Tender Mercies

This email will be a short one. This past week has been one of the long ones. We did 2 companion exchanges, which are just tiring, and just had a lot of random issues that came up. However, there were some really good moments. First I'll just explain to you all what Easter in Japan is like. Basically, no one has ever really heard of it, and even the church members here don't actually do anything for it except for talk about the resurrection and such during sacrament meeting. No Easter baskets or egg hunts or anything. It was slightly depressing. This is how my Easter went: I woke up at 5:30 in Kurume, where we had done a companion exchange the day before, in order to catch our train by 6:40 to come back to Nagasaki. We walked to the station in the rain, and I got drenched because I forgot my umbrella, and then I sat on a train for 2 hours in wet clothes. From the Nagasaki station, we walk directly to church, again in the rain and have a nice three hours of church struggling to stay awake and struggling not to be too uncomfortable in still damp clothes. After church, I wasn't necessarily angry or upset or anything, just exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep or cry or something. But Nihei Shimai and I decided that we really needed to go outside and talk to a few people before we came back and did our studies that we still hadn't done yet. We go outside, and talk to people on the street, and we run into this kind older woman who kindly replies that she isn't interested because she is Buddhist. I then asked her if she would share with me one thing about Buddhism that she liked. She replied by saying "Fuyu wa kanarazu natsu to narimasu" which roughly translates to "Winter will inevitably turn to Summer." I just about started crying right there. I'm pretty sure she was an angel because those simple words were exactly what I needed to hear right then. I was definitely feeling at that moment like my life was this never ending Winter that would just always be difficult. But her words made me realize that our trials really are but a small moment. And Summer is coming. Slowly but surely. Those simple words filled me with more hope than I could have gotten from anywhere else at that time. It just made me realize that God truly is looking out for us. He knew that I needed to meet that woman and hear those words, and now I know that everything is going to be ok. I know that God is watching over each of us each day. And that just as summer will inevitably come, there will inevitably be those times of winter as well. But we can get through it. And we can come through it a stronger person. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and made sure to remember the true meaning. Thank you for the support and prayers! Wells Shimai