Sister Crofts-Called to Serve

February 17, 2014

Happy P-day!

Well, my new companion is Sister Aso from Hokkaido Japan. She is 24, a convert, soooooooo sweet, and just got here from the Provo, MTC. She is also super patient because she doesn`t speak very much English and I don`t speak Japanese very well, so I am seriously so grateful for her. It is hard and we absolutely have the whole language barrier problem, but we are doing our best and she is just super positive. I miss Sister Silva, and it is really weird having everything change so suddenly. However, I love my new companion and we will work really hard together!

Last week, was really busy- with Silva Shimai and the Elders leaving, going to Nagoya several times for trainers training, and Sister Aso coming. It is crazy! All I can say is that the Lord called me in my weakness. I really feel so inadequate to train and do this, but I am really feeling the strength and power of the Atonement every single day. Also, God has a sense of humor. I can barely read maps in English let alone in kanji. So we both are terrible at maps. There was one point where we were trying to find this bike shop that I had been to once before. I thought I knew the area where it was, but I was soooooo wrong. So we ended up walking for 1 hour and a half trying to find it. We finally got to the point where we were showing people a map and asking people "excuse me, do you know where we are on this map?" Hahahaha, absolutely terrible. But we had the opportunity to talk with lots of people and had lots of laughs. We eventually found it. We also tried to find this ladies home that hasn`t been to church in a while, but we also couldn`t find that because the address was different than what was in there. So we were both a little bit aggravated, we were trying so hard and everything just wasn`t working out. All week, I had felt like we needed to visit one of our investigators on Saturday night(she was the elder's and is from the philipines) . So we finally went and she looked so upset. Her husband had had a heart attack. We ended up both just crying for an hour because she was so scared and afraid and didn`t know what to do. We shared a message with her and I think that it really helped her. So it was honestly just so inspired. I had been wanting to visit the Relief Society President for the whole week and knock on some doors by her house to find someone who went to the Christmas party. So we showed up and the lady that I had met before was standing RIGHT IN FRONT of the door and I honestly couldn`t believe it. We were both so happy and she kept saying how badly she has been wanting to see me again. So the week finished and it was absolutely hard, because I was doing lots of things I had never done before. But there were moments like that where I realized just how much God is helping me and blessing me. I was really just so grateful. This is sure humbling, but my companion is awesome and we are really learning so much together. I think sometimes you have to be humbled so much before you can become a proper instrument in the hands of the Lord. I know that He answers our prayers and is always with us. I pray for you always!

Love,

Sister Crofts

PS- I am DYING for Bobby’s mission call. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH