Week 49: A Child's Prayer

Grapes!

Cookie challenge!

I love this ward!

Ren Shimai and I!

Gyoza ( my new gyoza making tool from Daiso)





Sent from my iPadHello friends,

Oh how beautiful the song "A Child's Prayer" is.

"Heavenly Father, are you really there?
And do you hear and answer ev'ry child's prayer?
Some say that heaven is far away,
But I feel it close around me as I pray.
Heavenly Father, I remember now
Something that Jesus told disciples long ago:
"Suffer the children to come to me."
Father, in prayer I'm coming now to thee."

Never has this song touched my heart more deeply than this week.

This week was more focused on how deeply our faith, my faith as a
missionary can grow. For we must all walk by faith in this world, as
well in the mission field. To say the least, faith is what develops
action! Faith to talk to someone, faith to ask someone to be baptized,
and faith to have courage to not let fear and doubt stand in your way.
We were faced with tremendous times to act and stand firm. On Monday
we had a lesson with one of our investigators Ono San. For the longest
time, he would not take the Book of Mormon. But, last time we were
able to get him to download the app on his phone. Acting by faith, we
asked him to read just the introduction. He said he would. I had a
feeling he probably wouldn't, but that's when I needed to trust in God
and his plan as well as relying on someone's word. When we got there,
he was so surprised we had come back, he sat down in his little
doorstep and listened , I asked "Ono san, have you read from the Book
of Mormon this week?" To my surprise he said "I did, I read the first
3 chapters, and had this question." I almost fell over, I couldn't
just stand here with the biggest smile on my face. Ono san had started
to progress and really was interested why two young missionaries would
come back every Monday and talk about God and Jesus Christ. Especially
since the Monday we came back, it was right after a Typhoon. But, the
storm had let up for this lesson. Before we ended, Ono san already
told us, he said "I will read the Book of Mormon this week, because I
like the history part of this, and I really want to know why you
keeping coming back, why is this so important." After we said goodbye
and he shut his door and turned off the light. We couldn't, but just
smile about how amazing the power of the Book of Mormon is. Now at
this point the storm then down poured hard!!! We then hopped on our
bikes and bike home singing in the rain!

My companion Lenfesty Shimai is just such an amazing missionary. She
is a little quieter. But, has a good heart. At he beginning of he
transfer, I did a lot of stopping people, but this week she started
acting. We have a goal that we set everyday, and on Tuesday we decided
to set a goal to talk to as many people really as we could. Catron
Shimai when she left, left us so cookie/brownie mix. So I decided to
get us to talk to more and more people, I made a game. Because I love
games! The game was called the "cookie game". The rules of the game
were simple. You had to stop someone, get their name, teach a
principle, and invite! So we made it a goal. We went out and there
was NO ONE! Literally no one. Oh man.... :( so I started to look
closely for anyone that we could talk to. We were biking back and I
saw these two older ladies walking down this road and as my companion
puts it "I turned around and booked it after them like Alma when he
was commanded by an angel to go back to the city." My companion
started doing it to, she hopped off her bike many times to talk to
people. We were biking through this mall type thing (shotengai) , and
I could feel that my companion wasn't behind me I turn around and it
looked like a movie. She was walking with this old grandma. I couldn't
just but want to cry. It was beautiful. As I looked to my right, there
was a grandma looking through a window at me, haha I turned and smiled
and waved. He then waved back. My heart was just happy!

Friday was a crazy crazy day! The elect are coming out of nowhere!!!
Like what happened?! We had a really good district meeting that day!
We also went to this youth mission activity. And guess who showed
up!?! CHIAKI CHAN!!! Our investigator Chiaki Chan was there! I
freaked! She is so ready. All we need to do, is talk to her family. We
need to get them interested in the gospel. When we walked to the front
of the group. I went and gave Chiaki chan a little pat on the
shoulder. She turned and realized it was me and also freaked! Her face
just lit up!! She was glowing and she's coming to church on the 27th!!
I love that girl! After we left, I texted her and said "Chiaki chan,
thank you for coming today, we love you!" And we got a reply later
saying "Lockett Shimai, it was so fun, love you too!" Like my heart
just melted hat day!
That day was also the day we knocked on a door of this lady that was
so cute, we came with the approach of using this family Book hat we
have. This lady was a little interested in the Book. It's a book about
how to improve our family relationships. After we went over to out
investigators house but it turned out that she was still in the
hospital. So you guessed it, we booked it to the hospital. We got
there and found her. We talked to her about the Restoration and the
Book of Mormon. She was just so happy. We decide to try and ask her to
be baptized. She said at this moment "no". But, she wants to come to
church! Yes!!! After we left and headed to Yasugi Eikaiwa. It's where
we teach English in another city really close called Yasugi. We
dropped off our bikes and at this point it was raining again in a
downpour. As we were waiting at a light we could feel that it wasn't
raining on us. We look up and this lady had a umbrella over us. She
was so so nice, she had put her umbrella over us and her. We then
walked together to the Train station. It was like a movie, we said
thank you and then at the last second I handed her a Mormon.org card!
And said thanks and left! That night we were biking home and this lady
was walking and we started talking to her. She was coming back from
Bible study, we gave her a chidashi (flier) and left.

This week we just have had amazing moments to plant seeds!

On Saturday one of our investigators said she wanted to go to
basketball! So she came to eikaiwa(English class) and we went
together. It was kinda sad I could only walk in basketball. Since a
week and a half ago I sprained my ankle, but it's been doing God so
far, everyone and myself included has been really surprised it's
heeled so quickly. But, we had a great time, she is so jouzu (skilled)
in basketball, we had a great time!

Now to end things great! I have a beautiful story to share about a girl!
One of the most precious moments in my mission so far happened yesterday.
We were biking to the church, since we were having no luck with
housing, since this week is the holiday called Obon. It's where people
clean their houses and he graves of their ancestors and prepare their
houses so that their ancestors can come into their houses. It's a big
deal here in Japan. And I didn't know about it, but everyone is so
busy. (When you have time, look it up on Google.) So we headed to the
church. As we were coming down this road to the church. I could tell
there was this girl. Doubt and fear just kept invading my mind, I
could easily just go on the other street... but I then realized that I
shouldn't. As we were coming closer, I then again had the feeling of
you could just go past her, just say hi and leave. But, what would
that do? That's not what we do as missionaries, we are to invite. So,
without thinking, I stopped right next to her. She was a lot younger
than I thought... we shook her hand..
"hello, we are missionaries from he church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints. We are church volunteers."
"Wow, that's cool" she replied. We asked about her. She's plays music
right by the church. She plays the base, and is 13!
"We believe that God is important." I said.
Her face lit up.
"Me too!" "I pray everyday and on Christmas I go to church and pray"
My companion then turned to her and said "I know that God answers and
listens to your prayers!"
I then turned to her as well... "we believe that God is like us and
real. He listens to our prayers." After a few minutes she turns to us
and says "arigatou wa Eigo de 'thank you' desu ne?" (Arigatou is thank
you in English right?)
"Yes!"
""Thank you!" She said. I couldn't just but want to cry the whole time
we were talking. My heart was being mended back together, every time I
was told "no I don't want to talk to you", all the door slams, all the
"I'm Buddhist ", and all the Kekkous (I'm fine), just was swept away
and my heart was mended back together!!!!

I know that God answered that girl's prayer that day! I know that God
answers my prayers! I had been praying to find someone that would be
ready. And I have been finding them everywhere! No words can really
been written of how powerful and beautiful that experience was to me!
God is real!!!!!
This work is so important and I love it!
I love my savior!
And I love the beautiful plan of God!

May we all love God too! Because he sure loves us and sure loves the
beautiful Japanese people of Yonago!

Love ロケット姉妹