April 7th

Hello hello hello hi hi hi hello hello hello HIIIII
This week was pretty fabulous. Kept ourselves busy for sure. I'm so
relieved its p day and I can get some rest! We filled our schedule
with appointments and met with so many investigators and PIs. We got
lots of teaching experience. We taught 7 lessons and worked with more
members this week. Perfect to work side by side with the members...
Their fellowship and testimonies are so powerful in the conversion
process.
Tuesday we went to get sushi and check out some local shops with a PI,
Amanda. She is gaijin and super fun. Sasaki Shimai and I had met her
on the train before and she seemed preoccupied, but Sister Wells and
Feist met her another time and hit it off. Amanda has dated a Mormon
before and investigated the church for a little bit, but right now she
isn't super interested but she really wants to become our friend. She
is one of those fun health nut organic produce eating fitness gurus!
She wants to show us how to make chocolate with coconut oil.

Wednesday was a big day. Taught baby eikaiwa and adult eikaiwa. We
also taught three lessons to progressing investigators. It makes me so
happy to see them progress and change and have a desire to know more
and understand and apply the scriptures to their lives.
We have a few brand new investigators this week. One is Kobayashi San.
She signed up to meet with us for half English and half gospel
lessons. She really doesn't know English at all but she is such a
sweet lady and really fun to meet with. We got to know her religious
background, introduced the Book of Mormon, taught her to pray, and had
her pray to close the lesson. I think she was way surprised by how the
meeting went, but also really enjoyed it and had a good impression.
Another new investigator is Sayaka San. She is actually a referral
from the north mission. She lives in Suginami which is right between
the two missions, but actually in the Kichijoji ward. She is
fantastic. She is so ready and so prepared for the message. She has a
baptismal date for the end of this month. She has received almost all
the lessons, is reading the Book of Mormon and praying, and having
spiritual experiences. She is close with president budge of the north
mission. And.... One of the sister missionaries who taught her in
Nakano, is my friend from BYU, Sister McAllister!! Sister McAllister
and my companion, Sister Feist, were also friends in the MTC so it was
such an exciting referral and we are excited to meet at the baptism.
On Saturday after kids eikaiwa, we had a fun baking activity with the
kids and their moms. They wanted to learn how to make American
desserts so we did brownies, cake mix cookies, and ice cream sundaes
with crushed Oreos and Reese's and Hershey's shell chocolate sauce.
Baking in Japan is complicated but it ended up working out and being a
lot of fun. One of the mothers and her children recently started
taking lessons from the other sisters. A few ward members came to the
activity and it ended up being such a good experience. They all
thought the desserts were way too sweet and I had to agree after
eating only fluffy 'sugared air' type desserts in Japan. I actually felt
kinda sick after eating something that rich. Long time no see,
brownies!
We had an interesting lesson with Pinko San this week. We found out a
lot about her that I did not know previously. She apparently has been
an investigator off and on for 10 years! She comes to church almost
every week, but she hasnt been reading the Book of Mormon. She is
Chinese so she has a Japanese and Chinese Book of Mormon. The sister
missionaries and members of the ward have always given her the
scripture references to review at home in English or Japanese so she
spends her time trying to translate the reading assignments and is not
able to find them in the Chinese copy. Instead of just starting from
the beginning of the book and just reading it in Chinese, she gives up
because she can't find the exact chapter or verse that was suggested
for her to read. Now that we know this we can better prepare and book
mark her scriptures for her! The message of the priesthood really
clicked with her this lesson. She was like... "Wait.. I have to
baptized again into this church?!" She said she is not ready for that.
The member who was present gave a powerful testimony of how she came
to know the church was true by reading the Book of Mormon. We know
Pinko is receiving answers and feeling the Spirit, she just doesn't
know quite yet how to understand the responses she is receiving.
This week was full of miracles. We were busy, but we made our goal of
having 100 meaningful conversions with people on the street. 101! Talk
to everyone. Invite everyone.
We met this really nice nun today. She said she sees us running every
morning. We spoke with her for a little bit and she said we are always
welcome to visit the convent. I would love to visit!
We aren't allowed to stop men and talk to them on the street but we
can talk if they stop us. Today this man literally stopped in his
tracks as we were leaving the grocery store. He was so shocked to see
two tall Americans. He literally asked, "What is this?" Haha
Just a couple of our dendou experiences for ya! Pretty typical.
Love y'all lots. Always love hearing from ya! Peace and blessings.
Don't forget to find joy in the little things and thank God for
everything! This life is incredible. Grateful to have all of you in my
life!