Ellie's Mission in Japan: Week 44

Hello everyone!

Sorry I've been slacking with this whole emailing thing....ごめんね。
But wow this week! We saw a lot of miracles and opposition, but it was great!

Some highlights from this week,

First off I won the ping pong tournament, you guys... I feel like I shouldn't be putting it in my group email, not trying to be cocky but I've been waiting for this moment ever since I came to Kawchinagano. But hey I'm getting into the Japanese culture!

One day we had a companion exchange with the Sakai Sisters, we had a solid 0 appointments or things scheduled that day. So we packed our BOM, pamphlets and headed out, and it was probably one of the best days. We were able to talk to so many people, testify of Jesus Christ, handout 6 Book of Mormons, and find some potential people to teach! We were so blessed to have people put in our path through the day, so blessed! Sometimes talking to people is so scary but once you get going it can be so fun getting to know so many of Gods children and allowing them to feel the spirit even if it's only for a second! So that was awesome.

Little grateful moment: One thing that has been hard for me with this whole language thing is feeling like I can't be myself as much because I can't express myself as well. I still have a long way to go but I'm grateful for all the divine help I've received for speaking Japanese. Little by little I've been able to connect better with the Japanese people and it's been such a blessing.

As for my spiritual thought for this week I wanted to pull a thought from one of the recent conference talks, exercising our spiritual muscles.

"The spiritual gift of faith is not just a feeling or a mood; it is a principle of action that frequently appears in the scriptures linked to the verb exercise. Just as reading and learning about muscles is not enough to build muscle, reading and learning about faith without adding action is insufficient to build faith.....
[We need to] Identify those muscles that need more spiritual activity and start to exercise them. This is a long-distance race, a marathon, rather than a sprint, so do not forget those small but constant spiritual activities that will strengthen those important spiritual muscles. If we want to increase our faith, then let’s do things that require faith."

One thing that I've learned a lot over my mission is the importance of action. We can teach someone all the lessons of the gospel, but if they don't apply it or try it for themselves, then it won't have the potential effect of it changing their lives for the better, or increasing their faith. "

I challenge everyone to think of a concept or teaching where their faith isn't as strong as they would like it to be, and strive to see how to better exercise it to strengthen it!

Love you all and hope you have a good week!