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"

スミス姉妹のiPadから

God is good, miracles are flowing

October 10, 2016

Loved ones over there in America,

How are you? How was your week? Seems like life is good and just continuing to go and go. Wow, it's insane how fast it goes. Also transfers, we stayed! Haha so it'll be a good one with the same area, same companion etc. But this week was oh so miracle filled. God is so good! We found so many new good investigators this week. And young cute college ones. It's so fun! Let me get started on all these great new people we found. So first is Masumi chan. So we were going to visit some other investigator when we saw her walking and we decided to talk to her. Well we got to know her a little bit, her name is Masumi Chan, she's studying cooking, food, and health. So that was fun to talk about then we were able to introduce our purpose and how we teach about a loving God who is our Father and we can talk to him through prayer about anything at anytime. She had heard of prayer and such but hadn't done it much. So we taught her how we talk to our Father and we were able to relate to her needing help in school and just needed a friend to talk too. So we testified of prayer and God knows her. We made another appointment and will meet her Wednesday! Yay! Next is Miyo Chan. We were biking back from going to a member appointment who lives so far but she wasn't home, we don't know why so then we were both kind of bummed and frustrated. So I saw this girl and just decided okay, I'm talking to her. And she is a college student as well studying nursing. So I was able to talk to her about how I'm gonna study that as well which was fun. Then we were able to talk about our purpose here on earth and how we aren't just here, and it's over after this but we have a reason to be here. She thought that was cool and actually hasn't thought much of any of what we talked about so she agreed to exchange numbers and we can contact her soon this week. I'm so glad the spirit told me to get over it and talk to this girl. It's not always easy stopping some random person on the street but I prayed in my heart and it all worked out awesome. Next, after general conference we decided to go visit an investigator who I think dropped off the planet earth, because we can't find her. But anyway on the way I just thought the next person is the one. So I stopped the next person we saw, her name is Misaki. She's so cute and in her 20's and we told her what we do and she has met elders years before and loved English because she lived in New Zealand for awhile. She has way good English, so that was fun to speak a little. But she didn't remember a lot about what the elders taught her so we asked to exchange numbers and we did and she said please call me again. Oh my heavens, God is so amazing.  So after her we went and knocked on a few doors. Well no one was home because of the thing called Danjiri. It's a famous fair thing, and finally we were like okay this door and then we had another appointment. So we knock and this guy comes out and we tell him about what we do.  I told him I was from America and he said what part and I said Utah. He said no way?! Do you know the jazz? Ha I was shocked. Uh basketball? He said yes, I love them ha. So first off that was random, but anyway, he had all these questions after we talked about God because he said so many bad things happen to good people. So we shared from the BOM and asked if we could come back and share more about this plan and he said yes. So that was exciting! Oh also, a Less Active we are working with right now to go to the temple and come back to church, came to general conference. We were over joyed! She hasn't been in a long time.  Okay, general Conference. Lets just say, I'm so grateful for a loving prophet and apostles who lead us. I loved all of them, Nelson, Nattress, etc but I want to share from Uchtdorfs talk on Saturday Morning. He said, "I invite each of us to consider this question. What shall we give in return for the flood of light and truth God has poured out upon us?" And when he said that, it just hit me, God has given me so much, an amazing family, friends, this gospel, a body, a home, etc so the LEAST I can do is be doing this work right now. It's a year and a half of my life, that is nothing to what He has given me. So I want to challenge you all this week to think about what you can do to give back to Him. And consider President Nelsons talk as well, do it joyfully! We as members can find joy in anything. I know this is true. Missions are hard, exhausting, etc but I'm the happiest I've ever been...why? This gospel. I know it's true so please find what you can give back to our loving Father in Heaven. This work is so amazing, the joy you feel from sharing this knowledge is indescribable. I love it and I know it's all true with all my heart. I love you and miss you all! Stay safe and have a great week! #RELY #GIVEBACK

スミス姉妹 Smith Shimai

"These sisters had a hard transfer......

.....so we as STL's had some fun last pday"

"Everyone loves this weird app or something?"

"Pretty Rainbow"

"All you can eat meat place"

"Our kid investigator drew this"

"Members"

"App, ha"

"Not sure about this picture, looks good though"

"Members"

"Called a Danjiri, famous festival in Osaka"

Kobe Japan mission is gonna see baptisms! Transfer 10..wow!

October 3, 2016

Family and Friends, Hello! 

How are you? I can't believe this transfer is over, wow so fast and it's October. Time is just not normal out here. Sounds like conference was amazing as always and boy I can't wait to watch it this week. Merc! Happy Birthday! Hope it's a good day and you're treated like a queen. Love you!! I'll be thinking about you. Also my best friend GRACIE! Happy Birthday Sister Walton. Love you! 

Well this week was a great spiritual train that's for sure haha Well Nishio San the lady we met last week who yelled our names, well we met with her Monday night with our ward mission leader and it was good but hard. She thinks the Book of Mormon is way hard to understand , which it's not easy but we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and committed her to be baptized on December 12, she said yes but is very nervous. But we are excited to study with her and help her learn progress and grow.  This week we had our last exchange and I went with Nakayama Shimai. It was so fun! She is Miller Shimai's old companion so it was fun to get to know her and talk about weird things Miller Shimai does etc. but anyway the best was we had a lesson with a member who is from the Philippines and doesn't speak Japanese so she had to teach in English and she's decent cause she lived in Utah for awhile but she was so nervous. There was a few times she would say something and the member couldn't hear her cause she's kind of old and she wouldn't repeat it cause she thought it was wrong English. It was weird being on the other side haha but the best was we had an appointment with a LA who we teach weekly cause she has a goal to go to the temple and wow the spirit is the best is all I can say. So we teach from a temple prep book and we committed her to come to church last week but she didn't come so we started off with following up with that and then she just opened up about lots of things. And we had the RS president there and she shared lots of things and so did Nakayama Shimai and I just kept feeling like I needed to share this video called Mountains to Climb and talk to her about faith. Well I listened and showed it and testified about the importance of having faith in order to overcome anything in life and we all just were shedding tears and I just felt the spirit working through me so much. It was such an amazing experience. I'm grateful for the spirit. We also had a wedding reception this week, boy was that weird attending as a missionary. We weren't going to but the ward asked us to help and we knew the girl well so we helped decorate the church and cook etc. but it ended up a little dorky but it doesn't matter they did the growing up picture videos, a game if he knew his wife's handshake, cake, etc. but wow the whole time we were just awkward missionaries watching love life haha but it was fun and delicious. The bride made her own cake and it was awesome. Fun time for sure.  So the amazing thing of the week, we had MLC and as we are spiritually preparing the Ap's come in and say alright we are going to the Welchs house today. We never do it there so we were shocked. We get inside and President Welch starts off with well we did it here cause today is a special one. And he ends up announcing the new revelation he received which is a new goal we have here as a mission. Every companionship will see a baptism before 2017. We were all so pumped and the rest of the meeting was amazing. I felt the spirit so strong there. So we and the Zone Leaders prayed individually about what we needed to share at training in order to pump up the zone and I felt I should talked about attitude. And usual we train together but the zone leaders wanted us to train separate because we had so much revelation we wanted to share. So I stood up there and trained by myself for 30 minutes, scary! But wow did I learn a lot about the importance of attitude. It makes everything different and makes the good, bad, or in the middle greater. Just take a step back and look at what attitude you have in life. Do you wake up thinking today is gonna be awesome or do you wake up and say well here we go again? I promise you through good attitude, life will be changed. When you wake up, please when you start the day with the morning prayer ask for that help of a good attitude and I know the saviors atonement will bless you to have that. Last, for my message, I'm sure all the sisters know this talk but in the women's conference President Uchtdorfs talk "Fourth Floor, Last Door" I read it on the gospel library app. It is amazing! But I'll just share the last part of it with you.  "In our search for enduring faith, in our quest to connect with God and His purposes, let us remember the Lord’s promise: “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Will we give up after knocking on a door or two? A floor or two? Or will we keep seeking until we have reached the fourth floor, last door? God “rewards those who earnestly seek him,” but that reward is not usually behind the first door. So we need to keep knocking. Sisters, don’t give up. Seek God with all your heart. Exercise faith. Walk in righteousness. I promise that if you will do this--even until the fourth floor, last door--you will receive the answers you seek. You will find faith. And one day you will be filled with light that grows “brighter and brighter until the perfect day.” I know as we push till the fourth floor, last door in life that god will bless us and the lives of others. So please go read this talk and think how it can apply to your life. God wants us to try our best even when days are long, hard, and tiring. He will bring that big blessing I promise. I love you all and miss you lots. Have a wonderful week! 

スミス姉妹 Smith Shimai

"Curled my hair mom... and that's my comps clothes not me"

"MLC in the Welch's house, so special, I'll say why in my email"

"A wallet a member made, go mom:)"

"Visiting Teaching"

"Made a wedding board for the reception for a girl in our ward"

"Zone training"

"Our zone flag we made"

"Matsuri practice"

"He love me and kept wanting to see the American, ha"

"He said, "Can we take a picture sister?"

"We saw these guys and they saw I was American so they wanted us to come and take pictures, haha"