Setsubun! 節分!

Happy Setsubun everyone! I hope you all threw some mame to get rid of all those evil spirits and invite in some good fortune! Sadly I was unable to throw anying, or even make any temakizushi. We did go out to eat with a member though at a super fancy shabushabu restaurant. I ate ALMOST everything on my plate. I still can't hack anything pickled.

We had MLC this last week, and the assistants gave a FABULOUS training on returning to the basics - simplifying our finding! I realized that I had started thinking of finding as successful only when I could talk with someone for as long as possible. If I could build a relationship with them and get their phone number, I would be successful. We talked at MlC about focusing on our purpose. Are we here to go eat ramen with people, or are we here to preach of Christ? From now on we are doing what we call kinjin dendou, which means we are going back to the most basic form of finding and just talking about Christ right off the bat. We are going to talk to as many people as possible, because if we only find one kinjin after talking to one hundred people, we want to talk to one hundred people as fast as possible. We've been implementing kinjin dendou in our dendou, and it just feels good. It feel good for people to understand our purpose right up front. It feels good to be preaching of Christ, and not trying to craftily convince someone to be our friend. It was interesting how the assistants put it. We aren't here to make friends. We are here to be missionaries. We should never have to transition from friends to missionaries, because we should be missionaries from the start. It was really insightful, and it led to a crazy cool miracle.

We were walking back to our bikes after some finding at Shin Koshigaya Eki, and we talked to a girl who was walking by with earphones in. She pulled out one to listen to us, and then started to back up when she heard we were church volunteers, saying she had work and was busy. We quickly said that God is our Heavenly Father, and that she is His daughter. Her other earphone came out so fast, and she proceeded to give us her phone number so that she could call us later when she had time. We were so in shock. I've never had anyone just give me their contact information without first having asked for it. It was an amazing miracle, truly a tender mercy of the Lord.

I want to bear my testimony to all of you that God truly is our Heavenly Father. We had an experience yesterday that made me so grateful for that knowledge, and also for the Restoration of this church. Three appointments fell through yesterday, so we decided to stop and say a prayer to determine where Heavenly Father would have us go. We prayed, and then waited. Nothing came. We were both so confused as to why we weren't receiving any promptings to go anywhere or do anything. A minute later, a black man walked out of a building and stopped to talk with us. His name was something like Reverend Pastor Uche, and he was in charge of the church that was right there (I didn't notice the church until after we had prayed). He and Sister Joy, a Filipino woman, were just closing up the church. He proceeded to dendou us for the next 45 minutes, telling us things like "the legacy you leave is most important" and "you can't call yourself a missionary until you've been homeless" and other stuff. He just wouldn't stop. The stuff he was saying wasn't too crazy or anything, until he said that all of the Japanese people were going to go to Hell because they didn't know God. My insides immediately felt gross – I knew right then and there that what he was saying was wrong. I felt my Heavenly Father's love, and I knew that He loved all of His children. I knew that He wouldn't damn His children just because they never had a chance to learn of Him. I felt so grateful for the knowledge we have of Heavenly Father's character. I am so grateful for the Restoration, for restored truths. I was grateful for the experience I had, for how my testimony was so strengthened.

I love this gospel. I love this church. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father.

Love, Crandall Shimai