Jazmyne in Japan: BRT (Building Relationships of Trust)

Minasan! Konnichiwa! This week....... Let's see what did we do this week.... I swear I am losing my memory. And I know it's only going to get worse! Haha. :) Oh right we had ZTM this week (Zone Training Meeting). This is where a bunch of us missionaries get together and have different workshops and stuff about how to be better missionaries. Out first training segment was about finding people to teach. This is probably one of the hardest things we do as missionaries and it also one of the most important because if we can't find people who are interested in hearing our mesasage, then we can't teach and help people. They talked to us a lot about the importance of making connections with people. We call it BRT (Building Relationships of Trust). If people can't trust us, then they probably won't want to listen to us. It really is the same in any sort of relationship that we have, with family, friends, etc. The 2nd workshop we had was about Obedience, Dilligence, and Faith. I really like what they said about Dilligence. We always have to be trying our very hardest to learn Japanese and to teach people. Sometimes it can be really frustrating and discouraging, but if we have faith in Christ and learn to trust him, then things will work out the way they are suppose to. It really helped to boost me up and make we want to try even harder!

We also had some sisters from Sapporo come out and visit us this week. Vielstich Shimai and Call Shimai came! It was so much fun. I got to spend a day with Vielstich Shimai. She is so fun! She is from Utah and she is half Japanese and half German. But she only speaks English and of course Japanese. She went into the MTC the same day as me, but left after 2 weeks since she already knew a lot of Japanese. While she was here, we were able to meet with Agnes (the lady from Hungary). We had lunch with her and some of her other friends that she wanted to introduce us to, but sadly we weren't able to teach a lesson. She did tell us that she has started reading Bible stories with her kids which is really great news!! The other Shimai were only here for a day, but it was nice to see Call Shimai again too becuase I really hadn't seen her since we first got to Japan almost 4 months ago.

We also met with Sakuyama San this week! She's the one who we gave a church tour to last week and she has the cutest little baby girl ever! Anyway, we were able to teach her about the plan of Salvation and she really seemed to like it. But I can tell that she still has a lot of questions so we're hoping to meet with her again this week.

One last thing, so yesterday in Relief Society we talked about Elder Ballard's talk from this last conference. Do you remember what it's about? That's right missionary work and members! We really can't do it without the member's help!! And don't forget his challenge at the end - for everyone to invite someone before Christmas! You don't have to ask them to take the missionarey discussions or come to church, it can be as simple as an activity or a Christmas party. One thing I've learned is that it never hurts to ask. People may say no, but it's our responsibility to put the invitation out there. We've got a month people! I'm going to take the challenge too! To get one of our investigators to church before Christmas. :)

Hope you are all doing well! Love you!

Morrison Shimai