Christmas Pictures!

Making mochi

Caroling

Skype with her Sister in Portugal!

Getting ready for the Christmas Party

The two Sister Laceys

Caroling

メリークリスマス！🎄❄

Reindeer Rice Crispy Treats

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I can't believe we are all going to skype soon! So crazy! Make sure
you think of questions now and maybe let me know what they are ahead
of time because we won't have a long time to skype. I can't wait!

This week was good but this will be a shorter email. Sorry!

We have met Asako San a lot this week but there's some bad news... She
still wants to be baptized and everything and loves learning about the
church and she loves prayer but she wants more time... She hasn't
talked to her family about it yet and she's scared because they are not
Christian.  President Nagano skyped in and got to know her a bit and helped
give her advice. He's coming up Sunday for Branch Conference so
maybe they can talk more. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for
her. Sometimes it makes me sad that so many people I've worked with
have had their baptisms fall threw but I am comforted in the fact that
I'm doing all i can. I am trying my hardest to fulfill my purpose by
bringing others unto Christ. It's just up to them to commit to follow
Him.

I went down to Nagaoka last week for exchanges and it was pretty
chilly! It snowed a little last week but it's gone already. I hope I
have a white Christmas this year but everyone has been saying this
winter is warmer than usual.

I just wanted to finish with a scripture that comforted me a lot this
week. It is in Mormon 9.

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a
God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say
unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he
ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of
men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the
right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting
nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it
shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends
of the earth.

27 O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of
the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things
soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin
as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

I love you all so much! Miracles still happen today! I know God lives
and loves each and everyone of us! It has been an amazing experience
to help teach the true meaning of Christmas to people here in Japan. I
will talk to you all in a few days!! 愛しています！

Love,
レイシー姉妹

5,000 Views!

おはようございます愛する家族!

Homemade banana ice cream!

Leaving Sado Island

Sado

They found tortillas

Hello everyone!

I'm glad you all are doing good! I can't believe that we will skype
next week... It doesn't feel real haha, make sure you all think of
questions to ask me! It's crazy that Jason will be in Japan tomorrow!
He has a layover in Tokyo so now I know why I was exiled all the way
on the other side of the island in Niigata haha. But I love it here!
It is definitely the land of miracles!

So this week I went to Sado island again! It's so beautiful there but
it was such a short trip. On the way there the boat ride made me a
little sick because the weather was pretty strong but it's a great
experience!

Other than that this week has been good! We have met with Asako San a
lot and she is so awesome and is looking good for her baptism on the
25th. She is just nervous to talk to her mom about it and is trying to
build the courage to tell her. We are having a ward fast this Sunday
for missionary work so I know that will help a lot!

We felt prompted to visit a lady who used to be an investigator.
Motoko San let us in and said we could talk for a half hour. We talked
for 2 hours haha. It was mainly her just telling us things about
everything and she played piano for us and sang and I just wanted to
cry the whole time. She is the most lonely person I have ever met. She
thanked us so much for coming and listening to her. She lives alone
and her only daughter lives kinda far. We were able to teach her some
too and she said we coals come back. She still has some potential but
I know she just needs to feel love and it would help her so much if
she knew how much God loved her.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your love and prayers! I
loved the Christmas devotional so much. The stories they shared were
so amazing and I really loved the quote that said "the Saviors gift to
us is peace."  Have a good and safe week! 愛してるよ！

Love,
レイシー姉妹

A Savior is Born

Sister Lacey and Sister Parker traveling back from Mission Leadership Council

愛する家族、

Hello everyone! This week has been AMAZING! Before I go on I would
just like to say my prayers go out to the families affected in the
shooting so close to home. I'm grateful for the knowledge that God has
a perfect plan for all of us. Two of my favorite scriptures in Alma
about this topic say this,

"12 While many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their
kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in the hope, and even know,
according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell
at the right hand of God, in a state of never-ending happiness.

13 And thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin
and transgression, and the power of the devil, which comes by the
cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men.

14 And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the
vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and
also of rejoicing--sorrow because of death and destruction among men,
and joy because of the light of Christ unto life.

...behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he
doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do
this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that
the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be
just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against
them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day."

I'm so great fun for the opportunity to be laboring here in Japan.
This is a special part of the Lord's vineyard. There's definitely a
lot of work to do but I know hat the Lord is working right beside me.

I went to Tokyo this week for MLC and learned so much. The Naganos are
amazing people and have so much love. As a mission, we are really
trying to become more consecrated. Everything we have is from God and
we are able to live again because of our Savior. We can never repay
Him back completely. As missionaries we serve with all of our might
and strength but the harder part is with our mind and heart. The only
thing that the Lord does not have is our mind and heart, everyone not
just missionaries. If we truly love Him and accept His will, we can
pay our Savior back just a little bit more. I know that "God so loved
the world" and all of His children that He provided a way for us to
return. If we are righteous and follow the Savior "with full purpose
of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with
real intent, repenting of our sins... Wherefore, ye must press forward
with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope,
and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press
forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end,
behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life... This is
the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven
whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this
is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God,
without end."

The Savior is the only way we can receive eternal happiness. The end
is coming nearer and I know we need to be prepared. I know President
Thomas S. Monson is the Lord's beloved prophet graciously given to us
to lead and guide us through this world. The Book of Mormon is the
true word of God and if we follow its teaching we will know how to be
happy and have hope. I love you all so much! We have great reason to
rejoice even in times of sadness. You are all in my prayers!

Love,
レイシー姉妹


Sent from my iPad

Transfer 7!!

Birthday cake minus the '0'

Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving dinner

Potluck in the branch

皆さんこんにちは！

Hello everyone! I'm glad you all had a good thanksgiving! We had a cute little party here and the missionaries made all the food. We made pasta, Mac and cheese, deviled eggs, and lashed potatoes. It was definitely an interesting meal but it was fun!

So Sister Kubota is my new companion. We are having a great time! She is from Hawaii and I'm from Cali so we're both thinking President Nagano is trying to be funny sending us both to the snow. We are scared to death but also excited because we said that we'll be the Sunshine in Sanjo! It rained and hailed all week but today we finally saw the sun again!

So guess what?? Now for the most important part. We are going to have a white Christmas! As in Asako San is
getting baptized on Christmas! We set a date with her this week and she said she really feels like she needs to be baptized. Yesterday we taught about the word of wisdom and she won't have a problem. She said, "yeah that's probably a good thing so you don't become addicted to things." Is she golden or what? She is one of the most prepared people I've ever met. I love her so much and a few of our members are being really helpful and invite us
over for dinner. I'm so excited to continue to work with her. She is so in tune with the spirit and I am blessed to be trusted enough to teach her.

I love you all so much! I'm going to Tokyo again on Tuesday! Thank you for all of your love and support. This gospel is the truth. Just as dad said, this gospel never changes but the world does. We need to always trust and follow the teachings we have because they are from God and through keeping those commandments we will receive the purest of joy and everlasting happiness. 愛してるよ！

Love,
レイシー姉妹

There is no winter in California

The stuffed animal Sister Lacey gave to a new friend

The friend's reply to Sister Lacey

A family Heart Attacked the sisters and gave
Sister Lacey a present for her birthday

Sister Lacey says she's in Paradise!

Feeding squirrels

皆さんこんにちは！

SO! This transfer I am staying in Sanjo but Sister Yonaha is going to Nakano where the Mission Home is. She is taking Sister Teruya's place. I'm sad she's leaving because we bonded a lot this week but I will see her soon. I'm staying as Sister Training Leader and so is she so I'll see her in Tokyo. My new companion is Sister Kubota! She was a group ahead of me in the MTC. She is half Japanese and from Hawaii. I don't think she knew Japanese before her mission though. I'm way excited! She is super loud and outgoing so maybe it'll help me be more confident to talk to everyone!

Anyways, this week was cold. The day of my birthday might have been the coldest day of my mission and it just keeps getting colder! I'm not sure which will be worse, riding my bike in this weather where the wind pierces your soul or walking in the snow for forever when we can't ride our bikes anymore... Either way, I am actually excited! I know if I can survive a winter in Niigata ken I can survive anything!

My birthday was great! Thank you for all the love and presents everyone! For the first time I actually do feel older and different. But mom and dad, how do you two feel now that you have 3 children in their 20s?? ;)The average age people usually think I am is 23 so now I'm finally starting to get closer to the age I look! Haha. We went to the park with Shinobu Shimai and the Makise fuufu (couple) and had a great time! As I'm sure you saw from the picture, we feed squirrels! They have like a squirrel petting zoo thing and it was way fun! We also visited the Maeda fuufu and long story short, they BOTH came to church yesterday!! It was awesome! I'm so happy we have been gaining a good relationship with them and helping them come back to church. すこしづつ！

Also, I realized I am forgetting English. We have started a benkyoukai which is like English class but more one on one and I corrected a few essays and it was a bit difficult. It was fun though! I hope my Japanese is improving. But I definitely know that the gift of tongues is real. There's no way on earth from studying Japanese for only 10
months that I know how to say as much as I do, read, write, understand, and oh my recognize some kanji! Craziness! But somehow I manage to survive. I know that it is only through the Spirit that I am able to do so much. I love you all so much! I hope you have a great thanksgiving break! I'll miss the turkey and gravely.. We are having a thanksgiving potluck party but I'm sure there won't be quite like thanksgiving in America! I love you! 愛してるよ！

愛する
レイシー姉妹

I'm old!

Zone trip to Mt. Yahiko

Shrine at Mt. Yahiko

View from Mt. Yahiko

It's extremely hard to believe that I will be turning 20 this week.  But thanks for the birthday packages everyone!  Wednesday, we will be going to a park with the Makise couple and Shinobu Shimai so I'm looking forward to that!

This week was good! I went on exchanges with Sister Butler who is a Bean chan right now. (She's a greenie). It was my first time being the oldest in the companionship and let me tell ya, I loved it! Besides the fact that sister Parkers bike broke on me and I thought I was gonna die, it was great! We met with a members less active daughter and taught her some English and a mogi (role play) lesson. We had planned to talk about the Book of Mormon and how the gospel blesses families but kinda out of the blue Maiko said that we missionaries just have a radiant light around us. She said it blinds her! I asked her if she wanted that light and she said yes! We shared Moroni 7:19 and she loved it and wrote it down and said she wanted to read it again later. It was an amazing lesson and I was definitely granted the gift of tongues to help sister Butler. She would ask me questions and I would be able to help or I was able to translate what they were saying. I didn't realize I could do that! Usually I'm the one asking to know what people said. Not gonna lie, it gave me a real desire to want to train! And it made me have more confidence that my language skills are improving!

Also, quick funny story. I was showing sister Butler pics of the family and she saw the one with cousins and she was like, "is that Rachel?" I was shocked and said yes. Her mom and Kelly were roommates or something in college and she's been to the buntings house! She said Curt is a bully haha. Small world!

Oh! And I taught everyone how the Lacey family plays ping pong at our ping ping night. It was hilarious. We played around the world and I told them how we do the spinning thing and we only play with two paddles and so we tried it. I'll send you some videos. It was so funny haha.

I just want to share a couple spiritual experiences this week. First, I got a letter from sister Fox and she shared the talk "What Lack I Yet" so I decided to study it and try it out. So I did and the first answer I got was to start writing in my journal. The spirit really does personalize things and make them specific! I have definitely been slacking in my journal writing. The next experience is about the priesthood. I think I've been going through of a little bit of a mission midlife crisis and it all kinda came pouring out the other day. I decided the best thing to get me going again was a priesthood blessing. The elders here were more than willing to help and I know without a doubt that everything that Elder Frazier said was directly from God. I didn't give him any specifics on what was troubling me but everything he said helped me so much. I m so grateful for the power of the priesthood and for divine guidance.

I truly would not be here if I did not believe this was the true church if Jesus Christ. There is no way I would be able to handle the rejection, witness all of the miracles, understand and speak this brain frying but unique and amazing language, and be able to stay away from my loved ones if it wasn't for the divine help and guidance from my Father in Heaven and my Redeemer. I know I am not alone. If anything my mission is helping me be truly converted. Each trial I face and each miracle I see, my Savior becomes more and more real to me. I love this gospel and I am so honored to where the name of Iesu Kirisuto over my heart everyday. It makes me sad when people do reject but it just makes me even more determined to fine those who have been searching and who are prepared to receive our message of happiness.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prays, support, and love! Aishiteimasu!

愛する
レイシー姉妹

愛する家族

Yahiko

Shinobu

Hello everyone!

This week was busy busy busy. Last Sunday I was asked to give a talk for yesterday. It was my first talk here in Japan. I've bore my testimony but I never had to give a 10 minute talk in Japanese. I was terrified. And to make me more stressed I only had language study twice this week.  Wednesday we went to Tokyo for MLC and let me tell you. The Shinkansen (bullet train) is amazing. We made it there so fast. I learned so much at the meeting! I had a great time seeing missionaries I haven't seen in forever, oh! And my Mtc companion came back! Her knees healed up and I was able to see her! Anyways, one of my favorite things I learned at MLC was using time wisely. We talked about how we are probably all working really hard but we need to start working in a different way to have more effective results.

I just wanted to share a cool miracle that happened. Last week we went to a place called Yahiko. There was a huge shrine and it was kinda like a flower festival. We went with a less active couple. We had a great time and afterwards they invited us over for dinner. At dinner I asked for any suggestions for my talk and Maeda Kyoudai is so knowledgeable about the scriptures. He pretty much made his own scripture dictionary guide and gave me some good scriptures about charity and forgiveness. Before we left he asked us to pray for them and I also invited them to my talk. I told him how I was pretty nervous and they didn't seem like they would come but I still thought I would ask. (His wife really has no interest in church conversation). Well Sunday arrived and two of our investigators came! And then right before sacrament Maeda Kyoudai came! I was pretty scared to give my talk but when I saw him and said hello my fear kinda turned to courage. My talk went pretty well and I was even able to make some jokes, やった! He left as soon as sacrament ended but it still helped me want to deliver my talk to the best of my ability. This morning I called him and thanked him and he said I did a great job and he was just so kind and him and his wife invited us over again.

I love this gospel so much! Yesterday in relief society we talked about the spirit and how the spirit and testifying are so powerful. I know that if I testify to people they will feel the spirit. If people reject us I can still testify and they can have a change of heart. Sister Yonaha and I talked about how we just really need to show love to people in Sanjo. I know that if we witness of Gods love their hearts will change and they will realize they are coming closer to that happiness I know they are searching for. Everyone wants happiness. Being sad is miserable and if we share the light of the gospel I know people will come into Christ. Thank you all for your prayers! I love you all so much! 愛しています！

愛する
レイシー姉妹