March 30th

Hey y'all guys,

The cherry blossoms have started to bloom and the weather is
absolutely perfect! I even broke a sweat today! So happy!

Just a quick update on what's new:

We had a really good lesson with Shimizu shimai. We had planned on
teaching about virtue and the law of chastity and focusing on our
identity as women and daughters of God, but we showed up and the
Spirit took us a different direction. Our Japanese was all over the
place but it was exactly the lesson she needed. We shared experiences
about when it was hard to obey the commandments when everyone around
us was doing differently. We shared how we recognized answers to
prayer. And we taught about faith. We explained that it takes an
experiment and a leap of faith for our faith to grow, for us to
understand that God can be perfectly trusted. We read from Alma 32 and
taught her that her desire to know if Christ is there is Faith! Her
faith is strong and I am constantly amazed by her and grateful for all
that she teaches us.

Mission Leadership Council February

We exchanged our iPads and now have new ones and I feel even more
fancy than I did before.
We will go through lots of training from here! Yay!

This week we focused lots of our study and practice on the gift of the
Holy Ghost. We learned that the gift of the Holy Ghost gives us a
small taste of eternal life. We choose the right because feeling the
Holy Ghost is always better than the alternative. We can't return to
God without this special gift. We need the cleansing and sanctifying
power of the Holy Ghost and we need its promptings and guidance to
teach us to do good and to lead us back to our Heavenly home. I'm
grateful for this gift. I am grateful for the experiences that I've
had when the Spirit has guided me. I know this power and gift is REAL.
Can't live my life without it. Can't return to God without it.

Zone Conference Transfer 8

 Hama shimai is doing awesome! She got called as a ward missionary so
from here rather than meeting with her for her own lessons we will
have her help us out with the missionary work in the area. She has
been attending all of church and even participated in the SA
activities the ward has been having. The SA group in our ward is
really strong. I continue to be amazed at the way they love and accept
everyone who joins them. They love our investigators and they love the
less actives and they welcome anyone and everyone. Anyway, Hama shimai
helped us out this last week by joining our lesson with Rie San. And
she was perfect! They have really similar personalities. She shared
her thoughts and testimony and experiences. She helped Rie understand
confusing doctrine and helped her to feel comfortable about prayer. We
hope she can continue to fellowship Rie and join us for lessons.

The lesson with Rie was awesome! We taught her about Jesus Christ and
his resurrection and showed her the new Easter video. You must see it!
It's called He lives! I know he lives. He is always there. Through the
good and the bad. He lives and we will live again, too! There is so
much hope because we have a Savior. Rie says she wants to know. She is
hesitant but she is feeling the Spirit and I know the Spirit will
teach her. I sincerely believe that anyone who will ask God will
receive the answer that it's true. If they ask. It's true! How blessed
we are to know the truth!

We continue to meet the most amazing people. I don't even question
anymore who God puts in our path. Some people are ready now to hear
the message, some are ready to talk to the missionaries, some just
need a smile or a wave, others just need to see us. The work we do for
the Lord is never in vain. And we can never fail as we put our trust
in him. And it's fun to invite people to come to know him! I want to
be a light for him. I want to hold up a light so others can find him.
He is there.

We had some really fun appointments with members this week and got fed
an unreal amount of dessert at each appointment. Really funny...
Definitely made up for my 5 day dessert fast! :)
We met with the Nukui family and their grandchildren who aren't
members. We taught about Joseph Smith and how we can pray to God. They
were so cute. The little girl wears a princess dress every day. She
said I was like a princess! The Nukui couple is also really cool.
Brother Nukui used to be in a band and have long hair. And they both
like motorcycles. And they fed us reallyyyy good sushi!
We met with Sister Maeda and her two little girls. Her husband and boy
were out of town on a father and son trip to universal studios. We
taught the plan of salvation to her little girls. The nine year old
said she shared her testimony with a friend at school! I love to visit
with members and learn from the example of families who learn and live
the gospel in their homes. It just feels so good to be with them and
feel the Spirit in their home!
On Sunday we visited the Nakazawa family. They have 3 teenagers. The
parents really wanted us to come and share a message about missionary
work to motivate their children to serve missions. We ended up having
a really cool experience with them. After sharing a message, we knelt
and prayed and asked God for the faith and the ability to see
missionary opportunities and to know how to follow the promptings of
the Spirit. After the prayer, we each took pen and paper and I lead
them through a list of questions. "Who comes to mind..?" We challenged
them to pray for the people who came to their mind and ask the Lord
how they could help these friends. They are a super cool family and we
had so much fun with them!

Mission Leadership Council January

Missionary work is the coolest because we get to participate in God's
work. If our goal and purpose is to become like him, the best way to
find out what it's like is to try doing what he does. When you become
a missionary, you're always a missionary. Forever. Eternal life, I
think, is eternal missionary work. But, it's where God finds his joy.
Perfect joy. The kind of joy we want to know! I can't say the mission
is always joy. It's tough. But that's the price we pay as disciples of
Christ. We wear his name and act in his name. He too was rejected. He
too suffered for the will of the Lord. I love my Savior. I know He
lives.

I love you. Have a beautiful week(:

またね！See ya!
<3,
リーブス姉妹 
Sister Reeves