Hello, sorry it's been a while! Have I got some news...
Currently I am sitting on a train, with a new companion, going to a new area. Less than 24 hours ago I got a phone call from my mission president (last night) informing me that I will be emergency transferring to an area approximately 3 hours away. The area is called Fujieda, and it's in the Shizuoka Zone.
I haven't had much time to process everything, so this email might be a mess.
I can't find the words to describe how I feel right now. I absolutely love Gokiso, my companions, its people, the ward, the lifestyle, everything. My heart dropped when I got the news, my head was filled with questions, concerns, and confusion.
I've been reminding myself that this isn't about me, it's about moving forward the Lords work. But I'm also a human who has weaknesses and emotions. This is not an easy thing for me.
In the MTC, David A. Bednar taught us about "The Character of Christ". Essentially The Character of Christ is the ability to turn "outwards" when the natural man would want to turn "inwards". Honestly, there is a pretty big part of me that wants to turn inwards. So my question is "how exactly am I supposed to turn outwards in my situation?".
I don't know the exact answer to it, but I think part of turning outwards is turning to the Lord and trusting in his will. I also think that it's important and healthy to just feel how I feel. However, I also think its important to not let this affect the work negatively. I'm still in the process of learning how to "turn outwards", I know I'm just and imperfect little chicken nugget BUT, Jesus Christ invites us to follow him, I know he wouldn't ask us to do something we can't do. So my dear friends and family, I will keep you updated with my quest to acheive the Character of Christ.
Feel free to send me tips, advice, ideas, scriptures and experiences. I would love to hear of times that you or someone you know was able to "Turn outwards", how it's blessed you and others, and what you learned.
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Now I want to talk about my amazing, exciting and unexpected last 2 weeks in Gokiso♡
The cute new Brazilian family we found: We met with the mom, she is just a sweetheart. She can only speak Portuguese, so we had to use Google translate. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she believed all of it. Afterwards we asked her if we could pray and she wrote down a bunch of names for us to pray for. It was really cute, and she was so excited for us to come over and meet with her. She accepted our invitation to come to church! Sadly she didn't show up, and we haven't been able to meet with her this past week. We (now they) are hoping to meet with the whole family next time and hopefully with a Portuguese speaking member.
Luiza: She is slowly making progress, she said she would like to receive baptism in the future maybe? She told us she likes to meet with missionaries from all religions and she enjoys learning and listening to what they say, but she really likes the feeling she has around us which is Good! We're hoping to help her see that were not just a good message, but have the truth. We met with her again, this time with a ward member and we taught about temples. She didnt seem very thrilled so I was worried what her thoughts were, turns out she liked it! Then she opened up her Book of Mormon to Moroni 10, and there were makings all over it. Previously, she wasn't keeping the commitment to read, so we were pretty surprised. THEN, she shyly mentions how she wants to come to church (it was pretty cute) this Sunday whaaaa. She came to church on Sunday and had a great time! The ward member from the lesson sat by her and made her feel so welcome, we contacted the man in our ward who speaks Portuguese and he translated and fellowshipped her as well. Releif society was a blast and she told us she felt really good, she likes the feeling our church has compared to the other church she used to go to. She's planning on coming again next week with her 10 year old daughter! I hope they help her feel loved and welcome.
My FAVORITE siblings: Okay so the younger brother, unfortunately ended his summer vacation here and went back to Philippines :,( Sad to see him go, he was making so much progress! But it doesnt end here, he told us we can hook him up with missionaries there, and his big sis later told us he wants to be baptized now!? You already know, WE SENT IN HIS REFERRAL. I'm praying the missionaries who get his referral will value and prioritize him as much as we do!
Big sis: She told us if her brother is baptized that she will be too, which is awesome, but probably not the right reason. In the mean time, we (now they) will continue to meet with her and help her build her faith, testimony, and stregthen her relationship with God. We met with just her for the first time, and she made us some delicious food (as always) :,) We decided not to teach anything new, instead we asked her the first 2 baptismal interview questions to gauge where she's at. She's doing alright, she has the belief part, she just needs the faith to act now. She also had a crazy dream a couple years ago of herself receiving baptism BY IMMERSION. So she told us she already feels and knows that this is true. I'm pretty sad to leave her because I feel like we really clicked, but I know that she's in good hands.
Yakusokusha friend #1: Unfortunately she is not able to receive baptism because she doesn't have permission from her husband. We're still trying to meet with her and help prepare her for it. She has a lot of hard things that have happened in her life, she feels very lost and unvalued. We had an amazing lesson with her about Faith, courage and fasting. We taught her the story of Ester. How she had faith to fast for her people, and courage to confront the king and ultimately save her people. We showed her the video from Gospel Library Inspirational messages "Courage". She really connected with it and immediately made the connection with herself. We invited her to fast for something important in her life, she decided to fast so that she knows what she needs to do. We decided to fast together with her the very next day, and to follow up with her at our next lesson. Unfortunately she didn't show up to our next lesson because she had to go to the hospital due to an injury. She said shes embarrassed to leave her house, so we wont be able to meet for a while. We're concerned about her right now and have been trying to keep in touch with her through messaging her. Please keep her in your prayers.
Yakusokusha friend#2: She is a referral from the elders. They didn't leave us with her address, and she wasn't replying to our messages so it took us a while to finally meet her. She told us that she was too busy to meet so we decided to go over to her house the time the elders used to usually go. We finally get to her house and she told us that she doesn't want to be baptized anymore. It was pretty sad but I have a feeling that this is not the end, I messaged one of the elders who taught her that's home now and he's been talking to her and helping us out.
My companions♡ These past 3 weeks as a trio has presented many unique trials. We're all experiencing different things and have things that are hard for us. I was getting pretty concerned about our companionship, but then something amazing happened...we talked to each other and were super open about how we were feeling. It was incredible. It was a little uncomfortable, but it was good. Ever since then, we've been starting to have a lot of fun with each other and feeling joy as a companionship. I'm really thankful that before I was able to leave my 2 companions that we were able to work things out and leave on a great note. I learned a lot from these 2, and and thankful for these 3 weeks that I had with them.
Anyways I have to end this email here because it's time to get to work!
💟 堀人姉妹
