Hello family,
Last night Sister Staples and I had such a special experience. We had gone out to visit a friend who didnt show up to church today, who lives around the train station but she wasn't home, so we just decided to dendo around the Train station. We were passing out English class flyers and it was not the hottest crowd. This man even kind of yelled at us for trying to talk to his girlfriend and told us get lost. We were just starting to feel a little low in spirits because nothing was working out. We had about 20 minutes left until we had to be home, so we started walking towards our bikes. Then we noticed this beautiful lady talking very loudly on her phone, wearing black and carrying an overly stuffed duffel bag. I handed her a flyer as I passed, and she stopped but seemed to have no intention of wrapping up her call. She wouldn't even make eye contact she was so into her phone call. She was standing waiting for the buses, and her phone call seemed to be going on forever. I dont know why but I couldnt leave her side. I even thought, okay is this worth it, should I just go? Because she wasn't really paying attention to me. I had the gospel art book in my hands and it was open to the section of Jesus Christ's resurrection when he appears to Mary for the first time. I tried to show her pictures as she was talking but she didnt seem interested at the moment. So I kept on passing out flyers near her waiting for her to finish. I knew I had to speak to her. Finally she got off and I introduced myself and told her I wanted to show her this picture of Christ. I told her this is a picture of Jesus Christ after he died and came back to life. I told her I knew through Jesus Christ we all would be resurrected someday and because of Christ we can over come death. Looking down at her big bag I asked her where she had just come from. She told me her mother had just passed away and she was comming back from her hometown. Her eyes filled with tears and she said "really I can see my mom again someday?" and I told her yes, through Christ we can all see the people we love again. It was such a powerful moment for me, because I needed to know the Lord was watching over us at that moment and through this tender mercy I was reminded he is aware of all of our needs. I had no idea about Kaiyo's situation but Lord was able to direct our paths to meet eachother. Sister Staples and I sang to her families can be together forever and she just cried and then after told us "I want to go to church". We showed her the map and picture of our builidng, and she said "I know that Building. I just moved in right next to it!" She wrote down her address and said we could visit her on Friday.
I know that everything is in the Lord's hands. I trust him because these are his children, and he is aware of all of our needs.
Our 16 year old friend Marjorie is doing awesome. She met with us four times this week and everything we teach her, she will reread the verse or rephrase things in her own words to clarify what we are teaching, and is really understanding the gospel very quickly. She is one of the most prepared people Ive ever met on my mission, and we just barely met her two weeks ago in a parking garage. The young women's have really taken her in and all have been really supportive. In our lesson yesterday we were teaching her about tithing and talking about the gifts that Heavenly Father has blessed her with, we were talking about "the spirit", which tells you what things you should do and shouldn't do. After that Marjorie told us she had stopped hanging out with some of her friends from school she used to always hang out with because she just didn't feel good around them anymore. Sister Staples and I were shocked since we had taught her things like the word of wisdom, but we never told her to change friends or anything. We were so glad that she is internalizing everything and making changes on her own. The Youth are such a key to missionary work, its so natural for them to be friend.
Marjorie is so amazing. I was so impressed with her yesterday because this is her test week, but we recently taught her about Keeping the Sabbath day Holy and how important it is to come to church. Yesterday she came to all three hours of church and then we had a lesson, and right after our lesson she asked "so where do I go for Seminary?" I am trying to step away into the background as much as possible so that she can make friends, which is no problem for her. She is really outgoing and bright and its been a really a great oppoirtunity for the youth to be missionaries.
We had a young women's and young mens activity this week that we were invited to. We taught the restoration to the young women and young men, because their leader said that they had never heard the message of the Restoration from the missionaries before. It was really helpful for us to, to adjust our teaching and hear feedback. It was really spiritually uplifting for us and for the youth. Marjorie came too and kept commenting how she knew what we were about to teach. I want this to feel like the ward's baptism, and everyone here has been doing their part at inviting on their own. They even organized a young women's and young mens activity to go out to breakfast at Marjorie's work a pancake factory befor General Conference on Saturday. She tried on her baptism dress after church and she just looked so beautiful and pure and clean. We asked her why she wanted to be baptized and she said because she wants to stand before God and be perfectly clean and so that she can start over, start a new life. We are so excited for her!
Another great miracle that happend this week is we visited the Nakayasu family. Nakayasu Kyoudai is a recent convert that is just so into work he doesnt pay tithing or go to church very often. Hes a great Dad but just needs a push. We did a little family home evening with them and had they tell what they liked about each member of their family. Then we asked "wouldnt you want ot be together forever?" We printed out four pictures of the temple and challenged Nakayasu Kyoudai to take his family to the temple 6 months from now. Sister Staples had a great idea and told him to write the date on the back of one of the temple pictures and then to put it where he could see it everyday. Nakayasu Kyoudai thought really deeply about it and looked at his calendar and picked out April 4th 2014, and wrote that on the back of a picture of the Fukuoka temple and into his phone. I have loved watching their family grow. We asked everyone to bear a one minute testimony and I really felt the sweet spirit in their home. I told them I will be praying with them even after I return home that they will make it to the temple.
Marjorie is so amazing. I was so impressed with her yesterday because this is her test week, but we recently taught her about Keeping the Sabbath day Holy and how important it is to come to church. Yesterday she came to all three hours of church and then we had a lesson, and right after our lesson she asked "so where do I go for Seminary?" I am trying to step away into the background as much as possible so that she can make friends, which is no problem for her. She is really outgoing and bright and its been a really a great oppoirtunity for the youth to be missionaries.
We had a young women's and young mens activity this week that we were invited to. We taught the restoration to the young women and young men, because their leader said that they had never heard the message of the Restoration from the missionaries before. It was really helpful for us to, to adjust our teaching and hear feedback. It was really spiritually uplifting for us and for the youth. Marjorie came too and kept commenting how she knew what we were about to teach. I want this to feel like the ward's baptism, and everyone here has been doing their part at inviting on their own. They even organized a young women's and young mens activity to go out to breakfast at Marjorie's work a pancake factory befor General Conference on Saturday. She tried on her baptism dress after church and she just looked so beautiful and pure and clean. We asked her why she wanted to be baptized and she said because she wants to stand before God and be perfectly clean and so that she can start over, start a new life. We are so excited for her!
Another great miracle that happend this week is we visited the Nakayasu family. Nakayasu Kyoudai is a recent convert that is just so into work he doesnt pay tithing or go to church very often. Hes a great Dad but just needs a push. We did a little family home evening with them and had they tell what they liked about each member of their family. Then we asked "wouldnt you want ot be together forever?" We printed out four pictures of the temple and challenged Nakayasu Kyoudai to take his family to the temple 6 months from now. Sister Staples had a great idea and told him to write the date on the back of one of the temple pictures and then to put it where he could see it everyday. Nakayasu Kyoudai thought really deeply about it and looked at his calendar and picked out April 4th 2014, and wrote that on the back of a picture of the Fukuoka temple and into his phone. I have loved watching their family grow. We asked everyone to bear a one minute testimony and I really felt the sweet spirit in their home. I told them I will be praying with them even after I return home that they will make it to the temple.
Love you!
Have a great week
Sister Vail
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