Sister Crofts-Called to Serve

March 31, 2014

Happy Springg!!!! 春

It has been another awesome and busy week for us here in Kariya. We went to Nagoya for trainers training and we had to do training on language study. I did everything in Japanese and Sister Aso tried everything in English. I was soooo happy to have it over with. This week, we had some truly amazing opportunities to serve others and we also found some awesome new people to teach.

During p-day, I spent a lot of time praying just seeking for direction and where we could go to find people who were ready to accept the gospel. I honestly had no idea, but then we decided to walk from our apartment and talk to people and knock on people’s doors. Literally 5 minutes away from our apartment we found a family of 5 who had a religion they wanted to join, but because their ancestors weren`t baptized they couldn`t join it or something? And they wanted their children to be able to be blessed. At first, we talked about eternal families and they were a little bit questionable, but then when we talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and how it applies to their family they were super interested and said they wanted to read it. They told us we can come back any time and we will meet them next Saturday. Awesome huh!? Last night, we were doing some housing, we knocked on what felt like a million doors and everyone just had no interest. It was super windy and cold so everyone kept saying how hard we were working. At the end of the night, we found a Philippine family. When they opened the door, I was completely shocked to see a picture of Jesus Christ. The mom had been there for 12 years, so she was great at Japanese. But the daughter who is 23 only spoke only English. They asked if I could explain it in English and I can only say it was the weirdest thing ever to introduce our church in English. It felt so awkward. Anyway, they also said we can come back anytime and we are going to go back this week!

We helped a lady who has been less active for a while move to a new home and it was awesome to be able to go there with some of the relief society women. Through the service, the woman and her family was so humbled and grateful. She said that she wants to come back to church soon! We also had the chance to help one of the older women in our ward with her weeding. I was so happy to help her, but I was sure missing our weed whacker that we had at home. It was long grass/weeds like at the cabin and then we had to try to get it all out. By the end, my hand was so sore I was having a hard time pulling them. It was such a great opportunity to serve her. She was so cute, the Sunday before when we scheduled to come help her she went up to Sister Suzuki and said "Can we go to Costco this week? THE (SORRY FOR THE SUDDEN CAPS... I DON`T KNOW HOW TO MAKME IT STOP.) MISSIONARIES ARE COMING TO MY HOUSE! ThE MISSIONARIES ARE COMING TO MY HOUSE!!!" SO CUTE HUH?

It was freezing this week and we just kept riding our bikes, visiting people and working hard. We rode to Hanai Shimai's house and she was just cloud nine happy that we would think to visit her. I love sharing love with these people and reminding them that they are loved and important.

JAPAN IS SOOOO BEAUTIFUL RIGHT NOW. THE JAPANESE CHERRY BLOSSOMS (SAKURA 桜) IS SERIOUSLY INCREDIBLE. I AM SO HAPPY. I LOVE THE SAVIOR. I LOVE BEING ABLE TO SPEND MY EVERY MOMENT SERVING OTHERS AND HELPING PEOPLE TO FEEL THE LOVE OF GOD. MY MISSION IS AMAZING.

LOVE YOU.

SISTER CROFTS