Week 49 Japan Tokyo Mission

Harajuku

Shibuya! This is the busiest street in the world! It is called the

scrambler. So neat!

Dear family,

We were super busy this week with everything! My time is super short
today as it has been a busy p-day, but I hope I can share some of the
cool things that have happened this week.

To start, we received of phone call from Sister Nagano this past week,
(mission pres wife) and she asked us if we would take a day trip over
to Koiwa area to do a mini exchange with the sister training leaders
in the Tokyo East Zone. When I heard Sister Nagano say Koiwa, the most
incredible excitement filled me as I realized I would be going back to
my first area for a few hours!! So awesome! Sister Junot and Sister
Coughenour from my MTC district are serving in Koiwa right and so it
was really nice to see them as well as some of the people I used to
work with there. I was only able to see one of my recent converts, but
it was still a wonderful experience to be dendouing in my first area
again. I'm not sure what it is about that place, but it is definitely
special inside my heart. So exciting! I love it!

Today Sister Bettridge and I travelled back into Tokyo to a place
called Shibuya. I sent a bunch of pictures, so those should be fun to
look at. About 5 years before Sister Bettridge came on a mission, she
had a Japanese exchange student come and stay with her family. We met
her today in Shibuya and were able to talk with her and share the
gospel with her. It was neat for me to see sister Bettridge so excited
to meet her again. We went to the busiest street/intersection in the
world! It was neat. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Okay, a little bit of investigator talk:

So a while back, I talked about a woman named C----- San. She's
great! We had an appointment to meet her at the Matsudo church this
past week, but she said that she wouldn't be able to come due to
getting off work late. She suggested we could meet her close to a park
right next to her work and so we went to this park on Friday to wait
for her. Sister Bettridge and I have met people in many places other
than the church, and we figured it would be difficult to teach her a
lesson if we were walking around a park but still felt like we should
go. We went, and as we were walking through the park with her, she
suggested we sit down on a bench. We did so, and before we knew it,
she had pulled out the restoration pamphlet from her bag and told us
she had a few questions for us. So neat!! She is such an amazing
person. Her heart is so pure and we love her so much! We are meeting
her again tomorrow and so we are excited for her.

I mentioned last week that we had found a family to teach! This past
week, we went and taught J-----, the mother of six, three times! She
loves the gospel and although she is very busy in the next little
while, we hope she will be able to continue to meet with us.

Our friend Yo San had us over for dinner this past week and we had a
great time with her. I should have took a picture, but we ate jelly
fish!! Haha, definitely an adventure! During the lesson, She told us
she has so many questions for us and said we needed to meet every week
so we can help her find answers. She's also great! Yo San is from
China and she has an amazing story I wish I had time to share, but
long story short, she has an outstanding desire to know about Jesus
Christ and the things He taught. We taught her about the Spirit, and
she said she had felt him touch her life before. Meeting with Yo San
has made me realize how much the Lord knows us. He knows exactly what
needs to happen in our lives in order for us to learn and grow. This
knowledge gives me great hope for all the people who say no to us
everyday. God is working His wonders in their lives too, and is
providing opportunities for them to receive the Gospel. Someday
everyone will know about this gospel! It's amazing to think about.

We have exchanges again this next week, and then transfer calls next
Monday as well. I guess we will see what happens with everything! I'd
love to stay in Matsudo longer, but I'm okay with doing something else
too if that is what the Lord wants. This is His work. I know this
church is true. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know He
loves us and is mindful of us. He lives. As I have gone through this
past week, I feel like I have learned a lot about how God must feel
about us. As sister Bettridge and I have said goodbye to people who
tell us they no longer want to meet with us, I feel like I have felt
just a small portion of the sadness God must feel when we withdraw
ourselves from Him. It's definitely sad to say goodbye to people who
have entered into our hearts. It's difficult sometimes to see how much
people need the gospel and then to see them reject it, resulting in a
loss of blessings they so desperately need. As I have entrusted these
people back into the Lord's care and hands, My heart strings ring and
it is sometimes really difficult. However, I've found that as I pray
for the Lord's peace and strength that I am able to do all things
through Him. My mind is calmed, and I feel the most incredible peace.
I believe God weeps with us and for us. He loves us so much. He knows
the thoughts and the intents of our hearts. He blesses us individually
and knows what will make us happy and what we need to experience in
order to grow. I love this Gospel so much.
Well, that's all I have time for this week! Sorry this is kind of
short and バラバラ (all over the place)。I love you all so much! Have a
wonderful week. :)
Love always,

Sister Hubbard

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

Week 47 Japan Tokyo Mission

Mission leadership counsel


Zone conference



At MLC- The two elders to our left- elder Clark and Elder Judd. They
are the Matsudo Zone leaders.

Mission leadership counsel

Dear Family,

It's so great to hear from everyone and about everyone! We are so
blessed. It's neat to see that the miracles I see here in Japan are
not the only ones that are occurring. God is blessing you all so much!
I am so happy to see the Lord's goodness in your lives and in the
lives of our friends and extended family. God is so gracious. Thanks
you for sharing about everything that has been happening. I hope the
little boys win the cub car race coming up! ;) 頑張って下さい!

Sister Bettridge and I had two really big meetings this week to attend
and so we were worried we may not be able to accomplish some of our
plans for the week, but we've learned that God is able to magnify our
efforts and multiply it by thousands! We have seen amazing
breakthroughs in our Tokyo Japan Mission this last week! As a mission,
we've really united in our efforts to find the elect whom God has
prepared and we have been talking with everyone. As a result, our
mission has talked to over 10,000 people this past week! Our mission
has 180ish missionaries in it and we have over doubled the amount of
people we have previously talked to. It's amazing! Together, we have
found more new investigators than ever before. God is really preparing
the minds and hearts of the people here in Japan. It's so neat to see
everyday as we go out and try and find people.

Sister Bettridge and I have been praying specifically to find someone
who is really prepared to receive the gospel. Everyday, we speak with
everyone who will hear us and try to find our kinjin. We had a really
neat experience this past week at the train station! We were talking
to a woman just before getting on a train and she said she had no
interest and shut us down pretty hard. Our week had been full of many
rejections, but that wasn't keeping us from opening our mouths! On the
train ride home, we talked with many people who did the same thing. As
we were walking out of the Eki, we stopped to speak to a young mother
who was near the Eki's fountain with a bunch of her children. As we
were walking over to her, we heard a voice behind us. We turned around
and to our great surprise, we saw a very tall, dark, African man
standing behind us. His soft voice was reassuring and quiet even
though he was tall and a little bit scary. He must have seen the
shocked look on our faces because he apologized for being so sudden.
He then went on to explain that he had heard our Japanese conversation
on the train with the woman who had turned us down and that he wanted
to come to our church. He kindly asked us if it would be okay if he
could have one of our chirashi's so that he could find the church
building and come to church on Sunday. We were amazed as we began to
talk with him. He shook our hands and thanked us as we gave him the
church address. As he turned to walk away, we asked him for his name.
He said his name was "Amen." ...He was the literal end of, and answer
to our prayers. So cool! Hopefully he will be meeting with the elders
soon.

MLC was really great this week! It's always great. The spirit was
really strong as we talked about some of the things that were
happening in the mission. It is really neat to be able to receive
revelation together as a big group of missionaries and to figure out
ways to change things in the mission. It's really taught me and helped
me understand just how involved the Lord is in our work. It's always
an amazing experience.

Sister Bettridge and I also had exchanges this week with the Kamagaya
Sisters- Sister Clark and Sister Moore. I love the opportunity to work
so closely with the Sisters in my zone. They are all so amazing! I
learn so much from them every time we have exchanges. :) They have
such strong faith and testimonies. It's neat to see how the Lord is
able to use each one of our strengths and even our weaknesses to
further His work. He really doesn't need us at all, and is able to do
His own work, but I am grateful for the opportunity to try my best to
serve Him everyday.

Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a shorter letter, but I love you
all so much! I hope you have a good week. :)

Things are happening all over the world and it is so exciting! God is
still hastening His work and we are so lucky to live in this time
preparatory to the second coming of Christ. I know Jesus Christ lives.
I know He is always close to us. He understands and knows us
perfectly.
Love always,

Sister Hubbard