I Stand All Amazed: Anne 8-31-14

Well this week was really good! We had a couple of appointments
fall through but we had a very good week! Sister Horito is still
adjusting to missionary life and is learning and growing to become
more focused on the work. Her japanese is getting better and better
everyday with our language study plan we have set up.

Our investigators are doing great, they all have a strong desire to
learn. Eiko is our investigator with a baptismal date for sept. 14 and
I think she is getting really nervous for it because the whole ward is
sooooo excited for it. Kakiki Kyodai out her name on the board during
Sunday school for everyone to pray for her. Which is good! But I
think she is kind of nervous. I want her to feel ready for it and have
a firm testimony of what she is doing. But I really think it will
happen this transfer. We just need to resolve some concerns. Yoshimi
our other investigator is really sweet and loves to learn, I am
getting the hint that her parents are hantai or she is worried about
what they will think if she is baptized. She prays and reads the
scriptures we send her but I can tell she wants it but feels like she
really wants her family's support if she does. Ryuu asako is
wonderful. Her husband isn't hantai but just doesn't care about the
church and he doesn't want the church influencing their son, rintaro.
So she says she needs to wait until rintaro is older and he can choose
for himself and then she says she will be baptized. We just really
want her to see the importance of now.

We went to Omiya is week and did "I am a child of god" dendo and it
was so fun, we were just running all over town telling people that
they were gods children and everyone was smiling at us. This one lady
said to us, "I am not pretty and I'm not Christian but am I a child of
god too?" And we testified to her of how beautiful is was to god and
how every single person is god's child. She walked away smiling after
that. It was sooooo good! I met that darling girl on my profile
picture and she was so sweet. We actually saw her twice that day and
the second time she ran up to me to hold my hand and I just WANTED TO
TAKE HER HOME SO BAAAD.

I am learning so much on my mission. I was thinking during study this
morning when I was reading in teaching skills in PMG. I was thinking
about inviting and how we learned during the two mission conference
about "When we invite, we succeed." I really loved that. As I was
pondering about it this morning I thought about my experience as a
missionary and i realized that the biggest part of being a missionary
and be a servant for The Lord is showing how much you will give to
god, not what you receive. So many people think oh, "oh they did this
on their mission and they did that, and they saw this on their
mission." And I was thinking, "no, it's not that at all." It is
forgetting yourself and devoting everything humbly to god. It is
showing your deep love for god's children by helping them come into
Christ. It is serving others with the desire to purely only give. It's
never about receiving, it is us giving a gift to the God who gave us
life. It the time set apart in your life to show god your devotion to
him and his children and invite them to come unto Christ and be
forever changed by it. It is inviting and sharing with god's beautiful
children in Japan what Christ can do for them. I know that I will be
forever changed by this experience and I hope that The Lord will
continue to shape and change me for the rest of my life. I love Japan
and I love the people. I hope that I can continue to give to His
children and be an effective tool in the lord's hands.

Love, Sister Staples

Heart attacking the bishop