Where do I begin?

So.. Where do I begin...? That video of Jason and I exploded. One morning I looked at my iPad and I had a billion notifications from facebook. That's pretty crazy about how many views and shares the story has but then, here comes the funny part. Every morning we have a zone call and then one of the zone leader said that he saw a video of me and that everyone should check it out. Then, just wait, it gets better, we had interviews this week. I was scheduled to be first. Pretty much the first thing President Nagano said to me was, "so I saw an article and video." I think I sunk in my chair a little. I think the lady who wrote the article sent it to him. He thought it was cool and read the article to me because it's blocked on my iPad. To make a long story short President thought Jason was assigned to my mission. I told him it was Fukuoka and he said, "wait, really..? I started a rumor that he was coming here..." Haha so that was pretty funny and then I was talking with Sister Nagano and she thought the same thing but I said no he's going to Fukuoka and she said, "Oh that's good because we were already thinking that we could never have you two in the same district or zone." Haha it's been a crazy couple of days and whenever I talk to any missionaries they always say, "oh by the way your famous" or "I saw that video." Also, some missionaries thought I got special permission to do a FaceTime call to watch his mission call opening haha and even some members have said, "did you see facebook?" Or "I saw your article." And the elders in my district told me for their meal hours they spend it reading all the comments on the video that people have been saying. So, again, it's been a crazy couple of days. It's weird being famous ;) 

Okay, so now moving on to this week. It's been so busy! On the way home from visiting a less active, we were on the train and I saw this one lady who looked very sad. Sister Teruya sat down by her but was talking with a different lady. The women I saw had bruises and wounds all over and I've just never seen someone look so sad in my entire life. I finally obeyed the promptings I was having to speak with her and she smiled so nicely when I spoke with her. I couldn't understand everything she said but one word I heard her say sounded a lot like the word "death" in Japanese. I was a little confused but tried my best to just be friendly with her and show her love. I had the feeling to give her a Book of Mormon but then we arrived at our station. Sister Teruya and I were talking and figured out that she said the word "suicide" so we ran back on the train. We started talking to her and comforting her and showed her the Book of Mormon. She had been in an abusive relationship and was on her way to go commit suicide somewhere. We were trying our best to tell her that we loved her but especially that God loves her. We read some of the Book of Mormon with her and told her that there is a purpose of life. We went well out of our area with her just comforting her but knew we could only go so far. She took the Book of Mormon and she seemed a little better when we said goodbye. I'm not sure what happened with her and I hope she is okay but I know we were in the right place at the right time and I'm so glad I followed the promptings of the spirit to talk with her. That was my first experience speaking with someone who wanted to commit suicide and I've seriously never seen someone look so sad. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and to be able to do all I can to share Gods love. 

This week I have really started to understand the importance of having Christlike love. I've realized when I truly love the people I try to do everything I can for them. When I first got her I sort of had the wrong impression of one of our investigators. I was told that she was in a down and wasn't really going anywhere so I didn't really focus on her or try to form a relationship. But then, last week, I decided to just get to know her. She comes to church everywhere but isn't ready for baptism. I had really good discussions with her and we bonded so much. This week we have been in a lot of contact and I love her so much! She is amazing. She knows the gospel is true she is just scared of something. 

Last week I asked Jason to send me a simple email of his testimony and how he decided to be baptized. One of our Philippino investigators has been having similar concerns as Jason had so I read what he sent to her and it helped her a lot. She still doesn't really see the importance of making the gospel a priority and said she just feels like she's missing something. We asked her what that was and she said she's not sure. So we are going to try to help her figure out what is holding her back.

Namatame San came to church for the first time yesterday! It was a lot of fun and the members we very friendly and welcomed her. She had a great time and wants to get baptized but she is busy next week with Obon and so hopefully she can get baptized onSeptember 6 or 13. We talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost and she is excited but she said she's scared to be fully immersed in water. We told her she will be okay.

Okay, so I'll finish off with what I learned from President Nagano. He is such a great man. We were having a really good discussion. He said that if my mission seems to be getting harder then that is because I am being trusted to do more. He said I'm not given as much grace because I can do more. We are asked to be perfect but when we can't do everyone that is when we receive grace. So anyways, we had a really good talk and he is such a smart man and I learn so much from him. 

Last scary story. We had zone PDay today and literally within the first five seconds of playing capture the flag, Elder Dimick almost died. He was running and tripped over a rope and landed on his face. Elder Solomon and I ran over to him and others followed and he couldn't breath and then his eyes rolled back and he had a seizure. We were terrified and then he just went limp but then he was perfectly fine. It was the scariest thing but I had some hope because there were a bunch of priesthood holders around. Anyways, he's fine, he'll just have a major black eye for a while. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything! I miss you! Aishiteimasu!

Love, Sister Lacey