OK!  Well let me just start off with a big thank you for all of your very sweet letters!  I got the wonderful Birthday present; Stock shimai and I have listened to it everyday since!  Thank you! I even got a package from Kurt…Chocolate Malt-o-Meal!!!  It was a very good birthday, the night before Deguchi shimai took us out to dinner.  She is so sweet!  We had one of my favorites: omu rice-the Japanese version of omlets; salad and potstickers.  I was so full of that and the yummy hot chocolate I could barely bike back to the church!  Our Eikaiwa students gave me a nice scarf, hotpack things, and a really awesome set of chopsticks!  Stock shimai gave me some pens (they are .25 mm, can’t find them in the US like that), a cute poster with Haichu (the yummy starburst type candy), and a 
small cake!

We spent the night visiting a less active, whose daughter isn’t a member yet.  We have high hopes of getting her into the waters of baptism though! We housed and froze our fingers and toes off, but I had a very interesting experience.  The lady was a very sweet Shintoist.  They are proof, to me, that the gospel was preached in this land long ago.  They believe in being very, very kind to others.  A lot like Christlike Attributes.

I felt prompted to ask her about her belief in after death, i.e. why they honor their ancestors so much.  She thought and thought and responded with: Well, just like I honor my parents, my kids will honor me.  That was it.  I thought the whole time, what is the point of honoring someone if they don’t exist???  I told her about eternal families and even though she didn’t want to set up a appt. I really feel that we planted a big seed!

Chum, please daiji ni shite your back!  (take care of it)  I will keep you in my prayers!  Pap, thank you for you story…I just got those DVDs and I am very excited to watch about Wilford Woodruff…and yes, I can picture you crying at the spirit!   I am so excited to hear you gave Chum a blessing!  Speaking of which…

Last week we went to Sakurajima.  It was  blast!  We rode down huge slides, took pictures on all of the big dinasaur statues, etc.  It was fun until we started to head for home.  The hill up to the park is very long, very steep, and very windy.  Just imagine Lumbard Street at a 70 degree angle, with a few less curves.  We had to walk our bikes up.  Well, we rode them down.  Elder Muira flew past me, I thought, ‘You’re going way tooooo fast!’ He turned enough not to hit the fence head on, but still hit it hard.  I came to a stop right behind him and watched as he took the skin of his thumb back onto the bone just about at the knuckle.  It led to quite the ordeal.  Sister Stock fainted, we got her up and all walked slowly to the ferry station where he was ferried back in an ambulance (he was back out housing after he got stitched up, he is fine and dany!)  Both Sister Stock and I saw it happen, we both felt a little shaken up.  That night we had our lesson with ‘Brigadoon man’ (who by the way would’t agree to an exact time to meet next time, but we have hope!).  The next day we still just felt very odd.  I can only describe as a though that, “that could’ve been me”; I gues it was shock.  We talked about how we both felt and decided there was only one thing to do: a blessing!  Tuesday night we asked Elder Ford and Elder Muira to give us both a blessing.  The things he said in my blessing were amazing.  I felt such a warm, powerful, loving feeling.  I know with out any doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father loves me.  I know this is his work.  I will do anything to tell the people of Japan about it.  I am so grateful for the power of the Priesthood.  I am so grateful for those who are worthy to exercise it.

We are starting a new surge to get referrals from the members.  We are very excited to see the work move forward in a new, more effective way. Please pray that the members here will have the courage to prayerfully seek a friend they can introduce to us.

Funakura san is doing OK.  She is willing to read, but right now it is more a fascinating thing then a search for the truth…but that will change.   Kamikokuryo san is our new big hope.  We had a great lesson with her last week.  She said how it is so scary to raise kids right now. She said how we are so amazing, and realized herself that it is because of our knowledge that what our parents taught us was from God.  She is really seeking, now if only we can get her to act on that!  Here in Japan it is a big problem with husbands working alllllll week long.  She told us she never really see’s her husband.  I realized what a blessing it is to have the gospel, that it helps us keep our priorities straight.

Lor, I am glad to hear you are still in contact with Christie Ray!  Do you have her address?  I hope your munchkins get better. Good luck!

To all who went tubing…how fun!!!!  I love all of you so much!  Thank you for all you do!  Until next week. 1 John 3:20-24…look it up, it’s awesome!

Love,

Sister Haymond

Hello everyone!

Wow, All I can say is…last week was busy!  We had some very interesting experiences that I hope you will all find enjoyable and fun and spiritually uplifting.

Funakura san is an Eikaiwa student who agreed to listen to a message about Jesus Christ a few weeks back.  This past week we taught her about the Plan of Salvation.  She has always had the feeling to pray, ever since she was little.  As we really explained who God is and bore testimony of our own answered-prayer experiences, the spirit was very strong.  We asked her how she thought her life would change if she received an answer that what we taught was true…her answer was so simple and profound: life would become easy, comfortable (sorry, the word in Nihongo has a bit more meaning, but that is the best for English).  She agreed to pray about the 
Plan of Salvation and to read from where we asked her to in the Book of Mormon (Alma 22:1-26).  It was an awesome lesson!

I had my very first ever experience of talking to someone, in a very deep and long discussion about the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  We met Hideko san a couple of weeks ago.  She is a Jehovah’s Witness, and has been for a very long time.  Well, we went to just chat with her and ended up standing on her doorstep for 2 hours!  That mornging I had read the talk by President Holland from last April’s conference.  I had prepared some questions I wanted to ask her, found them and read them in the Nihongo Bible, and prayed like mad for help from the Spirit.  We talked and talked, shared scriptures and discussed them.  It was all in a very friendly manner.  I bore witness of a living prophet and shared the Amos 3:7 scripture.  They believe that Christ was the last prophet and that he is guiding the church from heaven.  I fully agreed…through a prophet! As I explained that the Book of Mormon is the ’stick of Ephraim’ as spoken of in Ezekial, I could tell she started to think.  In the end she would not even read from the Book of Mormon.  I tried explaining it in a way that she has a cake, but only a part of it.  We can help make that delicious cake whole! I read 2 Nephi 29:8-9, it was very slow (those kanji still look like blasted little pictures!)  Stock shimai was there the whole time, helping look up scriptures, and sharing her testimony about the Book of Mormon. I couldn’t believe it though!  She rejected the greater light.  It was so strange!  To really talk to someone who believes in Jesus Christ and have them reject the truths we hold was, well, a little shocking.  I know all of you who served in Christian countries experienced daily, but here, where we are excited if they have heard of the Bible, it was almost mistfying to me that she wouldn’t even read from the Book of Mormon.  I do know, however, that we got her thinking.  She will never think of the scriptures we shared the same way again.  The next time she meets missionaries, maybe her response will be different.  I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who helped me to know how to be prepared, who helped me to really understand her.  All I can say is, I was exhausted after 2 hours of a deep discussion in Nihongo. But I was very happy to add another experience to my already overflowing repetoire of times that I have felt the Lord’s hand in this great work.

I spent Relief Society talking a sister who comes only every great once-in-a-while.  She has some mental illnesses.  It was a very, very interesting talk.  She came with her sister, who has schyzophrenia (sorry!), let me just say that I am so grateful for my fully functioning mental abilities.  Our talk ranged from her getting mad at herself because of the 2001 terrorist attacks, saying I need to hit her because she was bad, the fact her brain is a boys, she spent all of her money on entertainment, and several other fairly interesting topics.  I felt so bad for her.  But, as I thought about it, I realized again what a huge blessing the Atonement really is.  I know that she will receive a perfect body oneday.  The trials she experiences now will be gone.  I am so grateful for my Savior!

Last night we found a new investigator!  He is in his 30’s, is having problems finding a job because of the depression, and is really interested in the purpose of life.  His house is in the mountains!  It almost had the feeling of the play, ‘Brigadoon’, slightly in the mountains and the fog was coming in.  We have a lesson tonight at the church with him!  Pray that his heart is open to hearing our message!

Well, this was my very fun, busy week!  I hope you all had a wonderful time. Kare and Al, I opened the pictures of your tiny munchkins!!!  They are so cute!  I too am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who heard all of our many prayers in their behalf. Good luck with those 3 AM feedings!

Everyone, feel free to upload pictures now!  I hope all of you are in good health, and enjoying life! Love you lots!  Today we are headed to Sakurajima..the volcano out in the bay.  I will send you some pictures! Good luck!

Love, Sister Haymond

イエスキリストが生きているとしています！

I know Jesus Christ lives!

Hello everyone!

OK, it seems like forever since I have updated you on everything goin on here.  Our New Years was very fun.  It is a huge week-long event in Japan.  We were kept busy by the members inviting us over for dinners.  I ate very yummy food, luckily no fish!  Noodle dishes, yakiniku-you cook your own meat and veggies on a grill on the table, ice cream sundaes…it was a feast everywhere we went!

 Stock shimai is doing great!  She is from Sandy, UT, the second oldest of 5, well, 7, they are adopting two foster kids.  She studied Pshychology at the U (only has one year left) and worked at special preschool for troubled kids.  She has a great love of the gospel and wants to work hard every day.  We get along great!  It is actually very fun, interesting, and humbling to be her trainer.  It feels like yesterday that I was the green bean.  I have been looking back and feel so grateful for all of the 
blessings of the Lord.

 We are having a fun time using our gaijin (foreigner) power!  We even got into a house last week just because we were American and the family had lived in California for 14 years.  We talked to them about that and shared our testimonies of the BOM, we are actually going there again on Wednesday.  It has made life a lot more interesting to have me be the most fluent one.  I have a lot of responsibilities, all the phone calls, writing all of the progress reports, investigator records, etc.  We are 
very busy!  I love it!

This last week we had Zone Conference.  It was amazing.  It was the most spiritual one I have had yet.  President talked all about prayer.  He used a lot of Elder Bednars talk from the Oct. General Conference.  I loved it! He promised us that as we really report to the Lord about what we are doing, seek his guidance, give thanks for everything, and pray for others, we will be changed.  We will be better missionaries, better people, and we will see miracles.  I felt the spirit so powerfully; then the AP presented a training on keeping it simple. It’s so true! The gospel is not hard to understand.  The easier I can explain it to people, the easier the Spirit 
can testify to them!

Well, we left the meeting feeling very pumped up.  We were headed to a less-actives house, to visit with her, but as are all addresses here in Japane, we had a hard time finding her exact house.  We had the general area, but since all of the houses don’t have house numbers, we decided to knock around and ask.  We asked for help, and then I just happened to  mention who we were.  The lady had gone to a Christian college, she was very interested in the Book of Mormon.  Both Sister Stock and I bore strong witness that there is a living Prophet on the Earth, guiding the Lord’s church.  We read a few scriptures with her, talked about how the gospel blesses families, and then committed her to reading the Book of Mormon. When we first tried to set up a return visit, she said we couldn’t, her husband is not friendly with religion.  That is when we pulled out another scripture, and Stock shimai stepped up with a powerful testimony, saying how she wouldn’t be able to learn Japanese if the Lord wasn’t helping her.  I felt the Spirit and knew that Fukudome san was too. I asked her if she felt a good feeling in her heart; she said yes.  I told her that was the Holy Ghost testifying to her of the truthfullness of what we were saying.  It ended with us getting warm welcome to come back and visit.  I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who helps us find those who are prepared.  I am excited to see what happens with Fukudome san.

I am loving every minute of this mission, and can’t believe that one year is almost up.  Ahhh!  I hope all of you have read Pres. Eyring talk in the January Ensign.  The work of the Lord must move forward!  It is not just us missionaries responsibility!  I hope you will all act on his very powerful message and seek and pray for those around you who are prepared for and desiring the blessings of our Heavenly Father.  I love seeing the light that knowing ‘who they are’ and why they are here, brings into the life of people.  Everyone is going to feel like something is missing, until they are baptized members of the Lord’s true church.  Please pray for courage. Please be bold. I have learned so much from all of you and appreciate your wonderful examples! I know that together we can all bring our brothers and sisters back to a knowledge that they already know, but haven’t had the chance yet to ‘re-study it’

I love you all so much!  I am glad to hear the twins are doing well, they are always in my prayers. Good luck Rachel…only a few more weeks, right?!  Gideon…HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Wow!  You are 5 years old!  I can’t believe you are so big!  I hope you had yummy cake and had a blast with the family!  What did you get?  Joseph and Lori, Congrats on your 8th Anniversary!  Wow, how fun! Did you do anything special?  How is the home going?

Well, we have to run to our nearest Mister Donuts…I’m starving!   I am totally out of my health kick, but don’t worry I will get right back into it.  I do enjoy a lot of the goodies here, especially all of the breads! And ice cream.  No, I have not ballooned to the size of a Sumo,  I have been the same weight since the day I left home!  What a blessing ne!  I just want to say thank you for all of your wonderful gifts one more time.   Love you all and look forward to seeing some pictures of the twins!

Pap, thank you for your note!  I was glad to hear you are really getting YM out to the Activities…that is huge!  Really, the calling you have right now is soooooo important.  You can get them to love the gospel, and understand how wonderful it is and they will stay strong for the rest of their lives.  I would totally suggest getting the missionaries to come and do an activity with them.  Use Preach My Gospel as well, it is amazing! You are the perfect man for the job.

Love you all soooooo much! Good luck over this next week!

Love,

Sister Haymond

I wrote out a very long letter, and the email site encountered a problem when I tried to send it. It got deleted.  Sorry, now I don’t have time to write.  I loved all of your emails!  I had a wonderful New Year, we had many dinners with members and part-members.  

we saw many miracles this week in finding people, I will let you know how they pan out.  My new comp is awesome!  She is from Sandy, UT.  I will tell more about her next week.  

Sorry for this very, very short letter.  Mom, you don’t need to pay my camera bill.  Good luck every one, I love you soooo much!  Please read the BOM daily, it will help you in every way!  

Thank you for all of your Letter Mom and Pap!  I love them.  I will write a lot more next week, until then… Ganbatte kudasai!  Good luck

Love,
Sister Haymond