Beautiful Moments

Heeeeiiann Kazoku! Genki desu ka?

The Lake Powell trip sounds like it was fun! Don't worry, I played sand volleyball and it was fun too. Happy Birthday again Pops!! You know I love you bunches!

This week was a week full of blessings. I feel like EVERYTHING about the MTC and about me and the missionary work was better this week. The following are a few examples of how:

PI Lessons: Remember how I said Eddy shimai and I came up with a new plan/new way of doing missionary work? Well it has made all the difference in the world. Our goal was to have everything we do during the day be something to help us better teach the investigators. We used our time SO MUCH more effectively this week! And I thought we were using it effectively before, but the improvement was great. Because of this, we were a lot more prepared for our lessons. We have BURNED through the PMG over and over. We taught Watabe san on Monday. He has always been a golden investigator, praying, reading the Morumon Sho, repenting, etc. So we decided to share Mosiah 4:11-12 with him and just encourage him to continue moving forward in faith. He loved the scripture. We taught Shibata san on Tuesday. This was the one that I could tell was really different as a result of our studying and focus. We have been trying over and over to get Shibata to repent, and he just never understood why he needed to. Well finally on Tuesday, when the topic came up, because we had done so much studying, we were able to simply explain the importance of repenting again, and then each of us had a scripture come to mind to share with him and with both of those scriptures, he really understood it. He finally accepted the commitment to repent! The Lord was definitely helping us. Our lesson with Asage san on Wednesday was amazing. He is our new investigator so we had just briefly explained a few things to him in our first lesson last week and asked him to pray. Well this week we asked him how prayer was and he said he was really scared to do it at first but then as he prayed he felt something different and he liked it. We explained that he was feeling God's love. He didn't know what God's love was, and  I'm not sure how, but eventually we were talking about Jesus Christ and the atonement and we shared Alma 7:12 with him. Oh I am so excited to tell you about this part! He asked us who it is talking about when it says Christ will take upon Him the weaknesses of the people. Well we didn't know the word for weakness in Japanese, so we didn't know how to answer that question for the longest time. Finally, after a lot of charades, we figured out that he was asking about whose weaknesses the scripture talks about. I just said one thing: everybody. He looked up really quickly and his jaw dropped and he just stared. Oh I wish you could have felt that! Asage san was so shocked that Christ suffered for EVERYBODY, but at the same time, I felt like he believed it. Finally, after much silence, he asked why. We then shared John 3:16 and I could tell Asage san understood God's love. More importantly, it helped me understand better God's love. He really loves A LOT.

NIHONGO: The Lord is also blessing me with Japanese. We played a game a few days ago where our sensei would say a sentence in English and then we would race to write it down in Nihongo. I was finished first almost every time! I'm not saying this at all to brag or compare myself with others, but just to say that the Lord is blessing me so much! When new grammar concepts are explained, I feel like I understand them almost right away every time and all the little grammar rules are starting to come together. Whew I am so glad I am learning this language with the Lord's help, because I know without him, those little rules would be HARD to put together. However, I still make plenty of Nihongo mistakes. Eddy shimai and I have been reading the Nihongo Morumon Sho together at nights. We'll have the Eigo Book of Mormon out and read one verse at a time from English and then Nihongo. One night, we were so confused because I read the verse in English, and she started reading the verse in Nihongo, and she noticed that it had Laman, Lemuel, Sam, etc in it and the English verse didn't. Because I think I know more than I do and I think I'm super good at Nihongo, I went on to explain that they had to include the names of Nephi's family in the Nihongo Book of Mormon but not in the English Book of Mormon because they don't treat pronouns the same way. It was going on for a while like that and finally we realized that we were on chapter 3 in the English B.oM. and chapter 2 in the Nihongo B. oM. Haha so much for thinking I knew what I was talking about. \

MUSIC: Last Sunday the devotional was a musical fireside with Jenny Oaks Baker! Ahh I have a new respect for her and a new respect for music. I just LOVED it. It really made me want to play the violin again! Well..Good news mina san! I'm playing my violin in sacrament meeting tomorrow! Somehow the music coordinators in my branch found out that I would be willing to play and they asked me to on Wednesday. And here's the better news: I went to reserve the violin on Thursday and there was another violinist there who was about to audition to play in a devotional. I asked him what he was playing and then he asked what I was going to play on Sunday and I said I didn't know. Then he pulled out a huge pile of music! And guess what! The piece of music on top was the arrangement I play of "If you could Hie to Kolob." So that's the one I'm doing! Oh and here's the EVEN better news: He continued to go through his pile and I noticed he had a violin duet of Lord I would Follow THee. I told him that was one of my favorite hymns and I would love to play it. I was just saying that to say it, not implying anything, but one of the ladies who is in charge of music heard me say it and told me that I needed to set up a time to practice it with that Elder. So we are practicing it on Tuesday and hopefully auditioning for something on Thursday and hopefully playing for something after that. Exciting huh?!

DAISENPAI: My district is officially daisenpai. You know what that means? It means the group of Japanese missionaries ahead of us left on Monday and the group of new missionaries came in on Wednesday and we are the next group to leave to Japan! You know what that really means? It means I get my travel plans on Friday. And it means in a couple weeks I'll be able to call you. And it means in less than 3 weeks I'll be practically on the other side of the world! Yep that's right. We hosted on Wednesday so we could welcome in all the new Nihongo speakers as they walked by. SO MANY new missionaries are going to Kobe! Anyway, I couldn't actually host because I got hit with the cold this week and I completely lost my voice. I was planning on just standing on the sidewalk and waving, but then they made a new rule that we can't wave because it's dangerous for the traffic. So then I just stood there and bowed and every once in a while I would throw out a dying-frog-sounding "Konnichi wa!" Haha even though I couldn't speak it was still fun. Speaking of not speaking, I still did choir on Tuesday because I love choir, even though I had no voice. I could actually sing though if I sang an octave lower. So I did. And even though nobody else heard me, I thought it was hilarious and I was laughing pretty hard. (I know, I said I was maturing and not laughing as much, but I was laughing at that.) Oh speaking of laughing! I've got another story! So one of my roommates was also sick and because she was so congested she started moaning in her sleep. It was like a metronome of moans that went on and on and on. The first night it happened, I just did my best to ignore it and sleep through it. Then the next night she started doing it again! She started off slow, but then the moans started getting louder and louder and more and more frequent. Finally I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep, so I decided to just join in and harmonize. Of course the second I started to harmonize, I started to laugh. I was trying to hold in my laughter because it was really late and I knew everybody would want to sleep. But the more I tried to hold in my laughter, the more I laughed. Then I heard someone else start to laugh, so that made me laugh harder. Then three of us were laughing, and I was about to die I was laughing so hard. Finally, the sister who had been moaning sat up and said "What is so funny? I've been awake this whole time and I never heard anything funny!" We had to explain to her that she in fact had not been awake.

BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS:  My testimony continues to grow stronger and stronger everyday. On Sunday we watched the Joseph Smith movie (in Nihongo) and on Monday morning I read Joseph Smith History and my testimony of the Restoration grew so much stronger. I KNOW Joseph Smith was called of God and that the restoration was part of God's marvelous work.

I am also grateful for our wonderful senseis who help us understand our true purpose as missionaries. On Monday Eddy shimai and I were mogiing. Eddy shimai was playing the role of the missionary and she had a hard time coming up with what to say. One of the senseis came up to her and told her to think about what Christ would teach if He were there. He then went on to talk about how we really are LITERALLY doing what Christ would do if He were on the Earth. I had heard that before, but it had a much bigger impact on me on Monday. I am grateful for the calling to serve the Lord and help others come unto Christ. Miracles happen every day!

I love you all!!

Love,

Crofts shimai

POPS: Did you really crash the boat? Did you have fun driving the boat all day long on your birthday? Did you love the chocolate cake? DId you save a piece for me? Did you get the letter I sent you? I love you!!

MUDGE: Hey there! I still don't know if the acne medication is working. I may or may not have a clearer face. Thanks for your dear elder! Also, I wish you were here to hear me play if you could hie to kolob. I know you love that arrangement. Actually, I wish you were here mainly because I miss you.

JAS AND BECCA: Has school started yet? I'm not telling you my favorite boy names, becuase there aren't very many good ones, and I want them for myself. The sisters in my district talk about what they want to name their kids all the time. However, I'm not sure how I feel about their names: Clarence, Izak, Crew, Jude, and stuff. I forgot the rest. Did you sleep well on the house boat?

PEACH AND JANA: What is up?? I hope you had fun with Momma Wutzke in town!

TYLER: I love you.

SAUD BRAIN: HEY GIRL HEY!!! Did you get my letter?? Thanks so much for your dear elder. I might have teared up when I read it! I love you!

DANNY: Would you rather be as fat as a whale but have a super fun life, or be a normal size but have a boring life?

JOSEPH: I miss you too.

CAR CAR: Thanks for the updates!!!