Lucky Number 13!

Another week of ups and downs! First of all, our investigator who was progressing a TON and had a baptismal date dropped us just the other day out of the blue. Apparently her parents didn't approve of the baptism, and even though she is 31 and doesn't necessarily need their permission, she decided it wasn't worth going against her parent's will. Which is quite a common occurance amongst Japan missionary work. EVERYONE here is Buddhist even though they don't exactly know what they believe in or what that really means. But to be anything besides Buddhist is considered strange and looked down upon as if it is a betrayal of their culture and thus, many many people who investigate the church end up dropping due to families that don't approve of their desire to change religions. It's quite sad to watch :( No fear though! We still had faith and went out finding with a fury! Wow, that was quite the unplanned alliteration. This past Saturday, our plans got really messed up when the other sisters asked us to teach the Children's English Class last minute because they weren't going to be able to be there in time, and thus our evening schedule didn't leave us enough time to do what we wanted to. Instead we just decided to get out of the house and go finding. We didn't know exactly where we were going to go so we just decided to start walking and found ourselves in a neighborhood on a hill close by with a billion steps that we began to climb up. About half way up, we knew we wouldn't have time to house everything so we decided to go up just one more flight of stairs to the small apartment building above us and began knocking. The very last door of the building was opened by a young man wearing only boxers. After realizing who was at his door and realizing what he was wearing, he apologized and said he would be right back after he put on some pants. Long story short, he totally wants to improve his English, AND he's been super curious about religion lately and accepted our Book of Mormon and we scheduled again with him the next day! Moral of the story is that GOD IS IN CHARGE and even when our days don't go as planned, God still has something in store for us as long as we're willing to get out there and try! Last HUGE miracle of the week. This past Sunday I got asked last minute (aka Saturday afternoon) to speak in church. As I sat up on the stand waiting for the service to begin, I watched 1, then 2, then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and then THIRTEEN investigators show up to church!!!! Between us 8 missionaries in Nagasaki Branch, we literally had 13 people in the congregation that came to learn more about our church!!! Even as I'm typing this, I still can't believe it. I remember writing a few months ago about how we had 5 investigators at church and that was unbelievable. The work truly is hastening. I can't even begin to tell you about the miracles that we see on a daily basis but I just want to say that there are so many people out there ready to hear this gospel and it is our responsibility to bring it to them! I feel so blessed to be in Nagasaki at this time to be witnessing these incredible miracles. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support that I know are always helping us through each and every day. I wish I had more time to talk about how much I have been able to see God's hand in my life lately but just know that He truly loves and cares about each of us personally as well as all of His children who still don't have this gospel knowledge. Thank you again! Wells Shimai