Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Week 40 Japan Tokyo Mission

Dear family,

I have recovered from last week and am fully healthy again. :) it
snowed for the first time today Matsudo and Tokyo Area. It's pretty
slushy, and will probably be gone soon, but it snowed!! :)

Sister Bettridge and I have kind of had a slower week, but this next
week will be really busy as we have interviews and exchanges with the
other sisters in our zone. We had an awesome Zone meeting this past
week and the spirit was so strong. The mission President is really
pushing us all to hit the standards of excellence in all of our key
indicators and promising us great success as we strive for this goal.
It was a neat experience to be apart of the Nagano's trainings and
help them convey their thoughts and feelings to the other
missionaries. My companion, Sister Bettridge, is an amazing
missionary. I've learn so much from her already and I'm thinking that
we may be together at least a couple of transfers, but I guess we'll
see what happens.

This week, we saw an amazing miracle at basketball! Our church has a
big basketball court on the fifth floor of the church building, and so
every Saturday evening everyone gathers together and we play
basketball wi our members and investigators. It's a lot of fun. This
week, sister Bettridge and I were a little bit worried we wouldn't
have any investigators going to the basketball activity, but we felt
like we should go anyway. After about 20 minutes of no one showing up,
the elders walked in with a man and a woman who they had found earlier
that week. We began talking with the woman and she asked us straight
out if we would please teach her about what we believe. So cool! This
woman's name is Rochelle and she is from Jamaica! She speaks fluent in
English and is teaching English in Japan right now. As we began
teaching her about the restoration, the man she came with (he's
somewhere from America) began interrupting us. Long story short, this
man was a self proclaimed ex-Mormon and he began bashing the prophet
Joseph Smith and saying bad things about other prophets.
Sister Bettridge and I stopped teaching. He was very loud and began to
try and make us question what we were saying and testifying about. We
didn't say a word to him. After he had finished ranting, I looked at
Sister Bettridge and then we both looked at her and continued
teaching. I felt a great amount of peace come over me and we
continued to teach as if nothing had happened. She, feeling the
Spirit strong, asked us if we could get her a Book of Mormon to read
and if we could meet again to learn more. She is so prepared! The man
tried many times during the lesson to disrupt the feeling of the
Spirit, but it was too powerful for him to thwart. It was really neat
for me to see realize that it doesn't matter what is going on in the
world around us, if we are connected with the Lord, we cannot fail or
be disrupted. Our testimonies really can remain firm and strong, and
so can the Spirit inside of us, so long as we are obedient and seeking
the Lord. I really saw that with Rochelle. She is so close to God and
has been searching her whole life to find what she has found. We are
so excited to continue to meet with her.

There is a woman named Y--- Chan in our ward who is preparing to go on
a mission. Sometimes we take her around doing missionary work with us,
but this past week she decided she would like to study with us. A bit
of a side story, the day before we met with Yuri chan we had had a
really rough day. Almost everyone we talked to had said no and we took
some pretty harsh rejections And people telling us to go away. Anyway,
we met her at the church and she shared an experience about how she
had had an missionary opportunity with one of her friends. She
expressed great regret as she said that it was the perfect opportunity
for her to share the gospel, but she didn't because she was afraid.
She said that she didn't know what to say and that she felt that she
may not be able to be a missionary after all. It was difficult for me
to watch her share her experience. I think most missionaries can
relate to the fact that talking to random people is not an easy thing.
Being said "no" to is not an easy thing. Yuri chan then asked us what
we do when we feel scared to talk with people. Sister Bettridge and I
were able to testify and share scriptures that really helped her at
that time. I shared my favorite scripture with her and told her that
God is always with us as we talk with other people. At that moment,
the spirit was so strong. We shared the lords promise in Doctrine and
Covenants section 84:85, 88

85 Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure
up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given
you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.

88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before
your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my
Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to
bear you up.

She broke into tears. She said that she knew that the scriptures we
shared we true and that she felt the Lord close as we were teaching
her. She is so awesome! We love her so much. As sister Bettridge and I
had this experience, we both felt comforted and built up from our
previous day. We felt the Lord's love and his gratitude for our small,
but heartfelt efforts. Our efforts as humans must be so small in
comparison to the works of the Lord. I was thinking about this the
other day, and wondering why God must love us so much. We are so
imperfect and we always turn to our own natural selves. Why does he
love us so much? As I was thinking, I thought of the love my parents
have for me. A memory came to me. I remembered going through a drawer
in one of mom and dad's room once and finding a scribbled picture that
one of us had given them once upon a time. It was tucked specially
into the corner of the drawer and when I found it, I wondered why they
had kept it. In mom and dad's eyes, it was so precious and so wonderful
because whoever drew it must have tried their best, and given it out
of love. I think it is the same with us and our Kind Heavenly Father.
We try our best to do God's will, but somehow we still ends up in
scribbles and scratches instead of a beautiful masterpiece we
originally imagine. As we come before the Lord, offering our greatest
work, a scribbly mess (at least in my case) He, as a loving parent
reaches for my masterpiece and work and treasures it forever. Im
running out of time, so I'm not sure how much sense that makes, but I
am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for His
Atoning sacrifice for me. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, and
our advocate with Father. This church is true. God is close to us, and
there are angels all around us from the other side. I'm so grateful to
be a missionary.
Have a wonderful week!
Love always,

Sister Hubbard xoxo

No comments:

Post a Comment