GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS SO AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure which talk was my favorite but I know each one was inspired of God because little gems of wisdom from God was woven into those messages to help me understand what I need to make sure my investigators understand, and also what I need to do to rely more on my Savior. IT WAS AWESOME!! The Spirit also taught me quite a few things I needed to hear and I just feel so happy and just this outpouring of love from Heavenly Father. Life is so good!!!!!!!!! 

I also especially loved the talks given by the members of the 70. It was incredible to hear them speak in their native tongues and I feel like they had a lot more confidence as they spoke and the Spirit was extra strong. I feel for them. But even when they had to speak in english before, the message was just as true. It was just really cool. It was super interesting and awesome how so many of the talks focused on gaining your own personal testimony of God and of the Book of Mormon and of the validity of the prophets through asking God yourself. And then continuing to strengthen our testimonies after they have been built. IT WAS SO GOOD! 

this week we also did quite a bit of service including HARVESTING RICE!!!!!!!!!!! THE DAY FINALLY CAME!!! We biked far, far away to our Ward Mission Leader's house with the elders and he had a barbeque for us, we ate the same disgusting shell dead gross things as last time because he thought our reactions were hilarious, and we went to work, harvesting rice fields half-destroyed by last week's typhoon. I learned lots of analogies and I will definitely be including them in future family home evenings. (; harvesting rice is my favorite thing to do ever. mostly because we got to use the sickles to their full potential and there was just something super eternally rewarding to harvesting rice and reciting Doctrine and Covenants 4 as you do it. 

There were lots of other really cool things that happened in this little miracle-city, but I also don't have much time, BUT I will end with a quote from Conference. 

''Knowing truth will not change your world unless you ACT.''-- Elder Eduardo Gavarret

I love you all!!!!!!!! The Mormon movie sounds super awesome!!! 

arigatooooo! 

Daniels shimai

p.s. from the pictures- the picture of the food on the grill depicts the one gross food I mentioned. They are the super beautiful-looking shells. But the insides is what I'm holding in the next picture. And it tastes bad. Super bad. 

konnichiwa!!!!!

The suspension is killing meeee-- waiting an extra week for conference, here in Japan. But!! It'll be here this Saturday and I'm stoked!!! Thank you for all of the notes! 

I don't have any time to send a big email, but I hope you are all doing really well!! Thank you for your emails and updates. Our progressing investigators are doing suuuuper well and it's amazing to see how in-tune they are with the spirit, and they recognize the light of the gospel. As for the lady that came to church last week and asked to be baptized: it was totally a miracle and faith building, but this week it proved to be even more faith building. We had a super powerful lesson with her and the whole time she was so amazed at the spirit that she was feeling. She told us how happy she felt and how she felt like her heart was being healed, and she felt like it was right and she wanted to receive eternal life and baptism. We scheduled our next appointment and planned to meet at the church with a ward member who connected with her at church and she was excited. 

Two days later we are waiting for her to come to the appointment and she was late so we called. She picked up, thanked us for coming over last week, said she didn't want baptism or want to meet anymore and she just sounded really dark. I testified about how important this message is and how it will bless her life more than anything else, and asked if we could talk again before she gave up. She said we could, and hung up. We felt really inspired during planning to visit her on Sunday, and when we did, we met her just in time, before she left for a walk. She let us in, and we asked some inspired questions and really just testified and figured out her concerns. She was really open and told us she felt like she couldn't be as good as the members because she wasn't smart or good with people. Again, the Spirit was there super strong and she described those same feelings of the Spirit. We explained that those feelings were given her from God, and that when she feels that way, she can know that what is being said is true. She was all for it, and asked us to teach her prayer next time we met. Then, 10 minutes after arriving home, we got another call from her, and she sounded really dark again, and told us she didn't want to meet. I asked her about those feelings she felt and she denied them. It was really sad. 

I think Heavenly Father was giving her many opportunities to accept Him and accept His Son. But we also have the choice. Our lives will continue, and we can continue to rough it on our own, or to be lead and strengthened and carried by God. I have faith that God has a plan for us. I have faith that the Savior brings hope. I have faith in the Son of God and know that He will work miracles through us as we continue to believe that He can. I can't imagine how hurt He is when we reject Him because He knows perfectly our potential and how happy we can be because of Him, and suffered the same things we're suffering. He loves us perfectly and knows perfectly what eternal life will be like because He is resurrected and is there-- dwelling on the right hand of God. 

I'm here serving Him because I love Him. And I know that if we let Him, He will change us. 

I love you all! have a wonderful week!!!!!!!!!! remind me next week to tell you about the athletic meet at school we went to with our investigators. IT WAS AWESOME!

love,

Daniels shimai