Well this week has been all sorts of crazy some wonderful things happened and some pretty heartbreaking things have happened. I guess I will start with all of wonderful things! On thursday morning I went to the mission home with another sister who was going to train also to pick up my new companion. (There are only 3sisters coming in this transfer so only 3 sisters from the mission went to go and pick them up.) The sister I was going with was late and so we missed our train to get their on time. We ran from the train station to the mission home and we ran into the room where president budge and the assistants were giving trainings or the trainers. We were a sweaty mess. Luckily they forgave us, we all had a discussion about what we can do to help these new missionaries and it made me really think about how I was trained. I thought about sister vail and she showed me how to love people and sister Ikeguchi really showed me obedience, (and I am serious when I say sister Ikeguchi showed me obedience, I couldn't understand a dang word that sister was saying most of the time) they trained us and we went into the room where the new missionaries were and president budge called each trainer up one by one and announced our trainees. I was one of the last ones and when president budge announced Horito Shimai would be my companion and she came up to me I just felt such immense love for her, I was having flashbacks to when I got picked up and I wanted her to feel the same way I did. I want her to feel like she is the best missionary in the mission. I took her home to Okegawa with me and we were talking to people on the train on the way and you could tell her jet lag was setting in but she was trying her best and I was so proud of her because of it.
Sister Horito is amazing! She is tenacious and isn't afraid to share her testimony on the spot. When we were on the way home from honbu we were talking to someone on the train and the lady was talking about how she has Christian friends and likes Christian churches and sister Horito jumped right in their and talked about why she loved church! It was so good. We have gotten all of her "finding" supplies and her bike and she is happy as a clam. She LOVES to do mitsuketaikais, she said to me, "sister staples if we have the chance lets do those every single day!" She is so cute!
We had english class on Saturday and it was huge! We had about 30 students there. Sister Horito was so excited to teach and we had her teach pronunciation and she rocked it. She was going around the room helping all of the students with their conversations and they all felt her love. After eikaiwa was over and everyone was talking she went around to ask people to come to church. We have an eikaiwa student who likes to be called tiger woods and we have been inviting him to church for a while and he keeps on saying he won't come, then sister Horito goes up to him to invite him to church and he says he will be coming next week! She knows how to do it right!
Last night we went to go visit Kanno Shimai last night who got baptized three years ago. I have been trying to get in contact with her for 4 1/2 months now and we knocked on her door last night. She finally was there! Sister Horito bore her testimony of gods love for us and Kanno Shimai was smiling at her. The spirit was strong and it was a miracle!
Our investigator Eiko came to church today and she came pretty early and we had a meeting with some of the stake leaders so we put on a movie for her upstairs, "finding faith in Christ" and she watched it two times. She really wanted to understand the meaning. We testified to her that when we have faith in Jesus Christ and have a real desire to follow his example we make promises to him. We extended baptism to her and she said that would like to be baptized. We set the date for September 14 and we are praying that she can do it! We are excited for her!
Today was yoshimi's son's birthday and we brought a little present and a big poster. We shared a message with her and everything and asked her to pray tonight to feel if god is really there. We kind of felt something was off with her. We are a little worried that she is scared of what her parents will think of her joining this church. She has asked some of the members what to do if your parents are against the church. So we will pray to know what to do for her.
I guess I will write about what happened on Tuesday. We were preparing to go have a lesson with ryu when I got a call from the Koiwa sisters. I had an investigator in Koiwa named Summer. She was from China and I taught her with sister Clark and sister Owens and she was moving forward to believing in god, she had cancer. She had a couple surgeries in the time of us knowing her and the doctor said she would be okay. When I was transferred out of Koiwa to Okegawa I went to go say goodbye to her and she said that one day that she would love to be baptized but she really wanted to know for her self first if god was there. After I left she kept on taking the lessons and she was doing okay. during one of the lessons she fainted and they had to call the ambulance. She got too busy trying to take care of her daughter and her body to visit with the missionaries anymore after that. Anyway, I got a call from the Koiwa sisters and they told me that Summer passed away. I was completely heartbroken. She was probably the investigator I was closest to in Koiwa. I couldn't stop crying and I knew that I needed to get a hold of myself for ryu because we had a lesson. Sister Brumley and I prayed together before I left the apartment and I poured my heart out to Heavenly Father that he would take care of summer's little girl and that she would be okay without her mom there, she is six years old. I felt such immense peace at that moment and I was able to go over to the church to teach ryu and I was able to use that experience I had with prayer to teach ryu about the impact that prayer can have on our lives. I really gained a testimony of turning outward when everything seemed to be falling apart, every experience we have in our life is for our growth and experience. Sometimes it's hard and you don't know why, but it's all part of a plan that only god can see and it's up to us to just trust. It's the hardest part. But I know that when you trust in god, he will reveal what he really wants us to learn in time.
I talked to sister Clark and sister Owens on the phone that night and we comforted each other. I know that Summer is on the other side of the veil hearing the gospel, I know that she is freed from her body and that she is continuing to learn. She has the time and the health now to do it. I know she is being taught according to her needs. And I know that Christ has welcomed her into his loving arms and I know that he wants to do that for all of god's children. I know that we all will be resurrected and will be given perfected bodies and it's all because of our loving savior. It is because of him that every single on of god's children can know that they too can live again. I love you all, and I say these things in the name of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ amen.
Sister Staples
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