Monday, June 16, 2014

THEN SINGS MY SOUL


Dear Family,
Shout Out: DAD! Again!! I love you so much! Happy Fathers Day! If every father in the world was a father like you, we would have world peace. And the whole world would probably be translated like the city of Enoch. 
Also Shout out to Jana! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I was thinking about you on your special day...I love you! Shout out to your husband too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
I am so glad to hear you all had a fun week. You look great in the picture!! Becca and Sarah you have adorable hair cuts. 
Every once in a while, I write LONG, fantastic things, and then the email deletes. Sometimes, I rewrite another long email, and the computer crashes. Today was one of those days. I hope you can get just a glimpse of how wonderful my week was with the following excerpt from my letter to President Zinke. 
Another fantastic week in Yonago! There is nothing better than missionary work! 
This week was astonish the ward week. I think it began on Friday when the entire Takekawa family came to ward FHE. The 6 kids were all sitting in a row, well-behaved, and as each ward member walked into the room, they stared, counted down the chairs, and then stared some more. It was so wonderful having the family at FHE. They looked so happy to be there, and of course I was happy to see them there, and at the end, they said they loved it and asked us to please visit them again any time. Of course there is nothing better than missionary work, but within that, I do not think there is anything better than helping an entire family accept the gospel. 
The ward was also astonished again on Sunday. On Saturday night, we visited Yanase kyoudai. He used to be very active in the church. In fact, he even went to Hawaii to go to the temple before there was one here in Japan, and he was an active member in the Bishopric, etc. However about 8 years ago he stopped going to church. Our visit seemed to have a big impression on him. He kept asking why we came, and as we testified to him of Gods love, the spirit was very strong. He was asking us about the ward, and he asked if anybody in the ward was very musical. We both raised our hands. We told him we would be playing the violin/flute the next day at a fireside after church. He plays the violin and flute too! He asked about my violin and I said I was just borrowing one from a ward member but it was not very good, and he offered to let me use his! I did not want to at all because it is a VERY nice violin and he plays it every day and I had an hour long bike ride to get home. As I refused, he said *go ahead, i will just come to the church tomorrow and pick it up.* So of course I took it, and he did come to the church the next day! At first he would not even walk through the front door. With lots of encouraging from us and one of his friends, he eventually walked through the front doors, but he would not go any further. We went and told bishop about him, and he immediately went to greet Yanase Kyoudai. The members around bishop who overheard looked so shocked. They were saying *subarashii!* and giving thumbs ups. After the program, bishop announced to the ward that I had used Yanase kyoudais violin, and the ward seemed SO surprised! Apparently it was a very big deal that Yanase kyoudai was associating with the church. To us, it seems like him lending the violin was just an excuse for him to be associated with the church. As we visited with him, we felt a desire that he has to come back to church. He feels insecure and weak and he is worried about others judging him, but we could sense that desire so strongly and we feel like he will be returning soon. 
It is a privilege to be working with less active members. The Spirit can be easily felt with them. I love missionary work!!

Family, I love you so much. Have a fantastic week!!! The church is true!!
Crofts shimai

Love at Home--家庭の中に愛がある



Dear Family, 
Weather: rain
Shout out: Dad. Haha. I showed somebody our family picture, and he pointed at you and Joseph and said *I can tell those two are family…they look exactly the same!
Week 5 in Yonago: WONDERFUL. 
     We actually spent our first 2 days of the week in Kobe. It was my first Mission Leader Conference. It was so great! I love President Zinke. I expect to see him sitting on the stand in general conference very soon. On Monday night when we got to Kobe, we stopped by the mission home to say hi to Sister Zinke and show an english presentation that Tojo shimai prepared, and we were able to talk with Sister Zinke and President Zinke for a while, just the four of us in a normal conversation. It was so fun to be with them when they were not training and see them as normal people. They are awesome! We saw them again on Thursday when they visited our zone to say goodbye to us (theyll be back in America soon!) They talked about how they have been training us not to be good missionaries, but to be good people. Disciples not just for 18 months, but forever! They talked a lot about families and temples. It was WONDERFUL. It made me so even more grateful for the family I have now, and excited to go to the temple again! Interestingly, it did not make me want to go home. It made me want to be a better missionary now and work my very best now! 
     I love missionary work. We visited the Takekawa family again. (The family with 6 kids!) They were just as willing to let us into their home, and we were just as impressed with the family. They prayed together for their first time and it was probably the cutest thing I have seen, and definitely one of the happiest moments of my mission! There were five kids in a row with their hands clasped and their heads bowed, and at the end of the prayer, they all said *amen* at the exact same time!! We arranged for them to come to this weeks ward family home evening, (we need two big cars for all of them!)nand I have a feeling the ward is going to love them to pieces. I think it is perfect to have a wonderful family of 8 with good values and aspirations to be living in a ward with so many families and primary children. The Lord knows what He is doing. It is a joy to be working with families. 
     I also love being involved with less active members. It is pretty adventurous biking from one house to the next, finding out that some people moved years and years ago or passed away or something. The crazy thing to me is that we receive their record from the ward, place the name on our map, and then when we are planning, we usually just look at how much time we have and determine where we should go based on that. However, I still feel like the Lord is leading us so much, and I can recognize His hand in the work often as we go along. 
     One day, we went to visit a less active brother. His mother answered the door and said he moved to Osaka almost 10 years ago. As we talked to her though, we thought there was something different, and we found out she actually got baptized too. She was baptized with her son in Osaka over 20 years ago, but the ward did not have any record of her, and she does not really remember anything about church either. We sang a hymn with her and prayed with her, and tears came to her eyes and she asked us to visit again. The Lord is leading us to His lost sheep. 
     Something about less active members makes me love them SO MUCH. Probably because they have already been baptized and I know they are so close to being able to go the temple and feel of the blessings that I have in my life!  Instead of just picturing them being baptized, I picture them going to the temple and having families like my own, and it really makes me want to help them! I am so grateful for the responsibility we have to help the less active members.
    I am also grateful for music. Tojo shimai also loves music, so we use it a lot. Almost every time we sing a hymn for a less active member, whether they are interested in the church or not, it brings tears to their eyes. We also sing hymns to random people who we meet housing who may not have interest in the gospel but seem to have a hard life. The Spirit is always very strong, and I feel like I can share my testimony powerfully through music. We are so blessed to have music in our lives!! I will be performing the violin a few times this week…I am excited!!
     Thank you for being the best family in the world! I mean it. I love you so much!
Love,
Kris

Monday, June 2, 2014

Come, Come Ye Saints--畏れず来たれ聖徒

Dearest Family,
I love you all so much. Thank you for being the best family in the world! One of my favorite things to do (among many) is to pull out my picture book and show people YOU! Everybody notices how happy our family is. Also, they think you all look like movie stars. Its funny. Sometimes they ask which movie star the picture is, and when I say it is my brother or sister (people have asked about almost each one of you) they are shocked. 
It has been a great week in Yonago! I am so grateful. The Lord has blessed us to be able to meet wonderful people this week. 
When we first got to Yonago, the previous sisters left us a note about a potential investigator. It is a man who has an udon/Ukranian food shop. They said it is delicious and he is really nice! We decided to go check it out. The food was good, and he was REALLY nice. He is married to a Ukranian woman, and they have 6 kids!!! He told us that after he met the other missionaries, he went to search for our church, but he could not find it. We gave him a map and he said he would come when he had work off! We left the shop to go to an appointment, but the appointment cancelled, so we had some time, and we decided we really wanted to meet this mans family. We knew it was a little bit weird and maybe forward, but we went back to the shop and asked him where he lived. Surprisingly, he was more than willing to have us meet his family! In fact, he biked with us back to his apartment, and let us right in! His wife was so welcoming and his kids were SO happy to see us. They are GOOD GOOD kids. And half ukranian/half japanese kids are beautiful. Anyway, the family was absolutely wonderful. Apparently the wife also has a lot of interest in church, and they said they would love to have us over whenever! They are not investigators yet, but we are excited for the future! 
My favorite part of the week: Dateyama kyoudai. Dateyama kyoudais wife was baptized about 30 years ago. He took the missionary discussions on and off from that point, but he had absolutely no interest. He was especially bothered by people pushing him to be baptized. His wife was a faithful member. She passed away a little over a month ago, and he has been coming to church in order to feel close to her. We decided we wanted to help him. Last week at church we went up to meet him and ask if we could visit him, and he was very stand-off-ish. He was hesitant to even be talking with the missionaries. We told him we heard wonderful things about his wife and wanted to learn more about her, and that we would not talk about church things. He finally agreed to let us visit him. When we visited, we talked for about an hour about his wife, and then he brought up prayer. He said his wife always prayed and he began to pray for help before she passed away, but now that she has died, he was confused (especially with the Buddhist beliefs about prayers) and he did not know how to pray. He asked us to teach him! Then he began to ask about God and about the restored church. Then he brought up baptism by himself! He said he still does not want to be baptized, but he understands that it is necessary and he wants to become like the members of our church. We had a very good discussion, and at the end, we sang his wifes favorite hymn, Come come ye saints. He was crying and he said he realized he NEEDS the missionaries. We saw him again at church yesterday and he was a completely different person. He had a nicely prepared gift for us and a smile on his face. It was wonderful. 
Missionary work is the best. The Lord is preparing people everywhere. He loves His children and He has a plan for each one of us! This gospel is true. Thanks for loving it and living it so well. 
I love you!
Kris

Monday, May 26, 2014

Thank You--ありがとうございます

One of the many rice paddy fields I pass every day.

Birthday surprises from my wonderful companion!

The ward "heart attacked" me for my birthday!

Birthday lunch from a kind member!
Dearest Family,
It was a wonderful week to be a missionary! 
Shaking Elder Christoffersons hand and listening to him speak was definitely a highlight of the week, perhaps even a highlight of my mission. I was impressed with the power that was in the room as he spoke. I was also impressed that every question I had prepared before the meeting was answered during the meeting. It was a wonderful experience. He began by talking about his role as an apostle. He shared the commission that the Lord gave to His apostles in Matthew, and then shared the same commission that was given to the apostles in the Latter Days in Doctrine and Covenants. He talked about his responsibility as an apostle to take the gospel to the world, and how because 15 men alone cannot do that, they have called us to help. He talked about how we are the apostles/prophets companions, and how just like companions, we pray for them and they pray for us, and we think they are honorable men and they hope we will be honorable companions. He said if there is one thing we should remember from the whole meeting, it is that the prophets and apostles say *Thank You.* It is wonderful to be a missionary. After that, he opened it up to a question/answer session, and the Spirit was very close as he talked about relying on the Savior and having an eye single to the glory of God. It was wonderful! It was also great to have the entire mission together. That was the first time for me! There was so much power in the room.
We spent a big portion of our week traveling. The devotional was in Osaka, which is about 5 or 6 hours away from me. We also went on exchanges with the sisters in the area next to us, and it was about a 2 hour travel to get there! I live in the country side, and we drove past rows and rows and rows and rows of rice fields with little Japanese people hunched over working in them. It was an amazing view! 
It was my first exchange as a Sister Training Leader this week! It was amazing! The Spirit was working through us so much. We arrived at around 5:00, and they had a lesson scheduled for 5:30. Womack shimai and I looked over the lesson plan, mogi-ed it, and then the investigator arrived. We taught her a powerful lesson. Even though I had never met her before, I felt like I was able to connect with her and teach to her understanding and desires. That was definitely the Spirit.  And at the end of the lesson, she asked us when she can get baptized! 
I also had been praying and studying quite a bit to know how I could best help Womack shimai. I really did not know Womack shimai very well at all, and I did not understand her goals very well either. However, I put a lot of thought into how to help her, and then the Spirit helped to meet her needs during the koukan. We were sitting and talking during lunch, and I did not really know what I was saying, but she started crying. She said she NEVER cries, so it was very rare, and she said thank you for what I shared with her. To be honest, I do not know what I said. That was the Lord helping, again.
We have enjoyed doing missionary work here in Yonago as well. We have been working to meet the less active members, and we have met some great people! On Monday, we met Masuda kyoudai. We met him in his shop, which is a Beatles shop. I think you would all be blown out of your minds. He has rows and rows with thousands and thousands of Beatles records, CDs, posters, DVDs, recordings, pictures, etc. All of the Beatles. He is a cool guy. He was baptized more than 30 years ago and stopped going to church right after that. However, he still has a ctr ring that he keeps on his front desk to remind him to keep trying every day. And he told us how strongly he believes in Joseph Smith. That was amazing to me, because he has not been to church for SUCH a long time! We are excited to work with him. 
We also met with Eiko shimai on Tuesday. I do not know if I told you about her. She is a real hoot. She took out the sliding doors in her apartment and bolted up a hammock and a wooden swing. If you knew Japanese houses, you would know that is impossible because the houses here are tiny. But she had a solution for that. She made her kitchen table, and she put wheels on it so she can wheel it out of the way for the swing and the hammock. She speaks English almost fluently, and she learned it all from watching TV, so it is really dramatic and not normal English. It is so fun to be with her. She was also baptized more than 30 years ago and has not come since, so we are starting over with teacher her about who God is. It is a great experience. 
Last week, I noticed the hand of the Lord in so many little things. No huge miracles or anything happened (except that Ayako chan set a goal to be baptized and came to church!!), but in the little things every day, I was able to see the hand of the Lord. I know this is the Lords work. I know the church is the kingdom of God on the earth. I know God loves each one of you!!
AND I LOVE YOU TOO!!! Thank you for being such a wonderful family. I am grateful every single day for your example and prayers and testimony and love and support. Thank you thank you! 
Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Crofts shimai
p.s. If you are wondering, I am no longer a teenager. I know, that is sad. Birthdays are not really a huge deal in Japan, except for when a girl turns 20. She has a huge celebration and wears her kimono and takes *I am 20 years old* photos and things. It is a big day for me too…Tojo shimai surprised me with a nice card and earrings this morning and the ward surprised me by heart-attacking our apartment door! And more than anything, I get to be a missionary today! That makes it the happiest birthday ever. 

Monday, May 19, 2014

Boldness--大胆

Dear Family,
BECCA HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I was thinking about you this week and how you must be one happy mom. This has got to be the best birthday ever right?? I love you!!
It is fun to hear about everything going on at home with a full house. Thank you for all of the emails! I hope you know that you are the best family ever. During weekly planning session last week, we were doing companionship inventory, and Tojo shimai was telling me the reasons why she likes me. She said the biggest thing is that she loves my family! I was surprised because I did not say that much about you ( I can only say so much about non-gospel related things in Japanese.) But she said when I first told her about you, she could tell that you are really special. And then when she saw pictures of you, she said she LOVED you. And then she could tell by the way I talked to you all on the phone that you are a very very good family, and because of that, she really likes me. So thank you very much!
Speaking of Tojo shimai, I absolutely love her. She is the happiest, most faithful, most loving, and FUN missionary. She actually reminds me a lot of Grandma Vance. I am not sure why, because she is a tiny little Japanese girl, but I just love her. One thing about her is that she is very bold. When we go to doors in Japan, people barely open them just a crack for us. Usually I can hardly see who I am talking to and they slowly close the door as we talk to them. However, Tojo shimai just grabs the door and opens it, and as they try to close the door, she pulls it the other way. It is hilarious because Japanese people are NOT like that. They are the opposite of bold! So I love her because she is not like the Japanese people, but I also love her because she is very Japanese. For example, her morning exercise is some form of yoga in which she lies in her futon, and after about five minutes she switches positions. You would think that she is just sleeping in, but I know she is not because she is obedient. That really is just her form of exercise. Another thing about Japanese people is that they are hoarders. Their houses are tiny, but they have more STUFF inside of them than any house I ever saw in America. She has different kinds of tapes and glues for different purposes, different pens for different purposes, soaps, foods, clothes, paper, binders, bags, etc etc. I have my one pen and my one bag and I am good haha. Also, her basic food groups are noodles and rice. I have eaten a lot of noodles and rice in the last week. We tried some Thai shrimp flavored ramen, and I thought of you, mom. Do you still go to Thai kitchen? Anyway, I just love doing missionary work with Tojo shimai!
We are still trying to pick up the pace here in Yonago. Since we have gotten here, we have only been in contact with 2 of the previous investigators. One of them has a mental handicap and she dropped us last week. However, the other one, (15 year old Ayako chan) is awesome. She met with us 3 times last week! The great thing about being with a Japanese missionary is that it does not take very much time to plan lessons. She texted us on Monday during preparation and said she wanted to meet that night at 6. Then again on Tuesday she texted us at 5:45 and said she would be at the church at 6 for a lesson! We met with her AGAIN on Saturday too. She is beautiful. I do not understand most of what she says because it is slurred/slang/teenage language, but she says it all with a smile so I enjoy it.
I am also learning more of the members names. The kids are SO fun. One cute little 5 year old girl named Ami chan was sitting with us during sacrament meeting. She kept looking into my eyes and asking why they look like the Earth. Haha!
We had our last zone conference with President Zinke last week. It is sad that it was the last one. If you knew how wonderful and inspired he is, you would feel sad for me. However, it was a good conference to end on. He taught us how to teach from the Book of Mormon by doing it for us. We went through 2 Ne 31 and read it together and he showed us how we can use that chapter better as we teach investigators so that they understand the importance of baptism/desire to follow Christ. It was a powerful instruction. He also talked about spiritual stamina and spiritual tenacity and the importance of improving our relationship with Christ every day. It was a powerful conference and it got me even more excited/determined about missionary work!
The biggest thing I have learned this week is about relying on the Lord. I was pretty confident in my abilities in Katsura, but when I came to Yonago and worked with Tojo shimai who is able to do everything to do with missionary work so well, I kind of shrunk. I did not understand my purpose in being here. On Wednesday night, all of the sisters in our zone slept together in Okayama before the conference the next day. Somehow I ended up without a futon or blanket, so I was sitting up in the middle of 7 sisters in the middle of the night thinking about what my purpose was. I realized that every sister in the zone except one is older than I am (in missionary age, they are all older than me in real age) and they all have a lot of experience on me. Yet I have been assigned as their leader. I could not figure out why. So in the middle of the night I was up pondering and praying, and I realized more than ever how much my abilities are nothing compared to what the Lord has. And as I strive to use my abilities to the best that I can, the Lord will magnify and strengthen and provide so that I can bless others the way the Lord needs me to. I have seen this happen over and over in my life and especially in my mission, and I am grateful that the Lord is continuing to bless me in this way. I know He is blessing you as well, and I love hearing about the successes/happiness that you are experiencing way over there in Idaho!
More than anything, I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He is the Redeemer of the World, and the Great Almighty. I know He lives. I know He loves each one of you with the deepest love. What a joy to be a part of His gospel!
Thank you for your support and love. It really helps a lot! I love you!!
Crofts shimai
(I have included a picture of the beloved Morii family--Chiaki san and Chisa chan)

Friday, May 16, 2014

Yonago--米子

Family! It has been a long time since we have spoken, huh?? 
Thanks for all of your questions and jokes and things...I loved to hear all of your voices! 
Just to clear things up, I am in Yonago now. I transferred from Kyoto. Now I am far away from Kyoto. But I have a Japanese companion now! Her name is Tojo shimai, and she is an AMAZING missionary. While transferring, everytime somebody asked me who my new companion would be and I told them Tojo shimai, they oooed and awed and said how lucky I am to be with her. She is the best of the best apparently. I love her to death! She is so happy and cute and sweet and faithful and she expects miracles and then works for them. It will be a good transfer. Also, I love Yonago! The ward--there are 50 primary children! I love it! 
Of course transferring and leaving an area with investigators and ward members who I LOVED was hard, but Yonago feels good. When we first got to Yonago, Tojo shimai and I went to the church. We sat down in the chapel and said a prayer together, and we both felt something very good about this transfer. We believe in the power of the atonement, and we know with Jesus Christ, we can perform miracles this transfer. We are excited! 
And again, I love Tojo shimai already. We have been able to plan and teach two lessons together, and both were wonderful learning experiences for me. First of all, having a companion who understands perfectly what is being said and can say whatever she wants back is nice, but I think more than that, having a companion who is close to the Spirit loves those she teaches is wonderful! For a big portion of the lessons, I just sat back in awe as she talked with the investigators, got to know them, and connected gospel doctrine to their specific needs. I learned so much from watching her say exactly what the investigator needed to hear at the right time. 
Yesterday we taught Ayako chan, who is a 15 year old girl. She is SO cute!! She has a nice big smile that she has on display often...I love it. We read some notes about her that the previous sister missionaries left for us. They said she is very shy and does not talk during the lessons and she would not pray out loud. However, she opened up in our lesson and shared her thoughts and feelings, and she even prayed out loud for us.  
It was really really sad leaving Chiaki san and Chisa chan.  We were able to prepare a lesson on the Atonement for Chiaki san,(Chisa chan was still at school) and it was powerful. At the end of the lesson, we invited her to be baptized. She said she can not because her parents are against it, but her list of reasons why she wanted to be baptized was amazing. She loves Jesus Christ and wants to follow Him, she believes this gospel is the way for her daughter to have the most happiness, she feels something special when she prays and reads the Book of Mormon and it makes her want to follow the steps in the gospel, she believes what we tell her and believes that baptism is the only way to receive all of the blessings of Christs atonement, and more than anything, she wants eternal life. At least that is what she told us. She said in English, *give it to me! I want that eternal life! Give it to me!* Haha it was funny to see her getting so intense about eternal life, and at the same time, it was so assuring and wonderful to see how the Spirit had impacted her desires!  She did not accept a specific baptismal date, but when she found out I was leaving, she was very very sad because she said she wanted me to be there for her baptism and her daughters too! She was in tears for a while, but I promised her that we would meet again (I said hopefully soon, but if not, in the celestial kingdom--so please get baptized!). She finally regained her composure, and then Chisa chan came home from school, and when Chisa chan found out I was leaving, she broke into tears too! It was so sad. I was hugging Chisa chan while she and her mom and Hunt shimai were all standing there crying. So sad. But I know the Lord knows what He is doing, and I was excited to come to Yonago. I cannot say enough how much I love being a missionary. It is the best blessing I could imagine.
Also I cannot say it enough, but this church is true! Jesus Christ lives, He loves us, and He can do all things for us. His restored gospel is on the Earth today, and we are SO blessed to have it in our lives, because it is the way to true TRUE happiness, and to eternal life as families! This is wonderful. I love you all so much. 
Thanks for the phone call. Happy Mothers Day!

Love,
Crofts shimai

Monday, May 5, 2014

Mothers Day!! -- 母の日

McDonalds!

Dear Family,
MOM!! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!! I love you So So SO much! Shout out to being the most wise and wonderful mother, teacher, example, friend, worker, inspirer, and incredible woman in the whole world! I love you and can not wait to talk to you! (p.s. did you get the information for that?)
I am astonished at all the Lord does. He blesses us so so much, even when we do not deserve it at all. And He loves His children! It is wonderful to be a part of His work in gathering them back to Him! 
Meeting with Morii family is always such a joy. I LOVED our lesson with them last week. We are doing the family English program, so we teach English for the first half hour and then do our lesson for the next half hour. However, last week during the English section, everything we talked about seemed to lead right to our lesson! We planned on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ (eternal life, our obstacles, the solution (Jesus Christ) and how to receive His help).  We asked during English if they had any questions for us, and the question was as church members, what is our main goal? Hunt Shimai and I of course said something to do with eternal life! We asked her if she has any goals, and she said her goal is to read the entire Book of Mormon! Then, she began talking about death and the suffering and unfair things in this life, and she asked where we go for a solution to those. Fortunately, the answer to that question is also in the gospel of Jesus Christ! We decided to just end our English lesson and begin teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ! She seemed to be prepared for everything that was said, and the Spirit helped it to be a powerful lesson. I love walking out of those spiritual oasis lessons. I also love the Morii kazoku so much. There were a few days when we were not going to be able to meet with them because they were busy, but Chisa chan (the ten year old daughter) said she really really wanted to see us, so we were able to go and teach them! I just love her! 
We also were able to meet with Sugawa san a few times. She is the lady who I met with Allred shimai who came to church last week. She talks over and over about how she just wants a refresh or a restart, and she wants to feel clean again. Also when we talked about baptism in our lesson, her eyes sparked up, exactly as Yamaguchi shimais did the first time she heard baptism. I am so grateful the Lord led her to this gospel. I love her so much. 
Hunt shimai and I have continued to be blessed by being led to those who are ready for this gospel. I love doing missionary work with her. She is a great missionary! 
Fortunately or Unfortunately, however you choose to look at it, I am being transferred from Kyoto! I absolutely love it here...the people, the culture, the ward, the zone, my investigators and my companion...it is amazing here! BUT I am excited to be shipped off to the Northwest part of this mission, meet my JAPANESE companion, and serve in Yonago! Missionary work is just the best. Also, this church is true. 
 I will be speaking with you all soon, so TTFN! 
I love you!!!
Crofts shimai