Week 7 - Pizza Dare & Trash Services

Hello Friends! :D

So this week as been pretty fun! I went on my first exchanges and was left in the Odenton with Sister Lawrence! We were on bikes the whole time and I kept taking us in circles! I am sure we took the wrong turn about 5 times in a row! But we managed to get everywhere we needed to be on time and it turned out alright! And sister Lawrence is awesome! I love her, it was really cool to have the chance to serve with her! I also have an awesome district and zone. :)

I definitely do not like riding bikes for miles upon miles...but I can see how it is good for me, as well as the exercising every morning! I definitely eat enough that it is smart to be exercising daily. 

Members feed us so well :) 

And speaking of eating! Saturday night I definitely ate a whole Little Caesars pizza all by myself. 

Sister Moore dared me! And I figured I would go for it! And I made it! And I wasn't sick! :D haha 

I am not sure that I plan on making it a habit but I do think it was fun!

This past Preparation day some of the sisters in my zone decided to go visit downtown Annapolis and it was Gorgeous! We went to a place called Chick and Ruth's and tried Maryland crab cakes! it was pretty good! I also tried the cream of crab soup, also good. Neither I was too too crazy about, but the crab that was in them was pretty great!

Service is my favorite thing to do as a missionary by far! I dont have to think about teaching lessons or getting commitments, just serve! This past week I had 3 opportunities to serve. We raked sticks from a members yard, painted a potential investigators room ( I love painting), and helped clean a less active's home.

The potential investigators room we helped paint is named Theresa and I love her! its the second or third time we have come over to just help her get her house in order for an inspection. She has 8 kids all home and in school. She's a single mother. She loves her kids so much but her house is definitely trashed. Literally, I helped clean it up. We took out bags and bags of just trash from her home. 

She knows she needs God in her life. We just hope she will be able to find the time. 

We were able to have a great (but sad) sit down with her as she was helping support her Cousin (who is a member) through a really hard time as she was questioning her faith. Her niece was just murdered by that niece's boyfriend. It was so sad but the strength that those two women were able to have was incredible. 

Sister Moore is also awesome at comforting, it amazes me.

One last thing. I was studying and fell upon D&C 60:2-3 and it is like scary how guilty it can make you feel about not spreading the gospel! I love it haha

I love you all so much! 

Sister Nakata

Week 6 - Yummy Desert & Eden Snake Killer

Hey everyone!!!

So! My week has been pretty fun! On Monday, Sister Moore and I and our Sister Training leaders, Sister Lawrence and Sister Bagley went to the mall and that was lots of fun! We also went to a pizza place that was a hole in the wall and it was probably the best pizza place I have ever been to. It was so good!

Tuesday we had Zone Training and Sister Moore and I were asked to give the instruction! That morning Our Mission mom shows up to study with us! It was so neat! She helped us come up with a great idea on our instruction to "teach to the needs of our investigators." So she came up with this analogy of riding a bike, when you ride a bike and know how to use it and are comfortable with it, you can have fun, overcome obstacles, be efficient. Verses when you don't know how, you struggle. And the same goes for when you are teaching, when you know what you are teaching you can adapt to the needs of those you teach so much more efficiently! So Sister Moore and I start our instruction by coming into the gym (the place the meeting was) riding our bikes! Me riding it well, knowing what I am doing, being awesome. And sister Moore struggling! I end up making it all the way around the room before she even gets half way. It was a fun instruction! and great object lesson!

President Richards also added to that and what he was able to pick up is how we lacked in Unity. It played perfectly into his little impromptu lesson about how we need to work together with our companion and not leave the other one in the dust!

Wednesday, we had New Missionary Training! I got to go see my whole MTC district! It was so awesome! I love those guys so so much. It was fun seeing them again and getting some great instruction from President Richards, his wife and his assistants!

So people kept telling me that I am going to get SO MUCH crab here and that its so good and top notch and all that. Well I have not yet haha probably because its expensive and members don't take missionaries out to nice crab dinners! Sister Moore has been here since July or so and hasn't had crab yet.

Speaking of sister Moore, she doesn't eat sugar! So every time we are at a members for dinner (so every night) She passes on desert and I can usually take desert for the two of us! Haha man, I haven't really checked if I have gained weight or not but I am pretty sure that I do weight more than I was when I came out here! Which doesn't have to be a bad thing! I am exercising every morning! This week I was able to (on an elliptical) run 2 miles in 20 minutes, I don't think I have EVER been able to do that in my life! So even though I am eating more I am hoping to be able to exercise and bike off anything I may weigh.

Oh! There was one family this week that served eggrolls and asian noodles and it was SO GOOD! 
She also had the most amazing and incredible desert: sugar cookie dough baked in a pan. Cooled. 
Topped with cream cheese mixed with white chocolate and strawberries! 
They sent us home with so much food and too much desert. 

But that desert made me the happiest person ever. It really did.

We are still working a lot with Less active members and a good number of them came to church this week! So that was awesome. We currently have 2 investigators and a good number of potentials. I still just think everyone is awesome and they just need to accept it and get baptized and go to the temple! But its not that simple most of the time!

One of our investigators, Stephanie, keeps having medical issues and is trying to meet with us and hopefully go with us to the Temple Visitors center. So she isn't progressing at the moment but hopefully she will soon. Her health has been a struggle. 

Our other investigator, Sarah, is 85 and the sweetest old lady! She is Pentecostal (I think) and says she speaks in tongues. She always has good stories and she knows the Holy spirit so well. She struggles with Joseph Smith because "he isn't in the bible"...So its been hard helping her get through the whole restoration lesson. She can't read the BOM so we are working on getting her a large print so she can read it and feel its truth! Oh! And she told us stories about how when she was young (like 8 or something) she would go out to the woods and kill every snake she could! And she would keep track of it. She said in one week she killed 76 snakes! She said she killed the snakes because it was a serpent that tempted Adam and even in the garden! haha! She is awesome!

Being out here I have met so many people that have had so many struggles and even if they don't have the LDS faith they still have such strong faith in God and he has helped them so much through life! Its amazing!

I love you all!

Sister Nakata

Odenton 3/23/15

Week 5 - The Queen of Australia & Celestial Parking

Hey everybody!!

So this past week has been pretty good! There have been a few days that the weather has been so nice! It feels good! It felt like Spring time was coming! But then the last half of this week has been pretty cold, but I know it has to start warming up soon! It was crazy that one day it felt so incredibly nice out and less than a week earlier there was a crazy snow storm! I forgot how nice spring time feels! Spring is not a season in Hawaii! I do love the feel of it though, that's for sure!

So in this mission we don't really tract unless we feel like knocking on a few random doors, and thats really it. We try to get as many referrals as possible and contact those. We also try to talk to everyone we can! When I am doing really well and just talking to strangers I like to think of myself as "Channeling Dad"  Because I just feel so much like thats something he would do.

So I don't think I mentioned this yet but last week or so we knocked on a random door and the woman who answered was watching an old old lady and this old old lady is apparently the Queen of Australia! So that was pretty neat. She has Alzheimer and told us the same story about 5 times but it was pretty cool regardless! She was super sweet! And the woman who was watching her had a daughter that just got baptized in Utah or something 2 weeks ago! that was pretty interesting too!

I love it when we talk to people who are really nice. Even when they have no interest, they are still just super nice! Then there are other people who treat us like we are trying to sell drugs or just damn their souls...yeah those are interesting. Then there are those that are concerned for Our souls. And those who think that they are right and we are wrong. And a mix of them all! Some days I just tell my companion that I just want to scream at them and say "I am just trying to give you eternal life!!!"

Oh! Okay so you know how missionaries have to back each other out every time they are in reverse? Well I heard one missionary refer to parking spaces that you can just pull through and not have to back out as "Celestial parking." Haha I thought that was so great!

Since I have been out here on a mission I have loved my study time! it has been great. I am always a little bummed that my hour to study is already up! Its weird. And after the first 5 or 10 minutes I am perfectly happy getting up early in the morning!

I have been able to teach a few investigators this week! That has been pretty cool. None of them are really solid investigators but I hope some of them become it soon! We are also visiting a lot of Less Active sisters and trying to get them to come back to church regularly. Its just so hard sometimes when they have such "drama" with it!

I am definitely having a good time here! I am getting to know who is who in the ward a lot better! and that is definitely nice.
I know the Lord loves me so much and is always there trying to help me be better as long as I am trying to be better!
I love Him and I love all of you!
Thank you for all the support!
You're awesome!

Sister Nakata
Odenton MD 

Some 

Preparation Day 

F U N & Relaxing

Week 4 Keeping Warm and Dry

Hello everyone!

I cannot believe I have been gone just a month, it has felt like forever! Its crazy. 

This week there was a snow storm. Thursday it snowed ALL DAY, it was crazy. 

We walked for so long and we had tons of street contacts. 

We helped a number of people shovel their driveways and scrape snow off their cars. 

It snowed at least 10 inches or so! It was fun and then we walked all day Friday and all day Saturday. My calf's are still a little sore. 

We found a bunch of potential investigators so I hope that works out. We technically have 3 investigators right now but I've been here 11 days now and only seen one of them once. 

So that's kind of funny. We have been having a lot lessons with less active members. 

I have yet to see any great miracles of the mission yet but there are still a number of weeks I have left! 

The pictures I sent are from that snow storm. The one of donut tracks in the church parking lot was to capture how much fun Sister Spencer (the ward mission leader's wife) had while waiting for us to get out of a meeting with her husband and the Elders. When we got in the car, she also let us have a little fun too. It was so great!
I am in suburbs that are kind of gangster-y but nice in others! Its about 20 minutes or so from Baltimore! and really close to a base and tons of people who work for the governments! There are a few guys in my ward who are President Obama's body guards! so thats kinda neat! Lots of nice members

The boots that I have were not exactly made for wet weather, so my toes had a fun time this week! haha lets just say they were not the warmest! But I just kept going and kept having fun. OH! and thank you mom for that coat you decided to just give me, I wear it every day! Even in the MTC I wore it. On the cold days and snow storm and wear like 5 or 6 layers of clothes! its so funny how bundled up I get!

My companion, Sister Moore is always so excited and enthusiastic about everything! its crazy! She also always talking to people. She will talk to everyone and be so interested in everyone. Its hard to do that haha. In lessons we are trying to take turns talking more and she always feels bad because she thinks shes cutting me off, and I say no! I just think "thank you for saving me!"

We were in a member lesson and it was at the end and she had talked a lot and I was thinking it was time to go so I wasn't about ready to go off talking but she starts to just look at me and I'm thinking "what?" and she says "did you want to say something?" "OH! right" and then bore quick testimony of whatever principle it was. It was so so funny! After wards she felt so bad! she was like " I can't believe I was so rude!" I just laughed, I thought it was great. I told her it takes a lot to offend me!

As far as missionary work goes, we don't have a ton of investigators really and we have a lot of appointments fall through and we mostly just plan to "try by" people most nights. But since we are making a lot of street contacts I hope all those pass a long cards and few Book of Mormons I have handed out make differences in peoples lives and is part of the Lord preparing them!

I am happy to be here and sticking it through this cold! I hope it warms up soon like its supposed to!

Love you all!

Sister Nakata

Odenton MD 

Week 3 Making It Up The Hills - God Loves Me!

Okay! 

SO I am so happy to be out in the field! this is pretty awesome! I was assigned to the Odenton area which just 20 minutes or so away from Baltimore, so I thought that was pretty cool! My Trainer is an awesome sister named Sister Moore! However! This is a different Sister Moore from the one that I know from the Woodlands! How funny right?

Sister Moore is great and this area is great! Sister Moore is fun and prays for hours. Thats not a too far off exaggeration too. She really will pray for a good amount of time! like 10 minutes is a short night prayer for her. She is fun and super encouraging. She says things like "all that jazz" "rad" and "holy geronumo." She is ALWAYS so happy and thankful! and enthusiastic! its crazy! 

One of the Elders from my District at the MTC, Elder Coumbs, is serving in the same ward as me! so that is pretty neat! My ward is pretty great! there are a lot of young couples with young kids and old couples with grown kids.Not very many teenagers, but still there are some! It is hard to try and remember all the people sister Moore tells me about! I feel like I almost never know who she is talking about until I finally meet the person. 

A lot of our appointments fell through so that was interesting and it was hard because most of our back up plans were just knocking on peoples houses unexpectedly and them usually not being home.

So I get to have a car every two days. We take turns having the car with the Elders in our area so thats nice. The other days we bike (or walk). My first day on bikes it was freezing! and there are so many hills! Half the time I would stop part way up the hill and shout to Sister Moore "I am going to walk the rest of the way!" The two pictures I attached were taken just after one of the hills I actually rocked it and made it all the way up. but I was exhausted and walked for a little bit while at the same time leaning on my handle bars so the bike could support me. Sister Moore thought it was the funniest thing and took a picture! I decided that since I made it through that first day on a bike and was still alive, God loves me!

Odenton