Hi everyone! I hope you are all staying safe and healthy and surviving the cold. This month has been surprisingly warm. The big surprise is that the church and the houses are colder then outside. They don't have heating like the states do and so they usually just have one little heater that they plug into the wall or it is just in one room. Interesting right? Anyway, please tell JD congratualations for me. That is so awesome about his mission call to New Jersery and that President Jeppson will be his mission president. That is just so perfecct. Tell my lil bro that I am proud of him and will be praying for him. :D The time will go by so quick. I mean I can't believe that I half way don with my mission this coming Saturday. It honestly makes me scared. I am becoming so used to the life of a missionary, the ups and the downs, that I don't know what I will do when I get home. And yes I have thought about it some since both of my companions will be leaving the 2nd week in February and they have talked about it. I am going to use all the time that I have being a missionary and not waste it (not that I have been wasting it before).
Now onto this week. Last Monday during Pday we went shopping and as we were walking into the mall I held the door open for my companions and also for some high school girls who came after them. They said thank you to me and replied back your welcome. They giggled and started walking ahead of us when I yelled out to them "Have fun." They kept looking back at us until finally they stopped and turned to me and Sister Edstrom and I and asked where we were from. From there we started having a conversation and in the end we got of one their (there was 4 of them) phone numbers and made an appointment for today to go and eat gyouza (japanese pot stickers; Utsunomiya is famous for them). Just from opening the door we were able to find 4 P.I's. Isn't that crazy. We are really hoping that tonight when we meet with them that they will all become investigators and would like to know more about the church.
Tuesday: We had a lesson with Usa kyoudai and we taught him about tithing and the blessings that come from it. We had a great lesson and we were also able to talk to him about asking his mom for permission to be baptzied since he is 19 years old. And yesterday, Sunday, when he called us on the phone we asked him if he talked to his mom and he said that he did and that she gave permission and was fine with it. It was a great miracle because I guess before she was hontai and said he could be baptized only if he moved out on his own. But her heart was softened and now he just needs to go to church one more time and then he will be good to get baptized next week. :D
Wednesday: Our apartment was a mess and Sister Budge has asked all the missionaries to use January as the deep cleaning month. So that is what we started on Wednesday is cleaing though by the end of the night it didn't look like we cleaned at all. haha Such is the case when you are deep cleaing. And of course later that night we had Eikaiwa and guess what!? We had a new student come!! She is this really cute 19 year old girl . We were so happy because lately we haven't had many students come so we were so happy that she came.
Friday: We had an appointment with this woman named Chiyaki who is in her 30's about and has this really cute little girl about 1 and 4 months or so. We went to her house and had a great time with her and in the end had a great lesson with her. She asked if she could come and see the church and we said of course so we have an appointment with her this Thursday to do a church tour and we also watched two videos. One is called Finding happiness (from the Japanese perspective) and the other was the Restoration. We talked about her relationship with Heavenly Father and how the gospel can help her and her family have a happier life. She said that she wanted to learn more but not at the same time but she still wants to hear our message and she was really grateful when we gave her a Book of Mormon. So that day she became a investigator.
Saturday: Went with the Yamazaki family to a place called sweets paradise. It is a place that is an all you can eat but they mostly have sweets (cookies, cakes, ice cream, etc). We all felt pretty sick afterward but Sister Nishihara was feeling the worst so we came back to the apartment and she slep while Sister Edstrom and I did more cleaning and now the apartment is sooo pretty. A lot better then when I first came here.
Sunday: We had another lesson with Brother Yamazaki and we watched this great video about the Book of Mormon. He and his wife this last week have been reading the BOok of Mormon together which is sooo wonderful and a huge improvement. And yesterday at the end of the lesson when he prayed he said thank you for a new feeling he had and he also asked for something for his first time. Usually when he has prayed he only says thank you. But this time he asked for help to continue learning about the Gospel. He has been improving so much and I am excited for him. I feel like he is getting closer to baptism. :D
Also on Sunday we had an interesting experience that taught me a great lesson. In the past the sisters have gone to this huge pot luck party that is held by the community and there they have found a lot of p.i.s. At this pot luck party they don't allow religious activity but they have still let the SIsters in before. Anyway, yesterday when we went they asked if we could take off our name tags and then we would be allowed in. When I first heard that I felt like someone punched me in the heart. The immediat answer that came to mind was NO!!!! My name tag is very important not just to me but to my purpose as a missionary. It is what distinguishes me as the Lord's representative during this time. I can't even describe the feeling that came over me when I first heard that. It was the first time something like has happend to me on my mission. It was a great lesson to learn and now I treasure my tag even more.
