Hello!!!!!!!!! So today we only have a couple minutes because Croft shimai and I are going shopping for HER BIRTHDAY THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooo!!!! 

But something super awesome this week was that we went on kokans (exchanges) with my old companion Black shimai!!! oh my heck it was sooooo natsukashiiii! We opened Wakayama together when she and I were just 5th and 6th transfers. This is now her last transfer and it's such a special opportunity to see how the gospel changes the ones who preach it. She's still just as bright and happy but has so much more confidence. We talked a lot about Wakayama and the miracles we saw there despite being still so inadequate and small. And we talked about how even though our language improves and our teaching skills sharpen we're still just as small and inadequate as to changing the hearts of others. That's the Spirit of God's job!! we just need to teach truth and teach simply so that he can testify of it and enter our hearts. It was so fun to be with her for one more day. 

We also had interviews with President this week and I just love him because whenever I'm with him I feel like I'm his best friend and the most important person in the world. I want to receive that spiritual gift. I received a lot of super good insight for how I need to keep my mindset for the rest of my mission so that I don't get distracted. It's just the same as enduring to the end: being faithful and doing the little things, but fundamental things, every day. To not separate yourself and your best self, but rather be your best self every day. 

Real quickly, one more awesome thing: there is a philipino family in our ward and they are AWESOME and invited us over for dinner. Once we got there we found their family friends, this AWESOME philipino family of 5. They're probably some of the coolest people in my whole life and are SO prepared to hear the gospel. They are Catholic and have incredibly great faith. We talked with them a ton about missionary work and testified about how the gospel blesses families and about the Savior. Man, those are my people! I think when I'm going to go on a couples mission 40 years in the future that they'll send me there. They also eat almost-developed baby ducks straight from the eggs. I don't know that I'll eat that but everything else they told me about the culture sounds awesome and also every person that I've met from the philipines has rock solid faith in Christ. It's been so long since I've met a Christian outside of our church. 

Disney looks awesome!!!!!!!!! thanks for the pictures! I hope skiing was fun for liz and bry and Dad. 

I love you all!!! Mahal kita! (tagolog) Ai shite imasu!! 

Love,

Daniels shimai!

p.s. did you get a picture in the email from one of our investigators?? she says hi <3

Hello!!! 

I heard that Ohio State smashed Oregon in the National Championship Game this past week which was lovely news to start my email time off to. It sounds like everything is going well!!

So this past week was INCREDIBLE! And also super sad because half of my heart went back to America to be the best ward missionary ever. And also super exciting because my new companion is also incredible!!!!!!!!!!!! Her name is Sister Croft and is from Salt Lake City, Utah. She is a 6th transfer and is just super hard-working and has rock-solid faith. Her japanese is wayy good and I love her with all of my heart. We had a great week!! We found some really cool new investigators, one of whom is American and living here in Kobe because he married a japanese woman. His name is Mr. Hanks and Hunt shimai and I must have run into him 6 times on the same street in that short span of 6 weeks that she was here. The 3rd time or so we prepared a Book of Mormon to give to him and last time he gave us his address and email. And this week we visited him and learned that Heavenly Father has actually been guiding him a jillion times more than we thought and also that he is a secretly famous white man in the japanese television life. We brought up a famous quote of his during our ward coordination meeting and everyone freaked out. We're basically teaching a Will Smith. 

BUT! I wanted to share with you something I learned this past week from studying my Book of Mormon. I was reading in Alma 36 all about when the prophet, Alma, is retelling his conversion story to his son, Helaman. So Alma was being super rebellious and pulling a lot of people away from God when finally an angel appeared to him and commanded him to stop trying to destroy the church. And then Alma kind of fell into this coma of tasting the punishment of his sins. I'm just going to copy and paste what he says because it's incredible:

But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.

 13 Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.

 14 Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.

 15 Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.

 16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.

 17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

 18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

 19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

Now usually when I read this scripture the thought that comes to mind is ''wow that's incredible how much he was able to change because he repented. The light he must have felt, the relief on his shoulders and in his heart contrasts soo much with the darkness he felt as he said 'tormented by the pains of hell' or 'racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.' '' And it's true: repentance is real. Repentance really does allow us to be freed from the chains of hell and from feeling of the incomparable  dark hole in your heart. Repentance is a process and it can be painful but it is worth it because it allows you to receive forgiveness and eventually to inherit the Kingdom of God. 

But this week I thought of something a little bit different. When the feelings of being racked with torment and harrowed up with the memory of his sins is taken from him, where does it go? Does God just stop sprinkling fire and brimstone down upon him once he's decided he wants to change?   No. Whether or not it's Alma, someone has to receive that punishment because justice demands it. God is just. And God can't deny Himself. So those feelings of a soul being 'harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all [his] sins' were not just dissolved. Someone had to receive them. Someone had to suffer them. SomeOne took the inexplicable pains upon Himself so that we didn't have to suffer the everlasting chains of death. That someOne is Jesus Christ. That makes Him our Savior. I love this passage in Alma because he tastes a little bit of what the Savior did for each and every one of us, and for everyone that lives on this earth and has lived on this earth and will live on this earth. He did it because He loves you. And He'd do it again. And He did it willingly because He wants us to accept Him because He knows that that is the only way that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again and our families forever. He lives and He is guiding this work in Japan and all around the world. We can be relieved from our sins when we accept Him. He will pay the price for our sins if we follow Him. All He asks is that we keep His commandments. 

I love you all and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love my Father in Heaven. I'm grateful for their everlasting love for me. I feel that love everyday when I read the Book of Mormon. It's unlike anything else. 

Have a great week! 

Love, Daniels shimai

Konnichiwa!!! (: We got transfer calls today and I will be staying in Kobe!!!! Unfortunately Hunt shimai is being transferred back to America because her mission is all done, but my new companion is named Sister Croft. She's a brand new Sister Training Leader and is AWESOME!!!! I don't actually know her very well but she was super best friends with my trainee when they were in the MTC and I've heard that she is incredible. I'm so excited!!!! But I'm so sad to see Hunt shimai go home-- I've never gotten along so well with anyone. But it's okay because we're going to be super close back in America and at BYU. I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to write all of the things down that I've learned from her-- she's incredibly wise. 

This week was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper busy with our two farthest exchanges and mission leadership council and zone training meeting but it was sososososo fun too!! I got to go on exchanges with two super young missionaries and it's AMAZING to see how Heavenly Father is preparing His missionaries more and more. I'm so amazed by them. 

I want to tell you about 2 really awesome lessons that we had this past week because they were just way awesome. 

One was during an exchange with one of the sisters who is currently in Toyooka. She and I stayed in Kobe because we had a lesson with an investigator who Hunt shimai hadn't met before and she lived super far away. This lady is named Oonishi san and is a grandmother and also a member of the SGI religion. In japan it's pretty big and is kind of a mix between Buddhism and Christianity. But they don't believe in Christ-- but have a similar teachings-- especially when it comes to peace and living healthily. Either way, I've taught her about 3 times or so and she's never really been suuuper interested in learning from us because we are too young to have experience about the world but really wanted to talk about peace so she still asks to meet. The day before at Mission Leader Conference they trained us on using pamphlets more in our lessons and contacting. I've always kind of avoided them and I don't know why because they are AWESOME! They've made this new pamphlet other than the regular lessons that we teach that is called 'Who is God?'' and I figured it would be perfect for her. I mainly just wanted to use it to 1. apply the training I received, 2. because it explains everything super clearly, and 3. I wanted to use the awesome pictures BUT it was also super great to use it because it brought sooo much validity to what we were teaching. In previous lessons we were using the Book of Mormon to teach, but I think her image of us was that we were just teaching some things that we've come to know as we've read the Book of Mormon. But for some reason learning from that pamphlet opened her eyes and heart a ton. I've never seen her so interested and asking so many genuine questions about God and how He differs from Jesus Christ and why Christ is important and how come she feels like she can feel God in her heart. It was awesome!!! The Spirit was there and she could feel it. I'm super excited because that lesson was kind of the deciding factor whether or not we were going to continue to teach her. But Christ can change anyone!! And He does!!

The other experience I wanted to share was with Farhad!!!!!! He is our investigator from Iran and IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a super cool lesson with him a few hours after church yesterday and we had some elders teach with us since we're still trying to find a man in the ward who is in town and can come help us teach. Anytime we teach with him the Spirit is SO STRONG and we talked to him a lot yesterday about the Godhead-- especially the Holy Ghost and what the Holy Ghost does. He is the best and has been studying the Book of Mormon (in persian) super diligently and was eating up Moroni chapter 10. He told us that he wishes he had an hour every day to read the Book of Mormon and heaven rejoiced and we told him that even if he doesn't have time like that every day he doesn't have to read for that long. I am also learning my Persian numerical system and it is surprisingly extremely easy and I can finally tell which chapters are translated in the Persian Book of Mormon. Fun fact: in the word for ''prophet'' there is a smiley face and the sound is a ''te''. Fortunately he rocks at english. 

Otherwise, this week I participated in an omochitsuki!!! (: It is a super japanese cultural activity where you make your own mochi-- pounded rice. I'll send pictures, but basically you put a freshly-made batch of special rice in a big wooden bowl and you hit it with a hammer a jillion times until it makes this gooey pizza-dough-like substance. And then you roll it up in a ball and stuff it with japanese things. My favorite combination was strawberries and chocolate and sweet beans, but I made the first transfer missionary that I was on splits with try the fermented soybeans. (; Every missionary must try it once!! Hahah I don't think she'll try it again... but we got her a strawberry right away to wash away the taste. 

Also!! At zone training meeting Hunt shimai and I were asked to do training on obedience!!!! haha it was my favorite training ever. 

I love you all!!! Have an excellent week!! I'll try to send some pictures on this email. 

Go bucks!!!

Love,

Sister Daniels

p.s.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grundvig shimai became a SISTER TRAINING LEADER!!!! Unfortunately she's not my companion but maybeeee?... (: I'll definitely get to see her at MLC!!

Also!! 2 of my old companions, MacKenzie shimai and Black shimai have moved into my stl area and I'll get to go on exchanges with both of them!!! (: MacKenzie shimai is training!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm a grandma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 She's training a second transfer missionary-- actually the one I was on splits with and we went to the ward omochitsuki!! Yay!!! 

ALSO ELDER NELSON IS COMING TO OUR MISSION IN MARCH WITH HIS SON-IN-LAW, ELDER RINGWOOD OF THE 70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND A JAPANESE MAN NAMED ELDER AOYAGI  FROM THE QUORUM OF THE 70 IS COMING IN FEBRUARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know how we get these set-ups, but I really enjoy them. Woo!!!!

1. this is most of our zone-- 2 more of our sisters had to catch a bus and couldn't make the picture

2. this was at the omochitsuki-- the two ladies on the right are members: one is less active, and the one in the apron is active and has THE COOLEST CONVERSION STORY. Remind me to tell you sometime

3.

pounding rice^^

GET OUT OF HERE OHIO STATE TOOK OUT ALABAMA IN THE SUGAR BOWL!!!!!!!!!!???!?!?!?!? I will continue to wear my lucky Ohio State sweatpants to bed each night. I switched to my Christmas pajamas (which are AWESOMEE!! THANK YOU) but I'm going to do all that I can do to help the cause over here in Japan. Woo!! Go bucks!!!! I appreciated all of the updates on the game. haha cheer loud for me during the championship game!! Cardell Jones sounds amazing. 

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: (: 

This week was amazing and awesome and super busy and an awesome New Years celebration!! The only unfortunate thing was that my cold got a lot worse and it was really bad for a couple days but it is slowly going away and is basically gone now. I received a blessing last Monday and my heart felt a lot more genki and since that day I felt a lot more energy that was the biggest blessing ever. The rest was manageable with lots of medicine and water and sleeping during meal times. 

Every single day this past week members had us over for meals and it was AWESOME to get to really talk to so many of the members!!!! The members in this ward really do have dendo fire and they just didn't know how to involve the missionaries so we got lots of referrals and ideas for where we should dendo. We will be having lots of fun this week following up with that. Also we became super well acquainted with dinosaur maps of Kobe. So I can't remember if I told you already, but we used to have this miracle application on our phone called EZ navi where you could type in the address of where you wanted to go and it'd tell you, it could tell you where you were, pull up maps of the surrounding area, and most importantly tell you train times and the fastest ways to get to the place you want to go and alternative travel routes and it was the best thing in my whole life and saved my life-- literally-- in Wakayama when we opened the area and also helps me IMMENSELY as we travel to do splits with sisters in super far away areas. Sorry for that run on. (: That application was like a Liahona to me. I might even go as far to say that it was my best friend but regardless of how much I loved it, when our mission got new phones because there is cheaper plan on a different company we switched phones and the new phone does not have EZ navi. It was probably the hardest thing of my whole life. Because travelling in Japan is a special scavenger hunt when you can't read the jillions of different kanjis. But Heavenly Father knows all things, and in His plan of knowing all things has been preparing Daniels shimai for this tragic switch and guided her through the depths of her super old apartment to a pocket map book that has little katakana readings (one of the alphabets I can read) written above the kanjis. And it's super old-school but I carry it with me every where I go and it has saved my life finding members' houses. Heavenly Father knows and loves me so much. 

Anyway, we had lots of delicious meals with members and had some awesome opportunities strengthening them quite a bit. BUT my favorite part of this week was meeting again with our friend from Iran-- Farhad!!! HE IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! He is the one that came to our ''Purpose of Life'' fireside ages ago and ate everything up and became our good friend. I gave him a call this week just as he was returning to Kobe and he came and met with us and 2 elders who have recently moved into the office. He blew me away-- I have never met someone who is more prepared than he is to accept this gospel. His heart is one of the biggest I've ever seen and the Spirit was there so strongly and he was talking about what he think he believes and IT WAS ALL TRUE DOCTRINE. He loved the plan of salvation from the fireside and really wants to learn more about the church. We have the mission office next door so after the lesson we took him over and helped him pick out his own copy of the Book of Mormon in his native tongue. There is a huge showcase of probably like 30 different languages of the Book of Mormon in the office and fortunately we had a Persian one there. So he-- and we-- now all have Persian Books of Mormon and we also gave him an English one because the Persian book only has selections of the Book of Mormon. The numbers aren't the same and it looks a lot like Arabic but he promised he'd teach us a little Persian as we study the Book of Mormon with him. I'd say it's a fair trade. 

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and making lots of goals and seeing the hand of the Lord in your life. It's all around us!! And we have to look for it and thank Him. Life is so full of light that way.  

Love you! 

Sister Daniels