Week 13 - What is Genki?!

こんいちわみなさん!

What is genki?!

I hope everyone is doing great!!! I just got back from the temple, and I feel SO AWESOME!!!!!!!! Pictures of that will come next week :)

MIRACLES

Story about Higashi Shimai:

We got a referral from a ward member on Sunday to visit her friend. Who is a less active. But...we found their last name in our area book....it was just the wrong Higashi shimai. So we decided to still visit her, whoever she was.

We Dendo'ed to her apartment, which was on the 5th floor of a 7-11 convince store. We were waiting for the elevator as a older man starts waiting for the elevator too. We said "dozo" and politely gestured towards the elevator. (because we can't be alone with a man..) He walks in and expects us to come in after. And he says 'oh, dozo!!' Right as the elevator door closes! Haha I thought it was funny! But it was really awkward when we got to the 5th floor because he was there delivering a box to Higashi shimai. Haha He laughed and was really confused...saying things in Japanese that I didn't understand haha.

We started talking to Higashi shimai, and it turns out she is already a member! We told her we wanted to share a message with her, and if she would start by saying a prayer with her.

She offered to say it and half way through her prayer, she started to get really choked up. And I was thinking to myself like, *wow, she is really feeling the spirit right now! This is great! :) *

She gets done and she starts speaking perfect english...which wasn't what I expected at all! But she started having this super sad emotional breakdown. Which is where the miracle was noticed.

Her mom was dying in the hospital, due to cancer. She had an unexpected surgery that day, that didn't go according to plan. Which left her mom to be put on life support. If she would have known about the surgery, she would have flown (to kobe) to see her. She was so emotionally distraught. She was afraid that she wasn't going to see her mom again before she died. Then lastly she said, "And of course when I was in need the most...God sent the missionaries to my home."

She then just threw her arms around me and just wept. As I was holding his woman in my arms, I started to cry because I knew and I felt how hurt she was. I could feel how scared she was.... Because I could relate perfectly. When she started to calm down, I looked into her eyes....and I felt something... I felt as if the lord gave me his heart for 5 seconds. I felt and saw with my own eyes....just a glimpse of how much the savior loved this woman. With a full heart, I told her about my mom and how she had the same type of cancer. And how scared I was when things didn't go according to plan before and during my mission..but how I knew that the lord has been helping me and continues to bless my family. I bore my testimony about the Plan of Salvation. No matter what the outcome was going to be...that God still loved her. And that he KNOWS her.

It was a testimony to me that the lord and savior LOVES his children perfectly. That he allows us to experience times of trial because it is when we can progress the most.

This miracle was something I'm never going to forget. And I felt so blessed to be guided to her at that time. God is so good to us!!

INTERVIEWS

We traveled about an hour and a half to go visit our mission president for interviews! And based off those, he receives inspiration from the lord..and thats when he decides if we are transferring to different areas, or if we are staying in the same area! Which is awesome, but I'm terrified because my trainer is basically my mom! I don't know if i can live without her! haha YOU GUYS, I AM FINISHING MY FIRST TRANSFER THIS WEEK! And I still don't know what is going on about 90% of the time. so thats great :)

My mission president is the nicest man on the planet. I know that he was truly called by a prophet to be the Tokyo Mission President. His testimony of the savior is truly inspiring.

While Sister Moffat was talking to President Nagano, I was being interviewed by Sister Nagano....And she basically broke me. It was the first time I cried since being in Japan. I almost made it a whole month without crying! While she was talking, I felt her sincere love...and the saviors love for me. I know I am well taken care of!

CONFERENCE

We got to watch General Conference this last weekend!!! OH MAN. IT WAS SO GOOD!! It literally felt like Christmas. One of the talks that really struck my heart was by Elder Uceda.

"At the very moment we say, “Father in Heaven,” He hears our prayers and is sensitive to us and our needs. And so His eyes and His ears are now connected to you. He reads our minds, and He feels our hearts. You cannot hide anything from Him. Now, the wonderful thing is that He will see you with eyes of love and mercy—love and mercy that we cannot fully understand. But love and mercy are with Him the very moment you say, “Father in Heaven.”

Before my mission, I really slacked off with my prayers. I knew that God was listening because i was taught that my whole life...but it didn't really feel REAL to me. But as a missionary...I find myself on my knees more than on my feet. In the scriptures you read "my heart/I was exceedingly sorrowful because of the hard heartedness of my brethren". These past few weeks i have struggled a lot. I have never felt so happy and so depressed...at the same time! The thing I struggle with the most is rejection. (Like the people in the scriptures)

Oh man, Heavenly Father knew that I needed A LOT of humility in my life. Every time I get rejected (which is a lot), I feel so much weight on my heart. I feel as if it were my fault that they rejected us because of my language barrier.

I make mistakes EVERY TIME I try to speak Japanese ahah! And it blows my mind that I am literally only experiencing a glimpse of what the savior felt. I cant even wrap my head around the fact that the savior went through so much worse.

The power of prayer is SO REAL. I know that prayer is the way we can gain that strong relationship with our Father in Heaven. He has become my best friend and my source of comfort. There have been countless times when I have been saying my nightly prayers...and when i look at the clock, almost 2 hours have passed by. The phrase i find myself saying in all of my prayers is, "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief." <Mark 9:24> We all need him. Without the lord, NOTHING is possible.

DOOR APPROACHES

we went to go teach a lesson on Tuesday night and right before...we went knocking! it was my first time and it was crazy fun! one thing that happened that literally killed me was this:

we knocked on a door (in an apt complex)..no one answered....so we went to the next door, and next door...and all of a sudden this shirtless old man, with the craziest beer belly ive ever seen, opens the door and says,

"Nan desho ka?" (Which basically means "What do you want")

OH I lost it. it was the grossest thing i have ever seen but it made a really great inside joke ahhaha

That lesson on Tuesday...we had dinner with them and I ate what I thought was Chicken....OH. it wasn't chicken. Whatever it was, I almost choked it up at the table haha. I had to pretend SO hard that I liked it. We are having dinner with them again tonight...so please pray for me 😂

We had a typhoon the other day, and needless to say IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! I played in it obviously and got soaked head to toe. BUT it was one of those moments where complete joy and happiness filled my soul :)

I love you all!! Talk to you next week!!

愛、

フェルプス姉妹

Phelps Shimai