Happy Birthday America!

One Year Mark!

July 4th, 2016

Elder Law and I sporting our bike helmets!

Do you like our helmet hair?

Standing outside of the temple with Elder Law.

Oh, how I love to give service to others!

When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God

Sister Kato, 89 years young.  I love her so much.  She reminds me of a mix of my grandma and my Nana.

Dinner with the Karino family.
Such a wonderful group of people. 

P-day fun at the beach

My twin.  Don't you love our shirts!

Cooling our feet after playing games on the HOT beach sand.

My Zone

A crazy group of missionaries at Zone P-day.Happy Fourth of July!!!!  Today I think I have sung the Star Spangled
Banner more then ever in my life.  I had zone pday and all the Elders
would get together and just sing the Anthem as we walked down the
streets of Japan.  We got some funny looks but hey, "I'm Proud to be
an American". We almost bust out into singing that song too but we
couldn't remember all of the lyrics.  But today's zone pday was really
fun and also really hot!  We played sand volleyball and the sand was
so hot that we couldn't take our shoes off.  It was fun though playing
and goofing around with everyone.  I love my zone so much.  We then
played a missionary version of Mafia and that was pretty fun!  I got
Assistant to the President, which is like the oracle if you know the
game.  But it was way fun and we had a blast at the beach.  I wish we
could have those kind of parties more often!
I would like to talk about my little friend, Nagashima.  He is doing
amazing!!!!  He is so on fire and he is ready to be baptized any day
now.  Let me explain.  So we had a lesson with him the other day and
we were teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Well we got to the
part of baptism and we talked with him about it.  It had been actually
a long time since we talked about it and we were kind of worried that
he was going to back out of it.  Well we asked him and he said, "Well
when you get baptized, you need to be baptized by someone holding the
Priesthood or else it isn't done right."  We were shocked, we never
told him that before.  He learned it from church, while studying with
the youth!  It was so cool.  We then asked him if he still wanted to
be baptized on the 24th of July and he said YES!!!!  He says he wants
to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and he wants to go to the
Celestial Kingdom and live with God again.  It was so cool!  I love
Nagashima so much, I am actually going to see a baptism in my
mission!!! :)
So this week, we got a total of 7 new investigators.  That is so
crazy!!!  The most I have ever gotten is like 3 in one week.  This
week we got 7!  I am so happy and proud of the work that Elder Law and
I are doing.  Actually, fun fact, I found a new investigator today all
by myself. Haha. I was on the train and when we are on the train we
split and one elder takes each side of the train.  Well, I was sitting
by this guy and I actually didn't want to talk to him at all.  I was
really tired because it was early in the morning and I was a bit
nervous about talking with him.  Well, after sitting there for awhile
and thinking about what I would want to talk about, I opened my mouth
and talked to him.  He was a way cool guy.  I know that the spirit was
telling me to talk to him because he is so prepared for the gospel.
So apparently he went to Italy last year and he learned about Jesus
Christ and Christianity.  He had so much interest in it, but when he
got back to Japan, he couldn't find any churches to go to or someone
who could teach him more about Jesus Christ.  Well I was as happy as
could be and I told him that we teach about him and how he can help
our lives.  I saw his eyes light up and he said that he wants to meet
again.  So I scheduled a time to meet and we are meeting this
Wednesday.  Also, his English was so good.  He was way fluent in
English.  At the end of our conversation which was half Japanese and
half English, he asked me if we had an English class that he could go
to.  I was so happy with him, he is a golden investigator!  I invited
him to come to Eikaiwa this coming week but before it starts, we
scheduled to have a church tour with him.  I am so excited and pumped
to meet him again! :) Oh, by the way, his name is Sho.  Sho is going
to be a golden investigator.
There is so much more that I could talk about this week, but time is
preventing me from doing that.  So I just want you all to know that I
am killing it in Togane.  We are seeing so much success and our area
is on fire.  I would not be surprised if there are more baptisms on
there way.  Elder Law and I are just at the beginning of our transfer
and we have already found over 13 new investigators.  I know that not
all of these investigators are going to go through and be baptized in
the next couple of months, but I know some of them will.  So as we
keep teaching and as we keep following the spirit, we are going to see
so many baptisms.  We wake up, work all day long, and then go to bed.
There is no room for relaxing or sitting around.  As soon as we leave
our apartment we are out there and talking to people or teaching
lessons.  I feel like I have wasted zero time this transfer and I feel
like we are always working our hardest.  I know that we can find even
more investigators this week and follow up with our new investigators
that we have already found.  I am so excited to teach sho and see him
progress, I think he is going to be a very good investigator.  Along
with all our other investigators we have found, I couldn't be more
happy.  I love Togane, I love Elder Law, and I know that we are going
to see so many miracles this transfer.
Oh one last thing before I forget, next week is temple pday so I will
be emailing on a different day than usual.  You know the drill.  Thank
you all for the love and support you are always sending my way.  I
have the best friends and family in the whole world.  I love you all,
and I hope you are still checking out my blog!  There are always sweet
pictures and now videos on it!  Go look at me eating weird things! :)
I hit my year mark this week and I can't believe it is already half
way through!  I am so excited to work hard this last year and to be
the missionary that I have always wanted to be.  I know this church is
true and I am so blessed to be a missionary for it.  I love you all
and I will talk to you next week!
Love you!!!