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Check out how I celebrated my half birthday! I ate almost all of them too! Except the two nastiest looking ones in the front haha. BUT raw fish really is not that bad at all! If there was not so much wasabe on it, I think I really would have liked it!
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Family,
Happy Thanksgiving! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!!!!!! And I am so happy to hear about your head!
I never knew I could love missionary work so much! Every day is the new best day of my life. I could go on forever talking about wonderful blessings from the Lord that came to the Mikunigaoka area this week, but I will only share a few of my favorite ones.
Masumoto san is such a fun investigator to have. She has been taking lessons from the missionaries for quite a while, but she never seemed to be progressing or applying anything to her life. However, two weeks ago when we taught her prayer, she prayed for the first time in the lesson! Last week when we arrived at her apartment, she was thrilled to inform us that she had prayed every night that week! She is in such a good position now for the Lord to speed up His work with her...I am excited to see how she can progress even more.
Yamauchi kyoudai is also progressing even more in every lesson. It definitely has been a slow process working with him, but the `by helping him` training plan has really made a difference. He does his homework assignment every time, and reading from the Book of Mormon is helping him so he is starting to understand our lessons, and now we never call him to set up an appointment because he always calls and asks for another one! In fact, last week we had to turn him down a lesson because he only will come to the church twice a week, (he lives far away) and we wanted to make sure he would come to church. And he did come! He was excited at church to report that he is working on his next Book of Mormon homework assignment! Yay! He is really beginning to understand and apply things now...I just hope that he can feel it to, because I know that is when he will be willing to make the bigger commitments (like Baptism!)
I am amazed at how many times the Lord has led us to Fukushima san. She can not take lessons from us during the week, and she has not been able to go to church for a couple of weeks, so last week we decided to drop off a letter at her apartment. We did not know where she lived, and when we put her address in our GPS, it would not register exactly where she lived, so we only knew a very general area. We decided to go to that area and do our best to figure out the address. Well, as we are biking down this street, there are hundreds of apartment buildings. Seriously on both sides of us down this huge stretch, there is just one building after another. SO MANY APARTMENTS. And I just turned down one street because I tho
ught it would be a good street to turn down. Then I looked back and told Griffin shimai I thought it was somewhere close, so she turned down another street, and we went up to a random apartment and checked the postbox for the room number we had, and Fukushimas name was on it. God is a God of miracles!
Kurosaki san...ha this may not have been my favorite part of the week, but it was definitely interesting. We usually teach her every Wednesday after Eikaiwa, but this Wednesday, she left right after Eikaiwa! We tried to talk to her but she said she had to go and could not talk. We called her later that night and she informed us that she was only meeting with missionaries because she thought Murayama shimai was a great friend, and then when Murayama shimai left she said she was meeting us because she thought we could not understand Japanese, but once she realized we could understand what she was saying, she did not want to meet with us! It was the most bizaar phone call! To be honest, we really do not understand much of what she says...we just pick out some words here and there and then nod our heads. But she came to church this week too, even though we never contacted her or invited her!
Mai chan is AMAZING. She is the other one of our yakusokushas (investigator with baptismal date). She is also 19 years old!!! We have not been able to meet with Mai chan for a couple of weeks because she was really busy with tests and then last weekend she got sick. Two weeks ago, we were not able to contact her at all, so we were shocked when we saw her walk into church! We really knew she was somebody special. But then this week when she was sick, we just assumed that she would not be able to come to church, but a few minutes after sacrament meeting started, in walked Mai chan!! She was sick, she never even committed to come, yet she still came to church! Really, that is nothing but the Lord working miracles with her.
Our week with Arisa chan this week is what makes everything about missionary work so worth it. We have gotten to the point now where all we need to teach her is the commandments. We know that this is the point where her baptism either happens or it does not. So at the beginning of the week, Griffin shimai and I were honestly very nervous. However, after some very earnest prayers and studies and pondering, we both came to the conclusion that this is the Lords work and everything is in His hands and He works miracles according to faith, and through the help of our Savior, our fears turned into faith. We were actually excited to teach her commandments! We decided to teach simply and boldly (which we honestly can not to much differently with our language abilities) and we knew that the Lord would take care of the rest. On Friday, we had to RUSH back after zone tai kai to get to her lesson on time. We were teaching her sabbath day, and we had mogied the lesson a few times, so we felt ready. We got the the church right when Arisa arrived there, we talked for a while, then we did our Sabbath day lesson, and when we committed her to keep the Sabbath day holy, she said yes without even blinking. Miracle! At the end of our lesson, she brought up the fact that she has work on Sunday. She asked us what she should do, and we talked about a couple of options with talking to her boss and changing her shift etc. She seemed really nervous about doing any of those things, but we told her that we knew God would help her, and she agreed. She said she would pray for help and that she would do what she could to get work off on Sunday! She has the most amazing faith. She texted us later that night and said she was praying for help! We still have not heard back from her about it, but with our prayers and her prayers and the Lords help, I am excited to see what will happen.
Masumoto san is such a fun investigator to have. She has been taking lessons from the missionaries for quite a while, but she never seemed to be progressing or applying anything to her life. However, two weeks ago when we taught her prayer, she prayed for the first time in the lesson! Last week when we arrived at her apartment, she was thrilled to inform us that she had prayed every night that week! She is in such a good position now for the Lord to speed up His work with her...I am excited to see how she can progress even more.
Yamauchi kyoudai is also progressing even more in every lesson. It definitely has been a slow process working with him, but the `by helping him` training plan has really made a difference. He does his homework assignment every time, and reading from the Book of Mormon is helping him so he is starting to understand our lessons, and now we never call him to set up an appointment because he always calls and asks for another one! In fact, last week we had to turn him down a lesson because he only will come to the church twice a week, (he lives far away) and we wanted to make sure he would come to church. And he did come! He was excited at church to report that he is working on his next Book of Mormon homework assignment! Yay! He is really beginning to understand and apply things now...I just hope that he can feel it to, because I know that is when he will be willing to make the bigger commitments (like Baptism!)
I am amazed at how many times the Lord has led us to Fukushima san. She can not take lessons from us during the week, and she has not been able to go to church for a couple of weeks, so last week we decided to drop off a letter at her apartment. We did not know where she lived, and when we put her address in our GPS, it would not register exactly where she lived, so we only knew a very general area. We decided to go to that area and do our best to figure out the address. Well, as we are biking down this street, there are hundreds of apartment buildings. Seriously on both sides of us down this huge stretch, there is just one building after another. SO MANY APARTMENTS. And I just turned down one street because I tho
Kurosaki san...ha this may not have been my favorite part of the week, but it was definitely interesting. We usually teach her every Wednesday after Eikaiwa, but this Wednesday, she left right after Eikaiwa! We tried to talk to her but she said she had to go and could not talk. We called her later that night and she informed us that she was only meeting with missionaries because she thought Murayama shimai was a great friend, and then when Murayama shimai left she said she was meeting us because she thought we could not understand Japanese, but once she realized we could understand what she was saying, she did not want to meet with us! It was the most bizaar phone call! To be honest, we really do not understand much of what she says...we just pick out some words here and there and then nod our heads. But she came to church this week too, even though we never contacted her or invited her!
Mai chan is AMAZING. She is the other one of our yakusokushas (investigator with baptismal date). She is also 19 years old!!! We have not been able to meet with Mai chan for a couple of weeks because she was really busy with tests and then last weekend she got sick. Two weeks ago, we were not able to contact her at all, so we were shocked when we saw her walk into church! We really knew she was somebody special. But then this week when she was sick, we just assumed that she would not be able to come to church, but a few minutes after sacrament meeting started, in walked Mai chan!! She was sick, she never even committed to come, yet she still came to church! Really, that is nothing but the Lord working miracles with her.
Our week with Arisa chan this week is what makes everything about missionary work so worth it. We have gotten to the point now where all we need to teach her is the commandments. We know that this is the point where her baptism either happens or it does not. So at the beginning of the week, Griffin shimai and I were honestly very nervous. However, after some very earnest prayers and studies and pondering, we both came to the conclusion that this is the Lords work and everything is in His hands and He works miracles according to faith, and through the help of our Savior, our fears turned into faith. We were actually excited to teach her commandments! We decided to teach simply and boldly (which we honestly can not to much differently with our language abilities) and we knew that the Lord would take care of the rest. On Friday, we had to RUSH back after zone tai kai to get to her lesson on time. We were teaching her sabbath day, and we had mogied the lesson a few times, so we felt ready. We got the the church right when Arisa arrived there, we talked for a while, then we did our Sabbath day lesson, and when we committed her to keep the Sabbath day holy, she said yes without even blinking. Miracle! At the end of our lesson, she brought up the fact that she has work on Sunday. She asked us what she should do, and we talked about a couple of options with talking to her boss and changing her shift etc. She seemed really nervous about doing any of those things, but we told her that we knew God would help her, and she agreed. She said she would pray for help and that she would do what she could to get work off on Sunday! She has the most amazing faith. She texted us later that night and said she was praying for help! We still have not heard back from her about it, but with our prayers and her prayers and the Lords help, I am excited to see what will happen.
Thanks for all the wonderful emails this week! I am glad you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving! (Do not worry, my thanksgiving was WONDERFUL. We had a fabulous meeting with our ward mission leader...he taught us how to write hirigana better and we planned Arisa chans baptism! And we made sweet potato kabocha mashed potatoes for dinner. Yeah it was fabulous!) Thanks for being such a GOOD GOOD family! I just love you all so so so much!!!
Love,
Crofts shimai
Father: thanks for all the weekly updates! Did you make pie on Thanksgiving? I love you!
Mudge: How are you?? Do you exercise a lot? I love you so much!!!
Jason: I am so happy to hear that your head is better! Happy birthday!
Becca: Congratulations on giving birth to the most beautiful baby in the world! (I am just congratulating you in advance just so I dont have to give a late congratulations next week...)
Peach and Jana: sorry to hear about your feet. I am glad you had a fun thanksgiving break and a fun car ride home! Good luck with finishing out the semester!
Ty: I just love ya so much!!
Sarah: WHAT is UP?? How are you?? I love you!
Dan: Thanks for the email! Are you going to play on a real football team?
Joe: You are great!! I wub you!
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