Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Miracles all week!

Sasebo week 20 - wk 68 in Japan, wk 77 total

Monday July 25, 2016

Looking back on this week, I can't believe that's it's only been a week! We've seen enough miracles for an entire month! Let me walk you through it:

Tuesday: we went to the mission headquarters for Training in Fukuoka. That was really fun because I got to see some really good friends that I won't be seeing for a long time. It was a long day, training from 10-4, with one 45 minute break for lunch. But it was really good, we discuss concerns that everyone is facing throughout the mission and how we can try to help. We talk about what we can do better as leaders of the mission and representatives of Jesus Christ. All in all its really uplifting. When we got back to Sasebo around 7:15, we hurried and biked to an appointment with Miyazaki San! Sound familiar? She was taking the lessons, progressing really well and came to church about 2 months ago, but after that, stopped answering our phone calls and texts. But! We felt prompted to invite her to church last Sunday and she actually responded! She said she couldn't come but when we asked if we could stop by again she said yes! So yeah, on Tuesday, we visited her at her apartment. She's been sick for the last week, and we could tell she's exhausted. Turns out she's just been jam packed with work and literally has no time to think about meeting. We shared with her a scripture from the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 24:15-16 which basically says that the Savior will bear our burdens so they will be light even in the midst of difficult experiences. We promised her that she could feel that relief through Jesus Christ. And she set up another appointment all by herself! So we are really excited to keep working with her.

Wednesday: A Senior Missionary couple came to Sasebo on Wednesay. They will be here in Sasebo for 2 years. President Egan asked that we go and decorate their apartment door to help them feel welcome. As we headed up to their apartment, we ran into one of our investigators who hasn't answered the phone since she came to church two weeks ago! Fujisaki San! She's the one who was walking her dog in front of the church. We chatted for a bit and she told us she's just going through a hard time and isn't sure what to do next in life. We were able to set up an appointment for the next day! After welcoming the missionary couple, we did some Streeting in the limited time we had before our next meeting. The last person we talked to was Sari. She was waiting for her friend after work. We told her a little about the Book of Mormon, and she wanted to read it! Her native language is Tagalog though and so we set up to meet her a gain and bring her a Book in Tagalog! And her friend came up while we were talking, and asked for a Tagalog and an English Book of Mormon (she's married to an American).

Friday: we made lunch for Miyazaki San for her to take to work, because she always brings her lunch since her works cafeteria is too expensive. She was home when we brought it over and she invited us to go to a summer festival with her and! She said she could come to another of our friend's baptism in a couple weeks!

Saturday: we were able to meet with Sari and she brought another of her friends. Sari had read the part of the Book of Mormon that we asked her to (which never happens) and she really wants to learn more. She said "I feel peace in my heart when we talk and when I read this" there is a bit of a language barrier because Japanese is her second language but, we will also be meeting with her again this week!

There were several more, but I don't have enough time to explain them all! It's been amazing to see this this week. Honestly weeks like this don't happen very often, where people are actually interested, or actually responding, or doing what we invite them to do (pray, read scriptures, come to church) and it really isn't anything me or my companion has done differently. I really think that the Lord is at the head of this work and we are His hands. And as long as we continue to put our trust in Him, He takes care of the rest. If things aren't going well right now, that's okay. Press forward with Faith in Christ. Faith that He can and will take care of you, and I can promise that everything will work out for your good. Even if that means you have to get a few bruises along the way, it's all worth it.

Love,

Sister Lowe

 Sari is on the far right, next is Helen in the blue polo 
and my new companion Sister Shibayama on the left
 Training at Mission Headquarters, 
me with some really awesome sister missionaries
Little fuzzy, but an awesome view, high on a Sasebo mountain top :)

2 comments:

  1. What a wonderful missionary experience! Love you so much, Grandma

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  2. What a wonderful missionary experience! Love you so much, Grandma

    ReplyDelete