Week 77 - Final Letter

Heeey everyone!!

So this is my final letter on my mission!! O.o I can't believe it's coming to an end :( but I am excited to come and see my family!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve! Life changing! If you're thinking about it, do it :)

This week was great!

Tuesday we had a great Zone conference! All companionships were asked to prepare to teach the restoration in front of everyone. And then 3 companionships would be asked to role play. Well ours was chosen! We did pretty well! It turned out to be not too bad :)

Wednesday morning we had lunch at the mission home! They wanted to have all those in the Chinese program for a meeting. Since Sister Lau was in that she was invited! I also went to Bowie with Sister Barrus on Wednesday! To exchange we met up at Krispy Kreme! I literally watched the donuts be fried and glazed! So cool. Sister Barrus was great! This is her first transfer. She is great. We had time to go contacting. Before we ventured to contact we said a prayer in the car and set a goal to share a Book of Mormon scripture with 3 different people. Which was a stretch because Sister Barrus had previously gone contacting for 2 or 3 hours and the most she had shared was 2. We had one hour to find 3 people to share a thought with. I could make the story good and give you all the details and build suspense, but I dont remember the details well enough! Needless to say, we found the 3 :) it was a miracle wrought by faith and hard work!

Thursday we had a cool lesson with this guy named Roberto! He has recently moved to the are and was interested in learning more!

Friday we got our front tires replaced while we were waiting we talked to this guy Junius! We talked about what missionaries do and invited him to church! And! He showed up! :D

On Saturday I worked with Hermana Bateman in her area! Fun fact! For those of you who know the Leishman family in the Glen Loch Ward (Sister Leishman is a seminary teacher) Hermana Bateman is their niece! We had a great time together! The coolest experience was going to visit LaQuilla. She isnt Spanish speaking so she is going to be passed soon, but she is eager to learn! By eager I mean EAGER! She told us to give her a homework assignment so she could read and find the answers. Then when we come back we can quiz her like its a school class or something. She had other questions and we had suggestions of scriptures she could read and videos she could watch. She wrote down everything she needed to know to find them and was excited to start studying. It was incredible!

Sunday my companions and I gave talks on repentance! We had 3 days notice! Our investigator Felicia came! It was such a pleasure to serve the people of the Odenton Ward twice! I am having a very warm farewell from them :) they are amazing!

Today we had a fun zone activity, we played sports and had a BBQ!

Tuesday we have a specialized training all day for the new missionaries! sister Gehlen gets her iPad!

Wednesday is the departing missionary dinner!

Thursday I get home! :D

Okay, all in all. I have so many mixed feelings! I cant actually believe that its going to happen. I am actually coming home! It is sad to go but exciting to see you all again!!

I have been saying this my whole mission, but because I became a full-time missionary, the Lord made me a much better missionary and disciple that I would have ever been with out the mission. I know who I am, I know whose I am, I know where I am going and who I am going with, my family!

I love you all! Thank you for your love and support!

Sister Nakata

Week 76 - Birthday Week!

Hello friends and family!!

So this week has once again been a pretty exciting one!!

First off there were many thunderstorms this week! Monday night and Wednesday night our power went out! Monday it wasnt time to go in yet but it was storming so much we thought, okay its not the safest to be out right now! I got some fun pictures and videos of that! My favorite is the video where the Lord so perfectly synced the lightning with the song "light up the sky!" Watch it. :) Since things were so crazy, the power was out and it was getting close to 80 degrees in our apartment we got permission to sleep at the Fort Meade Sisters apartment! There we had plenty of fun. There was some spilt cheddar popcorn, some pancakes in the morning, and also a little tension. 5 sisters, 1 bathroom, 2 mission cultures, 2 new missionaries (who were also MTC companions) but everything ultimately was good. :)

Tuesday I went on exchanges with some ASL Sisters, Sisters Ellsworth, Parker, and Cosper! I stayed with Sister Ellsworth and Sister Parker and Sister Cosper had gone with my companions. We had a cool miracle! We went tracting near a deaf sign and asked some people if they knew any deaf people in the area. We didnt have much luck with the doors, but after a while a bystander asked us who we were looking for and told us there were some that lived in 168 and 162! So we went over and knocked on 168. Well no one answered but while we were standing at that door, there were some people who came outside literally arms length away that started signing to each other! A mother and a son. So I almost talked to them but I wouldnt have known what to do, I dont sign and the two other sisters stood there in shock for a second. It was great. And then we walked over to the son in the car and started talking/signing to him! His mother is deaf. The mother then came out and we started talking to her! She was very nice and said she was active in her church. She offered a "you come to mine and I'll come to yours!" She didnt want to learn more but she was the sweetest!

Wednesday, we met with Felicia! So Felicia was the woman my companions met while we were in the bathroom monday! She had approached them seeking to learn more! She met with us at the church building and we had a great lesson on the restoration! We used cups to do it! Built a pyramid with a foundation of apostles and had the center holding the whole thing together the priesthood. When we take away the priesthood the whole church falls! Felicia really like the object lesson. She has TONS of questions so it is great! She has such a desire to find answers and make meeting with us a priority! Around 9:40 that night our power went out again but it wasnt as hot as monday so we stayed and it was just an adventure! haha

Thursday was exchanges with the Fort Meade Sisters!! Sister Sosa and Sister Montgomery! Sister Sosa has been feeling pretty crummy this whole week so we werent able to do a ton of proselyting. But we did get two dinners haha. One with a member and one with their investigator who is on date! we did have a really good lesson with Sister Baraga! What is special to me is that I was at her first two lessons as an investigator while I served in Fort Meade for a week with Sister Brown and Sister Sosa. So it is pretty cool to see the progress she has made and how her lack of desire to have faith has turned into faith she is now learning to act upon! That night in planning there were a lot of laughs and someone laughed so hard there was pee involved!! haha I took a picture of the seat she was sitting in 😂.

Friday was fun because it was my birthday! Sister Montgomery curled my hair :) made me feel pretty special (haha since I dont know how, I think that might be the first time my hair was curled in the 18 months I've been out!) We went out to frozen yogurt! We also took some great car pictures! I saw the Lanaga family in the Fort Meade ward, whom I've grown to love! Their little girl Willow is adorable! The Kamachi's had us over for dinner! They made some quesadillas and home made tequitos (I dont know how to spell that!) Anyways it was SUPER good! The cake and ice cream were great! Their 13 year old gave me 3 scoops for my birthday, I ate all of it :) That night we also saw 3 cops pull up outside of our apartments! We dont know what they were doing but we definitely tried to find out by opening our balcony door!

Saturday we had another lesson with Felicia! This time we were smart enough to have the lesson in the Relief Society room and not the young women's room (the Relief Society room has comfy chairs!) Felicia read Alma 32, three times! She talked about her relationship with God and not having a lot of faith. Like faith smaller than a mustard seed. Well we asked her to read for us Alma 32:27 and she was like "woah, that was perfect. I've just been checked." Sadly she said she wasn't coming to church the next day because things are pretty busy trying to condense her living space and find a place to move. She is so sweet! She texted us during church asking what the message was and after we told her she said she really needed that message today! How awesome! We also had a lesson with our investigator Morgan and his kids! We did the Restoration Cups again! And made them Funfetti cookies!

Saturday I was also a little down and I decided to read my mothers talk. She had sent it last Sunday or Monday and I finally took a moment to read it and boy did I regret not reading it sooner! It was powerful and I actually sent it to another sister missionary friend who was struggling and she LOVED it. Thank you, mom. She taught me a lot about how no matter what, if we keep our relationship with the Lord through daily prayer and scripture study, we wont loose focus on our purpose and our divine nature.

Sunday we had church! We tried to get Morgan to come. we stopped by his house but he straight up told us that he is just not ready yet. :( His time will come as he keeps reading and seeking to find the truth! We also had someone coming with us to an event for Investigators, new members and returning members! Its called Why I believe and we had someone lined up to come with us but she wasnt feeling well so scrambled trying to find someone who would like to come with us! Well Felicia decided she could come!! She needed a ride and our dinner appointment was like "sure! lets go! The kids can watch themselves (there is one of responsible age) and we will need to leave in 10 minutes!" It was a miracle! The whole message was based of the restoration and Felicia really enjoyed it!

well! I know that this Gospel is true and I also know that the Lord is there for us in the hard times. I know that because this month has been a really hard time. I have learned how grateful I am for that hard time because it has helped shape me into an even better person. One that tried to love unconditionally, have patience, repent, and be better. I love you all! Make it an amazing week!

Love Sister Nakata!

Week 74 - Temples!

Happy Monday family and friends!!

This week has been nuts! Heres what I did: (bolded are the highlights!)

Shopping at target on Monday! I got a new dress! first dress I have actually bought on my mission. Kinda fun :)

Exchanges with the French sisters! So that was really fun exchanges! I got to be present for their language study and I knew a little about whats going on! Too bad I am on my way out, the DC mission has a great need for french missionaries. They are the only two Sisters in the mission who speak french! One of them had her last companion for 10 months and she has been in her current area for about a year. Man I dont think I could handle that much consistency, I have loved the change on my mission! Also, if I had to really learn french on my mission, it would give me a head ache for a while, by brain would be working really hard! While there we met with their investigator (who got baptized this weekend) and helped her with some service and then she told us her whole life story! She is from Africa and has been through so many things to get to where she is today! I am so grateful she has found the church and continuing to do so many good things for her life! We also met with her at the church later that night so she and two of her three children could get their baptismal interviews! The youngest is only 7 but after the interviews he asked if he could also go get an interview! Their District Leader was great and said Sure! And took some time to give him a little make-shift interview! While we waited we were playing basketball with the kids! They were pretty darn good! :)

On exchanges a member had a HUGE iguana!

Had a Sister Training Leader Breakfast with President and Sister Johnson! This was fun! The 6 of us went to this cute deli that had breakfast and we talked about ways to help the sisters and ways to help  the mission improve! It is so good to spend time with them!

Went on exchanges with Sister Brown and her new companion, Sister Greenhalgh. Oh! This was the BEST! Since I am in a trio I got to join them and make a trio! I loved spending time with them! Sister Greenhalgh cut my hair! Which was really great because it needed a cut really bad! We had Rita's. They got to visit with 2 of their investigators while we were their! One who is on date for later this month! It was really good to see that Sister Brown and her new companion are getting a long so well! It is defnintely different for her being pretty engulfed by a different mission culture where things are done a little differently that you are used to. But luckily Sister Greenhalgh is being flexible and they are doing an awesome job together!

Went to two temple sessions on Friday! One for the departing missionaries at 10amthe temple is closing for three months in a few days so there wont be one the actual day I go home, and one for STEPHANIE MARCIL! A recent convert I taught! So this would probably be the best part of my week! While at the temple and visitors center, not only did I get to see Sister Marcil dressed in two white outfits 😇 but I ran into SISTER STOLWORTHY, a past companion! We ended up in the same endowment session! This week was the Maryland Baltimore Mission's week to go to the temple! I also saw some elders I knew! The Lord loves me and is aware of me, I gained a stronger testimony of that because with that session my "departing missionary session" there weren't any missionaries from the mission I started in, the way I had always imagined it was totally ripped away, but He blessed me with familiar faces. That could have only had been divine intervention! I love the Lord! I also saw many many members of past wards I've served in! I also saw Sister Asplund in the visitors center! Then! I also went to Stephanie's first endowment session! Ohh how I love the temple and the incredible bliss, peace, serenity, and reverence experienced at the temple. 💜

Visited with a ton of members and investigators on Saturday. We saw Theresa, she wants to be baptized within the month! I pray and hope she truly is able to change though the power of the atonement when she enters into the covenant of baptism! We also saw Madaney! She is very curious about our religion. Her biggest hold up is a prophet on the earth today. So as she is off on vacation for the next week and a half she will be (hopefully) doing her studies and figuring things out more. Then when she gets back we will be going to the visitors center! Very excited for her :)

Had all three hours of church, the power was back on. Got to see our friend Hannah again! I don't know if I told you about her the other week. A member that used to live in the word when I served here the first time referred her neighbor, Hannah! I told Sister Spencer that I got transferred back and she said "go see Hannah!"  Always seen her twice now and both times she welcomed us with open arms and we are going to get her to read the book of Mormon (by the spirit of course!) She is so ready! She is such a strong testimony God and that He is there for us through our trials!we will be back next week! It's super exciting! :)

Anyways there's an update! Pictures will come! Love you all!

Sister Nakata 🍉

Pics

1. Giant Iguana

2. My hair cut

3 and on -Sis Greenhalgh, Sis Brown, and me!

Week 73 - More Trios and Training

So I think last week I labeled as "eventful." Well eventful doesn't even BEGIN to describe the week I'm about to share with you. Never would I have anticipated a week like this!

So we got transfer calls on Monday! I got 2 new companions! Sister Lau and her new missionary trainee, Sister Gehlen! And he asked me to be a Sister Training Leader this last transfers. I really didn't see that one coming!

So Tuesday I met up with the other STL and we went to pick up the new missionaries from the airport! All 21 of the new missionaries were given some pass along cards and a Book of Mormon and we went off to
the metro! We contacted while we rode back to where the cars were totake us to the mission home! We had dinner, a testimony meeting, and we sang the DC North mission song and also the Maryland Baltimore
Mission song, but they didn't know it, they also didn't know the 3rd verse to called to serve :'(. Very sad, but all the new missionary's are AWESOME! I am excited for them!

Wednesday I got my new companions and we went off to work! Stopped by the church and met some members and saw Theresa!

Thursday we had weekly planning and then I went on exchanges with the other STL so we could attend leadership the next day! Also in our adventures we visited with one new missionary and her trainer and
roommates (one of which was my dear fellow MBM missionary, Sister Brown) because the new missionary had been in a car accident her first day on the Mission! We brought them some candy!

Friday we had a big meeting! That was fun, a lot of new stuff and new faces!

Saturday we helped a family move out and then into their new place down the Street! We also got caught in some crazy rain!

Sunday we had Ward council and found out the electricity was out in the whole building!! They couldn't fix it before the 9:30 or 1:00 church so both wards sang, prayed, sang, had the sacrament, sang again
and then closed with a prayer! Definitely unique.

Then we picked up two new investigators and got to see one of our other investigators we haven't seen all week! :)

Today, Monday, we did some shopping at target! And then I managed to accidentally delete like 75% of the music on my use :( that is definitely a damper, but after a few minutes screaming on the inside (since we were in a public library and I am a representative of Jesus Christ) I made my peace and am very happy with the music I still do have! Which is pretty good :)

I am very excited for this coming week! I hope you all have a great
week and follow the Spirit in all you do!

Sister Nakata ❤️

1. Sister Lau
2. Sister Gehlen
3. Us before the rain
4. Us after running 20ft from the car to our apartment