ward) and we're gonna start it off right with their first convert baptism in 8 months. :)

 

I love you all soooo much!!!!!