Matsudo Miracles

Shabu Shabu

Well here we are at the start of another transfer. I have no idea how that happened. I swear we just started Transfer 7 yesterday.

But here is the news on transfer calls...WE ARE BOTH STAYING!!!!!!!! I'm so excited to stay in Matsudo with Sister Shim! We've been seeing so many miracles together, I didn't want to leave! Yay!!!!!

This will be an extra special transfer too since we will be celebrating both of our birthdays together!!!! Sister Shim's 21st birthday is on July 2nd and my 20th birthday is next week (crazy!). Bring on the birthday miracles!

This may have been the last week of the transfer, but we still worked hard and saw some amazing miracles.

Mission School

Firstly, on Monday we had a really great lesson with Mikami Shimai, our Less Active. She told us she is now preparing to go to the temple which is the most amazing progress ever! She has changed so much and there is so much light in her right now. I am so proud and happy for her. Just meeting with her has strengthened my testimony that this gospel really does change lives. If we let it, it will bring us more happiness and light than we could ever imagine.

Then on Tuesday we went to Tsukuba for half day exchanges. We weren't able to go last transfer, so this was my first time in Tsukuba. It was extra special for me because my MTC companion, Sister Hill, was a bean-chan in Tsukuba (she started her mission here). It was just kind of cool to imagine her dendo-ing here. <3

I was with Sister Mitchell and we went over to the college to ask people if they would be interested in our Mission School classes. One girl we stopped didn't really look Japanese and I just thought "You know, she looks kind of Thai" and so we asked and SHE WAS THAI!!!!!! We had a little bonding moment there and it was really fun. She was so cute! I love meeting Thai people!!!

Thai Curry

Speaking of Thai...on Monday we actually found Thai curry paste and coconut milk at the grocery store near our house, so this week I made Thai green curry for my companion. It was her first time having it and she liked it! It was so nice having some Thai food again. Haha, the following day she made Korean Curry for me and that was way good too. :) I also introduced her to root beer floats, except she doesn't like root beer (it tastes like Korean/Japanese medicine) so she made hers with ginger ale. Haha, lots of international food last week.

The next few days were a little rough because I got sick again. I actually ended up going to the doctors and we figured out that it's probably allergies so they gave me some stronger medicine and I am back to full health now! Yay! I did take a few days to sleep and recover though.

To end the week though, we had a couple more big miracles.

Curry package and coconut milk

We had a great mogi with Wada Shimai. She is an older member who we just started mogi-ing with recently, but she has amazing questions. We really learned a lot from each other and had a great time together. I think my favorite part though was that she asked us about our experiences with hearing from apostles. I was able to talk about the experience I had at the MTC when Elder Bednar came and I was in the choir singing his song "One by One" for the first time. There was such an amazing power in the room when we sang. I had almost forgotten about that until I started talking about Elder Bednar and all of a sudden that memory hit me. That happened almost a year ago, but the Spirit hit me just as strongly as it did that day. That was truly an amazing experience.

On Saturday, after Mission School we got a text from Kikuchi Shimai asking us if we had asked Okubo Kyoudai to offer her a priesthood blessing. (Last week at church she had a pretty bad asthma attack and we were a little worried about her and had been checking up on her throughout the week.) We told her we hadn't and she called us and told us the most amazing story. Her son had a rough week and went to his mom and said that he wanted to go to church (her son isn't a member). She was so happy but she had no idea how to make it a good experience for him. She knew that she wanted Okubo Kyoudai to meet him though, but she had no way to contact him, so she knelt down and prayed. Right when she finished her prayer, she got a call from Okubo Kyoudai! Apparently her Visiting Teachers had been worried about her and asked him to call her to see if she needed a priesthood blessing. It was the most amazing answer to a prayer that I have seen! The power of prayer is real!!!!!

Missionaries with Kikuchi Shimai's sone

Lastly, on Sunday there was a devotional from Elder Oaks (another of the 12 apostles) but if we didn't have a less active or investigator going with us, we were asked to spend our time elsewhere. We were going to do some contacting and then go out and visit a few people. The last person we contacted though, read our message and quickly responded saying that she had just been thinking a lot about death. She's a woman who has been through a lot. We quickly shared a picture from the Liahona and a quote from the prophet and she messaged back saying that she was crying. I am so grateful that we weren't able to go to that devotional because we were able to help this amazing daughter of God feel his love. Through this experience we were able to testify to her one more time that God knows her and loves her. It was an amazing opportunity.

This really was a week full of miracles and I am so glad that I get to stay here for 6 more weeks and see even more miracles! Matsudo is such a special place and I feel so blessed to be working with this ward and with the missionaries in this zone.

Time flies by so fast, but I'm trying to make the most each day. On Sunday a family from Portland OR visited our ward and we took a picture for them. Afterwards, the father came to say thank you and he told us to really make the most of our missions because its the one time when we don't have to worry about anything except sharing the gospel. I want to follow his advice and give my all every day.

Thank you all for your love and support! I hope you all see many miracles this week!

Love,

ブラック姉妹
Black Shimai