Hello family! It sounds like you had another fun, busy week! Thank you for all the photos! I cannot believe you guys are growing up so fast---I haven't even been here that long! I especially loved hearing about the missionary madness activity. It sounds SO fun! I'm glad everyone went and had a great experience. That's what it's all about folks! I hope you ALL are preparing for missions. Mine has changed my life and I'm not even halfway done yet; the real joy is in seeing others change their lives.
I don't have a ton of time today (like every week since I got to my new area!) so I'm going to copy and paste my weekly letter to the mission president again. (Then you can hear about what I've been up to!)
Ten miracles from this week:
1. A member took us to Costco and bought us so much food! It was SO nice! She is a convert and always helps missionaries because she's so grateful to the missionaries who taught her the gospel so many years ago. There are so many members like her in Japan and that is a miracle! I love how supportive the members are of our work!
2. We had a special Halloween Kodomo Eikaiwa (Kids' English Class) and so many new non-member moms came! The member who basically runs it posted about it on the internet so about six new moms and their kids came and had fun with us. The party went great and most are excited to come back, plus it helped build kankei (relationship) with some member moms who also came for the first time. We always teach a short message at the end of Eikaiwa, but we're working on how to use this great finding tool better to invite the moms to take missionary lessons.
3. One of our investigators had a birthday, so we called her just to sing Happy Birthday and she loved it! Her home situation is a little taihen, so receiving just a little bit of love from us made a big difference. The next day we had a lesson and we talked about how God really loves her, so that's why He reminded us to call her and help her feel a little joy. She likes studying with us but sometimes she struggles to see how it personally applies, so that tiny experience was great in building her faith.
4. Wednesday we got to meet one of our investigators after not seeing her this whole transfer; we went out for ice cream and it was so fun! She'd gotten busy recently and missed her baptismal date, so getting the chance to build some shinrai kankei (relationship of trust) with her was a huge blessing. And she's now great friends with an SA (single adult) in the ward who's going to joint (help us teach) for us next week.
5. Our Eikaiwa Halloween party was a HUGE miracle! We didn't do a very good job preparing, i.e., we didn't delegate well to the ward so we were frantically taking care of everything right before. However, it turned out GREAT. Lots of people came and it was very fun, and then at the end a dozen members came to the church to help us clean up which was an enormous blessing!
6. One of the families that came to the Halloween party was a family we'd housed into last week in a random place; we didn't expect to see them again, but they showed up and are really interested in personal Eikaiwa! They currently go to another church, have lived in America, and seem like they have really great family values, so we are so excited for the chance to teach them the restored gospel.
7. The zone taikai (conference) this week was a miracle! After an exhausting Halloween, it was so nice to be spiritually refreshed all the next day. We learned a lot and got some new ideas for dendo (missionary work), especially using mormon.org more with people we meet and even members.
8. We were able to contact a referral we received from the Honbu (headquarters); the friend of a shimai in Sister Facer's last area is Chinese and interested in the church. We gave her a call and she agreed to meet us at the church soon to learn about how the gospel can help her recover from depression. We're looking forward to helping someone who really needs the gospel!
9. We met a super nice woman on the street who told us all about the different service activities she does because volunteering has been her "hobby" for the past few years. She didn't have much interest in the church, but talking to her was such a spiritual experience for me. I felt the Savior's love for her! I got the chance to testify about how Jesus Christ loves her and can help her. She wouldn't give us her contact information, but she said she would contact when she needs extra help in dealing with hard things. Sometimes streeting is frustrating because we may never see these people again, but I know God is in the details of their lives and guides them every day.
10. A few weeks ago we met an Ethiopian man at a train station who said he was really interested in coming to church. He was busy with school, but today he finally came to church and it was such a great experience! He bore his testimony in Sunday School about how the morning he met us, he had just been praying for God to lead him to a church in Japan. He said how we were an answer to his prayer, and after having a lesson with the elders he agreed to study the Book of Mormon and be baptized if it was true! I am so grateful for Heavenly Father answering this man's prayer; it strengthens my testimony that He is answering prayers of His children all around the world who come to Him with sincere desires. It makes me feel the weight of my responsibility to teach the Nihonjin how to communicate with God and receive all His wonderful blessings.
1. A member took us to Costco and bought us so much food! It was SO nice! She is a convert and always helps missionaries because she's so grateful to the missionaries who taught her the gospel so many years ago. There are so many members like her in Japan and that is a miracle! I love how supportive the members are of our work!
2. We had a special Halloween Kodomo Eikaiwa (Kids' English Class) and so many new non-member moms came! The member who basically runs it posted about it on the internet so about six new moms and their kids came and had fun with us. The party went great and most are excited to come back, plus it helped build kankei (relationship) with some member moms who also came for the first time. We always teach a short message at the end of Eikaiwa, but we're working on how to use this great finding tool better to invite the moms to take missionary lessons.
3. One of our investigators had a birthday, so we called her just to sing Happy Birthday and she loved it! Her home situation is a little taihen, so receiving just a little bit of love from us made a big difference. The next day we had a lesson and we talked about how God really loves her, so that's why He reminded us to call her and help her feel a little joy. She likes studying with us but sometimes she struggles to see how it personally applies, so that tiny experience was great in building her faith.
4. Wednesday we got to meet one of our investigators after not seeing her this whole transfer; we went out for ice cream and it was so fun! She'd gotten busy recently and missed her baptismal date, so getting the chance to build some shinrai kankei (relationship of trust) with her was a huge blessing. And she's now great friends with an SA (single adult) in the ward who's going to joint (help us teach) for us next week.
5. Our Eikaiwa Halloween party was a HUGE miracle! We didn't do a very good job preparing, i.e., we didn't delegate well to the ward so we were frantically taking care of everything right before. However, it turned out GREAT. Lots of people came and it was very fun, and then at the end a dozen members came to the church to help us clean up which was an enormous blessing!
6. One of the families that came to the Halloween party was a family we'd housed into last week in a random place; we didn't expect to see them again, but they showed up and are really interested in personal Eikaiwa! They currently go to another church, have lived in America, and seem like they have really great family values, so we are so excited for the chance to teach them the restored gospel.
7. The zone taikai (conference) this week was a miracle! After an exhausting Halloween, it was so nice to be spiritually refreshed all the next day. We learned a lot and got some new ideas for dendo (missionary work), especially using mormon.org more with people we meet and even members.
8. We were able to contact a referral we received from the Honbu (headquarters); the friend of a shimai in Sister Facer's last area is Chinese and interested in the church. We gave her a call and she agreed to meet us at the church soon to learn about how the gospel can help her recover from depression. We're looking forward to helping someone who really needs the gospel!
9. We met a super nice woman on the street who told us all about the different service activities she does because volunteering has been her "hobby" for the past few years. She didn't have much interest in the church, but talking to her was such a spiritual experience for me. I felt the Savior's love for her! I got the chance to testify about how Jesus Christ loves her and can help her. She wouldn't give us her contact information, but she said she would contact when she needs extra help in dealing with hard things. Sometimes streeting is frustrating because we may never see these people again, but I know God is in the details of their lives and guides them every day.
10. A few weeks ago we met an Ethiopian man at a train station who said he was really interested in coming to church. He was busy with school, but today he finally came to church and it was such a great experience! He bore his testimony in Sunday School about how the morning he met us, he had just been praying for God to lead him to a church in Japan. He said how we were an answer to his prayer, and after having a lesson with the elders he agreed to study the Book of Mormon and be baptized if it was true! I am so grateful for Heavenly Father answering this man's prayer; it strengthens my testimony that He is answering prayers of His children all around the world who come to Him with sincere desires. It makes me feel the weight of my responsibility to teach the Nihonjin how to communicate with God and receive all His wonderful blessings.
I don't have time to respond to all your emails, but know that I read them all and appreciate them a lot! One of my favourite things to testify about is eternal families, because I'm grateful for mine!
Love you all~~~
Long Shimai
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