Ellie's Mission in Japan: Week 56

こんにちは！
Wow, this week was so fun, along with some spice of unfortunate events, but it was still good!

Some highlights,
We went to a different area for a companion exchange and I went with my girl, Macaspac 姉妹。 We lived together in Abeno, back when we were young beans. It was so fun to compare our first companion exchange to this one! We actually knew what people were saying to us, only got lost once, and again so many miracles! One was we went to a community center to some studies. There was this old lady we started talking to, apparently, she's met macaspac 姉妹 a couple of times but she has a really bad memory. But she was so sweet and told us she was there for a piano lesson. Long story short, we were invited, listened to her teacher play for us (amazing), they had me play the piano, I played some hymns, told everyone in the class who we were and what we were doing, exchanged contact info with everyone and took pictures! Haha it was some interesting finding, but it worked! And we had fun. :) (I really need to work on my piano skills though).

On Saturday we had a ward activity, and we were able to meet so many new people! We did games, did そうめん永流し, which is when you catch noodles down this long bamboo sink thing, so good thing my chopstick skills are in shape. ;) my companion also did some Polynesian dancing and taught hula and then to top it all off, the relief society made us sing and for the last verse made me sing all by myself.....yeah so that was fantastic. I wish the gift of tongues could help with that but I guess we all have our own special trials. ;)

Last miracle, There is 英会話 (English class) student we've been wanting to teach, but she always says she's too busy and can't. It's been kind of hard because I know our message would help her so much! But she came up to me during the ward activity and thanked me for the spiritual messages we share at 英会話. She told me about her husband passing and how she's tried praying before because she just wants comfort but didn't know how. Then the next day she came to our class and we talked about how to pray and what it means to pray. She said since then she has continued to pray to her Heavenly Father and can feel him helping her. It made me so happy because I knew that even though I couldn't teach her, she had really applied what we taught after 英会話, and she told me she knew Heavenly Father was real! So cool.

This week I was asked to give a talk on families in the gospel and the importance of learning together as a family. It made me think of my own family and how grateful I am for their examples. Even if we weren't perfect at reading the scriptures and praying every day, I always knew that they loved me and that we should rely on God in our lives!
In 4 Nephi it says,
15 And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
I think the most important thing that is needed in a home, is to have love (God's love) and to create a place where the spirit can dwell. Obviously, no one is perfect, but if we strive and have our motive be from our hearts, and seek the Lord's council, we can feel the blessings that come with a family! In PMG it says, "Heaven is a continuation of the ideal family." I know that God has placed the people in our lives for a reason. I challenge everyone to pray specifically for their family, no matter the situation, on how you can specifically strengthen your family, so it can be built on our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Have a great week!