3.31.2013

hello april fools!










 Dear family,
This week was great.   We ran around like crazy.  It was yet again transfer week.  Luckily Sister Dolan and I are staying together, and today we got a surprise call from President Budge saying we're both training a new sister missionary so to come pick her up on Wednesday. We are way excited to have a new friend over here.  Utsunomiya is a great place!  We see miracles everyday! 
We went up to the very north border of our mission this week, the Fukushima border (that's where they had the big power plant disaster 2 years ago).  I talked to two people this week about the earthquake, and watched a video on someone's phone about when they were staying in a shelter the night of the earthquake eating food out of bags. It was really humbling and made me cry.  These people, tha Nakayasu family, were happy because they were together. Brother Nakayasu, the father, said the Earthquake happened on his birthday.  In the video he took on his birthday, it was all dark and they were eating by candle light huddled together, but they were smiling because they were together and safe. It made me think about our lives and the lives of those around us.  That is everything.  While we were talking about all this, the little boy Kevin who is only 7 put his arms around his mom's neck and said "let's not talk about such dark things, let's talk about happy things".  I heard from some other of my friends that after the Earthquake' marriage rates shot up because no one wanted to put things off anymore.  They didn't want to be alone. 
I've been thinking lately how much living in this world orients us to look towards the future.  When we're kids, people always say, "what do you want to be when you grow up?"  We plan to make things happen in the future, plan be happy in the future, after we get this or that, and we postpone sometimes making our dreams happen now.  Anyway, just want to make each moment count. 
Our friend from English class, Kentarokun, he is the 26 year old who went to Bellevue Community College in Washington, he is doing great.  We invited him to church 3 weeks ago and he has come to church 3 times now ever since. He came to church yesterday dressed just like a church member with a white shirt and tie and everything and we didn't even tell him. He is amazing! He always comes straight from work to English class so we made him homemade macaroni and cheese and ate together and had a lesson. We invited him to be baptized and so we are working towards the 14th of April. We've been talking to him about Joseph Smith and he told us this week, "I believe in the Prophet Joseph Smith and that he lead many people to follow God". We asked him how he knew that this was true and he said "I don't know how to describe it, I just feel it."  He also says he likes church because he can "relax" at church. It is so easy to love him.

Yesterday we taught Kentarokun the Word of Wisdom and he thought about it for a long time and said it seems a little difficult because he drinks coffee every morning, but he said he wants his faith to be stronger in God so he will follow the Word of Wisdom. When we committed him to follow the Word of Wisdom he even raised his hand and put it on his scriptures and said "I swear! to follow the word of wisdom" (pretty sure he picked that up from Judge Judy)  He has such incredible faith and a great sense of humor.    He is so special and we feel so lucky to be teaching him.
One of our other special friends is Ryuchan. She also has great faith. We made gyoza at her house this week and after taught her about the plan of Salvation. After talking to her she told us that the reason she moved to Japan from China, is because her father died in Japan 3 years ago, so by being here she in a way feels like she can be close to her father. This was a perfect time to teach what we had planned. We showed her "The Doctrine of Christ" and invited her to be baptized on April 14th too, so she is also working towards that date. We love her!  We were walking with her arm in arm down the street with her and she she said "we are the best of friends". She said something this week that I liked.  She said "trouble is my friend. Trouble make me improve". She said when her father died, even though it was so troubling to her, it made her realize how important family is to her, it is the most important thing on this earth.
Okay anyway life is good, so fast though! love you

marni







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