Ellie's Mission in Japan: Week 38

こんばんは！

I apologize if all I talk about is how beautiful Japan is for the next couple of emails, but the cherry blossoms are just SO AMAZING. So be prepared for all the many pictures yet to come.

This week was a little bit slow, the new school year started in Japan so it has been harder to meet with our people, but it was still a great week.

Some highlights:
First thing, apparently I've been talking in my sleep a lot...in Japanese. Lol My companion says it freaks her out every time, so that's pretty fun.

We have been doing a lot of Park Proselyting because many people are out looking at the cherry blossoms. So one day we parked our bikes and started walking around. I was just really off that day, and fear and doubt were getting the best of me. I was just not feeling like talking to anyone and kept making excuses not to talk to them. After a while, we stopped and said a prayer, for extra courage from God and to find someone that we could give a Book of Mormon too. We started walking back and were finding no luck. We started getting closer to the end of the path and I just felt like a failure. I knew I could've been put in more effort and just felt like I had wasted so much of the Lord's time. Then there was one last man who started to walk in our direction, we said hello and started talking to him. Long story short, we were able to teach him basically the whole restoration and he accepted a BOM. We were able to give him a better view of Christs Church and then testify of the things we believe in. I just couldn't help but thank my Heavenly Father, for allowing me to see a little miracle, even if I didn't deserve it. We are all imperfect and sometimes we feel like we aren't doing enough. But if all we can do is try, then that's all the Lord asks of us. I've witnessed that so many times in my mission.

Another cool story, we were eating dinner at a college cafeteria, with one of our friends we were teaching. One of her professors came and sat near us and our friend introduced us. After talking for a little bit, he was like, "Wait are you LDS missionaries?", I was a little nervous about what he might say next. But he happened to live in Utah for 21 years and took the lessons 6 times. This man was brilliant, he had read the Book of Mormon, the Bible, D&C, the Pearl of Great Price, the Quran, and any religious book you could think of in Japanese and English. He talked to us for about 40 minutes about all the things he has learned about different religions, and it was really interesting. The coolest part though, was he told us that out of any piece of literature he has ever read, the Book of Mormon is by far most powerful and inspiring. He practically testified of how he knows there is truth in the Book of Mormon and how it is divinely special. This man was never baptized and wasn't really interested in meeting with us, but it was so cool to hear his testimony in something he did know, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

1 Nephi 11:25 And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God.

I promise that we can feel the "love of God" through the spirit that is brought through sincerely reading the Book of Mormon. Isn't that the coolest thing ever!?

Hope you all have a great week and apply the things we learn from conference!
Love, Christensen 姉妹