HAPPY MOTHERS DAY: Nihon Week 9

The missionaries' favorite Ramen shop in Yamatokoizumi

Before I say anything else, happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful
mothers out there! I have had so many amazing and influential women in
my life from my own incredible mother to grandmothers and aunts to
moms of friends, the list goes on and on, but I am just so grateful
for all of you and hope you had an amazing day! Lots of love!

This week here in Japan was another busy one, but it was great! The
week started off normal with some great dendo in the area and some
super solid lessons with investigators (although we are still trying
to find our baptism before Elder Stevenson comes in two weeks...please
pray for us!), and of course, Eikaiwa. I honestly love teaching
Eikaiwa so much, it is such a blast and I basically just get up there
for an hour and make a fool of myself as I try to teach, but it is
okay because I am making friends with my students and some of them
have some increasing interest in the gospel! I am super hopeful to see
how it all turns out!

Wednesday we had the great chance to travel back to Kobe for TTT round
two! As always it was so much fun to be reunited with my MTC district
and my kohai and to get to hear from President and Sister Welch and
the AP's. I learned soooo much from this meeting, ranging from how to
be a better companion to how to combat fear, but it was all so
incredibly applicable and taught me a lot of ways that I can become a
better missionary, and for that I am so grateful! One of my favorite
things I learned that day comes from a scripture that President Welch
said that talks about how EVERYTHING is spiritual unto the Lord. He
pointed out if that is true, that EVERY single one of our temporal
problems has a spiritual answer. He gave a series of examples (I.e.
You don't know how to ride a bike) and then told us to look for
answers in the white handbook, PMG, and the scriptures. It was kind of
a silly example, but it was amazing the answers that were found and
the pattern for revelation that has been set in place for us. It
really put into focus for me how everything comes back to the gospel.
Any problem or issue or concern we have can be solved through the
gospel. Heavenly Father is so willing to help and answer our prayers,
we just need to make sure that we are looking in the right places for
answers!

Thursday was also fun as we got to go to Abeno to go on exchanges with
our STL's! I went with Nielsen Shimai all throughout the city to go
and visit some less actives, and it was such a sweet experience and I
learned a lot. The main principles I learned that day are simply to
listen, love, and never lose hope. Oftentimes things don't happen in
our timeline, and especially when working with people who are
struggling with their testimonies, this is usually the case. We may
not be able to change a lot of immediate circumstances, but we can
always love and listen and never lose hope, because the Savior has
never lost hope for anybody.

Friday we had ZTM which was a blast as always, and it was super
focused on our achieving of a baptism before the Stevenson Taikai. We
are all working so hard and it is going to be fun to see the miracles
that come! The work is truly changing here in Japan and I feel so
blessed to be a part of it.

The weekend was spent just in usual dendo, teaching lessons and
visiting members and just getting to interact with the wonderful
people that I love so much. Japanese is starting to get a little
easier for me, and that being said I am really increasing in my
confidence to be able to talk to more people, and that has been great
fun. We put a lot of emphasis on teaching youth here so we can help
build up the future church in Japan, and so I love getting to talk to
these kids! They are so sweet and funny and I enjoy getting to learn
from them!

Something else of importance that has been super highlighted for us
this week is the idea of following the spirit to be in the right place
at the right time. Kenney Shimai and I had a day this week where we
were blessed to be where we needed to be, and we wouldn't have know
unless we hadn't have been guided by the spirit. We ended up being
able to visit an investigator who was currently feeling lonely and
sad, we found a new investigator with some great potential (no
literally...her name means "potential" in Japanese), and we went to go
visit our sweet little Rina Chan when she was in the midst of having a
really difficult time. That whole day was just one big reminder for me
that God loves His children so much, and He wants to bless us! That
being said, a lot of times He reaches out to His children through
other people, and so it is so important that we are in tune with the
Spirit and listening to those promptings. As our beloved prophet has
said time and time again, never postpone a prompting! You don't know
what prayers you will be answering as you choose to act and to act
swiftly. I promise if you do so, you will never regret it!

The week ended out amazing with the great chance I had to Skype my
wonderful family back home. I am so grateful for technology that
allowed that chance to happen! It was so great getting to see them and
hear from them and even though I bawled like a baby when I had to say
goodbye again, my dad offered the sweetest family prayer and I was
just so touched and reminded that families are FOREVER and I am SO
grateful for that truth. I don't know where I would be without my
family, and so I am very blessed to be here in Japan to be able to
share the eternal truth that they can have their loved ones for
eternity as well!

Well that about sums up my week! I hope everyone had an awesome week
and will have another amazing week this upcoming one! Thank you for
all the love and the prayers as always, they mean the world to me! I
love being a missionary and I love this gospel!

Aishiteimasu!
Love,
Sister Pickering

Zone Conference

Ueno Shimai

Kenney Shimai's birthday cake (I am not sure who made it???)

Watching their favorite church video - Guillermo trying to reactivate a member

Elders from her MTC District

This is Ueno Shimai! She is from Tokyo and started her mission the day
that I got to Kobe because she is currently visa waiting...but we just
found out that she is leaving on May 16th to go to the Provo MTC for
three weeks so she can start her mission at temple square! Please go
there sometime and find her and tell her who you are! This girl is the
sweetest ever and I love her so much and am so sad she is leaving!
Please find her and like buy her an ice cream or something, because
she is one of the best missionaries I have ever met! I love Ueno
Shimai! And she speaks English haha, so there is that bonus!