Come Follow Me: 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