Come Follow Me: Last week of transfer one, are you kidding?!

October 26, 2015

Hello Hello Everyone!
How are you?! I hope all is well. It seems to me that everyone is busy busy busy but happy and doing well. Which of course I love to hear that Mom and Dad, I'm glad that Vegas was a fun time. Enjoy those moments of empty nesters! Haha Everyone else sounds good that I heard from. Merc that belly is super cute and I am so excited to see pictures of that cute little girl! But I hope all continues to go well back in the USA Where to start.... Well we now have FHE every Monday with the YSA in our ward and we had the first one this Monday and it went great! There were only 3 who came but we are striving to get more. So I made rice pudding for it cause no one here has ever had RICE pudding, yes I know the rice country.. Wow! But they all loved it so that was good. But Weber 姉妹 and I shared a short message about Christ being our foundation and testified then we just played games. It was hilarious and just s good time with the members. It was funny, while we were talking we got on the subject of different animal noises and stuff. So the dog here says WAN WAN! Like what?! And the frog says kerro kerro... What the Japan? Ha so we were laughing our heads off. We played spoons and whoever lost had to make the animal noise of the other country of their choice it was hilarious, I'll try and send videos haha. Next cute Kana haha oh I love her! Well let's talk about her.. She is quite the character and we have grown so close to her and just get a kick out of her, especially during English class. So this time during English class we decided to give her some banana bread we had made for some members that we visited and some left so fun fact about Kana... She can eat! Like she eats A TON no matter what it is. So we gave it to her during English and we told her she could eat it now if she wanted and wow she just put it down. Weber 姉妹 and I could not stop smiling and chuckling a little. But on to the lesson and spiritual growth. We taught her about Plan of Salvation. We did where you came from, why you are here and where you are going. She understood it and it went smooth and well. We had Kasaii 姉妹 as a member there for the lesson and her sharing her testimony plus she helped explain the difference between kingdoms really helped. Love having members present in lessons! So it was yet another good lesson, little by little. Okay Tsugiyama San was our next lesson this week. So this is the investigator we found housing last week who was like so prepare and knew about our church and had questions about what church is true. So we wen back Wednesday but she wasn't home and we were crushed... So we left her a note and told her we would come back Friday. So we went back and she was home! We taught her with the new pamphlets we have, what to expect as you meet missionaries. It helped her understand our purpose and that we just want people to be happy. She enjoyed it but she has some concerns about the Book of Mormon because she loves the bible and doesn't think that there should be another book and she is worried we are a "strict" church but she made another appointment with us and we hope to help her not have concerns about the Book of Mormon and show her how it supports the bible and will bless her. She is GOLDEN and just the cutest lady ever I'm excited about her. So we met this lady on the street who asked about our helmets cause he recognizes that as the Mormons haha cause we are the only people who wear helmets here. So she talked to us and wanted to have her daughter come to eikaiwa but she said the times we have it aren't good so we have a 30/30 option where we do 30 minutes English and 30 minutes gospel and she said she wanted too! So we went Tuesday but we ended up just talking with her and her 9 year old daughter for an hour about their life, religion, etc. Also her English is like perfect so she talked to us like the whole time in English. But she seems interested in the gospel part as well so we have our next appointment on the 5th so we will see how our first lesson goes. We are excited about them! She is THE CUTEST. So Friday we had district meeting, it was AMAZING! I learned so much spiritually it wasn't even funny. It was just what I needed to strengthen me. So I'll share my favorite part real quick. We talked about the talk it "It isn't a sin to be weak" and our DL had this analogy with it. Christ is spotting us during work outs. We do as much as we can but once we get to the point we can't push anymore he gives us a little lift so we can finish that last push. He didn't make up the difference, He IS the difference. Always remember that. So we went and heart attacked two families in our branch and right when we pull up to one of the houses, the mom walks out and sees us.. Says hello, walks back in hahaha uh... We thought for sure she would be curious but nope ha Okay so we just went and did it anyways so yup awkward. This Sunday we had our primary program. It was SO cute! We only have 3 primary kids so it was a show of those three and oh they are too cute. They each spoke and sang different songs. They all had solos and just smiled so big the while time. They were so proud and there teachers were even prouder of them! My comp has never seen a primary program since being here so she loved it as well. Little kids just bring the spirit in the room so easily and I loved it so much. So during 個人 or personal study, I decided to start reading thepriesthood session talks to hear those. Well I came across this talk by Elder Anderson called Faith is not by Chance but by Choice. I had been wondering about faith and how I know if I my faith is growing or how can I better improve my faith. Well here is the answer! First before I share, I'm going to send out my commitment now, I challenge you all to go read this talk and as you do ponder if your faith is growing or decreasing as he talks about strengthen faith in this talk. He said, "My dear friends, your faith did not begin at birth, and it will not end at death. Faith is a choice. Strengthen your faith, and live to be deserving of the Savior’s approving words: “Great is thy faith.”" It just hit me that how strong my faith is depends all on meand my actions. I know we can all have an immense amount of faith if we strive everyday through the atonement of Jesus Christ to strengthen it by trusting in him and doing the little things such as: prayer, scripture STUDY (not skim or "read"), serve, and share our testimony. Faith can help you with ANYTHING. I know that to be true, so please read this talk and see how your faith is and strive to improve it and ask Him for help as you do so. He will help you, I testify of that. Faith is the power! This church is true and the work on moving forward and it's great! I love you all and pray for you daily. Keep being examples of Christ #RELY Smith Shimai 姉