It matters how you finish! - December 8, 2014

Tuesday
We got another referral from Nakajma Shimai. She is such a trooper. My
cute mother!!
Wednesday
My last district meeting. Lasts are just not fun. But I am so thankful
for my district. It is so important to be united with our district. 
We had lunch together with Ueda shimai and Nakajima shimai. Ueda
shimai needs lots of support still. Pray for her hard this week. 
Mari san. Told her about the word of wisdom this week. She smokes. She
really wants to stop, though. 
One of our big goals for this next week is to get tons of people to
come to church. I won't tell you the goal by number, but it is going
to be big. Pray hard for that for us please! 
Thursday 
My last MLC was today. Oh, it is so sad to me. I love mission
leadership council that we hold every single month. It always gives me
so much spiritual stamina. I included what I could in an email our
mission song. Every time I sing it, I get goosebumps like crazy. I
love my mission. I have the best mission ever...hands down. We learned
a ton of I just wanted to share two things that I learned with you
that really hit me.
Joy is contagious. It is so important that we share our joys with
everyone. I love joy. We have so much to be joyful for. 
At the end, President Budge had everyone stand up that this would be
their last MLC. I did not want to stand at all. But...I did. He said
to everyone. Never doubt that this is the lord's work. Never doubt
that The Lord is with you. It's a privilege to be a part of this. You
that are leaving, I hate to say this, but you will miss it so much.
Enjoy every last minute you have with the call. Because it will go
away soon and won't come again. Talk about a complete heartbreaker.
But I am so thankful for the spirit I felt when he said that. I know it
is Gods work! 
Then we started exchanges this night. I go to Utsunomiya! Utsunomiya
is famous for gyoza. I love gyoza. :) second time going here. First
time was on exchanges with Yasui shimai a couple transfers ago. 
Friday 
Inoue shimai is a new convert eh they have in their ward who is
struggling. When we first asked her if she would come to church, she
said that she wouldn't because she doesn't have the yaruki (I forgot
what this is in English) to do it. But then we talked about Christmas
and how Christ gave us the most important gift ever. We must give our
gift to Christ as well. Showed her the talk in this months liahona about
going to church and giving that to Christ for Christmas. Her heart was
changed over the lesson and we once again asked if she would come and
she said she would. Sometimes we mistakenly think that if we are
rejected once, that's it. But it's not true. You just gotta keep
trying. Think about all your friends you have tried but they kind of
rejected you. Well, you ought to try again. That's what I would
recommend. 
Ikuine san is probably one of the most charitable persons I have ever
met. She just wanted to do everything she could for us. If she could
do anything for us it would be to just listen to our message. 
So we were leaving Ikuine sans and I see this lady riding a bike. Keep
in mind that we are at the bottom of a hill. So she is coming pretty
fast and I just call out, hey to her and she stopped. Her name is
Alexia and she has been in Japan for just about 6 months and feels
pretty lonely. She was on her way to the hospital due to internal
problems and she had been praying that God would help her. She started
crying and said, I knew that God would answer my prayer. He sent you!
It was incredible!! God is hastening his work for sure. She will
hopefully be coming to church and we also have lots of contact info
for her and she has lds library and everything. Woot! 
I went on my last exchange with Sister Nelson. She is such a sweet
missionary. We dendoued in Utsunomiya. We saw some incredible
miracles. She is also probably the most humble missionary I have ever
met. She seeks always for feedback on how she can do better. If we use
the saying, feedback is the breakfast of champions, then she is the
champion. I am so thankful for what I learn from my Sisters. Love them
like crazy. 
Remember the Nakamura family that I have talked to you about before.
Well, on our way back to splits we norikaied at Oyama eki and all of a
sudden I see Ayumi chan. I am so thankful for Gods plan. There are
just no accidents in his plan. Her testimony was strengthened as well.


Mayumi chan is someone that I met on the train last week and she met
with us and ate dinner with us. She is going to come to church on
December 14 I think. Oh, since my last Sunday on December 14, I am
giving a talk that day. I'm really excited. We are going to bring
sooooooo many friends to church this next week. Pray for that for me
please. Thanks. 


Okada Hisako shimai. I keep asking her when she is going to marry
Kakuhata kyoudai and that she has to do it before I go home. She is so
hazukashii about it. I love her so much. She calls me her daughter.
Well, I pretty much call everyone my mother, so most people call me
their daughter. I guess that means that I can just stay in Japan,
right?! I do have a family here. :)



 

Saturday
Hasegawa sans lesson today was incredible. She is usually a goof and
tries to laugh as much as possible. But we really talked about the
things in her heart. We told her we were going to help her, but she
had to do what we say and trust us. She broke down in tears and said
thank you so much to us. I teared up too. I told her one of the
reasons I came to Japan was to meet her. 
Ayabe family. They are doing good. Another lesson on missionary work
(lesson 5). I have such a strong testimony of missionary work! 
Meet with Mari and Nakajima shimai tonight in preparation for tomorrow.
We ate going to do a stop smoking workshop for her tomorrow. For that,
we went and bought a ton of yummy, healthy foods for her. So excited
for tomorrow.



 

I am starting on my Christmas presents for all my friends here in
Japan. You ought to see my room...it is covered in Christmas gifts I
am preparing. Oh, I love Christmas. It's best spent in the service of
others.

I kind of cheated and gave Okada hisako shimai her
gift earlier because it is a journal and I wanted her to write in it
because today they went to the temple for the first time. Her and
kakuhata kyoudai and Nakajima shimai. Soooooo pumped. And Nakajima
shimai got to be baptized for her husband. Man, when you baptize one,
you baptism tons of people!! 
Sunday 
This was probably one of the most incredible days ever. So first off,
I stayed at the church from 8:50 in the morning until 6:30 at night.
Yes, that is true. 
Tsukahara san is doing well. I am amazed at those who have obstacles in
life and how well they face their challenges. Last Sunday we were
teaching him about the resurrection and he is sooooo excited for that
day to come. Until then, however, he knows he needs to follow Christ.
He has been coming to church every week faithfully this past month.


This is Yamagishi shimai. She is a funny lady. Doesn't
really want to join the church, but really likes it. She has only come
a couple of times. Tried to get her to come next week, but she said
she probably wouldn't, so we took a picture together. Selfy!! 
Nakajima shimai got up and bore her testimony of missionary work,
wanting to do the Lords work, and also about how I am a great
misisonary. She is too sweet. 
Mari san came to church as well. Her mom was going to, but I guess
they got in a fight before and just Mari came. We called Hasegawa san
that we really needed her to be at the tabacco presentation we were
going to give because we needed family to be there. She did come. It
was a super long lesson. The two almost couldn't stand to be in the
same room as each other. They started fighting again and even went
into separate rooms for a little while. It took a lot of patience and
encouraging both of them, but we did it. It is a hard core one week
program that she is going to do. Please pray for her to be able to
stay away from tabacco all this week. We know she can do it. Also pray
for her and her mother to have a better relationship. That will really
help. 
We went to Nakamura ke that night for dinner. That was fun. Love that
family so much. I will miss them. 






Monday
Helped Okada Youko shimai clean. She will be moving to a place nearer to
where she is now. She just needed a little help with a few things. 
Nakajima Shimai definitely needed our support tonight. If there is one
thing that I learned today, it is that God only commanded us that we do
two things to everyone, regardless of who they are...love and forgive. 
Remember earlier how I told you that we are going to bring lots of
people to church next week. Well, we were shopping and I felt really
inspired to say hi to a lady. Her name is Maria. She and her family
all want to come to our church this next week. What the?! I love
miracles!! It is sooooo normal to see miracles as a missionary. To

God, a miracle is nothing but normal! :) 
For those of you who don't know, I just wanted to explain a little bit
of English and Japanese. In English we do subject, verb, object right.
Well, in Japanese, it's reverse. The subject comes first, then the
object, and then the verb. I love this because I know that it's not
how we start things that counts in the end. It matters how you finish,
how you act, that makes the sentence good. I always think about what
kind of a legacy will I leave. I will finish strong for sure!! 
Everyone keep doing fabulous. Take the thoughts of finishing step by
step. First, finish this year out strong. Next, finish out next year
strong by thinking what kind of goals you will make for next year.
Then think about finishing phases of your life out strong. And then we
get to finishing our lives strong. Live it like it is your last day.
It changes a lot. I love my life and I want to live with my beloved
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ forever. It does matter how you
finish. 
Love you!
山内姉妹