Jazmyne in Japan: Saigo Made Taeshinobu! -

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying your Fall weather, because we have finally hit Winter here. Last Monday was the first time it snowed and it is getting so cold here. Even though there isn't really a lot of snow on the ground I've wearing my snow boots the past few days because it gets so cold at night that I like to keep my feet warm. :)

This week was transfers! And I stayed in Shinkotoni with Yugawa Shimai! So happy about that! Me and Yugawa Shimai get along so well so I was really hoping that we would get to stay together for my last transfer. I can't believe I'm almost at the end! I feel like it was still only last week that I was getting ready to leave the MTC and finally head out to Japan! Man how fast time flies! But as we say in Japan: saigo made taeshinobu! Endure to the End. And that is exactly what I'm going to do! I'm so ready to work and I'm ready to work hard! We are going to have a great last transfer!

Right now we're kind of in a rough situation because we really don't have any investigators in this area right now, well except for Oota San (and yes she is still doing great). So me and Yugawa Shimai are just going to hit the pavement and really get to work. We are already seeing so many miracles for our efforts. This past weekend, we met 2 really nice people. One of them we met while housing and she wasn't interested in the gospel she did show a lot of interest in our Free English Class, so we were able to get her phone number and she said that she would try to come next week. Then while we were out contacting people on the street yesterday, the first girl we stopped was super nice and we talked with her for about 10 minutes. Not sure how much interest she has in the gospel right now but we were able to get her phone number and made an appointment to call her again.

The best part of the week was meeting with Ooshima Kyoudai (kyoudai=brother). He is a recent convert from about 2 months ago. But sadly right after he got baptized the missionaries who taught him got transferred and then he just stopped coming to church. So me, Hojo shimai, and Yugawa Shimai went to go and see him on Monday and we were able to meet him and we found out that he had thrown away his Book of Mormon. So we gave him a new copy and had a good conversation with him. He's been having a rough time recently because he's been looking for a job for a few years now and he found one about a month ago, but then it fell through just last week.

He hadn't met either of the new Elders, so we decided that all 4 of us would go and introduce the Elders to him. So we all went to his apartment last night. We knew he was home, but he wouldn't answer the door. So Goddard Choro (being the bold but loving missionary that he is) just starts yelling his name from outside the apartment and saying he wants to talk to him. And it works! He comes outside and Goddard Choro asks him if we can come in and he lets us in! Ooshima Kyoudai is really just a sweet, innocent man who has been having a rough time. Before we went to his house I asked Goddard Choro what the plan was and he simply told me that the plan is that we are going to show him love. And that's exactly what we did. He's so lonely and he really just needs friends, and he needs to be shown love. We were able to talk to him and help him to realize that he has friends at church who miss him and want to talk to him. We were able to commit him to come to church this next Sunday.

Everyone needs love!! That is the one thing that I have really come to understand this last transfer. No matter who you are or what your situation is, everyone needs help sometimes and everyone needs love. Heavenly Father is able to show his love best through other people. So I want to make sure this last transfer that I never miss an opportunity to show someone love and kindness.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love you lots!!

Morrison Shmai