Week 48 Japan Tokyo Mission

Policemen on bikes!!

Sky tree town elevators!!

Emperors palace

Best burger ever!!!

Tokyo

Sister Lacey and Sister Solomon- right

Dear Family,

I received your package this past week! Thank you so much for sending
me everything I needed. Also, I am so grateful for all of your
beautiful letters to me! They warmed my heart so much and really
helped me feel both your love and the Lord's. Some of the things you
wrote answered my prayers and it is just another testimony to me that
the Lord does know us and is watching over us :) thank you so much.

Today has been a way busy day! We traveled to the Tokyo Temple this
morning and caught the 11am session with the rest of our zone. The
Temple was especially amazing today. I had the opportunity to listen
to the session in Japanese because all of the English translation
technology was being used. I had never listened to a whole session in
Japanese before and so it was a very neat experience for me. To my
surprise, I understood almost every word and really took a new
perspective on everything. The Spirit and peace within the temple is
always so special. I love the Tokyo Temple.

After the Temple, Sister Bettridge and I decided we should go and see
some of the fun sights in Tokyo for our p-day. After thinking about
all the things we could go and do, we decided we would try and go see
the Emperors palace! We took some cool pictures and I will send them
later. :) After that, we went to go see Skytree tower and that was
also really fun! I have been there a few times, but Sister Bettridge
never has and so I thought she should probably experience that before
she goes home next transfer. It was a lot of fun! We always meet the
coolest people while we are traveling on the trains and walking on the
streets. There really are prepared people everywhere. :)

To answer a few questions, we do a lot of both walking and biking in
our Matsudo Area!
We eat so much curry! Sister Bettridge is really good at making it so
that is especially nice. We also love to go and get Indo curry
sometimes! It's one of my favorite foods here.

Haha, good old day light savings! I'm not sure that is a thing here in
Japan... If it is I have missed it and no one told me because I have
been here in Japan for a year now! So crazy! Sister Bettridge and I
haven't experienced real daylight savings changes, but recently we
have started waking up an hour earlier so that we can finish our
studies and be out the door and hour earlier than usual. It's been a
neat experiment. We are always so so tired in the morning, but it's so
worth it! We always come home in the evening so tired we can barely
stand up. We know for sure we have given our all to the Lord and that
is the best feeling. Nightly planning is sometimes a struggle, but God
is really blessings us both physically and spiritually and we have
given Him another hour of availability.

I can't believe how fast this transfer has gone! Honestly, time only
gets faster on missions... Probably in life too actually, haha.
Anyway, let me share some miracles from this past week! We called a
woman named Yo San (Chinese) who we met about 3 months ago on our way
to Tokyo. When we met her on the train before, and we only had 2-3
minutes to speak with her but we were able to exchange numbers and
teach her a little bit about God. It wasn't an out of the ordinary
experience, and we tried to call her a little while after, but she
never answered. Anyway, When we called her this past week she was so
excited! She asked us if she could come to church, and so she came to
church this past week! That was a huge miracle. We think she liked
church and so hopefully she will be coming back next week. :) We Love
her.

Okay, my favorite of all from this past week!
Sister Bettridge and I had a really raining day yesterday! But, we saw
the most amazing miracle as we went out to brave the rain with with
our boots and rain gear. We were housing an apartment and had just
started the second floor of the apartment when we heard a whole bunch
of little voices yelling and shouting just a few doors down from us. I
turned to Sister Bettridge excited, and asked her how many kids she
thought were in the house..
#probablyafamilywhoneedsthegospel... :)

We prayed quickly, asking Heavenly Father to help us connect with
whoever was behind the door and then quickly rang the doorbell. A
little head popped out the front door as the shouting became louder
now that the door was open. He was the cutest little 5 year old ever!!
We asked him if his mom was home and he then proceeded to shout her
name down the hallway as 3 other little boys spilled out of the door
tackling each other to get to us. They were all so cute! The mother
finally appeared. She was from the Philippines and as soon as we saw
her, we felt a strong connection to her. We began to explain who we
were and our purpose as missionaries, but the little boys were so loud
it was difficult to explain everything to her. She said she spoke more
Japanese than English, but her Japanese was very limited. It was
difficult to teach her for this reason as well. It was difficult for
us to hear her and explain things because of the situation, but her
eyes were zeroed in on us and she didn't once turn to look at the
little boys who were tugging and pulling on her. She just lovingly put
her hands on their heads and guided them around the genkan while
listening to us. She wasn't bothered by the noise at all and she just
stood there content listening to us tell her about the restoration. I
believe the Spirit helped her hear our words because I could barely
hear myself speaking. At one point, the little boys were so loud that
I reached into my bag to see if I have anything to distract them. It
wasn't that they were being bad, but they were just so loud with their
playing. So cute!! I pulled out the picture book of all of you and
explained to the little boys that I had two little brothers their age
and that I had pictures! One of the little boys took the book and the
rest of them crowded around him and began pointing at all of your
faces. The room became quieter as we bore our testimonies and ended
our short message. Janice, (the mother) told us that she wanted to
meet with us and hear more about our church. With tears in her eyes,
she told us she had been looking her whole life to find Jesus Christ's
true teachings. We also learned that the four little boys were not her
only children, but that she had 6 little boys and the oldest one was 9
years old. Pretty crazy! They are a beautiful little family. It sounds
like the father is interested in learning about Christianity too, so
that is also a huge miracle. I just can't tell you all how much I love
this little big family! We are seeing them again tomorrow afternoon,
so we are way excited for that. :)

Well, I wish I had more time to tell you all about the other amazing
things that happen every week. There is a really special joy that
comes from being on the Lord's errand. President Monson always talks
about how receiving Impressions from the spirit and following them is
the sweetest thing in life. I believe that, and President Monson's
life sure reflects his desire to always do the Lord's will. Miracles
really can happen as we follow the promptings of the Spirit and try
our best to live our lives in accordance with God's will. I love this
gospel. I love the small tender mercies the Lord is able to give me
and the people I serve. I'm grateful for the many blessing which God
has blessed you all with as well. Thank you for your letters! I love
you all so much. This church is true.
Love always,

Sister Hubbard