18 Months in the Land of the Rising Sun: ONE YEAR THIS WEEK!

Hey Everybody!

So I have 2 exciting stories from this week! I'll start with the awesome miracle! I heard from Hirata Shimai this past week. She told me something really cool that happened in Fujisaki (Lacee's area prior to Hiroshima). But first, I have to start from the beginning. So when I was still there, Hirata Shimai and I saw this girl on the street. She looked a little rough around the edges, but we stopped and talked to her. She was nice, but it didn't seem like she was super interested. We had a good talk though and gave her a pamphlet and asked to meet again. She said no, so we gave her our phone number in case she changed her mind. A few weeks later, we were riding our bikes to an appointment or something, and we saw her in a different part of town. I recognized her, and I knew we had talked to her before and she didn't seem interested, but I decided to stop anyways. So we stopped and talked to her again. We gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon, but she still wouldn't meet with us. When I talked to Hirata Shimai this week, she told me they saw this same girl two more times in the last six weeks. She remembered Hirata Shimai and me. She finally accepted to meet with the sisters. Now she is an investigator and she came to church. But get this....she has a baptismal date for July!!!!! I am SO excited!! Isn't that such a cool miracle??!! Sometimes we don't know the seeds we are planting and what will come from the work we do. I never got to teach her and I won't see her get baptized, but in some small way I feel like I was a part of it. I am SO excited for her!!!

So now story #2: It's not as cool. Kuchar Shimai and I were trying to get our cell phone all set up. We were getting the shimai (sister) phone numbers and their areas and stuff programmed into the phone because we hadn't had them before. So we're doing that, right? We get it all set up. Mind you, this is at like 10:20 at night. We were trying to hurry to finish before bed. We wanted to put them all in the same group though so we could send out mass emails to all the sisters by just choosing the group. But all the groups were full, so we decided to just delete a group that only had a couple of numbers in it that we didn't need. So we said sure, delete. But we accidentally deleted ALL the phone numbers! In the ENTIRE phone. The whole thing. Every single number was gone. All of them. None were left. So we were freaking out. There were a TON of numbers on that phone because it's the old elders' phone. It also used to be the phone of the ZLs (zone leaders), so there were literally a TON of numbers on that phone. It was a sad day. But anyways, at least our phone is going to be cleaned out! :) We ended up getting most of the numbers back today from the ZLs (zone leaders). So it all worked out in the end. Funny how that works isn't it??

Also this week was Stake Conference, but it was for all of Japan. It was broadcast from the Conference Center in SLC. It was way good! Elder Christofferson, Elder Walker from the 70, Bishop Stevenson from the Presiding Bishopric, and Sister Oscarson from the Relief Society Presidency all spoke. They did a way good job! And Elder Walker and Bishop Stevenson both speak Japanese so well! It was way cool! And we got to see all the missionaries. It was so much fun! Elder Christofferson said that "Missionaries who serve in Japan are some of the best missionaries in the Church." Pretty cool, huh? Those awesome missionaries in Japan! :)

We also spent that day with Ling on Friday. It was really fun. We went to a member's house and made Chinese gyoza for the Chinese International party with the branch. It was way fun! And SO delicious. The party went really well, and lots of people came, which was so good! We weren't able to teach Ling an actual sit-down lesson this week, but we did build our relationships some more. We were able to talk about The Book of Mormon and church and stuff. She's so cool. I just love her a ton!

Our other investigator that we found last week didn't end up showing to our meeting. That was a bummer. :( We were sad. We really thought she would show up.

But it was a good week. I'm excited for some STL (sister training leader) adventures. I am excited about seeing some other places!

Love you all tons!

[From Lacee's mom's email: "I will be doing the International activity for the branch next month. I will be doing a powerpoint slideshow of Panaca and Nevada. For some weird reason, they all think Nevada sounds really cool! :) And since I can't use the Internet, can you PLEASE email some pictures of Nevada, especially Panaca. I am going to have to depend on you a bunch for this! It's not til next month, but I just want to get going on it." She thinks it's pretty funny that people half way around the world want to know about Panaca, of all places! But she's excited to share her home with them. As of this Thursday, June 26th, she has completed 1 full year of her 18 months as a missionary. She has mixed emotions about that...she loves Japan and the time there is going too quickly.]

Found these on P-Day! Painted on the wall by the sidewalk. They have a diagram that shows you how to stand and where the person taking the picture should stand. Gotta love Japan!!! :)