Called to This Work--この技にめされている

A typical meal: Cabbage, Raw Egg, Pumpkin, Rice 

Painted frogs mark the entrance of most preschool and elementary schools

Kobe

I've loved teaching her

Notice the caption on my new bike 

My new church building

Daikon....a staple

I eat a ton of cabbage!

Kyoto ward nabe party

Hello Family!

Well, we are still moving along here in Katsura! This week was much the same as last, given the fact that we only taught one lesson again. We are enduring the cold well, and except for the signs of frostbite on a few of my toes, we are healthily marching on! Work is a lot different here in Katsura as we are working to build up an investigator pool, and even though I do not have nearly as many different experiences as I was having in Mikunigaoka, I still feel like every week of my mission is the new best week of my mission! Because we spend a lot of time outside just walking or knocking on doors, I have had more time to think about the calling of being a missionary and the relationship I have with the Lord and the millions of people here who are waiting to hear the gospel. I felt some really powerful things last week that helped me realize even more how marvelous this work is! Now I just hope to be able to share this message with more people!

Last week on the bus on our way to district meeting, I was talking to the lady sitting next to me, and she was so nice. She came to Kyoto at about the same time I did, so we were both fairly new. We had a good conversation about her job and family and hobbies and my family and what I am doing here in Japan. She said she was happy she got to talk to me and then she got up and left. Well, this week after interviews with President Zinke, we were waiting for the elders so we could catch the bus back with them, but then sister Zinke started talking to us, so after a while the elders just left. We ended up staying at the church a lot longer than we had planned. We finally got on the bus and began heading back to Kyoto and a few but stops into the ride, that same lady walked on! So I went up and began to talk to her again, and it was so good! We talked about church and she said she actually goes to church and she loves it and she loves singing hymns and she said she felt something different talking with me. It was so AWESOME! Unfortunately, the end of that contact turned into what most of the other ones do...she said she was busy and if she had the opportunity she would come to church or meet with us, but we were not able to exchange contact information. That was sad, but I was still so happy that the Lord led us right to this lady again and I am praying for an opportunity to meet again!

We were finally able to meet with Misato chan again on Saturday. It was a fabulous lesson! She is a funny girl...we have had a hard time knowing if she is actually meeting with us to learn about God or if she is a gaijin bandit. (likes foreigners.) It may still be a little bit on the gaijin bandit side of things. Sometimes we feel like she might be answering our questions with what she thinks we would want to hear just so the lesson can move on and keeping commitments just to please us. However, during this lesson on Saturday I noticed things that convinced me otherwise. We taught her the GOSH chart, and I love this lesson because it is where we introduce eternal life. After some simple explanations and powerful testimonies, she really REALLY wanted eternal life. We then explained about the obstacles that keep us from it but how God gave us Jesus Christ to help us return and in order to receive that help you must be baptized and so we invited her to be baptized and she accepted without hesitation!! Again this could have been an acceptance just to please us, But as we were reviewing the lesson at the end, we had her go through and explain what she had learned, and when she got to the Jesus Christ part, she actually got emotional. She got choked up as she talked about her gratitude toward Jesus Christ for helping her to be able to return to God. It was a touching moment for me because even though I have worked with many different investigators,  I have never seen an investigator have that much love for Jesus Christ before. And three weeks ago, Misato chan had never even heard about Jesus Christ! What a wonderful experience!

I am still waiting to visit the Buddhist temple. Last week we had to take an emergency run to the store and buy me some boots and Hunt shimai a coat because the deathly cold hit! And this week we had something set up with a PI...she was going to take us around Kyoto city to different shrines and things, but we have to go to the hospital now because Hunt shimai has a rash, so hopefully NEXT week I will have experienced some of the Buddhist/Japanese culture!

Thanks for the updates on your lives. If you have any questions about what is going on here, shoot them my way! God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and He loves each one of you so very much! Have a fantastic week! The church is true!

愛してます！

Kris

おどろくべきわざ--a marvelous work!

愛する家族、

Dear Family,

Another week come and gone.

We have spent a lot of time looking for new people to teach. It is grueling work. (I like to steal the words of my dear brother. In some few ways our missionary experience is exactly the same...in most ways it is completely different!)

Besides one lesson we had on Monday night, our week was spent all  outside in search for the prepared children! Because I had the opportunity to talk to A LOT of people this week, my eyes were quite opened. I already knew this about Japan, but it was made so much more clear to me what role religion plays in the lives of the people here. The answer is none.

We spent a large portion of our week walking by the colleges talking to people. Most people got pretty excited to talk to us, especially because one of the colleges is a foreign studies college, and so foreigners are good people to talk to. Everybody we met from that college was either studying Italian, Spanish, or English, so I was able to have a polylingual conversation with them all! People are really interested in talking to us until the moment they find out we are volunteers for a church. Then they are all of a sudden busy or late or something. A few people were willing to talk to us a little bit about God. Although we tried many different approaches, the majority of the responses we got to our questions was that some people think God might exist, but most people have not thought about it. A lot of people have not even thought about their purpose in life or wondered where they come from or where they go (at least that is what they say.) If they have heard about Jesus Christ, it is usually a negative thing. In fact we are trying to really advertise our Eikaiwa program in order to simply get people into the church building, so we found high schools and as the students were getting out, we would go up to the crowds and hand out our Eikaiwa flyers. They all seemed pretty interested in learning English for free. However, in one group, once somebody recognized our nametags and said Jesus Christ out loud, everybody started to just walk around us and say they were not interested. Also after going to another group of high school students and handing out the flyers, a woman came behind us and took all the flyers away from them! So that was frustrating.

BUT despite all of that, there are still people here who the Lord is definitely preparing for the gospel. We taught Misato chan again on Monday and she prayed for her first time! She said she had never even thought about talking to God (but she prayed to her ancestors for New Year...that is what they all do.) Our purpose in teaching her how to pray is to help her learn how to receive answers from God, so at the end of the lesson when we all knelt down together, we asked her to pray and ask if God loves her so she could feel His existence. She said she did not need to ask that because she already could feel His love and she knew He loved her. Three days before that she had never even thought about God before!! It is amazing how tangible Gods presence can be.

We met one lady this week, and I have just been in awe since meeting her. She passed us on her bike going down a steep hill, and she had a seat in the front with a 4 year old girl, a seat in the back with a 6 year old boy, a 5 month old baby strapped to her belly, and a backpack on. When she passed us she looked back and smiled so big and waved.  At the bottom of the hill, she stopped at a bank so we were able to talk to her. She is from Egypt, and she does not speak Japanese at all. They are here in Japan for her husband to study. She said she was on her way to go grocery shopping. I was very impressed with her. First of all, I had just gone up that hill on my bike a few minutes before, and it about killed me. But she did it with three kids and groceries every week! Also, she did not speak a lick of Japanese, which means she did not have friends I am assuming. And she said she was looking for a school for her son to learn English, but she could not afford any, so I am also assuming she does not have a lot of money. BUT she was so HAPPY! She was smiling the whole time we were talking to her and she had the most honest eyes. I felt so good after talking to her.

Well family, this work really is marvelous. I feel God guiding me every day and I know this is His work. The gospel of Jesus Christ brings us more happiness than anything else. We are so blessed to have it in our lives! I love you all so much!

Love,

Crofts shimai

愛しています！

クロフス姉妹

Nothing's Going To Rain On My Parade!

Konnichiwa!

 We had a WONDERFUL New Year Conference this week! One of the highlights of the year so far! We reviewed last year as a mission, so I will tell you a little bit about our mission. Over 80 percent of the mission, as most missions are,  is missionaries who have been here for less than 6 months. However, unlike a lot of missions, and unlike all of the other missions in Japan and this part of Asia, instead of seeing a downward trend in the numbers because of all the inexperienced missionaries, the Kobe mission has seen a large increase in numbers. In fact, by the end of the year, we were able to see 204 baptisms! (Kaicho and the aps made it a point to say over and over that we are the highest baptizing mission in this part of Asia.) It seems that the only way the numbers could increase that way, especially with all the inexperienced missionaries, is by relying on the Lord. After talking about the miracle of seeing 204 baptisms, Kaicho shared Mosiah 18/16. Wow the Lord has a hand in this work! Anyway, they talked up the Japan Kobe mission quite a bit, but over all, I was very humbled to have the privilege of participating in the work. We talked about our new goals for the year and the need we have to rely on the Lord. Kaicho put together a wonderful slideshow talking about Jesus Christ and His role and work and our role as missionaries to help. As we were watching the slideshow, I was thinking about how magnificent and divine this work is. God really does love all of His children so much, enough to send His own Son to earth to suffer for all of us. Right now He is performing a marvelous work by preparing His children to receive the gospel and start their way back to Him. He loves His children SO MUCH, but He has asked ME to help Him with His work! So as I was watching the slideshow, i was thinking of the privilege it is to be serving Him, and how I really really want to give up everything I have for Him and trust and follow Him, but I kept thinking to myself, *but will I?* Will I actually do it? And then on the screen it said *Will YOU?* With all my heart I wanted to say yes, but because I sometimes get distracted or scared or discouraged, I did not know if I could really say yes. But then the next slide said *He knows you will. That is why He called you.* That slide made all the difference in my mind. That slide connected all of the training we received about trusting in Him and relying on Him and serving with all diligence and faith and heart. The Lord trusts me, and that is why He called me here to Japan. That slide has been on my mind the last few days and it has made all the difference in the world.I want to do whatever the Lord needs me to do to find those children who are prepared for the message.

The Lord did lead us to some wonderful people this week. One of my favorite miracles happened on Friday after a long day of finding. We had a lesson at the church on Friday evening, so we were planning on leaving the place we were streeting around 5.00. However, at around 4.15, we both looked at our watches and decided that it was probably time to go. I do not know why we were thinking it would take that long to get back, but we did. As we were walking to our bikes, we started talking to another girl who was walking that way. We were not talking about religion, just about her job and things, but then she asked what we were doing and we told her and she got SO excited. She said she went to church a long long time ago and she remembered having a good feeling but she has not gone since then. She said she has a really strong interest and she asked if it would be alright if we talked to her about our church. We exchanged contact information, and she got most excited when we invited her to church! SHe said she really wanted to go! Unfortunatly she was not able to come this week, but I am very excited to teach her. The previous days training at conference had been in mine and Hunt shimai:s mind all day, and we know that the Lord definitely was leading us to that girl!

We also saw miracles with Misato chan! She is the 18 year old girl who followed us last week and said she wanted to see our church. She came to church last week and we taught her. She said she had never before thought about God, in fact she had never even heard of Jesus Christ before. Even though I have been in a Buddhist/anti-religion land for over 4 months, that news still shocked me. I can not imagine living a life without knowing who Jesus Christ is. Anyway, she came to church and the ward members LOVED her! She exchanged numbers with the young women and they were so excited. She also said that even though things were difficult and she had never thought about religious things at all before, she felt Gods love and she wants to learn more! What a miracle! (Also I gave a 10 minute talk in sacrament meeting, with less than a days notice. Ha Hunt shimai is giving a talk in two weeks, but she got two weeks notice. I do not know why they do not think I need preparation time.) We are teaching Misato chan how to pray tonight. I am so excited because God always answers their prayers! 

I do not know if I said anything about my area, but I will briefly. About 2/3 of the area is just mountains, so we do not really go over there. The other 1/3 is a lot like Mikunigaoka...a little city-type place. However, there are some very crowded places. For example, the largest trainstation in Kyoto is in our area, and it is surrounded by some of the largest malls in Japan. It is amazing!! And there are Buddhist temples and shrines ALL over the place! It is funny looking at our map because it is so marked up with Buddhist temples. There are quite a few very touristy spots as well. I am dying to go visit them, One of them is a monkey forest. BUT we will have to wait for another preparation day because today, we needed a chance to rest. Ha I walked more last week than I ever thought I would walk in my life! We are BEAT. But I LOVE it. I will keep going until my body stops going, and even still, I will keep going! I LOVE being a missionary! The church is so true. And I love you all so much!! 

Love,

Crofts shimai

Katsura

Hard to say goodbye to people who I have grown to love!

 

Dear Family,

I am in Kyoto now! And I feel like I have just as much to tell you as the first week that I got to Japan!

Leaving Mikunigaoka was definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be! Is was interesting because Griffin shimai and I did not have a single lesson planned for last week! Everybody was busy doing their New Year celebrations, and nobody was willing to meet with us. But then I found out about transfers and called our investigators, and we were able to meet 5 of our investigators in one day! We were so busy! I definitely did not like saying goodbye. I just had to keep singing in my head *Ill go where you want me to go!* Arisa chan and Mai chan both were very very close to me, so it was hard saying goodbye!

On New Years day, the members ALL wanted to celebrate with us! We had two dinner appointments and two in-between-meals appointments! I sent some pictures of the food...that pretty much sums it up! It was yummy! New Years day is a huge deal here. I was surprised on Christmas when people were still going to school and work and they did not even realize what day it was. Well it also surprised me that for a week everything shut down! We could not even buy ourselves new bikes here until Saturday because of the holiday. It is a BIG deal! It was also very sad to say goodbye to all of the members.

 But now that I am here in Katsura, I am actually very excited! The ward is very very friendly and I feel like this will be a good area! Because we did not have any investigators, bikes, or a sense of direction at all on Thursday or Friday, we just set out by foot and decided to see where we ended up! We were walking around for about 5 hours (which is definitely unlike any dendo I have ever done...before we spent most of our day inside planning lessons or in the church teaching the lessons!) I thought walking around for five hours would be difficult, and while my feet did get pretty sore and we had some dull moments (the new years celebrations were still going on so not many people were out and about), the Lord led us to some amazing contacts. Within our first 15 minutes, we came across a couple, and the lady was so excited to talk to us! We barely had time to introduce who we were when she started talking away about how excited she is because she was giving birth the next day and she was just out taking a walk and she ran into gaijin...haha! We also contacted another lady who met with the missionaries a long time ago when she was young and she said she really enjoyed it but she is way too busy to meet now but she was happy to see us again. Those kind of contacts make me wonder what the Lord has planned for those people. 

We also had one of the most touching contacts I have ever had in my life. We were walking past an intersection, and we passed a lady on a bike, but then I turned around and just said *today is good weather isnt it?* (I do not know why they like to talk about the weather so much here) She agreed and asked what we were doing. We did not have time to finish our introduction with her either...she started crying before we could! She explained to us that her daughter passed away recently and she has a big family but their relationship is not good because of the Japanese lifestyle (she used to live in Mexico where the family lifestyle is much different.) She was talking and talking and crying and crying, and we were just standing there at the corner of a big intersection. She said because of her family circumstances, she can not meet with us or go to church, but she really wants to! We gave her a chirashi and she put it up to her heart and said, *I will try to contact you, but even if I can not, this will always be important to me!* It was a very special moment for me.

We had one more contact that day that really proved to me that this is Gods work. We were crossing a street where you have to go up the stairs, cross the bridge, and go back down the stairs to get to the other side. There was also an elevator you could use. When we began going up the stairs, I looked back and saw a girl going into the elevator, but then when we got to the bottom of the stairs on the other side, she was following us doing the stairs! So we talked to her and she seemed so interested. She asked for our phone number! So we exchanged numbers and she is coming to the church in about an hour because she told us she wants to see it! She is 18 and SO nice and SO cute!! I am excited about her! 

I am excited to be in the Katsura ward! The members have been wanting sister missionaries for a long time and they are SO happy to have us here. On Thursday about 15 minutes after getting into our apartment, the ward mission leader called us and said that his parents (the stake president and his wife) and the bishop and his wife were on their way to apartment to see what help we needed. They came and they were SO helpful! The sisters are so so cute. They have little high pitched voices and they were so giggly and smily and they were going around our whole apartment looking for this and that and checking certain things to make sure were were all taken care of. Then they all took us out for lunch, bought some things for our apartment (that they did not need to do! But they said they wanted to. They said it was their way of celebrating having sister missionaries in the ward!) And they bought us groceries for the week! Friday night the stake president and his wife had us over for dinner with their family and they are all so nice! It was one of the most fun dinner appointments I have ever had. When I met the ward on sunday I was also very impressed. They are already planning which less active and part member families they can visit with us and this ward seems like they understand the purpose of members and missionaries working together, so I am excited!

Kyoto is SO AMAZING. I remember talking about how big the mall was when I first got to Japan. Or maybe talking about how much I loved the streets or how many people there were. Well here, everything is bigger and better haha! Our area has the biggest trainstation in all of Kyoto and there are huge malls next to it and SO MANY temples and shrines and parks...it is so cool. On Saturday, we were lost (very lost, but that is a whole other story). At one point, after biking around for a long long time, we stopped at an intersection and I turned around and let out the most audible *whoa!!* I was shocked at what I saw, and shocked at what my reaction was too haha. There was a HUGE Buddhist temple all lit up, with the reflection on the river below it. It was AMAZING. Everybody, we live in the most wonderful world. And here is my side comment: if I did not have a testimony of the LDS church and if I did not know how wonderful LDS temples were, I would be a Buddhist.

But we do not have to worry about that because I know the church is true! I know we have Gods full truth restored to the earth through Joseph Smith, and I know that through this gospel, we really can live together forever. That gives me so much hope and joy every day! I love you!!!

Love,

Crofts shimai 

Six Months Ago I Hated Fish....!!!!

When was the last time you had a sweet potato turtle?

And a lily for dessert!

We were spoiled for New Years dinner

This little guy does not look nearly as good as he tastes!

Leftovers...mmmmm