Week 62 - Favorite Part of My Week

There`s a huge typhoon outside right now...when we were riding our bikes to the church I didn`t even need to pedal. The wind pretty much pushed us the whole 15 minutes to here!

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES! and packages...and presents...and food...I`ll send some pics from my bday. 

All my cards for my bday! And I still got some in the mail yesterday!
Thank you! I love you all so much!

Had a cute little surprise waiting for me after our morning run the
day of my birthday. I got out of the shower and went to my desk! Look
at the sweet card my companion made! She`s the best!

Love the shirt, Sifa & Pua, thank you!

Go Housty!

A recent convert, Sister Hino, was so thoughtful and got me a little dessert
thingy. It was delicious!

I walked into the church that night and had this waiting for me! A new
convert, Brother Ryouta left me some presents too! Such a sweet boy!

Believe it or not...my favorite part of my week was not my bday but a couple days before! I had my first exchanges as STL! I was so nervous a few days leading up to it. I tried to prepare really well but when it comes down to it we just have to go with the spirit. She wanted to work on finding techniques like housing, streeting, talking to people, teaching lessons and that kind of thing. I am by far the worst person at teaching but I told her I`d do my best and teaching her what I could but that she should pay more attention to the Spirit as we were companions for 24 hours. The Lord really opened up a few finding opportunities!

As we were studying at our apartment a lady rang our doorbell. She was trying to get us to go to her church but instead of slamming the door in her face like people do to us, I decided to just sit and talk with her. She couldn`t come in but we sat outside and talked about family and about life. Her religious beliefs really aren`t that different from ours. We talked and invited each other to each other`s church. In the end she didn`t have interest but she did walk away with a good image of our church. After that contact we evaluated what we did and how it could`ve been better. Sister Nara (the sister I was exchanging with) said `How can you sit and talk with people like that? She was trying to get you to go to her church!` 

Sister Nara (the pretty one in the middle). I was her companion for 24 hours on exchanges!

I told her it pretty much boils down to one principle: We are all children of our Father in Heaven, regardless of what religion we are a part of. This poor woman had been knocking doors for what could`ve been hours, just like we do, and a friendly conversation will do wonders for a person. Not only that, but unlike us she didn`t even have a companion who could support her when people said no. Like President Monson says, `Christlike love flowing can change the world.` Although we`re not changing the world at once, we were able to talk to this woman and at least change her day, making it just a little brighter.

Another finding opportunity we had was a couple hours later while housing. An old man answered. Instead of waiting for a Yes, or I`m not interested, I just started in on a lesson. I opened up the Book of Mormon and showed him the pictures and started testifying about what was written in this book. By the end of the contact he said he was interested, he wanted the Book of Mormon, and he asked us to come back the following week. Sister Nara and I were blessed with many, many other finding opportunities and I learned so much from those 24 hours!

The other part of my week that I absolutely loved was General Conference. I`ll just end with a quote from one of my favorite talks by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland `My work is about love, not statistics`. It`s true. God doesn`t care about numbers. He says so himself in D&C `...bring, save it be one soul unto me...` 

God loves His children but not only as a whole, but individually. He loves my sweet companion Sister Nara. He loves that lady from another religion. He loves that man who accepted the Book of Mormon. He loves the other 20 people walking the street. He loves you and me. This work is about the love He has for us. I love being a part of it!

I pray we can all do as Pres. Hinckley said:  "Just try a little harder." I hope we can all try a little harder to love those around us no matter how hard it may seem to be to love them. I love you, too!

Sister Heimuli

We had dinner at the Nakanishi couple`s house and watched the Solar
eclipse..can you guess what I`m eating?? [a fish head]

Sister Crofts, Sister Nakanishi and I