Happy Birthday Sarah!! And congratulations. :) Dad--congrats on the marathon!! You are a beast! Grandpa: congratulations! You are a winner!! Your letter was the first one I have received in Japan! THANK YOU!!!!
What a fabulous blessing it is to be in here Mikunigaoka!
The highlight of our week has definitely been working with Matsuzaki san. He is our miracle investigator. It was only our second week after meeting him, but I feel like we have been teaching him forever. It is a comfortable feeling going into lessons and his testimony has grown immensely! On Monday night, we taught him the entire Plan of Salvation. He ate it all up. He loved it! His favorite part was of course learning about the celestial kingdom. He talked to us (in English, so I understood) about how much he loves being with his family, and how he feels so much comfort and happiness with them. He said that if he could feel that kind of happiness all the time, he would do anything. So on Tuesday night, we decided to teach him how to achieve that--we taught the gospel of Christ--faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Because he is a logical thinker, we just had to show him the goal of eternal life, show him the steps to make that goal, and it all made sense to him! Our member in the lesson went a little crazy during that lesson and started talking about the war in heaven and tons of details about the Fall of Adam and things that I honestly do not know much about, but we just kept trying to get back to our lesson plan and simplify it as much as possible! With 4 weeks from the time we met Matsuzaki san until the time he is baptized, there is a lot to teach in a little bit of time. However, the Lord has definitely been working with him for a long time. During our lesson on Thursday, Matsuzaki san was telling us a little bit about a business that he wants to start up, and then he began talking about how he was introduced to the gospel at just the right time. He said he had been thinking a lot about his desires in life and his purpose and what he should be doing, and just as he began exploring different options for work, he was introduced to the gospel, and he said he is so ready to learn about it all and he believes it and he knows it was no accident that we met him when we did. Wow. I knew it was a miracle that we found him, and our investigators recognizes how incredible it is too! He really has been such an honor to work with. This weekend he has been in the Philippines...he went to meet his girlfriend for the first time! She took him to church with her and to the temple...I hope everything went well!
Tuesday before our lesson, we called the member, Kitada kyoudai, to make sure he was still okay to be at the lesson. He said yes and then asked if we could go to his house an hour before the lesson for dinner. WELL. It was good, but it was SO MUCH!! Kitada shimai brought out a bowl of spaghetti, and it was about the size that our whole family eats, and she set it right in front of me and then brought another one for Dobson shimai! And in order to be nice, we had to eat the entire thing!! BLAH I felt so sick! My taste buds are big time changing though...it was mushroom spaghetti and I loved the mushrooms! Then on Thursday, Kitada kyoudai invited us over again for dinner! We REALLY did not want to go, and we would probably have told him no but it sounded like it was already prepared for us, so we went. We had salmon and radishes and a cabbage salad and potato salad and rice and ice cream. Believe it or not, my favorite part was the salmon and the radishes! They were DELICIOUS! I probably would have enjoyed the ice cream too, but by the time we got to that, I was so stinkin full. Also, they have 9 cats. Yeah.
Wednesday was a FUN day! We were going finding at the park, and we ran into a group of 8 year old girls. They were SO excited to see us! They talked with us (Dobson shimai haha) for a little while and then gave us some of their candy and we gave them stickers and pass along pictures of the temple and of Jesus. We were walking away, and then they chased after us so that they could get handshakes from us. Later, we saw them all again, and this time they were with their moms, so we decided to go up and talk to the moms. The little girls went crazy! They gave us their pass along cards and asked us to sign them. THen they got other papers and asked us to sign those too! THen they gave us more candy, and they were asking over and over if we could play with them. We showed them pictures of our families (they could not tell the difference between me and Sarah at all...it was so funny!) and then they taught us the Japanese version of Red Light Green Light. I did not understand a lot of it, but we played a couple rounds, and it seems a lot more fun in Japan. They were so cute! When we were leaving, they all had to give us handshakes again...ah it was the best! Eikaiwa on Wednesday night was also so great. Ha they were trying to say *music*, but they could not figure out if it was *muziku* or *muzika* or *muziki*. We said it is just *muzik* and they could NOT say it! I had a hard time holding in my laughter. We played a game at the end, and it was hilarious. At Eikaiwa, there were about 8 women and 3 men. They are pretty old, but during this game, they were acting like 3rd graders. THey were getting so excited about it all and jumping up and down and saying *i got it! I got it!* English is super exciting to them. After Eikaiwa, I was talking to one of the ladies, and it was the best conversation I have had here in Japan. Thankfully we were talking in English because I am not allowed to speak Japanese at Eikaiwa. I found out she has a 19 year old daughter who lives in America, so we started talking about families. I showed her my photo book, and she was just ooing and aawing the whole time! She thought we were all good looking, but more than that, she just kept saying, *they make you so happy!* *you are all happy!* *you must love them all so much, you are so happy!* It is true. You make me insanely happy. She asked if I missed you and I said I sure did but I could not be happier to be in Japan because I want to share our happiness with other people. She seemed super excited to come back to Eikaiwa this week and talk to me again. Yay!
Again, on Friday and Saturday, Dobson shimai and Murayama shimai left. When Dobson shimai and Murayama shimai leave, it is always a huge learning experience for me and Griffin shimai. This week we did less streeting than normal. Elections are going on here so there are people with big signs yelling at the top of their lungs all over the place. It is crazy hectic. And they get in these big white vans and speak on the megaphones and drive through all the streets. It is so noisy here! Oh speaking of noise, this is random, but the garbage trucks here play music. Like ice cream truck music, but they are garbage trucks haha. We did not want to compete with the noise though, so we spent quite a bit of time housing and quite a bit of time mogiing the Setting the Table lesson and working to memorize it (That is the first lesson that we always give to new investigators, it basically talks about God and our purpose and such. We definitely are not supposed to be memorizing our scripts as missionaries, but Zinke kaicho said that this script was revelation, and the Lord will bless us with more investigators when we are prepared to present this lesson well.) While we were housing, the most embarrassing thing happened! We were going through neighborhoods next to one of Griffin shimai*s investigators. We came to a house and the girl who answered said to wait, and after about 2 minutes, she came out of her house. Griffin shimai began the little introduction about who we are and stuff, and the whole time I was looking at this girl thinking that she looked just like one of our investigators, Chiho chan. I could not get over how much they looked the same! Then she said something about Dobson shimai, so I then thought, *oh she must be Chiho chans cousin or sister!* Well, she went in her house and came out with a letter for Dobson shimai, then went back in her house. We turned the corner, I turned around 2 or 3 times, and then realized we were at Chiho chans house! It was Chiho chan! Now this is why that is embarrassing: we had just had a lesson with Chiho chan on Tuesday, and we have another lesson scheduled for this week. She is the nice cute one who gave us the delicious fruit! Out of our 11 investigators, she is one of 3 that we are actually in contact with! And I went and housed her without even knowing it! Haha Griffin shimai and I laughed about that for a LONG time.
It is clear I am not very good with my directions or recognizing where I am, but that may actually be a blessing in disguise. Saturday night, Dobson shimai and I had about 30 minutes to go out housing, so we did a neighborhood that is pretty close to our apartment. At one of the houses, a mom and her 3 daughters all came out to talk to us. Well, she told us that she has already had missionaries come to her house. She said it was just a few weeks ago and it was 2 young girls who could not speak Japanese and they were looking down at notes the whole time. That was definitely me and Griffin shimai. BUT she must have been impressed with Dobson shimais Japanese, because she said we could come back! We are teaching the family on Wednesday and we are SO excited!! Dobson shimai has been working so hard to be prepared for a family, and I KNOW the Lord led us to this family!
As part of the Kobe Mission, we have 4 questions that we should always be thinking about to make sure we are being true disciples. They are *why am I here* *who called me* *whose work is this* and *what is my purpose*. This week, I have really been focusing on *why am I here.* I have learned more than ever this week how much of the work is God. God is the one who prepared Matsuzaki san. God is the one who is changing his heart. God is the one who is letting him understand the message and desire more. There really is nothing I did to have all of these miracles happen. So why am I here? I do not have a perfect answer to that question,
I know that God is real! I KNOW He has a plan for each one of us, and I KNOW He loves every single person!
With that in mind, have a FANTASTIC week!!
Love,
Crofts shimai
Dad: are you running in the Boston Marathon?? I forgot, did you ever come to Japan? And if so, where?
Mom: You are the best ever! And p.s., adopting a Japanese baby would have been better than adopting a black baby...they are SO CUTE!! Family is really important here in Japan, and so I see a gazillion and one moms with their little kids and little babies and they are all just adorable. And I can see you being a good mom here...riding a bike with a kid in a seat in front and a kid in a seat in back and a little kid trying to ride with training wheels beside his mom. It is fun here :) p.s. could you forward me ty:s letters? and maybe my other friends like kayden and emily and such? thanks i love you!!!!!
Jason and Becca: I hope school is going super well!
Peach and Jana: Enjoy the rain! oh haha nursery. I bet yall are having the best time ever with that!
Tyler: The Lord said, *according to thy faith, be it unto you.* I believe the Lord definitely will do all things according to our faith. Keep up the good work!
Sarah: wow. congrats. ahhahahahaha crazy girl. you are crazy! I am glad you got the package! Everybody here uses decorated tape...nobody uses normal tape. If you want a certain color or pattern, i am sure i can find it for you! Plus, did you not like the black thunders?
Danny; I have not been blown up yet. THe best food is a okonomiyaki...it is a cabbage pancake type thing. I like to put onions and carrots and eggplant and lots and lots of cabbage in mine. the worst food--some smoothie thing than an investigator bought for me with bananas and yogurt and vegetables and i am pretty sure it had seaweed in it. blah i thought i was going to die. have fun this week!
Joseph; konnichiwa!
Grandpa Vance: thanks for the letter! I appreciate your efforts to greet me in Japanese, but Jitensha actually means bicycle. Haha. Next time try konnichi wa! THanks again!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
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