こんにちは!!
First off, thank you everyone for the kind birthday wishes!! Sorry, if I don't reply to all of you but just know that you are awesome and thank you so much!! Anyways, this week was full of birthdays, general conference, and action-packed dendo. I got a lot of stories to get through so here we go.
First, my birthday was really fun! We got to go to the Okinawa district building and watch general conference there with everyone. It was really great hanging out with my MTC companion Sister Foote! All the talks from General Conference were super amazing! I especially liked Jeffery R. Holland's talk on becoming perfected in Christ. That really stood out to me because I think many of us become perfectionists sometimes but we need to realize that in the gospel, we get credit for trying. We are not perfect and we're going to fall back but all we have to do is get up and brush ourselves off and keeping walking the path towards the Savior.
Second, while me and my companion were doing our studies at a bench at a park, these random people came up with a full-on camera crew and actors and a guy dressed up in a giant animal suit. They proceeded to film a selfie stick commerical and let's just say that not much studying happened after that. Maybe someday you'll be watching Japanese TV and a selfie stick commercial will come on and just think of me and Sister Sato in the background on the bench haha.
Another crazy dendo (proselyting) story: While we were dendoing (proselyting) in this really old part of town with these really old sketchy looking houses, we came by this house and I suddenly felt that we shouldn't go there but then I ignored it and we went up to the house and this lady started screaming at us and then all of the sudden this cat came flying out the window at us. This lady then popped her head out the window and started yelling at us to get out and all that. This lady literally chucked her cat at us! Lesson learned: always listen to the Spirit because it warns you of danger and flying cats.
On a more serious note, this week we had to climb over the mountain in our area to this one return appointment on the other side of the mountain. This mountain is one of the steepest hills I have ever climbed up and man was it tough. But instead of moaning and groaning about it, this time I decided to just list of things in my head that I was grateful for. For example, "I'm so glad it's not raining right now" and "I'm so grateful that we get to go teach someone" and "I'm glad this hill is not as bad as some of the hills back in Nagasaki." Once I started filling my mind with these thoughts, the slope all of the sudden felt so much easier. It was like magic! It actually felt like enjoyable. It was all worth it when we made it to the top and got to see the whole island and all the ocean around us. Like I've said, there is always happiness waiting for you at the top of the mountain. Hard is good if we endure it well.
Anyways, I love you all and I love this mission! ありがとうございます!
-アトウッド姉妹 (Sister Atwood)