Aoi-Chan!

Konnichiwa!

Zone Conference

This week started off with Zone Conference and Interviews with President and Sister Nagano. We got to go all the way to Honbu twice this week. It was tiring and hard because it took a lot of time, but it was also completely worth it.

At Zone Conference, we learned about the importance of daily repentance and teaching repentance to others as well. It was eye opening to see that we can teach repentance simply and in a way that allows people to understand that it is an amazing gift that we are given. I make mistakes every day and knowing that I can repent every day and become better gives me so much hope and happiness. I loved this simple reminder of what a beautiful gift the Atonement is to all of us.

Then on Wednesday we had interviews and although I was only able to talk to President Nagano for 10 min it was very helpful. Lately I've been thinking about being comfortable. One of my favorite quotes is "You need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable." As a missionary, that's so true. You can't grow if you are comfortable. Lately, I've noticed that I've started to feel comfortable and I have been working on challenging myself and pushing myself to really improve. President Nagano really helped me to see the bigger picture and I walked away with more fire.

Because we had to go to Nakano twice this week, we lost a lot of dendo time in Urayasu and I was a little frustrated because last week we'd also lost time because I was sick. However, we did see miracles on the trains to and from Nakano.

A cute t-shirt

My favorite was Tuesday after Zone Conference. I sat next to a lady and asked her where she got her bag and she was telling me that her friend got it for her from France then she said "Thai-jin" which means Thai person. At first I thought she was asking me if I was Thai, but then I realized she was talking about herself! We really bonded over the fact that we are both Thai and we ended up switching Facebooks. It brought a little light into my day right when I had been wondering to myself about how I was going to be effective this week with so little dendo time. Little miracles!

This week we also taught Hanai-chan more English and it was so cute because afterwards her mom asked for our parents' email addresses so she could email them a picture we took with their family. My mom sent me the email this week and it was so sweet and cute! I love their family so much and it warmed my heart to know that they appreciate and love me as much as I appreciate and love them.

Biking in the snow

It also snowed this week!!!!!!!!! And I got to bike in the snow!!!!!!!! And it made me so excited! I love snow so much. It was another little tender mercy and I felt like Heavenly Father was just telling me to keep pushing forward and I will progress and see miracles. AND WE DID!!!

The second half of the week was amazing! It was almost like the whole Ward got really dendo fire all of a sudden. Within our district, all of us started thinking of better ways to work with the Ward and how to promote Mission School. After 3 weeks of decent energy and ideas, all of a sudden we had a ton! We were able to share a lot of those ideas with the members on Sunday and they are really pumped about it too! I love seeing this energy! It's so energizing to have the Ward backing us up and willing to help. Missionary work goes 100x better when the Ward is helping us as well.

Eating gyoza with the Murakamis

One thing that we are trying to do is talk to everyone in the Ward about Mission School so that they understand what it is and come. On Sunday we were able to talk to everyone we needed to and then start on this goal. We were able to use our time very effectively and it was such a miracle. After church, Sister Atkinson and I just sat down to go over everything that had happened, and it was amazing!

Then that night we had a truly amazing lesson with Aoi-chan.

We had planned for Kei Shimai to be our doseki but we miscommunicated again and she wasn't able to come, so at the last minute we called our Ward Mission Leader's wife/Ward Missionary, Nagisa Shimai, and luckily she was able to come. She got to the church a little early and we were explaining our plan and she just raised her hand and asked "Is it okay if I share my conversion story? I really want to" and we were just like "Yes of course! That's exactly what we want you to do."

She shared it with us right then to give us an idea of what she was going to say and as she did, the Spirit just told me that she was the exact doseki that we needed. She was the perfect member to be present to help with this lesson. Our main goal for this lesson was to set a baptismal date with Aoi-chan so it was important that we really brought the Spirit.

When Aoi got to the church, we were able to start. First of all, she's been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and she loves to mark it and ask us questions. She has so much faith! She's also been praying which is amazing!


The whole lesson went really well. The Spirit was so strong and she told us that she really has a desire to be baptized. Having a desire is so important because it leads you to act, to read the Book of Mormon, to pray, to change your life to follow Jesus Christ's teachings. At the end of the lesson we asked her if she would be baptized on March 26th and she said yes! She then asked if we could do it another date too and we decided to kneel and pray about it. She gave the most simple, honest, beautiful prayer and afterwards, even though she hadn't received an answer, she committed to continue to pray to know exactly what day will be her baptismal date.

Today she messaged us on Facebook telling us that when she prayed she started crying and she knew that Heavenly Father wanted her to be baptized as soon as possible.

I am so grateful for Aoi-chan. Her progress has 100% come from her and the Spirit. She has so much faith and is constantly wanting to learn more and follow Jesus Christ. She is a beautiful soul and I feel grateful every day for Elder Sasaki and his idea to contact her and share the gospel with her. I can see the light in her eyes every time she talks about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. I am so excited for her to begin preparing for this next step! She is amazing!

I love being here in Japan! I love seeing miracles here! Thank you all for your support and love!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimaia