Friday, October 21, 2016

Work, Work and Miracles


October 17, 2016

Hello Family, Friends, and Loved ones!
How was the fall break? It seemed like a lot of fun. Beach looks beautiful and that picture of the whole family ready for church just brought me so much joy. I'm so grateful for eternal families and my amazing family! You guys are awesome. Well, FATHER HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I can't believe how old you're getting, wow!  Just kidding, you're young still and looking great! I am so grateful for you and hope you're day is great. I love you lots Father Dearest. As well, Happy Birthday to my amazing friend KJ! Love ya bud, thanks for your support our here on my mission. I feel it always:) 
Well this week for us was a good one for sure. We have a Halloween eikaiwa party on the 25th so we have been handing out flyers this whole week. Well the primary kids said they wanted to help so Saturday for an hour we went with a group of the primary and talked to people and handed out flyers. It was so fun! Ha the spirit little kids have is amazing. First we met with Nishio San our investigator who has a date for December. She wanted to learn more about the Word of Wisdom because tea is so famous here. So we taught her that. Well it went awesome, she agreed to follow it. Well we had her pray at the end and it was honestly the most sincere prayer ever. She really just talks to our Father. There is no greater feeling than when an investigator prays and you just feel God's love for them and know He is helping them.  Next we had an exchange this week, it was fun! I was with Nomura Shimai.  We went visiting teaching with members and it went really well.  Well this week as well, my Japan dream came true. To work in a field with a grandma. Woo hoo!  One of our members called and said I need some help in the field, is it okay if you help Wednesday so we went and it was a blast. Obviously the gardening was awesome, but the best was the miracle we saw. So as we worked, this grandma came by and was putting her trash out and needed help so we stopped and helped her. Her name is Yabumoto. She started talking to us and we told her we are volunteers and what we do. Then the member started to talk to her about Christ and turns out she's way familiar with Christ. So we got talking about that and she wanted to also study some English because she knew it a little before. So we now have an appointment with her this week.  But really it was because of the member and her courage to talk of Christ. After we talked to the member we found out she had prayed to have an experience today for missionary work. Member work is the greatest. Well also this week, we were biking to the church for a lesson with a less active when I saw this girl across the street and felt like I should talk to her. So I crossed and talked to her. Her name is Yuri. She goes to a Christian school right now so she is familiar with prayer, Christ, etc So we got to talk about that and then she said she loves English and studies it. So I started to talk to her in English, it was perfect. So shocked. But she said she would come to eikaiwa. So we are hoping she comes so we can meet again and teach her more. Then this week we felt like we should call this old investigator named Kim from Korea. We sang in church this week so we thought easy to invite. Well I call her, she says Monday come to my house I want to study English and your religion. Wow, I was so shocked but overjoyed haha so we went there today and it went awesome. She has so many questions and wants to know about God and our church. We are excited for the next lesson with her and hope it goes well. 

Well as for the thought this week, it comes from Elder Bednar. We had the opportunity to listen to him speak to the Tokyo stake and we watched it as a broadcast. It was amazing! He talked about joy. And lately that has been talked about a lot. Well he talked about how so many members make the church a check list. I prayed, I read, and I finished home teaching, but that's not joy if we do it as a check list. In order to have true joy in the gospel we must do it because of desire and love for our Father. As I heard that, even me as a missionary, I get in the motions of study, go work, come home, plan, etc. and it isn't joyful or sincere. But if I remember the love for my Father and sincerely do these things out of desire then it's not a check list. Please, if your study, prayer, going to church etc. has turned into a checklist, rethink that and make it a sincere desire. Do it because you love Him and you want to return to Him. So review that and see the difference it makes in the basic things of our gospel. I know God loves all of you, he wants you to return to Him. He is aware of you so stay close to Him. I love you all and miss you! Stay safe. #RELY #SINCERE 
Smith Shimai スミス姉妹
"Members"


"Exchanges"

"Pumpkin Cookies"

"We made your cookies, thanks mom:)"
"We made your cookies, thanks mom:)"

"Huge Dog"

"We got to do some gardening"

"More gardening"

"So fun"

"Gardening"

"LA favorite food is French Fries, ha"

"Kids English class, they wouldn't stop hugging me ha"

"Me and my comp"

"We did some Halloween flyer pass out time with the primary kids"

"Take your pick for the Christmas car ha"

"Or this one"







"Member dinner"
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