Come Follow Me: Members are the best way to do Missionary work!

February 22, 2016

Hello Hello Lovely People!
Another week has flown by her again... Time is crazy out here! I'm at 7 months already?! No, time STOP! Haha thanks for always emailing and supporting me while i serve the Lord. It means a lot. Sounds like all is well there though, I'm glad! Today we went to the biggest light house in Japan with some members, it was so fun! Heights are a little scary plus we had to walk up 200 stairs but it was worth it! I'll send some pictures of the view and weird things we say haha I love Japan🤗. So I told you about the ekiawa student who is another Filipina mom, I guess we will call her golden. She is so ready to learn about the gospel it is amazing. So we were able to teach her Tuesday after Ekaiwa and we had a member there as well and it was such a strong spirit filled lesson. We introduced the Book of Mormon and restoration and how the bible and Book of Mormon go hand and hand because she is very into the bible. So as we read the intro she looks at us and says "really?! This book will bring me closer to Christ? I am so surprised but I know it can." And we asked new what she felt as she read about it and she said it must be true. We were like uh what?! Ha yes, we are so excited for her. Like, who says that after hearing about the Book of Mormon once and wants to learn more so much? Rare, so we are keeping her close. We had an amazing 同席 douseki (I think it's called member lesson in English) for Filipina mother who gets baptized in two weeks! So we were teaching tithing and our member is Sasaki Shimai and she is so amazing and ペラペラ perapera (fluent) in English so it was perfect for it. So the miracles was, we were supposed to have her at our lesson last week but she couldn't make it cause Roselyn had to change the time and we were so sad but she came this time and it was amazing how it worked because she had such a life changing experience with tithing and let me tell you, the spirit was so strong in that lesson. As she told of her experience tears dropped down my face and all of ours. Tithing can be a hard thing, we were a little nervous because of her being a single mom and having to work two jobs but we committed her to pay tithing after she was baptized and she said of course! Her faith is amazing and I love her so much. I can't wait to see her in white in two weeks The nurse student, I don't know if you remember but she was struggling with letting go of her culture and old beliefs and we met with her this week and we finally found out what her real concern was. She is just worried about her parents, she expressed how much she wants to be baptized but she is nervous to talk to her mom. So we were so glad we figured that out and hope her moms heart is softened and we will keep teaching her and prepare her. Well the most exciting thing of this week is THE DANCER NOW HAS A DATE! March 20! We are so excited, she was nervous what her parents would say but she talked to them and they said of course. She is 17 so she had to get permission but it worked out because God sees her faith and desire. We had been wanting to meet her parents and they work all the time but finally this Sunday we met them. Wow, they are the most loving sweet people. They treated us like daughters of their own. We were able to teach them about families being forever and the importance of families in our church. They want to learn English so we will be teaching them weekly! We are so excited, little by little will this family be attending church together so that they can live with each other forever. We are so excited for this progress to grow and grow. Funny experience, I dreamed and talked in my sleep in Japanese! It was crazy haha it finally happened. I was so pumped when I woke up and told my companion about my dream being in all Japanese then she was like Smith Shimai you were talking in Japanese too.. WOAH YAY! Sorry just a cool weird moment for me this week. So my thought of the week is about LOVE! Isn't love the greatest thing but also one of the hardest things to do? So during district meeting I heard a great quote that I want to share with you. "You may be the only Jesus people see.." So this part of love is, example I feel. People may never hear of Christ, or learn of him but we can show that example to them of how he acted through us. I loved that quote, it's so true. We talked a lot about how love is the only way some people will change or open their heart and it is so true. Some people just need love. And love isn't just being able to say nice things or anything like that. SHOW love, I've learned how to SHOW it here since you know I'm not the best at speaking this language. But I love these people more than anything so I'll do what I can to make sure they know that. Even the simple things, a smile, hug, pick up something they dropped, and one HUGE thing I've been focusing on lately is listening. Just let them talk, it's always nice when people just listen right? So this week I challenge you all to do an act of service everyday. Pray for them, and then be aware of them when they come. I know they will come. Love is so powerful and I testify of Christ love for all of you. He died and knows every single pain or sorrow you feel. Never forget that. I love you all and thank you for the love and support. You're amazing! #RELY #LOVEスミス姉妹