Happy December - December 1, 2014

We went to see Okada shimai and Toma kun every day this week. Today,
Nakajima shimai brought love, her dog. Cute name, right? Toma kun
loved feeding the dog bread. 


So as a Tokyo mission, we do what we call Facebook waves every Monday
with hashtags and stuff. I would encourage you to make your own
hashtag based off mine and get it started going viral. Also, a really
simple way that you can share the gospel and help the missionaries is
by sharing or liking our stuff. It goes a long ways. 
Today I have been thinking a lot about what my mission is teaching me.
Here is one of them. 


Oh, a random thing. If you look in the General Conference address and
find, lord is it I, the talk from President Uchdorf, you will find a
picture of a Japanese man. His name is Imamura kyoudai and he is a
member of the Koga ward!! 
Since it was Pday we had some fun times with Nakajima shimai. I love
her soooooo incredibly much. I want to be like her when I grow up.
She always makes everyone feel so special and does a wonderful job of
hastening the Lords work.


November 25 
Love rainy days. They happen pretty much every week in Japan. You have
to know you are in Japan when it starts raining a little bit and then
two seconds later it is pouring. I love the rain. Like I've said
before, any weather is wonderful for me. 
We met with Hiroko finally!! She is this cute lady who has lived in
America. Has two children. On this visit, we only got to meet one of
them. We are going to do our family eikaiwa program with them. The
family eikaiwa program is half English class, half gospel discussion.
It is way fun. We give them 12 times to do it and then after that,
they either have to be done,or have more interest in the gospel than
they do in taking English lessons. However, today when we visited, we
pretty much just talked about the gospel. She shares a lot of the same
beliefs. I think in relation to how much doctrine we taught, it had
to have been about half of the missionary discussions! It was amazing.
A lot of people don't realize that Christians really hold their
ancestors as important. Such a great time to talk about family
history. Hiroko sans daughter's birthday is next Monday, so we are
going to do a birthday party with them and share a message with them
about the gospel. 
We went to visit Hoshida Akiko san today. She asked us all sorts of
questions that I have never really been asked on my mission, but that
were really good for me to hear. She asked why we would go from door
to door. She has things she believes in too, but she wouldn't just go
telling people about it. It's a great question. I guess the answer
lies in Elder Bednar's talk. 
"When we invite you to attend church with us or to learn with the
full-time missionaries, we are not trying to sell you a product. As
members of the Church, we do not receive prizes or bonus points in a
heavenly contest. We are not seeking simply to increase the numerical
size of the Church. And most importantly, we are not attempting to
coerce you to believe as we do. We are inviting you to hear the
restored truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ so you can study,
ponder, pray, and come to know for yourself if the things we are
sharing with you are true." 
I know of the role this message has played in my life and, as a
result, have a natural instinct to share it with other people. You
know how Elder Bednar also talked about that story where the little
boy got healed and so he wanted to share it with everyone. I have
noticed the exact same pattern with Nakajima shimai and, just like
Elder Bednar, it amazes me beyond anything else. She has literally
become a super star hero in my life. She always carries with her church
flyers, pamphlets, and book of Mormons around with her to give to
people that she has ever even met before. One day this week we were
with her and we ran into a lady that she had apparently seen twice
that day and that was a sign, so she literally ran to chase her down
to give her a flyer and tell her to try and come to church. It
bewilders me every single day. If every member was like her in our
church, everyone in the world would be a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
November 26 
Able to met with Ueda Shimai. She has been running through my mind
like crazy this past week. She lives alone, but I have learned two
things from her recently.
1. Do it and be happy. Dont do it, and be sad.
2. You can't do it alone.
No further explanation on that one. 
This is Hasegawa san. I've told you about her before. She is such a
hoot. 


We are working with her little by little. For being a
grandma, she sure is gone from her house a lot. Her mother, who is 97
is in the hospital and she has to take care of her a lot. She really
has a sincere desire to be a good person and I love that about her. 
Then there is Mari chan.


She is sooo adorable and she
doesn't even believe she is. She is super nice. She has lots of trials in
her life. She loves us visiting her and helping here feel good. We
went to eikaiwa and took fun pics. She loves taking pictures with me
for some reason ;) 
November 27 
Happy Thanksgiving. Today we had our district meeting in Oyama and
then we went to the Adachi family for thanksgiving dinner. They are
adorable. They made all the food for the missionaries in our zone. At
the start of the dinner, they said, okay it's thanksgiving and we are
thankful for missionaries. So cute, right?! I love members who love
us. Love sure does go a long ways.










We visited the Nakamura family. It was so cute, they came to the door
and then said just a minute. And then a few minutes later Ayumi chan
popped out of the door and we were so happy to see her. Oh, do I love
that girl. They welcomed us right in and we talked about the
importance of Christmas. I don't know if you have seen it yet, but if
you haven't, look up "he is the gift" in YouTube or lds.org. It is
this wonderful Christmas initiative that our church is doing this
Christmas. Wonderful way to tell your friends the true meaning of
Christmas. I love showing this video to as many people as I possibly
can. It never gets old. 
November 28 
Got to meet with Mari san. Nakajima shimai got new furniture from the
seki family and so she moved her old table out into her "garage" and
served us our there while we did a lesson. It was so cute because
after the lesson she was talking about how her little place has become
like a little restaurant. And she said she loves it. :) 
Today for language study, I talked with one of our recent converts
about how many kanji we can make using one type of stroke. I love
Japanese because there is so much meaning behind every single work. I
love Japanese! 

 
November 29
I'm pretty sure I didn't breathe today. Today was exchanges with Howe
Shimai. She is one of the most incredible persons I have ever met in
my whole life. I am so thankful for her influence in my life. She is a
pretty new missionary and so her Japanese is very simple, but I was
astounded by the power of her testimony when she bore it. I know that
The Lord works through us missionaries because we are the weak things
of the world. It was the day before the baptism, so getting that
prepared along with all our other appointments was just crazy. Here is
Saki chan.


November 30
Today I am so thankful to my loving Heavenly Father and Savior today.
I worked my tail of this week. Like literally, I had no breathing
time. It was sweet!
Okada shimai was able to be baptized. She said she
felt a fushigi feeling. Hope she knows that is the spirit. She seems
to really be sensitive to the spirit she just doesn't show a lot of
emotions ever.




I felt like there was so many things going on during
the baptismal service that it was hard to focus, but here are the
feelings I felt 
1. When Okada shimai got baptized, toma kun wanted to go in with him.
How important it will be for her to raise her son in this gospel so
that he too can be baptized when he is 8
2. I felt a special spirit when I got to sing with the young women I
like to look for rainbows to Okada shimai. What a wonderful thing it
is to have a new start.
3. I really felt Nakajima Shimai's love for Okada shimai when she did
her shokai. Nakajima shimai has been one of Okada Shimai's best
friends. It wis incredible to see the change in both of them. Thy are
just like family. When I think of them, I remember what it means to be
a true friend.
4. I felt the spirit when Kurosaki shimai read the scripture in 2
Nephi 31:19-20 that this isn't the end, just the very beginning.
5. I felt the spirit when I got to lead the music and look into the
faces of people that I love while singing I am a Child of God. 
Ueda Shimai called us this morning and said that she couldn't come to
church because one of her friends and fallen over the night before and
had to go to the hospital. She said she was sorry. I told her not to
tell me, but to tell god. Told her to say a prayer right now and ask
god what she should do. But I told her I would be waiting for her at
the church. She ended up coming. Every single one of the recent
converts came as well as four investigators. Oh, man. Let me tell you
the joy I felt. It can't be described. Every day is a special day,
it's the day we get ready for Sunday. I love it when investigators
come to church. After all, 100% of people who get baptized have been
to church, right?! :) 
We blew the soe out of the water this week. It was so the best. In my
opinion, that is a minimum. I don't settle for less. I know that The
Lord is at the head of this work. We don't do anything. It is all Him.
I, like Alma, rejoice in His glory. 
December 1 
Keep the commandments...it's all you have to do in life. I am amazed
that when people go down hill, almost every time it is because they
aren't keeping commandments. God has given us so much, and he only
asks us one thing. I think we can do it. 
Fun with Hiroko sans daughter, miku. I made yakisoba for 8 of us.
There was so much. I love coming. Wonderful lesson about the plan of
salvation. They loved it. 
December 2
Today was my last temple Pday.






Talk about bittersweet.
I love the temple so much. When we started, a man told us that this
would be one of the deepest learning experiences for us today. I
learned a lot about my life in the temple today. It was one of the
most spiritual experiences I have ever had. I learned that another
season of life will soon end. But if I stayed in that season
forever, I would never learn and grow to become the person that God
wants me to be.
 
Love you all!!
Sister Yamauchi