Two Valuable Lessons

Hey everyone!

Again, this week wasn't super exciting. Sorry, I feel like the closer and closer I get to coming home, the less and less I have to write. I guess I can just tell you it all when I get home!

We had a couple of really good lessons this week! I learned, well I can you can say re-learned, two great principles this week: one, the importance of having a good, effective personal study and two, the importance of using members in our teaching. Our first lesson this week was with N. We contacted her during the week to see if she had prayed on her own. She said she had, and she felt closer to Jesus Christ, but she still wasn't sure about the existence of God. Therefore, during my personal study, I spent  a long time looking through scriptures in the Book of Mormon that had to do with God. When we got to the lesson, all the concerns that she had could be answered through the scriptures I had read that morning. We pretty much taught her through the Book of Mormon using 3 Nephi 18:20, Alma 32:27, Mosiah 4:9-12 and Alma 18. Her faith in Christ and God is really growing! She says she believes in God's words. We invited her to pray and ask God if he is really there, and then study Alma 18. The spirit was way strong. It wouldn't have been, though, had it not been for personal study that morning. That was a real blessing, and I hope she receives her answer. Then another lesson we had after that, a member came to help us. I'm always humbled my members and the power that they have, especially here in Japan. They turn Christianity and our church from just an American religion, to something that can help anyone, even Buddhist Japanese people. That lesson went really well, too.

We also got a new stake president this week! That was exciting.

We are on our way to the aquarium that I went to last year. I'm way excited! I realized that I only have a few P-Days left, so I have to make them count. Next week is temple P-Day, so I'm excited for that! I love you all! Have a great week! Love you!

Sister Lexie Dansie

Takoyaki Party

Hey!

I just sent a big package home to myself with a bunch of random things in it, including some Japanese food, so that should be there in about 2 weeks or so! Just leave it in my room with the other packages until I get home, please. I can't believe it's only a month away now! This is so crazy! I'm nervous but way excited, too.

I apologize again for the small email. Not a lot happened this week, either! We did a lot of finding! One cool miracle that happened is we went to visit an inactive woman, but she wasn't home, so we talked to her sister for a while. We ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation to her. She's not super interested in church, but she really felt the spirit during our closing prayer, so that was a cool experience! We plan on going back sometime to talk to her more.

Then we went to visit a less-active family whom I've visited three times before and they were never home; however, when we went to visit them again, they were home! They invited us over for dinner this week! We made something called takoyaki. It's little almost pancake balls with octopus and other things fried together. It's pretty good! We had a way fun time with them! We shared a message about God's grace from President Uchtdorf's talk from Conference. They accepted it really well and said that if they didn't have work, they would come to church. It was a really fun experience!

We also had interviews with President Wada this week. It was my last interview before I leave. He said something that really touched me, "Dansie Shimai, you will be missed. You're one of the best and you've changed a lot of lives here, including mine." We both started tearing up! I think one of the hardest things about leaving Japan will be leaving President and Sister Wada. I love them both so dearly. I have a feeling that the next month is going to be filled with tears, especially since I've become more emotional on my mission, anyways!

On Saturday, we had another baptism in Tama Ward! The missionaries in our district have been working really hard lately. We've found three amazing, prepared people who have received baptism in the last month. It's a great time to be in Tama! We've seen so many miracles!

That's all for this week! I love you all so much and miss you! Have a good week! The church is true!

Sister Lexie Dansie

General Conference

I apologize in advance for the length of this letter. Not too much happened this week, so I don't have a lot to write about.

General Conference was amazing!! I loved hearing from the prophets. M Shimai came, too, and she had the support of a lot of Ward members, so that was a great experience for her. There was a huge theme though: marriage. It way scared me because I'm coming home so soon! The whole time I was like, "Stop telling me to get married right off the bat because I don't want to!" I'm rebelling against the prophets and apostles, I guess. I though Elder Holland gave an amazing talk as well (of course). I was on the edge of my seat as he was telling the story of the rock climbers. One experience I thought was really cool was how Conference really answers all of our questions. I thought of a question a week or so ago about what grace is and how it applies to me and to my investigators. I didn't even think about it before Conference started, but President Uchtdorf answered it with his amazing talk about the power of grace. If we go into Conference with questions, we will receive an answer to literally every question we have. That restrengthened my testimony about how we have living prophets on the earth today so that we can receive revelation and know what we need to do in order to be safe and protected in this life. It was really, really amazing, and I'm sad that it was my last General Conference as a missionary. I feel like I've gotten more out of it than ever before!

That's about all that happened this week. We did meet with a couple of our investigators this week, which was great. We were teaching our investigator, N, about the Plan of Salvation, and I could feel the Spirit working through me and D Shimai to personally relate the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement to her. The spirit was so powerful that N and D Shimai started crying! That was a really powerful moment. The Plan of Salvation is true!

Again, sorry for the short email; however, I'll Skype you and be home soon enough that I can just tell you these things when I see you :). I love you all so much! Thank you for all the support you've given me this past year and a half, and that you continue to give me. Talk to you soon! Love you!

Sister Lexie Dansie

Transfer 12

Dear family and friends,

Transfer calls were today! I can't believe I'm beginning my last transfer of my mission. That's so crazy to me! Six weeks goes by way quick. I'm happy to announce that I will be staying in Tama for my last transfer, and my companion will still be D Shimai. We are way excited! I'm hoping to make this last transfer the best ever. I just can't believe my time is almost up.

So...this week was the craziest, best week ever! We met with M San everyday to get her ready, and then she was baptized on Saturday. That was the best day ever! Because the ward members were busy in the afternoon, we had to have her service in the morning, so I was worried that no one would show up. We called the members the night before to let them know about the service, and about 30 to 35 members showed up to support her! It was amazing! M Shimai said that when she was baptized, she felt purified. She gave up to bear her testimony after she was baptized, and she was in tears. M Shimai has had a hard life up until this point, but she said that the reason she is still living is because God needed her to find this church. She was crying during her testimony, and so was everyone else that came. She touched a lot of the members hearts. She's starting to get more and more friends too, which is great. Then the next day, Easter, in sacrament meeting M Shimai was confirmed. The spirit was way strong! She said that she felt like her body was on fire. She was in tears as she took the sacrament, too. She's so amazing! D Shimai and I didn't even do anything, she just came prepared! The Lord is truly preparing people. Teaching M Shimai and having her baptized was one of the highlights of my mission. I'm so happy for her. When I saw her in her white dress, I said a silent prayer that she would endure to the end so that I could see her again in the Celestial Kingdom.

One other really cool miracle this week! We went to Machida to watch the General Women's Session of conference, which was amazing. On the way home, there was a girl sitting across the train, and the Spirit distinctly told me that we needed to talk to her. I've only had those kinds of experiences so often in my mission, where the Spirit is so strong that I can't stop thinking about it until I do it. Well I'm grateful for the workings of the Spirit because when we started talking to her, she said she had a ton of interest in church. She's a 24-year-old adorable girl who went to a Christian university and had recently had the desire to go to church. She was way surprised to meet us! We met with her the next day, Sunday, and went to church together! She had a great experience and became friends with a lot of members. The Relief Society was way happy because M Shimai just joined the church, and we had another investigator come to Relief Society. Tama is on fire right now! The elders are working hard, too, so the ward is really beginning to trust us. Anyways, we have a meeting with this investigator again tomorrow, so I can't wait to talk to her more about the church. This week has been amazing!

For P-Day today, we went as a District to the Tama Zoo, which I went to a year ago. That was way fun! I can't wait for Conference this weekend! I love you all and I'll talk to you soon!

Sister Lexie Dansie

Because He Lives

Hey everyone!

There have been some crazy miracles happening here in Tama! I'll give you a quick update on M San. She's so prepared, I can hardly believe it. We've met with her a couple of times this week. We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation. She felt so much hope and peace because of the power of the Atonement. She said she had a rough past, so when we talked about the atonement she felt so much love because Christ suffered for everything that she and the rest of us have done. We also showed her the new "Because He Lives" (the Easter campaign for the church) video that just came out. I'm sure you've probably seen it already, but if you haven't, watch it! It's amazing!! It had M San almost in tears, and then I was almost in tears, too! M San is progressing really well. She's making friends with Tama ward members, she's attended church weekly since we met her, she reads the Book of Mormon multiple times a day and loves everything about it, and she talks to Heavenly Father in her prayers as if He's right next to her. She's received multiple answers to her prayers, and she told us that she knows is church is true. She was also able to attend a baptismal service for another man that got baptized into Tama Ward (an adorable 83-year-old man) and had a huge defining moment there. She decided for sure that she wanted to be baptized, too, this week. Her baptism is scheduled for Saturday. We haven't taught her everything yet, and this week is going to be super busy getting her ready for it, but she has a 200% desire to be baptized and endure to the end. She's amazing! The Lord has definitely prepared her! Every time we meet with her, our jaws drop to the floor because of how prepared she is. Keep praying for her that we will be able to prepare everything for her baptism, as well as teach her all the doctrine so that she can be baptized on April 4 and confirmed on Easter. We are way excited for her!! I can't write it very well because I'm just too excited for her!

We had another miracle happen just yesterday. First, here is some background information. There has been a 15-year-old girl that the sisters in Machida have been working with, but she actually lives in Tama, so we've recently gotten her records. She has a super strong desire to be baptized, but her parents are against her joining the church. This has been going on for about a year. Fast forward to  yesterday. Last night we got a call from the Elders saying that they received a referral from church headquarters, so they went and visited them. When they went, the family was very accepting of the Gospel, and the Elders taught them the Restoration. The father and the mother seemed interested in the message and told them the missionaries could come back. That family is the above girl's family. This girl has been praying for a year that her parents would be acceptive of the Gospel, and sent for the missionaries to come visit. When they did, the Lord answered her prayers and her parents listened to the message. They gave the family to us, and we are going to visit them tonight. That was a huge miracle! Heavenly Father truly answers prayers. Sometimes it take times, but He does. We are way excited to go visit them!

That's about it for this week. The Sakuras are starting to bloom! They look way pretty! I'll send you some pictures! Also, for P-Day we went with the sisters in our zone and some of the Tama Young Women to go hike a famous mountain named Takao. I actually hiked it ago a year ago! too, so this was my second time. It was way fun! Great week! I hope you all have a happy Easter! Love you all! Talk to you next week!

Sister Lexie Dansie

restart

Hi, everyone!

This week has been extremely busy. We had the opportunity to be visited by another prophet of the Lord this past week, Elder Nelson. We had Elder Ballard come three weeks ago and Elder Nelson just came. That's so rare! This has been the best transfer ever! Elder Nelson came to talk about "Missionary Work in the Digital Age". They are now opening up all of Japan to iPad usage and online missionary work for missionaries. Up until now, us and the North Mission have been test missions, but the test is over, so we are going to actually start it in all of Japan. It's an exciting time! However, because of that we will be receiving new iPads on Wednesday and Facebook will be taken away for a transfer or so. They're giving missionaries access to apps in waves, so that's why we will be taking a little break from Facebook for a while. That probably means that I won't use Facebook for the rest of my mission. Elder Nelson spent a lot of time talking about how this time period when we are not using Facebook is a good time to "restart". We can repent of anything we need to repent of and recommit ourselves to following all of God's commandments, as well as the Missionary Handbook. In using Facebook, they want us to learn how to best use technology and how to control ourselves on social media for the rest of our lives. Anyways, it's a pretty cool time for missionaries here in Japan!

We had one really cool miracle happen this week! On Thursday we got a call from the Elders saying that a woman received a free English flyer, the word "Mormon" on it, remembered she had studied with the missionaries before and called them wanting to learn more. This woman's name is M. We met with her on Saturday and talked with her about Heavenly Father, the Book of Mormon and prayer. Then she pretty much invited herself to church before we got the chance to invite her. So on Sunday, she came to church and loved it! She said she felt pure after taking the sacrament. Then she called later that evening asking to meet again the following day, so we met again on Monday! We taught her about the Restoration, and she took everything in way well. M San was pretty much teaching us the lesson!  We also had a girl from the ward who wants to go on a mission come and help us, and she had a great experience! She said it was her first time helping the missionaries, but she loved it! Afterwards, we invited M San to pray, and in her prayer, she said she believes the Book of Mormon is true and that what we have been talking to her about is true. She has so much faith! We took her to go see the baptismal font in the church and asked her to be baptized in April, and she said yes! It's truly a miracle! We haven't even known her for a week and she's getting baptized! Heavenly Father is truly preparing his children! We have another lesson on Thursday, so we are excited. Keep praying for her that she will continue to have the faith to get baptized.

We've seen a lot of cool miracles this week. I love being a missionary, especially in Tama! I realized that I have less than two months left, but I plan on making the most of it. I love you all! I won't see you on Facebook anymore, but I'll continue to write weekly. Love you!

Sister Lexie Dansie

Social Media Fair 2015

As you probably saw on Facebook, we had a big Social Media Fair at the church by our mission home, which was the first of its kind in Japan. Members came from all around the mission to learn about how to spread the Gospel online. They had little breakout sessions including a Facebook session, Twitter, Mormon.org, and how to work with missionaries, which is where I came into play. About two months ago, the first counselor of our mission presidency asked me to do a presentation about how missionaries and members can work together on Facebook. I was so nervous! But I was able to prepare for a while, and then I had my presentation at the fair. It went really well. It was funny because I had to give three presentations, and the first one President Wada and the first counselor, President Stevenson, attended. After the presentation was over, they went up to each other and were like, "Nice choice! She did great." It was really funny. I felt honored to do the presentation, though. I really learned a lot about how members and missionaries can truly work to spread this wonderful a Gospel together in simple ways using the technology we have. We live in an amazing era. I feel really blessed because I feel like technology and Facebook usage has been a huge part of my mission experience. I've really learned a lot about it. All in all, even though I was way scared to present because it was in 100% Japanese, it went really well and I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had. Also, D Shimai and I took a picture in front of the room where I was presenting with the poster I used, so that's my new profile picture on Facebook!

Other things that happened this week: I gave my "good bye" testimony at Zone Conference. Normally I don't really cry when I bare my testimony, but I was crying from the get-go when I gave my good bye testimony. I didn't really know what I was going to say when I went up, but I figure I would talk about the things that I've learned and am still learning as a missionary. So I spoke on the Book of Mormon, our divine nature as God's children, the Atonement of Jesus Christ our Savior, and praying with faith. Obviously I've learned a lot more, but those are the things that I've really grown to know and apply in my life. The Spirit took the rest!

As far as investigators go, literally we didn't meet with anyone this week because they were all busy or sick, which stinks. We did do a lot of finding, though, so that was good. It's been a pretty big, good week overall! Being a missionary is hard, but I love it here! The church is true! I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

Sister Lexie Dansie