No Regrets: Hastening the Work in Tokyo: P-day hike with Mark & John from the Philippines

It's been a pretty great week! Whew, so much to talk about, but I don't know how much time I'd better spend writing. Yesterday, we saw a miracle which I will refer to later which may have made me sick with a sore throat, which I noticed this morning but ignored and then we hiked to the peak of a mountain and trudged through thick snow in sneakers to an ancient shrine overlooking the ocean, and then came back in the rain, and walked through the door, and I'm much more sick than I was this morning, so we're writing emails in the apartment and I'm in my futon.

So, this email will be shorter, I'm sorry :\

Anyway, here's my week! :)

We are so grateful for your prayers. Do you want to know what your prayers have done for us? :)

-BU: We were able to meet with him for the first time in 2 weeks. He's extremely tired and just a little sick. Also, when we showed up (yesterday,)I might have hugged him and caught what he has. But the huge good news is that he really is just unable to meet (we were worried again about his girlfriend,) and he wants us to continue to send him scriptures and he wants to come and have an english lesson on saturday and then come to church for the first time on sunday!! And he's really really serious about it!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D (when we showed up on his apartment doorstep we had no idea what he would say, but I truly felt the power of your prayers.

-MARK: He apologized profusely for not being able to meet much (Although he came to the Nakagawa's for mission school! :D) and he promised "after my test (tomorrow,) I will come to church!" So, he's planning on coming to church from now on, and everyone is super supportive! :D We've also made a habit of stopping at his place and teaching him lessons and getting to know the family better. We feel so welcome there :)

-YUI: She is progressing so well and is meeting with the sister and is a true kinjin. Toshiki is still struggling a little bit, but loves meeting with us and really wants to be baptized too, however Yui is progressing really fast!!

We also volunteered at a library :D We helped shelf books, and also helped to throw "butterflies" or "Chocho" at the little kids after the librarians read some "ehon" or "picture books", and it was awesome! I wish I had the pics they took, but we all had to take our shoes off and then come sit down, and it was just the two of us with all the moms and kids and then the boss man just laughing from across the room at the sight of two huge gaijin with all the kids. Then we went and helped them organize some other cards and such, and by the time we had rejected green tea, coffee, and two other kinds of tea (happens every professional venue in Japan), they thanked us graciously with a cup of hot water each and sent us on our merry way making sure we'd be back next week! :D We're making so many wonderful connections through this service, and are seeking more opportunities. We're hoping to soften hearts and find people who need something more out of this life :)

One of my favorite people ever, brother Kumagai. He reminds me of Brother Buhler, to this day one of my greatest heroes/best teachers quorum advisers ever!!

A way cool guy we met from New York who's name is Francis. Please pray that he can find what he's looking for in this life. :) He said he'll pray for us, too.

I love hearing your mission stories again, thanks for sharing! It's exactly like that: miracles ensue when we do our best. Although, sometimes it seems like blessings and miracles are like several connecting holes to a single geyser which come out in huge pressurized streams. Where if life blocks several of the small geysers, like the geyser of Asako getting baptized, or the geyser of Bu answering his phone, it causes all of the pressurized water to shoots out faster and stronger from one of the other holes. Faith is like the pressure. The more faith you have, the more the blessings come, even if they don't come from the facet that you're expecting.

We're seeing lots of miracles :)

In other news, we went on a hike with John and Mark, and gave John a Book of Mormon for him to bring to the Philippines. He was really excited, and we promised to follow up with him soon! There are lots of funny pics and vids of our trip to the mountain which was so fun, so please take a look at those :)