January 11th

My dearest family! Hello! 

We got transfer calls last night... Surprise! New companion: Yamaguchi Shimai! Yes, I will be speaking Japanese alllll the time again :) She will be transfer 6 and she is the cutest and sweetest sister in the mission! Way sad to have Brown Shimai leave me :( We had a way fun transfer together! 

And the updates and miracles of this week: 

I participated in MLC on Thursday. I always love going to the mission home and learning from President Wada. He knows so much about the scriptures. This time he taught us from Alma 36 and we talked about repentance. In the afternoon we had a chance to practice teaching the principle of repentance. Repentance is the purpose of this gospel. If we aren't repenting, then we can't receive the blessings this gospel offers and our membership and attendance in the church means nothing to us. It's so important and yet one of the hardest principles to teach. We learned that it is really hard to teach a principle we have never applied. If we don't know the rejoicing that comes from turning to God then we can't help another to come unto Him. I'm grateful for the power of Christ's sacrifice for us. His love for each of us is real and infinite and unconditional. His love is the power that allows us to change and experience peace.

We had Zone Conference on Friday. It was a really cool meeting. I have enjoyed experiencing my own personal growth as a missionary but also watching our mission grow together. For several months we focused on simple missionary skills like teaching lessons and finding investigators. Our focus at this conference was helping new converts, working with Ward councils, seeking referrals, and cultivating a desire to serve the Lord. We are becoming more effective and seeing miracles as we work with the members! There are 90,000 missionaries and 15 million members... The force is a lot bigger if the missionaries aren't left to do it alone. We had a lot of good trainings! For one of the trainings, we had the 2 zones split into 4 groups and each sister training leader got to do a training on teaching simply with our smaller groups. I was nervous but it ended up going really well! So glad the Spirit is always there to help me! Also, the area medical, Dr. Hansen spoke to us about maintaining our health. And I got to introduce myself to him and thank him for all his phone calls and help while I was down with food poisoning. 

We had SPM this week as well and met with the stake presidency. It's fun to get to know and work with many leaders. President Wada drove us back to Hachioji and we had a great conversation about all the missionaries we have been leading and serving in our zone. President Wada is the best. Sometimes he seems more like a friend than a leader. Grateful to be in this mission. And grateful Bishop Allan said hello to him years ago!! 

We had a miracle with a less active. So, there is this lady named Yoshida Shimai. She has been less active for years, but her husband was always really active and he was the last Ward mission leader in Hachioji. Anyway, he passed away about 3 years ago. There is a tradition in Japan that when a family member dies, the family doesn't send out a New Years card that next year. Well, the Relief Society president got a card from Yoshida Shimai this year! So she suggested we try to visit her. We stopped by with chocolates and a message but she wasn't home. Brown Shimai suggested that we write on the note: "we will be back in the area next Tuesday afternoon and we will visit again. Please call us if you will not be home at that time." So inspired! No one EVER calls us to thank us for chocolates or cards and no one ever calls if we leave our number and suggest that they call to meet again. Anyway, she calls and leaves a message and explains that she won't be home on Tuesday but was thankful we stopped by. We are excited to make an appointment with her and help her to come back to church.

We are working with a new investigator, Ishizuka San. She is Yamada shimai's friend. She is a really cool lady... She has never joined a church or practiced a specific religion but loves learning about all of them and taking truth from each one. She is really spiritual and has a closeness with God. We taught her about the pre mortal life and she said she felt that it was true. She was surprised though when we said we learned and understood God's plan and chose to follow Christ before we came to this earth. We encouraged her to think about her identity as God's child and write a letter to herself about the kind of person she wants to be at the end of 2015. I'm grateful to be a child of God and happy to have that knowledge. I know I chose to come to earth and I'm grateful for each of the people I have met along my journey. 

I love you and miss you all. Have a happy week. Remember happy is a choice ;) 

Love, 

Sister Reeves

Karaoke activity with Ai chan and the young men and young women

YM/YW Activity 

(Ema, Yurika, Yume, Sister Reeves, Ai, Hiromi, Sister Toya, Sister Watanabe, Sister Tokuzawa, Little Watanabe, Little Toya, Takumi, Sister Nakazawa, Ako, Meri, Sister Hotu, Little Nogami)