We Rejoice in Christ--キリストのことを喜ぶ

Infamous Bamboo Forest

A Buddhist practice of washing hands

Dear Family, 

I am glad to hear you have recovered from the bacteria. Bleh! Misato shimai taught me how to say throw up this week. Apparently she was hit with it as well. In case you are wondering, vomit in Japanese is outo (嘔吐) [pronounced oh-to]. Now you know for next time the family gets hit with water poisoning.

I will begin by talking about the *lady who prayed*, our dear investigator Yamaguchi shimai. She is wonderful. She just gets it! We pray about what she needs to hear/feel/learn/do, we follow promptings we received to make her a good lesson, we teach it to the best of our (very limited) abilities, and she takes it in. But not only that, she understands it and feels it and loves it! We were able to teach her about the atonement on Tuesday, and her testimony was so sweet. She wanted to learn more and more about faith and repentance so that she knew exactly how to come unto Christ. On Thursday we were able to teach the Restoration of the Gospel, and WOW. Teaching the Restoration is probably different here than in a lot of places. People are not really looking for which church is right, or wanting to know the full truth. Usually the issue is just whether or not they want to believe in any religion or not. So when we teach the Restoration, more than trying to convince our investigators that this is the true restored gospel, we just want them to feel and learn of Gods love, and notice how He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Well, Yamaguchi shimai got it. To me, the restoration is absolutely marvelous, and Yamaguchi shimai was able to recognize that. She was blown away when she learned about the restoration, and she just kept talking about how great Gods love is and how wonderful God is. She was right on. And after hearing about Joseph Smiths vision, she pretty much taught herself the rest of the Restoration. She asked *so did Joseph smith, through Gods power, receive authority and learn how to bring the full church back to the earth?* Pin pon!! She just gets the message. And she feels it. And she loves it! And you can see in her eyes and her responses that she is rejoices in this message too! She still cannot get her job off (or find a way to quit her job), so she can not come to church yet, but we are praying and praying and praying for her!!

Speaking of prayers, God answers prayers. Our beloved investigator Misato shimai was evidence of that this week. We spent another great week working to find those who are prepared to hear the gospel! We are grateful everyday for the sheep revelation, because it always makes knocking on the next door worth it. Every day I feel like the senmin are SO close!  She is the one who followed us at the very beginning, and has been willing all along to listen to our message and come to church and keep commitments. We were struggling the last few weeks with her though. She had to take a two week break from meeting with us, and she seemed to have forgotten everything after that! Of course we were sad about that, but it seemed to have an even bigger impact on her...she felt discouraged that she could not remember and she was not excited about hearing our lessons anymore. (She was still meeting though because she is scoring very high on the social converstion.) But after prayer and pondering and studying and more prayer, God helped us to make a lesson plan that fit her needs exactly. It was a simple simple lesson about God, and when we taught it, something clicked with her. She understood well, and she felt something too! She liked it. We were able to review the gospel of Jesus Christ the next day, and it all seemed to click with her as well. Something happened, and she was excited for baptism! She had about 1000 questions about it (she is worried about if it is scary or fun or painful or cold, etc.) Yesterday at church, we gave her the baptismal record to have her mom sign it, and she was so excited that she just filled out all of her information right away! God answers prayers and is ready and willing to help every step of the way! 

The image people have of Jesus Christ here is really sad to me. I have talked about it before, but it was so clear to me this week! We spent a few hours with girls we met at a college, and when we first got on the train with them, one of the girls asked if we always have to wear our *Jesus Christ badge.* We said we do always wear it, and she made a face like she bit into a worm. It broke my heart. And a lot of times people will be talking to us, then they look down at our name tag, and their face completely changes and they just stick up their hand and walk away. Hunt shimai mentioned once this week the desire she sometimes has to just cover up the nametag. I say wear it loud and proud. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be serving my Savior. He is all powerful, all knowing, and all loving. He is the only way to return to our Father in Heaven with our families, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share this message with others! I will keep going until I find those who are ready to accept Jesus Christ and follow Him. I love the gospel and I love our Savior!

And I love yall!!!! Have a great week!

Love,

KRIS

Mom, that lady with the flowers is a problem haha. We visited her a while ago and found out she is very orthodox in another religion. (This religion has an anti Christ. He is very close to being just like Christ in the fact that He can perform miracles and give people peace and comfort and things. The power of the devil is strong in this religion. I would say more, but I do not want to talk about it.)  She still loves to talk with us and asked us to come back...but we do not know if it is worth our time to visit her. 

The family. Ahh the beloved family. We visited again yesterday and the mom said that she is no longer interested in hearing our message. Sad. 

Good luck with your sugar challenge. Ha. 

Dad, sorry to hear that you were rolling on the bathroom floor. That sounds gross. Here in Japan, we use squatter pots. Sometimes my legs are sore from biking, and I think I might actually fall on the floor while I am squatting. But I like the squat pots because they are sanitary, and the regular pots are only nice if they are heated (which thankfully, a lot of the public restrooms have heated toilets.)

Jason and Becca: bah Cameron sounds like the cutest little ball of sunshine! Will you tell him hi for me? Enjoy the good weather!! Despite the two coldest days of my life last week, it is actually fairly warm right now! I usually wear 3 pairs of tights and 3 shirts and 2 sweaters and a coat and scarf, but today I took it down to 2, 2, and 1, and I am not wearing a scarf. 

Peach and Jan: Good luck with the school and work this week. I love you! Are you proud of the fact that Jon and Ali are probably getting married because of you two? 

Tyler: sorry about your fingernail. but congrats on the family! you are a wonderful missionary example to me!

Saud: good luck. I hope you arent too busy to still be loving life. 

Dan: I saw a bus drive by a few days ago that was just like thomas the train. It looked awesome! I wanted to ride it! 

Joey: did you get sick too? when i show people our family picture, they like to ask what nationality you are. 

Carl: Time goes by way too fast. I can actually understand people when they talk to me now, which is convenient. Sometimes I forget that I am speaking a different language. Except for old people. I do not understand them at all.  I can have a 10 minute conversation with an old person and walk away with only about 2 or 3 words that I understood. The food is just delicious. Except fish is not really a novelty anymore so I prefer to not eat it. I feel like people stare more and more at me each week. Good luck with the wedding plans.