Week #36

September 19, 2012

Hello my dearest family!!

I didn't even realize this, but some sisters that are in my class came up to me today to tell me that my half-way mark on my mission is TODAY!!! Can you believe that??! I've already been out here for almost 9 months. AH!  My mission has seriously been flying by recently!!! Each transfer gets faster than the one before. So much has happened since I've been out here, so crazy!! I've seen how much I've improved since then, especially recently. You know how I have that problem of not voicing myself and my problems? I’m pretty sure that I have fixed that now. :) I've learned SO much being with Sister Nakaima, having to correct her quite often to help become completely obedient (and correcting her English, ha!). It's been a HUGE lesson for me to learn, but so beneficial. I've really enjoyed being with her and learning from her. We had our weekly planning this week, and I'm so impressed with how hard she works! We didn't have time to have dinner yesterday, but she was fine with it; she didn't murmur a WORD of complaint. I'm very, very impressed with Nakaima Shimai. :) She's been wonderful to have around, and I am really looking forward to our next 3 weeks together! It's definitely challenging at times, especially with the language barrier, but it has been a great experience.

Nick is doing AWESOME. I didn't realize Anderson was that close to us!! How cool would that be if you got to attend one of my investigator's baptisms??!!! That would seriously be the best thing ever! Nick is so prepared. We taught him on Friday and again last night, and we've been steadily making progress with him. I'll tell you about Friday's conversation though...

We called Nick and had planned to read 2 Nephi 31 with him. We've been feeling lately that he doesn't quite have the faith in Jesus Christ that he needs to have in order for us to move forward with the other lessons. So, we started reading 2 Nephi 31 with him, and it went really well. He understood everything perfectly, especially the need to be baptized. So the first time we taught him, we committed him to be baptized, but he wouldn't commit to a date.  We were worried about it, which is why we decided to focus more on building his faith rather than moving on to the Plan of Salvation lesson. On Friday, he suddenly told us, "Sisters, I've been thinking a lot about the baptism date thing, and I think I've picked a date." We were thinking, YES!! This is amazing!!

But then... he said this: "I think I want to be baptized on July 24th, 2013." Silence. Complete and udder silence. Finally after what felt like 10 minutes, I said, "Uh Nick, you realize that's 10 months away, right?" Well of course he realized that.  :)  His reasoning behind the date: July 24th is his 21st birthday, the day he could legally go to a bar and drink all night long with his friends. His view on this whole thing was that if he got baptized on his 21st birthday, he wouldn't be tempted to drink alcohol with all of his buddies. Well that does make sense, but it was not exactly what we meant by setting a date, ha ha!

We were seriously worried. We realized that now, more than ever, we REALLY needed to focus on his faith in Jesus Christ and get that built up so he would start preparing NOW for baptism. He told us that he wants to be completely ready and know EVERYTHING about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before he joins it. Awww! He can't procrastinate the day of his repentance until next YEAR! So, we decided to role play talking to Nick in our companionship study so that the Spirit could help us know what he needed to hear in our next lesson on Tuesday. Nakaima Shimai, my wonderful, sweet, and very in-tune companion, thought of the story of Joseph Smith. He was only 14 years old when Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. When we talked to him yesterday, Sister Nakaima asked him, (in somewhat broken English), "Nick, do you think Joseph Smith knew everything about the gospel at 14 years old?!" It was the PERFECT question.  Nick hesitated for a second and then said, "No... that's a good point." We then told him that he didn't need to worry about knowing EVERY single bit of information about the church before he joined. That's not what faith is! Faith is believing that something is true, and then applying it to your life to see if it actually works and is beneficial to you!! We asked him again why he was interested in learning more about this church, and he said that everyone seemed happy to him, because they were all living the gospel of Jesus Christ... and that seemed like the way to live to him!

So after we resolved this concern and helped him really see what faith is, (we talked a bit about repentance too, how we shouldn't want to delay repenting our sins if we truly accept Christ in our life) and then talked with him about his baptism date again. We told him that we KNEW Heavenly Father would help him to get baptized on October 28th, 2012, and he said YES! :)

It was such a HUGE tender mercy of the Lord, to see how a heart had changed because of our faith and prayers, and Sister Nakaima's sweet and simply outlook on the first vision. Dearest family and friends, THIS is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is about. It's not about having all the lessons memorized perfectly. It's not about knowing every detail of the gospel. It's about taking these simple stories from the scriptures, from our prophets of old and of modern-day, and applying it to our lives. To us, personally! That is truly how we becoming converted to the gospel of Christ. When we can look at every story, at every scripture and ask ourselves, "Okay, how does this apply to me? What does Heavenly Father want me to get out of this story?", he opens our eyes and allows us to receive more understanding than we could possibly imagine. Awww. So great. I can't even tell you all how much I love  this gospel. I LOVE missionary work!! It truly is the best thing ever. I feel so thankful to my Heavenly Father for guiding me towards this path of a mission. I definitely needed it.

We're so excited to see this week if Debbie and her husband went to church so they could get baptized this Sunday!! We're really hoping and praying for it. Please pray with us!! And pray for Nick too!! He's already stopped drinking completely, he's accepted a baptism date; he just needs to find the faith to receive his answer from the Holy Ghost. :)

I love you all SOOO much. I'm so thankful for your prayers and love. Please keep it coming!! :) Tell Jeff and Emily that I miss hearing from them and would love to hear from them soon. :) I totally understand that they're busy... just love my family lots and need an update on my favorite nieces! :)

Love love love you all!!

Sister Savage