Hope is the Anchor

Dear Family!!

KONNICHIWA!!!!!! HOW ARE YOU????

I will begin this letter with my food story of the week. It was on Thursday. We went to drop off a gift (homemade bread) for Ki*** kyo*** for his birthday. He invited us inside, and Kitada shimai made us hot chocolate (it all of a sudden got super cold this week!! i am now wondering why I decided not to pack any of my winter clothes...) and set out a huge plate of chocolates. The chocolates were delicious!!! We were starving because we hadnt eaten for 7ish hours, so we were eating quite a few of the chocolates. But then kitada shimai remembered that Dobson shimai said she likes okonomiyaki, and they ordered okonomiyaki for all of us! Really, we did not want them to do that at all, but they did. I do not like real Japanese okonimiyaki very much because it tastes like Japanese food, so when we got it and I was saying my prayer over the food, I asked for special help to be able to eat it with good manners and to be able to handle whatever tastes and textures went into my mind. I am so glad God listens to and answers prayers, because guess what was in the okonomiyaki...SQUID!! AHHH!!! Nasty. Bleh. Ew. Ha Dobson shimai and Griffin shimai both had to slip their squid onto Murayama shimais plate. I, thanks to God, was able to handle it. But I never want to eat okonimiyaki again. We were stuffed by the end of the okonomiyaki, but of course, Kitada shimai kept feeding us more and more! You all thought I would lose weight in Japan, but the members are making it extremely difficult to do!

The Lord is blessing us so much here in Mikunigaoka! Agan it was a long week of finding, but this week, we found people! Yay!! On Tuesday morning, we visited Reira san. She is somebody we found from the area book. She is from the Philipines, so she does not speak English well and her Japanese is pretty basic. She had a couple lessons from the missionaries at the beginning of this year but then got too busy to meet again. In the lesson, we asked if her sister wanted to join, and she did! However, she does not speak Japanese or English. So we taught setting the table in Japanese/English, and then Reira san translated to Johna. It was honestly a pretty interesting experience because I recognized some of the Tagalog words and they definitely were not talking about what we had been talking about, and there were some things we said that Reira san could not understand in English or Japanese. BUT they both said they want to meet again and learn more! So we have a lesson with them again this week, and they both became new investigators! That tripled our investigator pool haha. 

Wednesday night before Eikaiwa, we had about 20 minutes, so we decided to go walk around our church and the eki and see if we could find anybody. I have to admit, I was not expecting anything great to happen. For the past 3 weeks, we had been streeting and housing and trying to find people all day long, and we had not found anybody and so I figured this 20 minutes would just be another 20 minutes of going out and doing that. I still had faith that the Lord would definitely lead us to people or lead them to us at the right time, but I guess I figured it would not happen during that short 20 minute period of time we had before Eikaiwa. Boy was I wrong! Right outside our church, we stopped somebody and started talking to her. We found out she goes to a Christian college right now, so we asked if we could teach her more about God, and she said no. Then we suggested that we could do a really fast free church tour, and she accepted on the condition that it would just be a fast free church tour. At the end of the tour, we sat in the chapel. Dobson shimai and  I sang *I am a Child of God* for her and testified that we know God loves her and she is a daughter of God. Well, she said she wanted to learn more, and we set up another appointment for Saturday. Saturday we taught her Setting the Table. It was one of my very favorite times teaching that lesson for multiple reasons. First of all, I finally have it solidly memorized, so I did not have to worry about looking at my notes! Also, she just barely turned 19 years old, and so did I, and she likes music, and so do I, and she likes to eat, and so do I, so I felt a lot of connections with her! Most of all, the lesson really had an impression on me because as we asked her if she has ever thought about her relationship with God, it really surprised me that she had no idea she was a daughter of God! As a 19 year old girl, I really rely on that knowledge and use it as a HUGE source of comfort and hope. So I truly truly desired for her to feel Gods love and learn of Him and form a relationship with Him. And I guess my prayers for the Spirit to be in that lesson really worked because she said she wants to meet again, and she set up the appointment for Tuesday! That is a miracle in and of itself because it is hard for us to meet, especially with teenagers, more than once a week, but she seems anxious to learn more, and Tuesday will be our third lesson in a week! Yay! I love her! 

Yesterday at church my mind was blown out of the water. God is a God of miracles. Let me rewind. On Tuesday during study, we received a phonecall at the church, and it was somebody looking for the American missionaries. Well she found us! She said that she had met the missionaries a while ago and she said she went to church last week but it was all locked up and nobody was there (ahh general conference!!) and she wanted to know when to come to church. WOW The Lord really does lead the prepared elect to us. Her name is Fukushima san, and so all week long we actually thought it was the Fukushima san we had previously met, and we were super excited about it. On Sunday we got to church around 9:30 and walked into the chapel, and there was a lady sitting in there who we did not recognize. We introduced ourselves and found out that that lady was Fukushima san! (A different one than we were expecting...but still we were excited to meet her!) She said that she met the missionaries a couple years ago and she remembered going to church and feeling something, and she wanted to feel that feeling again. Wow! We taught her Setting the Table before church and she said she definitely wants to learn more so we are meeting again next Sunday. And she said she felt GREAT at church! Yippee!!!! What a miracle! 

And to finish off this week of miracles, here is one more HUGE miracle!: We have really had a hard time knowing what to do with our investigator, Yamauchi kyoudai. He has not been progressing, and after a lot of pondering and talking about him, we thought that maybe he is actually not a sheep, maybe he is one of those goats. So for the past week and a half, we have not contacted him. We just wanted to see if he would ever contact us and say he actually wants to learn more. Yesterday we definitely were not expecting him to come to church because he only comes when we call him, and we did not call him. Also, it was pouring rain, and he hates the rain and does not come to church when it is raining. But about 15 minutes into sacrament meeting, in walks Yamauchi kyoudai!! We had not contacted him, it was pouring rain, and on his own, he decided to come to sacrament meeting! There really is something special about him! We do not know what to do for him still or how to help him, but we are praying so hard and we know that with Gods help, he can definitely enter the waters of baptism!!

I learned SO much about Gods love and power this week as these miracles were happening here in Mikunigaoka. 

I love you all!! Have a great week and good luck with all your endeavors!

Love,

Crofts shimai

Patient is the Soul

Dear Family, 

I was able to watch General Conference this weekend! In English! And it was WONDERUL! Definitely every one of my concerns that I have had as a missionary was addressed. That is inspiration. One of my favorite talks was by Elder Bednar. Not necessarily about the tithing part because I am not even paying tithing as a missionary, but all the other lessons that were learned from his talk were super duper great! 

This week was another week with a lot of FINDING time. With only one investigator, Dobson shimai and I have had some (a lot of) sincere, humble, and faithful prayers this week. Then, we have gone out and worked. We have done street contacting, housing, bike dendo, and area book dendo. We rode all over the place this week! We found some great hills that worked my legs soooo hard. We talked to SO MANY people everywhere we went! BUT we were not finding any investigators!! This week definitely tried our patience and our faith. 

On Saturday, we finally had a lesson!!! And, this one lesson made a whole week of trying finding people to teach and not having any success, completely worth it. It was with Hassan san, somebody from Morocco. We found him from the area book. He speaks arabic and french. He does not speak English well and he barely speaks Japanese at all. He has a six year old daughter, and a wife but she speaks Japanese so they are having a hard time communicating. He had a couple lessons with the missionaries a few years ago but then got too busy to meet again. He is INCREDIBLE. Let me tell you just a few things I learned about him from what he said during the Setting the Table lesson: He loves God so much. Over and over again, he kept expressing how much he loves God. He feels Gods love when he is in the church and when he is with us. He recognizes that there is something missing in the lives of people here, and he believes that is the church. He wants to know where he came from and where he is going and what he needs to do in this life to be the best he can be. He wants to serve the church members and donate money to the church (we didnt say anything about tithing...he just brought it up!) He prays to God and he has SO SO SO Much faith!!!! It took everything I had in our lesson to keep my jaw from dropping. That is how amazing he is. And he wants to be baptized! Yahoo! 

So, we only have two investigators, BUT we are working hard and being patient, and after much consideration, I decided that if I had to choose between quality or quantity, I would choose quality, which is what we have! The Lord has definitely been working closely with Hassan san, just as he was with Matsuzaki san, and it is a privilege to be assisting Him. 

Eww story time. We got a new ward mission leader, so after DCS on Friday, he asked if he could take us out for dinner. Dobson shimai and I had already eaten, but we had to go anyway out of politeness. We went to a really cool restaurant! Each table is in its own separate room and it is down low on the ground and there are grill things in the middle. Well, here is the gross part: he ordered SO MUCH FOOD. They brought us out our food, and it was two HUGE plates full of big chunks of meat!! (uncooked meat. and you know how I feel about meat.) It was huge!!!!! It was fun cooking the meat right in front of us, but they kept piling more and more and more meat on my plate! And I do not even like meat!! AHHH I was SO sick by the end. Actually, I still have not recovered. It was so much foooood!! We figured out he payed more than 200 dollars on that meal. SO MUCH FOOD! 

While we were housing one day this week, this old Buddhist man started talking to us. He was telling us how he lives his faith. He was a very strong Buddhist man. Every week, he walks to Wakayama, which is about an hour long train ride, picking up garbage. Every morning he walks through his neighborhood picking up garbage. Also, it is very important to him to visit Buddhist temples. He does these things because he wants to live the best life possible so that wherever he goes after this life, he will be rewarded according to how he lived here. This is the thing: we talk to so many people who believe the same way he does. The people in Japan are SO GOOD. They give up their lives to serve others. They center their lives on families. They are modest and hard working and spend money wisely and so kind. They are so close to being exactly the kind of people who Heavenly Father wants in His kingdom. However...they are just missing one thing, and that is the gospel! The problem is, they do not realize that. Like Hassan san was saying to us, these people spend so much time working hard and they are diligent and disciplined, and it is all because they are searching for a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, but they never quite reach that, and it is because they are missing the gospel. I know some day though that the gospel will penetrate this area and once it starts, it is going to spread like wild fire! I am doing my very best to get that fire started. 

Well....the church is true everybody! That is it for this week--I hope you all have a fabulous week!!

Love,

Crofts shimai

Faith is the Power--Shinkou wa Chikara desu

The smiles say it all!

Take notice of the art work in this restaurant

Octopus!!!

Family, 

      It was good to hear from you again this week!!

     Matsuzaki was baptized!! YAY!! Really, it was so GREAT. I have heard many MANY stories about baptisms and the changes that come to investigators as they accept the gospel. However, I did not expect the change to be so REAL. This past week, I have noticed a lot more happiness in Matsuzaki san. Because the teaching process has been really fast, he did not have a lot of time to think through everything and come to know for himself the truthfulness. All along he has been saying things like *i want it to be true* or *i believe it is true, but I want to FEEL that it is true* and things like that. Well this week he finally did. One night he called and I asked him how things have been going and he said REALLY great. He said that he felt like he was being blessed, and he did not really know how, but he just knew that the feeling he had made it easy for him to do things like give up coffee at work and stuff. On Thursday night we taught Matsuzaki kyoudai about temples and eternal marriage--you should have seen how excited he got! We were showing him pictures of the temple, and he looked SO HAPPY! He kept saying *i want to go there...i really want to go there*! On Friday we texted him a scripture about how the Lord is pleased because of his faith. He texted us back thanking us for the message and said for the first time, he FELT Gods existance. Yaay!! On Saturday for our lesson we just did a baptism walk through and asked if he had any questions. All he had to say was that he was SO EXCITED to be baptized!! The happiness that he had this week was so different than when we first met him. However, this change was nothing compared to the change in him after he was baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. He GLOWED!! Really, I did not know anybody could shine that bright. It was amazing to see! He kept saying *i feel so great!**I feel really great!* It was great to see that in him!! After his baptism when he was bearing his testimony, he talked about how we came to his door at the exact time that he was ready and needed to hear our message. He talked about how the gospel has given him a whole new outlook on his life. He finished his testimony by saying that he hopes he can continue to learn and become more as he continues on in the gospel! YAY!!! I believe he is truly converted. The actual baptism was kind of funny. The person baptizing him dunked him, but was not able to bring him back up. Haha people were saying *pull him up* *get him out of the water* and it was an awkward moment when we were all standing there watching him struggle. All the little girls in our ward were laughing and the witnesses quickly closed the curtain. Haha. BUT we definitely could still feel the Spirit there. 

     Right now we have one  investigator: Yam***. Yam*** has been a really difficult investigator for us. He has been taking the lessons for more than a year. Last year some time he actually had a baptism date and the service actually was planned and everybody showed up on the day of his baptism and the font was filled but he never showed up. And now he is taking lessons again, but honestly, he does not have much of a testimony. He has heard all the lessons so many times that when we teach him, he does not really listen, but when we ask him to explain it, he does not understand it. We really do not know what to do with him. This week I experienced something really neat though. I have been praying a lot to know how we should teach him, and one day during personal study, a lot of specific ideas for his lesson came to me. I started writing them down and soon, I had a whole lesson plan written out. It was a wonderful feeling looking at that lesson plan because I knew I had not come up with it on my own. It was definitely from the Lord, because I had had no idea what to do for Yam***. Anyway, I was happy with the lesson plan, but I did not think we would actually use it because I knew Dobson shimai was thinking about teaching something totally different to Yam*** and usually we end up going with her ideas. BUT when we were doing companionship study and I asked her what she thought we should do for Yam***, she said she got the feeling that we should do whatever I thought. SO that was definitely revelation from the Lord! We taught Yam***the lesson as planned. It was going really well and we learned a lot about Yam*** and his desires and his concerns. We actually invited him to be baptized again, but the second he heard the word baptism, things changed and he got all weird and he actually just stood up and left. SOOOO....now we do not know what to do. BUT I am grateful that I was able to recognize revelation from the Lord. 

     Griffin shimai and I worked together for three days this week. We talked to SO MANY PEOPLE!! This week we both had a confidence boost and a boost in power from on high, and it felt gooooood. We actually got two very solid potential investigators. One of them actually came to church! It was funny because when we went up to her and stopped her, she was saying things like *oh its been a while since we have seen each other.* But the thing is, I did not recognize her one bit. I guess I would be a little bit easier to recognize in a crowd, but still, I did not recognize her. Nonetheless, she said she would come to church, and she did! Yay! She had to leave right after church, but we hope to teach her more this week! 

     I ate octopus this week. Yeah. I have never tried to eat anything with such an absurd texture before. I would not recommend it. But we got a pretty funny video of me trying to eat it, so someday you might be able to watch it! The problem was, okay let me illustrate it: after district meeting, the sisters decided to go out for lunch. So we went to this little restaurant and it seats about 10 people, but because there were six of us, we just sat down and then the lady closed the restaurant door. She brings us a bowl of vegetables and stuff with a raw egg on top, we mix it up, pour it onto the grill thing that is part of the table (so cool!!) and then we make our own okonimiyaki! While we are waiting for it to cook, she is going back and forth from the kitchen to us with little bowls of food. These consisted of miso soup, chinese cabbage, a cabbage salad, rice, and then the cucumber and octopus surprise. And in Japan, if you do not eat everything, it is impolite. So I would try to just give away my octopus or slip it into the garbage, but the lady is coming in and out of the kitchen like every ten seconds. So I have to eat the octopus! But I cant vomit because the lady is watching, so I have to try to act normal. Well, octopus is not normal, and eating it is not a normal thing, and trying to act normal while eating it is very difficult to do!!! So that is my food story.  

     Overall, it has been a week of exercising a LOT of Faith! Dobson shimai and I reached the point where we really had no idea what else to do to increase/help our investigator pool. We decided that instead of stewing over it and getting frustrated, we would just go to work and trust in the Lord. So that is what we have been doing! And we are excited to work with that power and see who we can help come unto Christ this week! 

The church is true and I love ALL OF YOU!!!

Love,

Crofts shimai

CHICHI: sorry you did not get a message last week. i fully intended to save the best for last, but then I never got to the last. sorry! Thank you for always sending me such detailed updates on the family! and thank you for being so kind and wonderful and sending me a cinnavon!! :) (please...???) anyway, good luck with the deck and enjoy the beautiful weather! p.s. I bet japanese is cooler than spanish. Just saying. 

HAHA: I loved that picture!! That is so cool! The language is sort of coming. It all makes sense in my head, and I am catching on to the grammar and vocab very quickly, but to actually form sentences and get them out takes quite a while. Because I have the personality where I would be fine to just sit and not say anything, it is hard to challenge myself to speak Japanese more. But I am starting to understand others a lot better! There was one lesson with Matsuzaki kyoudai where I probably understood 60% of what was going on! And sometimes while I am streeting, I finish a contact and I am amazed that I actually carried on a conversation with somebody. The language surely is coming...slowly. I switch off playing the piano in Relief Society, but I love doing it, because I can sit in the front of them and hear all the old ladies singing in Japanese. AHH the Japanese babies are SO CUTE!! And I especially love the little Japanese girls. They remind me of *boo* from Monsters inc, but their voices are a little higher. Last night we were housing and there was a cute family with a little boy and two little girls. The little girls were talking to us for a long time. Then the five year old went to her mom and said, *do you believe in God?* and the mom ignored her and then the little girl said *i am going to church.* and the mom said no and she said *i will go to church! will you teach me again??* ahh it was so cute! I would definitely say she is one of the elect who is ready to be baptized, except she is 5. One day. Our ward has about 45 members who come to church. THere are lots of little kids and lots of old people. Only 2 young women and 2 young men. The little kids are crazy, they just run around all during sacrament meeting! Ha but they are so cute!! AND our church is right next to a preschool...I just have to get a picture and send it to you some day...it is SO CUTE!!!! 

Chounan and Becca: You have been in my prayers super duper a lot! I hope things are going well!!!!!! Becca you look great :)

Jinan and Jana: Thanks for the email again. Jana good luck in the spectacular!

Sannan: are people in mexico blunt? or round about? 

Jijo: Good luck with Miss Hillcrest! You asked me for tips?? Haha that  would not do you well. Just listen to mom...she knows what is best. But more than that, just do what you would normally do. Be yourself and you will have no regrets. And do not be scared, be proud that you are so awesome and you have a gazillion and one talents. and it is fun. How is T.P.? Japan is better than ever! I bought black and white polka dot rainboots last week! But unfortunately it didnt rain. And today I bought a rain suit! Here everybody wears a rain coat and rain pants! It is like a snow suit but not as fluffy and i tuck my skirt/dress into the pants. Mine is pink and i hope it rains soon so I can wear it!

Otouto: I love ya bud! It is going great! Last night for dinner I had curry. With eggplant and pumpkin and carrots and potatoes. Normally for breakfast I have an egg or beans. For lunch I will have tuna or a salad or both. For dinner it is whatever! Something yummy though! I wish we had cinnavons here. We dont. What is so awesome about the new house?

Youshi: how much do you weigh? our church is right next to a special needs place. I say hi to them sometimes.

The Spirit is the Key-Mitama Wa Kagi Desu

Dearest Family,

It is great to be talking to you again! Guess who has been in Japan for more than a month! Guess who is happier than ever to be serving the Lord!

 I cannot express how much of a miracle it has been working with Matsuzaki kyoudai. He is getting baptized this weekend!!! Yay! We taught him the commandments last week and he said he does not really understand the reason for them all, but he will obey them so that he can obey God and be baptized. Golden. Yesterday after church we were doing a sort of testimony development review as he was filling out his baptismal record. We asked if he had any questions, and his question was why he has to wait a year to go to the temple. Do you know what that means? It means he has a desire to go to the temple! So we met Matsuzaki kyoudai three weeks ago, he is getting baptized next week, and he is already thinking about going to the temple. MIRACLE!

Monday night I had a really neat experience. We decided to go streeting next to our church building. The night before when we were planning, Dobson shimai had a specific place come to mind, which was just next to a seven eleven. As we were streeting, we were getting close to the seven eleven and we stopped somebody on her bike to talk to her and she talked back to us for a while. We invited her to come to the church with us so we could give her a tour and she said she would! However, she first wanted to stop in the seven eleven and buy herself some alcohol. So she did. As we walked over to the church and talked, I noticed how completely crazy this lady was. Ha honestly I just could not believe we were going to the church with her as she was talking away and drinking her alcohol and such. However, my mindset was changed quickly. Our church is five stories, so it is quite the hike to get to the top. The whole time, she was just talking away and oohing and aahing and asking *who is that?* *what is that?* and such. We finally got to the top floor of our church building and she got really excited to see a piano! She begged to play it and we let her. At first, she was just playing random keys, and I was worried. But then, these random keys started turning into actual chords and then music and before I knew it she was playing the most beautiful music ever! It was so incredible...I was almost brought to tears! Maybe because it was good music, but probably because it was somebody like this lady, (Fukushima san) who I thought was completely crazy, playing the piano so amazingly. I felt bad for thinking about how crazy Fukushima san was, because at that moment I just noticed how absolutely amazing she was. On our way down the church, she was asking away and talking just as crazily as before. We got down to the bottom floor and sat in the chapel. She was disappointed when she found out we would not be able to see God. Haha! But we began teaching her about her relationship with God, and I had pictures going through my mind of her being baptized, and of her going through the temple, and then all I was thinking about was how she is really a daughter of God! Fukushima san is a daughter of God! It was an amazing feeling.  

Unfortunately, it  has been a week of unfortunate events. We called Fukushima san on Friday to set up an appointment with her, and she said she was not interested and that we could not call her anymore. We visited her house on Saturday night, and she did not answer the door.  To add to this unfortunate event, we dropped 8 other investigators this week! And now we only have 2 investigators!!! Once Matsuzaki san gets baptized, we will only have one investigator. Bah!  This has definitely been a week of a lot of thinking and learning and trusting. At first, I was thinking the typical thoughts: *what am I doing wrong?* *why are we not seeing success?* Those are the thoughts that naturally come to my head. But I am so grateful for resources I have that helped me change my thoughts to more encouraging ones like *I will keep being faithful* *I know there are still 44 sheep in our area!* *This is Gods work and Gods timing and I am doing all I can to be Gods helpful instrument*. I have been studying a lot from PMG, the scriptures, and the talks from Zinke Kaicho, and I have received a lot of revelation. Something that really helped me this week was what I learned at the Trainer Trainee Training Meeting in Kobe on Tuesday. We talked about the sacrament and how important it is for us as missionaries. Because we can ONLY do missionary work with the Spirit, we need the Spirit. The only way to have that is by being worthy, and the only way to be worthy is through the atonement, and the best way for us to access the power of the atonement is through sacrament. We talked about how when we are worthy, we will be able to access the enabling power of the atonement. We will be able to do things that we as mortals can not do by ourselves, but that can only be accomplished with God:s help. Missionary work, the act of changing other humans hearts, is not possible without Gods help. It was an amazing discussion. Anyway, I have never been more excited for the sacrament as I was this week.  Also, I have never given myself to the Lord more than I did this last week. Finally, I never had a stronger determination to go out and just work than I did last week. I have faith that as we continue to be obedient and plan with the Spirit and WORK, the Lords purposes will move forward. 

So, adventure story of the week! On Saturday, we had a ward BBQ. This ward BBQ was about an hour bike ride away, but we were encouraged to go to it, so we did! It was a HOT HOT day, but we were riding our bikes so stinkin fast anyway. About 50 minutes into the bike ride, I sort of rode my bike into the rain drainage thing on the side of the road and my back tire popped! Ahh! We walked our bikes the rest of the way to the park...I felt super bad. A member took my bike to a bike shop and got it fixed during the BBQ. So nice! Anyway, this BBQ was unlike anything I have ever seen. In Japan, it is polite to prepare food when the guests arrive. So it is hard to do dinner appointments here because they should only last 1 hour, but the members do not like to begin preparing the food until the missionaries arrive. Anyway, we all gathered together in this park (which in Japan, they do not usually have grass, so it is just dirt. It kind of felt like camping.) They pull out a table, pull out a bowl, and put a bunch of ground meat in it, and people start mixing it up with their hands as other people are adding spices and then they roll the meat into balls and weigh them on a little scale thing and then flatten them and then stick them on the grill! All in a little patch of dirt between some trees. For the ward BBQ. Anyway, it was kind of gross to me, but the burger ended up tasting stinkin delicious! Oh by the park, there is a lake with turtles in it! So that was cool! We had to leave the BBQ early to get to Matsuzaki sans baptismal interview. However, we had to wait for my bike to be fixed, and by the time it was ready, we only had 35 minutes to get back to our church. So we rode fast and we got back in 35 minutes! I think it was harder than Ragnar. Haha we arrived just before Matsuzaki san did, and when he walked up to us and I stuck out my hand to shake his hand and I was sunburned and covered in mosquito bites and sweat, he looked scared. Haha. So, he passed his interview! Yay!! On the way back to our apartment, my front tire on my bike popped!! So instead of visiting people like we had planned, I had to go get my front tire fixed. Ha it was quite the day. 

Anyway, that is it for my Japan adventures this week! I love you all! AND...the church is true!!!

Love,

Crofts shimai

Dad:

Mom:

Jason: Good luck this week with your MRI and your LSAT. I will be praying for you!! Sorry I did not answer your questions last week. There are just short of 200 missionaries in this mission. We do not have a yearly baptismal goal. We just know that there are about 1480 people in this mission who are ready to hear the gospel right now, and our goal is to become true disciples of Christ and find these people! 

Becca: Thanks for the great email! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! You are so inspiring. And all the talk of pumpkin and stuff sounds just wonderful. Enjoy the fall season! And I will be praying super hard for Jason and for you and for your baby! Have you decided a name yet?

Peach: Thank you for the wonderful fabulous electronic dictionary. It is very very useful. Pretty much every missionary buys one, but they usually spend 200 or 300 dollars on it. So thank you! I do not know if my area is a bigger city than Salt Lake City, but I know there are a gazillion and one more buildings and a gazillion and two more people than in Salt Lake City. But I am kind of in a suburb area. So not big nice buildings...mainly just apartments. Sorry that you are sick...that is a huge downer. I want to be a smore for halloween. Not the whole smore, just the marshmallow. But that will have to wait for a couple years. Do not steal my idea.

Jana: Thanks for your email too! I love hearing about your life! The broadcast sounds great! I hope I can read the talks soon! Yum chicken enchilada soup is my favorite :)

Tyler: I always forget my quote book. BUT I know that God is real and I know that this is His work and I know that He is SOO ready to bless all the faithful missionaries. 

Sarah: Hey you hey! Good luck with all your pageant stuff. It is fun huh? Go ahead and steal my on-stage question if you want. It got me some money! (all credit goes to mom...)

Dan: Whats up?? Do you like cold or hot better?

Joey: WHAT IS UP!!??

Grandpa V: Thanks again for the letter! You should be expecting one in the mail!

Cassi: Good luck entering the MTC!! I am super duper excited for you!