tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44215822272890273362024-02-20T12:22:01.234-08:00Sister Katya Wagstaff 2015-2016Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-39940558956885156622016-12-12T06:06:00.001-08:002016-12-12T06:06:22.221-08:00Monday Dec. 12, 2016 Light the Japan!<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">I really want to think that this is just a normal week, but this is my </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">last email and this has truly been a week of tender mercies from </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">Heavenly Father. I love my mission. I love these people and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">experiences and I cry anytime anyone mentions that I'm going home but </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">that's just because I am so grateful, not to mention the wonderful </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">family and loved ones at home. I absolutely love being a missionary,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">there's nothing better.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">Last Monday we went to Joyo illumination with a member- not a lot of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">people there, but so grateful that she came and dendo'd with us! She's f</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">inishing up college finals right now and still makes time to work </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">with us, love her so much!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday was such a blessing- lunch and lesson with a member- busy working RM but she also wants to make time to dendo on Sunday's! Then we did a Christmas kubari (handing out flyers) at eki and it was really successful- lots of people stopped to actually talk with us, not just take the paper and leave- some good PI's. Then we've really been praying and working hard for new investigators that have potential to really progress and housed an apartment building close to a member's house that we felt prompted to visit and of course after no one answering, found someone at one of the last doors- he's a college student who doesn't know what's true but said if there was one true religion he would want that...we had the opportunity to teach the whole Resotration, give BOM, set appt for later in the week- what a miracle! </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday was our recent converts- everyone's doing great, Masaki Kyoudai and Yamanaka Shimai are done with AB lesson! In the evening again prompting to visit some apartments and met the most adorable 12 year old girl who we showed the new Christmas video, she loved it and wants to learn more (needs parent permission) so asked her to get that, then we were moving on and talked to other people and as we were going back to our bikes she comes running out and had written us Merry Christmas cards- she melts my heart. It doesn't matter what age, Heavenly Father is preparing his children to hear the gospel. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Thursday I koukaned in a Fushimi with Luczak and Kenney Shimai- 3people was a blast! We had to adjust a little but lots of miracles, worked hard, came home exhausted (which is the best feeling)</span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Friday ZTM in Shimogamo- the Spirit was strong, we were able to apply various things we learned immediately to get new investigators later in the week! Plus Kanako Chan (member)'S work schedule was changed and she was able to come with us to visit golden kid from earlier in the week- turned out really well, talked about BOM and Heavenly Father. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Saturday evening went to Kanako's house, Komatsu 'S had a dinner party partially for me going home and also her friend (referral!) who just passed some big college test. I love watching the Spirit work through people. Towards the end she basically said, I just feel so soft right now and started crying and talking about guilt she felt for not being better, wants to be better- that's exactly the help the gospel brings! She's really busy now until end of the year but basically she's ready to be baptized- she's been friends with this member for a long time, met missionaries a little before, preparing her to receive the full blessings! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sunday spoke, also sang with Larsen Shimai! Then YW Christmas Party, watched Christmas Devotional, went out for some more finding and evening was dinner party at the Nagashima family and lots of people! It was just one big happy family- food was simple and that's the best, just having a good time together. Miracles are happening here because this is Heavenly Fathers work for us, the children that he loves so much. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>I've just been a small part of the picture and I've learned how hard this is. We cannot do this work on our own and there are plenty of discouraging, rainy long cold days and yet we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We know that all things will work together for our good. If you want to be happy, look to the Light of the World. If you want to be even happier, follow His example and share the light.<br />I love you all, see you soon!<br />
Wagstaff Shimai<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">See you soon! Love you all! Sent off my suitcases today, praying</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">everything gets there in one piece :)</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">This week I was with a lot of member families and they are the same</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">all over to world. The gospel blesses families, truly we have joy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-5615052901558306162016-12-06T07:03:00.000-08:002016-12-06T07:03:14.664-08:00Dec. 5, 2016 Light the World!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">This has been the biggest adventure- not done yet, and reminds me of a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">quote except I can't perfectly quote it but something along the lines </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">of "the road is narrow, the way is rough, the companions are few, the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Guide is reliable" especially that part about the Guide. Truly this </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">week saw in little ways that this is Heavenly Father's work.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Also this will be short, not a lot of time... </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Monday after adventuring around Kyoto we went after a bunch of PI's</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and were able to invite people to our Christmas Party! Christmas dendo </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">is the greatest thing ever, even in Japan- non Christian country, they </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">know Christmas and it softens/opens hearts like nothing else!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday found City Hall and went looking after service opportunities. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Then passed out fliers by a college with the elders in Santa hats and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">forgot to take pictures :( At first we tried singing Christmas songs </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">(hymns) and passing out but that definitely didn't work but once we </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">just had a good time, everyone was way more interested! Then an</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">investigator who we haven't seen in a long time mailed us and we were </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">able to meet her! Plus top off the night with my companion making </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">tacos plus homemade salsa !</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday with recent converts and it's so much fun to literally see </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">their testimonies grow. 81 yr old grandma is really starting to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">understand and retain, plus a less active finally did her BOM reading </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">this week- that's a big deal!! Then Fujii Shimai, another recent </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">convert read from 2nd Nephi clear to the middle of Mosiah this week,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">dang!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Thursday was service day and tried to visit lots of lonely people then </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">did a garbage pick-up project along a street by the church - lots of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">people smiled at us, so I'd say it was pretty successful.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Friday we had District Meeting in Fushimi- good stuff as always, with </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">of course Indo Curry after. Even bettter that night was a recent </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">convert who's been struggling a lot lately was smiling and even </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">laughed a little tonight! Laughter is the best medicine- big testimony </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">of that!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday we had a really productive DCS which always feels good. Then </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Fujii Shimai took the next step in BOM and we were able to help her </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">start to apply what she reads to herself, find answers, because it is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">more than just an interesting story. My love for the BOM grew as she's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">been going through for the first time and pointing out things like- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Noah was a horrible guy wasn't he?!? But WOW Alma's so amazing- I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">can't wait to starting reading Book of Alma, it's long so it has to be </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">good, right?? :) She just makes me so happy! Cool miracle seeing how</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Heavenly Father guides us without us knowing. We wanted to stop by a\ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">former investigator who lives by a recent convert, Takeda Shimai, so </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">we dropped by her first and found that her granddaughters were there. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">They come with her to church sometimes and we were able to teach a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Christmas, Jesus Christ message and their grandma gave them the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">calendar the church made in Japan for the 25 days of service. They</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">love it!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Sunday was a good fast Sunday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> after church received a kimono from </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">some members- adorable grandma's! And then it was a big of a long day </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">being out in the rain (we planned a day with lots of biking and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">finding, not realizing it would rain) so that was pretty cold, but </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">made coming back at the end of the night feel better!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">That's a really short version, plus didn't take any pictures this </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">week, but truly so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. I love </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Christmas! Relief Society president bore her testimony about how </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">following the church's service Christmas thing has helped her remember </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Christ throughout the day in simple ways, I realized what a tremendous</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">blessing it is to be a missionary- a representative of Jesus Christ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">24/7 for 18 months. The feeling is unreal. I have never been alone, I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">can always feel Heavenly Father's love come in various ways- sometimes </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">it's that He gives challenges to help us grow but those are also just </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">evidence of His love! I know He loves each and every one of you- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">please check out the video and campaign on </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://mormon.org&source=gmail&ust=1481119819785000&usg=AFQjCNHjgqsJL-jHKA2-S2JdO57o3Y20Hw" href="http://mormon.org/" rel="noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">mormon.org</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> because it truly </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">makes a diffference- first in you then in those around you!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Love, Wagstaff 姉妹</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">This week has been really interesting- somehow in my mind I had this </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">image that there are tons of blessings at the end of your mission and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">it was smooth sailing. A lot of big miracles because you've worked so </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hard and that's how Heavenly Father shows he loves you.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Now what I'm saying isn't that Heavenly Father isn't constantly in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">this work and that I'm not seeing blessings- not that, just that the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">end is just like the rest, ups and downs. I think I like that. For </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">some reason, all of our investigators dropped us and during finding </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">time we've been getting a lot of no's. But that's okay, because we</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">still know God has a plan. He has perfect timing. One blessing is that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">we are focusing really hard on how to improve- constantly after reach </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">lesson, how can he next be better. Something I liked about mom and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">dad's emails this week was that they are still constantly improving as </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">well- that's what we're all doing.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Plus we had a big fiasco in Sunday School</span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_959530520" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">y</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> that honestly I don't. Understand</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">all the details- recent converts mom is an investigator and everyone </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">in the ward has a different opinion about how to help her and we taught </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">her with a member couple during </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> Sunday school but then after church </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">got interrogated by a member of the bishopric and Ward mission leader </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and still don't know why but it's okay because we can go back, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">apologize even though we don't know why and get more clarification. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Really it's an opportunity to really be Christ-like. He asks us to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">love enemies as well as friends (and the members definitely aren't</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">enemies!!) but it takes work to become true friends.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Through every experience we can laugh and have a good time. We got wet </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">then it got super cold and we were so cold but it's okay because came </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">back to the church at the end of he Night to submit our numbers for </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the week and elders were there too and we could all laugh about how </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">rough it is sometimes! Truly truly truly joyful. Plus I know that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">there are always prepare people out there. It's unlikely that I'll see </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a baptism in the next week, so I'll finish my mission without having </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">physically seen an investigator baptized and that's okay because it's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">not the end- my work is just part of Heavenly Father's great plan.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Drew and Tash- I hope that you are preparing to become a missionary. I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hope that you are solidifying your base in the gospel of Jesus Christ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">now because it will always be a blessing to you. I hope you come to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">love the Book of Mormon, I LOVE the Book of Mormon, I think more than </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">any possession I'm going to take home with me, the copy that has been </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">carried around with me this past year and is a little worn, very </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">marked up is likely my favorite thing. I hope that you love Jesus </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Christ and through following His example come to know more of Him. I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hope you aren't afraid to share His lights with the people around you- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">we are asked to invite and be an example. Others have their agency, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">but a missionary's purpose is to invite and help others to come unto </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Christ. I know that investigators I have taught will be baptized. I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">also know that someday, hopefully soon, a temple will be announced in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the Kansai area and that's going to be a great day.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Love you guy! Katya</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-6775489043967593122016-11-28T13:45:00.001-08:002016-11-28T13:45:58.104-08:00Nov. 28, 2016<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747316" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Monday</span></span> after P-Day ended we went out to Kutsukawa and saw Tai for a little bit- such a blessing that my companion speaks Spanish! I picked up a few words (the ones that are like English </span><span style="font-family: ".AppleColorEmojiUI"; font-size: 17pt;"><img alt="😊" class="CToWUd" data-goomoji="1f60a" goomoji="1f60a" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/e/1f60a" style="margin: 0px 0.2ex; max-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle;" /></span><span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">) but she was busy and less interested than before, but still hope! Did some finding, trying to focus on Book of Mormon which worked out pretty well! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747317" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> we biked over to a college and had some pretty successful finding- one girl turns out doesn't live in our area, but pretty interested and swapped numbers. Then not even sure how it happened, we were just talking to everyone and met this 97 he old grandpa, still walking around and genki with a walker. Anyways a little hard to understand him but he was Christian and he mentioned he wasn't baptized so of course we started talking about baptism, then he asked if he could show us a book he wrote, so we walked a little back to his house , he ended up giving us his book, no clue what it's about but he probably lives with family and hopefully they see the pamphlets we gave! Funny guy. Later met with a member and I was surprised that she had more dendo desire than I expected (don't judge) and we helped her think about people to help especially inviting to Christmas, which is a really big push in Japan this year. Lastly visited a less active from a list the Relief Society president gave us a bit ago and this lady hasn't been visited in a long time according to records but she came out and talked to us and we also met her daughter (non-member!) and she said we can come back and talk! <img alt="image2.JPG" class="CToWUd a6T" height="240" id="m_612698154058502711764031A8F-B92C-48EE-B4C1-2564344DD76A" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=96f69e60bd&view=fimg&th=158aa024d6df586f&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=331d800b2fb2e91c_0.1.1&attbid=ANGjdJ-NF9I7wxfgF_cA1x6WTV49KArVBhd5VbboDIFQHFN_xYGrIdkIgZn03RSg0kYAuY2swmeOQmknWHdMjh3M14dQHHPdlFNhO4hoUCVxkVZfClfeKrWenLo1MVc&sz=s0-l75-ft&ats=1480344376674&rm=158aa024d6df586f&zw&atsh=1" style="outline: 0px;" tabindex="0" width="320" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: .SFUIText;"><span style="font-size: 22.6667px;">(Also Yamanaka Shimai gave us flowers)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747318" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> was recent convert day, always good. So proud of Fujii Shimai this week who basically just finished all of 2nd Nephi in a week! The Book of Mormon is powerful and the promise is true for anyone who reads, ponders and prays. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747319" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> we got a flu shot in the morning, then went over to Uji in the evening for Thanksgiving dinner at the Takara's with elders, Masaki Kyoudai and Hirao Shimai. Dinner was Pizza Hut and KFC :) :) It was just the funniest group, we were laughing all night. The gospel is so joyful- this was a group that of course like everyone has challenges, some big ones and yet can be happy...that's kind of been a theme this week, "None but saints can be happy under every circumstance "<img alt="image1.JPG" class="CToWUd a6T" height="240" id="m_61269815405850271171E91C62E-B6A4-4114-91A6-8C055A81F01C" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=96f69e60bd&view=fimg&th=158aa024d6df586f&attid=0.2&disp=emb&realattid=331d800b2fb2e91c_0.1.2&attbid=ANGjdJ-1YhLHuPzNB8WWhjRoE---1ObMKhxNXGx0Y_izrwBpHOt9px76EL2DMwNm7cRwAdUpBGy-teV5wB_SWWWaQNeqbgbXrUudysS9IuiUroK3QScTCAa_V4rSwZ8&sz=s0-l75-ft&ats=1480344376675&rm=158aa024d6df586f&zw&atsh=1" style="outline: 0px;" tabindex="0" width="320" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747320" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> was Zone Conference and the Spirit was so strong, Welch Kaicho and Shimai are truly amazing. Sadly my last zone conference but it's so good and the missions going in a great direction focusing on Faith and Repentance. I gave my final testimony, then after had final interview, so lots of tears but it was so good. Came back to Joyo and had a lesson with Naho plus a member was able to come, so that was good. Also the Christmas video came out- seriously </span><span style="font-family: ".HiraKakuInterface-W3"; font-size: 17pt;">感動しました,</span><span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">very moved! Everyone needs to see it, it helped our investigator feel the Spirit as well. <img alt="image3.JPG" class="CToWUd a6T" height="480" id="m_61269815405850271177D249DE1-CF67-4F4A-928F-23B6D361C039" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=96f69e60bd&view=fimg&th=158aa024d6df586f&attid=0.3&disp=emb&realattid=331d800b2fb2e91c_0.1.3&attbid=ANGjdJ8cdnjsIwEjaKt1tZhBS2X5REXGUovlcSB0RU4h8C2R2I4YuurhsxJv7fPWdosoe3bdmKuqsiaA_tMFHzWXujp5sCltwreQ-dbxEkCZJDvwp7EbjY_GX9zVXEE&sz=s0-l75-ft&ats=1480344376675&rm=158aa024d6df586f&zw&atsh=1" style="outline: 0px;" tabindex="0" width="640" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747321" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> we had a meeting with Ward mission leader then ate out and cool experience showing the difference we can make. While waiting we started talking to people and elders were talking to a family with a young kid who really liked English- just being nice and then left. Then we we were sitting by a lady who was pretty cool, and she finished and left a little before we did. Once she left the mom the elders talked to approached us and said we seemed really nice and he had mentioned we teach English, so she asked about it, we ended up teaching her about what we're doing and importance of family and she just couldn't believe we taught English for free. Anyways, hopefully they come this week! Lots of miracles this day, another cool experience was in the evening in Uji (biked out pretty far) and we were looking for this less active and the address was a little wrong but then this high school kid was coming home to the house that the map said, so we asked if he knew this person, he immediately ran in to check with his mom who grabbed a map of the area, invited us in and we checked the map together, she found it then walked us over to the less active. Turns out his less active didn't live there anymore but we were definitely guided to meet this mom and her family, she was so incredibly nice! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747322" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> Elder Aoba came to Joyo Ward!! He's a member of the 70 (potter mentioned in General Conference last October) and he's from Ehime my first area and I knew him there! That was really fun- he shared a story about challenges he had to overcome as a new member and the effect we can then have on others in strengthening their faith. Then during <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747323" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> school a member couple asked us to come with them and we went to a classroom with Fujii Shimai's mom who was an investigator before but then kept saying she was too tired to listen to us so we dropped her but she still comes to church every week with her daughter and had a great time at Stake Conference last week. The members invited her to listen to us and she said no but kept talking, testifying about eternal families- through the teaching of Jesus Christ we really can see and be with our family forever. So then asked again and she agreed to take lessons during <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_301747324" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> school! Truly a miracle and we couldn't have done it on our own. Later we did some housing in a new neighborhood the bishop just moved into and even though it was cold and raining, lots of people answered and talked to us- lots of good potential investigators, including a family that all immediately came to the door, like all of them (rare!). Had dinner with the Bishop and his wife and talked about their dendo, plus for the Ward and there were lots of ideas- so exciting to see great things going forward. Dendo really does work best with members. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">I'm so grateful for the little part I get to play in Heavenly Father's grand plan everyday. There are so many precious children here and God knows each and every one. That includes each of you! You are each known and loved and make a difference. Very excited to start the Christmas service thing this week and hear how everyone is daily serving! Love you all!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Love the new Christmas campaign! Dad asked what I want to do this</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">holiday season, first don't really know but for sure everyday the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">service thing!</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">What a week- investigators falling like crazy, we were basically down</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to no one solid so lots of finding and we were working hard, talking</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to tons of people and just no one with interests, no new</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">investigators. Don't worry not a pity party because we knew we were</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">doing our part, fasted one day as well. Then the most amazing Zone</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Conference. I was just tears basically the whole day it was so good</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and a very nice sort of wrap up and lots of looking back. The asked us</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to do a 5 minute last testimony at the end and obviously I knew it was</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">coming and have for a long time up there and basically could hardly</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">speak at first but special thing is just the day before I finished the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Atonement challenge and read the entire BOM again. It is absolutely</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">true and the Atonement is for all of us and even though it's just the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">paper missionary copy it's priceless because it's what I have learned,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">experiences, felt since February. I have dates and names written in</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">for special experiences, particular verses that are tied to people.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Truly this is the most amazing experience. Plus we all stood and sang</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">our mission theme song- I'll never be able to sing Armies of Helaman</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the same again either.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Also went to Kyoto again today- little exploring because we didn't</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">know exactly what we were looking for but heard suggestions about a</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">cool area of the city. Ended up seeing a manga museum (not worth it,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">still don't care!) but cute little shop with paintings, then ended up</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">close to the imperial palace and ginormous gardens, only saw a little</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">bit but that's a beautiful place, wish I'd found that earlier!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-75771600158595283672016-11-22T13:35:00.001-08:002016-11-22T13:35:04.726-08:00Mon. Nov. 21, 2016 Stake Conference in Kyoto!<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Transfers week and Stoneman Shimai went off to the opposite end of the mission in Izumo and my new companion is Larsen Shimai! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Monday was Nanzenji with the most beautiful fall colors. At night we went hard, sadly one of our new investigators that we thought had a lot of potential gave the BOM back, said her husband said no but she was really sorry. So she'll have another chance later, just not right now, but then to make up for that we found around the church and met a jr high girl who's pretty interested! Plus gave away a few BOMs to our neighbors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2007247843" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> a member took us out to Okonomiyaki for lunch so I was very very happy! Later finally met one of our investigators plus she showed us some fun Japanese kid candy- really strange but fun! In the evening met a member and overall felt he Spirit and found out how she's really trying to figure out how to dendo right now and was very open! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2007247844" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> was regular recent converts who were all sad to hear about transfers, but Spirit was strong, and everyone's continuing faithfully. Also putting bikes in a box to transfer is just the biggest nightmare, that was fun. And more people came to Eikaiwa than usual, yay! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2007247845" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> we got up super early for transfers and everything went pretty smoothly! Came back and planned with Larsen Shimai, did some finding around the church, then went to dinner at a member's and they had sushi! So good and fun- mom and 2 daughters, one an RM and the other in college and they are just so funny! Made plans to help some of their friends! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2007247846" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> our neighbor had a chanto appointment with us! She doesn't have as much interest in the gospel as we thought, but grateful that we were able to help her as much as we can and besides, she still lives across the street from the church and next door to the sisters, she defiantly has other chances. Later did some finding around the eki and talked to some really cool people- 2 high school girls were going back the same direction we were, stayed with us and we're going to McDonalds close to the church so we asked if they wanted a tour and they came over to the church with us! Another crazy thing with that was that this girl asked if she could have our number before we asked for hers (turned out to be more English interest, but hey we're happy if she comes to Eikaiwa). Later Game Night and although investigators didn't show up, there were some les active kids that I met for the for the first time! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2007247847" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> we started in the morning teaching a recent convert Masaki Kyoudai with the elders and the bishop- kind of interesting trying to teach with 5 people but it worked out! Then in the afternoon Fujii Shimai had invited us to some singing service thing at a senior center- we weren't a lot of help since it was all old Japanese songs we didn't know, but we had fun! From there off to Shimogamo for Stake Conference! One little miracle- left my backpack on a train, talked to a conductor, waited 10 minutes ish then got my backpack back, no problems at all- wow. All Ward Council members and missionaries were invited to priesthood meeting and Welch Kaicho did a really cool training on member missionary work and had us all mogi together- especially to help members talk to people more in uncomfortable places: work and the train. Good training, then hurried back and stayed with Fushimi for the night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2007247848" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> up early for Stake Conference round2! The Spirit was really strong (aka I was crying through the whole thing) and so much of it was about the Area Plan (Finding joy in the gospel) and dendo. After the normal session they had a special meeting for missionaries, new members and "friends"...not sure why they didn't just say investigators. Anyways- Joyo looked really good! All of our recent converts plus Fujii Shimai's mom- shared testimonies, had questions, and Yamanaka Shimai said the closing prayer, which was the cutest thing ever- she summarized her conversion story and gave a lot of thanks for it. Plus it's pretty cool to have Welch Kaicho Shimai meeting, teaching our people! Came back by train with members- miraculously found an interested lady and then a member's non-member husband recognized us and stopped to say hi! Came back and went to get some new investigators, meet some less actives. Not a lot of people, but the ones we did talk to were pretty quality. Then there was a less active we hadn't planned on visiting but felt like we needed to, so we stopped by and had a really nice lesson with her. Still don't know exactly why, but seemed like that was where we were needed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Also I've been thinking a lot about the message we share with her and also a theme that popped up at Stake Conference- there is so much we "need" to do and that can get overwhelming and then we're doing too much on our own, but that's not the best way. Heavenly Father has a perfect plan and he guides us through the Holy Ghost, little bit at a time. Our role is to courageously follow the promptings we receive. We have the Atonement of Jesus Christ to rely on and we can improve! If we're following the Spirit, we're doing what's right and Heavenly Father is happy with us. This was a message I really needed and maybe there's someone else out there that needed a reminder! Love you all so very much!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: .SFUIText;"><span style="font-size: 22.6667px;">Also today we went to this giant shrine and there was supposed to be a giant flea market but we were there late and everything was being packed up, so enjoy the view from outside! </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-50726410924823247542016-11-14T15:54:00.003-08:002016-11-14T15:54:49.036-08:00Mon. Nov. 14, 2016<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">This week I regretted leaving my rain boots in my last area- they were getting sad and I thought the rain was mostly done...zannen but it's okay work moves on! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Last Monday night we did a lot of finding, found a bunch of college and high school students- not quite new investigators but it's always nice to start of the week really busy teaching like that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_631024358" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> was a rainy day and Stoneman Shimai still isn't 100% but okay to dendo so we decided to take trains and walk so that we could use umbrellas instead of riding in the rain. We were going after less actives- got some not-so-happy-to-see-us people but then of course also nicer people, plus had fun trying to find this girl baptized a few years ago but went less active and a few weeks ago some members saw her working at Sushiro so we tried to meet her there plus get some good food! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_631024359" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> normal new member lessons and every week we read the BOM with this less active and this time another member and new member joined and we talked about the Atonement with 1 Ne 19- cute Yamanaka Shimai, new member may get distracted and tell funny stories but she also has a testimony centered on Christ and overall it was just a really spiritual lesson- I love those powerful reminders that Jesus Christ is our Savior and there are so many blessings in store for us! That night at Eikaiwa a mom and her daughter came and she's pretty determined to start a kid's class here- nothing makes me more exhausted but at the same time it's so much fun, plus she's going to bring friends which means hello new investigators! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_631024360" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> met Yamanaka Shimai again talked about the Atonement, becoming more Christ-like and she continues to amaze me with what she understands- there's so much she doesn't really understand and can't say baptism but she gets the important stuff-shows how simple the gospel is. In the evening, brought an investigator, Naho Chan over for dinner and lesson with YW pres, turned out really well plus thenmember asked what we wanted to eat and I told her I just want completely Japanese food, what they normally eat, so she had tofu and an octopus salad and a miso soup and fish and along with a lot of other ways I've changed, this food is DELICIOUS, like if I could I would eat that stuff all the time and those are all things I pretty much hated before! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_631024361" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> before District Meeting took the train over and taught people along the way like usual and Stoneman Shimai talked to this lady who legitimately has interest AND lives close to the church- answer to prays, pretty excited about her plus her family, lots of hope for them! Had a good District Meeting, Chinese for lunch and headed back to an appt with a member, along the way found some another girl with potential, plus this member was amazing. She's very in tune with the Spirit- doing a great job planting seeds everywhere, sharing the gospel plus then at the end I swear it had no connection to what we were talking about earlier but she started talking about another sister years earlier and gave advice that was perfect for me- I don't know if she knew it or not but she was for sure an instrument in Heavenly Father's hands. Evening was Game Night plus joint lesson with the elders for a recent convert who's super quiet but the time between asking a question and him answering was a lot shorter than usual! Progress! Then end of the nging after planning, our cute next door neighbor rang out doorbell and just wanted to talk (long story with her but she's adorable and NEEDS the gospel)- we were able to share a scripture from BOM that we had found earlier that day in companion study that we thought would be nice to share with her sometime- God is looking out for His children and we've been especially trying to be in tune with the Spirit to know how we can help her.</span></div>
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(ps 11/11 Pocky Day)</div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_631024362" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> the Ward had a big church clean-up then a barbeque! We organized the library and it was so nice to throw away all the papers and junk that have been building up for waaay too long and now the church just looks and smells and feels so much nicer! Plus the BBQ was so good and we had really good weather and fun people! Later Tai San cancelled her lesson :( but was really grateful sorry and were trying to reschedule now. Evening had dinner with a member family- daughter is less active but still nice and talks to us- made the lesson a little awkward but the Spirit came and she has to choose for herself and has zero interest now but hopefully someday soon. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_631024363" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> was the Primary Program with 2 girls- they were so impressive! The Primary program is always amazing and normally I remember all the funny things that happen but these girls were pretty normal which just probably helped us all focus more on their message. Something that amazed me was that very simply and powerfully they essentially taught all of the missionary lessons- Primary kids can be missionaries and it was the coolest experience. Then during a <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_631024364" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> School, an investigator (Naho Chan) unexpectedly showed up and said she wanted to talk to us...so we're freaking out thinking she'll drop us and then she says- I talked to my boss and now I can come to church all month. Djfnoecmdm whaaa?? So that was cool, YW are super welcoming- all one of them and 2 leaders :) After church had a Christmas Party planning meeting- this is going to be so good! In the evening we visited the Kiyotani family- parents and daughters youngest is our age and not very active so we had everyone write down favorite scripture then we mixed them up, read them and guessed who's it was then the person had to explain why they liked it- coolest thing was that Megumi did it along with everyone and can't explain how happy her parents seemed, her mom exclaimed "See!! You do have a testimony!" and that was just really really cool. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Today is rainy and we're going to some really old shrine (Nanzenji )that members recommended and holy cow like the fall colors here are definitely comparable with New England- promise it's all real- way pretty place! Transfers this week. Way too fast. Million different thoughts I could share but one scripture that sticks out has been Sther 6:8 that the winds never cease to blow towards the promised land. The winds of trial are always there and yet God is in charge and when we're doing our best, He's leading us in the right direction. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Love you all! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">On to lighter things- I still hate heights and the giant shrine thing we climbed into today was so scary, granted pictures might have been worth it, but this was when we were coming down...</span></div>
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Here was our barbecue, look how warm it looks and it's November- weathers been crazy. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-60853630510731034892016-11-11T15:32:00.000-08:002016-11-11T15:32:57.410-08:00Monday Nov. 7 2016<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Hey love you all, not a lot to report this week- Stoneman Shimai was sick :( so we were in the apartment a bit and I got lots of study done! Plus she's fine now and so far I've been safe and haven't got sick. No time to be sick now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Thought I'd tell you a little more about some of the wonderful people I'm with now! We work with quite a few recent converts like...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">FUJII Shimai! I don't remember what I've told you before but she lives really close to the church and came to Eikaiwa (English Class) years ago. In her words, she's always felt a pull to come towards the church. Earlier this year she was searching for more in her life and decided to visit the church- in the middle of the day walked over and the sisters were sitting inside! From there took lessons got baptized a few months ago! She wants to do her best and strives to do everything right! Also lately has been very interested in our schedule as missionary's and couldn't believe we were so busy! Also she remembers everything you tell her which is really sweet! Right now she's stressing out a little because they asked her to bear testimony in Stake Conference coming up. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Also she lives with and takes care of her mom who is one of the funniest grandmas I've ever met. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Masaki Kyoudai- sisters stopped him on the side of the road on a rainy night and then he actually came to church! (PS- this is a little rare, most people need a little more help to attend church) Turns out he believed in God and had been searching for a church. He's one of the quietest people I've ever met- he's a deep thinker (studied philosophy!) and takes a while to answer questions but answers are really good. His family was extremely hantai (opposed) to church and him being baptized but he's gone ahead with it (also lives apart from his family) but that's continued to be a challenge for him but he's continued to be faithful and there will definitely be blessings coming for him! Also <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_814427680" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> night we had a fun night with him and the elders playing games, eating pancakes and then talking-short lesson. He opened up a lot, is dang good at cards and LIKES PEANUT BUTTER! (Like everybody here hates it! Also root beer- have I mentioned that before? They think it tastes like medicine)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Yamanaka Shimai- she's 81, reminds us that all the time and I've never laughed so much in my life as when we're with her! She lives alone and close to the church, so we check up on her pretty frequently and promised to come for a full lesson <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_814427681" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Saturday</span></span>- schedule was all delayed so we showed up a little later than planned and she was really "mad" at us but she's incapable of that and gave us a cake she bought for us </span><span style="font-family: ".applecoloremojiui"; font-size: 17pt;"><img alt="❤" class="CToWUd" data-goomoji="2764" goomoji="2764" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/e/2764" style="margin: 0px 0.2ex; max-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle;" />️</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">and said that since we were late she wanted to just give us half, but couldn't and just gave us the full thing. She's adorable and truly Jesus Christ is the center of her testimony. She was found by the elders earlier this year just housing! She had been feeling very lonely and through the church, relying on Christ she has found many friends and is very happy. She loves to tell us stories and so many of them end in blessings and she turns to us , that's because of/thanks to Christ isn't it? Also she really struggles with our names so she just calls us "onesama" (probably translates to young ladies) all the time! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Takeda Shimai- we don't meet her as often because her AB lessons are over but she's working really hard at dendo! She's also a really genki grandma but busier because her husband recently had a stroke. But she brings her granddaughter's to church a lot and they love Primary- trying to work with her to get the girls parents to be okay with the girls taking lessons and eventually being baptized. She is full of charity- constantly giving- for example when it was warmer she had grown grapes and had a lot and decided to just give them away to all of her neighbors (ps grapes are insanely expensive). Also she uses her whole body to tell stories which is so much fun! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Also <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_814427682" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> had our appt with Tai San (from Peru)- this week she had opened up the BOM a little and read but not much and didn't understand so we read together and got to know her a lot better and she's pretty open to learning more- has many questions about the true nature of God, why bad things happen and Stoneman Shimai was great at immediately using the BOM to help answer her questions! Had a great lesson and feel really good about her future! She has some Mormon relatives in Peru and said that she wasn't sure if she wanted to know if this was true, but talking more found out that she is a little unsure about what that would mean for her- her life would change nevertheless shes going to keep learning and reading, which is definitely acting in faith! It was an interesting experience for us, teaching someone with a different cultural background because she was much more upfront and clearly saying what she thought- Japanese culture is very polite and they are the most wonderful people and you need the Gift of Discernment to help them :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Other things this week, went on a Koukan in a Fushimi with the STLs! That was a blast- I was with Luczak a Shimai and the area is really city- a lot like dendoing in Osaka so it was like being back for a while and I loved it! I love Koukan S but also very happy with where I am now- a little more country and having a great time with current comp- companions are definitely inspired by God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_814427683" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> was ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) in Shimogamo and I translated part of the meeting for the Japanese missionaries...when did this happen?!? I've translated before but it's still always something that scares me a little but I can also testify that god loves His children, wants those missionaries to receive the same message, feel the Spirit and so He helps the translators too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_814427684" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">On Sunday</span></span> our new bishop held Hyougi Kai (Ward Council) and it was amazing- like we could've been in a church training video :) So we have Stake Conference coming up and the Stake President has given everyone a challenge: pray for, invite and bring someone with you to Stake Conference (LA, investigator, friend) and so as a council they made a list and coordinated with everyone, everyone filling their role plus using home teachers and visiting teachers to get as many people from Joyo as we could to come to Shimogamo for Stake Conference. So cool. This is how dendo effectively moves forward. The Bishop also had specific directions for the missionaries! We love receiving direction! Right now we're asked to visit lots of members- build trusting relationships and help them invite and take this challenge! Truly exciting and had Gods help because we were able to make appts with tons of membersa nd normally these are crazy busy people and our schedules never line up. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Also lastly wanted to share a scripture I've read and thought about a lot this past week- 1 Ne 4:6-7 "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. 7 Nevertheless I went forth." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Truly I've been experiencing this a lot lately, as in sure we all are! Heavenly Father leads us along by the Spirit and most of the time we don't realize but we can constantly strive to live worthy of the Spirit and courageously follow the promptings, any good promptings we receive. I am so excited to see all of the miracles and work that Heavenly Father has in store, especially with our year-end baptism promise. As long as we are following the Spirit and putting forth best effort like Nephi did, Gods work will move forward with us happily getting to play a little part. I can't think of anything better to do. This is happiness you can't just read about this is something you have to feel for yourself. On my Koukan with Luczak Shimai, we couldn't help ourselves, we were walking around the city and kept saying , we LOVE </span><span style="font-family: ".hirakakuinterface-w3"; font-size: 17pt;">伝道</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"> (missionary work)! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Also I love all of you and hope and pray that you too follow the Spirit and are a happy little missionary in your own sphere of influence! </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-49235974028221937852016-11-03T14:00:00.001-07:002016-11-03T14:00:24.808-07:00Mon. Oct. 31, 2016 Happy Halloween<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Last Monday went to the monkey park! Adorable, came back and finished all our p-day stuff then in the evening printed off a couple hundred flyers for our Halloween party and gave to everyone around the church- lots of fun! Also I think this was about the time we realized it's getting cold here and pulled out tights and sweaters. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Tuesday went to interview with Welch Kaicho in Shimogamo. Always the best- plus they brought some very needed items for our apartment like new pillows and a heater!! Left feeling a lot more clear about our plan for seeing a baptism before the end of the year. Plus Joyo is one of Welc</span><span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">h Kaicho old areas so we know he really cares. Came back and had a lesson with a recent convert grandma and she loves to go off and tell stories but this time she would get to a really good gospel principle at the end! She really amazes me because she is a typical Kansai grandma but truly is converted. Other lessons, then a member took us out to dinner in the evening and had a great time taking with her- she served a mission a few years ago and had lots of good dendo stories, advice and is working hard now as a member as well! One cool thing- she put up some Conference quote posts and had a friend in Tokyo who really liked one of them and ended up searching about the church on her own and went out and found the church closest to her!! For everyone home that can use that stuff-DO IT. You really can make a difference! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Wednesday is our busy recent convert day and then in the morning one of our really busy investigators said she should meet so we were trying to arrange our schedule because we really wanted to meet her, but not necessarily cancel already arranged appointments and scheduling was crazy by then investigator ended up cancelling because we seemed too busy...:( BUT still got to teach all of the recent converts scheduled that day and had some great lessons with them. Evening was Eikaiwa and had a curry party beforehand but then the investigator we planned for stood us up but there were members there and turned into just a fun curry party for us! So grateful for members who are so reliable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1440550376" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> was such a great day- finished planning and met Fujii Shimai, recent convert with the adorable mom. At the end of our lesson she showed us some calligraphy at her mom did years ago and it was beautiful! Later went to a member's house for dinner and message. They are incredible- converted as a family (very rare in Japan) when they were young, know Welch Kaicho really closely and they have served 3 missions, plus now go to the temple monthly for 2 weeks at a time to serve. Also taking about where I'd been so far and when they heard Kawachinagano found out they knew a lot of people there because their daughter lived there, but died of cancer about 2 years ago. Realized I had heard about their daughter and how wonderful she was. They are just faithfully continuing to serve- the dad is really good at origami and showed us how to make some stuff and gave us some he had already made! But more than that, we felt the Spirit so strongly together. This gospel means everything to them and it was a special night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1440550377" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> District Meeting in Fushimi and Stoneman Shimai made crepes for everyone! Yummm. Came back and did some quick visits first and one grandma- potential investigator invited us right in when we came and sat us down and tried to feed us a ton and coffee and tea and finally settled with some fancy water from Hawaii and cake! The sisters had given her a BOM a while ago and we asked about it and she said, "oh that book? "Yeah I read it it was pretty good." ...asked some more and she just wanted to talk about the war and her family and other nice things and we ended with family history and showed her a scripture that shows how we believe family is important too and she liked that but not much interest but still gave us some fancy treats. Then dropped off Spanish BOM for an investigator- she's from Peru but speaks fluent Japanese too and plus printed off a letter/testimony Dad wrote- thank you! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">In the evening met with an investigator we haven't seen in a while- she has a baptismal date but not really putting in the effort or time so that'll probably be delayed but had a nice Plan of Salvation lesson and she recognizes that we receive direction from God, which brings peace. We were a little bummed after this lesson but went out with an hour left of dendo time and did some housing and met really nice people- one grandma definitely felt the Spirit and talked with us for a while, we can come back, then at the end she gave us a bag of treats- more like made us take it! </span></div>
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(Kiyotani Bishop! Plus all the kids that participated in our game!)</div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1440550379" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> we got a new bishop! Our old bishop was amazing- he'd been bishop for 8 years (priesthood holders are very few in Joyo, like 5) and hes an </span><span style="font-family: ".HiraKakuInterface-W3"; font-size: 17pt;">お疲れ様</span><span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">. New bishop is really young and his vision is dendo and youth! We have lots of less active youth (there's 1 active girl, thats it) and he was a less active youth, so he wants to focus on getting them back. Getting a less active back isn't a baptism but essential because in order to baptize young people, there need to be young people at church to welcome them! Very excited for how things move forward! After church Tai San called us (Peruvian) and said she couldn't meet in the afternoon, so we did some other finding, then decided to drop by her later in the early evening and we rode up right at she was walking home! She said on the train she read Dad's letter and she didn't have very much time to talk with us then but promised she was going to read the verses he suggested and then she set up a chanto appointment for this coming week!! Then tried to pass a new guy we found off the to the elders and we had a great Restoration lesson together and he had even read in the BOM where I suggested last time but didn't understand and listened to us completely but not interested to keep learning, but really nice guy...someday! Another miracle encounter with one of our new Cambodian friends- she came home right as we got there and communicating with her is HARD and she's busy now but wants to learn in Cambodia so we gave her contact info of one of our recent converts that moved back to Cambodia. Truly this work is worldwide with help coming from all over, most importantly from above. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Not really sure what message to share, I've learned a lot this week, constantly learning and experiencing and I want to share everything but more than that I want each of you to have your own learning experiences! Mom has a fun adventure coming! God has an individual plan in store for each of us that includes his guidance...1 Ne 3:7! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Love you all so much! Wagstaff Shimai </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Anything else? Can't think ... I love it here. Funniest things happen, we meet some strange people like a guy in his underwear that swung his door open, then saw us and closed it to a crack and kept talking to us through the crack for a bit and seems to have some interest so passing him to the elders. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">But on a better note, another thing I learned this week was how it is a choice to be happy and I caught myself thinking I had to just push through an afternoon because it had lots of finding but then thought why would I do that and not enjoy myself! It's a choice to be fun, have fun! Yeah lame things happened but also great things and better to be happy- also listened to come what may and love it! Love you guys!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-8940353228458415502016-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:002016-10-28T09:47:46.866-07:00Monday October 24, 2016<div>
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<li style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Last Monday we had an FHE Birthday party for Fujii Shimai's mom, she was so cute! She turned 85 and during dinner was telling us all about the old American movies she's seen and then after we taught Plan of Salvation very simply and gave her a visual to help remember, as a birthday present :) Then right as we were starting to commit her she stood up went to the bathroom then said she was too tired and going to bed...:( </span><span style="font-family: ".hirakakuinterface-w3"; font-size: 17pt;">残念</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"> BUT came out at the end when we were leaving after talking with her daughter (Recent Convert), got to talk a little more- asked her what she thought about baptism, extended commitment and she said no but she's still learning and really warming up to this message! Then after met finding and found a big apartment complex that we felt really good about- did a whole building and 1 lady talked to us but wasn't that interest but 4th Floor Last Door! And sometimes it takes a little more, like a few buildings but there has to be someone there waiting. </span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Tuesday biked out to an area, met some less actives and intended to be really short but they both like to talk...hopefully listening was what they needed! Then finding in that area and met a cute high school student who had learned a little about Jesus Christ in school, willing to hear more plus she's in a drama club so she was fun to talk with! In the evening backs o same apartment complex from before (we probably went like every other night this week, 1 building a night) and this time a lot more people talked to us. 1 experience I liked was a lady who at first said that she has no religious affiliation and isn't interested but we just told her why we decided to come here- yes we volunteered to be here, we don't do anything else right now and it's because this makes us so happy. We basically just got to watch her heart soften and she talked to us longer. She still didn't say she wants to learn more but interested in Eikaiwa and looks like there's a lot more potential for the Spirit to open her heart! Truly the Spirit converts, we just open our mouths. </span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Wednesday was recent convert day and it was sooo good. One guy was being pretty quiet in his lesson but looked like he wanted to speak so finally just asked him, what questions do you have and he was able to truly express a trial right now with his family being opposed. Then later we have a weekly appt with a less active and recent convert and a member who comes to help and we read the BOM. They are just the cutest ladies, especially recent convert, she's 80ish and is hilarious! The less active expressed that she wanted to go to the temple and Yamanaka Shimai (RC) who just went for baptisms this month yells out</span><span style="font-family: ".hirakakuinterface-w3"; font-size: 17pt;">「行ってください</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">!</span><span style="font-family: ".hirakakuinterface-w3"; font-size: 17pt;">」</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">"Please go!" then as we were committing them to choose something to stop doing and something to continue doing and she says, "Wait so I should stop reading the BOM?" Also sometimes we can't tell when she's joking or not, but love her so much- she makes life so much more interesting. We were busy from appt to appt, plus Eikaiwa coordinator bought us Subway for dinner- my first time having subway in Japan, mine was salmon! Also foot-longs don't exist. Then lesson with a former shigansha (used to have a baptismal date investigator) but various problems popped up and she's not ready but still met with us and member came and connected with her really well, then kind of took over and decided to do her own thing and that was, interesting...but trust that God is in charge and can work through all of our weaknesses and flaws. </span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_310108782" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> was weekly planning, then visited Yamanaka Shimai who worked way hard this week in reading the BOM and read like 5 chapters in a few days! (Huge deal for her, reading is hard). We shared Elder Stevenson's talk with her from last conference and honestly what he said is so true- everyone can gain a testimony of the BOM and also if you don't understand, just keep going, maybe skip ahead a little bit- understanding will come slowly but more important than that is the feeling, the confirmation that's it's true will come. Evening met with Bishops wife and a daughter (everyone else was busy) but talked about BOM with them and cool to see how an experience Stoneman a Shimai shared about her mom always texting a scripture when she didn't live at home and Kiyotani Shimai loved that idea and immediately had us choose a scripture to put on their family group message!</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_310108783" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> District Meeting in Fushimi and then went for ramen- it was ginormous and really good!<img alt="image1.JPG" class="CToWUd a6T" height="320" id="m_775594084930376868E935D357-8517-4894-9107-D73B460B11F1" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=96f69e60bd&view=fimg&th=157f5691ecb595b6&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=f7d5ac3d140250f0_0.1.1&attbid=ANGjdJ-5WPQISIlahsqqzwFNzxMnEi9CY3-LPGDIKd_mTK41XTCfFc5kgg5dpPQyShPyhkBxA4hF9GYeOqqePGXf4-YBFfy1tTrmk2Z7d4poIFWzTpjZY5A4lIxJ8KY&sz=s0-l75-ft&ats=1477576203189&rm=157f5691ecb595b6&zw&atsh=1" style="outline: 0px;" tabindex="0" width="240" /> Then back in Joyo we dropped by an investigator who hasn't met for a long time- kind of the final, do you have interest type of visit and we started talking then an earthquake happened- that was cool. Definitely saw and felt it but wasn't very strong. Evening was Game Night and some members showed up this week! So grateful for member support. </span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_310108784" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> DCS (missionary coordination meeting) and seriously it was potentially the best of my mission- it was focused on people and Katayama Kyoudai gave us clear direction and advice and were able to align with the Ward and his vision. Then Takara Shimai took us to lunch, visit a member in the hospital and then another member for her birthday- amazing people. I could probably talk about her forever- she and her husband have served 3 missions together also found out her husband baptized the amazing dendo shunin back in Sakai who then turned into a mission President, etc and it's just incredible to see the influence even just 1 person has. </span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_310108785" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> we sang together in church, then after had Ward Council and again best of my mission- focused on people and no wasted time. After church helped set up Halloween decorations for party next week. Went back to the apartment to eat lunch and just both ended up crashing and taking a nap almost the whole time anyways. Very needed! Then got up and had the best evening- a lady Stoneman Shimai found before from Peru didn't have a ton of interest before but totally changed this time and we'll bring her a Spanish BOM this week. Thankfully she speaks enough Japanese because about the only things I could say were hello and Libro de Mormon. Housed some other apartments and felt prompted to stop at a building and met a guy who went to a Christian college and gave him a BOM, then miracles don't stop there! Next was Cambodians! K- stop here for a quick update on Joyo- at the beginning of the year elder's found a Cambodian girl here for work and invited her to Eikaiwa, she came and from there was introduced to the gospel and started teaching and inviting all her friends. Because the area was getting so successful they emergency transferred in sister missionaries as well. A few friends were baptized but then original girl went back to Cambodia (work arrangement is only a year at a time) but now her family's getting baptized and she's preparing for a mission! Back in Joyo the Cambodian phase died a little but Stoneman Shimai stills knows where they live and that there are a few people left that probably know the one girl- a lot of people live in one apartment complex but they are super busy with work and hard to meet. Tonight we kept ringing the doorbell and waiting and a girl came out and talked to us- kind of spoke English but not enough to really communicate so we used a church language app on our iPad (very grateful for technology) and tried to teach about God and at the end asked if we could come again and she said yes! She was so sweet. Then next apartment and a girl immediately invited us in, had talked to missionaries before. She could speak basic Japanese so taught her and she said from before this message is still confusing to her and she's busy, but then she really softened up when we talked about family- communicationwas hard but I just showed a picture of my family and said I love them and she showed her family picture and we have the same family arrangement (? Is that the right word? Same number of people, etc). The Spirit overcomes any language barrier and it was really special to experience that. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "sfuitext";"><span style="font-size: 22.6667px;">For P-day today we went to the Monkey Park in Kyoto and besides that it was just a really pretty area with shops and bamboo forest and lots of stuff!<img alt="image2.JPG" class="CToWUd a6T" height="320" id="m_7755940849303768681BBDFE54-CB90-453D-A55A-706A47DB6A5A" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=96f69e60bd&view=fimg&th=157f5691ecb595b6&attid=0.2&disp=emb&realattid=f7d5ac3d140250f0_0.1.2&attbid=ANGjdJ88gSdiVLlxLpOzjvhySkOAC3eXhEq6f1E-b7kJTcQMbsCXTRyxFDw8OuC-MwMevXxLtVbJjLYr2SxLG5ZoXNdeBSoNUwd2_sENTutkOTGwXknnwhGBOywbzGo&sz=s0-l75-ft&ats=1477576203191&rm=157f5691ecb595b6&zw&atsh=1" style="outline: 0px;" tabindex="0" width="239" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">This is such a special place to be and such a special time to get to share the gospel- a message of joy that can be understood by everyone. EVERYONE will find greater peace and happiness by coming closer unto Christ. He extends the simple invitation to come follow Him and walk with Him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Love, Wagstaff 姉妹</span><br />
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Monkey Park! Baby monkey- adorable, my heart was softened ❤️<br />
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Look at this cute couple taking wedding/announcement pictures!</div>
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Love you guys- good luck back at school and work after the break! Excited to see the basement, sounds cool- is it fully underground?</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-40825873626860965832016-10-19T13:41:00.001-07:002016-10-19T13:41:53.944-07:00Monday Oct. 17, 2016<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Week 2 in Joyo and it's truly a special little place! Last Monday we </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">went into the city (Kyoto) over to Kiyomizudera for fun with Fushimi </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">sisters and then there were wifi issues and sending emails was a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">disaster BUT had a great day</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span> <span id="docs-internal-guid-22f5f813-dea9-d1ca-a8f4-c06957dfa24b"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the "kiyo mizu", pure water. You rinse your hands and mouth- and baptism is definitely better :)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That night, like always God was in charge of our plans and though it wasn't our plan or backup plan we visited some PIs who we've tried a lot lately but this time both were home! One college student who has a BOM and we gave another place to read, then our next door neighbor who's just the sweetest and sadly very busy but wants to talk more later. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tuesday we biked out to a far area but with lots of people to visit- some nice LA's then saw a bike shop and my bikes been in pretty bad shape, back wheel hasn't been straight for a while and so stopped to see about fixing it- turns out big problems and would take a few days, so we adjusted our schedule and had to walk back from there...that took a while and then an investigator cancelled but ate good food and then visited a member family close and one girl just recently got back from her mission so tons of dendo fire and working so hard! We felt so loved with them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wednesday used an extra bike the elders had and visited a ton of recent converts (during the summer Joyo saw a baptism a week so there's a looooot of recent converts!) They are some o the cutest members- a lot of grandma's. Also a new investigator forgot about our appt and was super late with really no time but at least still came to the church to see us, say sorry and hopefully we can meet her for real again. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thursday the nicest member drove us over to the bike shop and I got my bike back! Poor thing has been doing pretty good, now I just need it to keep enduring! Our dendo shunin took us to lunch with the elders and had a mini DCS (missionary coordination meeting) and seriously I feel like every time I talk to Katayama Kyoudai I just receive pure wisdom. He's really cool. Later taught a RC's mom...I love her so much, she says the funniest things and if I can get a video, I'll show you, if not I'll just explain when I get home! Lessons are very short because she gets tired but using pictures and then singing a Primary song we were able to teach her about Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friday we went to District Meeting in Fushimi and got hopelessly lost but eventually found our way to the church and then had a great Conference review together. Indo Curry (never gets old) and then back to Joyo and met up with an Eikaiwa student who insisted we meet her daughter plus family and we were able to teach a bit of the Plan of Salvation- not entirely sure how interested they were, but a nice opportunity. Then at night our cute neighbor came over and brought dinner randomly! That was sweet. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saturday we went to Ibaraki (back to Osaka!) with a member for Dendo Go- a mission prep activity, Pokemon ago theme. Coolest thing ever, so all of my favorite YSA/youth in Osaka were there, plus Welch Kaicho and Shimai and all the missionaries in the Kansai area (Osaka and Kyoto). We received a bunch of training in the morning then split in companionships- missionaries and members, then lunch and headed out to go find and teach together! I was with a girl Aiko Chan who's 20 and considering a mission. We had a cool experience- she was way shy and scared about talking to people so most of the time I talked but halfway through stopped and prayed for direction and talked to a high school girl nearby and she had legitimate interest and the member was able to bear testimony and invite her to learn more! The worth of 1 soul is great- plus we were able to talk to quite a few people after that as well. Came back, had a testimony meeting, picture and headed home. I was overwhelmed with how much I just love these people and missionary work- this is one great big miracle! All of our little efforts may seem small but in about 1 hour ish, as a group we talk over 500 lessons, gave away 50 BOMs. All of the little efforts do add up, so it's incredible to think that this is happening all over the world. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sunday met a lot of Joyo members and was super happy to see converts bringing family members who aren't members yet. I sat next to a convert and her granddaughter, just like home we played the dot game together in Sacrament. She's 10. Also she already loves primary! After church we had a lunch otgheyer- they do this every month to celebrate birthdays. It's fun to be part of a smaller Ward again- about 30-50 active members. They are very inclusive. After church miracles housing an apartment building we've been wanting to try for a while. Then in the evening watched Elder Bednar devotional for Japan- lots spoken about Joy and the Holy Ghost. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-57501653875870750242016-10-10T16:43:00.003-07:002016-10-10T16:43:41.157-07:00Monday Oct. 10, 2016<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Surprised to transfer! So it was crazy and no time for any of those apple recipes but thanks and now I'm not an STL anymore so I actually have time at night to maybe make something!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Last Monday with Shuu- so grateful I've met her. Sad lesson having to let her know about transfers- honestly I cried and my wish was that I could speak Chinese so that I could teach her better, I would've done anything- I realized any sacrifice is worth it if someone can come unto Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">With that experience so hard, <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158329" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> was a miracle, she is taken care of and the work is moving on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">I was a little sad when I first got to Joyo because I loved Osaka and the city so much and honestly a little sad to be done being an STL but then got more comfortable with Stoneman Shimai and we're going to have a lot of fun! Also General Conference, of course,was just the most uplifting boost. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Starting to feel like an old missionary especially because Stoneman Shimai is a 3rd transfer who's a year younger as a missionary. But she's also very dedicated and there are good things in store for the last 2 months (wasn't counting before but literally every missionary and member has asked now). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Love you no time bye!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">So I was a little surprised but I'm out of Abeno and now in Joyo! It's a town in Kyoto and inaka (country) but not as inaka as Imabari where I started. New companion is Stoneman Shimai- it's been almost a year since I've been with an American and she's from Spanish Fork haha small world. Also she's a theater major :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">So last Monday, I think I wrote about part of this last week but we found out that our miracle investigator who has a baptism date, Shuu San, actually lives in the next Ward, Sekime and so <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158330" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Monday</span></span> night we went over to her apartment with our Ward mission leader, the amazing Nagano Kyoudai who lives close and had to break the news that Zhou Shimai was transferring (didn't know about me yet) and that she didn't live in Abeno. That was a little hard for her to take- she seemed worried. But Nagano Kyoudai was also amazing and helped a lot, especially by sharing his conversion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158331" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> morning got a call from Shuu and she had made time and wanted to meet that day around lunch time at Seishi Shimai's house (member that we've usually visited her with). Also we brought the Sekime elders to be able to pass off. The Seishi's are the most amazing couple and it really is an honor to know them, also thankfully today Shuu felt better than yesterday- the Spirit was very present in our lesson, also to help with the Chinese, Zhou Shimai will Skype into the lessons probably and we really tried to help her focus on being converted to Jesus Christ and His gospel. Truly she is amazing and can't wait for her to get baptized, she's on fire! Also visited other investigators that day, one passed really smoothly to the elders- again another miracle. Then <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158332" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> night before planning I got the call to transfer to Kyoto. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158333" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> sent off bikes and suitcases quickly then went out to visit a LA (for health reasons) and is very close to the Spirit and we had a beautiful lesson. Then visited Chin Shimai, cute recent convert from Taiwan who wasn't happy we are transferring but she just has the strongest testimony and nothing's going to shake her. In the evening Nanaka Chan (member) joined us for a church tour/lesson with an investigator- so this investigator was found a while ago on the street, then found again by different sisters and were able to get contact info and we've been mailing her all transfer and just haven't been able to meet so miraculously had an appt, she's really cute! Did the church tour ending with the font and Nanaka shared her conversion and though this investigator says she's not very interested in joining she really wants to learn and was very impressed and at the end exchanged info with the member and turns out they live very close and she's going to be very well taken care of! God is very carefully guiding this girls life :):)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158334" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> transfer day- out of downtown Osaka (I've been in Osaka for almost a year!) and off to Kyoto with a little church and rice fields and nice people that say hi back to us! Joyo has a really good rep- the members are on fire and they've seen quite a few baptisms this year AND have retained those people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158335" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> started after study with a RC lesson and had the greatest doseki Takara Shimai who has served 3 missions with her husband! She helped a lot in addressing some concerns of this 20something yr old convert who's family isn't very supportive of his choice. Then did some visits and along the way even though there aren't very many people to talk to on the streets the first girl we talked to was interested and exchanged info (very rare situation!), then I met a lot of the recent converts with all sorts of interesting stories! Ended the night with Game Night...not the best turnout but well work on it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Then big highlight of the week...GENERAL CONFERENCE </span><span style="font-family: ".AppleColorEmojiUI"; font-size: 17pt;"><img alt="❤" class="CToWUd" data-goomoji="2764" goomoji="2764" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/e/2764" style="margin: 0px 0.2ex; max-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle;" />️<img alt="❤" class="CToWUd" data-goomoji="2764" goomoji="2764" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/e/2764" style="margin: 0px 0.2ex; max-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle;" />️</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Did anybody notice all the talks about missionary work?? Very helpful, through all of Conference I received so many answers- truly God is aware of each one of His children. Then with that fire did some finding and talk to wonderful people, no new investigators. <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158336" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> more General Conference! Quite a few talks stuck out to me but one that was really special was Elder Yamashita- I was just overwhelmed by how much I love my mission, how much I love these Japanese people. I don't remember a lot of what he said but I'll never forget the Spirit I felt. I hope each of you was able to have similar experiences listening to the words of our loving prophet President Monson and other leaders of the church! After conference, we needed to put my bike together (it comes apart to ship by box when we transfer) and as we pulled it out to start, a neighbor saw us and immediately came over to help. Seriously he came over put it all together then grabbed a rag and cleaned up off, pumped up my tires and replaced a missing bolt- wow. Like wow. So we're going to bring a cake and BOM and thank him this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Then we met a young investigator who home stayed in Idaho with a member family and is so prepared and has some concerns but accepted a baptismal goal for <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158337" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">November 13th</span></span>! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_932158338" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Monday</span></span> in Kyoto, I'm writing at Kiyomizudera right now, here with Fushimi STLs, love them! Love you all! Now get out and DENDO! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Love, Wagstaff Shimai</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-805878968105616942016-10-03T13:52:00.000-07:002016-10-03T13:52:11.567-07:00Monday Oct. 3 Miracle Week!<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Last Monday evening after p-day we visited a member couple in a beautiful traditional Japanese house- that was cool, but better than that was talking with them and hearing the sister's strong hope about less-active kids. She knows they will come back and has really strong faith. PS if you want to read a cool talk with really good promises, "A Child and a Disciple" by Elder Eyring in April 2003- also he talks a little about Japan! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233990" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> was MLC in Kobe and things are changing up- first we met at President Welch's house instead of the church and got to sit on comfy chairs- that's a bonus! But the real cool part as that we have a new challenge/promise: Every companionship will see a baptism before the end of this year! The Spirit was really strong in that room and it was so exciting to talk abut how we are all going to reach that goal and something that touched me was how much Welch Kaicho cares about the individual- he asked all of the Zone Leaders and STLs to get their baptisms quick so that we can focus our efforts on uplifting and doing all we can to help all the other missionaries around. Us so that everyone can succeed together- this really is a group effort. At MLC Zhou Shimai and I had he prompting that to help us get our baptism, receive more direction we needed to fast, so we fasted the next day and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233991" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Wednesday</span></span> had a great day...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233992" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> started with lunch at a member's and she made us a really good traditional Japanese lunch- mostly sushi and it was sooo good. We talked about being prepared and found out she's already getting excited and prepped for Christmas dendo, because so many barriers that people have to Christianity disappear at Christmas-time, it's true! So that was exciting to hear. Then we had an appt with Shuu at Seishi Shimai's house. Short version is, it was probably the most amazing lesson experience of my mission- the Spirit was very present, Shuu San bore part of her testimony and is definitely coming to know that this church is true and we set a date for her to be baptized on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233993" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">October 30th</span></span>! She is a miracle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233996" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> ZTM in Yamatokoriyama and announced the baptism goal and got all excited again! Then the Yamatokoriyama sisters came back with us for a koukan, I went with a 1st transfer and first we had an investigator lesson with fruit stand guy, plus a member was able to come and talked about the Atonement and Sacrament- trying to help this investigator build desire to come to church. Moving very slowly but he's so nice! It started raining pretty hard and we weren't prepared, but more miracles! I was a little stressed because we didn't really have solid evening plans, so while I stopped and checked he map for a bit, Polatis Shimai talked to a grandma and it looked like she just was excited to meet an American, so I didn't go over but then they kept talking so maybe she did have interest? Yeah, she insisted on taking us to a cafe nearby to buy us juice, then we were able to talk, give her a BOM and she said basically felt different and it was a new feeling but good and grateful she met us, so we exchanged numbers, later able to call her and set an appt to meet again! So that pumped us up a lot and even though it was still raining we just tried to talk to everyone on the way home and there were some definite fails and people that thought we were weird but there was able 1 guy that walked up and talked to us first and truly when we really work hard and show our faith, miracles happen- this is Heavenly Father's work and I loved seeing how God strengthens our weaknesses and it didn't matter how much she didn't understand the language, Polatis Shimai was able to talk to people and share the gospel. Really good night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233997" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> morning studied and sisters left, then most of our plans for the day cancelled on us and we had a long day ahead of us, which is pretty scary and took a second to plan- again definitely God's work because the Spirit guided us to who we needed to visit, where it might be a good idea to go. Did some finding, visited a cute grandma in a lodging home, then stopped by a member's appt and cool story here- she joined the church as a teenager then went LA and married a nonmember and was less-active for many years but thanks to her active sister, was brought back years ago and found out that she really wants to go on a couple mission, but husband doesn't even like the church. That doesn't stop her, she has faith and still does all she can spiritually in addition to secretly saving up money for that mission. Isn't that incredible?!?!?? Seriously so touched by that, there are for sure going to be some pretty amazing things happening with faith like that. Reminds me of Pres Uchtdorf's talk in the Women's Session of General Conference "4th Floor Last Door" - such an inspiring story! Sister Welch shared it with us at MLC <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233998" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Tuesday</span></span> and its really noticing, go watch it! We have to persevere and work until the last door of the last floor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161233999" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> morning we had DCS (missionary coordination meeting) and found out that Shuu- new shigansha (person with baptismal date) this week doesn't live in Abeno, she lives right on the border and should technically be going to Sekime Ward. So that was a huge bummer, but the members are really helpful and are going to coordinate really well so we can help her smoothly transition because she's developed relationships with us and members in Abeno. Thankfully she is truly in the process of being converted to the gospel, so there might be some bumps but not big problems. After church we visited Beatrice- investigator with broken arm and experienced the power of the BOM together. First got there and the kids were a little crazy but kept moving forward and she was really touched by Ether <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1161234000" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">12:27</span></span>, we were able to set a new baptismal date for 10/30 and she still has so much desire and faith despite the obstacles that have been in the way, so grateful to see her example. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">So overall this has been a powerful week. This mission is directed by God through leaders who hold the rights and authority of the Priesthood and we are seeing miracles. This church, this restored gospel of Jesus Christ- its all true and seeing people discover that is so rewarding. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Wagstaff 姉妹</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">(Weakley Choro in the middle is dying)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">(But it's all good, we're nice happy people!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Story from Pres. Uchtdorf's talk "4th Floor Last Door"<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Got a call this morning and found out </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Zhou Shimai is transferring :( :( We were really really hoping to stay</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">together another transfer especially with the baptisms coming up but </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">for her last transfer she's off to Shikoku opening a new sister area </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and training! We've had a great transfer together, so grateful for my </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">companions. Don't know who's coming to Abeno, also that is assuming </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I'm staying (probably). Also can't believe I'm still STL, definitely </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">thought I'd be training this transfer or something, but anything is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">good! I really like it here in Abeno and there's so much work to do.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Very excited for conference weekend! We had some Americans visit this </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">week and they told us to get excited for Elder Oaks talk- talking </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">about member missionary work? VERY excited for that! I translated in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Relief Society and they were just the nicest couple from Nevada- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">husband had served in Japan a while ago (probably your guys age-ish).</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-28649868993636061322016-09-26T16:01:00.000-07:002016-09-26T16:01:38.166-07:00Mon. Sept. 26 Sick...but the work moves on!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
Wow k this week I'm going to work backwards because it's been so crazy, I'll probably miss a bunch of details. Mainly last week I got sick but was in denial and kept going and that caught up to me this week! </div>
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Today we are doing a slow P-day and then during morning study we got a call from Shuu (Taiwanese investigator, you'll hear a lot about her!) she wanted Seishi Shimai's phone number because she wanted to go visit Seishi Shimai, then later said I know it's your p-day, but do you guys want to come too? Yeah! So we went over for lunch, ps she made homemade tofu! New experience! Then watched the Restoration video together, testified, committed and left- Shuu is still talking with Seishi Shimai! Amazing. We were worried that she didn't have real intent, just seeking knowledge, but after the video she said she really wants to know if this is true, wants a confirmation in her heart and that she's been praying every day for that. So obviously we know she'll receive an answer! That was really exciting.</div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110528" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span>...oh boy, what a day. In the morning a recent convert's mom called us and said her daughter was coming to church today (daughter is about 10 and hasn't been coming lately) so we went to pick her up and walked her to the Eki...it took a while, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to go, anyways got to the church by 10:30 (Sacrament Meeting starts at 10) and our patience was being tried a lot but at the end of the meeting we were able to go up and have the sacrament- very grateful! Then some confusion with her primary teachers, I think everything got sorted out! There were quite a few tourists visiting, and one girl stayed for the rest of church s we went and translated for her, lots of fun! After church udon party, then we went off to a BOM Blitz activity- it's where we split with members and had about an hour to talk to lots of people and focus on giving the BOM. We had a great member come with us who's going on a mission soon and is pretty quiet but had a KILLER testimony, way impressed! Honestly a pure simple testimony is powerful, people do stop and listen. Able to give away 3 BOMs to different people with a few other lessons! </div>
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Saturday for lunch a member took us and the elders out. First we stopped by a LA's bread shop, then for lunch went to a member's Chinese restaurant. According to Shima Kyoudai (member who took us, "it's better than Panda Express!" Haha- Japanese style Chinese food and American style Chinese food are very different, but still good! Also I was on a koukan, not with Zhou Shimai, so still don't know how it compares to real Chinese food. Then later had LA lesson, talked to people along the way and ended with weekly planning. </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110530" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span>- District Meeting in Sekime! We started a koukan (exchange) with Higashi Osaka sisters. I was with Oswald Shimai and we had a great day- full purpose! Got some members, LA's, then miracle guy that stopped us and asked if we were "Morumon?" Well yeah, then he said he's met missionaries before, thinks they are really cool and now wanted to know- what makes us different, what do we believe/ why are you so happy? Profound question - invited him to church to come and see for himself! Then had a investigator lesson with guy from the fruit stand and it went really well and he said yes he'll be baptized, but still worried about <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110531" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span>- can't/won't close his shop to come to church...we'll keep working with him. </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110532" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span>- in the morning we went out a ways to visit a member that lives pretty far away. She lives alone and was super grateful, kept saying thank you, and cute little gifts at the end (kind of normal actually). Anyways, we didn't know it before but it was obvious that God wanted us to be there and she needed someone to talk with, sing hymns with, etc. God is watching out for each one of his children, and usually uses us to take care of each other. </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110533" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span>- Shuu San and Seishi Shimai again! Shuu arranged this appointment herself, asked us to being Seishi Shimai with! I can't explain how much fun it was to go with Seishi Shimai. She is 84 yrs old, has been a Ward missionary for over 20 years and LOVES missionary work. She got all dressed up and came with us by subway to visit Shuu and was sooo helpful. Shuu San knows the Bible really well (first time with this kind of investigator) and she was confused about various things as we talked about the Plan of Salvation but again, testimony brings the Spirit in so sweetly and that's when you <i>feel</i> that this is true. Went back and Seishi Shimai said that was one of the funniest days she's had in a while- I want everyone to meet her! She is truly just genuinely happy all of the time and really tiny and has a high pitched voice and can't hear very well and is a living testimony that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and truly blesses our lives. </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110534" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span>- Typhoon warning day, also koukan with Hirakata, also I was sick (okay so I've been sick all week, still kind of sick but doing okay) and this was the worst day and it was a crazy storm anyways, so stayed inside- studied and slept. Makin Shimai was so sweet helping me and just keeping herself busy. </div>
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Last Monday- cooking class with Seishi Shimai, first time she and Shuu San met (obviously went really well since we've seen them every few days since then!). Dinner at another member's house, Fillipino and the food was so good! </div>
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This is God's work and nothing gets in the way. I am surrounded by miracles, marvelous people and am feeling the urgency that time is running out and there is just so much to do! There is nothing else I'd rather be doing with my time than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are great rewards in store and we each have a part to play! What are you going to do?? </div>
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Love you lots! 愛しています皆さん<img alt="❤" class="CToWUd" data-goomoji="2764" goomoji="2764" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/e/2764" style="margin: 0px 0.2ex; max-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle;" />️</div>
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Wagstaff 姉妹</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">So happy to hear the binder was found!! Now that's a lot less stressful.</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">This has been an exciting week...I've been a little sick since Zone </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Conference (mostly just my normal sore throat, then turned into a bad </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">cold, now just down to a little coughing and runny nose) </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Last Monday night we got a call from sisters in tears- we have a pair </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">that aren't getting along very well, so they needed an emergency </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">exchange (this was when I was at my worst with a cold) so sorry for </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">her, miraculously there was a typhoon so we couldn't have gone out </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">anyways- way too dangerous, these storms get scary. Anyways, so stayed </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">inside, listened to her problems, and slept. A little dramatic but </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">they're learning, slowly. </span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Then </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110549" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> and </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110550" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> another pair of sisters are dramatic- not as </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">bad as the others! Welch Kaicho still got called, but this is just </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">normal one missionary works hard and the other really doesn't. They </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">are improving!</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110551" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">...in the morning, love her but girl that got baptized is pretty </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">moody (10 yrs old) and she dragged her feet all the way to church </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(talking to her earlier in the week, she had WANTED to come...) so </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">tried to show lots of love but also get her to walk a little faster, </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">didn't work too well. Got to the train station (church starting in 10 </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">minutes) and she said she wanted to go home! So we had her call and </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">talk to her mom (her mom is investigator with a broken arm who wasn't </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">able to get baptized because she had surgery again, but is still so </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">amazing). Anyways, so daughter agreed to go to church, got there very </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">late, they brought us the Sacrament privately after, very grateful.</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Then RC girl said she wants to go home and went up to a member she </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">knew (we didn't see this happen) but asked for a ride home, member </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">comes to us, then primary was involved- nobody can take her home, then</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">there's this one primary teacher....wow. I don't know why but she just </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">hates us (missionaries). She's just really scary and basically said it </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">was our fault and we had to take the girl home because it was our </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">fault she came to church (at this point worried about girl feeling </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">loved!), other members didn't really know what to say. Zhou Shimai</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">just started crying- it doesn't feel good to be kind of yelled at by a </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">member. Then we had to go translate for the YW that came from America. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Came back after </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_30110553" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> School to check on our primary girl, also we </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">were asked by the Primary Music Leader to come in because this month </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">the songs are all missionary- theme. So we go into primary and scary </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">primary teacher gets mad at us again, makes us leave (the Primary </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">president at first was very happy we came, got chairs for us, then </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">teacher got mad and she just awkwardly didn't know what to do). Then </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">after apologized to the poor music teacher that we couldn't help </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">her...we were shoo'd away to YW's. Very awkward. Didn't feel good. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Thankfully after we were able to talk to our Ward Mission Leader and </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">he said she got mad at other people, like him too, not just </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">missionaries and it wasn't our fault at all, etc. He made us feel a </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">lot better.</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Today after the lunch and lesson with Shuu, we split with sisters with </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">comp problems because one is sick like me and the other really doesn't </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">want to stay inside. So Omisaki Shimai and I are finishing up and </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">going to take a nap (very necessary!). Actually pretty excited, I was </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">never a nap on P-day person before. Anyways, super grateful for Zhou </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Shimai who's sacrificing and taking to other sister out for some fun </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(she kind of wanted a nap too but would rather have the sisters be </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">happy...becuase if not they call us constantly.)</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">It's been a dramatic week :) Sometimes we just have to return to our </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">apartment and laugh about it.</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Love you guys so much! Also I made hummus this week and it was really </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">good- all the sisters liked it too- we had it with toast and </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">cucumbers. Yummy!</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Katya</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-18399746776630844332016-09-25T18:28:00.000-07:002016-09-25T18:28:50.995-07:00Sept. 19, 2016 Keep Moving Forward!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Hey guys! Had a cool week- lots of rain and miracles and sad stuff too </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">but overall super duper.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Monday Spent the end of our P-day looking around at shops by Tennoji, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">then went off to meet an investigator and when we were stopped at a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">light, this lady comes up and says wow, missionaries can use iPads </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">now?? She lives in our area but wouldn't give her name because she's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">LA and husband is super hantai :( But got to talk to her a little bit </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and invite her to an upcoming lunch at church. Then investigator had </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to go to the doctor and couldn't visit, so went to back up plan, got a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">little lost and went through a sketchy neighborhood (okay I say </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">sketchy but still in Japan so probably really not that bad) but then </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">met a super nice mom walking her dog who helped us with directions.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday we went out to contact a referral (they own a Chinese </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">restaurant) from a LA. We had about an hour over in that area and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">there was a college nearby so went over and it was raining so there </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">weren't as many people to talk to as usual but we decided to try and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">talk to EVERYONE. Yeah there are plenty of people with no time, no </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">interest but also people that listened! So we got about 10 lessons in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">an hour- not going for the numbers but it was eye-opening to me to see </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the possibilities when you push yourself a little further because I'll </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">be honest, there were a few people I thought probably don't have </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">interest/I don't really want to talk to them and I would have passed </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">right by, but thankfully we have companions and Zhou Shimai would stop </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">every single one of those people! Then rewarded ourselves with this </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">really good yogurt cake we found. Plus Eikaiwa that night and a new </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">investigator referred from Kyoto came and we were able to do a church </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">toru after with her and a member and she showed a lot of potential, we </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">were especially impressed when we said that when she makes a promise, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">she keeps it. !!! If everyone was like that... :)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday Happy Birthday Dad! We had Osaka Zone Conference over in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Yamatokoriyama (haha long names, good luck on saying this one!). It </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">was a really great training- based on the recent broadcast "Teach </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Repentance and Baptize Converts". We got to discuss various struggles, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">how to overcome, etc. There was a focus on being obedient to the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">morning schedule- the why behind it and really studying for our </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">investigators. In the afternoon we gave training about exact obedience </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and also received great training from ZLs, APs and Welch Shimai as</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">well!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Also lesson on prayer this day: so in the evening we had planned </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">this BOM Blitz with our ward mission leader, some members at this </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">giant park, but it had been raining all day and we kept praying that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the rain would stop that evening and it did a little bit and drizzled </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and that's where it hit me a little that the rain wasn't the point of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">our prayer- we wanted to continue this activity. The Yamatokoriyama </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Shimaitachi came on a koukan, so we split and then a relatively recent </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">convert- few years ago, came and worked with the members. We ran into </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">some miracle people, out and about despite the rain! One cool girl is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">an amazing pianist and at first it was a little mah-mah, good</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">connection but not with the gospel so much, it kept pushing even </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">though it seemed potentially awkward and Cannon Shimai just whipped </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">out the BOM, we bore testimony and gave her a part to read and she </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">said wow I feel really good. Honestly I don't hear that very often- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">culturally people don't tell you what they feel but she did! And we've </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">been able to continue contacting her. Our prayer wasn't about the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">rain!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">-Thursday </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">still on a koukan with Cannon Shimai! She's been out almost </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">as long as me and so much fun to work with! We are able to teach about </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Jesus Christ a lot to just various people we met on trains, streets. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Then we dropped by to visit a LA in a nursing home- it was "exercise </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">time" so we wiggled our fingers and stretched with them and got to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">talk to her a little bit about family. Her daughter is an active </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">member who asked us to visit because she's busy and can't go all the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">time. Next was off to Beatrice...got there and found out she had to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">cancel because she was going to another hospital for different </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">medicine, plus wasn't recovering right so she has to get another</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">surgery and so baptism </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1326145270" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204 , 204 , 204); color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> got cancelled. Way bummer, she's sad </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">too, but it'll happen! Not now but for sure she'll be baptized. Then </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">in the evening visited a LA with our RS Pres (she's amazing) and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">prepared to teach First Vision, got there and ended up talking about </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">music. Spirit was there- had to be to help us out! Then there was some </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">old traditional play/festival thing going on close by at this </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">ginormous shrine because it was Autumn Equinox. Saw a little bit of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">that, that was cool, but too far away and dark for good pictures </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">sorry.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Friday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> we had District Meeting in Abeno plus ZLs came and brought </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">cookies! After lunch came back for a little planning, I took a quick </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">nap because I've been getting sick- just normal sore throat, cold </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">stuff. Nap helped, then off to more appointments. One guy- WAY COOL! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">He runs a fruit stand and we teach him English and gospel and we</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">finish English and get to gospel and ask about his BOM reading- last </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">time gave him 2 Ne 31 to read and he read it 5 TIMES TO UNDERSTAND, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">PLUS TOOK NOTES. We were pretty happy about that- he understood pretty </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">well, taught Gospel of Jesus Christ and he likes it, seems like the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">main thing in the way is that he can't come to church Sunday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">, shop is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">open. But we're taking it step at a time with him. Then at the end, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">his wife (always quietly there) brought over a rolled paper and it was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Imabari Mikan posters like they had in their shop- she remembered that</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I commented on that and said I used to live there! Then at the end </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">they usually give us fruit too, so she gave peaches and said "your </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">grandparents make peaches right?" I felt so loved! It really means a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">lot to remember things about people.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Saturday </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">slept in because still wasn't feeling good, then got up and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">we went to the church for coordination meeting with Nagano Kyoudai </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">(Ward Mission Leader- funny guy who does karate and our meetings are </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">never dull). Today I was really grateful for cold medicine- kept me </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">good for the day! Plus finally found a recent convert's apartment. She </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hasn't really come to church since her baptism, doesn't answer mail </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">either lately, so the Ward has asked us to help out and she lives </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">super far away and didn't answer/wasn't home but found it, left her a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">note- from the records and what members have said she seemed really </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">great as an investigator, so we're not sure what happened.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Sunday </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Ward Council ended shorter than planned!! Then had a meeting </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">with Ngano Kyoudai again, planning another BOM Blitz since the 1st one </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">went well and this time we'll have a lot more members coming! It's so </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">much fun to work together. Then we rode out to a YSA member's place </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and talked about the BOM with her and got to know her better! Ended </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">with more planning and went to bed early - sleep is the best thing </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">ever.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Then today back to P-day, raining again and we went to Seishi Shimai's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">cooking class. She's been a Ward missionary for like 30/40 years? </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Anyways she is still going strong and has been doing this cooking </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">class forever- lots of her friends have been baptized through it. This </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">one was for Shuu- investigator from Taiwan, very active and really </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">wants to know if this is true. We cooked, then took a break and taught </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Plan of Salvation and Seishi Shimai used a story board she put </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">together years ago and was really simple to understand and Shuu San</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">really liked it, had a billion questions and we just had to stop her </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and say read the BOM and pray, ask God! Then finished lesson and ate </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">lunch together, very fun! Shuu looooved Seishi Shimai and invited her </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">over to her next lesson! We just got another doseki lesson we didn't </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">even have to arrange :):)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The work is moving forward- each of us get to play a small part in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">God's eternal plan. Seishi Shimai is doing amazing things! Truly it's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a joy to be around her and everyone knows that. Last week I asked What </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">else can you give up to be more dedicated to Him? Did anybody try it? </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Any experiences?? Please tell!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I love you so much!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Wagstaff Shimai</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-69073669864593985162016-09-13T06:54:00.001-07:002016-09-13T06:54:58.782-07:00Monday Sept. 12, 2016 Give it all!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Monday...did I already talk about Monday? Maybe, visited an </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">investigator in the hospital and she's so excited to get baptized. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Then after P-day ended, we skyped our other shigansha (has a baptism </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">date) and she's from Vietnam so we use both Japanese and English and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">keep it really simple. Talked about the Word of Wisdom...found out she </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">used to drink, loves coffee and thought tea was good for you. Zhou </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Shimai testified and basically said we don't know everything, but God </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">does and commandments are the way to be happy and then she said, okay, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">understand. And committed to keep the W of W! Such a testimony </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">builder that there are people out there waiting and ready to accept </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the gospel.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday went to Kobe for MLC! Still my favorite meeting ever and I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">thought for sure last month was my lasts O I was extra grateful to go. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Felt like the Spirit was especially strong in that meeting and walked </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">away with a ton of new ideas for our sisters,zone, area and myself. I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">want to more effectively work with members, make sure my actions are </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">fulfilling my prayers. Our homework was to watch the Teach Repentance, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Baptize Converts broadcast again and talked about that and once again </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">PMG is such a great tool- probs learned more this time than the first</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">time watching it. In the evening we had kodomo Eikaiwa and talked </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">about the weather (it was raining) and it almost all little girls so </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">we used Frozen a lot!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Wednesday went on a koukan with Higashi Osaka sisters and they live so close that they just biked over to our apartment! I went with Dayley Shimai who is new (1sttransfer) and was sooo much fun to work with- the language is hard but she works hard and that night we went to their Eikaiwa and she set up an appt with a student to come teach her the gospel all by herself! (Big deal!) Also visited Beatrice again in the hospital- had surgery on her arm, doctors messes up and had to do it twice, scary stuff, her cast is huge and heavy but getting a smaller next week and still so excited to get baptized and not happy about all the opposition, but that's just a testimony of what an important step this is. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Thursday we had weekly planning and ZTM training to plan and thankfully were able to focus and work faster than ever before, definitely a miracle. Another Skype lesson with shigansha, last commandment to teach, tithing. Holy cow stressful. She wasn't understanding it- we explained multiple times is both languages, plus she didn't have much time to talk and also is a super poor college student but then at the end, she asked "Do all the members pay it?" Yes! "okay so I get money every month and just give tenth to church?" Yes "Okay, I understand" and she committed and had to go. Lesson here: my prayers are very urgent and heartfelt when there's only 5 minutes to try and help someone understand and commit to a commandment. God is here and people are converted through the Spirit, not us. That becomes even more apparent that the Spirit is the teacher when there are some language barriers- we didn't help her understand, she felt it. Then later visited a less active and RS Pres came with us! Small miracle this time with this sister was that she brought her BOM with her to the door! In the evening we go to a free Japanese class and Taiwan kid from last week was there again, we were able to invite him to come to some of our activities, and there he can meet the elders and be passed to them. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Friday ZTM in Yamatokoriyama! Overall it was really fun! Lots of laughs but it was all good and Spieit was there- the gospel is fun! Definitely something we are trying to help a lot of members here see, and in little ways we have seen the culture change. We trained on "forget yourself and go to work" with a skit- Zhou Shimai opening her mission call! Everything went wel, then came back to Abeno and off to a members who gave us a ton of fruit!! That stuff is way expensive here, so we were super happy and she is very willing to doseki when she can! Next was crazy, so an hour before Xuan (Swan)- investigator from Vietnam, had her baptismal interview she called and she was really worried and wanted to cancel. Th sinfully Zhou Shimai was able to calm her down a little and get her to at least still meet us at the church. We hurried over and also got a member just baptized a few years ago to come and she was so helpful. Basically Xuan just realized how big this covenant is and got super scared, doesn't think she's ready, which then just opened to more and more concerns and one of the most intense lessons I've ever been in- that's a whole new level of prayer- Please don't leave. Please feel recognize Spirit. We all did our best and calmed some concerns, but still no interview and she wants time-space to think. Zhou Shimai very strongly committed her to pray about this decision (was able to share through personal experience because when she was an investigator she was very similar). So she walked away, we were really sad but there's still hope! Went and visited a member close to coordinate a cooking class she does targeted for LA's and investigators. Seishi Shimai is an angel- tiny grandma with a really high-pitched voice, her home is like a temple inside and she is the most amazing member. Definitely uplifted. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday took train out to a LA who met us on the street in the middle of walking her dog, but stayed and talked to us. Able to share the First Vision and it was powerful like always. There's a special spirt there, particularly reciting in Joseph Smith's words. PS encourage all of you if you haven't,to memorize it! Check PMG! Then she gave us another referral (gave us another one a few weeks ago, turned out really well!). That evening we went to a matsuri (festival) that a member asked us to go to because his LA wife would be dancing there. These matsuri's are everywhere in the summer and really fun! So she's a dance teacher and its these traditional dances and everyone joins in, so we learned too and had a great time with her! </span></span><br />
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Sunday no investigators showed up...that was disappointing, but good testimony meeting (today was Fast Sunday because we had Stake Conference last week). And then there was food in our fruit basket!! (Generally don't get much in his Ward) but that just shows that slowly the relationship with members is getting better. After church visited a sister who's husband died last month. We weren't sure what to expect, how to help but found out that she really just needed someone to talk to, because she's pretty lonely. She's crazy strong- so excited and sure that her husband is now taking lessons in the Spirit World and working really hard to be a Priesthood holder! She has a rock-solid testimony. Later we were able to stop by Beatrice who's out of the hospital! Had a lesson with her and her daughter which went really well. She's just worried that the cast won't fit in the baptism jumper thing! </div>
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This week was crazy busy, little stressful but that's so exciting because we really are on God's errand and He has a lot of work for us to do. From our training this week my testimony has definitely been strengthened that forgetting ourselves, diligently following God's will is the way to be truly happy. Work hard! What else can you give up to be more dedicated to Him? It might be little and it might be really really hard to give up, but pray for strength. More time to study scriptures? Keep the Sabbath Day more holy? Give up some media or time-waster? It could be anything, but that sacrifice is going to be so worth it. Be like Xuan! She sacrificed to keep the Word of Wisdom and has already told us about blessings she is receiving. God wants to bless us. I love you, more importantly, He loves you.</div>
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Love, Wagstaff Shimai</div>
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Here's another photo from the matsuri Saturday! Basically the dance is walking around in a circle and it's mostly just arms because they traditionally wear a kimono and those things are really constricting! (Good arm workout!)</div>
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Then 1st transfer opened up and ended up crying for an hour telling me their struggles. She's a really great missionary, her companion is pretty nice but...probably stressed and tired? Doesn't really want to work and has lost a lot of hope which is hard for a new missionary so full of fire. They can solve their problems and do great- probably going to see lots of miracles this transfer and work on changing the image of their area! </div>
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Busy but it's really nice to be needed and involved. There's a difference in our work I think because we've both been here a while because it feels really urgent, not sure how to explain, but lots that we need to do now because it can't be done later! Love you all! Grateful for your emails, hearing all about everything. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD THIS WEEK...sent letter too late, sorry!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-23885555068737660152016-09-05T06:11:00.000-07:002016-09-05T06:11:18.830-07:00Monday Sept. 5Abeno is international!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">This week we used mostly Japanese but also met with Chinese (Taiwan), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Vietnamese, Brazilian, Phillapino, Peruvian, Spanish (Spain), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">potentially more! Seriously international and so grateful everyone </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">speaks a bit of Japanese or English, so it works! Oh also family at </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Eikaiwa from Pakistan.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Last Monday, PDay ended and we did some contacting at Tennoji- huge. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Interesting people, though mostly lots that he no time. Also contacted </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a referral from members, given the day before at dinner. Partially </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">because of the rain I think the referral, a young mom was nicer (super </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">worried about us) briefly shared that we share a message strengthening </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">families and she didn't have much time but we can come back again! So </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">it was raining all day but seriously it was getting really heavy, kept </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">getting heavier- got back to the apartment safely, really though just </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">took a bath outside basically, and we normally do daily planning at </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">our desks, but we were dripping, so put towels on the floor of the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">bathroom and planned there...do what you gotta do!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday a part member family cancelled right as we were going out the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">door to go meet them. That was sad but then rescheduled for Sunday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">more of them could be there! Met cute Taiwan recent convert- most of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the lesson is in Chinese, with a little Japanese, feels like back to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">1st transfer, but it's so fun- really though no matter what language </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">you can feel the Spirit. Then wen too this giant park- Nagai Koen and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">talked to cool people there! Then Kodomo Eikaiwa- fun but lots of kids </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and takes so much energy.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday got up early and ran to Seminary. Wow, great class! Only 2 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">kids regularly come but they are so diligent! Then after that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">miraculously for us a new 7/11 opened up close to our apartment- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">mainly that's exciting because now we don't have to go 20 minutes away </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">from the apartment to sync our iPads everyday! Plus since it was the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">opening day, everyone got free bread. At lunch went to a less active's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">ramen shop, she asked us to last week, and she was really happy to see </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">us there. Later in the day went to a nursing home to visit a sweet old </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">member- there's a special spirit there and I love these cute old </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">grandmas. In the evening we were pretty far from the apartment, and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">turns out there are some sketchy places in Japan when it's dark BUT </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">totally fine, missionaries are protected!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Thursday lesson with Kiyoshi- cute grandpa who owns a giant fruit </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">stand and is working hard on English and reads the BOM, really </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">understands well. Today was really great because we found out he has </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">pretty real intent and is ready to progress more than we thought! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Completely believe that comes from reading the BOM- there is great</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">power. Coming to church is still hard because of his shop, but praying </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">that he'll understand and be ready to make that sacrifice. Evening </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">went with Chin Shimai to a free community Japanese class and she is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">crazy dendo Fire! Was all ready to have one of the teachers help her </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">with church materials in Japanese and basically taught him about our </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">church and how happy it makes her. Also a kid from Taiwan came and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">said he had seen missionaries everywhere in Taiwan, talked to them a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">little bit but too busy...hoping now he'll have a better chance!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Friday District Meeting about following up and felt the Spirit </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">strongly, really excited to be better at helping I's make, keep </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">commitments. After DM, started a koukan with Hirakata sisters and I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">got to work with Omisaki Shimai! She is AMAZING- convert who then </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">converted her family, some friends and is such a great example- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">because they had some import at appointments, we worked in Hirakata </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">instead of all 4 in Abeno. Met a recent convert, 16 yrs old from Spain </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">but speaks Japanese, English, Portuguese fluently, way cool. Basically </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hearing her testify was seriously like I think it would be like to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hear Alma the Younger, in a way because her life has changed and she</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">is so happy and strong right now- seriously one of the most amazing,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">heartfelt testimonies I've ever heard- she spoke, we cried, agreed,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and really seemed like she taught us a lesson ❤️.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday back to Abeno and had Stake Conference and a new </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">self-referral from Taiwan (like I said, international!) came!! She is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">very very interested becuase she met with sisters in Taiwan a long </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">time ago and is more prepared now.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Sunday Stake Conference and Welch Kaicho, Shimai came! Wish I had time </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to tell you how amazing each talk was. Then evening with Morales </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">family from Peru- really good food, then simply taught the Restoration</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and they really liked it- a granddaughter and daughter in law are </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">currently investigators and want to get baptized, just very busy still </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a little hesitant, but moving forward.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Miracles are happening and truly getting lost in the work is the way </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to be happy. It is such a joy to share the gospel, to invite people to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">come unto Christ and see lives change. Love you all!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Sister Wagstaff</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cute RC in Hirakata! Plus Omisaki Shimai</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Visited investigator in the hospital today and miraculously she'll be out soon and probably getting baptized on the 18th!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Had to take the picture, went to Namba today</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-74235482337515612112016-08-29T14:30:00.001-07:002016-08-29T14:30:48.309-07:00Monday Aug. 29, 2016<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" type="cite">
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Okay so first of all Im not in Kawachinagano anymore...I guess I couldnt stay for 6 transfers. But now I:m in...<div>
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Abeno! (Downtown Osaka)</div>
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Secretly Ive wanted to come here my whole mission, I:ve heard really good things about this area! Very very tokai (city), and Im staying on my international streak with a Chinese companion, Zhou Shimai! So excited to work with her, also still an STL. Ive talked to her a lot at MLC, so its fun to now be comps! </div>
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K so back to last week from <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643920" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Monday</span></span>, stopped by and had a crepe at the cute shop by our apartment and the owner is a PI, but still busy and not super interested, but loves talking! This time I had a chocolate and mikan crepe- osusume for anyone who goes there! Then in the evening lots of not home people but at the end of the night, stopped a girl going home, in her 20s and had a really good conversation about God and prayer- she liked it all but then thought you had to come to church to pray or pay money or something, but once she understood the whole anytime, anywhere 100% free part, she was way on board and committed herself to pray night and morning! </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643921" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday</span></span> we went visiting teaching with Maekawa Shimai and Soga Shimai- they are absolutely wonderful. Seriously just felt so much love. Plus then as we were eating lunch, I got the call to go to Abeno! Then had lesson with Tsuruta Shimai at the Yoshikawas, so so so good. She didnt feel good and say she thought about cancelling, but then remembered it was probably her last time seeing me adn prayed and was a little better and came! So grateful to see her progress from not interested, to interested, to going to the temple for baptisms and now prepping for Endowments. Truly a miracle. Then dinner was Kurazushi with Kosugi Shimai! Shes crazy busy and they have a big PR calling in the church which means they have to go all over, but still is as supportive of dendo here as she can, I love that. Everyone has their own best. PLus last Eikaiwa, appartenlty it was posted on the ward:s LINE that it was Pagel Choro and my last Eikaiwa because we:re transferring so they sent out a request for everyone to come to Eikaiwa (which ps weve been trying so hard lately to get more members there to then fellowship adn invite students to church, activities, etc) and quite a few came! THat was so nice to see- this ward is a really really supportive family. </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643922" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> started with Erisa chan whos 19, went to FSY had a great time and is prepping for a mission and we just got to talk, then mogi the Restoration and she wrote a list of some friends she really wants to dendo- so much fun to be a part of this process because its so rewarding. NExt dropped by another on eof my favorite mebers who has grown so much, she recently went through the temple and today when we stopped by, she had a referral ready to give and ended up talking and planning on how to help them and how to help another investigator- she has so much dendo fire! She basically has her friends baptism all planned out and its a pretty realistic plan! I felt so much love- got to see lots of people <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643923" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> night because we attended Mutual, plus other actvities were going on.</div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643924" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> safely transferred 30 minutes to my next area! We waited at Tennoji for a few hours until everyones companions arrived from different places, then headed back to our apartment to plan. In the evening went to do a 30 30 English with this cute older couple who own a fruit stand (and gave us the most delicious watermelon in the world, like seriously I think even Mom and Dad would like it). This grandpa is so cute! They are the happiest couple, and he records the English portion to study during the week and also is reading the BOM and as we read through Alma 34;18-27ish together, he would explain what he read and prayed and it was really good. Reaaaaalllly good first impression of Abeno! </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643925" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> did a bit more weekly planning- theres a lot of people to plan for! Then met a new convert, Chin Shimai who:s originally from Taiwan and I promise I:ll tell you her story later because shes a miracle and shes so strong! Also felt like a new missionary because Zhou Shimai did most of the lesson in Chinese to help Chin Shimai understand, then we did a little Japanese that I could contribute! In the evening we were asked to attend a Sapporo Mission Reunion to translate for the old mission president and his family- lots of fun! PLus there was a member from Kawachinagano there! Then MEMBER OF THE YEAR- so earlier in the week we couldnt get my bike apart to put into the box and called Kyotani Kyoudai because hes good with bikes and he said it was too much of a pain to take apart and put back together, so instead he would just drive it to Abeno! So my bike and suitcases came safely to Abeno without having to deal with the hassle of the moving companies- defintely dont deserve all the kindness received from these wonderful people. </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643926" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> stopped by a LA first and had a good time reading BOM together, then at the end just on a whim asked for a referral and got one! Seriously ask and you receive. THen later biked out to another appointment with a partmember family, they cancelled last minute and we were out aways, so looked at out map and tried to stop by some members, others we found for introudctions, etc. Cool experience- ran into a lady whos from Thailand, first not interested and was biking away not listening to us (kind of ignoring us) but then we said we:re lost and looking for a place to eat, ps not a lie we were super hungry and suddenly she turned around and was nice and directed us to a super market because its the cheapest choice with a good selection :) Then she found out we were the same ages as her daughters and seems like she defintely has English interest and asked for our number! THe girls are away on a trip right now, but she took our number, we were really afraid she would never text us (thats kind of normal) but then that night got back to the apartment and she mailed us!! </div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_145643927" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span>- way scared for this ward, they are pretty big. Started out in the morning going out to an ivestigators house to take her and her daughter (recently baptized) to church, but found out she fell down the stairs last night and naturally wasnt feeling too well, so we went back to church alone :( BUT then another investigator came! She seems really cool- from Vietnam, college student whos working really hard and also has a baptismal date coming up next month! Also a girl from Kawachinagano ward was visiting because shes getting married soon and her husband is from Abeno, which is where theyll live when theyre married! Tender mercy. Sooo many people, not very many came up and talked to me- definitely have to be the first one to approach people, but that will be a good thing. Plus we and the elders got invited over to dinner and had a great time with the Ueda family- parents, married son, wife and younger sister. Turns out they have lots of dendo fire and ended up giving us 2 referrals! Plus they were super hilarious and we just laughed the whole time. </div>
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So thats the report! New transfer with lots of hope, nice fresh start. Isnt it great that with the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can always have a fresh start- it feels so good. Have you ever thought lately about what a blessing that is? You can start over! You can be forgiven. You are infitely loved by your Father in Heaven. Remember that! Love you all so much!</div>
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Sister Wagstaff</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Visiting teaching and got a snow cone! So good</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tsuruta Shimai, Yoshikawa Shimai, so much fun</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">After ping pong- some of the people who came!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Abeno Ward is a big famous/infamous in Kobe Mission- its one of the biggest oldest wards and right in the heart of Osaka and they see a lot of baptisms here. We have 2 shigansha (investigator with baptism date)- Beatrice from Brazil and Xuan (Swan) from Vietnam! This is really different dendo for me, I've never worked with shiganshas, recent converts, or so many people with so much interest! </span></div>
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Work between members and missionaries isn't perfect- but they are all wonderful people and I know a lot of the missionaries here before and they have been trying sooo hard to please the bishop and work together. </div>
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Sadly out of the 6ish people baptized within the last few months, only half are still coming. Some others practically fell off the face of the earth, and kind of seems like missionaries are getting the blame? But the sisters were doing their best, I've heard about all the work and lots of tears, and people have their agency. </div>
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Anyways so with the background I had heard from this area, we are working super hard to build a good relationship with the bishop. The elders are also well on board and I think we'll see a lot of progress here. </div>
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THeres between 150-200ish active members (Kawachinagano was 80). Very big, hard to know everyone so trying to find the members who really want to do missionary work, help out and obviously everyone is great but naturally some are super busy, scared to dendo and some are very ready and we NEED their help! </div>
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Also cool apartment- it's 2 stories. We have the 2nd and 3rd floor. Kitchen, study and bathroom on the 2nd, bedroom and extra room (closet, storage,etc) on the 3rd. </div>
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Zhou (Joe) Shimai is from China and not enough time to tell all about her today, but she was baptized at BYU and then shortly after, her parents converted in China. Super interesting hearing how the church works in China because yes they can hold church and there are a few members, just no dendo. Super interesting! She's wonderful, she'll go home in November. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-38805688344434638452016-08-25T18:47:00.001-07:002016-08-25T18:47:23.597-07:00Aug. 22, 2016<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Monday- Got emails sent in right before 6, then FHE with the Nakata's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">plus Morishita Kyoudai (just got back from mission) super fun, plus </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">felt the Spirit! YW daughter request was to read BOM in English </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">together, the shared a message, then shaved ice for dessert plus</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">played gospel gestures! Also funny story - so Nakata Kyoudai's English</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">is way good, we were reading scriptures in English and he pulls out</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">"Mormon Doctrine" by Bruce R McConkie, opens to a page and asked me,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">"do other churches believe in this?" (The page was about how because</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">of Noah and the flood the earth tilted and from there on we had</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">seasons.) Basically Kawamura Shimai and I just looked at each other,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">"does our church believe in this??" Funny stuff</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday- lots of plans and not enough time but got to deliver a Bday</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">message to Nora Shimai! Air conditioning was glorious, she gave us</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">some fruit juice from the Phillipines and also reading scriptures with</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">her is the best- she provides good commentary along the way :) Plus</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">met some youth and seriously FSY has been a blessings! After Eikaiwa,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Invited one of our students to Taco Rice, plus Temple Celebration</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_268397020" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> and she might come!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday- koukan with Nakayama Shimai!❤️❤️❤️ We always have so much</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">fun, this time it was a free Japanese class first and sadly the member</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">we were going with didn't show up, but stayed anyways because hey I</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">want to learn and te people there have met missionaries before, pretty</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">good finding opp. Stopped at Indo Curry for lunch, haven't eaten it in</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a while! Next went to teach English and do a lesson with a members</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">grandson plus some neighbor friends. Note: first time for the neighbor</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">friends and when I called a few days earlier checking, basically the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">member told me our spiritual message needed to be super simple and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">short...that wasn't very comforting. So super worried we were just</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">going to be English teachers, not missionaries BUT the mom of the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">girls came and she has home stayed in America, saw Temple Square and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">talking about prayer was fine, plus after Kito Shimai asked me to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">sing, sang "Be Still My Soul", they liked that they she brought</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">refreshments and Kito Shimai was an amazing member-missionary and led</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a really natural conversation about family history that was really</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">good. Later in the day went after a referral given, never found her</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">but met some great neighbors, one interesting lady who's job is to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">keep the birds away from the fish at a pond...talked about family then</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">she talked about birds and she said we can come back and eat lunch</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">together...okay? Seriously we meet some great people all the time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_268397021" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> after lunch we passed a potential investigator to the elders</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and it went really really well! This guy is a college student studying</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to be a nurse and from last Saturday when we met he actually read the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">chirashi, thought about it, and remembered what we said last time</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">about God and then connected super well with the elders, promised to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">come to their sports activity </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_268397022" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> morning and then exchanged</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">phone numbers and he actually really cared and checked that the phone</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">number was correct, plus mail address...kinjin. NOBODY exchanges info</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">like that! So that was a good start to the day! Then biked out a ways</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to see a member and practice an investigator lesson together and help</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">her create a dendou vision. The rest of the afternoon/evening was</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">weekly planning- faster than usual! Lastly, went to visit a new</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">investigator close to our apartment but she wasn't home, bummer. But</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">then Kawamura Shimai was really inspired to try housing another floor</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">of the apartment building- literally went up and every door was dark</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">except for the very last one where a mom and little kid came out and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">we talked a little about family and can come back!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_268397023" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> District Meeting in Hashimoto, pretty average, then we ended</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">with a testimony meeting and that was really powerful. Went to a local</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">bakery for lunch then back to Kawachi! In the evening threw a birthday</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">party for Aki Chan from Eikaiwa with the elders. Lots of fun, got to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">know her better, especially hear what she believes about God- she</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">isn't quite sure, which really is perfect to be able to learn more.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Though I wished it had gone a bit better, so I was a little</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">disappointed at night but I can testify that prayer is powerful and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">God answers with peace which was exactly what I needed.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday we dropped by a LA and normally she doesn't want to hear about the church too much, just politely listens a little bit but this time she wa a lot more open and showed us funny new pictures of her grandson! Through that she was a lot more open to family prayer, power of prayer. In the evening, before the Sapporo Temple Cultural Celebration we threw a Taco Rice party! We focused on the youth and one young woman brought her friend along- yesss! Had fun with the youth, also learned how exhausting it is sometimes to motivate them to do something- lots of appreciation for youth leaders! Then our investigator Murata San came to the Sapporo Temple Celebration, which was really cool! They did a play telling the story of the first converts in Sapporo, back in early 1900's, then the mission was closed and they had a really hard time and then the missionaries came back. I am so amazed by the faith of those first members- they truly sacrificed and it's such a blessing to them and all of Japan to have another temple. </span></span><br />
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Tried to play games with the youth, ye refused to do anything accept cards, so we tried to play cards!</div>
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Sunday we went to the 9 am session of the Sapporo Temple Dedication. Elder Stevenson spoke completely in Japanese! He and President Nelson were the visiting general authorities. Oh, also because there were no other American sisters to go on splits with, I couldn't go to the English session, stayed in Japanese and was a little worried about that- they might speak fast, use big words since it's a dedication, but everything was understandable and even though they had translation for Pres Nelson, we could still hear the English- small miracle for me! Also some members showed up in kimonos, that was pretty cool. </div>
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After we returned stopped by an investigator to say goodbye probably, then decided to stop by another one close by, I've taught her off and on the whole time I've been here and right now, she's really progressing again- she's reading the BOM then she brings up her smoking problem and how she wants to quit and was really open and honest and humble with us! Truly she'll be baptized soon I think. </div>
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This week I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the temple, for eternal families and the peace and hope that we have. I'm probably leaving Kawachinagano this week, haven't heard anything yet but I've been here 7 months (5 transfers) and I love it so much, but change is probably coming. God has a perfect plan, my testimony of that has grown here- he is absolutely in charge and I see His hand open hearts and opportunities miraculously and know that there are going to be really great things happening here. But from a talk Elder Bednar gave to Japan a while ago, the change really happens mostly inside of us- I've changed the most! How have you changed recently?? How has your testimony grown?? </div>
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Love you all so much! Eat Popsicles, use AC, don't die in the heat (unless your Australian!)</div>
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Love, Sister Wagstaff</div>
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Sent from my iPad</div>
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This transfer has been a roller coaster and so many times appointments<br />have been cancelled. Tonight too, dinner appointment cancelled. Big<br />bummer but learning to keep going, make good back up plans too.<br />Basically tons of people in Kawachinagano will be baptized once they<br />are free enough to have lessons! Kawamura Shimai works really hard to<br />achieve goals and I think she'll do great things here (this all based<br />on the assumption I leave, she stays). No idea where I'm going next.<br />Sad to leave, but I've seen in coming for a while so I've already<br />started packing, writing notes and telling some people (it's a good<br />push to get some people to make time to meet!)<br /><br />Tons of sweat, tears, some blood in this area! (Seriously though<br />lately TONS of sweat) found out it was 111 degrees <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_268397039" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span>...that's<br />been a killer lately, we just can't go as fast or hard in this heat<br />because it is killer- have to go slower, take breaks. So we've been<br />pretty wiped out lately. Everyone we meet gives us advice about the<br />heat- of course most of it is to just stop doing anything, go<br />inside...sorry we're missionaries! 😀 But night time is great! I've<br />been getting smarter about planning plus everywhere I go I have a big<br />water bottle, fan, sweat towel and sunglasses- MUCH More prepared than<br />last year!<br /><br />A lot of my prayers lately have been to see if I've learned all I<br />should, done all I could here, seeing what else Heavenly Father wants<br />for me here? Definitely not perfect, but trying. My image of<br />missionaries before was that they were pretty much perfect (of course<br />I knew that was impossible, but still thought they were pretty close)<br />now I can say nope BUT for sure we do have power and authority.<br /><br />Also so important to have fun with your companion. Dendo is 100%<br />better when we are happy! Need to laugh, be happy, work with the<br />Spirit. The gospel is joyful! At the temple dedication when they were<br />doing the cornerstone part Pres Nelson was making commentary, for<br />example "I can see that Sister Stevenson has been practicing on<br />cakes!" and just peacefully being happy, making little comments that<br />were uplifting and fun.<div class="yj6qo">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">We got ourselves crepes to get happier when today's dinner appt cancelled!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Love you all so much! Good luck with school, prayers! Also for dad to get genki!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Katya</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-41815199969922243392016-08-16T09:41:00.001-07:002016-08-16T09:41:50.957-07:00August 15, 2016 He is here!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Last Monday we went to Koya San as a district, I think I already told </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">you about it- a lot warmer than the last time I went in February! Plus </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a lot more people. Ran into some American members on vacation! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">After we had FHE with the Suzuki's - super amazing crazy busy family, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">actually my first time at their house. Included daughter and grandkids </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">(LA/ not member) and had a fun FHE! Then as we biked home a grandma </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">fell on her bike, helped her, then discovered that the chain was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">broken...rule is we have to be home by 9, </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_198803004" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">9:30</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> if teaching a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">lesson...tried to help a tiny bit, then realized we didn't have enough </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">time so we called the Suzuki's since they were the closest members and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">they came to the rescue!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday in the morning visited the Soga'a (member couple) who are absolutely wonderful and so strong. Some of their friends are our investigators but are having some issues right now, so we were able to council together and really create a vision for how to help them. What a good experience- for me as a missionary it's hard to look past right now, this transfer, but the members can see the future better and that perfect ice really helped us to know how to help them, particularly working together. Love is the motive, the Soga'a are full of so much love! </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Later on the way to a LA's lesson, a grandma stopped us and said she had talked to us before (unfortunately I couldn't remember her to save my life, we talk to lots of people) anyways kept talking and she was interested, so we walked over to the church and gave a tour- she loved a picture of Jesus with all the little kids in the Primary room, plus we showed the font. The Spirit was strong, great teaching opportunity, but she wouldn't commit to anything other than reading a pamphlet. She seemed a little forgetful, but recognized that the Spirit was strong and if nothing else this was definitely good prep for her to receive the gospel in the Spirit World when she can understand better. Because of this, we were late to LA lesson but thankfully she and our amazing member Yoshikawa Shimai still had time so we were still able to have a good lesson together- talked about Word of Wisdom, especially the blessings- something good to remember when we get really tired, worn out, exhausted- God has so many blessings in store!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Plus that evening stopped by to say goodbye to Miyu Chan, YW going to America for a homestay- she was the amazing girl last week that brought friends to church, bore he most amazing testimony I've ever heard. Seriously I'll miss her, she was one of the people I've been very blessed to meet here. We made her a goodbye book full of advice for America- lots of fun to make, plus shoutout to Tash and Drew for their input! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday there was supposed to be a barbecue with a bunch of members, but then the wife hosting it who's pregnant went into labor that morning...barbecue cancelled! We had finally gotten some girls from Eikaiwa to come (after inviting a million people) and we were way excited for this chance with them, so instead went out to eat with a girl, same age as us and has been going to Eikaiwa for about a year and knows a lot of members too. Still doesn't have a lot of gospel interest, but that'll definitely increase as she sticks around because she does recognize that missionaries and members are all really nice, happy people. For reals, members have a light, they are different. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Then in the afternoon went on splits with Wakayama sisters and I was with Taguchi Shimai! Sadly we had some bike issues that slowed us down, but still able to visit a few people. My favorite was the end of the night with Kokoro Chan (member) who is working hard to be an example, find opportunities to dendo at her work. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Thursday still on koukan with Taguchi Shimai- she set the goal to work on teaching short, powerful lessons and miracles happened- my favorite was a sweet member couple we teach who talk forever (lots of people like that) but this time Taguchi Shimai very lovingly kept her on track with the lesson, she listened and we were in out plus ice cream in less than an hour! Plus it was the most spiritual lesson we've had thus far. Afterwards, we did some family history finding. Here's a quick update for everyone at home- right now is Obon in Japan, it's basically the biggest Busdhist holiday, think Christmas level where everyone goes home to be with their families and a bunch of shops are closed. The tradition is that your ancestors spirits come back to your house, stay with you, bless you, then leave a few days later. Sooo kind of a hard time to be a Christian missionary BUT there's still people that listen to us, and were tryouts NT to make this time effective by focusing on family history- we think ancestors are important too! Anyways, Obon is huge, even the members are busy with family and it was hard to get appointments this week, but still blessed to be busy! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Friday was District Meeting- lots of obedience, being better at all the little things, plus studying for our investigators and then last I did a segment on language learning, especially making a plan. That was lots of fun to prep for and find out a bunch of new language learning ideas! One I liked that I haven't tried yet was practice reading with the Friend because it's pretty simple language, at least that's what they told me, no promises! After, did our weekly planning which took a while, but important time and we were still able to get out for an hour at night and talk to some people. We've been practicing an idea we heard at MLC a few weeks ago- Mogi anywhere anytime if there's no one around to talk to. So Kawamura Shimai and I have been contacting each other a lot if there's nobody. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Nobody else on the boat, so I'm a bird. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Ps also blessed to get the chance to follow up with sisters as an STL and found out one of my old investigators in Sakai is a shigansha- has a baptism date!! She is truly changing ❤️</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday we had a full schedule and first was a sweet grandma who started out trying to nicely Kekko us but then ended up willing to read Resotration pamphlet and meet again- power of the Spirit when we show love, listen to them and testify. Biked out to Tondabayashi- farthest part of our area and we could feel it after, BUT worth it to see one of our less active's smile and meet some great people. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sunday none of our investigators could make it to church :( but all the youth and YSA came back from FSY (EFY) this week and we heard a lot of powerful testimonies. It was an amazing sacrament and thankfully some less active's that haven't come in a long time were there. Later met a former investigator high school girl and she's super busy but still very sweet and has interest- had the chance to pray together, though too busy to set a next appt. Got a little sad about struggling this week to find new people with true interest and then towards the end of the night, felt like I needed to stop and talk to a girl walking home- needed up going the same direction for about 20 minutes and had a really good conversation. She was a little drunk (the happy kind) but really liked our message about family, seems to live pretty close to the church and weren't able to exchange contact info, but wrote her a note and lots of prayers that she'll remember talking to us because she seemed really prepared (went to a Christian college, wants to be a mom like her own mom, said she felt really happy). No matter their circumstance now, God guides us to them, them to us and we meet some amazing people. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">This week in my nightly prayers my love for people- particularly certain investigators has increased and I just want them to have the fullness of joy that comes with the gospel. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">As I was studying this week about the Atonement 2 things I wanted to share- first is that everyone should go read Helaman 5 because it's amazing. Miraculous conversion and yet at the heart of it is just like any other conversion, we have to have faith in Jesus Christ that leads us to repentance, applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I also loved a quote from True to the Faith, "Through your faith and righteousness and through His atoning sacrifice, all the inequities, injuries, and pains of this life can be fully compensated for and made right. Blessings denied in this life will be given in the eternities. And although He may not relieve all your suffering now, He will bless you with comfort and understanding and with strength to “bear up [your] burdens with ease” (Mosiah 24:15)."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- The blessings of the Atonement are endless! He lifts us up and helps us move forward every single day. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I love you all so much! I hope you feel loved, I hope you feel the power of the Atonement this week- no matter where you are, what your circumstance. Truly it's the answer everyone is looking for whether you are worried about college starting next week or family or investigators or health or loved ones falling away. He is here. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">愛しています!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Wagstaff 姉妹</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-46535826585232792352016-08-12T09:13:00.002-07:002016-08-12T09:17:27.320-07:00Aug. 8, 2016 Members, Meetings, Miracles<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Little later today because we went to Koya San today- lots of Buddhism stuff, but really just a bunch of gaijin (foreigner) tourists! Ran into some members from America- one served his mission in Fukuoka! Which reminds me of the Japanese family in my family's new Ward- so excited to meet them!!! Lots of pictures, buts here's one, guess what I did-</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">When in Rome...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Last Mon investigator cancelled lesson AGAIN (still haven't met her...) but I felt peaceful feeling doing my best. That's weird to explain- I want to teach her but if she's not ready, she's not ready and I am learning a lot about God's timing, patience and I've also seen that one aspect of the Atonement is increasing our abilities. Seriously as a mission we're finishing reading about the Atonement in the BOM and going back to the basics by all doing 12 Week training. In the evening we were invited to a members house who lives close by this giant fireworks show/matsuri (festival- way big in Japan, lots of little ones everywhere in the summer and a lot of girls wear kimonos). Saw an investigator family while we raced home!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Okay you can't really see anyone, but this was at the fireworks!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Tue was MLC in Kobe! This is always one of my favorite days of the month (happens every first Tuesday)- talked a lot about 12 weeks, staying focused on Our Purpose and the different aspects with that. Lots to learn and change! I love serving in Kobe with some of the greatest people, seriously this is fun, plus of course Welch Kaicho and Shimai are amazing! Got back in time for Eikaiwa, Sakai sisters came and we started a koukan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Wed koukan with Nomura Shimai, new missionary! She is really working hard to be good at finding and we got to mogi (role play) and then went out and got to use our Mogi! For reals, I'm gaining a testimony of Mogi because we got to use exactly what we practiced and ended up with a new investigator within 10 minutes. Also visited one of the sweetest grandmas in the Ward who just makes you feel so good! Then Sakai went home in the evening, we went to Ping Pong, then sadly an investigator cancelled her English plus gospel lesson, but we were finishing up some Area Book work at the church, talked with a member who's usually been too busy and got a few soft referrals from her! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Thu started with an investigator who isn't progressing as fast as we'd like, but is still reading the BOM- another miracle with this lesson was that she didn't havvery much time, but likes to talk and we were struggling to get her on topic and had the most amazing me,bet who boldly but nicely just stopped her random talking and asked how her BOM reading was going! Yesss, members are so necessary, as we walked back to the eki she just kept repeating how missionaries couldn't do this work alone, all of the members should get involved p, and she is very involved! For the rest of the afternoon we went after referrals and stopped people wherever we were and talked- sometimes it's more about having the courage to stop and talk, get to bear even a little bit of testimony- it still isn't easy, but I feel accomplished after. Spent the night prepping our training for ZTM and some weekly planning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Fri ZTM in Wakayama! I've been in the same zone since Christmas...probably out this next transfer, but it's so fun here and we have a new addition to our zone...new senior couple in Shingu! The Kamada's- they are very sweet, we sat and got to know Kamada's Shimai better at lunch. Anyways back at ZTM we had such a good meeting- one cool thing was training from Taguchi Shimai on Buddhism and family history, particularly because Obon is coming up- this is like the biggest Japanese/Buddhist holiday where their belief is that ancestors come back to your house for a few days- so everybody has a holiday and goes back to where they're from. Learned more about it so we can be better at connecting the gospel to what most people already believe. Kawamura Shimai translated most of ZTM for the Japanese missionaries and I helped out a bit. Translation brings a new appreciation for people who speak clearly and slowly! Also in the evening back in our area, dropped by a long time investigator, we're seeing progress with Kawamura Shimai, I think she's really needed a Nihonjin to help explain things- at this lesson she connected really well with a scripture we shared! Later stopped by a PI who was home and is a little shy, but talked and seems to have a lot of good potential- recently graduated college and living on her own. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Sat during our 12 Weeks study time, we watched part of The District- okay so probably only a missionary could say this, buts it's so much fun! When we talked about 12 Weeks at ZTM as a zone I realized I wasn't alone as a trainee watching it and thinking- wow this would be great if I was in America but I'm in Japan and things are different here. This time watching it through, one I'm in a bigger Ward, but two I can see so many more applications to our dendo here- main thing is that members are the key! In the evening there was a random matsuri at a park by a members house, so our visit was a little interrupted but lots of people, so a good finding opp! Stopped and talked to a lady going home from a matsuri and turns out she's a former investigator- walked and talked for a while, sadly she seemed a little drunk because she wasn't fully capable of understanding, but hopefully we'll find her and her daughter again!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Sunday. Wow so good. First sadly an investigator who we were going to invite to baptism again didn't come, BUT Miyu Chan (YW in the Ward, probably my favorite) brought friends to church with her! She just finished FSY in Hokkaido so she's full of fire and bore literally the most amazing testimony. She stood up there crying (so of course I was crying) and told us how she found out for sure that this church is true and how much more committed she wants to be now that she knows. Then her friends stayed for all 3 hours of church! I went with them to Sunday School and YW's- pretty good experience,though it was all super new. One cool thing was how little I did because of how much the YW were helping! They ended up learning about baptism, temples, importance of family and a little family history but the YW and leaders were good at checking for understanding and being simple in their teaching. In the evening the cherry on top of our day was a surprise visit from me,beds who brought us grapes- that sounds really simple until you know how expensive fruit is here!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">There are plenty of struggles, but I wanted to share a bit of the example Kawamura Shimai shared with the Ward yesterday- Kawachinagano is full of hills and biking up the hills isn't very fun, and sometimes you think you're at the top and there's actually a little more to go- that's hard, but riding down is the best feeling, so even while climbing LOTS of hills (both kinds!) we know that there's going to be a great ride down. Plus look at all the good things already happening! With that, working on humility this transfer and I've been so grateful for the power of prayer- it feels so good to truly get on your knees and pray to God at the end of the day, no matter what kind of day. Love you all- From the emails I've read there's all sorts of good, hard, exciting things happening and that just goes to show Heavenly Father's plan. Love you all! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">- Also this week last year I arrived in Japan! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Love you all! Sister Wagstaff</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sent from my iPad</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mashiro Chan...always taking pictures together! Her request</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-71061587957315323962016-08-02T20:10:00.000-07:002016-08-02T20:10:24.113-07:00Monday August 1, 2016<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I had a good week that showed how much God looks out for each of us!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Monday P-Day at Osaka Jo with Sakai sisters (Nakayama, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Nomura)...outnumbered by Nihonjin! Then 6 when dendo started again, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the Wakayama sisters came and I switched with Manwill Shimai! First </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">she looks like my sister and our dendo style is really similar, so it </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">was such a good time! We even got to bring up baptism in a first </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">contact- this lady recognized us, has heard of the church, so we just </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">went for it and told her she would be happy if she joined- she doesn't </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">want to BUT it was fun to try, and now keep trying!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Tuesday was exchange with Manwill Shimai still- first had some time </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and decided to drop by a less active we hadn't talked to in a while- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">normally she doesn't really want to talk long, but for some reason </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">this time we ping pong and she answers "IRASSHAI!" Which is a really </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">polite way to say Come in! We ended up staying and listening to her </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">for about an hour- she was really excited to tell us about all her </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">granddaughters and how great they are! She was taught and baptized </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">when her granddaughter was a missionary here a few years ago, but now </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">has some health issues. She also knows Welch Kaicho and loves him, and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">then was going off how he's better than the older mission presidents, t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hat was interesting! Also focused that day on teaching the restoration </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and got to bring it up in a few contacts. Then Wakayama sisters went </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">home, we went to Eikaiwa- kids were cute and fun again</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Wednesday Happy Birthday Mom! I had a great day- two cool things. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">First one is pretty simple, but a new investigator was finally home- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">she's a nurse with a crazy schedule and we finally got to talk to her </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">again. Still haven't seen her face, only talks through the ping pong </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">box, so currently figuring out different ways to get her to come to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">the door next time... </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Next was the evening, 30/30 lesson with an investigator that was truly </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">a miracle. This involved some pretty personal details I can't share </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">but basically she's very interested in the English part, and the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">gospels just there too but tonight miraculously the Spirit touched </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">her, she just started crying in the middle, which led us to be able to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">testify of eternal families, it's all written in the Book of Mormon, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and while she still doesn't know it's true, she was very hopeful and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">eager to find out because truly the gospel of Jesus Christ is a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">message of hope, and she needs it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Thursday morning we went to Sakai for interviews with Welch Kaicho! I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">love Welch Kaicho and Welch Shimai- truly they are amazing and it was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">just what I needed. After, we returned to Kawachinangano, did weekly </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">planning which was exciting- always fun to plan for the miracles </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">ahead. Cool little thing- we really wanted to visit a member family </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">this night but weren't able to schedule an appointment, so we just </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">planned for something else, but then I'm the afternoon we got a call </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">from this member asking us to come over for dinner that night! Yessss </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">keiji (revelation), miracle. Talked about truly helping out family and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">friends and now each of them have a specific person they are going to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">be working on.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">- Friday District Meeting in Hashimoto! We reviewed the BOM Atonement </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">challenge we've been doing and it's been 6 months and I loved going </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">back and reviewing because I see so much growth. One point was that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">through applying the Doctrine of Christ, we are using the Atonement, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">which was also what Welch Kaicho focused on at interviews. Plus we </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">always Mogi (role play) and even though it's not real, the Spirit was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">still there and helped me learn, in order to help an investigator in a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">real lesson. This transfer my testimony of Mogi has been really </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">strengthened- seriously so nice to practice and receive revelation, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">knowing what will best help our investigators.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Also in the evening went back to find the referral from the guy that said he doesn't believe in God but his wife loves Jesus Christ, remember him? Still didn't meet the wife but clearly we must need to talk to this guy! He was a lot more relaxed and willing to talk a little bit just at his door. We guessed already but found out this time for sure that his wife is Fillipino!! Fillipinjin=kinjin (Golden) but she just left on vacation back to see family in the Phillipines for the rest of August...ugh, BUT missionaries will meet her next transfer and seems really good because this is playing out just like a Japanese/Fillipino member couple in our ward right now! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday- so the bishop was in charge of a Ward FHE activity, but called last night cancelling because he's sick, but we had invited investigators and people from Eikaiwa and didn't want to completely cancel last minute, so we decided to just take it over with the elders...ended up just having one of their investigators show up and then a bunch of members (I LOVE the members in Kawachinagano, so supportive) and we had a good time together, a little bummed other people didn't come. The rest of the day, our finding was mah- got to talk to lots of people but no new investigators, BUT did meet 2 LA's that I seriously haven't seen in months, so that was a miracle!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sunday Kawamura Shimai spoke in Sacrament, did a wonderful job talking about dendo, power of relying on God. After church we were driven by some members to a YSA missionary activity in Sakai! The stake mission leader put this together with the goal of inspiring more YSA/youth to get involved in missionary work. This was just a Sakai Ward activity, but they needed more missionaries, so we got to come too! I love Sakai Ward,truly strong members! We split and went out finding for a few hours with them- I was with Meika Chan who's 19 and thinking about a mission. I'll admit, my finding hasn't been so great lately, but this was such a good chance to repent and just really try to talk to EVERYONE! We were blessed with lots of people to teach, 1 new investigator (return appointment!) and a lot of people that want to come to Eikaiwa. Also double blessing to see members from back when I served in Sakai which was only 1 short transfer, and not going to lie, it was a hard one and felt like we didn't see a lot of results, but then one sister (Ward missionary) came up to me and told me an old investigator I taught was back and actually came to church this week and this sister finally met her! That was something we tried so hard to help happen when I was there and it just never worked, but now it happened. 6 months later, but seriously so happy to hear about this. Truly this work is Gods work on His time and one of the principles in PMG is that "No Effort is Wasted" and I believe that's true. I can't control people, but I can do my best to invite and help and truly God performs miracles and people are converted. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Also really low on pictures this week...kind of forgot to take any. But I love you all, have a great week, wherever you are!</span></span><br />
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Love, Wagstaff Shimai</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-49632298223993343272016-07-28T13:16:00.002-07:002016-07-28T13:16:15.526-07:00Mon July 25, 2016 Let the Holy Spirit Guide<br />
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Hello! This week I got smarter and figured out how to save my email really well A but seriously though in my defense I swear I saved it last week. Anyways, quick update from last week</div>
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<br />- Monday made cookies with member and friend, friend was first time inside a church, did a tour and she's really open to hearing about church!<br />- Tuesday we had a lesson with an investigator plus a member who came with us and while she doesn't feel ready to be baptized, she did self commit herself to read Ether 12 when I said how much I liked it!<br />- Wednesday we went with our grandma investigator to RS sewing club and she had a great time! Plus seriously good lesson at the end of the night doing English and gospel, taught about the prayer and Restoration and she didn't fully believe it from the start, but committed to pray about it and from what I've seen, people that are open like that do one to know this is true. Real intent!<br />- <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_188904215" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> woke up early to go to Shino Shimai's garden. Then in the evening with Kawamura Shimai went to kodomo Eikaiwa...cute member's kid didn't want to wear clothes, 2 boys kept wrestling and had to be taken out and 3 other sweet girls tried so hard to ignore everyone and learn English❤️<br />- <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_188904216" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Friday</span></span> amazed by a recent converts simple testimony of peace he feels in his heart because of the gospel. Plus seminary with Miyu-dendo member on Monday and the Spirit was so strong and she's so excited to share the gospel with her best friend.<br />- <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_188904217" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Saturday</span></span> we met a really cute college girl who lived in America a little bit- left before we were able to exchange info so now we'll just have to search for her again!<br />- <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_188904218" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> after church the schedule was just not working out, but then miracles happened and because I had a card from Steere Shimai we dropped by a former investigator and found out she would like to start lessons again!<br /><br />Okay that was last week, now for this week!<br />7/18 Monday. We went after this potential investigator found in our Area Book and lives super close to our apartment. Looks like she moved, so that was zannen (unfortunate) but talked to this grandpa close by and he said that he doesn't care, doesn't believe in God but his wife love Jesus Christ, so he took us to his apartment to meet her! Sadly she was eating dinner and didn't want to talk but said we can come back later in the week!<br /></div>
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7/19 Tues we started off the morning with Visiting Teaching with Maekawa Shimai and Soga Shimai- we met almost all of the less active's on our list and not only met them but actually got to share a message (so far that's been really rare!). After as we were returning, we walked a while with a girl who then exchanged numbers with us and seems really open to learning! Then we had our regular Tsuruta Shimai lesson with Yoshikawa Shimai doseki- seriously so good! She committed herself to a specific time and place for scripture study. Being specific is really helpful, I want to remember that when I go home. Ended the night with Eikaiwa, I taught kids and it was potentially he beat one yet- no crazy kids, everyone paid attention, we had fun coloring pictures and playing games! Plus a new kid and his mom came, and the dad went to the adult class...investigator potential!<br /></div>
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7/20 Visiting Teaching again! This time with Shino Shimai and Yamamoto Shimai. Later tried to visit a former investigator who wasn't home, but then ran into her LA son who hasn't been seen in a long time! He was really cool and talked to us for a while. Seriously cool this week to see the different ways revelation works- although we are going after a specific person, it may be someone else in that area who is the real target. In the evening after Ping Pong- oh wait I have to tell this one- we do a tournament every week and I'm, well I'm not that good at Ping Pong but seriously I've been improving and this week I made it to the finals and ALMOST beat the champion! Anyways after we shared a short but really powerful message on the Restoration. So grateful for those moments when the Spirit confirms again that this is true.</div>
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<br />7/21 Plans didn't go perfectly, but did get to visit one of my favorite members, Yoshikawa Shimai who shared her conversion story. Truly every conversion is a miracle as everyone receives and recognizes that confirmation from the Holy Ghost, for her that God is real, and her life was forever changed and she has then helped in changing so many people! Also <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_188904219" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> is weekly planning day, so not a lot else happened, but good planning for the next week!<br /></div>
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7/22 Friday! Started with seminary, then District Meeting, talked about goals for the new transfer and 12 Weeks training, which is such a blessing. No I wasn't a big fan of all the "practice teaching" before and it's taken me a while to learn, but Mogi is so helpful! Sad that it's taken me so long to figure that out because Welch Kaicho's<br />been talking about the importance of practice for a while...I have a testimony of it now! Later in the day pretty good lesson with an investigator, then a former also! Sadly though our teaching skills are getting better and we feel good about lessons, haven't seen much progress towards baptism. Lots of no's, but it's nice to know that<br />we've been trying really hard to do all we can and teach clearly with the Spirit, so it's up to them because everyone does have agency.</div>
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<br />7/23 Saturday- we have a new investigator who runs a little old-fashioned snack shop and ended up running into her twice that day! That really felt like a confirmation that she is someone important to help right now. Also it was Clean Action! This is a monthly community service project we go to that's a good finding opportunity- one cool<br />guy I ran into turns out is the president of Lion's Club here and has been to America several times. I gave him an Eikaiwa flyer and explained it was our free English class- he freaked out, it's free?! Why is it free?? Replied we're volunteers- Why are you volunteering?! Seriously funny, he talked to the elders after and we'll probably see him next week! </div>
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Later in the afternoon we biked out to a less active I haven't seen in a long time (she lives pretty far and not very interested in hearing about the church right now) but she is really sweet and she wasn't home but then as we were writing a note to put in her post, she pulled up and got to talk for a bit about family.<br />Definitely a small miracle! Last was dinner with a member and her referral friend who we've met a few times before- she had to leave earlier than we thought, so BOM message was short and her interest has gone down a lot (really sad when people won't accept that this message HELPS when you are busy, struggling, not well), so that was a little depressing, but then after as we got to review and make plans for the future with these two amazing members who didn't seem to get discouraged- moved forward to the next step helping their friend- that<br />was really touching to see.<br /></div>
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7/24 - <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_188904220" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">On Sunday</span></span> I spoke in Sacrament Meeting, thankfully I had this talk pretty well prepared, they asked me to speak about "Dendo Spirit" - helping increase member's desire to share the gospel! Shared an experience with an investigator a while ago who was really touched by the BOM. Also there is so much power in bearing testimony because the simple things I can say in Japanese are true. After church, Kawamura Shimai wasn't feeling so great, so we took things slow and finished some planning in our apartment, then went out with a member in the evening to visit her less active friend- they chatted for a while, took me back to my first couple transfers because I had a pretty hard time keeping up with everything (good friends talk really fast and<br />used a lot of Osaka-Ben and slang) and even had to do the whole laugh-because everyone's-laughing-but-I-don'<wbr></wbr>t-know-why. Seriously, humility. I'm working on this transfer and I've been given lots of good opportunities!<br /><br />Today we went to Osaka-Jo with the Sakai sisters, so I was outnumbered by Nihonjin! Lots of fun and it was even a little bit cooler than normal, plus an American member came and talked to us! Dendo is so fun, so rewarding, learning humility and more reliance on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and I'm so grateful for all of it!<div class="yj6qo">
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O for Osaka! Osaka Jo</div>
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Love you all!</div>
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Sister Wagstaff</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-32413058523019736092016-07-19T16:09:00.001-07:002016-07-19T16:09:31.936-07:00Monday July 18, 2016<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Literally spent like an hour earlier today writing a really good </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">email, came to church to send it and it doesn't exist. Now I don't </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">really have time so this will be really short, sad since the last one </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">was a good long one. But, transfers came and I'll be staying in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Kawachinagano for a 5th transfer!! New comp is Kawamura Shimai! She is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">on fire and so fun to work with, also went to BYU-Hawaii for a year so </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">she's pretty fluent in English- we switch off between Japanese and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">English.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Sent Steere Shimai home this week- that was really hard, I loved </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">working with her so much, still love her lots! New place added to my </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">travel list: Melbourne, Australia!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Miracles happened this week- finally met a PI after trying for months </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">and she has interest still! A former investigator wants to meet again, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">thanks to Steere Shimai for writing a meishi (contact card/business </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">card but for a missionary?). Other things happened this week...sadly </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">you'll have to hear about it later, promise it was a good week!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The gospel is restored, yes it's a big claim but it's very true that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, and your </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">prayers will be answered as well because God loves you! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Also super excited to get</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to participate in the upcoming Sapporo temple dedication- lots of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">focus on temple and family right now!</span><div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last day together, got up super early to THRUST IN OUR SICKLE at Shino Shimai's garden :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">R.S. Sewing Circle and investigator Murata San came! (Cute grandma in the middle)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cookies this week with member and friend-- so much fun and so proud of Miyu Chan!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picking up new companion, sending off old one...</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-44600307276290957702016-07-12T11:46:00.002-07:002016-07-12T11:46:43.601-07:00Monday July 11, 2016 His Love<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Mon - after PDay ended we went to dinner with an Eikaiwa student/PI </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">wanting to make her an investigator. Interesting night...seriously all t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">he details would take too long to write, ask me about it later! But </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">anyways we asked her for her favorite restaurant, we get there and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">already know it's going to be expensive, but then she came and no</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">backing out! She believes pretty strongly in what she believes and I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">don't want to make fun of it at all, because she has a lot of truth! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Believes in guardian spirits and things like that, though she's very </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">sweet and said she feels really good at our church and thinks we're </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">great people.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday- MLC in Kobe, big reveal is that next transfer the whole </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">mission is going to do the 12-Week Training Program! I'm pretty </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">excited to go back to that because he purpose is to strengthen our </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">foundation, go back to the basics so that we can then work more </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">effectively!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(Doki at MLC!)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday- went to lunch with a potential investigator, a grandpa that approached us 2 weeks ago and used to meet with elders, so we exchanged info and he said he wanted to take us to lunch. Sadly he showed up to lunch completely drunk...and so all it ended up being was a free lunch. But after that we had a lesson with an investigator, Kumiko San, the elders passed to us and that went really well! We brought the RS president with us and they connected well and she had done her BOM reading we asked and has the desire to understand and find out if it's true. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Thursday we koukaned with Wakayama sisters! I went with Manwill Shimai and she is on fire! In the early afternoon it was super hot and every appointment fell through for the first 2 hours, but we kept going, then had to go back to the apartment for a bit since some inspector person or someone like that was coming. After we went back out more pumped to work and literally were busy from then until 9! First close to our apartment, waiting at a stoplight, a girl started speaking a little English to us, so we talked to her- wants help with English and also is interested in church- we exchanged info then we're asking when she was free and she basically blurted out, I have time right now! Alright then! We found some nearby benches and did a quick English, then gospel/missionary introduction then! Then to top it off, we ended up heading in the same direction and found out where she lives as well- we walked away speechless- YES miracles like that happen! Then everything the rest of the night was miraculous too- met an investigator who we hadn't seen for about a month, then also good experiences with a part-member family and some members. Seriously koukans are so cool. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Friday- next day we all went to Wakayama for ZTM- met the Sakai sisters along the way and all got to travel together! ZTM was focused on our preparation- study, mogi (role play?), unified as a companionship- all good stuff! Came back to Kawachinagano and when we met with one of our favorite investigator families, the Matsui's they found out it was Steere Shimai's last time, so they self-committed to come to church Sunday to see her! We'll take any reason ! :) </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Aoi Chan!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday- 2 cool experiences. First was doing 30/30 with a member's grandson- he has so much energy and is really enthusiastic. It's amazing to teach a 7 yr old because he's so believing- he has been to church a few times and really wants to come again, but currently plays soccer on Sunday - praying for him to be able to come to church, make that decision.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Later in the evening the RS had a family history activity and had left a note to invite an investigator earlier but she wasn't there when it started, so we went over to her house. She's 84 years old, lives right by the church and comes to Eikaiwa every week! Through talking found out she likes trying new things and has never done family history before, then last week for Tanabata (Japanese holiday, look it up) her wish was to live to be 100 yrs old. Told her that there was a 100 yr old grandpa talking at the activity tonight- she perked up and wanted to come- she had the greatest time there! I don't understand 100 yr old grandpa Japanese, so I had no clue what was going on but watching her reactions was priceless. Plus seeing members immediately fellow shipping her without any push from us- this is a GREAT Ward! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sunday, Murata San (84 yr old) investigator came to church! All four missionaries sang that day- Armies of Helaman- Kobe version, every time I sing that song, I feel the Spirit, and I feel so grateful to be a missionary here and now. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">After church lots of member appointments- good food and mostly just so much love felt from these members. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">One of the SUPER members in Kawachinagano! :)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">This week is transfers, definitely getting a new companion, probably staying in Kawachinagano for 5 transfers! </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I've been struck again with amazement for the power of the Atonement. My heart is getting bigger- He feels greater love for us than we feel for our investigators, members. He loves those who break our hearts and the most beautiful thing is that broken hearts (and contrite spirits!) get healed and become better than before. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is within reach of all of us, how can you reach out to Him more this week? I can testify that His love is overwhelming, the blessings are great and worth any small sacrifice on our part. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I love you all so much!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Sister Wagstaff</span></span><br />
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There's this app like Snapchat that Japanese teenagers love- this was at Eikaiwa </div>
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Primary boy took my iPad and had fun- took about 100 photos and this was us mid-run to get the iPad back...:)</div>
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None other than our Primary boy, Taiki...aka Hammy the Squirrel</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-66772932447787221802016-07-07T17:09:00.000-07:002016-07-07T17:09:50.722-07:00July 4, 2016 HAPPY 4th + Police, Magic and Church!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I'm celebrating the 4th of July in Japan with an Aussie! We bought watermelon to celebrate! Okay it's like 5 bucks for a 4th of the melon, no joke, but hey it's a holiday! Interesting week...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Last Monday after P-day nobody home, one lady cancelled on us because of rain...at least we think so because she didn't show up at the church and haven't had any contact since then. BUT we finished SKK (weekly planning)...yeah last week was crazy so it went a little late. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday a member was able to come to our less-active lesson- seriously little miracle because nobody was answering, but then we call and she had been ready to do it! Then other finding and LOTS of plans for the day, but instead...we got stopped by the police. I've hardly seen them at all in Japan. Apparently it's normal that they just do random gaijin (foreigner) checks- he was super nice, telling us how he went to church when he was little, which was cool! He also checked our bikes and that's where the problem, came...I own my bike which was fine, but before when Steere Shimai came to the mission, the mission owned the bikes, so she still rides a church bike but they wanted to know WHO owned the bike...the church isn't a person, a person? Welch Kaicho? We don't know. Anyways that was pretty crazy with lots of calls to the Mission Office and getting missionaries who could help, some were confused, then also got our Ward Mission Leader in Kawachinagano involved, and he was stressing a lot, and the elders were in Wakayama on an exchange, so then we weren't sure when they would let us go and if we could get to Eikaiwa on time...also every once in a while a new police officer would come- I think we ended up meeting 6? Plus a giant van because they were thinking about taking the bike (they thought it was stolen a while ago and missionaries have just been passing it down...) BUT in the middle of this we got a call that someone found Steere Shimai's lost Book of Mormon from last week! Also we didn't really know what was going on, but after 1 1/2hr to 2 hrs ish the police let us go with the direction that we have to get the missing identification sticker for the bike...wow, stressful, BUT we did get to introduce who we are lots of times and teach a basic lesson to the police officers- really they were pretty nice people. But I didn't get a picture :( Actually because scared out of my mind to try.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday- the rainiest day ever, seriously haven't felt rain like that before! But we have kappa's so it was all good! The elders passed us one of their investigators, we all went and visited together and she is seriously SO CLOSE to baptism! She's an English teacher and has always been interested in religion and heard a lot but has continued to learn about our church because as she put it, she's amazed that so many missionaries so young sacrifice all of their time for this message, so therefore it must be important- YES! YES IT IS THAT IMPORTANT! Really really cool. She wants to find out for herself. After, started a koukan with Sakai sisters and I went with Nakayama Shimai! It rained but we worked as hard as we could and she's absolutely so fun to work with! Found some cool people, talked with a member, some kekko's and ended the night by going to a former investigator's gospel choir concert. Another moment where I should've just gotten my iPad out because I wish I had videos of this, but didn't want to be disrespectful. It's just a that, well imagine this: a group of Japanese are trying so so so hard to be black and sang in all English and just so you know, there are lots of "L"'s in gospel music (Lord, light, hallelujah) and if you know anything about Japanese it's that L's turn into R's. Priceless. Fun, this investigator was really really happy we came and hopefully now she'll start taking lessons again- working on building a relationship again. Also on a different note, I learned how important having the Spirit is- they were singing songs like "Amazing Grace" and "The Lord is my Light" and they were trying really hard to have a good performance but there was so heart, no Spirit in their work- we have to be careful to not be like that. Is it coming from your heart? Or are you focused on the outside performance? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">More HARERUYA at the gospel choir concert. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;"> There was this one guy in the middle doing all</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">the "Mmm, AMEN" and the hands up to heaven and everything, wow.</span></div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1216207086" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span> at the end of the exchange, Nakayama Shimai and I met a guy who said he likes church- got excited! Actually he likes <i>churches </i>because their pretty but doesn't care about religion<i>. </i>Wouldn't commit to when, but said he'll come to our church sometime! Later back with Steere Shimai we brought My Family booklets to a less active and she committed herself to do family history and seemed pretty excited about it- she's an old grandma who did stuff before, but a tsunami ruined/took all the records. That evening we taught kids English, but the member was late, but that actually turned out to be a little miracle because then another Mom said we could come to her house- she trusts us! </div>
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Steere Shimai's last DM...stole the picture idea from Sister Marshall a few weeks ago, thank you! </div>
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The rest of the day was a little hard, but it gave me a beautiful chance to repent at the end and find out exactly how I can improve myself and circumstances. </div>
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In the evening we went over to the Kito's- a member couple and taught their grandson English plus gospel- he's 7 and his family isn't members but because of health problems, mom and kids are temporarily living with grandparents, plus got a call that their dad was going to be there this weekend from Hokkaido! We were nervous about this- no idea what the dad thought about he church, how open would he be? Turned out really well! He's a really cool, super funny guy and works for a non-profit. Kito Shimai made us her famous Okonomiyaki- STUFFED us, I ate 2 1/2, elders ate more and she kept asking us if we wanted more? Good experience and basically the son-in-law's first introduction to the church. The elders shared a message about service and he seemed impressed, later heard from the members that they all thought it was really fun! </div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Dendo is SO. MUCH. FUN. </span></div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1216207089" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> was a great Fast <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1216207090" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span>- right after Sacrament Meeting started, a former investigator walked in and sat by me! We helped her carry some groceries when we randomly saw her the other day, then left a note saying she was always welcome to come to church- really didn't think anything of it, but then she came! Maybe we can start lessons again? </div>
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Later visited a less active who has lots of struggles, but loves music- used to be a ballerina when she was young and also a piano teacher and had me play- music is powerful! Also I definitely received some divine help because I haven't played in a long time and it turned out pretty well (of course it was Savior Redeemer). </div>
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In the evening we were invited over to the Shino's for dinner- got there and they said we had to hurry because Shino Kyoudai was putting on a magic show for us! Haha, so cute! He really is a magician and it was good! </div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I get to meet some of the most wonderful people and as you can see life is anything but normal- between all the crazy we're trying to find, teach and baptize to the best of our ability, then miracles happen because this is God's work. </span></div>
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Love you all so much! </div>
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Wagstaff 姉妹</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Failed attempt because we all died laughing</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Better version! Who are we...??</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Answer is...Abinadi and King Noah :) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Cool holiday coming up- more about this next week but 7/7 is Tanabata: the old story is that on this day, 2 stars in the Milky Way meet (Prince and the Princess) and they only get to meet once a year, so everyone writes wishes and hands them on the bamboo and then if it doesn't rain that night and the stars see your wish, it's granted! This was a cute display at a member's apartment building- she also taught us a song that goes with! We wrote big church ones (Ex. Wish for everyone to feel the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ) for everyone who passes by to hopefully see!</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4421582227289027336.post-2068536406728478222016-07-03T15:21:00.001-07:002016-07-03T15:21:27.378-07:00Monday June 27, 2016 Because He loves us...<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Monday we did calligraphy with elders, RS president and her friend </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">(former investigator) who is a calligraphy teacher! Traditionally it's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">only would your right-hand, but every other time I've done calligraphy </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">here, they just let me use my left hand. This time she was pretty </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">traditional and had me try with right...probs looked like a 5 year</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">old, but it was fun!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(This is the old kanji for Hikari...light)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Then at the end, Shino Shimai was like, wait, Wagstaff Shimai sings, she can sing Le Mizerabure..tnsjrmdj (its really hard to say Les Miz in Japanese) ! so then I sang, we left- sadly her friend still isnt wuote ready to accept the gospel, but it was a good opportunity! Then on the way to another appointment we ran into a less active by the Eki that we've been trying to get a hold of- she had some time and we were able to talk a little bit, good little miracle! Then next thing was finally getting a hold of the less active that actually turned out to be a former investigator...we were sort of freaking out because she hadn't been home when we checked a few days in a row and there was a bag of groceries with stuff like milk, but don't worry she's still alive, but in the hospital! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Tuesday did visiting teaching with members then that finished early and we had time, so we did a little finding in the area and found a guy who believes in God, but doesn't really have much of an image and wanted to hear more! Then we visited a few members and our day was shorter because we went to the BYU Hawaii Choir Concert in downtown Osaka. Way cool! We drove with some members, then sat with a young woman and her friend, who has starting investigating the church a little! Saw tons of members and other missionaries there, plus the concert was great. Still weird sometimes to watch other people perform, especially since I knew most of the music. Really a super great dendo opp- I think the best part was having different members come up to us and introduce the friend they had brought, so proud! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Wednesday the Wakayama sisters came for a koukan and I worked with Blomquist Shimai! We had a great time despite the rain, but just weren't seeing much success. That was a little hard and we tried to increase faith, figure out all we could do...then went to Ping Pong night at the church, then at the end- no kidding- following is a TRUE STORY: 4 high school girls walked into the church and one said she received a chirashi about a music activity here, so they came! So basically 4 new investigators came to us, but we don't do a music activity! It says we do on the chirashi (lesson learned- chirashi is written in kanji so I can't read it but should probably translate and figure out everything that's on there. Turns out our Ward Mission Leader had put other activities down as alternative to Ping Pong, but so far everyone just comes to play ping pong.) So Blomquist Shimai and me and the elders put together a music activity! So the only sheet music we have are hymns, so Blomquist Shimai was super smart and made it exciting- asked them if they knew Titanic? Yes they did and they liked it? Then she told them we were going to sing a song from Titanic...Nearer My God to Thee. It worked actually! We did parts and had fun dining together, then found out they like English, so we sang it in English too! Little crazy stressful, but we were able to share a quick message at the end and got their contact info and they said they would come next week! Miracle. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Thursday we had a surprise party for a recent convert...she was 40 minutes late BUT she came, she was really happy and uplifted and that's what counts. Then we did our weekly kids English at a member's house for her neighbors and friends. She is not afraid to dendo and just does it in a nice, warm friendly way. Love her example! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Friday we went to Sakai's district meeting which was fun! Learned with them really fast, then we had to hurry back to go visiting teaching with RS president. Miracle day- everyone was home and got to teach them each time! Plus saw some progress- one less-active trusts us more and now talks longer, then another wants to do family history, then the last one said she wants to go to the temple 2 more times before she dies! (She's 80 yrs old, super funny and stopped coming to church for health reasons and it's been about 10 yrs since she's been to the temple). </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">In the evening met with investigator family, but everyone except the teenage daughter Aoi had somewhere to go, so it was just her, which was a blessing because there weren't as many distractions and we were able to get to know her a lot better and connect her desires, dreams more with the gospel. Testimony builder: ANYONE can change, the gospel is absolutely personally for each one of us. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Saturday we had Clean Action at the lake in the morning, it didn't rain so we were able to go, but it was cloudy so there weren't a lot of people, so it wasn't great finding time (usually lots of high school and college students) but it was still a great service opp, plus met this scout leader who really admires the church because of their strong affiliation with scouts. I really don't know anything about scouts, but proud to say that my brother just finished his Eagle project! ❤️ Later in the afternoon we stopped by a former investigator we felt like we needed to see- we were able to talk in her genkon a little- she's still a little down and life is hard and not ready to progress BUT it was special to get that time to talk with her, and give her a message of hope. She's a person I've really really come to love and I know that it might not be now but she'll accept the gospel- she's close! She believes in God, trusts him, her desire is a firm foundation, but doesn't want to commit. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">In the evening we had FHE at the church! So the sad part was literally every investigator and the LA family we were doing this for cancelled earlier that day, BUT none of the members did, so we decided to just go on with the member families we had. They are so wonderful! We planned together how to better help the others come next time, and it felt so nice to have that support- were not alone in inviting and helping, they stepped up and will help out more! </span></span><br />
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(Find the picture of the Liahona, how do we compare?? PS I'm a camel.)</div>
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Sunday we had a really effective Ward Council meeting- new bishop is super good! Still a work in progress, but doing great! Then after church some of our plans changed because we had the thought to visit some other less actives and those visits turned out really well and needed. One sister even commented that she believed God sent us to her and she was really grateful. There are so many sweet moments like that- recognition of God directing this work because He loves all of his children. </div>
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Also I wanted to share something I read this morning, Alma 30:34 and something Alma said stuck out, "And now, if we do not receive anything for our labors in the church, what doth it profit us to labor in the church save it were to declare the truth, that we may have rejoicings in the joy of our brethren?" JOY- that's the reward. Not getting paid right now, I get to be a full-time missionary and I get to teach the truth and bring people joy. Why do you do what you do? How does it help you? God's reward in eternal life and He is so merciful to give us pieces of that joy now. So grateful!</div>
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Love you all!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Visiting teaching with Maekawa Shimai (left) and Soga Shimai (right) plus lunch after with Soga Shimai's daughter in the middle</td></tr>
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BYU concert! Mom, they played Cindy with the crazy hard piano part- that was fun! Some of he girls came out and did a country-style tap dance during the break in the song! Really good. It was a show choir and they were good! Homeward Bound was beautiful. Though then they did "She's in Love" and some other pop/Broadway style and they weren't very good at that...too classical, BUT overall super great and the Polynesian stuff was probs the best! </div>
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Exchange with Wakayama sisters- we made pizza toast!<div class="yj6qo">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg22oNoq5jmVf_8i3XFcqBcGrZGXGbo2I0KAAjWd74sMu7IktE7xpyWYm2hie1m0fLmxMw3rVVax8WWGtPZumr6c85Ze5KiEuI4b3na15kaP5-tpcCCO8EJkGaRKjqpo9ucJpzzFerwfio/s1600/image3+%25284%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg22oNoq5jmVf_8i3XFcqBcGrZGXGbo2I0KAAjWd74sMu7IktE7xpyWYm2hie1m0fLmxMw3rVVax8WWGtPZumr6c85Ze5KiEuI4b3na15kaP5-tpcCCO8EJkGaRKjqpo9ucJpzzFerwfio/s320/image3+%25284%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Member birthday!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD7JQD-4q5iXYwTW0bU3sBpfDHpAFk4aHWgdkgLKwpJ7vTPMUWVdpVMCCxtvVm1JRQjN4MCyN65_njJrxUZxSB2QSXjJZ1y4lfS1vt70hw7QU7v4k8CjI_XA2qlNcxClXhoY6ad8IXw_A/s1600/image4+%25285%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD7JQD-4q5iXYwTW0bU3sBpfDHpAFk4aHWgdkgLKwpJ7vTPMUWVdpVMCCxtvVm1JRQjN4MCyN65_njJrxUZxSB2QSXjJZ1y4lfS1vt70hw7QU7v4k8CjI_XA2qlNcxClXhoY6ad8IXw_A/s320/image4+%25285%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">District Meeting in Sakai!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-0KH-1yJTsiSPSz_9XWtwbteXfgIAzOU09R4QC1X08TVwSqCA5ApMWHc-sb1owGHZxc316B5oQ1HOzUMQKbuz1mVlxX57ovsNSS80VxRxHmNGcMPKV82EI0ibnNQY36LJbC3N5W4xLw/s1600/image5+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-0KH-1yJTsiSPSz_9XWtwbteXfgIAzOU09R4QC1X08TVwSqCA5ApMWHc-sb1owGHZxc316B5oQ1HOzUMQKbuz1mVlxX57ovsNSS80VxRxHmNGcMPKV82EI0ibnNQY36LJbC3N5W4xLw/s320/image5+%25283%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Visiting Teaching, which means Shino Shimai (RS Pres on the left) brought her selfie stick! Member in the middle wants to return to the temple!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Clean Action - lake clean up project...we found a dead cat and a dead turtle this time...not cool. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Also we're usually spoiled and the members bring a bento-sack lunch for us, so we planned in that and nobody brought us food...so sad.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnb91YJbOMeCCDdccJQv3uFn1Z8FMtIsrLnuFy0oNxjgYZ7hdNU9_yVCaOo6cpDyQxLuA86eBPydCe43SSJFhbukJfbV9vyUDxraBigD3HJ50qacQ9xqvFveyW-CCD4C7gPggic_zSlU/s1600/image1+%252814%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnb91YJbOMeCCDdccJQv3uFn1Z8FMtIsrLnuFy0oNxjgYZ7hdNU9_yVCaOo6cpDyQxLuA86eBPydCe43SSJFhbukJfbV9vyUDxraBigD3HJ50qacQ9xqvFveyW-CCD4C7gPggic_zSlU/s320/image1+%252814%2529.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Spilled my water on myself at an investigator's, so then Aoi</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">immediately jumped up and grabbed her blow dryer to help me- she's</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">really sweet!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHWL9um_0kQMZB-u4dgNX2Gn5W8IZehKjNpiiFGz3L-QYz5LgCxUnWsv-EXBxxhhtEKiEpm67sTD-Z7fMD9g-df0uBFX1Vmdlw3TnyK3RDPEmZKGtFDVEPRYQNO9TjMZl7tRuCaVY5rg/s1600/image2+%25286%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHWL9um_0kQMZB-u4dgNX2Gn5W8IZehKjNpiiFGz3L-QYz5LgCxUnWsv-EXBxxhhtEKiEpm67sTD-Z7fMD9g-df0uBFX1Vmdlw3TnyK3RDPEmZKGtFDVEPRYQNO9TjMZl7tRuCaVY5rg/s320/image2+%25286%2529.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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Singing on Monday after calligraphy...helmets and sweat, never going to look great!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me struggling with my right hand<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Okay now I'm on a train and have some time to actually think and write</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">some more- we got rushed because found out Steere Shimai has to send</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">one of her suitcases home early...not prepared for that! So shopping</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">and packing!</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">I've been trying to make my emails better- less like a news report.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Sadly yes I just can't put everything in, I have no idea if funny</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">experiences come across as funny because LOTS of fun stuff happens!</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Every Monday we email Welch Kaicho and sometimes he replies if needed,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">but he's reading like 200 emails ina. Day so obviously not everyone</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">gets a reply, but this last week we had a lot of concerns with sisters</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">in the zone and got pretty clear direction for what to do (which is</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">rare!) Welch Kaicho is big on us receiving personal revelation. But</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">anyways we had brought ideas to him to move forward with. I love being</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">a part of this, I love being an STL! It's fun to be busy and actively</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">doing all we can to help someone, it's really rewarding. I think I've</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">been blessed with an ability to forget my life before and focus on the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">work here- this is more important now! That's a big issue we're</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">working with- wanting to be here and being happy, therefore an</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">effective missionary. Really rewarding thing this week was seeing</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">progress: Welch Kaicho authorized a special exchange with struggling</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">sisters and another companionship, which we hoped would help and we</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">called afterwards to see how it went and sounded really successful!</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Wednesday struggled with the fact that our finding wasn't going</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">well...no one was answering, not many people taught- little stressed</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">because I'm with another sister and trying to set an example for her</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">to follow, but maybe our planning was ineffective? Not following the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Spirit well enough? Need more faith? Better prepared?</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">And this was the night that 4 girls randomly...not so randomly walked</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">into the church. Hopefully that helps paint a picture of what a</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">miraculous experience this was. Yeah we struggle, but this is God's</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">work and he doesn't let us just struggle and fail for 18 months. Not</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">the plan!</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">Love you all, out of time!</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: start;">But wait there's more, we went to Namba today (big shopping area in Osaka)</span><br /><br /></td></tr>
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