Well the exciting news that I have for everyone that I couldn't tell you before is that this last Friday we had a special mission conference and Elder Russel M. Nelson came and spoke to us and we all had the opportunity to shake his hand and introduce ourselves to him. What an amazing conference and what a privilege it was to hear from him and his beautiful wife, Sister Nelson. They gave wonderful inspired talks. And Elder Nelson told us specifically, “Thank you.” He said thank you for being who you are and for serving. And after he said he told us very clearly to make sure we thank our families for him. “Thank you for the parents and the brothers and sisters who have made it possible for you to be here.” So you have just been thanked by an apostle of the Lord. Elder Nelson spoke about many wonderful things that were truly inspiring and I felt so honored to have sat at his feet and to have heard from him directly. I will just list really quickly some of the things that he said that really stuck out:
- He wants every missionary to go home being trilingual. Japanese, English and the spirit of the Lord. And he told us to make sure to perfect our English. He said that he thinks it is pathetic when a missionary goes home and has forgotten his own language. Guess I should work on that one. Haha
- (He and Sister Nelson talked about this one a lot) Everything that we do is preparing us for marriage. They have places President and Sister Budge in front of us to show us how true equal disciples of Christ treat each other. He also told President Budge that they wouldn't know if they have been successful until our grandchildren go on missions and go through the Temple.
- He left us a special blessing from and apostle of the Lord: Safety, we will be exactly obedient, return and still be missionaries, a love for the Lord and for His word, and a love for the people, language, and culture.
And when Sister Nelson stood to speak to us she told us that Elder Nelson leaned toward her before hand and told her that though they have been to over 70 countries and spoken to the missionaries there he said, “Never seen or experienced better missionaries than these.” High praise right. And President Budge said that after the conference when they went out to lunch Sister Nelson said that as she looked out she could see future mission presidents and Elder Nelson said that he could see future members of the seventy and even members of the 12 and told President and Sister Budge to watch and follow these missionaries. I feel proud to be a part of one of the best missions and to be surrounded by outstanding missionaries. The missionaries here really are wonderful. You never hear about bad or disobedient missionaries. Yay for the Japan Tokyo Mission. :D Anyway I really did love that conference!!!!
This week was wonderful. We contacted a referral and taught 12 lessons and found 3 new investigators. Our Referral is from Taiwan and that is where the referral came from. We met her and gave her the Book of Mormon and invited her to learn more and she said yes. She told us that she would come to Eikaiwa the next day and would come to church that Sunday. She is so cute and she did come to Eikaiwa and to Church. She became close with one of the ward members and she said that she would come a little before Eikaiwa this next week to learn more. I am excited to see her again and to see her progress. Her name is Rin.
Our other new investigator is Japanese and I found her last transfer with my other companions. We met her again this week and taught her a lesson and shared with her passages from the Book of Mormon and she seems really interested. We set up another time this week to meet with her and she just absorbed everything that we said. It was so much fun to teach her. Her name is Asami and she is so cute. Just so full of life and she already believes that there is something more to this life and for after we die. She is a very prepared person.
Then Yesterday after church we decided to go streeting for a bit before a lesson that we had at 3. We literally walked out of the church, took 20 steps and found this cute family. The wife is from the Philippians and is Catholic and speaks fluent English. We ended up sitting down with her and taught her the first lesson. We showed her some pictures during the lesson portraying Christ and she asked if that is our image of Christ so we started talking about that for awhile. I told her how Joseph Smith described Christ with white hair and with fire in his eyes and after I said that she looked at me in the eyes and said, “Maybe like your eyes. I think your eyes are like his.” I am still thinking about what that means but I thought it was interesting that she said that. She and her husband told us that we are welcome to come back. I am excited. And it is great that they live so close to the church. It is a nice bonus. :D
Well a lot of other wonderful things happened this week but if I took the time to tell them all I would be here for a long time. :D It is getting a lot warmer here. Spring is starting and I am excited because that just means a few more weeks and I can see the Cherry blossoms!!! I am so excited for that. And I am excited for it to get warmer. The weather right now reminds of softball season. It makes me miss it. Well I love you all. Have a wonderful week and I shall talk to you next week. :D
