Ohayo Gozaimasu! (Good morning!)

What a good week! First of all, we had a baptismal service! And, our investigator Nozomi and her sister Hikari got baptized! (Last week, I didn't mention that Hikari was going to get baptized because at that point we still weren't sure if she was going to or not. But Hikari is Nozomi's older sister who is 19 years old and has a mental disability. She is just the cutest person ever! But, we had to be sure that she fully understood baptism and all the covenants and parts of the interview before she could get baptized. And last Monday, things were still being discussed.) But Nagasaki Branch now has 2 new members and we are so excited! The service went wonderfully and we had quite a few people come. Nozomi asked us missionaries to do a musical number so we sang "He Sent His Son" From the Primary Children's song book and I'm trying to be like Jesus with some of the primary kids. Over all, it was just a wonderful night. Another awesome miracle of this week, our Korean investigator returned from Korea! That's not the miracle though. We met with her this past week and asked her about her trip. Before going, she had some fears about talking to her mom (A Protestant preacher) about the fact that she was investigating our church, so we asked her if she told her mom about it. Her response was: "Oh yes, actually I have some good news. I showed my mom the Book of Mormon and she read a couple of pages and told me that it is a good book and that it's completely ok for me to learn about this church. She still doesn't want me to get baptized, but she said its alright if I continue to take these lessons." Wait... did we just hear that right? It was a HUGE miracle. Also, her husband who is super Buddhist used to have objections to her coming to church, but she said that he is also seeming to be more and more ok with it these days. God answers prayers! We're planning on setting a baptismal date with her this next week for sometime in December! This past week we also met with our 80 something-year-old investigator who does Japanese Fan dancing for us sometimes (If anyone remembers me talking about that like 2 months ago) and we set a baptismal date with her as well! It was so cute too because we had out a picture of Christ's baptism while we were talking about it and we said that we want her to prepare for February 9th (Yes, quit far away, but her progress is very slow and we want to make sure she felt like she had plenty of time to prepare) and she looks at us all concerned and says "February, but that's the coldest month of the year. The water will be really cold!" Haha we tried not to giggle too much while we explained that she would be getting baptized in a font in our church. And that the water would be very warm and not cold at all. After that, she seemed much more at ease about the idea. This past Saturday, we met with a less active member and taught a role play lesson on the Word of Wisdom so that we could work on our Japanese and figure out how to teach the Word of Wisdom better. Random Japanese culture fact that you probably already knew: Japanese people drink TONS of Tea. All sorts of tea. And while some of them are ok with the word of wisdom, others are not. And for 2 random Utah girls who know nothing about tea and the differences between them, let me just say, teaching the Word of Wisdom in Japan is by far one of the most difficult things to do. Because "green tea is good for your health" and "but it doesn't have any caffeine" and "Well what about iced tea because it says 'hot drinks'" and other such comments inevitably come up. Japanese people love their tea. However, God's word is God's word and I know that sometimes we just have to use our faith and trust that God knows better than us. Teaching hard commandments like that always make me so grateful for our investigators that truly are willing to make these changes in their lives and take the leap of faith to follow God's commandments. That has probably been one of the coolest things for me to watch. People making big changes in their lives and coming closer to Christ is the process. Being a missionary is just the best life. I mean, seriously, we just get to go around all day and talk to people about God! What a life! :) Well, next week P-day is on a Tuesday because its transfer calls (dun dun dun!!!) and you should all pray for me and my companion and all the Nagasaki missionaries to stay here because the work is exploding and I just love all the people here way too much! However, I will go wherever the Lord wants me to go! Lay on your carpet this week for me and be thankful for it because it doesn't exist in Japan! Love you all!