"All of beauty in the earth bears the fingerprint of the Master Creator”

素晴らし家族、

This week has been so good!!!! 流石 last week of the transfer always is
the best!!! We talked to so many people this week and had some good
progress with people we are working with. It was a lot of fun! I am
sorry I don't have much time because we had zone Pday today at the
beach. It was a lot of fun, but the sand burned my feet off!!!! So
hot!!! Japan is so hot!!!! The other day it was in the 90s but with
humidity it felt like 100! I seriously feel like I am melting
sometimes. :) i am always sweaty.... There is no helping it...haha :)
oh well. I love these people enough to do that for them ;)

Highlight lesson of the week was teaching the plan of salvation to one
of my dearest friends here in Fujisawa. She is an eikaiwa student and
is amazing!!! So prepared to hear the gospel but her husband is a
little against religion... :( but when we taught her about the plan of
salvation we asked her how it would effect her life if she knew this
was true? And she said this "I never thought about this until now, but
if my husband were to die this plan would give me so much hope. It
would make me want to be a better person. It would give my life
purpose." Yes it would!!!!!!!!! As she was talking al of my insides
were just saying yes! Yes! Yes!!! You have got it!!! :) this gospel
gives us purpose. This gospel gives us hope! :) I am so grateful for
it!

I wish a could just share and share about all the miracles I saw this
week!! Heavenly Father is really blessing us. :) hopefully we will
continue to see some success this next transfer!!

Oh today we got transfer calls and I am staying in Fujisawa with
sister roth!! I am really happy to be staying!! I love it here!!! :)

Sorry... Short this week. But I love you and hope you have a happy week!!!

Oh and the title of this letter has a story too...... One of our
investigators is having trouble believing in the creation and the
afterlife, but believes in God. I have been more grateful then ever
this week for the knowledge that I was created by a loving Heavenly
Father. I know he created us and that we will live with him again if
we are faithful in all things. :)

Have a great week :)

Love, sister ashby

I love the rain! :)

Dear family,

So last night it was pouring rain as we were riding home. The
lightening was so cool and would light up the whole sky as we were
riding. It was such a cool moment. We were soaked.... But I was so
happy at that moment. The rain felt so good and everything was so
fresh and happy. :) I remembered how when I was little and it was a
thunder storm I would try and hide from it. I hated lightening and
thunder. Haha :) I have changed so much. I love looking back on who I
have become over time. It is amazing how much people change over time.
I went from hating rain storms and lightening and to loving them!!
Life is all about change and becoming. I love changing. This week has
been a huge week of change for me. But mostly just in my heart. I have
learned a lot. :) It has probably been one of my hardest weeks yet on
my mission, but I am so grateful for everyday and all that I learned
and how much I feel like I changed. Maybe that is why I loved the rain
so much last night, it was like how I felt before was washing away. :)
happy thought. I am so grateful for the fact that through the
atonement of Jesus Christ we are able to change. :)

This week has been great! Hard, but wonderful! Our new investigator is
doing well and we have a lesson with her tomorrow. She has been coming
to almost every activity that we have at the church and she now has
some good ward member friends who love her and that is so important.
:) Ward members are such a huge part of missionary work!!!!! Always
remember that please. :)

We had so many things happening this week with Zone conference and
sister conference. Which were both amazing. :) the sisters conference
was in Kichijoji!! And all of the sisters in the whole mission came.
It was such a happy day to see all of my old companions and people
that I just love. :) We had some great speakers come and talk to us
about a lot of things. I learned so much. The theme of the conference
was "the light we share" I loved that. :) They used the analogy that
everyone one has their own flame of a testimony and one flame alone is
small, but when you put together all of the flames it becomes a great
fire. I like that visual a lot. Think about all the flames around the
world of missionaries and members and how much light that really is.
And it is growing and growing until that great and last day when
Christ comes, the light of the world. :) I just like thinking about
that. It is happy. :)

I know that this church is true. I have seen a lot of miracles this
week with myself and people around me. We had some cool experiences
with the Book of Mormon and giving away copies of the Book of Mormon.
That has pretty much become one of my favorite things as a missionary
because I know that if they will read that book their life will be
changed. I know it is true. :)

I love you all and hope you have a Happy 24th of July!!!!!! Transfers
are next week.... Crazy how fast time goes by...haha :)

Love, Sister Hannah Ashby

アシュビー姉妹


We went to endoshima again today :)

Typhoons and earthquakes and tsunamis oh my!!!

Dear family!!!

So after much excitement about this huge typhoon headed our way....it
past.... In the middle of the night.... And ended up being not a bad
storm at all. :( we were excited to experience.....not going to lie I
was a little disappointed...haha :) but oh well!!!! As for the
earthquakes and tsunamis I haven't heard or felt anything..... So I
don't really know. Haha sorry. But I am safe and these past couple of
days have been very good but very hot. After the "typhoon" came
through it got really hot and humid!!! And everyone says it is just
going to get hotter.... Which I don't know how!!! Haha :)

This week has been amazing though. Our investigator that came to
church last week came to dinner with us on wed. At a members house and
it went great!! Then she came to eikaiwa on Thursday with her
daughter, church again on Sunday, and ward choir practice!!! The ward
is really doing a great job with fellowshipping her!!! It is amazing.
She is amazing!! The problem is she comes to as much as she can but
she is also way busy, so setting up actual lessons has been hard. But
this week we hopefully will. :) She is so cute!!

So this past transfer we have been having zone meetings every week to
work on our teaching skills. It has been amazing!!! President Wada
came this past week and taught us. Ha talked a lot about how Important
prayer is. When we pray with our investigators, for some of them it is
the first time they have ever done anything like that. It made me
realize once again how blessed I truly have been to grow up in the
church. I have known how to communicate with God my whole life. I have
been able to receive guidance and feel his love everyday through
talking to Him. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to prayer
every single day. I have really been trying harder to make my prayers
more meaningful. The most meaningful prayers I have are when I pray
out loud and really talk with God. I would challenge all of your to do
that this week. Pray out loud. Make your prayers meaningful. And then
after you prayer, take the time to listen. You will see your prayers
getting answered throughout the day if you do this. Pray is real. It
is important. And I am so grateful for it. It is what keeps me going
everyday. :)

Well this one is kinda short.... Sorry :) I love you all and hope you
have a great week!! Thank you for the prayers and love and support!
You are the best!!! In the west, east, south, and north. ;)

Love, Sister Hannah Ashby

Dinner with a member and investigators last night at the church. We
made the power go out.... It was quite an adventure......hahha :)

News flash from the Mission

To the parents of Sister Ashby,

As you may have heard, there is a typhoon approaching our mission. It is supposed to hit on Thursday or Friday of this week. We are closely watching the weather forecast. It is hard to tell how severe the storm will be at this point, but if the weather is especially bad and it appears to be unsafe, we may have the missionaries stay inside. Thank you so much for sending your wonderful missionary to us. We love Sister Ashby very much and are grateful for the opportunity to serve with her. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Wada

Happy birthday America!!! And Matt!! :

My Dear wonderful family,

This week has been amazing and I have so much to say..... Ash my

fingers always get tired when I want to say a lot...haha :) 流石。haha ;)

Well happy birthday Matt!!!!!! I hope you had a great day!!! And happy
half birthday Nicole....hahha :)

Happy birthday America!!! We had a good 4th of July. No fireworks....
But we wore red, white, and blue, and ate corn and watermelon so I
would say it was a success. Oh and watermelon is pretty much my
favorite thing. In Japan it is so so expensive, but a member bought us
one. She is the best. It was the same member that took us to costco.
She is was too nice. Haha :)

On Tuesday we had some really cool small miracles, but my favorite was
meeting a girl named ふみえ。She is so cute and talked to me for so long.

We became such good friends. At first we were just talking about
English and America and the it turned to the bible an Jesus Christ and
how much she loves Christ. We had such a great conversation. She lives
in the north mission, but we were able to exchange contact information
and she emailed me the other day saying she read a little bit about
the church and says she believes a lot of the same things. She is
amazing and I am hoping the missionaries in the north mission can
teach her soon.

Okay biggest miracle of the week happened Saturday. We were sitting at
the church doing DCS and we say a lady standing outside, so of course
we go and talk to her!!! And the first thing she says is "Do you have
church tomorrow?? Can I come???" And we were like, "of course!!!!!!"
We talked to her for a while and found out that she has been reading
the bible for over 20 years but has never been to church. So we told
her she should come and we would sit with her. She said she would and
then she left. And then the next day SHE CAME!!!!! And she is
amazing!!!!!!!!!!  So prepared and so amazing!!!!

So later this is what we found out about her. She had met the other
sister missionaries one day and talked. Then Saturday saw the elders,
asked them if she could do bible study with the missionaries and they
got her information. Then not even 20 min later she walked over to the
church and talked to us. The funny things is when she saw the elders
she was on the other side of the eki, and was walking the opposite way
of the church. One of the elders said, "God must have picked her up
and dropped her at the church, because there is no way she was on her
way there when we talked to her."

At church she made friends with some amazing ward members and she
opened up and shared some amazing experiences. It was like she was a
member. She is a single mom with a 17 year old daughter. She is coming
to dinner with us tomorrow night to the Tagami families house and she
said she wants to learn more about it all. We are so excited to see
what this week brings. Sometimes I get afraid that it is all too good.
But it is so happy to have another person so teach and help come unto
Christ. Especially someone who is so ready for the gospel. :) :) she
is way too cute.

Today was temple Pday and pretty much the best day ever!!!!!!! I loved
it!!! I got to see some of my very favorite missionaries and it was so
happy. Almost my whole mtc district was at the temple together. Those
people are for sure some of my best friends. :) it was way good to see
Padelsky Shimai!!!!!! I miss that girl so much. When I see her it is
like seeing someone I knew back home. She is amazing and such a good
missionary!!!

Well, that is all I have time for today. :) a lot is happening and I
wish I could talk to you all day but I can't so I won't. :)

I know this church is true. It is beautiful. Life is beautiful! :)

You all need to read the talk titled 'becoming perfect in Christ' in
this past liahona. It changed my life. The atonement is real. And I am
so grateful for it. :)

Have a great, happy week!!!

Love you all!
Love, Ashby Shimai



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