March 31st

Hello!
Another busy p day, but I have a couple minutes to write an update for
y'all! It's been a fantastic week. Transfers were on Thursday so I had
my last couple days working with sister Sasaki. We had a couple really
wonderful lessons together. Bi shin San explained that because she
grew up in china, it's really hard for her to believe in God.
Everything there is explained by science and chemicals and religion
isn't really allowed. She says that she really wants to continue to
study with us. Her Christian friends who believe in God all seem
really happy. I explained that her desire for happiness is a sign of
her faith. We shared the scripture from Alma 32 about "experimenting"
on the word. We shared with her the experiment that would help her
strengthen her faith: prayer And study of Gods word. We asked her if
she wanted to test it and she agreed. We taught her to pray and she
prayed in mostly Chinese and a little English at the end of our
discussion. She has so much that she is grateful for. Wonderful lady!

Our lesson with Amy was also great! She had lots of questions about
Joseph Smith and receiving answers to prayers. She prayed with us and
in her prayer mentioned her desire to learn about the church. She is
stellar. Started as an English class student but she came with us to a
baptism and then expressed interest in understanding more of what we
believe in.

The new missionaries came in on Tuesday night. I am lucky to be in
this area cause I got to see them! Lots of friends from the last
couple weeks in the MTC! We got to run/walk with them in the park on
Wednesday and Thursday and guide them through their first proselyting
experience on Wednesday afternoon. They were all so excited. Sister
wells, in our apartment, became a trainer and so we have a new
missionary with us! Her name is sister merstrand. She is from Denmark,
but she has spent some time in Germany, 5 years in Texas, and a couple
years at BYU. So. She is tri lingual and now working on Japanese!
Incredible. Part of her time in texas, she lived in league city and
went to clear creek high school. League city stake! Crazy huh? I don't
know how to say her name, but she is great!

This new transfer is gonna be crazy. Sister Feist and I are so
excited! She is great at Japanese and is such a great missionary. She
has a strong testimony and a lot of enthusiasm for the work. We are a
little overwhelmed taking over for sister Sasaki who has been in this
area for 9 months! This area is old and our apartment is ancient. We
have a goal to get our area organized and busy! We spent some time
organizing our ancient area books and found records from 1998. Luckily
we have an area book app on the iPad so things are so much easier
these days. Sister Feist is also an organizing freak like me so we
were in heaven getting everything all cleaned up. We are organized and
have proven to already be super busy. We have so many appointments
this week! everyone just wants to meet with us! We also are seeing
great miracles. We are meeting incredible people in our finding
activities. People who want to meet with us again to hear our
message... Not just to eat curry or hang out. It is so exciting to
experience these miracles. I feel so grateful and so blessed.

Sister Feist and I also want to work more with the members and with
less actives. This past Sunday was great. The meetings were combined
and all were about member missionary work. We split into groups for
discussion and I was with this sweet sister named kanaya Shimai. She
explained how she came into contact with the church awhile back
through English class. She is the only member her family. Her
family is pretty opposed but her mother is showing interest little by
little. She shared the Book of Mormon with her younger sister, but
they are so busy that they have not had the time to study together.
She talked about Japanese views of religion and why it's hard to be a
missionary at her workplace. I really didn't understand everything she
said but I must have made the appropriate comments and understood
enough because she really opened up. After the meeting I thanked her
for talking with me. She said she had one more thing to say and she
began to tear up as she spoke about her mother. She is so sweet and I
am excited to continue serving this sister and working with her. We
also spoke with sisters who want to participate in our lessons and
fellowship the friends we are meeting. Sacrament meeting was hilarious. It was sort of a farewell for one of the young men in the ward leaving on his mission this week so the
other young men sang called to serve. One played the piano and two
sang. The pianist was struggling through the notes and was so funny
about it and the two others were just like any typical teenage guys
who don't sing. No one in the congregation could keep a straight face,
even the bishopric was dying. Almost as good as the primary programs
back home :)

We met this awesome lady from Poland who is living here while she does
her doctorate program. She is the sweetest and has the most amazing
values. She asked us for our email before we could ask for hers! She
really wants to meet with us again and she lives way close so we ran
into her at the grocery store today! We are excited to present her
with a polish Book of Mormon!

This week we had a lunch appt with a potential investigator, okada
San. she is 17 years old and pretty tom boyish. Sister Feist and I tried
to keep a conversation going in our best Japanese but this girl was
sort of anti social so we had to do all of the talking! It was pretty
awkward. The food was incredible though. We hope she had fun.... We
are not sure if she will want to meet again... We think she was
expecting sister Sasaki. She apologized for not talking very much...
But it was a good experience to survive the awkward... In another
language. Haha we are sometimes happy we aren't English speaking
missionaries... Cause at least we have an excuse for not being perfect
at the language or not being perfectly socially acceptable. :)

We are meeting so many amazing people. We have faith that God will
lead us to those who have been prepared. I wish I had time in these
emails to tell you about everyone! But I will keep you updated.

Today was a fun p day. We had a lunch appt with a former
investigator...she said she doesn't read the Book of Mormon because
it's hard to understand. She doesn't have a lot of interest in
Christianity but she said she would want to read the Book of Mormon
with us. We ate the most delicious pizza and the restaurant manager is
genuinely interested in meeting with us to learn English and learn
about Christianity. She basically was like "duh! Of course I believe
in God!" So friendly... We are excited to meet with her again!

We met with a new potential investigator and taught a quick lesson
about the Book of Mormon. She said she had thought about some of the
questions of the soul that are answered through study of the Book of
Mormon. She said she doesn't have a lot of interest in religion but
she is excited to become our friend and study English together and
read a little together. Her story is cool. Sister Feist met her in the
park. Her name is moeka and she is 16. She lived with a Mormon host
family for a study abroad in Montana. She has been to church and she
wears a CTR ring. She is so good at English and loves hanging out with
us. She showed us her favorite place to shop in kichijoji after the
lesson and we took pictures in the Japanese photo booths.they are a
million times more fun than the ones in America!

 

We met with another PI, Kaori San. She is a fashion designer.  She
makes all her own clothes and sells clothes. She wanted to show us how
to sew. She literally made two dresses in one hour just right there!
Sister Feist and I will be twins! We shared the Book of Mormon with
her and talked about her ideas about religion. She is pretty cool...
She wants to be monk in India. She wants to be free and live an almost
homeless type lifestyle and only eat vegetables. Surprising because
she is super fashionable and cute! But she is silly... She loves
horror movies and anything crazy... She thinks I am so funny for
liking Disney princesses.

I'll send lots of pictures. Sorry for not writing you individually
often or ever. This big email is all I really have time for. Just
remember you are in my prayers and I love you all and miss you!

<3 sister reeves

 This is croissant taiyaki. Normal taiyaki is like sweet bean paste
inside a waffle type thing and always In a fish shape. So yummy. But
croissant bread instead of waffles is divine. It's a new thing in
Japan and kichijoji has one! Just imagine the taste. We went as a
celebration for a great last transfer.

 Cold at Sports Night (Sister Feist and Wells)

 Sister S is little

Mt Takao Pictures:
Musashino South Zone