Monday March 14, 2016
On Saturday we got to go to Shiori's baptism! I taught her with Klein Shimai and Clements Shimai for four and a half months, she's been meeting with the missionaries sporadically for the past year. What are the chances that she chose the Saturday right after I ended up being transferred from Okinawa!? And if I were in a different zone, I wouldn't have been able to go! It was such a sweet experience. I got to see most of the awesome members in Nagasaki that I love so much! So much! I didn't tell any members before hand, so it was a big surprise! Shiori cried when I walked in! So happy!
Sasebo is good! The mountains are beautiful. There are a lot of old people. There is also a military base so yesterday I went to church in English for the first time in about a year! It was good. Though it was interesting, I didn't know quite how to be a missionary around American members. There are definitely different social norms between the two. It'll take some getting use to for sure. But yeah, we get six hours of church every Sunday, 3 in English 3 in Japanese.
Last night we went out in the cold rain. It wasn't very comfortable, but I thought about how the Savior's life or Joseph Smith's life wasn't very comfortable either, and it made me feel a lot better. I felt a lot of gratitude for the suffering the Savior spent in my behalf, and the opportunity I have to suffer just a fraction of that for Him.
It's been a little tough to transfer. I really love Naha. But something I've been thinking about lately is that, even when we are doing our best, working hard, doing nothing wrong, trials still come. Life is still hard. And it's not that the Savior isn't there with us every step of the way, or He doesn't love us. But like the Lord tells Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 121, we have trials for our benefit and growth. I know that through each of our difficult experiences, we are able to learn essential lessons so that we can reach our full potential.
Keiko, me, and Shiori - investigator
who got baptized in Nagasaki Saturday!
Yes Sarah, sometimes though when we are going through those trials we cannot see that they are for our growth; it isn't sometimes until long after them when we are helping someone else through almost the same thing that we realize why we had to go through it. Love you lots, hang in there. Grandma
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