I Stand All Amazed: Anne 2-24-14

Hello My Loves!!

Thank you for all of your support and advice that you have given me this past week! I have felt so much love from out father in heaven and I am so grateful! I emailed President Budge and he was very clear about when he thought I should be released. He is encouraging me to leave in February instead of December.

I feel good about February, it makes me happy. The Lord knew I was going to be released on Feb. 6 and I am not going to leave any sooner than that. The Lord will give me strength and I know that the transition will be hard either way. I know that this is right. I love you all and am so thankful for all of your input, although i did not reply to them all, I read everyone’s and it really helped.

I guess I will tell you about my week!

We have been having a hard time meeting with one of our investigators,Natsuko, who we first met on Christmas and she has been insanely busy. We decided if she was too busy to meeet with us that we would just teach her through mail, so we made a book of pictures and our testimonies and taught her the restoration through that! We sent it in the mail on thursday and we were excited for her to get it! We were handing out our free english fliers by the train station on thursday night and this lady comes and hugs Sister Clark and we realize that it was Natsuko! We hadnt seen her in two months! She kept on saying that she wants to come to church! She says she shouldnt be so busy next month and we are going to be able to meet her! We are just waiting or the package to get to her now and hopefully she feels the spirit as she reads it!

Summer is doing wonderful! She has so much faith and she wants her daughter to have a religion so bad. She is being very smart about investigating faith and even though the language of the Book of Mormon is really hard for her to understand she has been trying still! She is having surgery on wednesday to remove more of her cancer and she has been really nervous about that. We knew that she could find so much peace through the scriptures and prayer so we got her the children's Book of Mormon reader that has pictures and simple language in it. We went over yesterday and it took us a wihile to find her apartment but the spirit guided us there, no im serious. I would look down the street and me and sister clark would be like, yes it is over here. It was so cool. Summer let us into her apartment and we had a wonderful discussion!!

One of the members who I have been close with had brain surgery last week and we went with the Elders and Yamaguchi shimai and they gave her a blessing and we gave her some words of comfort. Her name is Julie from Malaysia and we sat with her every week in sacrament for the first couple of weeks that we have been in Koiwa, she is very dear to me. Her husband is a less active and now is kind of anti, but I think that he will come around. I have such a strong testimony of not only finding people and baptizing but strengthening the members and zion. I know that missionarys that I have seen in my life have really affected me and I know that they did so much for me!

I got a birthday package from the bishop's family in Utsunomiya! I love them so much! It made my day when I got it! When I saw Ikeguchi Shimai at the temple today she told me all about Noriko and Kaiyo. Noriko is starting to meet with the missionaries again, (she was oing to be baptized on christmas but her daughter came town and I think she convinced her not to) I love her so much! Kaiyo is thinking about quiting her bar job so that she can be happier and live the word of wisdom easier. It made me so happy to hear about them. I love Utsunomiya! I want to go back so bad again at the end of my mission!

I love The Lord, I am so grateful that he lets me be apart of this work. I love this time in my life. I know that this work is the most important thing I could be doing! I love you all to pieces!

Love, Sister Staples!

Ikeguchi SHIMAI!!!! I love my trainer!!