Jazmyne in Japan: Life is Great

Hello everyone!

This week was really great! We are still continuing to prep for Oonishi San's baptism!! This week we taught all of lesson 3 plus a couple of the commandments. When we met her on Wednesday, we first followed-up on whether she had talked to her parents about her baptism. She said that she did, but they weren't very happy about it. We had such a wonderful Team-up that day, and the member just encouraged her saying that her parent's opinion is really important, but she is also an adult and she is the one who will make the ultimate decision, not her parents. I haven't met her mom yet, but I'm hoping that we can meet her before the baptism and introduce ourselves, so then maybe her heart will be softened a little. :) That day we talked a lot about faith and we told her about how faith is like a seed. At first it might start out small, but then eventually as you learn more it will grow more and more. She told us in that lesson that if she had to put her faith on a scale from 0 to 100, she said that her faith is probably close to 0. Although I believe she has so much more faith than that!

Then we met again on Friday and taught more about baptism and confirmation. She is starting to get really excited about baptism. For every lesson we have been able to have a Team-up so she is always asking everyone why they got baptized. I think she is trying to figure out how her conversion relates to others and how she will know when she is ready. At the end of the lesson she gave the prayer. And in the prayer she thanked Heavenly Father because she told him that she thinks her seed of faith is starting to grow and sprout! It was so cute!! And we were so happy to hear that!

So we have planned to meet her 3 times a week before her baptism. This next week we will be teaching Word of Wisdom and Tithing. I'm so excited to continue to teach Oonishi San. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to watch her learn and grow and she is really coming out of her shell, little by little, so that's a good thing! It's all so great here in Hakodate and I just never want to leave! I know that this gospel is the only true way to happiness. We see and watch these investigators as they learn and change their entire lives for the church. They all have so much faith and I hope that one day my faith can be as strong as their's.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Morrison Shimai