いつもわたしのは冷たい！

January 25, 2016

いつもわたしのは冷たい！

Hello from Izumo the ice tundra! It's been snowing all week and like -4 degrees Celsius and like 50 mph wind haha YAY the things you do for mission work. Haha it seems like everyone else is doing good though. Which is always so great to hear,  well I have two birthday shoutouts this week. BROOKIE MY FAVORITE SISTER! Happy Birthday my love,  thanks for your example and make those kiddos help you out on that special day!  Now, GABI GOO! Happy Birthday cute girl. You are getting so big wow. Have a good day cutie pie.  Keep being safe and healthy minasan! What a busy week we have had... Monday we had TTTM which is the Trainer Trainee Meeting at Kobe with Welch Kaicho and Welch Shimai. It was so weird being the trainer this time because I literally like yesterday went to my TTTM but for me as a trainee... Haha but TTTM is always amazing. Just hearing the words of our mission president and his amazing wife just builds you up so much. You learn how to be a better trainer and how other trainers train etc. I learned a lot of things I want to improve and do better for sure with being a young trainer. But fun fact, at the hombu or mission home they have some American food you can buy, so you bet we bought Quakers oatmeal and peanut butter! It's been 4 months since I have had those so it has been amazing.  Friday was so spirit filled it was amazing! After district meeting we had a lesson with the old man we met at the park but he hasn't been doing anything or progressing so we had to drop him as a progressing investigator which broke my heart.. I thought he was read but I guess the Lord wants him to learn something and is first. That was hard but when we ended the lesson we had him pray and he gave the most sincere prayer and the spirit was so strong. I hope he can find that desire and want to meet with us again soon. But after him we met with an old investigator that contacted us and said she had been praying to God to know what she needs in her life and he told her to contact the missionaries again and so we went to dinner with her she is 17 and we will call her dancer because she does hip hop. She is Brazilian and speaks Portuguese, Japanese, and English so we teach her in both and she is ADORABLE! We love her and she is so ready to learn this. We asked her just a lot of questions to get to know her and etc. She loves the Book of Mormon, prays everyday, and knows a lot about Christ and feels happy when she meets with us. But he best part of Friday was after her, we met with the nurse student and dancer came with us because she wants to meet more people since she just moved here and we thought it would be good for them to be friends and share with each other as they learn. So we went to her house and they both were such good friends right away! It was amazing. They both were just starting the Book of Mormon so we read 1 Nephi:1 together and just really discussed it and helped them understand it. It was cool/funny cause nurse would read in Japanese, us in English, and dancer in Portuguese but the gospel is the same and it made the spirit so amazing as we did so. As we discussed and asked questions they both shared sincere questions and testimonies that they were able to build off each other. It was the most spirit filled lesson ever. Having both of them there really helped the spirit even more, wow. Crazy how the lesson turned out and how even with little knowledge they helped each other learn. Man, the spirit is the best right?!  Saturday the weather was INSANE! We struggled to bike anywhere with the wind, snow, and it being SO cold but we still did it haha we were supposed to meet with a LA for lunch but she called and said the snow was too bad so we just said okay, then we are coming to your apartment and she said okay and well we bikes through snow and crazy scary wind but we made it there and it was an AMAZING lesson. We have been trying to help her know that if she sacrifice one day to not study and come to church then she will do even better in school and I was able to share how Austin didn't study on Sunday and focused on gospel and family and how blessed he was with her and she thought it was amazing that he would do that. We promised her that she will be more blessed if she will show her Heavenly Father that sacrifice then he will want to bless her more. She said she was feeling the spirit so strong testify to her that these were true and we committed her to come to church and she said she would and we got her a ride and everything! YAY! Lastly the AMAZING miracle of the week. dancer, and the LA we taught Saturday all in sacrament meeting! Yes, you read that, ALL 3!  And the nurse student asked for a blessing because she had a big test the next and she had been having anxiety and panic attacks because of it so we had a member in our branch give her one after sacrament and after she came out from the blessing we asked her how she felt and how it went. She looked at us and said sisters, I have never felt so much comfort and the spirit before. And so we challenged her to pray about what she felt and if the priesthood is real and she said of course I loved all the talks and that blessing was great. Wow! I LOVE THE GOSPEL AND THE SPECIAL POWER OF THE PRIESTHOOD,  isn't it the best? It was a great week and transfer calls are tomorrow and I hope we get to stay, but you'll find out next week right? Haha sorry! They changed how we do transfers, we don't know till Tuesday night so I'll let you know haha. Thought of the week: so we had a mission tour with Choi Chōrō the area of 70 here and wow that man is a are straight forward and bold man. He told us so many things we need to change and do. Wow, it was so spirit filled. But he talked about PMG a lot and how the cover says "a guide to missionary service" not a guide for full time missionaries etc. He talked a lot how everyone should study PMG everyday. Even members at any age. He even said pregnant moms and young families should read it even if they don't understand it fully. And I wish I would of study it more before I knew I was going on a mission. It helps your knowledge in anything whether it's mission service oriented or not. So this week I want to challenge you all for AT LEAST this week everyday try studying PMG everyday and see the change in your life. I promise you that book is true too. It's words of God and it will strengthen your relationship with God and your testimony of the WHOLE Doctrine of Christ. So please do that this week and I know it will change your life more than you know. I love you all so much, this church is true and Jesus Christ died for us, all of us. He loves us and wants us to rely on Him. As we do so, we will grow closer to him everyday. I know that is true. I love my Savior and my Father in Heaven so much. Love you and miss you all! Stay safe and amazing. #RELY #PMG 
スミス姉妹

How we look now everyday cause its -3 degrees Celsius and snowing and 100 mph wind

 haha

  

Last district meeting before transfer calls.  

The white board is how we get around the Eki or train station when we are lost hahaha

 The Dancer in snow

Snow everywhere

Miracle Week

January 18, 2016

こんにちは 皆さん！
How was the week for all you great people in America? It sounds good from what I've heard from emails etc. I'm so glad all is well and that everyone is just happy, healthy, and loving life. Man, we are blessed aren't we?! TDAWG! お誕生日おめでとうございます！Happy Birthday! 愛してますよ (I love you) Have a great day okay?! Everyone else, just have a good day always too okay? I mean we have the knowledge of the gospel, how can we not have a good day everyday?  Can you believe I've been out 6 months?! Scary! Time is flying by so fast and it is scaring me.. But I'm just enjoying all the time I got. Well to start this AMAZING week off it snowed.... NOOO HAHAHA Jokes. It was pretty! And it didn't stick so it's fine already. But anyway, last Monday we had an awesome lesson with our Ekaiwa students about the WOW. One is a mom of 2 little boys and the other is a 14 year old girl who ismSO cute. We went to an all you can eat restaurant with them and the restaurant had green tea ice cream and deserts and they asked us why we didn't get any? And so then we shared with them why we don't drink tea coffee and etc. and they thought it actually was a good idea and they thought it made sense. So we asked them if they thought they could go one week without drinking tea and coffee and they both were in shock when we asked them but they could see we were serious and agreed to do so. So we would send them a reminder everyday and encouragement and they both went the whole week without tea and they said it went so good. BUT the best part... So on Saturday we have Takyuu or like a game night with investigators and the mom came and said that her and her husbands relationship has been so good the past week and she got a new job that she really needed this week! Wow!! BLESSINGS so we testified to her that because she was following the WOW she was receiving blessings and she agreed. So we are so happy we are little by little adding the gospel to her life not just an Ekaiwa student! Tuesday was MIRACLE day so we went and bought Miller Shimai's bike finally... Whoops, we've been too busy haha sorry! But anyway, so we bought it and it ended up being hard and kind of frustrating cause Japanese struggle. So after we both were just frustrated and we for sure did not have the spirit so without knowing it, we both were just praying on our bikes as we were heading back home and on the way we had these two ojichans or grandpas stop us and asked where we were from and just wanted to talk to us. So we were able to share a message with them and it just brought the spirit back and it just put both of our attitudes in the right state. Heavenly Father hears our simple prayers of just needed something to change our attitude. He answers them always and I'm so grateful for prayer it's so real and helps in ANY situation. So no one here lets us serve them by like cleaning, or just like anything service wise it's so annoying ha Japanese are too polite and don't want to have it be a jama or burden.  But a branch member finally gave us a service opportunity! Mami Shimai, our like best friend in the branch, has been overwhelmed and her house had been so unorganized so we asked her if we could clean her kitchen for her and she agreed. So we deep cleaned her kitchen and it helped her SO much and it looked so good afterwards. Miller Shimai is like me, she has OCD for being clean ha it's the best! So it was great and we got some Costco popcorn out of it too.  So we taught our cute nurse student a lot this week but the lesson that was just spirit tsunami was about the BOM. We have been really trying to make sure she has a strong testimony of the BOM because then it all just works out if they know that's true. So we read the intro to the BOM and talked about how it can bring us closer to God and we can receive help in anything because she gets overwhelmed with school and has anxiety sometimes. So we asked her to read from the beginning everyday for a week and pray about it whether it is true or not and you could tell she couldn't wait to do so. So next time we met we asked her about it and she said I don't know if it's true or not yet but every time I read this I don't feel overwhelmed or anything. I just feel calm and good. YAY!! That's exactly right haha she has read and prayed about every day since and we just are waiting for that answer. Another spirit filled lesson that was such a miracle was with "worry wart" a LA who just worries ALL the time and just is so awesome but just needs encouragement and help so we met with her Friday and we had this whole lesson planned about the spirit and such but when we got in there she started opening up about things and we just felt the spirit tell us to switch to these scriptures and change and wow the spirit was so strong during it and it was amazing what the spirit has us say and read that for perfect to her needs that day. She kept telling us "I'm not God enough, I need to be better for God." And hearing that broke my heart cause she is amazing she just has weaknesses like we ALL do. So I asked her if she believed God loved her? And she didn't answer, she just like beat around the bush so I said again, do you believe God loves you? And she looked at me and knew I wanted an answer and she said I think so. So right then and there the spirit hit me so strong that I need to let her know my testimony that God loves her and everyone cause we are his children and I just cried and felt the spirit so strong and so did she. It was amazing what I felt at that time. She text us that night and said Sisters, today helped me more than you know, I am praying about all we talked about. And I just was SO grateful for the spirit. Last, I spoke in sacrament this week.. It went good except Sunday was one of the hardest days of my mission because we were supposed to have 2 LA coming and 3 investigators coming to church and only 1 LA and 1 investigator came and it broke my heart in half. But before my talk, I said one of my most sincere prayers to help me still feel happy and joyful so I can share the talk he wants me to and show the light of Christ and I felt so much peace and joy after that. The talk went well and I just LOVE my Heavenly Father and Savior. Last is the thought of the week, I LOVE this thought so much and hope you can all apply it and use it this week and for the rest of your life. So during District Meeting we talked about PMG the whole time and we talked about how it is not for missionaries only, it can be for ANYONE! Even members should make it part of their study. And I just felt like that is something I want you all to strive to add to your gospel study this week. Study PMG, it'll help you I promise. It has changed my life and testimony more than I ever thought possible. "What knowledge we keep we lose, what knowledge we share we keep." I LOVE THIS QUOTE! If we don't share what we know, it'll be lost because we won't use it daily, it'll just be something else in our head. So please add PMG to your study and share it!! The gospel needs to be heard and sharing it is such an amazing feeling. So there is the challenge that can and will change your life forever. I promise. I love you all and miss you lots but I'm just so happy here so. Haha Have a great week and stay safe okay? Love you! #RELY  #SHARE
スミス姉妹

We both curled our hair for once haha

Dinner with a less active family.  They gave us these chocolate glasses ha

We had sparkling cider for New Years and forgot

This was a cool restaurant we went to for district meeting

Sweet car mom, get it haha

Me and Miller Shimai

Us and our nurse student investigator

This is an adorable recent convert grandma that we teach

My bike skills are ridiculous!

January 11, 2016

ヘロー! Haha or HELLO!
Another week has come and gone already?! Man time on the mission in NUTS. It needs to slow down a little more for me to catch up I feel like haha But it sounds like everyone had a good week and finally getting back to normal routine of things, which is always nice to have a schedule and such. (Wow, I'm such a missionary haha) But anyway, I hope all is well and everyone is genki (healthy), happy, and staying close to our Savior Jesus Christ. This week was SO good!! So many amazing spiritual filled lessons, I can't even believe how the spirit works so perfectly for each person and each situation. I'll just make a quick comment about interviews this week. Wow, President Welch is literally like a father to me. (I mean no one compares to Wallace but since I'm away from him I'll take close so President Welch) He just knows exactly what I need at all times and is so in tuned with the spirit always. And Sister Welch is just a hoot and loves all of us and just makes us smile and feel loved. GREATEST PEOPLE!  So we had a lesson with our Filipino Momma and it was AMAZING! She took us out to this cute cafe and we ate dinner with her. But anyway, we talked about how we can make it to the celestial kingdom and how baptisms is one of those requirements to make it there. As we were talking about it we asked her if she thinks all we have taught her is true and she said "yes, sisters, I have never been closer to God and felt His help more than since I've been meeting with you. And I know I need to be baptized and want to be so what do I need to do?" And AH as a missionary that is the most amazing thing EVER to hear. So she has a few lessons left to teach her and she is getting more Sundays off and is coming to church so we are hoping that we can see her receive baptism maybe in February!!!! She is so prepared and is just so strong and knows it's true. We are SO excited! Next is our new investigator, the young nurse student. Boy do we love her! She is like our best friend, she is our age and just so cute and fun. But she also is so prepared to hear this message. She had been taught by the sisters before about 6 months ago and she had a baptism date but her parents were hontai (opposed) to her receiving baptism until she is 20 so she stopped meeting with them. But now she is 20!! She kind of forgot a lot so we are just starting over from square one but we had planned to teach her about faith in Christ because she has had some anxiety problems and has had strong faith in prayer but as we started we felt we should switch to Word of Wisdom and it went amazing! She felt the spirit and agreed to follow the word of wisdom because she knows it'll help her and she shared about her dad being an alcoholic and how hard it is so she doesn't want to have anything like that and she just said she loves God and know she has helped her lately. WOW! We meet with her again tonight and I can't wait to see where else she can grow. She is so prepared and ready. Well we had a Kokkan or exchange with the STL's this week and boy was it great! We were in there area called Okayama and I was with Merrick Shimai and we visited a lot of less actives and it taught me so much because I had been not sure how I can better help them so it was great. We taught this 14 year old LA about prayer and i felt like I should share an experience I had before the mission so I did and I didn't even know I could explain that experience in Japanese until that moment. It was awesome and the spirit was so strong.  Gotta love the gift of tongues, it's so real! Sunday we were able to teach a less active after church and it went so great too!! First off, she came to church today which is a miracle!! But then we were able to meet with her too.  She has a struggle with the word of wisdom and green tea like everyone here and she just doesn't know why she still has the temptation of drinking it. So we showed her Because of Him and read Ether 12:27 and talked about how we are all weak but God helps is overcome them if we act in faith by praying and doing. You could tell she just felt the spirit and knew that she needed to put forth her part as well to overcome her weakness. She is so amazing and the branch loves her and she just needs a little help and it'll be amazing. I know she can change and come to church every week again. Little by little. Well I'm sure you're wondering why I put that subject well here we go... Haha so today I had to go buy a new carry on suitcase cause mine broke and transfers are in less than two weeks so just in case.. Anyway, I ended up finding on and so I didn't think about how I would get it home with only a bike so yeah. Well I rode one handed and held the suit case the whole way joke haha,  no worries mom, I was safe and carful with a helmet on always! We took a video so I will send it haha but it was the best experience ever, we could not stop laughing,  so there's the fun of the week. Last, the thought of the week. So in zone meeting this week one of the elders who is leading this transfer bore his testimony and he was saying how the gospel is always the same. He said "think about it, do we ever learn any new doctrine during conference?" And I thought about it, no we don't. It's the same but just applied so many different ways, isn't that amazing? The same stuff forever but we can always grow, learn more, and strengthen our testimony. WOW!! But the challenge with this is please please go read the prophets or apostles words often. They are from God and change our lives. They tell us exactly what we need at this time in the crazy world. I know President Monson is called from God and that through him we can all become closer to God and Christ and know them better and better. This gospel is the true gospel and will never change. I love it and more importantly, I love sharing it! It's amazing.  I love you all! I miss you all but for now, I'm gonna help these Japanese people and be reunited with you in a year! LOVE YOU! #RELY  #PROPHETS   スミス姉妹

Our Zone

Kokkan pictures (splits)

I curled my hair for once ha ha

Japan has the best socks

Japanese spider

明けておめでとうございます! (aketeomedetougozaimasu) (Happy New Year)

January 4, 2016

Hello Everyone!
Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great New Years. It sounded good from what I can see. Everyone is safe and now it's time for normal life again it sounds like, bummer haha but it's good to get back into a routine right?  Hope you all thought of some great things to change and improve this year as we have a fresh start yet again. Well New Years here was interesting... Japanese prepare for New Years for like a week... Yup I know ha psycho people right? They like deep clean their whole house for it and stuff. So we asked people if we could help serve them but only one person let us. Japanese don't take service well... We are trying to change that. But it was fun, we deep cleaned this couples kitchen haha I loved it, but it was gross haha but since everyone was so busy no one wanted to meet or had time so we got stressed and thought it was gonna be a bad week but it ended up being great! Plus, the Brazilians fed us well like A TON! Haha We met with two different Brazilian families this week and do they know how to cook and eat haha it was great. Plus they let us help cook.. I LOVED IT! But on with the week... First the old man Park Mountain, we had a lesson with him this past week with the elders. Man, he is so hard and stubborn. We are all just not sure what to do to help him completely open up. He always just tried to be the devils advocate no matter what even if that's not his thoughts and he just always says, I have more experience then you so why would you know what's best? He comes to church every week and wants to know about the gospel but man we just aren't sure how to go about it yet. So that is a big challenge right now. We are praying and fasting for him and for answers on what to do next. Alright so we have this less active couple in our branch who are so sweet but they aren't obeying the law of chastity because she is married to someone else and such. It's complicated but anyway, we had a lesson with them this week and boy was the spirit so strong there and you could see their minds just turning and thinking a lot. We shared the video Because of Him and the spirit was so strong and we both testified of Christ atonement helping with ANYTHING and it's never too late to change. They both have such sweet spirits and just can be amazing if they can figure out what to do to come back. So our sweet amazing Filipina mama. The lesson went AMAZING this week, we wanted to just kind of review and see where her testimony and desires were because we didn't get to meet with her last week and just wanted to make sure we were going the right direction for her. So we read Moroni 10:3-5 and talked about how we can know all of this is true if ask and then we asked her if she knew the Book of Mormon was true and if she wanted to be baptized still and she just looked at us and said of course. The book brings peace when I read it and I want to be baptized because I know I can feel these feelings even more and she just had such a sincere testimony and desire. We are SO excited for her. We will keep teaching her and hope she can get more Sunday's off to come to church and hopefully see baptism soon! On Saturday the 2nd we had a New Years party at a members house with two of the Brazilian families as well. It was so fun and sooo yumm The Japanese family cooked and made meat, rolls, fruit, deviled eggs, corn soup, and chocolate dessert things... She is like a pro at cooking! She has fed us twice since I've been here and boy do I love her cooking! But then we just played a game called Rummikub and it was hilarious. So that was fun and a good relationship builder with all of them. Okay the highlight of this whole week! Ready for it? Haha jokes! But really this lesson was the best. This family in our branch has been having a hard time with stress and overwhelmed with life and raising a young family etc. so our branch president asked us to visit often and just help them in any way we can. So we visited them yesterday and shared Because of Him video and also 3 Nephi 9:14 and talked how the Savior is always there with his hand stretched out personally to us and isn't that such an amazing blessing to know that he will stretch it out personally to us during anything. And after we asked them if they wanted to share any thoughts or anything and the dad just said, sisters we are so grateful for you sharing this with us, it's what we needed and we have felt the spirit so strong here. We love you sister and are so grateful for you. Boy, there is no greater feeling than knowing you helped someone and hear that from them. The spirit can do amazing things. So we hope that helped them and he also said he wants help with indexing cause some of the English he doesn't know so we also got an opportunity to serve them too so that'll be great to do index with them. Okay the thought of the week, it is an amazing quote that just hit me and I loved. "When you're drowning in life, Always remember your life guard walks on water." Isn't that the most amazing thing to think about? When life is hard and we feel like we are drowning and can't swim, we just think about our Savior and he walks on water and will pull us up when we trust in Him and have that faith. He will let us fall into the water but never let us go down. He wants us to work and learn but he won't let us go down. So as we rely on him we can learn and grow and strengthen that faith of knowing his hand will be there. Since its the new year, this week pray to rededicate yourself to him and find that faith within yourself. It will make the world of difference. I know he is our Savior and will help us up through anything no matter how far we fall down. He pulls us up. I see it everyday here and I love him and I'm grateful for his sacrifice. He loves us and he lives. I know this is true. I love you all and miss ya like crazy but keep being the AMAZING people that you are. #RELY
#FAITH  スミス姉妹

Less active lesson

A less active playing "Let It Be" while we sing

Saw the FIRST sunrise ever, anywhere of 2016 this morning

Brazilian coconut treat as we celebrate the New Year with a Brazilian family

We held a ferret

Bergenfield apartments, haha.  This ones for you Bergen!