To those I love,
This week has been so busy and so incredible. We are seeing so many
miracles, and striving to be 100% obedient every day. We know that it
is through our obedience that we will be strengthened and it is our
way of telling the Savior that we are in this for Him, and we want to
do it His way. As this is His work, and we are simply tools in His
hands, doing the work His way is simply being the most effective we
can be.
I LOVE being a missionary. This past week I realized that I have been
in Japan for over 6 months. What the what?! I feel like it was only
yesterday that I decided to serve a mission! This is literally the
best decision I have ever made with my life. I love where I am at
right now, and I know that things will literally only get better from
here. Serving The Lord full time right now is the perfect opportunity
for me prepare myself for serving Him for the rest of my life. I am a
disciple of Christ. I am learning to be more like Him everyday. He is
my perfect example, and I am humbled by this opportunity I have to
wear His name and bare His name as a part of my identity. I love that
I know I am the best I have ever been in my entire life, but because
of eternal progression, I am the worst that I will ever be. Every day
I have a chance to be a new version of myself. SisterFeist2.0. How
stellar is that?
The people we are working with right are all such interesting
characters. All completely different in age, personality, interests
and needs. Yet they all have such distinct need for the gospel of
Jesus Christ in their lives. I see in their hearts and lives how this
gospel can help them, and we are working so hard for them to be able
to recognize that need and cultivate the desire for them to follow
Jesus Christ. It's amazing to work with these children of God and to
feel His love for them. This week we met for the first time a woman
who has met with missionaries before, but has stubbornly refused to
really learn about Christ. She has cancer, and has lived an extremely
lonely life.Throughout the whole lesson we just continued to tell her
that we loved her and wanted to help her. Then when we taught her
about prayer, we told her that she could pray about any questions she
had in her life. She proceeded to ask, "Will He tell me why you two
creepy love me so much?" We laughed but told her that He will
definitely tell her the reason why. I had never considered how strange
it must be for someone who has never understood love before to
suddenly be overdosed on it from the missionaries. But it's what she
needed! By the end of the lesson she confessed that the church is a
place of relief for her, and she really does want to learn more how
she can improve her life.
I love that this mission experience is giving me so many diverse
opportunities to serve others. As missionaries, we participate in a
ton of activities that are really fun! We get to teach English class,
host a sports night, and Sister Wells and I are even members of an
interfaith gospel choir! But these activities are designed so that us
missionaries can have a good time and maybe make some friends.
Everything we do is to help others to come unto Christ. At these
activities each week, I go with the goal to help others feel
incredible about themselves. Whether it's passing the ball in
basketball for others to score, praising people for understanding
difficult English, or singing softer so others can be heard (and
because I'm terribly pitchy), others can feel a little bit of their
divine potential. I love that! I love that it's not about me being the
best, but helping others realize that they really are the best. That
they are important to me, but more importantly, they are important to
their Heavenly Father.
This past Sunday our choir performed at a charity concert in Shibuya.
While there we sang our Negro Spirituals (I had a solo, NBD, I mean I
was voted "Most soul/rhythm/most likely to become an African princess"
in high school), took photos with a bunch of people and were able to
explain our purpose. Every person we were with could feel the Savior's
light, and I pray that they felt their own light as well. I love
people, and I hope that as children of an Eternal Being, we realize
our own eternal potential.
I was able to watch Saturday's session of conference and it was an
incredible experience. I am so grateful that we have modern prophets
who are receiving revelation from God TODAY! This is Christ's restored
church, and He is at the head of it. We speak of Christ, we rejoice in
Him, He is the motivation for our every action. As I watched
conference, I had a few questions written down. As I listened to the
talks, I realized that all my problems exist because I simply think
too much about myself. Problems communicating my feelings? Maybe I
should strive to understand others better. Trouble with
self-confidence? Try building up another's spirits. Worried that
people don't like me enough? Love them! Life is a lot easier when we
decide that love is our motive in everything we do.
I wish I was more interesting, but that's about it! I love you all and
I love this gospel. Keep working hard to improve a little every day,
and remember that thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we never
have reason to not be happy.
Love always,
Sister Feist
This week has been so busy and so incredible. We are seeing so many
miracles, and striving to be 100% obedient every day. We know that it
is through our obedience that we will be strengthened and it is our
way of telling the Savior that we are in this for Him, and we want to
do it His way. As this is His work, and we are simply tools in His
hands, doing the work His way is simply being the most effective we
can be.
I LOVE being a missionary. This past week I realized that I have been
in Japan for over 6 months. What the what?! I feel like it was only
yesterday that I decided to serve a mission! This is literally the
best decision I have ever made with my life. I love where I am at
right now, and I know that things will literally only get better from
here. Serving The Lord full time right now is the perfect opportunity
for me prepare myself for serving Him for the rest of my life. I am a
disciple of Christ. I am learning to be more like Him everyday. He is
my perfect example, and I am humbled by this opportunity I have to
wear His name and bare His name as a part of my identity. I love that
I know I am the best I have ever been in my entire life, but because
of eternal progression, I am the worst that I will ever be. Every day
I have a chance to be a new version of myself. SisterFeist2.0. How
stellar is that?
The people we are working with right are all such interesting
characters. All completely different in age, personality, interests
and needs. Yet they all have such distinct need for the gospel of
Jesus Christ in their lives. I see in their hearts and lives how this
gospel can help them, and we are working so hard for them to be able
to recognize that need and cultivate the desire for them to follow
Jesus Christ. It's amazing to work with these children of God and to
feel His love for them. This week we met for the first time a woman
who has met with missionaries before, but has stubbornly refused to
really learn about Christ. She has cancer, and has lived an extremely
lonely life.Throughout the whole lesson we just continued to tell her
that we loved her and wanted to help her. Then when we taught her
about prayer, we told her that she could pray about any questions she
had in her life. She proceeded to ask, "Will He tell me why you two
creepy love me so much?" We laughed but told her that He will
definitely tell her the reason why. I had never considered how strange
it must be for someone who has never understood love before to
suddenly be overdosed on it from the missionaries. But it's what she
needed! By the end of the lesson she confessed that the church is a
place of relief for her, and she really does want to learn more how
she can improve her life.
I love that this mission experience is giving me so many diverse
opportunities to serve others. As missionaries, we participate in a
ton of activities that are really fun! We get to teach English class,
host a sports night, and Sister Wells and I are even members of an
interfaith gospel choir! But these activities are designed so that us
missionaries can have a good time and maybe make some friends.
Everything we do is to help others to come unto Christ. At these
activities each week, I go with the goal to help others feel
incredible about themselves. Whether it's passing the ball in
basketball for others to score, praising people for understanding
difficult English, or singing softer so others can be heard (and
because I'm terribly pitchy), others can feel a little bit of their
divine potential. I love that! I love that it's not about me being the
best, but helping others realize that they really are the best. That
they are important to me, but more importantly, they are important to
their Heavenly Father.
This past Sunday our choir performed at a charity concert in Shibuya.
While there we sang our Negro Spirituals (I had a solo, NBD, I mean I
was voted "Most soul/rhythm/most likely to become an African princess"
in high school), took photos with a bunch of people and were able to
explain our purpose. Every person we were with could feel the Savior's
light, and I pray that they felt their own light as well. I love
people, and I hope that as children of an Eternal Being, we realize
our own eternal potential.
I was able to watch Saturday's session of conference and it was an
incredible experience. I am so grateful that we have modern prophets
who are receiving revelation from God TODAY! This is Christ's restored
church, and He is at the head of it. We speak of Christ, we rejoice in
Him, He is the motivation for our every action. As I watched
conference, I had a few questions written down. As I listened to the
talks, I realized that all my problems exist because I simply think
too much about myself. Problems communicating my feelings? Maybe I
should strive to understand others better. Trouble with
self-confidence? Try building up another's spirits. Worried that
people don't like me enough? Love them! Life is a lot easier when we
decide that love is our motive in everything we do.
I wish I was more interesting, but that's about it! I love you all and
I love this gospel. Keep working hard to improve a little every day,
and remember that thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we never
have reason to not be happy.
Love always,
Sister Feist