Week 36 - Moustaches & Fall Fun

Hello! Happy Fall!

This week has been great! We had exchanges!! Sister Rogers came to work with me in Braddock Heights! Sister Rogers is one of the sisters that came out with me! We had a blast! We worked so hard and talked to many people!

I am always learning new things and becoming better! On exchanges I learned a lot about the pace of missionary work and how I want to pick it up! I am excited. Also Sister Stolworthy is the best! She is super chill and hilarious. Her grandpa sent her these fun mustache flavored wax things that we took some fun pictures with. :D

Also I have some pictures of stir fry I found in the freezer that was just covered in ice! Sunday I decided to just try cooking it and seeing what happened! It wasn't bad! Wasn't super good though, but that's okay! it was hilarious to make!

We had an opportunity to do service at this big Frederick Health fair Saturday morning and talked to lots of people there! We had SO many appointments fall through. I strongly believe that never in your life will you invite yourself over to so many peoples houses nor get stood up than on your mission! We have a blast though. It is so amazing when you do find those people who are searching for the truth!

This week we got a new investigator named Lisa! She is awesome! She talks a million miles an hour. We have to interrupt her to try and teach anything! She "found God," so to speak, 2 years ago after she lost her sister and ever since has been sharing her testimony with EVERYONE. She was a referral from Church Head-quarters because she wanted a free bible to give to a friend sparking interest in Christianity. She decided to hear us out! Problem is she wants to pass everything by her pastor..She doesn't want to get confused. So we continue to try and simply testify that full clarity is found in our church! She has such a great heart! I love her.

We also have investigators Cash and Mena! Man, Cash is a tricky one. They are Indian. He is extremely excited to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible but he bailed on our last appointment and hasn't come to church the last 3 sundays. We don't know what to think about that

Our last investigator is Harmony! She's 10 and scared of baptism. Although she totally wants it! So we are trying to work with her to help her have the Lord ease her fears!

This week we decided to start volunteering once a week at the ARC of Frederick! It is an association that helps Adults with disabilities. We had lots of fun! We met some great people there!

Today, Sister Stolworthy and I got to go on a Hike with Sister Lundin and Sister Rogers! On Wednesday we have SISTERS CONFERENCE! Sadly it will be the last one ever :( After Sister Christiansen organized it they were told at a Mission Presidents training that they aren't supposed to do Sisters or Elders conferences. Fortunately, we will still have it this week! So! Sisters Conference will be held at a building in our stake and Sister Christiansen chose a hike that is close to our area! She asked the Sister Training leaders, Sister Lundin and Rogers, to scout out the hike. They invited us to come along! It was lots of fun! :)

This week I did not do well at focusing on my ponderizing scripture so I will keep it for this week!

I love you all so much!

Sister Nakata

Week 35 - I Love Being A Missionary!

Heyyy!!

So first off I just want to say I have some of the greatest parents ever! I am so grateful for their support and love!

I also want a quick shout out to my bestie Delaney! Happy Birthday :) "I don't know about you but I'm feeling 22" on the 22! I love you!

Okay so this past week has been great! It was jam packed with many lessons and service! This weekend we helped out for a Give and Get activity Friday night at 5 and Saturday morning at 12. Well we also had a church tour with Cash at 7 Friday night and with Liz at 12:30 Saturday afternoon! First two church tours I have done in a few months!

It was also Social Media Split Saturday!! We got 26 members in the ward to share on facebook things with the missionaries! I learned this week that 72% of the people on Social media have an indifferent opinion of Mormons and they are heavily influenced by what they see on facebook. So as we share on facebook things about the church they perception of us with become better and better! There is a cool video about it that I saw this week, wish I could share it with you! Hope that all made sense!

Also this week I am Ponderizing Mosiah 16:8-9!

I love being a missionary! I love you all

Sister Nakata

Emric's Senior Pictures

It took a while to get these done. 

Emric wanted to wait to have his braces removed before taking them.

We ended up doing them while we were in France...

M Y     V E R Y    F A V O R I T E 

 Another Very Favorite!!!

Week 34 Service & New Referral

Hey everyone!

So So sorry I did not leave a lot of time to write my group email this week! We were able to pick up 3 new investigators this week! 2 of them is an Indian couple, Cash and Meena! When we first talked to Cash on the phone we thought he was an older African American woman named Tanea (that was the original name we got as a referral) and when we went to meet with him we were very surprised! But he is awesome! and Meena is very interested also! Cash has been in the states for 8 years and Meena about a month! They are super excited to learn about God and asks all sorts of questions!

I love the work of the Lord!

This past week we also got to do a lot of service for others! We mowed an active members neighbors lawn! That was awesome, next week she is having us over for lunch! We also cleared a grave yard in the woodsy area Saturday morning. And Sunday we had set up an appointment to teach a less active's 10 year old daughter but instead helped her rush to clean out her messy flower beds in preparation for her landlord to come! Luckily our Dollar General work gloves were still in the car from Saturday!

Love you!

Oh This past week I ponderized Enos 1:12 and loved it! This week I am going to ponderize Alma 33:32

Love,

Sister Nakata

Week 33 Ponderize, Mothers, and Scientists

Hello dear friends and family!

This past week has been miraculous! We had a wonderful General Conference! It went by so so quickly. I learned so much. I am excited to ponderize scriptures each week! I loved all the talks, especially the ones about mothers! This week is my own mother's birthday and I am happy she has gained another year of wonderful wisdom and experience. I am so grateful for her example and support. Her birthday is the 7th so be sure to wish her a good one! Dad, buy her some flowers, brothers tell her you love her, amelie make her some food or something ahah! Do something special for the woman who has cared for us for so many years and put up with some crazy, silly, frustrating stuff!

My mission president is also amazing, here is an exerpt of his weekly email to all the missionaries that I just love!

I remember hearing of a conversation between a scientist and a missionary. The scientist challenged the faith of a missionary by saying, "Can you see this faith? Touch it? Put it under a microscope? Dissect it and quantify it? The missionary said he could not, but then he asked the scientist, "Do you love your wife?" "Of course I love my wife," responded the professor. "Is that so?" said the missionary. "Can you prove it? Can you see that love? Touch it? Put it under a microscope, dissect it and quantify it?" The professor remained silent. He was reminded that sometimes we know things not because they are tangible or visible, but because of the effect they have on our lives. Faith is like a signal that is ever present. Just because we decide to tune it out doesn't mean it isn't there, in the same way that we are always surrounded by radio and TV signals. Whether we tune in to those signals or not they are still powerfully around us at all times. As we sincerely seek for greater faith we are promised that the Lord will refine our ability to receive these signals and convert our belief into action. Similarly, the Spirit of the Lord is a powerful force that exists outside our physical senses. When our belief is combined with action and confirmed by the power of the Holy Ghost we see great miracles, signs and wonders. Truly, the presence and power of ministering angels are deployed to assist us in this great work of salvation.

I am witnessing many miracles here. I am so happy to be with my companion Sister Stolworthy! She is just great and knows this area so well and helping me get to know it too! She loves the people! The people here love the missionaries, We are getting fed almost every single day! Its crazy.

Last week I had this crazy experience where we left a less active's home and thought about going over to talk to some young folk smoking pot, the spirit prompted us against that, seconds later a Hummer pulls up blasting Spanish rap and a guy runs out of it and starts violently beating up one of the guys we were considering going to talk to! It was CRAZY! I am so grateful for the spirit keeping us protected!

Also it got so cold here! And I tried wearing my boots from when I first came out, they do not fit the same! my calves are a little larger... hehe ahh I love life! We also got caught in the rain! #doingmissionaryworkrainorshine !

Love you all! Watch conference if you missed it!

Sister Nakata

Week 32- Running a 5K Back in Maryland!

Hey everyone!

Sorry, this is going to be a short one!

This past week as been good! Its awesome being in a new area! Maryland is still so so pretty! I love it.

Saturday I had the opportunity to participate in a 5k! That was a first for me, I am still sore from it! It was a lot of fun though! I made it all 5 Kilometers! Isn't that great? Then since we are sharing the car with the elders this transfer, we also walked an additional few kilometers that day too.

My last few days in the Shenandoah Valley ward were amazing. I took lots of pictures! I am going to miss Winchester but I am also very excited for things to come! My new companion, Sister Stolworthy is awesome! She also knows some good friends of mine! Mckell Belnap and Erin Bartlett! Isn't that cool! Next week I will have more for you guys!

I love you!

Sister Nakata

Week 31- Transfers! Braddock Heights, MD here I come!

Hey loved ones!

This past week was crazy! Sunday we went home from church early because Sister Nish and Sister Johnson weren't feeling well and they slept for 5 hours! Then the next day they were feeling better and I wasnt feeling well! We went about our regular preparation day then when it was time to go out and work I was feeling terrible so we stayed in. 

Then next day was Zone Training! We were pretty good for that. The rest of the week we felt kinda bad but still not bad enough to throw in the towel and not work, we pressed on :). And we are all feeling better now and going to get our flu shots (that we promised to go get right before we had gotten sick...) soon!

Okay! So let me tell you about our investigator Jesyka! She is awesome. She is 37, and the mother of 4. 19 (girl), 16 (boy), 12 (girl), and 4 (boy). She is learning the truth :) last saturday she had us and two recent converts, Malakai and his wife Lucy, over for dinner! And because Malakai and Lucy are on fire with the gospel they were sharing all kinds of stuff! (Future note, if you ever go out teaching with the missionaries teach simply things :) thank you) And the Word of Wisdom came up. Welp! Surprise! Guess we are teaching the Word of Wisdom! She smokes, and she shared that 3 years ago she had quite smoking before. She quite for 4 years. Then picked it up again and said "I just haven't had a reason to quit again." Oh, we will give you a reason :) After dinner Jesyka gave a wonderful prayer. She thanked God for bringing us into her life and talked about how she is thinking of joining a new family and man, it was just precious! I am so excited for her to join! It is just a matter of time :)

Now let me tell you about friday! So we had a return appointment with this man named Pete and his wife Tarisana. So we had a wonderful lesson with them about the restoration, they were very open to it! They invited us to come back. After we left their lesson we were passing their neighbor and offered him a card with the church's information on it and he wanted another for a woman inside. Then this woman recognizes us a missionaries and says "Hey! We were just talking about religion! Do yall want to come in and share some knowledge with us?" Ummm yes! Yes we do. So we went in and she introduced us to her mother Linnette and her fiancee, Nick (who we found out in the end with assurity, is also a woman) They wanted to know why the dinosaurs are not in the bible...yep we tried not having an opinion on that one. Anyways, we also found out that Linnette is actually a less active member of the church (or so she said, we couldnt find her records). Well they invited us back over for tonight! Hope it goes well!

Next, while we were walking to the car we found a man who also said he used to be a member of the church! And how he was just talking to his wife about how hes thinking of going back! How cool! We also are going to go over to talk to he and his wife after we visit with Linnette! Miracles! Not to mention for the past two weeks we had been oddly redirected on a few different occasions back to that same stretch of town homes! The Lord wanted us over there thats for sure!

Last fun story! we went to a Korean restuaraunt for lunch today and Sister Nish ordered us Mochi ice cream! It was great! After I had eaten half of the green one I thought "what if this is green tea flavored?" I asked, sure enough it was! I stopped eating that one! oops!

And I threw in a few other fun pictures!

Love you all!

Sister Nakata

Week 30 - Meeting An Apostle of The Lord

Hey everyone!!

So this week we had a truly amazing experience as a whole mission! Saturday Elder Quentin L. Cook came to our Mission! I got to meet him and took a picture as a mission with him :) It was so cool. He took the time to shake each missionary's hand. He, his wife, a member of the Quoram of Seventy, Elder Gerard, and President and Sister Christiansen addressed us. It was so cool. 

President introduced the Cooks and the Elder Cook got up and said "Is it our funeral or something?" (President was a little dry in his introduction haha) 

It truly was a "spiritual outpouring" as President put it. They told us to love, care for, and encourage the members in our ward. He taught us that as missionaries "we are the message." "We succeed in the invitation" we extent to people. We need to be bold and loving. Sister Cook's "talk" was standing up and choristoring us to "Hark all ye Nations" It was a fun song break. It was so wonderful for us to come together in song and spirit with an Apostle of the Lord.

I am so grateful that the Lord loves us each individually. I have come to know how important that knowledge is. I know with out a doubt that He cares about me and He cares about you. He cares for every single one of His children here on the earth.

Sorry I can't think of much else to share for this week, but that was definitely the most significant part :) I loved it and I am so excited as we as a mission press forward with faith and diligence in fulfillling the Lords work here!

Love you all!

Sister Nakata