It sounds like you have all had a crazy week this week! That is so neat that you were able to meet Elder Russel M. Nelson and talk with him so extensively and personally! He is one of my favorite apostles - of course I love them all! - but he just has such a neat way of speaking powerfully, scholarly, and with the spirit. I bet that was an amazing experience for your whole mission! Dad, I love the emphasis that you are putting on member missionary work - we often get new missionaries from Tokyo and every one of them tells me how much they admire you and learned from you - especially Elder Chiba who said he took a mission prep class from you? He pulled out the card with President Eyring's quote on it and everything. I love hearing about all the ideas you are using in the Tokyo mission - its neat to feel connected with the missionaries all over Japan, not just Sapporo!
Speaking of which, I was grateful to have lived in Tokyo just the other day when we met a lady on the street who just recently moved here from Setagaya to be with her new husband. We started talking and invited her to Eikaiwa - but she said that starting next month she was going back to Tokyo for about a month and a half to visit home. We asked her if she would like to go in Tokyo too, and she said yes! I was then able to explain to her how to get to the Shibuya building where I am assuming they are doing eikaiwa still? So if there is a new student from Hokkaido named Misuzu that goes to the Shibuya eikaiwa class in the next month or two... say hello for me!
This week was a great week! Saturday turned out to be probably the stormiest day I:ve seen yet - the wind was crazy! Luckily we mostly had appointments so we didn:t have to spend too much time outside, but even just walking the 20 minutes from our appointment back to the church we had ice stuck to our tights that were showing above our boots and below our skirts - that was a first! The snow was off and one between hail and snow - but both were going so fast in the wind that it didn:t really matter which. It was quite the adventure! We were mainly walking off of memory because we could only open our eyes so much so the snow wouldn:t get in them, and then the wind made us all teary eyed which blurred up what little vision we had - and then we were laughing so hard I don:t think that helped the tears stop any either :) That was probably the most that I have ever felt like I was in Hokkaido! It was so ridiculous it was fun!
We were really excited to meet with an investigator this week that we haven:t met with in a while - she comes to church everyweek - usually after sacrament meeting, so we see her everyweek, but lessons are less frequent. We felt impressed to teach her about the Word of Wisdom when we met with her this time and challenge her to live it. She has been struggling with gaining a testimony of a few things recently, especcially Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ as the Son of God - and we promised her that if she would make an effort to follow the word of wisdom that she would be able to find those "hidden treasures" of knowledge that she is searching for. She committed to do it! She is going this week on just 4 cups of coffee a day, and 6 cigarettes to start - (usually she takes about 7 or 8 cups of coffee and around 15 cigarettes, so its a big step! ). And then she surprised us by showing up for sacrament this week! She is really progressing well, and I really feel that her time to fully accept the gospel is close.
I love being a missionary! I learn everyday ways that I need to be better. I need to pay attention to spiritual experiences and record them. I need to testify more with the spirit. I need to speak better Japanese. I need to be more confident. I need to listen more. Well to put it short - I need to improve on everything! But I know that in the Lord'S time and with his help i can improve and I can be an insturment for his work here. I found a scripture that I really love in the New testament this week. 1 Corinthians 15:10
"But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me"
That is my goal to be able to say that at the end of each day, This gospel is true! I hope you all have a fabulous week!!
Love,
Sister Budge
P.S.
Here are just a few pictures from the snow storm, and then a picture with the Nakandakari family that we are teaching - right now the 10 year and 8 year old daughters both have baptismal dates that we are working towards :)
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