So grateful for Mothers

Sasebo week 17 - wk 65 in Japan, wk 74 total

Monday July 4, 2016

Unfortunately I did not receive an email from Sarah this week.  However, I did receive emails from two members that she has met in Japan.  One woman relayed:  Your wonderful daughter is serving in our Branch right now.  She is a wonderful young lady and has been a blessing to our Branch and family.  When we first met her she had a big, friendly smile on her face.  My 15 year old daughter was happily impressed with Sis Lowe!  Awhile ago, Sis Lowe offered to come to my house to help me organize.  She and the other Sisters have come at least three times...maybe four, to help me go through things and purge!  It has been such a huge help to me.  We have had such fun!  I love your daughter.  She has been a wonderful example to my soon to be missionary son (leaving for the New York, New York North mission in Sept) and my impressionable 15 year old daughter. Thanks for sharing your wonderful daughter with us!

The other woman wrote:  I am currently visiting my parents in Sasebo until mid-August. I met your daughter so I took pics of her and her companion and sending them to you. They were on their way to go teach English to a community in Ainoura.  Let me know if I can do something for your daughter. The missionaries are really loved here. There's a church member who feeds everyone after church finishes at 4 almost every week and I saw them eating and smiling as well. Last Sunday she served miso soup and hashed beef and rice. I have a son serving his mission in the Philippines. He left in November :) So let me know if there's anything I can do for your daughter.

--Ok back to me, I am so grateful for this Church. For the Gospel.  For the mothers in Japan who are watching out for my daughter.  For the opportunity to watch out for other mothers' children when they serve missions where I live. 

Hopefully we will hear from Sarah next week, but I am glad I was able to share this experience with all of you.

Love,

Sarah's Mom

God loves each and every one of us

Sasebo week 16 - wk 64 in Japan, wk 73 total

Monday June 27, 2016
 
There were a lot of really really rainy days this week. Which makes for a lot of sweaty, sticky, soaked to the core, on a bike, kind of days. Buts it's all great because, when else am I going to have the opportunity (or desire) to go out and ride my bike in the rain, talking to people on the way? Never! So I am soaking it up now (:

We visited Ikegame San for the last time this week. His wife said he absolutely cannot learn about any other religion besides Buddhism, and he wants to keep peace in the home. Which is what we want too. It was really sweet though because he said that he feels a lot of peace whenever we visit him. I know that God loves him and will watch over His family even though we can't teach him right now.

We met Riko San last Sunday when she invited herself to church. She's in her 20s and studying acupuncture right now. We had lunch together on Wednesday and she told us she wanted to know more about Jesus Christ. We are really excited to be meeting with her.

The Elders are teaching someone who decided to be baptized this Sunday, so we are really excited. He owns a little cafe where high schoolers go and can eat food while they study. The sisters are teaching a couple of people who are really interested in learning about the gospel.

It's really exciting to see the work moving forward.

I really love this quote from the last general conference. Elder Holland talked about how much God loves each and every one of us. He said "first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all
of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life. Indeed it is only with that reassurance burning in our soul that
we can have the confidence to keep trying to improve, keep seeking forgiveness for our sins, and keep extending that grace to our neighbor."

Sometimes this is the only motivation we do have, that God loves us and because of that, no matter what everything will be okay.

Love Sister Lowe

This week

Sasebo week 15 - wk 63 in Japan, wk 72 total

Monday June 20, 2016

This was a good week! Not a whole lot happened but it was good. We got to pull weeds for one of our friends. We also had an activity baking cookies with some young people. And had dinner with the best family ever, the Smalls. They are leaving for the summer next week which is sad. But it's okay, there's lots of awesome people here in Sasebo.

Love you all, love  the support, thank you!
Sister Lowe

We had an activity where we made cookies! It was so fun!

 The best family ever, plus Sister Fritchen (:

We went to the BioPark again!

 ... A monkey pooped on me! And we got my reaction on video! Haha enjoy!

Titles are hard to think of sometimes, but this week in Japan...

Sasebo week 14 - wk 62 in Japan, wk 71 total

Monday June 13, 2016

Nothing too crazy this week. But still really awesome. This week in our English class, we learned shapes and colors. For the advanced students, we acted like we were in a hair salon and they had to do our hair. It was a lot of fun, we had wigs and bows and clips, they got to try out the blonde wigs.

Also this week a member, Sister Mori, took us out to a Thai Restaurant. On the way there, I asked what kind of car she was driving. She said it isn't hers, it's her husbands. It's the only one he lets her drive. It's an Audi! She said he has five other  cars too, one of which, only 100 were made in Japan. That doesn't sound cheap! Anyways, the food was absolutely amazing! The owner is from Thailand and is really funny. Sister Ehlers got a sweet (not spicy) curry. He came by and said "the kids in Thailand don't even eat that!" Referring to how everyone, even the children eat super spicy things.

On Friday, we helped sister Small get ready for her sons graduation party.

On Saturday, we met with Marco San. We met her about 2 months ago, she's Japanese but spent 55 years in America (married an American) but has retired to Japan. She's Baptist, so we talked about her experience converting to Christianity and what that means to her. It was just refreshing to talk to someone who believes in Christ. She said she would read the Book of Mormon, after she's caught up with her Bible reading of course.

Those were some of the highlights this week (:

I love being here, I love it more and more everyday. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and because of that, he is with us every step of our journey. Good and Bad, he's always there to help lift, encourage and help us.

Love,
Sister Lowe

Cool plants at the restaurant

 Mori Shimai and me at the restaurant (:

The Thai food we ate this week! It was so delicious!

They love beans here. A member gave us muffins and we thought there

may nuts or chocolate inside, but...they were bean muffins.

 Our zone this transfer

 Dark hair is Marco San

 Awesome youth in our American branch (:

Do you like bugs? (Mushi ga suki desu ka?)

Sasebo week 13 - wk 61 in Japan, wk 70 total

Monday June 6, 2016

This is a rhinoceros beetle. We went to visit someone we met last weekto see if he would be interested in learning about the gospel. Turns out he's not interested but! He was really nice and as we chatted he, out of the blue, with a mischievous grin, asked, "do you like bugs?" I was a little confused, and wasn't sure if I had heard him right, so I asked " you mean the things that live outside?!" And next thing we know he takes the lid off a huge tub, and picks up this giant rhino beetle to show off! Turns out, this one was born that day! He bought
the parents last summer and now has a tub of 40 rhinoceros beetles in his entry way. He gives them away as presents, he offered us one but we aren't allowed to have pets! 😋 I asked him if he would build them a house in his yard if there got to be many more, he said no. So yeah, that was the craziest thing that happened this week.

In other news, we biked an hour up a huge mountain to visit a member, and were exhausted the next day! Also Sister Madeux Transferred down to Futenma in Okinawa, and Sister Olsen took her place here. Sister Olsen and I lived together in Naha so it's been fun to talk about Naha and be together again (:

Also, we met a really nice older gentleman last week and went back to visit him on Tuesday. We were able to get to know him a little better and share a little bit about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. He seems really interested in learning more, though his wife seems to not like religion very much. He's busy with work this week so we are going to try to see him next week.

I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for the opportunity I have to be His missionary right now. I am learning so much about His love for us. Also how I can be a better follower of Him by always looking for opportunities to help and serve others. We don't know the details of people's lives, but He does. He know us each individually, so when we pray to know who and how we can help, I know he can and will answer that prayer.

Love,
Sister Lowe

Feeling lucky to be in Japan

Sasebo week 12 - wk 60 in Japan, wk 69 total

Monday May 30, 2016

Everyday that America gets closer, Japan I appreciate Even more. It's such a beautiful country, with awesome people, awesome food. I am so grateful to be here as a missionary, the best part is how many different people I have the opportunity of meeting. This is the one time in my life that I literally spend all day everyday talking to complete strangers about their lives, with my only purpose to help them experience more and more happiness through Jesus Christ.

There were a couple of really rainy days at the beginning of the week, which made for some really wet days. I can't even imagine how funny we look to people, walking around in the pouring rain, soaked head to foot, talking to people about Jesus Christ who haven't ever even heard of Him. And we do it voluntarily, we do it using our own money, we do it asking for nothing in return. And I love it! In the pouring rain, or the scorching, muggy heat of Japan, I absolutely love what I have the opportunity to do. Because I know that we have a Savior Jesus Christ, I know that He loves each of us individually and I know that no matter what we may be experiencing right now; despair, disappointment, guilt, depression, stress, pressure, He is there. He can help. I know this because He has helped me. I know that as we learn about Him in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and as we pray, He will be there to pick us up when we fall down.

Our friend Miyazaki San was finally able to come to church on Sunday! She took work off a month ago so she could come. She's been so busy that we haven't been able to teach her for 3 weeks, but she was able to come to church! She's still really busy, but she is taking the first, very important steps to learning about and following the Savior Jesus Christ, and I can't wait for her to start experiencing the love He has for her. We were also able to have a really fun family night with a friend from the Japanese congregation, and her friends' family (not members but interested in Christianity), at an American member's house. It was so much fun to be together, and play games. At the end we all talked about how our family can and has been strengthened through Jesus Christ. It was a great experience to be able to see how Christ can help us in every aspect of our lives.

Love,
Sister Lowe

Our big family night with the Barnhill, hamaguchi and hashiguchi families

Mills family from Idaho, they made us their family famous pizza!

  Miyazaki San at church!

Yesterday, an old man pulled up next to us in a pink car, waved us

over, gave us cake through the window, waved us away and drove off.

Not a word was said. So weird! But it was good anyway (:

Visit from an Apostle!

Sasebo week 11 - wk 59 in Japan, wk 68 total

Monday May 23, 2016

This was a really good week.  President Egan asked Madeux Shimai and me to go look at some apartments for the senior missionary couple coming in next month. It was fun, we went to a couple of apartments with a realtor and decided which would be best. Senior missionary couples are so cool. I've never really thought of it when I was younger, but I think it would be the coolest thing to do when that time comes.

During Eikaiwa we taught our students the cha cha slide. It was so funny.

Some ladies in our branch Honda Shimai and Yoshimura Shimai taught us how to cook Japanese food! We learned Nikujaga, Carrot Rice and tempura (fried veggies). They taught us lots of neat cooking tips as well (: apparently, if you can peel veggies with a knife, not a peeler, you can be a good mom. I'll start practicing (;

There is an awesome family in our American branch, the Smalls. We helped them out this weekend; Sister Small had agreed to make cupcakes for her kids prom but also was throwing a pre-prom party and a mission call opening party for her son. So we came over to help with the prep. Ehlers Shimai and I discovered we are quite talented with cake decorating and working with marshmallow fondant (: we made bow ties to put on top.

And to make an awesome week even better, yesterday our entire mission came to Fukuoka to hear from Elder Cook of the 12 Apostles. It was amazing. Sister Ehlers and I literally sat right in front of him. We got to shake his had and hear some council for us. The highlight was his apostolic witness and blessing. Spiritual experiences are sacred and he did not give details. But He told us that He knows, for a fact, that the Savior truly lives. And that He is guiding the church today. I felt the spirit testify that what he said was true. I know that he is an apostle chosen for this day by Jesus Christ to lead and Guide the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints today. And i am so grateful for the privilege I have to be His messenger and to "bring the world his truth" but it's not only the missionaries who have that sacred and special opportunity, it is everyone who has the knowledge
of the truth.

Love,
Lowe Shimai

I got to see sister Bearman for the first time in 4 months!

The cupcakes

Cooking with Honda and Yoshimura Shimai

 Just a regular trip to the grocery store! Any takers?