Miracle Week!!

Picnic at
Minumahikawa Park - 3/30/15

Minumahikawa Park - 3/30/15

Picnic at 
Minumahikawa Park - 3/30/15

Picnic at 
Minumahikawa Park - 3/30/15

Picnic at 
Minumahikawa Park - 3/30/15

Picnic at 
Minumahikawa Park - 3/30/15

Miracle Week!

Konnichiwa Kazoku! 

Wow what a week! Thank you for all of the emails. I'm glad you all are doing so well and seeing so many blessings! We seriously saw so many miracles this week, I love my mission! So on Tuesday we had a district meeting and we talked about gratitude and working with the members. It's definitely hard working with members and trying to plan lessons when both the investigator and member is available, but it definitely pays off! After our meeting we had a lesson with Silvia and Morita Shimai. Silvia is from Hong Kong but she speaks Japanese well and Morita Shimai is in our ward. I was feeling so frustrated in the lesson and I felt like I wasn't following it at all and I just wanted to be done. Well, Sticht Shimai suddenly asked me to bare my testimony about God and all I could get myself to say was "I know that God is my Father in Heaven and that He loves everyone and He wants us to pray to Him." I thought I did an awful job and I was so upset but then I looked over at Morita Shimai and she had tears coming down her face! I learned in that instant that it doesn't matter at all about what I say, the Spirit is the one who touches the hearts of those we teach. Even though I had broken Japanese and I said very basic things, it still touched her and even though Silvia might not of felt anything, Morita Shimai did and I'm grateful for that. 

The next day we biked a lot and went to go visit an investigator who used to have a baptismal date but she got pretty sick and she hasn't been taught in a while. On our way we stopped and talked to this Filipino woman and she spoke English and she seemed pretty interested so we are going to try and set up an appointment with her soon. 

So throughout the past couple days I've really been wanting to connect with someone and effect them and to really find a friend. I was just feeling kind of down and I wanted to be able to truly help someone. Well, the prayer of my heart was answered! When we went to Eikaiwa (English class) There was a new face there. Her name is Liu Fang and she is from China. She is about 30 but she looks 20 but anyways she found out about Eikaiwa online and so she came. After class we played bingo and we were getting to know each other more. We are seriously instant best friends! I love her so much! After we said the closing prayer she was asking about prayer so I was telling her a little bit and I asked her if she believed in God and she said no but she thinks He might exist and then she said, "maybe you could tell me more some other time." That's something every missionary loves to hear! I invited her to sports day on Saturday and she came! We had fun playing ping pong and then I was playing with 3 Chinese people! They hold the paddles like us dad!! It was intense but they said I was good and they seemed a little shocked. After we were all finished I started talking to Fang more and she had a lot of questions. I was telling her the basics of what we believed and I packed a Chinese Book of Mormon in advanced and I gave it to her. She said she'd have a hard time believing it all because she's always been taught that she is the only one who can help herself overcome things and not to believe in a god but I told her just to try praying and reading. I asked Steve (a Chinese recent convert) if he would show her where the introduction to the Book of Mormon was and he ended up explaining things a little better in her native language and he told her a little bit about his story. (Just a side note: I really want them to get married. There's just sparks whenever they talk.) The downside right now is that her parents came into town from China so they are going to be traveling around for about 2 weeks so I wont see her for awhile but hopefully after they go back we will be able to meet with her again. (Another side note: I think I've taught more Chinese people than Japanese. It's nice because I get to speak English but then I feel like my Japanese isn't improving. Chinese people are Kinjin! Golden)

So Thursday was insane! Nothing went according to our plans but it was definitely God's Will. We kind of left our apartment later than expected but just down the street there was a mother with a little girl and a baby. We started talking to her and then when we were talking about Jesus and eternal families her little baby started smiling and reaching his hand out towards us! It was the most adorable and spiritual experience! Her baby knew! Also, during study time we did a mogi (role play) of if we would meet a Christian and how we would react and how we would want to talk about eternal families. We'll we went to the church and had to do somethings but Sticht Shimai forgot her planner, iPad and the phone so we decided to leave and drop off thank you notes at members houses. On our way we saw a lady from Africa and decided to talk to her. She spoke English and guess what? She's a Christian AND she went to a LDS church before in Tokyo! She has a daughter and she loved when we were talking about eternal families. I'm glad we decided to practice that morning! Next, on the way to visit a member, we saw a lady who has kind of been investigating and talked to her for a while and we said how we were going to go visit the Takahashi family and she wanted too come. We ended up all talking for a long time and it went really well. Then we got home and decided we should probably go to the church and finish up things we didn't do earlier that morning, it was getting kinda late but we decided to anyways. We got there and two sets of elders were there and Sen. Sen is from China but very fluent in Japanese. We asked him why he was there and he said he just felt like he should come. He started helping me with some Japanese words and Sticht Shimai was on the phone. Suddenly he got a voice mail and his face just dropped. The day before he had said that his dad is pretty sick and in the voice mail he found out that his dad died... Sticht Shimai and my first instinct was to hug him but we couldn't and finally the elders did after they realized what happened. It was so sad but we were able to all pray together and comfort him. He lives alone and isn't a member. I know that Heavenly Father knew we all needed to be at the church to help comfort Sen and I'm glad we all listened to the promptings of the Spirit.

This week has been amazing and I've learned so much. Oh, I had sushi. It was practically a sushi sandwich. 3 of them. It was edible but the seaweed got to be too much. I survived though! I love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers and support! This work is hard but I know that when I have faith, and act upon that faith, have a positive attitude, and follow the spirit, I WILL see miracles! I love you all! Aishitemasu!

Love Lacey Shimai