First of all, Merry Christmas!!! This has
been an absolutely amazing week! There have been so many moments this
week where I have thought to myself "I wish I could just freeze time
right now and stay in this moment forever." I am so blessed. I love
being a missionary so much! I love my companion, this area and all the
people in it, and the missionaries I get to serve around.
We've
been able to meet some pretty amazing people this week including a cute
girl named Misaki! She is from Japan and is here studying English. Her
English is pretty limited so in my first contact with her I had to use
google translate! I typed in my phone "I just like to meet with people
and help them to learn more about God. Do you want to meet on Tuesday or
Wednesday?" and she responded that she did want to meet! It shocked me
that she would say yes so readily because it was a little difficult to
communicate haha! For our lesson we brought a member with us who just
returned from her mission in Japan. As you can imagine, the member was
pretty pumped to come and talk to someone in Japanese.I was so grateful
for her because there would have been so many misunderstandings without
her! During the lesson we realized that Misaki is actually really
interested and learning about the gospel and really wanted to come to
church on Sunday. We taught her about the atonement and prayer and she
said a prayer at the end of the lesson. She also committed to come to
church!
We had a ride set up for her to come
to church on Sunday but the ride last minute cancelled. I was so sad
Sunday morning, thinking we had no way to get Misaki to church. Then
Sister Guzman said "why don't we just walk with her from the sky train
station to the church?" We decided to just go for it and texted Misaki
the plan. We met Misaki at the sky train station then walked with her
all the way to the church. In the rain. Needless to say we were soaked
and the ward (it wasn't even our ward because YSA disbanded for
Christmas) was probably confused and horrified by our appearance. Haha.
The service on Sunday was really good but the whole time I was wondering
what Misaki was thinking. On the walk home we were able to talk to her
about it and she told us she really liked it. She randomly said "I so
happy." We asked her why and she said it was because she felt peace at
church. I was filled with so much happiness when I heard that!! There we
were, walking in the freezing rain (Misaki was wearing tennis shoes and
didn't have an umbrella or a raincoat) and Misaki still felt the peace
that comes from coming closer to God. It was amazing! That's a Christmas
miracle for you.
On Thursday this week we had
a tri-zone zone conference!! It was so much fun!! We learned a lot
about teaching skills and it really hit me how important it is to rely
on the spirit when teaching someone. God knows the hearts of His
children best. I've been realizing that the ability to truly minister
requires a lot of faith and confidence in the Savior. I remember one
time I was thinking about all the people who have helped me in my life
and I was thinking about how it was that they were able to help me. My
first thought was "I guess you have to be really confident in yourself
to be able to help someone." Then immediately another thought flew
through my mind. That thought was "No, you just have to be confident in
who the Savior is." That really hit me. Of course as humans we're going
to come short, but because Jesus Christ is perfect and is with us we are
able to minister and help others with His power. It's all centered on
and revolves around Jesus Christ.
After zone
conference we had the awesomest mission Christmas party ever! We had a
Christmas lunch together then we all gathered to watch performances from
each of the zones. They even skyped in the missionaries up north and on
the island! We only had a days notice to come up with a performance but
we all pulled together and came up with an awesome skit! I may be
biased, but I'm pretty sure Abbotsford zone is the best zone ever ;)...
not like I've served in this zone for over a year or something haha ;)
I'm so grateful for little golden moments like those.
We've
found some amazing people this week! We met this girl named Rochelle
from the Philippines. While we were talking to her she said "I just feel
like I have no purpose in my life." We taught her the plan of salvation
and invited her to learn more about it. Sister Guzman said "let's meet
on Tuesday (Christmas)" I thought for sure she would say no (you know,
Christmas...) but she said yes!! Unfortunately she was stuck at work so
we had to re-schedule. I'm so excited for her though because it's easy
to see how much she really is searching for the gospel!
We've
honestly seen so many miracles this week and I'm so grateful! I love
doing this work so much! I hope you all had a merry Christmas!
Love, Sister Bloomfield
