Wixom shimai no dendou

  Dec 28, 2020 Hello everybody! I hope y'all had a very merry Christmas!! Things here in Florida are amazing! I am currently serving in the Narcoossee area, which I have been told is one of the best areas to serve in. The ward here is incredible, and they help out the missionaries so much, I don't think we can thank them enough.  This last week, with it being Christmas and all, was full of service! We serve at the Bishop's Storehouse each week. Normally we go 1 or 2 times, but last week we ended up going 3 times! We also helped Kael, a lady we are teaching, at a local food pantry. We go there just about every week for a couple of hours, but because it was Christmas, we ended up staying longer than normal. Christmas Eve, we ended up helping a family in our ward and one of our neighbors as well. Wow. Lots and lots of service, but it is so good!! Christmas was definitely different this year, but still so fun! My companions and I all tried to do as many of our family traditions...

December 21, 2020  Hello everybody! So much has happened!! To start off, I finished the MTC middle of December. It was so hard saying goodbye to all of my wonderful teachers and the other missionaries. The last week we spent so much time thinking about all the fun memories that we had had, talking about the things we had learned from each other, and getting ready to head off to our reassignments. I am so grateful that I was able to do the online MTC. It definitely was not what I thought my MTC experience would be, but it was better than I could have imagined. I am so grateful for the 9 extra weeks I was able to have with my family. They give me more support and love than I could ever ask for. Not many people get to say they spent 2 months of their missions at home, but I do. I am grateful for my teachers. They helped me come to love the gospel so much and love teaching even more. And I am grateful for the other missionaries, and especially my companion. Each of them taught me somet...

 December 5, 2020 Hello everybody! So many good things have happened recently! There are miracles all around us, God is so good!! Last weekend I had the chance to go to the temple with my companion, Tu'ineau shimai! She had invited me to go with her when she went through the temple, and of course I said yes. It was such a special experience to 1-be in the temple again and 2-meet my MTC companion in person.  I love the temple, it has always been a special place for me. Over the last year, my testimony and love for the temple has grown so much through the experiences I have had. One of the hardest things recently, is not being able to feel the peace that the temple brings me. Our teachers have encouraged us to make a place in our home our very own temple while all the temples are closed. A place that we can go to feel peace and close to God. I have loved trying to make that happen, but I also loved being able to go inside a temple again. I would encourage all of you to prepare t...

November 21, 2020  Hello everybody! This week was one for the books! To start off, my district's new saying has become "It's a great day to be a missionary!" Whenever someone looks down or is having a hard time focusing on Japanese, we let them know it's a great day to be a missionary! It has honestly become so helpful. I have loved doing the MTC online, but it isn't always the easiest thing. I have become so grateful for each missionary in my district. We can always count on someone saying something so wild, like when Morgan Chourou started to do the Christian rap, that it brightens our whole online classroom.  We had a class focused on the Atonement of Christ this week, and it was one of the most powerful lessons I have ever been a part of. We did a silent lesson, so no one was allowed to talk during the lesson, and the Spirit was able to be so strong. I went into the lesson with a love for the Atonement, and after the lesson, I had a much stronger appreciat...

November 16, 2020  Hello everybody! My district received our reassignments last week! The Elders are going to Montana, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. My companion is going to Tampa, Florida. And I have been reassigned to *drum roll* Orlando, Florida! Of course, I am a little disappointed that I don't get to go to Japan right away, but I also have learned more than ever in these last 5 weeks that this isn't God's backup plan, this is HIs plan. At this point, I don't know how long I will be in Florida for which means I am trusting in the Lord and His timing. I know this is where I need to be for the time, and I am grateful to think that I get to teach people about the gospel I love in Japan and Florida.  In one of our classes this week, one of our teachers shared a scripture that I have come to love. He shared Ether 12:27, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all me...

November 7, 2020 Hello everybody! I don't know about any of you, but this week went by so fast!  My district has been trying to find ways to improve our Japanese, so we set a goal this week to speak as much Japanese as possible, wherever and whenever we can. Which means that most of our sentences end up being half English and half Japanese. BUT it's getting easier, which is the biggest blessing since I have a pretty thick stack of vocab flashcards piling up. We also start doing practice appointments next week where we can only speak in Japanese, so we will see how that goes. The Gift of Tongues is so real and I know I wouldn't be able to do any of this without my Savior's help.  The funniest thing from this week was when we were reading scriptures and discussing how they applied to the Gift of Tongues and our purpose as missionaries. I was with Morgan Chourou and we read D&C 4:4 and he said that we need to attack Embark, the language app we use, with our sickles and...

 October 31, 2020 Hello everybody! Happy Halloween!! This week was more full of spiritual experiences than anything else. So to start off, on Tuesday, my district watched a devotional given by M. Russell Ballard and Jefferey R. Holland. Super cool. The whole devotional was based off of questions missionaries might be asking right now, especially because we are having to do things differently because of corona. They made it clear that missionary work has never been easy, just look at all the missionaries in the scriptures, and that just because we aren't able to do things the way we used to, doesn't mean we still can't spread the Gospel. They pointed out that the Lord has prepared us to preach at this time and it reminded me of what a missionary said during one of our workshops. He said that this isn't the Lord's backup plan, this is His plan. I just loved that so much. I know I have been able to see so many miracles and feel the Spirit so strong, even with everythin...