A lot like being a mom...

My Dearest Family,


Greetings from your missionary in the land of the rising sun!  

 Just to let you know...I am eating on onigiri right now, right right now, with salmon in it... (rice in seaweed with stuff in it) pretty sure it's raw... 

wahoo!  ha ha!!! 

Oh how I love you so much! I received some pretty sad news today... Asuka is not planning on being baptized right now. I get to call her once and talk, I really hope it goes well. know that this is the Lord's work and that He numbers His sheep. This is an incredible work.


So this weekend we dendo-ed from the apartment a little bit more... my comp was still sick, they think it is vertigo. I think she got a little better. Here she is with her BIKE! ...and look at that smile!  

This work is amazing. I know that it is the Lord's work. Today my comp and I were talking about the preparation the Lord has done for each of us to come to Japan... and that was one of the messages from the AP's this month. As my comp and I were talking, I thought about it more and more. What is the Lord preparing in our lives? What does He know about that He is preparing for you, in your life? It is amazing to me the plan that He has, how He knows things all along. He really is our perfect Father.


(Thanks for your note on work Mom! Loved that. And Dad! It sounds like the campout was so fun... I love the mountains and the peace that is there. I think about Aspen Grove still, living up there in the mountains... so fun to experience that. You are so great Dad! And Hyrum is three! Wow. You and Hyrum are under the same star - and so much alike! I love that! :))


It is funny but... I thought of an example from Harry Potter ...Hermoine Granger. (I know...I wasn't super into Harry Potter! This just fit) In the last book, Dumbledore left her a book that he knew she would read over and over, and she would know that when she needed it. We have access to "books" of all kinds through inspiration. It's just incredible!!!


I had a feeling about a kind of door we needed to knock on, and I want to find it! Maybe sometimes the Lord gives us just enough inspiration to inspire more perspiration, so we can work for others salvation. :) 


I love you so much! The Gospel is true. Being a trainer I think is a lot like what I have heard about being a mom, from what I hear from my sisters (and how I imagine it). There are all these things you vow you will never do, you decide you will be perfect, you know once YOU become the trainer, you'll know what to do and be flying on superman wings of inspiration... but then it happens and you are still just as normal as ever, and making just as many mistakes! The sweet companion you are training is probably going to end up doing the same things you do, even using the Japanese she's heard from watching you... It was so funny to me to feel that comparison, even though I haven't been a mom!  Now that i am a trainer, I feel so much more lenient on my own trainer, and just want to hug her and say thank you! thank you! thank you! It's so funny how much we think we can fix when it's our turn, but how much we all just need the Lord so  much. I love Him with all I am. I know that it is His grace we run on. Even in our darkest times, even in our best times, I know that He never leaves us. How it must grieve Him when we don't trust Him. I think Elder Holland said something like... "how it must wound the loving heart of the Savior when He hears His people do not feel confident in His care." How He loves us! How He is in our living water. I feel the weight of Salvation every once in a while, and probably just learn the same lessons again and again... hopefully sukoshi zutsu kaizen shite imasu! (little by little improving).

I love hearing of your triumphs and what each of you is doing. What a work it is. Thank you for your support. Even if everyone says no, we will proclaim the Gospel. I felt what a joy it was to actually contact when we'd been inside a long time this weekend... we left our apartment, and suddenly I wasn't feeling so apprehensive anymore. I just wanted to share, to have the chance to tell the people we meet of eternal things. We don't understand the culture perfectly. We can't speak the language perfectly. It really is His work. I know missionaries could NOT do this work without Him, no matter where they serve... it is too deep! 


I love the Book of Mormon. I love that great book. I know that through the Book of Mormon we can come to know, personally, Jesus Christ. As we read that book, we know the truthfulness, not only of the Restoration, but of Jesus Christ. It is so sad when people think there is another way. He truly is "the way, the truth, and the light." How I want to become more like Him.


Sorry a little scattered...with love though! THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! You are great!


With love,
Sister Anderson


Elder Holland's talk - Ensign  APR. 1998 “COME UNTO ME”
http://www.lds.org/ensign/1998/04/come-unto-me

And they thought everything was smaller here!

Dearest Family in America!

Wow! That's weird. I'm sitting in Japan right now and you are sitting in America, on a Sunday night I've already lived on my hemisphere. Ha ha! How I loved talking with you all on Mother's Day!! What a treat! All my nieces and nephews sound so grown-up. :)
Happy Mother's day to all you moms...thanks for your example to me and to so many others.  I am so grateful that you love being mothers. Thanks again to everyone for all your support and love!


My beautiful Japan...

We have some great miracles to tell you about. This week, I just felt at the beginning of the week that this would be a week of miracles. Last week, before we called, three of our investigators came to Church on Sunday. Three! We were so stoked. I love seeing Heavenly Father's children progressing.

The first person I want to tell you about is Noguchi Asuka San. Probably two or three weeks ago, I started talking to a girl on a bridge (she was the one that said "I'm interested in Christian churches!"). This past week she came to church, and we gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet, and scheduled a meeting for Tuesday. On Tuesday when she came, she apologetically pulled out the Book of Mormon and said she hadn't finished it. I said was that was fine, of course. When my companion asked her where she'd read to, neither of us quite understood what she said, and we would have missed it if a member hadn't stopped and said, 300 pages?? Ha ha. It turns out, she'd read 300 PAGES! She came again to Church this week. She really is incredible. We had a lesson and it was a lot for her to take in (mostly just answering some questions she had). We are actually teaching her today, soon after I write! It was so neat though. At one point, she asked us what it would be like if people chose not to follow Christianity (or something like that?). I just cried as I got to testify of Jesus Christ to this sweet girl who is coming to know Him. He is everything. He is the reason we can go home, the reason we have peace and can overcome. He is "the light and the life of the world." It's so amazing to be a missionary. The Lord is helping us so much. Even today in front of the Hyaku Yen shop, a girl just started talking to me and in the midst of our conversation, we told her why we were in Japan. It's so incredible to wear Jesus Christ's name, where people can see us and ask us about Him  so that we can invite people to come closer to Him. So! Noguchi San is super great. We are also teaching a girl named Sarah that we met, who is a member of a Baptist church. She is so great!! I love these two girls. She is 24 and has wonderful faith in Jesus Christ. We talked a little bit about baptism this week, but our next lesson (tomorrow) will be on the Priesthood and proper authority. Both of them are "ii kanji," like... good feelings?  ha ha, they both are doing so well and we have a great feeling about them. It was so exciting when we were talking about the Plan of Salvation with Sarah. We have a few other investigators we are working with, but these are the ones we were able to meet with this week. I love Japan! Sometimes, I think like Nephi in 2 Nephi 4... and my soul feels all the stress of life. Things can be hard. But I do know that "Nephi's lament" turned around with the words, "I know in whom I have trusted." I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that Heavenly Father loves us. You are so great fam!

This week, I guess another miracle is... I ate raw squid and raw eel! (This can be a follow up question for Ellie and Hyrum who asked about the food!) I had my first sushi shop experience. It is so fun, there is a conveyer belt and you just grab whichever plate looks appealing and pay at the end... they are about 100 yen a plate. I lived! They are actually not that bad... I also realized I like beans more than I like cake, and that was a weird experience. Ha ha!

I love you sweet fam. It's such a weird place to be in, sometimes I look around and I am surprised at what kind of life I'm living. Every once in a while something will catch me off guard, but I'm amazed at how at home I feel. Thank you for your prayers, they help so much. I know that Heavenly Father answers the prayers of little girls (President Monson's story from conference), and of everyone else. I know He hears us. I know that He is just waiting. This week in one of our lessons, I realized anew that this work is ONLY possible through Jesus Christ. This work HAS to be done with the Spirit. When you step back and look at someone changing their life, in ways we can't understand or comprehend, it is amazing that it happens at all. And yet it is happening everywhere. I know that Heavenly Father knows His children. Oh, the work is so good. I studied patience on Sunday and realized I was a little afraid to pray for patience from the many stories I've heard of seemingly bad experiences that come from asking for a virtue! ha ha. I realized in Church yesterday that Heavenly Father can tutor us with good things. I realized anew my dependence on Him this week. Without the Spirit, we cannot do this work.

Our investigators have some big decisions to make this week. Tomorrow, Sarah will have a big decision to make about baptism. Would you pray for her and for our other investigators? Both of the investigators I've mentioned are making big steps. I'm so excited. I can only imagine what Heavenly Father feels for us, even as we begin to progress. How He loves us!

Well my sweet Fam, I wish I had 3 hours to plop you in Japan and walk you around, to put you on my bike over the red cobbled streets, to have you nod and say "konichiwa" to the sweet old ladies bicycling and walking by, to stop by Hozawa's shoe stop on the corner of two lights, and say hi to the shopkeeper who must be in her fifties or sixties but dances and feeds the birds as she sells shoes. I wish you could come with me to visit the members, how you would love them and how you would cry over their humility and love. Someday we will be eating Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and talking about these stories that are happening now. (but don't worry! I'm not thinking about it!  ha ha)... but for now these letters will have to do. :) Oh how I love you sweet people. How the Lord loves us. How He loves His children.

Ice cream tag line... and they thought everything was smaller in Japan!  hahahahahah!

This week I got asked if bike helmets are part of our religion. (For how often we wear them... they might as well be ha ha.) I got asked if we were ok doing blood transfusions and the other day I got asked if I was Amish, or if I eat meat. I am livin the dream! wooo!

Things are so great. I can't believe my first twelve weeks are almost over in the field! Transfers are in two weeks, how crazy is that?
      
So... everyone has a dog in Japan, but we aren't allowed to have pets... but I think we finally found one President could approve of! ha ha. 

Another pic of us...how I loved seeing my brother!!!

Who would have thought???

 Eating at the member's homes:

 Treats i made the other day (pie looking with raspberries) - yum!

  This is to show Ryan the green hills! 

 Today is supposed to be a solar eclipse! This is the beginnings. It's pretty cloudy but the pic is still cool. Can you see it? 

 I love you Fam! The work is true.  Thank you for your prayers and faith. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are so great, plus 50 bonus points.

Love,
Sister Anderson in Japan