"I believe in God, but my parents think it's weird."

Dec 21st

An excerpt from Sydney's email home which contains two themes that had been present in previous emails: The little children there are adorably cute, and she does NOT want to lose D Shimai as her companion (who was almost finished with her mission.)

"Okayama is so much fun! Everyone is so beyond nice, and the children are just ADORABLE. A couple days ago, we were doing language study at a park with a playground attached. Just as we were getting our stuff out, four fourth-graders approached us with a cookie. They offered it to us and apologized that there was only one. We gave them some dango we got at a Christmas party, introduced ourselves, and talked for a while. The little girl who gave us the cookie turned the subject to Santa, and we talked about who believed Santa was their parents, and who believed in Santa. Then the topic turned to God (our nametags gave us away--and the fact that we make it a point to talk about the gospel to every neighbor and their dog--funny story...), and the little girl who gave us the cookie said *I believe in God, but my parents think it's weird.* (Pause for jaw-drops and surprised *Awwws.* Btw, she knew why we celebrate Christmas. How crazy is that?!) ...And so we gave them a five minute lesson on *God is your Heavenly Father* (which earned a bunch of surprised *What?*s and glances at the sky (Since that's where God lives and all ;) ) ) Then sent them home with the dango and flyers. They were so darn cute. I hope she finds the missionaries again. Really.

This really is the best mission in the world. My previous companion has been sending fairly dismal emails, but I think she's been seeing some miracles since, so there's at least one person I'm luckier than. I really, really want to be as good as my current companion (D. Shimai). She's going home on the 16th, so I gotta learn fast. :( Please please pray for me. And get the Catholic half of the family praying for me, too. ;D "

(Proof that the children here are the most adorable on the planet!)

Bike angels

1st companion in Japan, Sis D.

One of Sydney's 1st weekly email letters home, from Japan:

 

Oh, and let me just say that I love love love my new douryou (Sister/companion). She's magical, and can do literally everything and is super nice, and... well, you'll be hearing a lot about her.

12/7

"Okay, so Friday, I had the privilege to participate in the mountain run, which, as the name implies, was largely uphill. This quickly became the Mountain Walk for Sands Shimai. My douryou tried to encourage me, but I was in no mood to be encouraged and puffed out "Douryou, I love you. Please don't talk to me. I am very much aware of how out of shape I am."

But the sunrise was beautiful--the sky was a rainbow, and the horizon was a dark bar of crimson, isolated by a strip of clouds. It really was very pretty.

Later, (Me: Wow. My muscles are gonna be sore tomorrow. Body: Why wait? :D), we got our new companions. My new companion is magical. My mission president read my name (it was no surprise--there were only two other sisters and they had gotten paired first) and she ran up and hugged me. My immediate thought was "Oh my gosh. I love her."

I wasn't expecting that. Well, anyways, my douryou is magical and takes very, very good care of me. I'm really looking forward to our training and companionship--I hope I can help her, too. According to her, we've had a very abnormal first two days.

Now, bikes.

If I've learned about anything these past two days, it's bikes. Before I begin, it must be understood that I have not touched a bike for the past 5-7 years, and my physical ability is... well, wanting. Severely. Alright, here we go--

1.) Bikes are smaller than we give them credit for. Those bikes can squeeze into some pretty absurd places. For instance, there's this tiny tunnel that we passed through--maybe 3/4 of my height, and my new douryou, D. Shimai, informed me that she and her previous douryou loved to speed though and duck under the tunnel. She said she'd wait for me to be ready and we could do it together. Shell be waiting for a long while. That being said,

2.) Bikes are a lot bigger than we give them credit for, and pedestrians are easy, slow-moving targets. That's all I'll say on the matter.

3.) There will always be a headwind. There will always be a headwind. There will ALWAYS be a headwind. I had the exciting opportunity to take an hour-long bike ride to an investigator's house (remember my physical condition). We went one way, and I thought, "Well, this is remarkable. I am moving diagonally. Well, at least we'll have the wind at our backs when we go home."

Nope. Headwind both ways. To and from. So, I learned a very, very valuable lesson: Satan will always be there, discouragement will always try to nudge you one way or the other or make your unworked spiritual muscles scream in agony (I could barely stand after hopping off--I'd wobble and stagger a couple steps each time we dismounted). There is no use in asking God to make it go away. It won't. There must be opposition in all things and so there will always, always be a headwind. But, most importantly,

4.) Angels are pushing your bicycle. When douryou and I began the ride back, I went maybe five minutes before my legs began to scream at me. So we stopped and got seran wrap (not randomly--it was on the shopping list), then continued. I tried to get in the "Come what may and love it attitude, but despite the scriptures, hymns, and peptalks recited, I wasn't having much success. As we got on a road near the highway, D. Shimai said, in her brightest voice, "If we get to choose our jobs when we get to the celestial kingdom, I want to be one of the angels that pushes missionaries on their bikes." And she told me a story about doing things she couldn't have done alone.

Here, we stopped at my request for a drink of water. She informed me that we were a good thirty min away from home. She also told me to take it easy if I needed to.

Me: *looks in dismay at the stoplight 20 minutes away*...

Ds: We can do whatever you want.

Me: I can walk... *looks at bike*

Ds: Okay.

Then I capped my water bottle, looked at her and said "I mean, I can walk... but we get angels if we bike,right?" My douryour assured me that we could get off at any point in time, and so we mounted and biked off. This whole time, I was chanting "God gave me this bike. If God gave me this bike, He will help me ride it. There are angles like Sister D. pushing my bike. I can make it. God Gave me this bike..." (punctuated with the occasional "It'd be REALLY nice to have some angels right about now...")

And they came. No flash of light, no splitting of the veil, no physical push or shove, but when I mounted that bike, I went far faster than I had gone the trip before, and after 15-20 minutes, my legs stopped hurting. I mean, yes, they hurt, but it wasn't screaming at me. I was able to push it to the back of my mind. That was a miracle.

God does that sometimes, I guess. :)

I'm so sorry, time's up, the mission calls. Love you so much!  Email you again next Monday!

Postage--Send all mail to the mission home in Kobe, and do it by USPS, not FedEx or anything besides the government postage, because that's the only one that allows forwarding.

Sister Sydney Sands
Japan Kobe Mission
4-6-28 Shinohara Honmachi
Nada-Ku, Kobe-Shi, Hyogo-Ken
Japan 657-0067

A sweet email from Sydney's 1st companion in Japan

[From Sydney's 1st companion (Dec 8th). She sweetly forwarded to us a copy of her weekly email to her family. She thought we'd like to hear from her about Sydney - a very loving act of kindness, especially since our separation from Sydney still felt so fresh and raw.] She titled it:

                                                                  Sands of Faith

WOOW what a week! 

My Sister, Sands shimai 

Her name is Sydney Sands and shes from Draper Utah. She studied for a year at BYU (Chipman Hall and everything!), reminds me of an SNL actress, 5 10inches with long european blonde hair, and LOVES Japan. She learns SO fast and already knows hiragana, katakana, and the most interesting gathering of vocabulary words. She carries them on a keychain on her skirt and writes them down in mid-lesson or when Im praying. She loves classical literature and used to work at barnes and nobles. she makes all kinds of pop culture jokes that i dont get and loves japanese anime and manga. She is FULL of energy and light and we have already laughed so much together. 

Training

Training is teaching me a lot about how Heavenly Father parents us. I LOVE it. It makes me want to be more like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ every day. Sands shimai surprised me right off the bat. We taught a lesson the first day she arrived in Okayama! I wasnt even planning on teaching [name removed], I just wanted to introduce the two of them, chat a little, and set up an appt for the next day. But Sands shimais faith is bigger than mine - we sat down in her apartment and after the two of them talked about manga for a while Sands shimai asks [name removed], if shes been reading the Book of Mormon, because *that manga character is just like Nephi!* I was blown away. Sure enough, we walked out of there with a lesson from 1 nephi chapters 1 and 2, an appointment for tomorrow, and one really really happy Sands shimai. I made sure to tell her how incredible that was and how good her Japanese is for her first week in Japan over and over again. She kept saying Arigatou. :) She:ll get the Japanese *no no no Im still bad* phrase down soon enough. But really though she is SO good!! 

We had a crazy Sunday with tons of friends at church. I gave her one assignment - dont lose me! Stay within sight and sound of me and try to remember a few names of ward members. She said ok, and then made a goal for herself - open her mouth and talk to the people around her even if its hard. Sure enough - she stayed on my tail all Sunday and had SEVERAL practically one on one conversations with our investigators while I was managing something else. I was thrilled. She was thrilled. The ward was thrilled. 

Its so great to see her discover Japan for the first time. Im re-realizing it too. Thinks that used to dazzle me away are so normal now. Sands shimai loves Japanese microwaves (and the power of the atatame *heat it up* one-push button). SHe loves aloe juice, goma dressing, onigiri, the fact that I cannot eat spaghetti with a fork anymore, and our kitchen rice measurer. She is always leaving her helmet after she gets off her bike. SHe made it all the way into the church once.^.^ We went to a baptism yesterday and when she prayed with me afterwards she congratulated Heavenly Father on the baptism, not just the missionaries or the person actually getting baptized. Her faith is so big and her smile is so contagious. Im so excited to learn from her this last transfer!  

********Ok people, this is Sydney's mom, and I have a confession. I don't like to update Sydney's blog because it makes me sad -- because it is something that she should be doing but she can't because she's not here. I am NOT sad that she is there. I'm just sad she's not here :D Buuuuut, she is having an absolutely amazing, wonderful time on her mission and writes, repeatedly, that she can't believe she was so lucky to get sent to the mission she's on. I am so grateful that she is so happy serving in Japan, and I have decided to do a much better job at updating. We've got quite some catching up to do, so buckle up, lots of posts are coming soon.********