In the Strength of the Lord - August 11, 2014

This is Nakahigashi Shimai. I've set you pictures of her before. I
just love this lady. She is the sweetest person in the whole entire
world. If I haven't told you this already, it is not very common AT
ALL to say I love you in Japanese. They just don't say it. It's a very
reserved culture. Anyway, I love saying it to everyone and, as I have
told you before, telling everyone the I love you sign. She loves it
when. I say I love you to her. Always giggles a bit, and then says it
back to me. Very rare for someone to say it back to me.

This is a fabulous quote. I heard it from a friend this week and thought I would share it.

Well, this was the temperature last week, in case anyone is curious.
Blazing hot weather calls for blazing hot dendou! P.S. That tall tower
in the picture is called Tokyo Tower. It's not in my area, but I can
see it from my area.

This is the Yamashita family's little boy named ryuusei kun. Talk
about kids being smart when it comes to technology. I put the camera
up to him so he could look at himself and he knew the button to take a
picture.

This is Mina! She is from Nepal and she is sooo cute. I love her so
much. She speaks very, very, very little English and Japanese is still
somewhat difficult, so we are teaching her Japanese and also teaching
the gospel super simple. I love simplicity! She has a husband and two
sons. She came to church and we now have planned to go every week with
her. Please pray for her to be able to come to church every week.

Brother Takayama is leaving for his mission this week. We had a little
farewell party after church this Sunday. He will be serving in the
Fukuoka Mission. And...he got baptized last year! He just turned 22.
We are going to save Japan together!

This Saturday, we had a fun kids event and we were able to bring a few
investigators to it as well.
This is Sakuya kun. His Mom is one of our investigators. Her name is
Ami. We talked about how our church is like family and we wanted her
to come give church a try. She is leaving for Obon this week, but when
she comes back, she wants to come try church. Oh, now you should be
asking what is Obon right? Obon is a famous Japanese holiday where
they believe all their ancestors come back to visit them at their
homes, so they all go to the homes where they were raised. It is a
three day holiday. Obviously some people still work. However, for the
most part, everyone has work off. It will be held this week from
Wednesday to Friday.

Hori Shimai! I love her so much. She reminds me of you, Mom. And the
husband also reminds me of dad. They definitely can't beat how awesome
my parents are, but they are wayyyyy awesome. I call them my family in
Japan.

She has been an excellent fellowshipper for Izumiya Sachi san and we
planed together what lessons we would teach her and when so she will
be ready for baptism this November!

August 11, 2014

 Hello everyone who is the best ever and reads my letters. Thank you so

much. Hope you enjoy another week in my shoes as you read this.

We had so many less actives come to church. Our less active
reactivation in this ward has been incredible, though it makes me so
sad that there are so many. We had 4 less actives come to church this
week!

As far as investigators goes, we had a few come to church. They were
huge miracles! I have to tell you about one of them. A member from
another ward called us and said that she was going to go with her
friend to our ward because her friend lived in our area. Then her
friend got sick and we prayed really hard that she would be able to
come to church, and she got better!! She is awesome. Her name is Satou
san. Miracle!!

Went over the the Terasaka family house this past week. The husband
came out and said I thought you would be coming today. Woot for
revelation. He and his wife are so close to coming back to church I
think. Hurray!!

We had a really cool experience this past week where a less
active(Kobayashi shimai) brought another less active friend (Kanemaki
shimai) to the church for a lesson. Kanemaki shimai is actually
someone that we don't have in our records because she became less
active in her past ward. Kobayashi Shimai said that she wanted to meet
me before I transferred, but had no intention of coming back to church
or anything. We prepared for this lesson very carefully and
thoughtfully and went into it with lots of prayer. Going into the
lesson she didn't seem very willing to budge, especially when we asked
her the reason she decided to leave the church. However, as we
explained the blessings that she was missing out on by choosing to do
so, her heart changed and she felt the spirit. Kobayashi Shimai was
shocked when we were able to make another appointment with her and
invite her to come to church on a specific day at the end of this
month. God is real!

We just visited the Sawamura family yesterday and went through the
kind of the same thing that we did with Kanemaki Shimai. The reason
they left the church is because they were offended by those of the
church. We told her our message is that we need her and she needs the
church and that now was the time to come back. She said, muri (can't)
and iya (no) over and over and over again. Then, all of the sudden at
the end she said, I will go just once with you two. Wow, talk about
the spirit of god slam dunk!! All 5 of them should be coming this next
week to church. Sooo excited!

Next week is transfer week! Always exciting slash crazy to think
about. Next email you get next week I'll have to tell you about. Don't
you just love cliff hangers!?

Love ya!
山内姉妹