March 1st

Hey! Just another update from your favorite Sister missionary(:
Are you getting bored of my stories yet?! What kinds of things are
your favorite things to hear? What would you like me to share more
of?!
Thank you for all your love and support. I feel so grateful and happy
to have you in my life (:
This week I spent half my week in Hachioji Sisters B with sister
Yamaguchi and half in Hachioji sisters A with sister Hotu! It was a
fun week(:
Yamaguchi Shimai and I experienced the coolest miracle on Tuesday
night! Our PDay ended and we were getting ready to head out the door
to do some housing. We had a few places in mind to house that week but
as we were ready to confirm our plan, we both paused and thought for a
second and at the same time, thought and said, "let's visit Kimura
San!" We had met her one evening after visiting a less active member.
She was the first person to open her door and she was so kind. She
didn't express a lot of interest but we kept going back and trying to
visit again and she was never home. Well... She was home on Tuesday
night! And she remembered us... We quickly referred to our unique
message and began teaching. We read from the Book of Mormon together
and prayed together right there in front of her home. The words and
message we shared literally just came to us... Unplanned and very
naturally! The spirit was strong and she accepted the Book of Mormon
and agreed to meet with us again to learn and understand our message.
She doesn't have a strong belief in God but wants to know. She chooses
the right because it brings confidence and happiness but not because
of any religious values she has learned. It was incredible! After we
prayed she said she felt calm and peace and said that was her first
time to pray. I looked her in the eye and said, "God loves you, Kimura
San." She said, "He loves us all, doesn't he?" Yes, he does!
Wednesday was super busy! We had back to back appointments and were at
the church basically the entire day. The kind of day I imagined every
day as a missionary would be like! Haha We had two lessons with
members, and a lesson with Ai chan. She is the cutest. She had been
reading and praying each night before bed and really liked the stories
of Nephi and his family. We reviewed the message of the restoration
with her and invited her to pray on her knees to know if the Book of
Mormon is true and if the message we shared was true. She figured it
must be true because there are so many who believe it. And she had
never knelt and prayed before but we knelt together and she asked! We
invited her to be baptized when she receives the confirmation from the
spirit that it's true. She explained that she doesn't have the courage
or faith to be baptized yet but wants to continue to meet to learn.
She set up the next appointment before we even said anything! After
her lesson we had kids eikaiwa, and then eikaiwa! After class we threw
a surprise going-away party for elder McCarty who went home on Friday.
He had served in Hachioji for over a year and so basically everyone in
Hachioji knows him and loves him! Members came and interacted with the
students and it was a defining moment for everyone as Elder McCarty
expressed his love for them and explained why we came to serve them.
Miracle of Thursday was the lesson sisters B had with Ishizuka San. I
wasn't there but I heard it was amazing! She committed to pray like
Joseph Smith each night and really ask if the message is true. She
believes the Book of Mormon is true, but she has never asked. I know
God will answer her prayer.
Thursday was the first day of the transfer with Sister Hotu! (:
Friday night we had a lot of fun housing. We housed really close to
the church and the station. One of the first homes, the lady came out
and said she had recognized my face! We had met before at a stoplight.
She has lots of interest in kids english class but doesn't want
religion pushed on her. We invited her to try the free family english
program and she said she would come to class soon! She then told us it
was a little late and cold so we should just go home and enjoy our
Friday night. Haha.... This is what we do to enjoy our Friday night(;
Then... We rang the doorbell of a room in an apartment complex. The
lady we met was really upset we were there and asked why we came! She
pointed us to a sign that apparently says something about no
proselyting. I hadn't even noticed it.. Plus I'm sort of illiterate in
this country. I bowed as far as I could and apologized and explained
that I could not read the sign. She said, "yominasai!" Which is a
strong command to read!! She kept saying that this is Japan and I must
speak japanese and read japanese to be here! I kept bowing as she said
she would call the cops....
Then we met this super nice lady riding her bike and putting fliers in
mailboxes. We invited her to church and she said she would come! We
ran into her about three more times on her route and she kept
promising she would come to church! And she did!!!! (: pray for hiura
San! She has some very strong buddhist beliefs but likes Christian
church. She said she would come again(:
We met some other really nice people who came out of their homes and
spoke with us and listened to our message for a bit!
As we walked home we met Rie San. She has lots of interest in learning
English and expressed a tiny bit of interest in church. We introduced
the free english/gospel program and exchanged numbers. She was so
excited to be our friend, she said she sees a lot of foreigners in the
area who are so friendly and always say hello and she wondered why!
Perfect opportunity to tell her why (: hopefully we will meet soon!
Saturday: we had a lesson with a member, Hizawa Shimai. She is a
really old lady with the strongest handshake. She was baptized in 2003
and has the strongest faith and loves to share it with everyone at the
hospital! We taught the restoration. It was powerful. I was able to
recite the words of Joseph smith's first vision by memory. It's true.
My testimony is strengthened each time I teach this message. We talked
with Hizawa Shimai and her daughter nakamura Shimai about their
missionary work and invited them to kneel and pray and asked for a
confirmation that the message of the restoration is true. I love doing
what Elder Ballard taught us... Teaching everyone!! The message of the
restoration. Invite the missionaries in your ward over to teach your
family the message of the restoration! They will be more than willing
and it will strengthen your testimony and theirs!
Sunday: We had two investigators at church! Then we were able to
attend ward council and talk with them about working with and
strengthening the youth. We shared lots of ideas and they want us to
attend the youth meeting and share the ideas with the youth and begin
proselyting together and visiting less active youth together. Our
proselyting time was so hard... It was freezing and rainy and I have a
cold and I was starving and tired. I began thinking... Wait.. I don't
get paid for this. I could stop and no one would fire me or pay me
less. Then I thought... Wait.. I am doing this because I love God! And
I have a desire to love his children. I do it out of love and for
love. Not for fun or for money. The rain and the cold is worth it for
love! We prayed and invited and testified and taught. We didn't find
anyone with tons of interest but it was worth it! Because they are my
brothers and sisters. We won't stop inviting them because one day,
when they're ready they may say yes.
Hotu Shimai and I are laughing and seeing miracles!! This week was
seriously miraculous. I'm excited for what else is in store this
transfer.
What miracles did you experience this week? I would love to hear from you!
I love you. SO much! Have a happy week. Remember... Happiness is a
choice! And Jesus showed us the way(:
Love,
Sister Reeves

March 9th

Hey y'all guys,
We are getting so busy. It's fun and exhausting. But I think I like
this better than normal people life, because I'm exhausting myself for
a greater purpose. For God and for His children. Rather than
exhausting myself in my own personal pursuits. I like to not have to
worry about myself. No worries about rent, school, work, money, etc.
It's a special opportunity to be a missionary for the Lord. Don't know
what I'm gonna do when I have to worry about my own problems again!

 
SHARKS! with the eikaiwa kids 

This last week we worked really hard to get our area organized, going
through the area book, making phone calls, contacting potential
investigators, etc.. We went out and talked with everyone and got
wayyy closer to our goals for invitations and total lessons. Our
mission as a whole received a lot of inspiration from the conference
with Elder Ballard and we are just so excited about doing more and
doing better. Becoming better teachers, knowing and treasuring the
doctrine in our study, and teaching everyone we meet! It has helped us
see that we really can do more. My confidence has increased as I have
put his counsel to the test!
 
Happy Shark...doo, doo, doo, doo doo doo 

We had a wonderful visit with a less active sister, Kojima Shimai. We
used the plan of salvation as a way to talk about her family and her
role as a mother and her goals for her family. She shared her
conversion story and talked about how her dad was the first to convert
and the change in him was huge!! It made such a difference in their
home. We encouraged her to do the simple things in her home, like
praying and reading scriptures, so her children can also learn the
gospel and feel the influence of the spirit. She explained that
scripture study was a big challenge but she was willing to try. We are
looking forward to continuing a study of the gospel with her each
week.
Another really wonderful new student, Noriko, came to english class
this last week. She is a mother of two boys and her english is very
good! She and her family came to class. She learned English when she
studied in Salt Lake for a study abroad. She stayed with a mormon
family and went to church each week. She loved the environment at
church. Even though she didn't understand much english, they were like
a family to her. She has a member friend in Japan as well. She met
missionaries last year passing out English class fliers at the train
station. That missionary was from Utah and she thought it was no
coincidence that they met! She seems busy and hesitant about meeting
with us but agreed that it was fate that brought her to the church
again.
 
I was able to participate in MLC again this week! It's always amazing.
As Elder Ballard encouraged us to become the best teachers, we are
working as a mission to master our teaching skills. We spent a lot of
time practicing the skill, "listen". Going into it, I thought I was a
pretty good listener. But I'm really not! Listening requires
forgetting yourself, focusing all your attention on the person you are
speaking with, not planning how you will answer or what you will say
next, not worrying about the time or the agenda of the lesson, not
stressing about your Japanese or what principle of the gospel they
really need to hear, but just listening. And asking questions and
showing you understand and showing that you care. We did a few big
practices on how to resolve concerns. We won't resolve their concern
in one meeting, and we won't do it by ourselves, but our investigators
will trust us with their true feelings and concerns if they feel we
are motivated by love for them rather than a responsibility to our
"job". It's scary to let go of the lesson plan and not organize a
grammatically correct sentence in your head, but the Spirit guides and
I know that to be true!
We met with another less active sister, Hama Shimai. She is a returning
member and she is coming back strong. She has committed herself to
re-reading the Book of Mormon and she is completely serious about it.
We had a lesson with her about missionary work and she opened up about
her less active sisters who need the strength of the gospel. Hama
Shimai loves the Internet and has a lot of online friends. We
challenged her to join us in posting our favorite scriptures on
Facebook and coming with us to the social media fair this Saturday,
where we will be trained on how to use facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and mormon.org in order to share the gospel! Sister Hotu and I have been
asked to go early and be there to help members create their own
accounts! We have been doing a lot of work with members recently and
encouraging them to share their faith through the various types of
technology we have today. It's a sign of God hastening his work and
these tools can be used for so much good!
 
Sister Hotu and Me

 We taught lots of lessons this week with other members and were able
to focus our practice on the doctrines we have a harder time
explaining/teaching simply. This week we practiced repentance, the law
of chastity, and teaching the pattern of priesthood dispensations and
apostasy. So difficult, but the members help us so much and we are
becoming more confident teachers.

We got really close to our goal of 15 lessons and 70 invitations to
church/lessons! Our faith in our own efforts and in this work is
increasing. God is with us to help us every step of the way. The four
sisters in our apartment have all been a little sick these days, but
we are taking advantage of opportunities to share the gospel and
learning that there is joy to be found in this life!

Our current investigators are having a hard time meeting with us
lately, but in the mean time we have some new potential investigators
we are really excited about. We have a lessons set up with two of them
for this week. Please keep Rie San and Kurokawa San in your prayers.
We pray that they may feel the Spirit as they meet with us in the
church and learn about their Heavenly Father.

Today we focused our personal and companion study on the nature of God
and coming to know Him. One of my favorite scriptures from my study is
Alma 13: 28 -29 But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord,
and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may
not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the
Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love
and all long-suffering;
29 Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive
eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye
may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.

As we humble ourselves before God and pray always, we are blessed with
His Spirit and feelings of love. He gives us hope and He strengthens
our faith. I have a personal relationship with God. He is my Father. I
know He loves me because when I pray to Him or follow the words He
taught, I feel peace of conscience and I know that the path I'm
traveling will lead me to greater peace and joy. When I follow Him, I
realize that even my trials have purpose. I realize that I am special
to Him and that He wants me to go through pain so I can become strong
and change and become worthy to live with Him again. I have never seen
God, but I believe. He has given me experiences to test my belief and
experiences to strengthen it. But I know He is there and I know He
lives.

I love each of you SO SO SO much(:

Love,
Sister Reeves

February 23rd

Hello, what's up?!

We got transfer announcements yesterday. Why do they come so fast?!
Anyway... Of course... I have another new companion! I'm sort of kind
of transferring. I'm not leaving Hachioji ward but I am switching to
the other sisters' companionship so it will be a completely different
teaching pool. I'm kind of sad because I absolutely love the people we
have been working with. Anyway, Sister Hotu will be my new companion.

District Pic at Ishikawa Kyoudai's Baptism
Elder Turley, Elder Hansen, Elder McCarty, Brother Ishikawa, Elder Larkin, Elder Rockwood,
Sister Blake, Sister Hotu, Sister Yamaguchi, Sister Reeves 

Here's what happened this week:

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Blake Shimai! She is awesome and
basically fluent in Japanese and fearless when it comes to talking to
people. And she's also really good at getting people to respond and
smile back. That's what I learned from her, is that we can go out
there with enthusiasm and share smiles with TONS of people. We had
lots of really meaningful conversations and invited tons of people to
church, shared testimony, taught principles of the gospel, found
potential investigators, and visited members and investigators. Busy
day, but a happy one. Maybe Hotu Shimai and I will be able to teach
the new friends we found that day!

Wednesday was fun! We did a role play lesson with a member, visited a
potential investigator and taught eikaiwa in the afternoon/evening. A
new student came to english class in the evening. Her name is Nao and
she is currently in college studying theology. She is really good at
English and did a study abroad in Australia. She loves learning about
religion and she had a really good experience at eikaiwa. We are
excited to continue building a friendship with her!

On Thursday, Kitahara Shimai came with us to teach Ishizuka San's
lesson. She only had a little time so we weren't able to share the
lesson we had planned but it was still a miracle. Ishizuka San doesn't
understand her relationship with Christ. One way she can understand
that relationship is by praying to the Father in His name. Up until
now, she has been praying but not in Christ's name. We spent time
talking about the Spirit and how she has received answers to her
prayers and we read from the Book of Mormon together. She closed the
lesson by praying in Christ's name and said she would continue to pray
in the way we taught. She is progressing slowly but surely. She is
happy so she doesn't feel like she needs religion or needs to change
so we are praying that the Holy Ghost can touch her heart and help her
understand God's power and the power of Christ's atonement. Keep her
in your prayers if you can(:

Friday we had zone meeting and I had the opportunity to give a
training on focusing on the Holy Ghost to help others make and keep
commitments. I learned a ton from my preparation!
I based my training on the following quote by President Packer:
"When conversion takes place, it is through the power of the Spirit.
In order to succeed in missionary work, these three things must occur:
We must understand what an investigator must feel in order to
receive conversion.

AI chan 

We must understand how a missionary must feel in order to teach
with the converting power of the Spirit.
And then we must understand how a member must feel to succeed
in participating in the conversion experience(mission presidents
conference, 3 Apr. 1985).
We read from the scriptures together and talked about how each of us
must feel in order to experience a change of heart. Because we have
felt the converting power of the Holy Ghost, we desire others to feel
it too! As we strengthen our own testimony and build up the ward where
we serve, members and missionaries can work together to help others
come unto Christ. I love this scripture from Luke: "when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren."
Luke 22:32

We saw another miracle on Friday when a former investigator, Ai chan
was able to come to President Wada's questions of the soul fireside.
He showed clips from Indiana Jones and led a discussion on faith. Ai
was fellowshipped and welcomed by members who had remembered her from
before. She said she wanted to come to church again and take lessons.
She was able to come to church on Sunday and eat lunch with us
afterwards and have a lesson. Her heart is really open to the message
and she feels God's love and has so much gratitude for him. We are
excited/grateful for this opportunity to share the gospel and study
with her(:

On Saturday we attended Ishikawa Kyoudai's baptism. He has read the
entire standard works probably and knows like way more about the
church than I do. His testimony is so strong and he already wants to
share the gospel with everyone! He received the Holy Ghost and the
Aaronic Priesthood this week and will be passing the sacrament next
week. He is amazing! He bore powerful testimony at his baptism and
shared the miracles he has seen that led him to the church and talked
for so long that the ward mission leader had to encourage him to wrap
it up!

I had an opportunity to attend a stake leadership training meeting on
Saturday afternoon with the other sister training leaders and zone
leaders in the stake. It was a perfect opportunity to build trust with
the leaders, something I had been feeling like I wasn't very good at.
We ended up in the same train car as one of the counselors in the
stake presidency on the way to the meeting. He saw us as we talked
with and invited passengers in the train and then later at the meeting
asked me to come up and share my testimony and experience of how my
leaders helped me in my youth. I was so nervous but was so grateful
for the opportunity to share my experience. It really helped the stake
leaders and leaders in the ward to know that we are working hard and
we have a testimony of this gospel. We learned so much together and
were able to discuss how to strengthen the youth in our units and had
a great lesson on the atonement.

Dinner with the Hayase girls (Sister Hayase, Yuki, Ema, Sister Yamaguchi, Me) 

On Sunday we stopped by to visit Suzuki San and she was home and
invited us in! Miracle! She is really uncertain about her faith but is
grateful for our visits. She almost gave the Book of Mormon back to us
but decided she would hold on to it after talking with us. She has a
happy family but is definitely missing something in her life. I know
the answers are found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love her and He
loves her. Please pray for Suzuki San!

Yesterday we went to the North mission for a 2 mission conference with
Elder Ballard, Elder Rasband, Bishop Stevonson, Elder Whiting, and
Elder Aoyagi. It was AMAZING! I learned so many simple things that I
can apply to the work I do here in Japan. Our message is simple and
our message is unique! We must study daily and practice teaching
daily. Teach members, investigators, everyone.. And know the doctrine
and live the doctrine so we can be ready to share it with those who
will receive us. And they must kneel and Ask God if we are his
messengers and if the words we share are true. Then they will know.
I'm grateful for prophets and apostles called by a loving Heavenly
Father. He really does love us. And that is why I'm here, sharing this
message with anyone who will listen. I know this church is true and I
know Christ is our Redeemer.

Even if you have already asked a million times. Will you kneel tonight
and pray and ask God if the Book of Mormon is true, if Joseph Smith
was His prophet? He will answer you again and your faith and
confidence will grow.

I love you! Have a joyful week!

Sister Reeves

Ema, Sister Yamaguchi, and Yuki