Ninja Van

Konnichiwa minasan! 

We went to Nabari this weekend, and it was very enlightening experience. So much so that I don't really remember what happened before Friday and I'm too lazy to go look at my journal. From what I remember, we mostly tried to visit less actives or people with potential interest and also Kitamura Shimai gave us a really yummy lemonade thingy that's like a goop made of lemon and sugar and water that you put in your glass and when you combine it with water it becomes lemonade. It's my treasure. 

But anyway when we got to the Nabari apartment at the end of the day on Saturday after spending the day with Imoto Shimai, I had a series of interesting discoveries/insights. (btw the level of clutter in the apartment is appalling and have decided that I am very grateful to be a shimai and would be glad never to have to step foot in an elder apartment again after my work here is done) Sitting on a swivel chair in the middle of the kitchen area is a little meishi book filled with meishis from leaving elders to incoming elders. It went from the elders of ancient times past (ie 2009) all the way up to, wait for it, Hatchett 長老! Yep! That's right my district leader last transfer used to serve in Nabari! It was really interesting reading the little messages, especially how they changed tone over the years. The beginning is really member fire, and then it changes to more of a "get ready to grind it out here" vibe until it settles with Hatchett 長老's last words, "This place needs joy."  I think that he's really spot on. I think it's true in Nabari and Yamatokoriyama and honestly the rest of the world too. I'm not really sure why people struggle to feel joy, considering that the gospel is the greatest source of joy, but it is a problem and one that I've been trying to figure out how to solve for ages now. I'm not 100% sure what the answer is, but I think I'm on the right track now.

Mom suggested last week that I read "Saints" and "Daughters in My Kingdom" to help with President Nelson's challenge to participate more fully in Relief Society, and little did she know that those books were just what I needed to figure out what to do to help the people here feel joy. As I was reading these histories of the women of the Church especially, I came to a profound realization of the sheer power that lies in the hands of the Relief Society. It seems to me that a major part of the change in the members that President Eyring was talking about is going to be headed by the Relief Society. I've been thinking about President Kimball's prophecy, “Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world … will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.” I really feel that this is a critical part of the changing of the hearts of the members. I'm not sure what will come of it yet, but I feel very impressed to begin working more closely with the Relief Society and helping them remember the heritage of their sisterhood, what Emma Smith foresaw. “We are going to do something extraordinary...We expect extraordinary occasions and pressing calls.” I feel that this heritage of charity, the pure love of Christ, when understood, will help lead the sisters here in Japan to reclaim the joy of the gospel.

So in accordance with this impression, we've come up with a bunch of ideas for how to minister more effectively to the members in Nabari through technology. We can't be there in person, but we can be there for them through LINE. We talked to the branch president and set up a group chat with him and the elders so we can hopefully have a LINE video call meeting with him this week about how we can help Nabari. We also asked him if we can join the Nabari Branch LINE group and post encouraging message/spiritual thoughts the weeks we aren't there so the members don't feel as far away from us. He agreed so we're going to start doing that, and also start seeing if we can't start working with the Relief Society and Elders Quorum over LINE. I really feel like if we as members understand our heritage and identity as Latter-Day Saints, we'll be able to access greater love and joy in the gospel. Through the blessings of the temple and eternal families, all the hardship in our lives is made not only worth it, but sweet in and of itself. As C. S. Lewis said, "[Mortals] say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. … The Blessed will say, ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven." And I feel that the understanding of this is going to come at least in part from hearing the stories of saints who have gone through much the same things as they are, and the vision that they worked so hard to leave us. We'll see where it leads, I guess.

As for Yamatokoriyama, we're doing good! We had dinner with Bishop yesterday and got a lot of awesome direction for where we need to go with the area, specifically with recent converts and family history. I am very excited. Other than that though I don't really remember what happened this week because it was all so eclipsed by the weekend. Slowly but surely the work of the Lord is rolling forward. It's a good time.

愛しています！💕

Sherwood 姉妹

1-3) We went to this castle sorta thing in the city of the origin of the ninja. I think it's just a fancy house made by an old rich guy though. I did not really understand the conversation

4.) ninja van 🗾