Sprint to the End!

Kairakuen

Kairakuen

The found black swans

She made her first burrito in over a year!

She found this while we were in Hawaii!

Hello everyone! Thank you for all of the emails! So much has happened this week! 

This email is going to be really long, I'll break it up into categories so you can choose which topic you'd like to read. 

Things I've Learned

This may have been one of the best weeks of my mission. I feel like I've really learned why I'm on a mission and what Heavenly Father expects of me. The beginning of the week was really rough and I was having a hard time just knowing the fact that I haven't seen much of the "fruit of my labors" during my mission. But I'm just going to try and focus on who I can bless one day at a time. I was reading through my setting apart blessing and in it it says several times that the Lord is eager to watch the people I will influence, or if I open my mouth the people will be grateful for the feelings I help them feel. Things like that, so I want to make sure I am touching people's hearts one by one. 

General conference was so amazing. My heart was seriously swollen with the Spirit the whole time. It's interesting how sometimes we forget about or take lightly the most important and spectacular truth of this gospel: We are children of a loving Father in Heaven. I'm great for that knowledge in my life. 

Miracles

During P-day last week, we were riding our bikes and just talking about how since we are trying to talk to more and more people we are getting more accustomed to rejection and how it would be funny when someone actually says yes because we'd freeze and not know what to do. Let's just say Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. We had talked to about four people who had no interest and then we saw a lady getting ready to cross the road and I thought why not. She knew exactly who we were when we started talking to her and she was saying some negative things but then I testified of the truth and told her what we believe and how we have a loving Father in Heaven. Long story short, she said she'd like to learn more and willingly gave us her number! 

Recently, I haven't been really good a train dendo (talking to people on trains as we travel)... I know. I'm terrible. So again, Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. We were on our way to go teach family eikaiwa and then our train broke down. I was somewhat upset because then we were going to be late but then I turned and looked at a lady who sat a few seats down from me and I instantly knew I needed to talk to her and that's why the train broke. I spoke with her for awhile and turns out she used to come to eikaiwa and church parties like 30ish years ago! The church building had changed locations so she never knew how to get there so she stopped going. She had questions about the word of wisdom and I was able to read through the word of wisdom pamphlet with her. I testified of Gods love to her and she said that meeting was fate. I agreed and asked if we could meet again and have her number but she said no... She said if she meets missionaries one more time she'll know it is a sign from God and then she'll meet. I was a bit bummed but I could tell she felt the Spirit and I think she knew it too she's just not quite prepared all the way. I know she will soon though. She thanked me for helping her and talking with her. It was definitely a special experience and I'm grateful I was able to bless her life even if it was small. 

We are working with the ward a lot better now! We're just focusing on loving them and gaining their trust and today we did a thing called Zion dendo where we went on splits with members and went out to less active's and invited them to a church barbecue party we are having soon. It was really fun and we bonded really well!

Updates

We met with Saito San and talked about baptism. She said she believes in Christ and wants to follow Him but is Buddhist and her family is Buddhist and she wants to respect them. I told her she doesn't have to change her culture and she can still respect her ancestors and we testified if the blessing that can come from this gospel. She got really emotional saying how much she loves us and how much we've helped her and she would like to be baptized but just needs more time. Next time we meet with her we want to set just a baptism goal and also talk about the adversary and how he will try to lead her astray but she can find happiness through Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

Mayumi came to church with the member she likes. I flat out asked her if she'd like to take the discussions and she said not really but she likes coming to church. I mentioned to her that before she wanted to be baptized and she still said she kinda does but I told her she can't get baptized whenever she wants and there's more she needs to learn. She said she'll think about it. 

Analogy

I've thought of an analogy about mission and running. During a race you usually start off strong and then settle in your pace so you can sprint to the end. In my experience I've always had the best races when I do that. You need to leave some energy to finish strong but, you don't want to take it too easy or else you'll look great finishing strong but you'll come in dead last if you were lazy. I've compared that to my mission. I started off great by getting good training in the MTC, I worked hard the beginning of my mission, but then I kinda fell into a slow pace. I got comfortable and was scared to push myself, afraid of being burnt out. But I've realized that I am capable of so much more. I need to make sure I'm pushing myself, I'm ready to start sprinting to the end and making sure I give it all I can. I know the Lord is on my team and "Heaven is cheering [me] on." 

I love this work so much! I'm grateful for everything I am learning and experiencing. I love you al, so much! I hope you have a great week!

Love Sister Lacey

Sent from my iPad