March 15th

Hey everyone! This week was MIRACULOUS! Do I say that every week? But it's true! Last Monday was so busy we literally didn't have PDay time but we had a great opportunity to meet with a new investigator, Rie. We met with her and had a member, Asuka, there with us. Asuka just returned from her mission in temple square! She is the best and it's been fun to work with her. We are doing the free english program with Rie. We had so much fun! During the lesson we talked about God and her beliefs and feelings about God. She is a member of a buddhist religion but says she wants to learn more about God. The spirit was strong as we talked about our Heavenly Father and taught her how to pray. She is excited to meet with us again!   Rie, Sister Hotu, Asuka, Me  Tuesday was zone conference. I was asked to give a training on the teaching skills: How to Begin Teaching. Check out chapter 10 in PMG! Anyway, it was the training I had requested for the conference because I really wanted to receive it! So... Of course they asked me to do the training and I learned soooo much more that way. I was really nervous but I asked Sister Ogawa to help me and it ended up going so well. We focused on how to use the how to begin teaching points in our finding to explain who we are, what our message is, and to invite with a clear and direct invitation to take our lessons. We had lots of time for practice and it helped so much. We went out after the conference with a new enthusiasm for finding and it has made a huge difference in our conversations with others. And more people understand who we are and what we came here to do and why our message is important. Our zone conference was focused on chapter 10 of PMG and how we can become master teachers! Never thought I needed so much training on how to teach because I thought I was pretty decent... Haha but... I have oh so much to learn! On Wednesday we had the Best lesson with Shimizu Shimai and Saori chan. We taught the law of chastity. We had prepared and practiced and studied a bunch for this lesson because it's a hard lesson to teach and uses a lot of vocabulary that we don't actually use everyday. Anyway, the Spirit totally guided us and it ended up being perfect. Shimizu Shimai is preparing to get married this September so we focused the lesson on how this commandment prepares her for a happy and successful marriage and family life. She has so much courage and faith.   Sister Kosuge and Sister Hotu  So another really cool thing happened... We went to the church to do our language assessments that we do for the MTC every other transfer and the elders came in and were like..."we just found a lady who wants to hear the message right now!" So they direct us to her house and we had the BEST lesson in front of her apartment. She soaked up everything we taught. Her family is pretty active in their buddhist religion but she had been thinking a lot about faith and God recently. She had the most amazing questions and loved what we shared about why we read the scriptures and pray everyday. She was so happy when we told her that she lived with God before. It was almost like she already knew that! We read scriptures and prayed together and she loved it. Then.... These missionary type ladies from another religion came and started talking to us really urgently about their god who has more power than Christ because he couldn't be killed but Christ was weak and died on the cross. I asked if I could say something and so we took the opportunity to bear testimony of the Savior. We pointed out the things we believed in common and the things we really respected about their beliefs. They eventually handed our new friend their pamphlet and left. When they left, Jun asked us if we had felt different when they came. She said it was so wonderful when we prayed but then it went away when they came. We used the opportunity to teach about the Spirit. She agreed to meet us again for lessons but was nervous we think because of her family, so she didn't take the BOM and agreed that we should meet at the church from here. Please pray for her! Thursday was cool cause we taught lessons all day! We had a really good role play with Furui Shimai. We were able to practice teaching the pattern of gospel dispensations and apostasy which is really hard to explain and I often avoid explaining it completely cause the people I teach don't have a Christian background anyway. But... It's so important because it illustrates that God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He has always called another prophet and shown his love by restoring the truth and his power. The power unto our salvation. We visited the Omata family and shared the plan of salvation with Kyoudai's non-member mother who is like 92 years old. She has a hard time believing the message but thought it was really nice and was happy to have heard it. Social Media Fair in Kichijoji  Friday we had another lesson with Kojima Shimai. She had been really diligent about studying the scriptures on her own and shared her thoughts from what she read and applied it to herself. She thought it was amazing how Nephi and his family were so faithful to follow the commandments of God and leave everything they had. She hasn't been asked to do that but she has been asked to do a hard thing, set an example for her family and teach them the gospel. We listened and she expressed a lot of concerns. Her husband was baptized a few years ago so he is behind her in his testimony and knowledge and enthusiasm for living the gospel. Also, she wants to teach her children but she is worried that she can't teach them in japanese because it's still really hard for her. We testified of how the Spirit helps us to do those things that seem impossible. Just like us, she has been assigned to preach the gospel in the japanese language and in the most important field, her home. And it is hard but the Spirit will help her! Pray for the Kojima family(: We met with Hama Shimai as well and she shared a lot of what she learned from the stories she read about Laman and Lemuel. We read with her about the Liahona and applied it to the compasses and guidance that God gives to us. She said she wanted a Liahona to lead her to heaven. We talked about how the promises of God are sure as we do our part to show faith and obey his commandments. We talked about a really important liahona we have to guide us and show us our potential, our patriarchal blessings. She said she left it at her parents' home and said she doesn't have a lot of experiences using its guidance because she hasn't read it in so long. She is excited about returning home to find her blessing, a personal letter from God. On Saturday we attended the social media fair in kichijoji held for members of both Musashino and machida stakes. There were maybe more missionaries than members but it was a great event. We learned together about how to share our faith online with all the tools we have today. We learned about good techniques for missionary work on blogs, mormon.org, facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. It was fun! I liked it because it's simple. It's something we can all do. And when I don't have my name tag any more, I can always be a missionary and share my faith with my friends(: Sunday was my BIRTHday! 22! Thanks for all the birthday wishes and love. I do feel so loved! It was a regular day but I ate sweets all day: waffles, cheesecake, chocolate, etc! I had the opportunity to prepare and share my testimony in gospel principles. I was given the topic of how I experienced conversion through scripture study. I think that's where we all find conversion. Because the Book of Mormon is the evidence. I'm grateful for my parents who taught me that the Book of Mormon has significance in our lives and showed me the difference a simple study habit can make. I'm grateful for the decision I made to try it for myself. It's true! We met another new friend for the free english program. She actually asked us how much it was. Yep, free. We explained that we came to Japan to teach about Jesus Christ but we like service too so it's free! She was surprised that learning about Jesus was the added bonus. But our lesson with her was really good. Her name is Kurokawa San. She is 85 years old. Her husband died 2 years ago and she never had children. She longs to be with him everyday. He watched over a buddhist temple in his life and she explained that she will not change her religion. We sang hymns together and she loved it! She asked, "once more please!" We taught her that God is her loving Heavenly Father and read scriptures together and explained that she will see her husband again. She had never heard such things and it turned her entire world upside down. She's not sure if she hopes for these things or wants to know if they're true but she is sure she wants to be with her husband. We taught her how to pray and she thought it might be bad for her to pray if she didn't think that God was her Heavenly Father. How sad to never know that you have a perfect Father in Heaven, watching over you, loving you, guiding you, and answering your cries to him. I know it's true. He is there. He loves each one of us. EVERY one of us. She said she wants to make time to meet again.. Pray for her, too please (: Anyway, life is good. The church is true. I know it's all true. I learned in RS yesterday a simple principle. Truth changes people but people cannot change truth. The truth has changed me and continues to change me. People try to change truth and people have taught incorrect ideas as truth, but it doesn't change what is true. I believe in a God who is constant and unchanging and infinite and eternal. His truth is the same. It never changes. And that's why I can put trust in Him. I should be able to put my trust in Him 100% because He will never ever fail me. The best thing we can ever do with our agency is align our will with His. I love Him. And i love all of you! Thanks for loving me and supporting me! Love, Sister Kinz Ps. Shout out to my brother in law, Jason. Happy birthday, brother! I hope it's the best. (:  Me eating brownies for the day after my birthday celebration. I feel sick. Haha