Nagoya Higashi, Kariya | Week 2 T.8 :: Happy 1 Year! I Decided I Should Be More Positive

アロハ (says aloha in katakana)

I cant believe its already week 2. Also my companion just broke the news to me that we have 11 total transfers :/ this whole time I thought I had 12, because that’s the usual for Sisters in our mission...but every so often a batch has 11 and that’s our batch. Its ok, if that’s what the Lord has planned for me it will be perfect. In other words, I'm very much enjoying my mission that I wouldn’t mind staying longer. :)

As a mission we have a goal to read the 4 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John before Christmas! Its a 40 day challenge started last week. Its really fun and I invite you all to learn of our Savior before his birthday this year. Also, our new mission wide tranfer goal is to invite EVERYONE in our teaching pools to Baptism, and to have 2 FRIENDS with a Baptismal date :D let's get it.

Wednesday we met with our friend "Ari san". Shes doing goodish. not really reading and praying, but she has questions and is understanding our message because we use google translate (she speaks mostly Portuguese) We restated our purpose, and asked her if she would like to come closer to Jesus Christ and she said yes. She acknowledged that she "loves things of the world", and she doesn’t know if she can commit to baptism right away. We promised her that she can receive help to overcome the world, because Christ already did. (John 16:33 one of my favs) She even recognized that having a testimony of the Book of Mormon is basically the evidence she needs to know its true. So its all up to her and her agency if she will act and do something about it or not. Were meet again this week so we shall see.

"I San" has been a little MIA from church :/ please keep him in your prayers! He has many questions but not enough time to meet with us and is feeling very lost...

M, J and C San have been MIA from church as well, but we're in contact with them and hope to see them this week :)

We found a man who we will call "Rey san", we taught him the Restoration on the street on Thursday right next to the ward family we normally visit. It was good, it actually started because he had a cute dog named "Kobe Brian" after the basket ball player lol (I probably spelled his name wrong I can feel my little brothers roasting me already). So yes, then he said we could come back again on Saturday to teach him and his wife!

The man we met last week that had 2 near death experiences, 4 cats and straight up told us he has interest. That man, his name will be "Kuro san". We technically aren't allowed to visit him again with out another woman adult there, BUT theres no rule for dropping off a Book of Mormon in his post mysteriously hehe. So we did, we called him up last night to see if hes read it annnd he hasnt. But, he said he still has interest and will have more free time next so month so we are praying for him!

So on Saturday we met with "rey san" again and his wife "Ly San" THEY ARE THE SWEETEST. They welcomed us into their home and were patiently anticipating our visit. They have been married for a couple years and said we were their first guests to come over to their house. We shared the message of the Restoration with them. When I was studying for them I had a feeling that we should show them the video in Gospel libraay (which I dont usually do) so I followed that prompting, and I think it was good. They both really understood that were not just some other church, we have truth. We also focused on the fact that we weren't there to take away the beleifst they already had, but to add on tot he truths that they know. It was a great lesson, it was thorough, brief, simple, Spirit lead and full of love. We asked the wife to give the closing prayer and she kept repeating to Heavenly Fathr how thankful she was for sending us to her, and for the truths we shared with them. The fact that she recognizes us being sent from God and we are sharing with them truths and gave them the evidence gave both Jolley Shimai and I a lot of faith nd hope for their progress! Jolley Shimai almost cried afterwards because it was the best lesson shes ever been apart of...Shes had some hard areas inthe past. My heart felt so full and thankful afterwards.

Now taking it back to Firday, we had a meeting for all of the Sisters. We hada training for how to be experts at witnessing baptisms. So far I've been able to witness 2, and I am so thankful! The best part of this whole conference was when President Judd talked to all of us about womanhood. He talked about how much we are valued...oh my gosh just thinking of it makes me tear up. He talked about his own mother, and an experience he had with her (he took her to Amsterdam on a Mother Son trip and they ran into President Monson). They way he spoke of his mom made all of us feel so happy and loved. He of course talked about his wife and his 3 daughters and aww my heart. President Judd is full of so much love, I don't know if i've ever expressed my fgratitude or him before but I love my mission president. Whenever I am with him I feel my Heavenly Fathers love for me. He doesnt want to us to have anything less than the best. All of us Sisters were crying and full of so much joy that night. One of the sisters that gave the closing prayer couldn't say anything for 5 minutes becasue she was so choked up - like the rest of us. I thought a lot about my own self worth and value. I thought about my future and how I want to have someone who truly values me, and I truly value them in return. I thought about how I want to have more charity and love in my heart for others, I'm a big believer of feeling Heavenly Fathers love through other people...I too want to be better at spreading love myslef. I felt a lot of things, but the main thing I felt was love.

Ok last but not least I feel like I've been changing a lot mentally. I really value honesty, but sometimes I acknowledge the negatives too much. "just because you can doesn’t mean that you should". Honestly, there are a lot of things that are negative in life, thats just how it is.\_(ツ)_/ Doesnt mean I have to always point it out and focus on that, aknowledging a little is fine, but too much and it can really bring you down. "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". I've kinda been letting myself think like this for a while and I decided I should be more positive. I thought about gratitude a lot, how could I possibly be grateful if I'm not positive? If I'm not grateful how can I expect to have blessings and help from my Heavenly Father? I've been focusing on counting my blessings and focusing on the positive "what ifs". I try to write 3 blessings/ things of gratitude/ or miracles from the day first thing in my journal. I feel like its really changed the way I work this past transfer. I feel happier, and feel like the heavens are a little more open to me. :)

Love you all so much, have a great week!