Hello!

With new Mission President and his wife

Tokyo Temple

Tokyo Temple

Minasan Konnichiwa! 

I'm glad you all are having a great summer! I missed being in America for the 4th if July but we celebrated by going to McDonald's! I've almost had a heart attack this week... I have just about one year left of my mission!! This is crazy how fast it is going by! So I forgot to explain about sports day last week. We had stake sports day and it was so much fun! Our ward came in 3rd or 4th.. I can't remember but I think we one for team spirit! We had matching shirts and team flags and we cheered so much. It was so awesome! We went to this huge city gym. It was the biggest gym I have ever seen and we played all sorts of fun games and relays. Saitama Stake is awesome!

This week has been amazing! We have our new Mission President and Mission Mom! The Nagano's are seriously so amazing! I think I'm going to keep a quote book of the hilarious things they say. We had a short meet and greet with them and I already feel so close to them. I already learned a huge lesson from President Nagano. We were having a discussion and someone asked how can we give our mission everything and our whole soul and President said we need to "seek His will." He talked about how the only thing that is completely ours is our will and our desires. Everything else, Heavenly Father has given us. He said as we give up our will and desires and make our will the same as His, we will become better servants of the Lord. It was an amazing little conference! I can't wait to learn more from them.

So a huge miracle happened this week. We have an investigator who is so amazing! A few months ago elders went housing and she was outside smoking. One of the elders said, "No smoking!" And long story short she started meeting with the sister missionaries. She used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day and when I met her she was down to about 3. Last week she called us and said she had stopped smoking completely! We went and visited her the next day and she seemed so much happier. She looked like she was glowing. She said she felt so much healthier. I had really felt for that lesson we needed to teach her more about prayer. Before we would need to help her step by step through the prayer and she wanted to copy what we said. I told her that a prayer comes from the heart and she is literally talking to God. She said the prayer by herself at the end and it was beautiful! Thursday morning she called us and told us about a miracle! She woke up one morning and couldn't feel the left side of her body. She called the ambulance and they took her to the hospital and said she could be having a stroke. On the way to the next hospital she asked the nurses to pray for her but they didn't know how so she prayed. At the next hospital they did a lot of tests and eventually they said her brain was completely clean and she was fine! Huge miracle! When she was telling us all this on the phone she was crying and said how she knows we are disciples of Christ. Now we just need to help her come to church. 

We also had a lesson with one of our investigators from the Philippians. She loves learning learning about our church. We usually go out to eat with her and I've been noticing that we need to start to have more of a spiritual setting. Our plan was to talk about the law of chastity but then she was asking about temples and I asked her if she remembered the plan of salvation and she had no idea what I was talking about. I instantly changed gears and started talking about the plan of salvation. I'm not sure when she had that lesson but she didn't remember anything so I knew that's what she needed. I think I caught my companions a little off guard because the plan was to talk about the law of chastity but then I started teaching plan of salvation. It ended up going pretty well but there is a bit of a language barrier. She is good at English and Japanese but doesn't quite understand everything we teach. I know we need to have more of a spiritual setting with her so the spirit can teach her heart and the language barrier won't matter.

We had International night and it was a lot of fun! It was great to see some members from Urawa and it was nice to know that they miss me. I miss them too but Okegawa is awesome! I was able to see one of my old investigators and I miss teaching her but she seems to be doing good. President Nagano gave me some hope because he told me the plan is to open up Urawa sisters again. People keep telling me they think I'm going to open it back up and train someone. I think that there is no way that will happen but you never know! 

We saw a huge miracle yesterday! We went to go visit a less active but she wasn't home so on the way back to the station we met a lady from the Philippians and she asked us to come visit her and told us where she loves! We have an appointment with her this Saturday!

I have started a 40 day fast on bad habits I need to stop doing and things I should start doing. I know it will be difficult and I won't be perfect at it but I just need to constantly humble myself. This week a lot of people have been telling me that my Japanese is really good and then sometimes I get a little prideful but Heavenly Father is well aware and as soon as that happens I talk to some one who I can't understand at all! I bore my testimony in sacrament and it was really short but afterwards this one girl in the ward who served in Cali came up to me and said,   "Thank you so much for your testimony. You have such a strong spirit. I was translating sacrament into English for my friend but I couldn't translate what you said. I understood it but I couldn't put it into words. I just felt it so strong."  I bore a very simple testimony and made a lot of language mistakes. I know that it is the spirit that touches the hearts of those we teach and talk to. It is a great privilege to be an instrument in God's hands and to witness so many miracles but to also figure out my weaknesses. I know that this is God's work and I would not be able to do any of this if it was not for His help. I had a great time at the temple. It's so amazing! I love you all so much! Thank you for all your support. I miss you all! Aishitemasu!

Love, Sister Lacey