Hello my dear wonderful family!!!
So good to hear from you!! I love your emails!
The typhoon was totally fine last week. No flooding or damage
here, but it is supposed to be a big typhoon today and tomorrow so we are
instructed to stay in our apartments after 6pm tonight and to wait and see if we can go anywhere tomorrow. The
Japanese say they usually don't have so many typhoons in the fall [but] that
there's a lot this year.
Week Summary:
Tuesday we visited 2 potential investigators and invited them to
the Ward Halloween party. Then did a housing activity with the Sendai Mission
Leadership Council.
Wednesday we visited a lot of people and none of them were home so we
felt we should go back to the apartment earlier than we planned and
on our way we ran into a member who hasn't been to church or answered our phone
calls in two weeks. Miracle! She stopped and we talked ot [to] her for an hour
on the sidewalk by the Spirit. Really cool. At first I didn't really feel like
we were getting through to her and then these 3 scriptures came into my
head and wasn't sure which one I was supposed to share with her so I
shared them with her one right after another. And then when I was talking to
Nishikawa shimai [Sister Nishikawa] about it afterward she said (the member)
blew off the first two scriptures but then when I shared yet again a third
scripture it actually had an impact on her. What a blessing that the Lord works
through my weaknesses! Eikaiwa [English class] was super fun because we started
an intermediate class for the first time and me, Morgan shimai [Sister Morgan],
and Elder Law taught. We also did an activity where we gave everyone American
names and told them all to research their names to find out what they mean.
Fun!
Thursday we had a mogi [roleplay] with a member and then went to another
member[’]s house to practice the musical number we're planning for the Young
Adult Women in our ward. Then we stopped by Obuchi shimai's (LA) [Sister Obuchi’s
(less-active member)] house to drop off a treat for her and invited her to
General Conference. Visited another LA and then had an LA that we've only met
once before call us! Miracle! Yay!
Friday we went to Yamagata for Zone Training Meeting. Talked about
cleaning our apartments, goals, planning, and activities with purpose. Learned
a lot and got lots of really good ideas. Came back to Nagamachi. We were all in
the APs [assistants to the mission presidents’] car and all the Nihonjin [Japanese]
fell asleep so it was just the 3 gaijin [foreigners] talking so asked them how
their missions have changed them. One said; to capitolize on being Christ-like
in the small things. Another said; I'm more willing to change now. Another
said; To be interested in the people around me. I loved their answers!! I
thought they were all so cool! We got back to Nagamachi and had a music
rehersal (our less active came too!!) and YSA FHE [young single adult
family home evening].
Saturday we went to the church to watch General Conference!!!! So good!!
The Nihonjin watched it in the chapel downstairs on a projector and the gaijin
watched it on a nice TV upstairs in the seminary room with lots of snacks,
haha. (Did anyone go see it live in our family?)
General Conference Highlights:
·
Loved Elder
Christofferson's talk on change
·
Elder Robbin's talk
·
Loved people talking
in their native languages!!
·
Loved Elder Callister
and Elder Jorg Klebingat's talk
·
Elder Hamula and Elder
Scott and Elder Godoy and President Monson's talks
One of the YSA [young single adult] girls in our ward brought a
friend to the 2nd session on Saturday. So cool!! She is such a good member missionary!!
Other cool thing about Conference; Sister Morgan and Sister
Arashiyama's investigator Endo-san came to the Sunday sessions of General Conference. The concern
she has is about prophets; are they real? Are they good people? What was almost
every talk about on Sunday?
PROPHETS!! So cool!! :)
Mom thank you so much for your goal ideas!!! I love them!!
I like the idea of being confident in our ability to make decisions and being
partnered with the Lord. I want to be a really good decision maker! Pure
wholesome thoughts lead to confidence before God. Reflect on where we have both
made mistakes and made good decisions. Good small decisions bless us too! As we
get better at recognizing the Holy Ghost I think we become more confident in
our decisions. I think one of the most important things we can learn early
in our life is to become quick to recieve, quick to hear, and quick to act upon
the promptings of the Holy Spirit and then we can really use our lives the way
the Lord wants us to and in that way both meet our full potential and help so
many people along the way!
I made a list of 19 questions for Conference and it's been so
fun to read back through my notes looking for the answers. Some of my answers
surprised me at how simple and straightforward they were, some at how LONG and
EXTENSIVE they were, and others I felt like the Holy Ghost said to me ''Nope,
you're going to have to search that one out more on your own a little bit
first and then I'll help you'' or ''Well, you don't need to be worrying about
this question right now, just focus on the fundamentals and important things.''
So that was really cool too! The Spirit gives us answers in all sorts of
different ways, it's up to us to figure out the right questions to ask and to
get into the right places so we can recognize our answers. The Lord has
extended the invitation for us to ask and I know He answers!!
DC sounds fun! Yeah, I saw Rosa several times in the MTC. Did
she go home early? Jessica's middle name is Ann. Thanks for the update!
The password I gave you should work for my facebook... Temple workers make me
so happy! I love temple workers! So happy for you guys! Presentations, wow! Lobster bisque, haha. I like the airbender sweatshirt! Yeah Avatar family! ;)
Meet the Mormons sounds really cool! Purple tie and starwars socks are all you
need! Wow, Will and Justine are almost done! Crazy!! Where is Ashley Jane going
for her mission? That's awesome that the missionaries called Zach for bike
help!! (You might have the same problems on your mission too Zach. Better be
prepared. ;D). I also loved reading the letter you included. I am so lucky to have such
a wonderful family!
I'm so grateful that I got to watch conference! What a blessing.
I learned so so much. I felt over and over again such a huge emphasis on
families and just was reminded of you my wonderful wonderful blessing. You are
such a HUGE blessing to my life and to me. I love you all so, so much. Your
examples inspire me and your friendship and love encourages me all the time. I
am so everlastingly grateful for all of you. When President Monson said ''Make
a heaven on Earth home" in the Sunday Morning session I thought; that's the family I
have! It's hard not to miss you when you are all so wonderful. :) I am so
grateful for you and your examples and emails and love and wonderful,
wonderful, wonderfulness!!
I love love love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Your missionary,
Bellows shimai :)
P.S. Anyone know what ''Renee'' means? The Eikaiwa [English
class] students were asking me but I had no idea, haha.
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