Baptism, Bap-baptism

Konnichiwa!

Let me explain the title. There is this funny rap that two missionaries made in the mission and at one point they are just saying "Baptism bap-baptism" over and over and it's so funny. However, it was so true for this week! I saw 4 baptisms on Sunday. It was crazy!

The first three baptisms were for three 8 year olds in the Matsudo Ward. All three of them were so cute and so prepared to be baptized. One of them, Hina-chan, was someone I met my 2nd day here and she loves the missionaries so much. She gave the cutest testimony and it just made my day.

Aoi-chan's baptism

The last baptism was something so so special for me because Aoi-chan (my investigator from Urayasu) was baptized. Sister Nicholes and I had permission to leave church early to go to Urayasu and be a part of the baptism. The moment I got to the Urayasu church Sister Atkinson ran up to me and attacked me with a hug. Haha, I love her too. Then I basically did the same thing to Aoi ^^ I hug attacked her. I was just so excited to see her! She was so beautiful in white and she was so prepared for baptism. We took so many pictures with her and I just couldn't stop smiling.

I was so lucky to be in Urayasu with Sister Chinain when President Nagano first called us saying he had a referral for us. I had the chance to teach Aoi with 3 different companions and to see her progress almost right up until her baptism. She was so willing to change because she knew that this was the truth and that it would bring her so much happiness. She has such a strong testimony.

This was such a special baptismal service because her friend Elder Sasaki (the one who first taught her and then referred her to us and who is currently serving in Utah) Skyped in for the whole thing and he even gave a really beautiful talk. It was so special!

After the service, when Aoi had the chance to bear her testimony, I could not keep the tears in. She was so ready for the gospel. She knows that baptism isn't the end and she is so excited to have the chance to continue learning and coming closer to Christ. She is amazing and I love her so much! She has grown so much since I first met her and I know that she will continue to grow. It was such a special opportunity for me to be able to go and see her baptism too. For the rest of the night, I just couldn't stop telling Sister Nicholes "Aoi got baptized today! That actually happened!"

I don't really know what would have happened if I hadn't decided to serve a mission. But I know that Heavenly Father had a plan for me and I'm so glad that he has led me every step of the way. Aoi has forever changed my life and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to be a part of her life for just a few months.

I really can't express everything that I felt yesterday at the baptismal service. There just aren't enough words in Japanese or English. I can say though that I know that I have found one of my eternal friends.

Sunday really was the highlight of my week. It overshadows everything else because it was just so bright and full of light. I had the chance to talk to some of the Urayasu members and give lots of them hugs and I just miss that ward so much. They really became a home to me. I love Matsudo though too!

On the way back from Abiko
there was no one on the platform.
We waited 10 minutes and then
checked the schedule again and
found out the train was coming in
another hour.  We hurried over to
theexpress train.

This week we spent a whole day in Abiko (the neighboring area) because they don't have any Sisters and a member asked us to come visit some Less Actives with her. It was really fun and she was so prepared! She had set up appointments and prepared materials and everything, so it ended up being really productive. It was such a fun day because we didn't have to worry about anything except bringing the Spirit and helping to find these Sisters' needs.

The next day we had exchanges with the Mito Sisters and I got to be with Sister Akers. I met her a few weeks ago when I was at follow-up training with Sister Atkinson because Sister Akers is also a trainee. We had so much fun together. Ah! She is so smart and fun. It reminded me of how fun it was to train Sister Atkinson. Then I got to see Sister Atkinson again on Sunday and that was even more fun! She has grown so much and it's only been 3 weeks. On a side note, she told me I looked more mature too and I just don't know where that came from...I've barely been gone. Haha!

Manhole covers in Matsudo have a pattern

At District Meeting this week we talked about Facebook and Line some more and after some other things that happened this week I realized some things. This mission is very blessed to be given so many tools to dendo with, and I think Heavenly Father really trusts us with these tools because he knows that we will use these tools effectively while still following the rules. We have had a huge focus on consecrated obedience since I got here and I am grateful for that focus. I have a personal goal to make sure that my mission is 1.5 years completely given to the Lord. I don't want to spoil that sacrifice by breaking rules to do things that seem fun. I didn't come on a mission to go to a foreign country and just have fun and do what I wanted to. I came because Heavenly Father asked me to and I knew that by coming I could help people find joy and happiness. Being obedient is a huge part of that sacrifice and when Heavenly Father sees that we are being obedient, he wants to bless us. The missionaries in the Tokyo Japan Mission are amazing examples to me of obedience. The missionaries here are always focused on the work and how to help the people in their areas. It is amazing and I am so proud to be a missionary in this mission.

I'll just finish up with a few random things. :)

We met with the new Bishop this past week and originally it was just supposed to be him and the missionaries, but it turned into the Dendo team and his counselors too. We got a lot done and I really feel like this ward is getting on board with the Mission School. That's so great! Once the ward is on board, it will really get going and then it will be amazing. I can see so much potential here!

We made kanji for tree (ki=木)

Today we helped a member with a St. Patrick's Day activity. It was kind of funny because I don't own much green so everyone is wearing bright green and all I have is this pastel green shirt and my bird skirt. Hehe :) I didn't get pinched though! I also didn't realize that March is already 2/3 of the way done. Sister Nicholes only has 3 more P-days!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! I'm not ready for her to leave yet! We have a plan though, I'm going to sew a doll that looks just like her and it's going to fool President Nagano so he will send the doll home instead of Sister Nicholes. Perfect. Foolproof.

I just want you all to know that I really appreciate your love and support. I can feel your prayers helping me throughout the day. Thank you so much!!!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

"I Mean We've Practiced it Once..."

Konnichiwa!

This was my first real week of STL-ing...is that even a word? Haha, this week we had both Mission Leadership Council (where all the Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders go to honbu to receive training from President Nagano and the Assistants) and exchanges!

With Mikumi Shimai

MLC was so great! I GOT TO SEE SISTER POURRE AGAIN!!!!!!!! Aka the best trainer ever. ^^ She is a Sister Training Leader back in Kiryu, my first zone, and I was so happy to see her! I also got to see Sister Bede again. So basically, half of my former companions are Sister Training Leaders too, so it was one big party. I was also asked to play this song called "I'll Find You My Friend" and it is a beautiful song and everyone sings it a million times on their mission, but this was my first time, so I was sightreading it, but it was beautiful and very nice.

Also funny story. So flashback to about 6 months ago. Elder Merrill (who was in Maebashi at the time and I was in Oizumi) calls me the day before Zone Meeting and tells me he has been asked to do a musical number and asks me to accompany him. He says the song is "Lead, Kindly Light" so I say okay, even though it's super last minute. Well, this week, 1 day before MLC we are having a meeting with the Zone Leaders (the same Elder Merrill and Elder Lewis) and he says that he has been asked to do another musical number. He said he would get back to me about what song though because I told him I could accompany again. That night we call and he says "Well, since we've already practiced it once, we can do Lead Kindly Light again." All I could do was laugh. We had practiced it once...6 MONTHS AGO!!!! It went well though. :)

At the temple

MLC was amazing. There was such a focus on keeping our faith high as missionaries to continue to see amazing miracles. We have set an Easter baptismal goal as a mission and we are working to help keep the faith in the missionaries high so that we can reach the goal. I loved hearing everyone's ideas. One thing that really helped us have a lot of faith during the White Christmas goal was when we used lots of creative dendo. President Nagano is all for creative dendo. We don't just do the normal streeting and housing in this mission. He is always encouraging us to get creative and to get people excited about the gospel.

Some things we've been doing include Mission School, playing basketball with the youth and their friends, planning lots of activities, using Facebook to dendo, visiting colleges, getting involved in other Eikaiwa classes outside of our church, doing service all over the community, and the Free English Challenge.

This week was the first time I've ever done the Free English Challenge even though missionaries have been doing it since Christmas and seeing a lot of success. Basically, we print out some simple English tests (just 4 questions) and go to a crowded area with lots of youth and ask them to take the test. If they get it all right they get a candy, and regardless we get to promote our English classes. We also have a huge photo frame that they can take pictures with, that we post on our Facebook page. It is really fun and the youth love it! Back in Urayasu, we actually got 2 new students because of it.

More Free English Challenge

I love being in this mission where there is such a focus on the youth and on creative dendo. We really want to be effectively using our time and President Nagano really emphasizes helping people pull the gospel into their lives through their own questions and interest in who we are as missionaries and what we teach, instead of us trying to push our way into their lives.

Another big game changer that was announced at MLC was that LINE was approved for our mission! LINE is a lot like Facebook Messenger, but in Japan almost everyone has it! This is such a game changer! In the past we would try to get contact information especially from youth that were interested, but they never had Facebook, only LINE, but we didn't have LINE. Now we can get in touch with them!!!!!! YAY!!! We spent a lot of time at church on Sunday getting all the youth's LINEs ^^

I also had my first set of exchanges as a Sister Training Leader. I was with Sister Fossa, who is an awesome Sister from Italy and she was actually companions with my MTC companion Sister Hill. <3 She is an awesome missionary and we actually did the Free English Challenge together and met a lot of cool people.

We also visited Rosa this week. She is so sweet!!! She always says that we are her daughters and she gives us really good advice too.

Seeing the temple from a nearby park

On Sunday we had some miracles happen! We weren't 100% sure what to plan for after church, so we made some kind of half plans and then headed to church where we were invited to YW New Beginnings and to a member's house with our Recent Convert for dinner. Such a miracle! I got to work on memorizing the Young Women's names some more, talked to some of their parents, got to know the leaders, and build relationships with the ward. It ended up being a perfect Sunday. We were really able to help the ward and I am slowly starting to feel a little bit more like this is my ward now. Last week was a little rough since it was Stake Conference and I was meeting people from all over the stake, but this week I was just meeting Matsudo members and that helped me focus. Yay! Matsudo is seriously amazing though. There are so many members who are slowly getting more and more dendo fire. I love seeing the change as they realize the important role they play in missionary work and then actually take action to fulfill that role!

Cherry Burger

Today was Temple P-day and it was an amazing opportunity. Last transfer, we weren't able to go, so this was the first time in several months and it really felt like coming home. I felt the Spirit so strongly, and it was really special to be there. I love the temple so much! We even met a missionary who went home last year and is now visiting with her family. That was really cool!

Sakura Frappuccino

We spent our P-day at a gorgeous park near the temple and we ate these amazing cherry burgers at Burger Mania. It was so good. It was a pretty relaxing p-day. Hehe...and we got Sakura Frappuccinos (i don't know how to spell that, sorry) from Starbucks. I am so excited to see the Sakura (cherry blossoms) soon!!!! We saw some ume (plum) blossoms but no sakura yet.

Thank you so much all for your love and support! Have a great week!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

Plum Blossoms

Hello from Matsudo!!!!

Konnichiwa!

I will miss you Urayasu

Hello from Matsudo!!!! Only 45 minutes away from Urayasu (by train) but so different! The church building is 5 stories tall, there are 300 members, it's way more country than Urayasu was, and we live behind a Pachinko Parlor (aka a huge casino ^^).

So we live really close to the church, which is right next to the Pachinko, so as we walk to the church we like to look between the church and the Pachinko and just say "Zion, Babylon, Zion, Babylon" it's way fun.

Let's start with my last few days in Urayasu. It was a hectic mash of packing and visiting members. We set a last minute appointment to visit Sotodate Shimai and originally I was thinking "Ehhhh do we really need to visit her?" But we did, and it ended up being perfect. Just an hour before our meeting she was hit with some news that really gave her a hard time and she said that the only thing that got her through it was knowing that she would be meeting us. She said our visit was perfect and helped so much. I love the Spirit for guiding us to be there in her time of need!

Sotodate Shimai

We also helped Abe Shimai, who is pregnant, with her grocery shopping then had an amazing discussion about the Priesthood. I regret not working with her more while I was in Urayasu, but I know that Sister Atkinson will definitely use her to help!

Lastly, we visited the Kawamuras, my favorite people ever! I will miss them so much! Kawamura Shimai has made so many days even better. She is always a light!

Girl's Day decorations

On Wednesday, Kei Shimai met us to walk to the train because she wanted to say goodbye. It was hard to leave Urayasu because I have come to love it so much. The people there are amazing and it truly was a home to me. I love you Urayasu!!!!!!!!

Then came the 45 min train rides by myself...always an interesting experience. It's weird to be alone when you usually have a companion. I tried talking to this one girl who had a bag that said Seattle on it, but she was not having it. That's okay ^^

I arrived at Matsudo and got to see Sister Bede before she left! Sister Bede was my last companion before she moved to Matsudo and Sister Atkinson became my bean-chan. It was so good to see her! I love her so much! I also got to meet my new companion, Sister Nicholes!!!

My new companion, Sister Nicholes

A little bit about Sister Nicholes: She is half Japanese, she is adorable, she lived in Japan for all of elementary school and is fluent in Japanese and English so she has no idea what to do during language study. This is her last transfer in the mission, she is amazing, and so strong in the gospel. This week has been so amazing with her. I'm so glad I get to be her companion!!!! She also bikes way fast...so I feel like I did back in Oizumi where I am like 600 ft behind her...hehehe I've gotten out of shape in Urayasu. There are so many more hills here than there were in Urayasu.

A cool wall in Matsudo

And a little bit about Matsudo. There are a lot of people. There are a lot of names. There are a lot of meetings. I actually have a goal to memorize peoples names here because there are so many. Ahhhh!!!!! Also, since I know exactly when I will become Area Senpai (at the end of this transfer) I also know that I have a deadline to learn everything that Sister Nicholes knows. Yay! It's been good so far. One step at a time. Sadly, I am terrible with names, but it will get there. All the members I've met so far have been amazing and I love them already! They are so sweet and there are so many families here. They really do fill up all 5 stories of this church!

One investigator that I started working with right away was Rosa, a Filipino, whose sister is actually a Less Active that I was working with in Urayasu. Crazy! She is amazing though. They set a baptismal date with her about a month ago, then lost contact. They finally got contact back last week and I came in just in time to start teaching her most of the lessons again. We decided to try to do daily contact with her by teaching her half the days and reading the Book of Mormon the other half of the days. As the week went on, I started to see the change in her. She started smiling more and she had the light of Christ. It's so amazing to watch that change in people. I am so excited to help her come to baptism and come unto Christ.

Promoting Mission School

We are also trying to establish Mission School here in Matsudo. It's nice to know that areas all over the mission are experiencing similar problems that we were in Urayasu with establishing Mission School. I'm looking forward to helping Matsudo's Mission School grow really strong. I truly believe that Mission School is the future for dendo in Japan. It's an amazing tool to help the youth and young adults here learn and grow both in their English knowledge and their spiritual knowledge. Even if they aren't going to be baptized, they are being surrounded with good influences that will help them stay away from the Babylons of the world.

This week has definitely been a time of growth for me. There are many responsibilities that come with being a Sister Training Leader, but the best one is getting to know the Sisters and how to help them. I am so excited for this transfer. Matsudo is amazing! I love it here!

I will see you all next week!!!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

Spinning Fake Food

Costco in Japan - doesn't it look familiar?

Why I Love Urayasu

Konnichiwa!

No one was more surprised than me when President Nagano called us today and said that I was being transferred to Matsudo! That's insane! And I will be a Sister Training Leader, which basically means that I get to work with all the Sisters in the Matsudo zone and I am so excited! It is going to be so weird though. I love Urayasu so much! You have no idea how many times I wrote that I love Urayasu in my journal this week. There were so many things that happened this past week that just made me want to stay forever!!!!!!

Looking down from Skytree

The first thing was Aoi-chan! So on Tuesday we were going to meet her at the church, but there was some insane wind and rain so the trains were being really slow and she wasn't able to come (totally understandable). What completely made my day was that she called us and asked to have a lesson over the phone while she was waiting for the bus. We were able to start talking about the commandments. Then on Friday we were able to meet her in person and talk about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We were a little worried about this one because she has a job on Sundays, but she talked to her boss and she can come to church every week! She has a super strong desire to keep all the commandments and go to the temple. It really is amazing. She inspires and surprises me at every lesson. Her testimony has grown so so strong in such a short time, it has been a privilege to watch her grow. She came to Family Home Evening at the Anderson's last night and made friends with several ward members. I know that I am leaving her in good hands here and I look forward to hopefully coming back for her baptism in a few weeks!

Just Aoi alone is reason enough to want to stay forever. There are not enough words to describe how amazing she is. When we talk about missions, we often talk about finding our eternal friends, and I know that she was one of my eternal friends that I was sent here to find.

Another reason to never leave: the ward.

That same Tuesday, with the insane rain and wind, Sister Atkinson and I were just emailing and eating dinner while waiting to meet Aoi when we heard running footsteps. Turns out, one of the Young Women and her friend came to the church to get wifi because the rain and wind were crazy, and when they found the church unlocked (because we were there) they were able to come in and dry off a bit. They were completely soaked, so I'm glad we were there so that they could come in and get a little bit warmed up before going home. It was just a little thing, but the young woman made sure to shout "Hey Sister Black, we're leaving now" and it made my day. Just to know that you mean as much to the ward as they do to you. I don't think I ever learned all the names of the missionaries in my ward, but she remembered mine.

A pretty plum tree we found

Then on Saturday we had an Onjakusai (a music night) where the members and missionaries sang a lot of songs and put on a little show. It was way fun! The missionaries sang a beautiful version of "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and the Spirit was so strong after we sang. I loved being with the ward, having fun, and feeling the Spirit together.

We also received these new manga flyers to hand out to people explaining who missionaries are. The Bishop wanted us to bring some to the church for members to see, and the members went crazy! Everyone took some to give to their friends because they are just so cute! This ward is amazing.

Besides these little things, the ward in general is amazing. I love the people here so much and I will really miss them. Urayasu has become a second home to me. But I will be back! I know it!

Third reason, the people.

Not just Aoi, not just the ward, but all the people that I've met here. The Mission School students are some of my favorite people! We started telling them about the Family History class we are having next week and one of the students freaked out because he didn't think that he could find his ancestor's names. It was so great! I am so excited for how Urayasu's Mission School is growing.

4th: The Missionaries

Every transfer, missionaries change. That's just the nature of missionary work. But I will miss them a lot.

Especially Sister Atkinson.

This week we almost left the phone at the church (a big no no since we have to call in to our District Leader every night to say we are safe, and if you don't the the District Leader has to come check on you) and she had to rest some more (YAY MORE STUDY TIME!!!!!!) and we went all the way to Nakano for follow-up training (so many memories of when I was there for my own follow-up training). I really will miss her. It was weird training my own doki, but she was an amazing companion and I will miss her a lot.

As you can see, Urayasu is the most amazing place ever. This might not have been the most organized email, but my thoughts are scattered all over, just like the things I need to pack.

I have learned a lot here, and I have grown a lot. This was my first Japanese area and in the 3 transfers I've been here, I've had 3 different companions, 1 went home, 2 just came from being home.

In Urayasu, I learned to be patient. I learned to show love to every single person, all the time, because when you show more love, you feel more love. I learned how to be a better teacher and how to apply lessons to people to help them see how the gospel can help their lives. I learned more about the importance of prayer and what a blessing it is to know that when I pray, Heavenly Father is listening, waiting to give me an answer to a question I haven't even asked yet.

There have been so many times when I have prayed to know what I need to do. It isn't always that I receive an answer right away, but I always know that Heavenly Father will answer me.

I love Urayasu so much and I will miss the amazing people here. I look forward to emailing you all from Matsudo next week!!!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

How many languages are you planning on learning Sister Black?

Konnichiwa!

This has been a crazy week, how did it all fit into just 7 days? We are starting the last week of the transfer and it is insane to me!

Relief Society Activity

If you all remember from last week, we were able to set a baptismal date with our investigator, Aoi. Well, she had been a little unsure about what day she wanted to be baptized so we encouraged her to pray and we followed up with her the very next day. She told us that she felt like Heavenly Father really wanted her to receive baptism soon! She kept praying all week and she had some amazing and powerful experiences with feeling the Spirit and wanting to be baptized. We finalized her baptismal date and so she will be baptized on March 19th! Less than a month away! AHHHHHHH! She is so excited though and we are too! We were able to contact her every day this week and it was so amazing to hear about her experience and see how her testimony has grown every day. We have another lesson with her tonight and I am really excited!

This week we were also finally able to get in contact with another investigator, Liu-san. She wanted to call us on Monday night and during that call we were able to set an appointment with her on Wednesday morning. That was a powerful lesson. We started out talking about the Book of Mormon, then finally just asked her if she still wanted to learn more. Her answer broke my heart. We said one last kneeling prayer and her words, even though they were in Chinese, were so powerful. The Spirit was so strong, but afterwards, she still had the same thoughts and so we won't continue to visit her. It is so hard to meet these people, teach them, feel the Spirit, and then have to leave them. Sometimes it just isn't their time yet. One day, she will be ready to accept the whole gospel of Jesus Christ and when that day comes, Heavenly Father will help her and the missionaries meet again.

The gospel is a beautiful gift, but it also requires us to change. Heavenly Father and his commandments don't change, they are eternal and unmoving. We are the ones who have to change in order to receive all the blessings. I guess that's the hard, but also most joyous, part of being a missionary. Helping others to change their lives so that they can receive all the blessings that God has for them is amazing. I can see the change. Over the past 2 months, as I've been teaching Aoi-chan, I have seen more joy and light come into her eyes. Seeing her change her life, one step at a time, has been a joy.

Zone P-day - Ultimate Frisbee

Our last investigator, Nemoto-san was also able to meet this week. We taught her and her 6-year old son the Restoration. She enjoyed it and we took it as a good sign that she kept explaining what we were teaching to her son. He really liked when we used the Children's Book of Mormon to teach him about Joseph Smith. We then taught him how to pray and he said the sweetest prayer to end the lesson. It is so humbling to hear a young child say a prayer because they just ask for the simplest things. As a missionary, I pray all the time, I need the guidance that Heavenly Father has. Before my mission, daily prayer was a struggle for me. I would constantly forget, but now I have a strong testimony of prayer and the help it can bring us. Heavenly Father does answer prayers, I promise that he does. Sometimes it comes as a feeling, or a little thought, and sometimes it will come through someone else, but he always answers. We testify about this to our investigators ALL the time, and we can do that because we have put it to the test. We pray many, many times a day, but Heavenly Father always answers all of our questions.

Valentine's Day

This week we also spent a lot of time doing mogis with members and trying to figure out how to help Mission School grow. Luckily, the two go hand in hand! When we mogi with members, not only do we get to know them and they get to know us, we also improve our teaching skills, and have the opportunity to invite them to Mission School. Personally inviting the members has been more successful than anything else. We are at least able to help them understand what Mission School is and how it can help them. Although not all of them come, we have been challenging every one to come once next month. I love mogi-ing with the members! Seeing their faith and hearing their testimonies strengthens my faith!

This week we had a chance to mogi with Miura Shimai and it was amazing! We got lost for 45 minutes trying to find her apartment building, but when we finally got there she was so sweet. She gave us chocolate cake because it was Valentine's Day and she said we were her Valentines. So sweet!!!! We were able to mogi the Plan of Salvation with her and the Spirit was so strong! I love the members here!

One other thing to love about the Miura's. Their oldest daughter, Sarasa, is marrying Tadashii Maeno, so sometimes the Maenos (from my first area, Oizumi) come to visit and it makes me so excited! I love their family! And now the Miuras want to learn some Portuguese because Maeno Kyoudai doesn't know much Japanese. So cute!

This week's Mission School was amazing! We had 3 new students and many of our regular students came again! We had a really good Eiken class where Makoto (a regular who is fluent in English) actually helped us teach some of the other students. It was really helpful and I think she really liked it, so we might involve her more in teaching in the future. Then during free time, one of the students taught me the colors of the rainbow in Chinese. He also taught me how to write the.colors in Chinese and Japanese. So how many languages will I know when I come home? Hahaha, Chinese is way hard for me though. I'm just learning Chinese for fun. I really like learning the Kanjis though so maybe he can teach me more of that.

Mission School

For the spiritual message at Mission School this week, we shared a video about a boy who gives his coat to a really poor boy on the street. It was a beautiful and simple video, that had no words, just music. The amazing thing was the Spirit that was in the room as we shared the video. Everyone definitely felt the Spirit and they were so reverent as we asked them questions afterwards. It was the most powerful message that I've shared at Mission School so far. It was such a special experience to see these people who don't know about Jesus Christ, who aren't actively learning about the gospel, feel that special Spirit.

One last miracle for the week. Elder Jeffery R. Holland was in Japan and so he had a few special broadcasts. There was one on Sunday night, and Sister Atkinson and I were contacting everyone to see who could go. I really felt like someone needed to hear the words that Elder Holland was going to say, I just didn't know who, but I told Heavenly Father "If someone needs to hear these words, let them come and we will stay and listen with them, but if there is something more we need to be doing, don't let anyone come." And no one came. We went back to the apartment and started calling people on our Eikaiwa list on the phone, and we saw so many miracles! We definitely needed to be doing that last night! Out of 7 people that we called, 5 answered and 4 of them have interest in Mission School. That's so amazing! It's amazing what happens when we keep up our end of the deal. Heavenly Father will always bless us.

The city at sunset.

It's been a good week, sorry that there aren't many funny stories. I have been remembering too many of the miracles, not so many of the funny things. Today's p-day wasn't too exciting either since we decided to go shopping a bit and then take a nap. The wind was so strong today though that I had to change gears on my bike just to move forward! It was insane!!!

Oh I remember one!

So we were biking to a Less Active's house and we stopped at this huge intersection and there were about 20 elementary school kids there. So I was a little further away, but Sister Atkinson stopped right by them, and this one boy goes up and says "Hello!" She was zoned out a bit so she didn't realize that he was talking to her until all the kids started laughing and he said hello again. Haha, I was just watching from 5 feet away and laughing. The kids started asking her where she was from and the one boy kept saying "They don't speak English, but I'm from America too!" It was so cute! Then the light changed and all the kids started jumping up and down and saying goodbye. It was hilarious and adorable and it made our day!

Well, that was the week! Next week are transfer calls, so we will see what happens! Have a great week!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

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

The Urayasu Young Women are the Best!

Konnichiwa!

Making miso soup

February marks the start of my 9th month as a missionary and it's so crazy! Time has gone by so fast!

This was a bit of a rough week because I got sick and we had to take some time away from dendo so that I could rest. I guess I didn't take enough time during the week because by the time Saturday came around I was feeling so bad that I just slept the whole day and we didn't even go to Mission School. I'm feeling 100% better now and I'm ready to dendo hard this week!

Despite my being sick, we still saw some pretty cool miracles this week!

While going house to house

First of all, was our lesson with Karin Shimai on Tuesday. The Ward has a calander for people to sign up to mogi (role play) with us and she signed up, but she actually wanted English help. She has the goal to listen to General Conference in English! Such an awesome goal! Anyways, we decided to do some listening practice with her so we watched "Continue in Patience" a Mormon message from a General Conference talk that President Uchtdorf gave. We helped her go through it a couple of times until she understood almost all of it, then we shared a message about patience and how important it is for us to be patient with ourselves and with others. She told us that this was actually a message that she really needed to hear! The Spirit 100% guided us to pick this video and share the words we did to help her. That just goes to show that we don't always know people's needs, but Heavenly Father does and he will guide us to help the people we are serving here in Japan.

Typical missionary

This week we also helped Hanai-chan with English. She is so cute! She's one of our young women that we have been helping prep for the Eiken. She took the first part recently and although she was still waiting for the results to come out and tell her if she moved onto the interview part, she decided to come study for the interview with us. It was really fun and she was really getting the hang of it by the end. Then on Sunday we saw her again and she told us she passed the first part! Yay! Ah I just love the Urayasu youth so much!

That same day we had a really cool meaningful contact. At lunch we decided to go buy some sushi bowls and while there we saw this mom and daughter (so cute) and their friend come in. While we were all waiting we started talking and it turned out that the mom and little girl were visiting from Ireland and the little girl was Catholic. The mom pointed out our name tags saying "Iesu Kirisuto" and it was so cute. We gave them an Eikaiwa flyer and said goodbye. Then when we were biking home from Hanai-chan's lesson we went a way we don't usually go, but we passed the same family and friend and it was so fun to say hi again. Haha! I really hope they come to Eikaiwa!!!

Some shrines at Asakusa

Sunday was the big miracle day. After church we went on splits with two of the young women in the Ward. Sister Atkinson had a great lesson with Ashely (the YW) and Bernadette. My lesson fell through, but the YW I was with said she was totally willing to help any time this week with any lessons we have, which is so helpful!

After those lessons we got to go to the Kawamuras' for dinner and we had a really powerful mogi with them about praying to know that the Book of Mormon is true. The Spirit was so strong and even though not all of our Japanese made sense, the Spirit was speaking through us and it was amazing. We had fun afterwards eating spaghetti and celebrating Sister Atkinson's birthday! Yep, Sunday was also Sister Atkinson's birthday! I couldn't do much to surprise her, but I did get most of the Young Women to sign a cute card for her and it was really fun. :)

When it is cold, hats and coats
are put on the Buddhas

Our last stop for the night was yoruseisankai (Night Sacrament Meeting) which we have every month, on the first week. This one was special because, Kei Shimai, Eri Shimai, and Aiko Shimai came (all Less-actives we had been trying to contact all week) AND AOI-CHAN CAME!!!!!!! She is our super amazing investigator who has been wanting to come to church, but because of work wasn't able to until yoruseisankai. She really liked it and she had fun meeting some of the members. Afterwards, we had an amazing lesson about prayer. She read way past what we had asked her to read 2 weeks ago and she's been marking it and seeing the similarities between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Although she didn't outrightly say that she knows it is true, I could tell that she is definitely on the path. She had such a light about her as she talked about her experiences and she was very open to our invitation to pray about the Book of Mormon. She is such an amazing, sweet person. I am so glad that I have the chance to work with her. I don't know everything about her, but I can feel that she has a really sincere desire to learn the truth and she is hoping that she finds it here.

It really was a day of miracles and we slept very well last night. :)

Today has been a pretty relaxing p-day. We managed to bake a cake, clean the apartment, study, and go to Asakusa all before 1:30. This was my second time at Asakusa, but it was still so fun. We just looked through all the shops and took lots of pictures. There were many girls in kimonos there and it made me want to get one so bad! They are so pretty!

We also met an LDS couple from Utah who had a 9 hour layover in Japan and decided to come visit Asakusa. They were so sweet! Haha, last time I went to Asakusa I met a member too. Is this going to become a habit? Haha, it was really funny because we walked past and the husband was like "SIsters? I just saw your name tag and even though I can't read it, I thought I'd give it a try" it was funny.

Thank you all for your love and support! I will see you next week!!! I'm excited for this week because we have Zone Conference and Interviews with President Nagano. Ah I'm so excited!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

Moshi chopstick holders

Pulling handcart outside Asakusa