Happy New Year!

I want to do more individual emails this week, but wanted to take a minute to tell you all how WONDERFUL it was to talk with you through Skype last week!  I feel like I mostly just gawked at your faces and got to hear what you`ve been doing over the break and in Mexico.  I was so surprised to see Elder Ben Williams join us.  Happiness!  Thank you so much for arranging all that.  It really was a Christmas joy for me.  I felt near and dear to you and hope that you felt that a little bit too. 

Japan--especially the Narita ward--continues to be welcoming, my mission continues to be wonderful and challenging, and my love for you continues to be more than all the eels in Narita--and that is saying something because their city mascot is the eel and there seems to be a resturant for the delicacy around every corner.  :)  I love you all so very, very, very, much! 

Tomorrow we are spending the day cleaning and then the next day reading the Book of Mormon all day together as a mission.  I hope that you enjoy the New Year festivities and look forward to 2014!  Happy New Year! 

Yours always,

Lindsay Williams shimai  :)

Oh My Dear Family...(A peek into the heart of Lindsay)

Dear Readers, 

This week Lindsay didn't write the traditional weekly email.  She wrote personal notes to everyone at home.  This gives you a little peek into the person Lindsay is and the relationship she fosters with each of us.  This is real. She is very loving and kind and GRACIOUS!  You can see why we miss her so much!  

Merry Christmas!

Lorene Williams

Ah my dear ones where do I begin?!  I feel like that is what I say at the beginning of every letter, but it stays every time!  Crazy, right?  I love reading your letters SO MUCH.  They are such characteristic boosts that give me a peek into what you are experiencing and learning and I LOVE it.  Thank you.

Christmas call questions!  So, we have 30 to 40 minutes to talk through Skype or on the phone.  While google hangout sounds like a dream, I`m thinking that Skype is the best way to go for us, and we can call anytime from the Monday the 23rd to Friday the 27th.  I was thinking of calling on the 26th here so that it would be Christmas for you all.  As far as time goes, I think I will call around breakfast time here so like 7:15 am our time, that means 5:15 pm your time on December 25.  I know thats kind of an awkward middle of the day time that  means you have to wait basically all day for a call--sorry!--but I think that would be the best thing.  I am SO excited! 

Steph, you survived!  WOOT!  I am so looking forward to learning more of your study insights and having jam sessions with you and our musically inclined family when we reunite.  It`ll be pretty great I think I am excited to talk with you!!!!!  And the letter is coming...soon I hope!

Samacus! (that's what the Greek/Romans probably would have called you :) ) I have been thinking about you today.  Thanks for being your awesome self.  I miss your enthusiasm and your spunk; your dedication and your silliness :); your brilliance and your kindness.  And SOOOO many other things about you!!!  Thanks for being an incredible brother who I can learn from.  Thanks for your lovely valentine!  It brightens my day to read it.  I know that you can persevere through whatever challenges you may have--you are one optimistic and determined fellow!  Stick to it bro, you can be the star of the show, even if on the ground there is no snow, you'll have fun-this much I know, even if your tooth decides to grow slow, you can still sing a beautiful middle do!  Whenever I hear the song Pie Jesu, I think about you!  :)Anyways, I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH SAM!!!!!!!!!  YOU CAN DO IT!!!!
P.S. Prayer really is powerful!  Its awesome.  Have a fantastic day Sambo!!!!!!   

   

Josh, I am doing great.  I am kind of cold, but opened a Christmas present a little early and found some great Hello Kitty slippers that help keep my feet super toasty.  It sounds like you`ve had a pretty great Christmas celebration so far.  I hope that you continue to enjoy it! 

Sadie, I had no idea that you were on the second book of Harry Potter!  You speedy reader you!  That is awesome!  Merry almost Christmas to you to!  In Japanese, Merry Christmas is merri kurisumasu.  It sounds the same!  To say almost I think you would add sugu ni merri kurisumasu.  :)  It sounds like you had a lot of fun at school getting ready for Christmas break.  Yay!  I hope that you continue to enjoy the Christmas spirit.  Its pretty special isn`t it?  I am glad that its only two days until we talk too!  Kind of crazy! 

Mom, same.  I know just how you feel.  Thank you so much for expressing what has been going through your mind as you`ve contemplated this season and what it means.  When you don`t have a lot of fluff time, you really can see the big picture and why it all matters.  I love your insight and effort and just love you.  I am grateful that we are connected even though we are in different countries!  The power of the Spirit is wonderful.  I am grateful for your attentiveness to it and how you have taught me to love and seek after it.  Lately, I have been thinking a lot about what the Lord asks of us.  Training is really hard--I fall on my face daily!  In my patriarchal blessing, it reminds me that challenges are a part of life and must be mastered by me.  And as I thought about it this morning I realized that is only through challenges that we are able to grow and rely on the Lord.  And how much I need to rely on Him!  I am learning about the power of faith and obedience and diligence.  That was a focus of our most recent zone conference and I have learned that the Lord doesn`t expect us to be perfect but He does expect us to be diligent and work to be obedient.  I am so grateful for this life and the Lord`s way.  I am grateful to be sharing His gospel at this time--I feel like it is really a blessing to me; more than for anyone else and that is mind blowing.   

Hello Dad!  I love you!  Time is crazy fast isn`t it?  I love your testimony and focus on what truly matters.  Music truly is a gift and blessing and way for the Spirit to touch and teach us.  I am grateful for its power and influence and that you were able to receive the Spirit through the gift of others.  It is beautiful. 

Kia Kaha Poppa.  I love you.  So much.  I feel like words don`t really cover it.  :) 

Jake`s mission call sounds perfect!  I am excited for him to serve.  Thank you for sharing the news! 

OK, I gotta head but I love you all dearly.  Enjoy this Christmas season and the especially the gift of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  He is the reason that we can celebrate and have joy.  I know that.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that through it He can speak to our needs and help us answer our questions.  I know that.

Love,

Williams shimai

Greetings from the quickly growing cold land of Narita!

 I cannot tell you how grateful for the preparation that so many people helped me with--spiritual and temporal.  I have been wonderfully warm and have not tired of my clothes in the slightest thanks to the variety that I have.  Thank you, thank you! 

Also, thank you for the package that you sent Mom!!!!  I love the various wrapped gifts wtih little sayings on them and so look forward to opening them and reading the letters that you all wrote.  Seriously, I treasure them.  I feel so richly, unbundantly, mercifully remembered and blessed because I get to be family with such great people.  I hope that I can somehow contribute to you each having a wonderful Christmas. 

So, my new companion is the fearless and determined and REALLY patient Sister Minson from Salt Lake City.  She is so willing to work and be flexible as I try and learn how to lead.  I am grateful for her and also that Jones shimai and Nagamine shimai are still in Narita--I call on their knowledge, energy, and kindness daily.  Leading and instructing when I feel like I hardly know how to be an effective missionary myself is kind of crazy but I really love what President Budge teaches about facing weakness.  He instructs that we can either become humiliated or humble.  It is when we are humble that the Lord can do His work through us.  One thing that I've noticed a lot in my personal study lately is that its not really about skill or ability or talent but diligence, faith, humility.  I know that the Lord responds to our faith and blesses our efforts abundantly.  I hope that I can choose to be humble and be like Enos who prays and labors with all diligence and then is given what he desires from the Lord because of his faith.  So I choose faith!!!!!  (Enos1:12)  Faith and obedience are a wonderfully powerful combo--those who labor in the vineyard with the Lord as described in Jacob's allegory of the olive tree have decide to follow the Lord's will and thus are blessed (verse 72).  I also really love how He knows and plans where He plants and brings forth friut even in the poor spots of ground--and often times I feel like I am that poor spot of ground, but He can make miracles happen even there (see verses 21-23). 

Sorry, I made this kind of a lecture rather than an email.  Minson shimai and I are already seeing miracles as we talk with people.  Really, its when we do the work that the Lord can guide us.  Today when we were walking, we started talking with a lady who wasn't really interested, but then when she walked on, another lady came up to us and said that she had real interest in learning about Jesus Christ and learning about charity.  She came up to US.  Woah.  People are so preapared. 

I love you all.  So much.  I pray for you.  I hope the best for you.  I hope that you feel the power and strength and JOY that is avaliable to everyone through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  Really, His life and sacrfice are the reason that we rejoice at this time of year. 

I love you all one by one more than sushi loves seaweed paper (nori),

Williams shimai

Transfers

Hello!  So we received a transfer call this morning and I have some news about where I will be serving next transfer.  My companions and I are all staying in Narita--WOOT!!  While that is the same, our companionship is changing.  Right now we are a trio but for next transfer, Nagamine shimai and Jones shimai will be companions and I will be with a new missionary who I'll meet on Thursday!  I feel so privileged and blessed to be training this transfer.  The elder who called to tell us what would be happening put it wonderfully.  He started out by boldly affirming that President Budge and he and his companion (as the assistants) received revelation.  I feel that.  While I am really insufficient as far as being a "profitable servant" I feel a deep peace--I know that God can do anything.  So, if He needs me to train a new missionary, I can do it because He can do anything.  I am grateful for the examples in the scriptures and President Budge's focus on being humble and relying on the Lord to do His will. 

I know that this is the Lord's work, the work of salvation and that it matters both now and in eternity.  I love you all so much. 

Williams shimai

JOY

Greetings my happy fam!  I send you my love and gratitude this December 2nd morning.  I hope you enjoyed one another's company, food, and the spirit of Thanksgiving this past week.  Gratitude really has a great power to focus us on how the Lord has blessed us and how He is directing our path.  So cool. 

While Thanksgiving not celebrated in Japan, our stake president and his family invited us for Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and apple pie--along with Japanese style rice pilaf, corn rolls, sweet potatoes (called yakimo), and a jello sort of dessert. It was an intriguing and delicious meal and a time of gratitude and listening to the testimonies of the 2 investigators that were able to come.  We asked them to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon that they were grateful for and they did so with such happiness and love for the scriptures.  It was really, really a wonderful experience.

And then, guess what?  One of those investigators got baptized on Sunday!  Kumi chan (chan is sort of a nickname that often goes on the end of girls' names), our earnest and honestly incredible friend.  The elders found here while housing around the bishop's house and invited her to church and she came every Sunday after that.  She received all the lessons in about 3 weeks and seeing her change in that time frame has been so beautiful.  She has kind of a rough life right now--her parents passed away in a fire last year, her younger brother lives in an orphanage in Tokyo, she recently got divorced, and lives in a small, sparse apartment with her 2 year old son.  When we first met her, she was really tentative, subdued, and uncertain.  Yet after she started to pray daily, read the Book of Mormon, and come to church regularly, she changed.  She is radiant.  I am so humbled to have been a part of that.  Her son too--he has such reverence for the Book of Mormon now.  Before he ripped pages and dropped it, etc.  but now for the most part he treats it like a real book--one with a special purpose.  SO AMAZING.  

OK, well, the time is far spent, but know that I love each of you and pray for you.  Thank you for your examples and strength.  I know that I am truly blessed because of you all daily. 

Much love,

Lindsay Williams shimai