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!

What a backyard!

My beautiful city!

I LOVE my bike (isn't the basket cute?)!

Christ is the Reason- Kirisuto wa Riyuu desu

Happy Birthday Sarah!! And congratulations. :) Dad--congrats on the marathon!! You are a beast! Grandpa: congratulations! You are a winner!! Your letter was the first one I have received in Japan! THANK YOU!!!!

What a fabulous blessing it is to be in here Mikunigaoka!

The highlight of our week has definitely been working with Matsuzaki san. He is our miracle investigator. It was only our second week after meeting him, but I feel like we have been teaching him forever. It is a comfortable feeling going into lessons and his testimony has grown immensely! On Monday night, we taught him the entire Plan of Salvation. He ate it all up. He loved it! His favorite part was of course learning about the celestial kingdom. He talked to us (in English, so I understood) about how much he loves being with his family, and how he feels so much comfort and happiness with them. He said that if he could feel that kind of happiness all the time, he would do anything. So on Tuesday night, we decided to teach him how to achieve that--we taught the gospel of Christ--faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Because he is a logical thinker, we just had to show him the goal of eternal life, show him the steps to make that goal, and it all made sense to him! Our member in the lesson went a little crazy during that lesson and started talking about the war in heaven and tons of details about the Fall of Adam and things that I honestly do not know much about, but we just kept trying to get back to our lesson plan and simplify it as much as possible! With 4 weeks from the time we met Matsuzaki san until the time he is baptized, there is a lot to teach in a little bit of time. However, the Lord has definitely been working with him for a long time. During our lesson on Thursday, Matsuzaki san was telling us a little bit about a business that he wants to start up, and then he began talking about how he was introduced to the gospel at just the right time. He said he had been thinking a lot about his desires in life and his purpose and what he should be doing, and just as he began exploring different options for work, he was introduced to the gospel, and he said he is so ready to learn about it all and he believes it and he knows it was no accident that we met him when we did. Wow. I knew it was a miracle that we found him, and our investigators recognizes how incredible it is too! He really has been such an honor to work with. This weekend he has been in the Philippines...he went to meet his girlfriend for the first time! She took him to church with her and to the temple...I hope everything went well!

Tuesday before our lesson, we called the member, Kitada kyoudai, to make sure he was still okay to be at the lesson. He said yes and then asked if we could go to his house an hour before the lesson for dinner. WELL. It was good, but it was SO MUCH!! Kitada shimai brought out a bowl of spaghetti, and it was about the size that our whole family eats, and she set it right in front of me and then brought another one for Dobson shimai! And in order to be nice, we had to eat the entire thing!! BLAH I felt so sick! My taste buds are big time changing though...it was mushroom spaghetti and I loved the mushrooms! Then on Thursday, Kitada kyoudai invited us over again for dinner! We REALLY did not want to go, and we would probably have told him no but it sounded like it was already prepared for us, so we went. We had salmon and radishes and a cabbage salad and potato salad and rice and ice cream. Believe it or not, my favorite part was the salmon and the radishes! They were DELICIOUS! I probably would have enjoyed the ice cream too, but by the time we got to that, I was so stinkin full. Also, they have 9 cats. Yeah.

Wednesday was a FUN day! We were going finding at the park, and we ran into a group of 8 year old girls. They were SO excited to see us! They talked with us (Dobson shimai haha) for a little while and then gave us some of their candy and we gave them stickers and pass along pictures of the temple and of Jesus. We were walking away, and then they chased after us so that they could get handshakes from us. Later, we saw them all again, and this time they were with their moms, so we decided to go up and talk to the moms. The little girls went crazy! They gave us their pass along cards and asked us to sign them. THen they got other papers and asked us to sign those too! THen they gave us more candy, and they were asking over and over if we could play with them. We showed them pictures of our families (they could not tell the difference between me and Sarah at all...it was so funny!) and then they taught us the Japanese version of Red Light Green Light. I did not understand a lot of it, but we played a couple rounds, and it seems a lot more fun in Japan. They were so cute! When we were leaving, they all had to give us handshakes again...ah it was the best! Eikaiwa on Wednesday night was also so great. Ha they were trying to say *music*, but they could not figure out if it was *muziku* or *muzika* or *muziki*. We said it is just *muzik* and they could NOT say it! I had a hard time holding in my laughter. We played a game at the end, and it was hilarious. At Eikaiwa, there were about 8 women and 3 men. They are pretty old, but during this game, they were acting like 3rd graders. THey were getting so excited about it all and jumping up and down and saying *i got it! I got it!* English is super exciting to them. After Eikaiwa, I was talking to one of the ladies, and it was the best conversation I have had here in Japan. Thankfully we were talking in English because I am not allowed to speak Japanese at Eikaiwa. I found out she has a 19 year old daughter who lives in America, so we started talking about families. I showed her my photo book, and she was just ooing and aawing the whole time! She thought we were all good looking, but more than that, she just kept saying, *they make you so happy!* *you are all happy!* *you must love them all so much, you are so happy!* It is true. You make me insanely happy. She asked if I missed you and I said I sure did but I could not be happier to be in Japan because I want to share our happiness with other people. She seemed super excited to come back to Eikaiwa this week and talk to me again. Yay!

Again, on Friday and Saturday, Dobson shimai and Murayama shimai left. When Dobson shimai and Murayama shimai leave, it is always a huge learning experience for me and Griffin shimai. This week we did less streeting than normal. Elections are going on here so there are people with big signs yelling at the top of their lungs all over the place. It is crazy hectic. And they get in these big white vans and speak on the megaphones and drive through all the streets. It is so noisy here! Oh speaking of noise, this is random, but the garbage trucks here play music. Like ice cream truck music, but they are garbage trucks haha. We did not want to compete with the　noise though, so we spent quite a bit of time housing and quite a bit of time mogiing the Setting the Table lesson and working to memorize it (That is the first lesson that we always give to new investigators, it basically talks about God and our purpose and such. We definitely are not supposed to be memorizing our scripts as missionaries, but Zinke kaicho said that this script was revelation, and the Lord will bless us with more investigators when we are prepared to present this lesson well.) While we were housing, the most embarrassing thing happened! We were going through neighborhoods next to one of Griffin shimai*s investigators. We came to a house and the girl who answered said to wait, and after about 2 minutes, she came out of her house. Griffin shimai began the little introduction about who we are and stuff, and the whole time I was looking at this girl thinking that she looked just like one of our investigators, Chiho chan. I could not get over how much they looked the same! Then she said something about Dobson shimai, so I then thought, *oh she must be Chiho chans cousin or sister!* Well, she went in her house and came out with a letter for Dobson shimai, then went back in her house. We turned the corner, I turned around 2 or 3 times, and then realized we were at Chiho chans house! It was Chiho chan! Now this is why that is embarrassing: we had just had a lesson with Chiho chan on Tuesday, and we have another lesson scheduled for this week.  She is the nice cute one who gave us the delicious fruit! Out of our 11 investigators, she is one of 3 that we are actually in contact with! And I went and housed her without even knowing it! Haha Griffin shimai and I laughed about that for a LONG time. 

It is clear I am not very good with my directions or recognizing where I am, but that may actually be a blessing in disguise. Saturday night, Dobson shimai and I had about 30 minutes to go out housing, so we did a neighborhood that is pretty close to our apartment. At one of the houses, a mom and her 3 daughters all came out to talk to us. Well, she told us that she has already had missionaries come to her house. She said it was just a few weeks ago and it was 2 young girls who could not speak Japanese and they were looking down at notes the whole time. That was definitely me and Griffin shimai. BUT she must have been impressed with Dobson shimais Japanese, because she said we could come back! We are teaching the family on Wednesday and we are SO excited!! Dobson shimai has been working so hard to be prepared for a family, and I KNOW the Lord led us to this family! 

As part of the Kobe Mission, we have 4 questions that we should always be thinking about to make sure we are being true disciples. They are *why am I here* *who called me* *whose work is this* and *what is my purpose*. This week, I have really been focusing on *why am I here.* I have learned more than ever this week how much of the work is God. God is the one who prepared Matsuzaki san. God is the one who is changing his heart. God is the one who is letting him understand the message and desire more. There really is nothing I did to have all of these miracles happen. So why am I here? I do not have a perfect answer to that question, 

I know that God is real! I KNOW He has a plan for each one of us, and I KNOW He loves every single person! 

With that in mind, have a FANTASTIC week!! 

Love,

Crofts shimai

Dad: are you running in the Boston Marathon?? I forgot, did you ever come to Japan? And if so, where?

Mom: You are the best ever! And p.s., adopting a Japanese baby would have been better than adopting a black baby...they are SO CUTE!! Family is really important here in Japan, and so I see a gazillion and one moms with their little kids and little babies and they are all just adorable. And I can see you being a good mom here...riding a bike with a kid in a seat in front and a kid in a seat in back and a little kid trying to ride with training wheels beside his mom. It is fun here :) p.s. could you forward me ty:s letters? and maybe my other friends like kayden and emily and such? thanks i love you!!!!!

Jason and Becca: I hope school is going super well!

Peach and Jana: Enjoy the rain! oh haha nursery. I bet yall are having the best time ever with that!

Tyler: The Lord said, *according to thy faith, be it unto you.* I believe the Lord definitely will do all things according to our faith. Keep up the good work! 

Sarah: wow. congrats. ahhahahahaha crazy girl. you are crazy! I am glad you got the package! Everybody here uses decorated tape...nobody uses normal tape. If you want a certain color or pattern, i am sure i can find it for you! Plus, did you not like the black thunders?

Danny; I have not been blown up yet. THe best food is a okonomiyaki...it is a cabbage pancake type thing. I like to put onions and carrots and eggplant and lots and lots of cabbage in mine. the worst food--some smoothie thing than an investigator bought for me with bananas and yogurt and vegetables and i am pretty sure it had seaweed in it. blah i thought i was going to die. have fun this week!

Joseph; konnichiwa!

Grandpa Vance: thanks for the letter! I appreciate your efforts to greet me in Japanese, but Jitensha actually means bicycle. Haha. Next time try konnichi wa! THanks again!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

I Stand All Amazed

I cannot believe how fast my weeks are flying! I will share with you some of our special experiences we have had this week. 

First of all, remember Matsuzaki san? We met him last week when the Lord directed us right to his apartment at right the exact time and he said he wanted to be taught. We taught him about God on Sunday, then we talked about God and prayer on Monday. We felt like we should extend the baptismal invitation, which is weird because usually in Japan that does not come until the fourth or fifth or sixth lesson. Anyway, we asked if he would be baptized, and he said YES! YAY!!!! That is exciting news! For us and for his girlfriend and for everybody in heaven I am sure! We were SO HAPPY! So we taught him again on Saturday and again on Sunday and we have another lesson with him tonight! He is a fantastic investigator. We can definitely tell he has been SO prepared by the Lord. We will teach him a simple concept, then he will think through it and explain it back to us, and then ask just the right kind of question. It is always the kind of question that lets us know that he has really been thinking through it, and it almost always leads right into what we had planned on teaching next. He has such a strong desire to know for himself the truth. It is an honor and a privilege to work with somebody so prepared by the Lord!

Griffin shimai and I were alone again for a couple days this week. Of course, the thought of being alone for two days scared me to death. My Japanese skills are slowly improving...but SLOWLY. So I was worried because I knew that we probably would not have much success, because we cannot do much. However, on Wednesday during companionship study, we read *Finding People* from PMG as part of the 12 week training program. That section talks a lot about how we have the power of God with us, and as we testify with the Spirit, it will reach the hearts of the people and they will be able to recognize us as servants of God. After reading and discussing this section, I was beyond excited to go out and testify of the great message of the Restoration. I was praying so hard and completely relying on the Lord*s power (because I still do not speak Japanese. Haha reallly...). We were streeting by the Mikunigaoka eki. As usual, we would go up to people and after saying we are missionaries for Christs church (because nobody here understands what latter day saints is. In fact a most have never even heard of Christ.), they would all say something like *I am busy* or *kekko* or whatever. After about ten minutes, we finally went up to somebody who was willing to listen past our simple introduction. So immediately I bore my testimony that I know God loves everyone, and I asked her if she wanted to learn more, and she said YES! The power of testimony is so real! We set up a time to meet with her and got her phone number. Unfortunately, because I was so excited and I am still inexperienced, I forgot to set up a place to meet, and she has not been answering her phone. However, it was such a testimony to me that God really is working through me and as I bear testimony of this powerful message, I will be able to find people who are ready to hear the gospel. The rest of the day as we were streeting and housing, even though we continued to get *kekko*ed, I was just so proud to be putting forth all my efforts to bear such a powerful message.

On Thursday we always do weekly planning, which takes hours. So we usually do not have much time to go out and find more people. However, we decided to take just half an hour in between weekly planning and a lesson to go out streeting. We were by the eki, but we just got kekkoed a bunch, so at the end of that half hour, we were going back to our bikes and we saw an old lady walking down another road. We decided to go talk to her. Good decision! Dobson shimai went up to her and said the liked her hat, and this lady just started talking like crazy! I did not understand a word she said, but she was just talking on and on and on and she looked so happy and excited to see us! Before i knew it, we were walking to our church with her, and then we sat in our chapel and she talked some more. Dobson shimai let me know what was going on. This lady is 89 years old. She lives next to our church. She had been going to another Christian church, but about a year ago she moved away and so she has not gone to church yet and she said she has been really sad because she can not go to church. She asked us if there was any way we would allow her to come to our church. YES! We invited her to church and she was so excited to come! 

Haha so there is a typhoon here right now. That basically means that it is raining hard and it is windy, but everybody has been making a big deal about it. A lot of people do not come to church when there is a typhoon. We had quite a few people tell us they would come to church if it was not raining. This old lady we met did not come to church, probably because of the weather. Anyway, it is raining and I love it. But that is all haha.

On Saturday we had about 15 minutes in between two things, so we decided to go stop by one of our old investigators houses. She is a young teenager, and she had to stop taking lessons with us because she has to spend all of her time studying for a college entrance exam that is in April. The teenagers here study like crazy!! It is hard because they are the people who are most interested in our religion, but they can never meet because they always have to study. Anyway, we stopped by her house to give her a little bag with little sweettarts from Dobson shimais dad (I do not know if I ever mentioned that he visited her last week. He spoke in church and ate at the members home with us.) So we gave her this little bag, and she went in her house and came out with a big bag full of big fruits! THey are these apple/pear fruit things that are more than 2 dollars each and they are huge and delicious! She gave us 5 of them, which is a lot. Then she asked if she could meet us at the church this week for a lesson! How does missionary work get any easier? So we are meeting with her this week. I am excited because she is so happy and nice!!

Yesterday at church I understood a lot more of the Japanese! yAY! (OOPS THIS KEYBOARD IS CRAZY AND i JUST SWITCHED INTO CAPS LOCK AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO CHANGE IT.) THE PEOPLE IN THIS AREA OF JAPAN SPEAK REALLY BAD JAPANESE. THE JAPANESE SISTER WHO IS IN MY APARTMENT SAID SHE HAS A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING THEM, AND OUR INVESTIGATOR MATSUZAKI SAN SAID HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND AT ALL ONE OF THE MEMBERS WE BROUGHT TO A LESSON. ANW\YWAY, WE GOT A NEW BISHOPRIC YESTERDAY, SO OUR STAKE PRESIDENT, WHO LIVES IN A DIFFERENT AREA, CAME TO SPEAK AND I ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD PROBABLY 60 PERCENT OF HIS TALK! 

OKAY SORRY ABOUT THE ALL CAPS. I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW THAT I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL!! AND I LOVE LOVE LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK! 

LOVE,

KRIS

O P.S. IT IS A HOLIDAY HERE IN JAPAN. *RESPECT THE ELDERS DAY*. SO GRANDPARENTS, I LOVE YOU. 

Dad: My bike riding is super pro now. I have 6 gears on my bike, but even after all of the many many lessons you gave me on gears, I still do not really understand them. So I stay on gear 4. But it is flat here so I would not change it much anyway. We went to a different area for district meeting this week, and there were so many hills! I was dying trying to walk up the hill to the church it was SOO steep! So I hope if I go to that area ever I can figure out gears. Also I hear there are monkeys in that area. Cool! 

Mom: I found more tennis courts right next to my apartment. If you ever feel like google earthing Mikunigaoka, you could find our church building, and our apartment is near by, and then you could see all the tennis courts. And you could look up Kanaoka park and see all the tennis courts there too. It is a fun city!

Jason and Becca: Thanks for the emails. And thanks for warning me about dads letter Jason. Unfortunately, my mind had already been dirtied by it. Becca, I still can not get over how cute your belly is. Hahaha. There are lots of cute decorating things and such that remind me of you here. 

Peach and Jana: How is life?

Saud: Congrats on turning 17!!!! Ahh my dear little sister HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! O TANJOBI OMEDETO GOZAIMASU!!! I LOVE YOU!!!! Oh and congrats on being asked to homecoming! How is life?

Dan: school sounds like fun! I used to walk through the field where your school is now every day on my way home from the bus stop.

Joe: the church is true. How is karate?

I LOVE YOU ALL! BYE BYE!

First run in beautiful Kobe!