And My Soul Shall Be Joyful In The Lord: It Shall Rejoice In His Salvation

Dear Family,

Shout out to my best friend in the whole wide world! SARAH--is there anything that you do not do simply wonderfully?? Congratulations! I love you to pieces!!! 

Also shout out to dan the man! お誕生日おめでとうございます！HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I love you! 

Well, things took an unexpected turn of events this week. Through a long course of talking with members and **** chan, we found out Monday afternoon that she never actually talked to her mom about church or the baptism, and that she did not have permission to be baptized. Worse than that, we found out that her mom HATES religion and that **** chan does not have a good relationship with her mom.  We spent all Monday night together with our ward mission leader and **** chan. We came up with a plan to help her, and we visited her mom that night. Yep, her mom hates religion. We did not even mention anything about **** chan joining the church or being baptized, but her mom was against the idea of her daughter having any associations with religion. It was definitely a huge bummer to be standing there hearing her say all of that, but what was worse was seeing **** chan. She looked SO sad and defeated! **** chan is not able to even come into the church any more. We met with her on Tuesday and on Friday at members homes, and her testimony and desires had been weakened. Her mom is telling her that God is not real and if God were real we would not have suffering in this world and things like that. 

In January, we set a goal as a mission to have every companionship see a baptism by the 23rd of Marc. We have been putting all of our efforts toward relying on the Lord, and I did not doubt at all that we would see that baptism! We prayed hard and worked hard and studied hard all week for **** chan. The turning point was on Saturday night when her mother was still just as against religion as ever. I began to think about my efforts and who I was relying on and I think I almost gave into the natural man and self-pitied myself. But then I remembered who I was putting my faith in. I decided to just keep moving forward because this is the work of the Savior. We had 2 hours left on Saturday night and I remembered that we had set a goal to get 2 investigators to church. We only had one investigator in line, so I determined to show the Lord my faithfulness and rely on Him to get somebody else to come to church. We parked our bikes next to the eki and were about to get started when I asked Hunt shimai about a man we had housed into a couple weeks ago. We both felt like we should go visit him. So we got back on our bikes and rode back the other direction to his house. He was very surprised to see us. He said he was touched that we came back to visit him again! He talked about some of his religious questions/concerns for a while, and we testified about church and how we can receive answers/peace at church. He said he wanted to come! Sure enough, he came to church! And he was very pleased with what he experienced at church too! Hunt shimai taught him after sacrament meeting while I was in a lesson with Yamaguchi shimai, and apparently he has been searching for the truth since he was in middle school (and he is old now!) and he has studied the bible and he knows so much about religion, but he has so many questions still. Fortunately, we have the answers! And we think he realized that yesterday. We are so glad God put him in our path so he can finally learn the truth! 

Speaking of church yesterday, Yamaguchi shimai came!!! YAY!! That was the day we have been waiting for for a long, long time! And, it turned out to be even better than we expected for her. She felt everybodys love so much and she recognized Gods love really really strongly and...well she is what you would call the golden investigator. Everything we hope will happen for somebody at church happened with her.  We left the church and stopped by about an hour and a half later to pick up something, and she was still there talking to the members! We had a dinner appointment with her and some members at 6, so we went to the church before then, and she was STILL there. She talked to us about how she does not really have any friends because right out of high school she went straight to work, and she has just been working for the last 7 years! But she was amazed to be surrounded by such friendly people at church, and she said she was so happy.  We set a new goal for her to be baptized at the beginning of May, and even though she does not have specifically set breaks on Sunday yet, she is praying for the chance to be able to come to church enough, and she really believes she will make her date! 

Yesterday we had another good park dendo day. We like to play with the kids at the park in hopes that their parents have a good image of the church, and usually I will quit out after a while and go talk to the parents while Hunt shimai keeps playing. However yesterday, we started a game of tag with 3 other 7 year old girls, and by the time we were finished, there were more than 20 kids playing with us! It turned into a reverse kind of tag though because the kids all wanted to chase us, so we were both just running around the whole park having 10 kids running after us yelling *amerikajin! amerikajin!* haha it was so funny. I love being here in Japan! 

I am excited for another transfer with Hunt shimai. I learn so much with her, and we are both being very humbled together. We have learned a lot about relying on the Lord, and we have high hopes for the next transfer! Also, we will be right here in the center of Kyoto during the biggest tourist season of the year. The Japanese people are getting real excited for it! It should be fun! But more than that...this missionary work! It is the most fun, most rewarding, most humbling, most exhausting, most marvelous work in the whole world. I am SO GRATEFUL to be standing in the front-line of the battle! 

Love you all so so much!

Love,

Kris

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together

One of Japan's most popular buildings:  The Golden Pavilion

Dear Family,

Top of the morning to ya!! Good thing you are halfway across the world, because you would have to pinch me today! I completely forgot about St Patricks day until we were grocery shopping and I am not wearing any green! 

Weather: it is warm!!!! last Monday was a blizzard, but this Monday I am going out without tights and a coat! Yay! Yesterday we were able to do park dendo. We just went from one park to the next talking to moms and playing with their kids. It was a GOOD day! And there were groups of teenagers out and about so we were able to make a lot of Eikaiwa invites and find more people who want to come this week!

 Yamaguchi shimais lessons continue to be highlights for me. This week in our lesson I learned about the power of the Spirit. Lessons with Yamaguchi shimai are always a very nice spiritual oasis. (We keep having people recommend that we go to the bath houses because they say they are very relaxing and nice and warm. Seriously everybody tells us we should go. Well, I imagine they are nothing compared to the relaxation and warmth and AMAZING feeling that we bask in every time during Yamaguchi shimais lessons.) This week, we taught about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and talked about the blessings that go along with those. At the end of the lesson, we asked her what she had been thinking about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and she said * I feel so grateful for God and Jesus Christ. I think Jesus Christ is a wonderful person!* Well, we were talking about the Holy Ghost, not Jesus Christ. We made one connection to Jesus Christ during the lesson, but to be honest, it was pretty insignificant to connections we usually make. But the Spirit was able to teach her what she needed to learn that day, and apparently it was about Jesus Christ. I have noticed that as my testimony of Christ has grown, my investigators testimonies have grown as well, even when I am not talking directly about Jesus Christ. 

I have also had many more opportunities to testify about Christ. There is a program here called the Family English Program where for 6 weeks, we teach a family english for 30 minutes and then teach the gospel in Japanese for 30 minutes. We found a family who is interested! It is a mom with 2 little boys (4 and 2). They are the CUTEST boys in the world. The 4 year old is a short fat little dude and he was wearing his school uniform (little shorts, collar shirt with a badge, and a hat) and it was just so CUTE. Last week, we began the program. When we began the gospel discussion, the mom asked right away what we believe about Jesus Christ. I was only able to get out one sentence and she was struck by it! I said *Jesus Christ is the Son of God.* She had never heard of that before, and she kept saying it over and over and over. I was able to then testify about Jesus Christ and we had a very good discussion!

We also had a sweet experience with Misato shimai on Monday. Sunday night as we were planning for Monday and talking about how we could make it a good day, we decided that really all we wanted was for Misato shimai to feel something in her heart. She has willingly done what we have asked all along, but we know that it is still difficult for her to feel things. So we focused and prayed for the Spirit to touch her heart in that lesson. We taught about the Restoration, and at the end of the lesson when we asked what she was thinking, she said *i am sorry! I am ----* (we did not understand the word.) So we asked for clarification and she had us look it up in the dictionary. Well...the word meant impressed, or feeling emotion. God answered our prayers! It was such a sweet experience! She passed her baptismal interview yesterday and she is looking forward to her baptism next Sunday! Oh. And Yamaguchi shimai is coming to church next Sunday!!!!! I do not know if I have ever been more excited for anything. 

I am off to go see a Golden Temple. It will be a good start to an amazing week. I hope you all have a fabulous week as well! I love you!! 

Love,

Kris

INFINITE--無限

Dear Mums and Pops and Sibs,

I think I will be grateful for the rest of my life and probably for the rest of forever for the training plan we have right now. It is just a two week program--but we are to put all our focus on Christ and do all we can to come to KNOW Him. We have been studying Christ, testifying of Christ, and thinking about Him. The things I have learned and felt over the last week will forever be precious to me. 

As I have reflect on my mission--on the good times and the really good times and the successful times and the not so good times, I noticed a correlation to my trust in the Lord. I think I have had very strong trust throughout my mission. But there was a time without me even realizing when that trust switched from being in the Lord to being in myself. Once I realized that, I tried to change, but I am pretty sure I switched my trust from myself to the results, and not to the Lord. As I have learned this week about how the Lord is in all things and through all things and above all things and He knows all things and can do all things (and it can go on and on..) I realized just how important it is to put ALL of my trust in Him. 

As far as our area is going--Yamaguchi shimai is SO PREPARED. We taught her the Plan of Salvation this week, and she was just as much in awe in these lessons as she has been in the previous lessons. Everything just seemed to click with her, and the favorite part for me was that everything for her seemed to click back to Christ. She said that she has noticed that there is something special about us and about all the members who have come in for the lessons, and after hearing about the Plan of Salvation, she said she knew the reason we are different is because of Christ. She also expressed sincere concern for those who choose not to follow Christ. And she said that she will pray for the missionaries because she realizes now why it is so important to tell others about Christ! I think she might as well get started on her mission papers right now! She still has her huge problem with work on Sundays. We had her over at the Shibata kazokus house on Friday, and they talked with her about  her job. Apparently she is really in a rough situation, and quitting her job/getting work off on Sunday is near impossible. But nothing is impossible with the Lord. Anyway, Shibata Kaicho and Shimai both shared their conversion stories and the sacrifices they had to make in order to be baptized. It seemed to be very helpful for her. All I can say is that I am glad I have been able to focus so much on Christ these last few days, because this is a situation where it really helps to know where to put my trust. 

There is just something about going out for 7 or 8 hours in the rain and wind and working harder than I ever have in my life--and knowing that I am doing it all for the Lord. And not just for Him, but with Him. I am so grateful to be serving with my Savior and I am grateful for the opportunity to give up everything I have to follow Him in bringing others back to our Father. What a sweet privilege this is! I do not know if you are wondering this, but just in case you are, I will tell you again: I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!

Thanks for all the support you give me always. I know the reason my mission is the way it is is because of you! I love you!

Love,

Crofts shimai