HOLA! July 27, 2014

This week rocked in Okegawa! I love this place. We have seen so many miracles this week and you can tell that Okegawa is getting ready for something big! 

On Monday after we had our p-day we had a music concert at the church! It was so fun! I am going to send you a video of it. Some random lady that lives near the church came sang us some opera and Sister Palmer comes in asking for cake and she was yelling so loud. (She is a new sister in okegawa) SOOO FUNNY. Cal-pis is a really good drink here in japan. I will give it to you and dad when you come. 

On Tuesday we had another lesson with Yoshimi and she made us lunch while we played with Hiroto. We taught her about the Spirit this week and it took her a while to understand but she finally understood when she said, "Whenever you two come over I feel wonderful and I always want you to come to my apartment when you have time. I love the feelings I have when I am around you two." We tried to set a baptismal date with her but she said that she needs to have more time to think and pray about it. Which is totally great!

On thursday we had zone meeting and sister brumley and I found out last minute that we were giving a training and we had no time to prepare so we just kind of went up there and said whatever came out. We gave a training on these new pamphlets that Salt Lake gave to us to help the Japanese people find out more about God and what true christianity is. It went fairly well!!

I found out a couple days ago that one of my investigators Inoue San in Utsunomiya got baptized! I was so happy for her! I miss Utsunomiya so much! There are so many prepared people there and I am always thinking about my old investigators up there who I know were ready for baptism but they just needed more time. I will continue to hint to President budge that I need to go back. :))

We prepared for a big miracle this last Sunday. We had planned our big Sunday project and we wanted to get fifty people to church. We lost an elder companionship so we had to work even harder. We were calling all the members and asking them to invite there friends to it. We saw so many miracles in meeting tons of people this week and some of them couldn't come his week but they are planning on coming next week. The bishop was soooooo excited for it and all the members that we visited in the past couple of weeks have told us how they have been talking to their neighbors all about it. We had refreshments ready for the open house afterwards and book of Mormons to hand out to people as they went. Eikaiwa students, old investigators, and tons of new investigators came in the sacrament room yesterday morning and we were so happy 20 non members were sitting amount us. The bishop was beaming as the primary sang, "a child's prayer" and everyone was moved by it. It was a powerful day. We fasted that day as well, even though our bodies were weak The Lord made up for it and gave us strength to keep up with everything. I LOVE THIS WARD! We are excited to move on to our next goal to get even more people to church! Daleska (she is peruvian) came up to me after church and looked at me and said, "I want my family back here Sister Staples. I want them to return back to church." (she is 17 and only active member in her family, the whole family was baptized 3 years ago) I told her we are going to make it happen!

There was a lightning storm after church on sunday and Sister Brumley were riding our bikes out far to go visit a less active who wasn't home when we got there and I was POURING rain. We made a break for a convenient store to stand in until the rain stopped and this old man was so nice to us by giving me a plastic bag to make sure all the things in my bag wouldn't get soaking wet. It let up a little and then we got on our bikes again and we rode our bikes past Daleska's house and we decided to stop by and see how she was doing. As we rode up to their driveway Daleska's dad came out of the house to take the trash out and he saw us and started to smile. We talked to him for a bit and we got to  know who the missionaries were who taught the family and he told us to come back on saturday to visit! It's a miracle! They never came to the door before or let us in. They always just sent daleska out to talk to us. Some of them only speak spanish and no japanese so that is why I needed dad to send me a whole bunch of spanish phrases! I was studying the spanish Book of Mormon last night and its not too bad to understand, pronunciation is nuts though! I am excited to teach them in spanish. Thanks dad! 

This work is so wonderful! I have been on my mission for a year now. I can tell you that this experience is the best thing for my life and my family. I am so grateful for what The Lord has allowed me to experience here in Japan. I love his children here and pray that I can cherish each moment.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

ステイ姉妹より