Monday, December 14, 2015

Week 35 Tokyo Mission

Dear family,

Thank you all for the wonderful letters and love! I'm happy to hear
the Christmas tree is up now! :)
Before I forget and start going on about what happened this past week,
I will tell you about skyping this Christmas! We still haven't heard
the details from the mission yet, but we will know this next week so I
will let you know the details next week in my letter. :) I'm excited
to see you all! I feel like it was just yesterday when we were skyping
for Mother's Day. It's so crazy how fast the time has gone while being
here. Yesterday, I had a major panic attack because someone pointed
out that I only had four more transfers after this one! Yikes! I will
be hitting my one year mark shortly after Christmas and today is my
11th month mark. Pretty crazy!

This week has been really busy. I've had to do some traveling around
and it has been a really great experience meeting some of the
investigators in different areas and working with other sisters. This
past week I went to Tsukuba area and worked with Sister Griffin who is
still a brand new missionary. We saw so many miracles together and
were able to have a lot of fun together too. Sister Griffin has a lot
of faith and I'm confident that that is why we saw the success that we
did. Our mission is really young right now and it's been really neat
to see all of these young missionaries press forward with unbelievable
faith and courage. Japanese is a hard language, but God really does
bless the missionaries here to be able to do what hey need to do. It
amazing to see! Anyway, I will tell you some more about my adventure
in Tsukuba. Sister Griffin and I made plans to visit a few less active
members. Along the way, we got lost in a huge muddle of houses. Every
way we turned, led us to another clump of houses and I felt like we
would be lost in this maze forever. It was beginning to get dark, and
since we didn't have wifi, we had no way of knowing which way to go.
Sister Griffin had only been in the Tsukuba area for a little over 1
transfer, and it was my first time big there. We were completely lost.
It's really interesting, but during my whole mission here in Japan, I
have never felt lost or worried about where to go or be. At this time,
I just felt like maybe God wanted us to be somewhere else at that time
instead of the less actives house. Sister Griffin, beginning to get a
little bit worried, suggested we pray to be able to find our way out
of the maze. Sister Griffin said the sweetest heartfelt prayer and
soon we found ourselves biking down a street which led to a wifi spot
and we were able to find our way back home. Shortly after arriving
home and eating a quick dinner, we ran to an appointment we had at the
church. We were meeting a Chinese women for the first time and weren't
quite sure what to say to her. As we were talking together, this women
asked us, "how can God help me in my life?" Sister Griffin then
related our previous experience from the day. She explained that we
had been lost and didn't know what to do, and so we prayed to be able
to find our way. We were able to testify powerfully to this women that
the Lord does hear and answer our prayers and that he can help us in
every aspect of our lives. This women, (her name is Emma) told us that
she wanted to know how to pray, and after teaching her, she began to
pray without us prompting her. It was an amazing experience and her
prayer was so simple, yet powerful. In her prayer, she simply asked to
"please help me to know whether or not you exist, so that I can be
happy." It was a beautiful experience. Sister Griffin is a great
missionary. Her heart is in the right place and she is very sensitive
to the Spirit. I was amazed at the power of her testimony. I'm amazed
by all of the new missionaries in our zone. My companion, sister
Morley, is amazing too! She is a fourth transfer missionary and she is
so sensitive to the spirit and has amazing faith too. From this
experience, I really came to realize that God uses our strengths and
well as our weaknesses to help further the work. I can think of
countless other times in my mission where I have taken a wrong turn
and ended up finding someone who the Lord had prepared us to find.
Such a neat experience. :)

In Japan, Christmas isn't as celebrated as much as it is in Canada or
America. Most of the members have their trees up, but most regular
people don't have Christmas trees. Many people here have to go to
school and work on Christmas Day, which is really sad, but it's just
because they don't know about Jesus Christ yet. ;) Someday they will
all know and Christmas will be a lot different here. This next week,
we have a huge Christmas party on the 5th floor of our church in the
gym. It should be really great! We have many friends and investigators
coming and so I think it will be a great opportunity to share the
gospel and introduce the church to people. I'm pretty excited! :)

Our zone meeting was a huge success! The Spirit was really strong and
we were able to get everyone excited about consecration as
missionaries. The trainings that were given were very inspired and at
the end of the meeting, we all knelt down and offered up to God the
gifts we wanted to give Christ for Christmas. It was a special
experience. Two days later, after exchanges in Tsukuba, we had zone
Conference with President and Sister Nagano. They both have amazing
trainings and helped us all so much. They said that there was a
different spiritual maturity level in our zone, and that the things
they taught us that day were the things that God really wanted us to
hear. We all felt that very strongly. I think that the Zone meeting we
had, and the prayer we said together really helped us all to be
prepared for President and Sister Nagano's trainings at Zone
Conference.  I cant express the familiarity and relationship I have
with my mission president and his wife. They are both so amazing and I
am so privileged to be able to work with them so closely. I love them
both so much. They have taught me things I will never forget. When I
look back on everything that has happened on my mission so far, I see
why everything had to happen the way it did. God is always preparing
us, and teaching us line upon line and precept upon precept. It is
such a blessing when we are able to look back and see the reasons and
connections to all the things that happened and where they have
brought us. I think that this gives us great hope for the future as we
endure hard trials and deal with our everyday learning experiences.

Wow! Jarom and Jameson are going to be such amazing missionaries
someday! My heart melted when I heard what they said at the primary
presentation. So amazing! I'm so proud of them.

On the trains this week, we were able to find a hand full of new
investigators who we will probably be meeting with this next week! :)
So many miracles and blessings.
While we talk with people on the street and on the train, sometimes it
is really difficult because people will sometimes just ignore us or
say they are not interested. I guess that's life as a missionary, haha,
but is morning I was thinking about something that My mission
president said to us in the Zone Conference. It helped me to see all
the people who turn us down everyday in a really good perspective. He
told us that the language we are learning right now is going to be
used for other great purposes. He then went on to talk about the
spirit world and the time period of the millennium. He told us that we
would be teaching people in Japanese when we cross over to the other
side, and maybe even in the millennium when the time comes. As I
thought about this, and then about all of the Japanese people here who
don't know about the Gospel, my heart took courage at the thought that
they may accept it later on and that we indeed might be the ones who
teach them about the gospel later on even though they declined the
first time. Just some thoughts. :) The gospel is so wonderful!

Alright, time for a crazy story! You ready? Haha
Sister Morley and I had some finding time yesterday, and so we decided
it would be a good idea to visit a member, pray with them, and then
find in the members area. We reached the member's home, and she wasn't
there. This member lived on the second floor of an apartment building.
To get to her door, there was a rusty stairway that looked like it was
going to break, haha. (Don't worry, it's not what you think) We
reached the top of the stairway and knocked on this member's door.
While we were waiting, a lady pulled into the parking lot just beneath
the house and got off of her bike. She noticed us up above her and
began to stare at us. We could see her below us while we were standing
on this rusty plank with holes near our feet, just barely big enough
to see her big eyes staring at us. The member didn't answer the door.
We looked down by our feet and noticed that the woman was still
looking at us- her feet frozen to the ground holding her groceries. I
looked at sister Morley and she had the funniest look on her face,
haha. I giggled and said,"maybe she is a kinjin!" (Prepared person) We
walked down the rickety old stairway and went to go and greet her. To
our surprise, she greeted us! She asked us if we were Christian church
volunteers. Sister Hubbard, realizing that the Kinjin joke might be
reality, excitedly replied yes! She said that she had been meeting
with the Jehovah's Witness' and that she had a great desire to learn
about Christianity. We talked with her for a little while. It was
starting to get dark, and so she invited us inside so that we could
teach her. We were a little bit hesitant to enter the home because of
it was quite old and looked really messy and gross, but we went in
anyways. She Immediately asked us for pamphlets and books about what
we would be teaching her. Her name was Souda San. As we began teaching
her, we learned that the house we were in was actually her boyfriends
house and that He would be coming home soon. Souda San looked like she
was a heavy smoker as she had smoked 4 cigarettes since us being there
already. Although the situation seemed to be a little bit sketchy, we
had found this woman who was showing a lot of interest in our message!
We had started teaching her the restoration, but despite everything, I
had a lump at the bottom of my stomach and somehow my mouth wasn't
working to teach the gospel. I began to silently pray that we would
know whatever we were supposed to do at that time. Shortly after,
Souda San's phone rang. It was her Boyfriend. She explained to him
that we were inside the house and that we were teaching her. I began
to feel uneasy...Just then, the front door to the house pounded open
and my heart fell to the floor and anxiety swept over me. It was an
instant shot of pins and needles telling me that we had to get out of
the house immediately. The Spirit was telling a us to get out of the
house immediately. Her boyfriend walked past the room where we had
been teaching into the far corner room in the house. He was very loud
and we couldn't see his face. I can't remember exactly how we got out
of the house, but by that time I was already on my feet and was
walking toward the door with my hand on Sister Morley's arm. Souda San
called out to us to explain a scripture we had just read together, but
there was something getting us out of the house faster than we had
power to control. We left the house and shut the door running to our
bicycles. I'm not sure what would've happened if we hadn't left the
house, but I know that God protects His missionaries.

Everyday, we talk with some many people and all of them are children
of God. We meet people and try and help them remember who they really
are. I love it! Everyday is the best day of my life, and despite
things being hard sometimes, I know that God is always leading the
work. He has promised to be with us while we work each and everyday. I
am so grateful for the opportunity to share the gospel with people
everyday with the Lord's promise to be with me and my companion. In
doctrine and covenants section 6:32-34 it says:

32 Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing,
behold, there will I be in the midst of them--even so am I in the
midst of you.

33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye
also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your
reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell
combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot
prevail.

I know that this gospel is true. Jesus Christ is in the midst of us.
He has lived our lives and felt our sorrows and sufferings. He knows
us perfectly and is always with us. I know that Jesus Christ lives and
that God keeps all of His promises. I love you all so much! Have a
wonderful week. :)
Love always,

Sister Hubbard


Sent from my iPad

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