MAAAAAAN. This week literally was crazy! I can't believe all of the miracles have happened. We are still praying for Marjorie's mom to be able to talk to us about clearing up all of her concerns. But we got to meet with Kaiyo on monday night this last week. It took us forever for find her apartment but we finally got in and as we talked her to get to know her and we asked her what she want to do for her career and she said, "I just want to die, I don't want to be here anymore. I want to be with my mom." It just broke our hearts and we knew we needed to help her. We taught her the plan of salvation and she completely soaked it in! We extended the committment to be baptized and she didn't even hesitate to say yes. At the end we sang "A Child's Prayer" to her in English because we didn't have our Japanese hymn books, when we started singing she just put her hand to her cheeks and held her face and smiled sweetly to herself. It didn't matter that it was in English, she understood everything. It was one of the sweetest things I have ever been apart of.
Her tobacco problem is really hard for her to overcome, but I am amazed of her example. She wants nothing more than to have a brand new life. You can tell she is drawing closer to God when she talks about what she studies when we are gone. She even sleeps with the Book of Mormon! She LOVES the Book of Mormon. She makes me wants to study it more diligently. We saw her about every day this week and she is most definitely progressing towards baptism! When we went to teach her another lesson on saturday she just started to cry at the end. She said, "I lost my mother, my father and I don't talk anymore, my dog died, and I have no more friends. I can't believe that people with such beautiful hearts would come into my life. I am so grateful." She came to church today and was just swelling from the love that the members were giving her. I love Utsunomiya ward. You could just tell she was thinking, "Pinch me!" she was completely engulfed in love from the members but most mostly she felt the love of the Lord for her. We took her to the gospel principles class and it was about eternal families, perfect! I can't even describe the feelings we were having during church today. We showed her the baptismal font and she said that she was so excited to start a new life. We had the Elders give her a blessing to help her overcome her tobacco addiction. After the blessing you could just feel a tangible power coming from her, she has the Lord behind her helping her along her path to eternal life. I can't express how happy I am for her! She has a baptismal date for October 27, but if she doesn't stop her smoking problem then we have to move the date up. We are praying for her like crazy!
Marjorie's mother is still not giving her permission to be baptized next sunday but we are praying ferverently for the Lord to soften her heart. All we want is a chance to talk to her mom and clear up all of her misconceptions about the church. We fasted today to have that chance. Marjorie is doing wonderful. We taught her all of the lessons and she is basically a ward member, she even welcomed Kaiyo to church on sunday. I have the strongest feeling that Marjorie is going to have a huge influence on the ward. She is so welcoming, outgoing, and is a wonderful missionary. She sat by some nonmembers today that were 12 and 14 and we didn't even ask her to. She just goes around and visits with everyone as if she was raised in this ward family. She was participating with the youth at the Halloween party saturday night. Total pro. Love her.
So I got into a pretty gnarly bike accident on Friday. It was most unpleasant. We were running late for the train and I was riding my bike on the side of the road and a cleaning truck was coming towards me so I started to go onto the little ramp from the street to the side walk. Except the beginning of the ramp was flippin too big and my front tire got stuck in the gutter and my bike slam dunked the left side of my body into the concrete. While it was happening I felt like I was floating in the air and I was thinking to myself "Hey it's not going to be that bad. I can bounce back from this. Yeah. Cool." After I hit the ground, I immediately pulled my self from under my bike to stand up and I jumped back onto the bike and Vail Shimai was freaking out and she said, "You need to go to the hospital right now." And I told her I was perfectly fine, my left leg was bleeding and my right hand was bleeding and that was it. She said while I was falling my left leg twisted really wierdly and my hip hit the ground really hard. But I only got scrapped up. It was crazy. I felt like I was definitely protected from seriously damage to my body. The Lord is looking out for the missionaries! He definitely protects. And also heal....my cuts are healing insanely fast.
We had a typhoon on wednesday. I was on splits with Kubota Shimai and the poor little thing was getting thrown around in the wind on her bike (she is japanese and maybe weighs 100 lbs. Maybe.) We had to stay inside most of the day because of how insane it was. About 35 people died in the typhoon so we were counting our blessings that day. A lot of trains were stopped so we got stuck in Oyama for most of the day on thursday. But everything is okay!
We went to Nikko yesterday to have dinner with the Takeshita family and it was wonderful. They had me try all sorts of wierd stuff. I could not say no to those people they were so nice, it was an interesting experience. But I love Japanese food it is so good! I have so many things I want to make for everyone when I get home! I am excited! We had tempura and pot stickers. They had a less active there with them and we re taught him the first lesson to help rekindle what he felt before he was baptized. Hopefully that helped him.
I love the work! It is hard but it is so rewarding! I am getting better at my Japanese. Sometimes I can get by in a conversation and sometimes I just stare that them blankly. But its all good! We are working hard and are crazy busy! Just so you know I am going to be buying things tomorrow in Tokyo at the temple, like japanese scriptures and things like that. I'm not spending a lot but I just want to let you know where the money is going. Party at the Tokyo temple! WOOOOOOT!!
I love you all. I really do.
Sister Staples
My leg. Nice. :)
This is a thing here in japan. It's like a photobooth but it makes your eyes wayyy big and does wierd stuff. Haha the girls here love it. We did it marjorie and her friend. Fun stuff!
We went to Kanuma this week to visit some potential investigators. I am pretty sure I have the prettiest area in my mission. Just saying DAAAAAH.
We helped Marjorie get ready for the ward Halloween party on saturday. Best party ever!!
Don't you worry. Our BSCF came to the party. Ready to rock our worlds. (Best Senior Citizen Friends)
I love this ward :)
Reai is in the middle. I talked to her lots at the party. She is a nonmember. But we can change that.
Did you know that the asian backstreet boys are in our ward? Yeah. I love the youth. They make me giddy. STRONGEST TEENAGE MORMONS EVER!
We taught the Yamazaki Family after church on sunday. That chubby deliciousness you see in the middle is Lily. And she has me tied around her finger.
Dinner with the Takeshitas!!
Me and Vail Shimai trying the sourest plums you will ever eat. SICK. Umeboshi. Sick.
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