President Wada is the best!! :)

Dear family,

This week has been such an adventure, but can I just say I have the best mission president. He is so amazing! So patient, kind, and full of wisdom. And so funny!!! We all just love President Wada. This week I am especially grateful for him.

So so start with a funny miracle.....

Friday night after sports night we realized the other sisters weren't back from walking to the train station with their investigator. A few minutes after getting home we get a call from the elders saying they are at the hospital and they have nothing with them and that Jolley Shimai fell and they needed us to go to the hospital and bring them their bags that they accidentally left at the church. By now it is like 9:10pm. So we biked as fast as we could to the church, ran to the
station, rode to train to the eki, and ran from the eki to the hospital. In the meantime the mission office calls to see if they can do any thing for us. Sister Wada calls the president to tell him
what is going on and that Jolley Shimai fell and is at the hospital. It was a crazy situation....
Anyway, we get to the hospital to find out that Jolley Shimai is just fine!!! It was a relief... But here was some MAJOR funny miscommunication. Hahha. Anyway long long story shorter... Their investigator had passed out and they just so happened to still be with her. These three men helped them call the hospital and they went with her to make sure she was okay and called her dad. In the end it was a miracle because they were able to build such a good relationship with her dad. Wada kaicho came and picked us up at the hospital and drove us home. He was so understanding and so funny. Driving in the presidents car at 10:30 at night was never something I ever thought would happen on my mission. Crazy... But the whole night many small
miracles happened. :) it ended up just being a funny night. :)

One miracle from the week... Yesterday we were housing and not having too much success so we said a prayer and started walking down a different rode. After a little while of still no success, I said another small prayer in my heart asking God to show us where he would want us to go. After that I looked across the street and saw a family walking down the road. They looked like they were from South America and so we crossed the street to go talk to them. At first they kind of walked passed us.... But we started talking to the dad and the
mom came back to talk. Come to find out they are less active members that haven't been to church in a few years!!! And they are the less active members that one of our former investigators knows!!!! We had been trying to find their house for weeks!! We were able to get their
number and they said we could visit anytime. The mom was so nice and her Japanese is so great. It was such a miracle. It really strengthened my testimony that God guides us and will help us find those who need to be found as we open our mouths.

One thing I learned this week... We had a Training this week for the District leaders and super sisters, aka maybe future zone leaders and sister training leaders. It was an amazing conference and I learned so much!!! The focus was on a talk titled "Jesus: the perfect leader." It is an amazing talk. It talks about all the qualities that make Christ the perfect example of a leader. My favorite part is when it talks about
how he sees our potential. He knows who we will become and he treats us like we are already that person. He shows us perfect love even though we don't deserve it. :) That is what we should be doing for all of those around. Treat others how Christ would treat them. The phrase
"What would Jesus do?" Is always a good reminder of that. As we do what Jesus would do we won't have to worry about our actions. They will be good, they will be full of love. :) Jesus is our perfect example. He loves us and as we follow his example we are happy.

This gospel makes me so happy! So grateful to be sharing it in Japan!
Have a great week. I love you all so much!

Love,
アシュビー姉妹
愛してますよ。

We went to the zoo today :)
Fireworks in Japan!!

"A little frog sits on a lily pad." ;)

Dear family,

This week has been so wonderful. I have learned a lot and grown a lot. :)

I love growing and I love change. :) the atonement is the best and it is real.

So I am going to tell you three things this week....
1. A funny story
2. A miracle
3. How my testimony has grown

I am going to try and start doing that every week to make my letters
better. And then I will remember to tell you things I sometimes
forget....haha :)

1. Funny story: So this week one night after weekly planning we were talking about old cartoon funny movies from our childhood and in pretty much sang the whole little critter song for the shimaitachi.
Hahahaha :) "well a little frog sits on a lily pad" "the world goes round day by day, and here we all are together." It was so funny!!!! Whenever you need a smile just sing that song.... I promise it will
make you smile haha :) Man I love you my family a lot. You are all so funny!!

Something else that is funny and crazy....We went out for sushi this week with a member and ate over 50 plates of sushi...... It was insane. I will send a picture. Haha :)

2. We had a couple great miracles this week, but one that really
stands out happened Saturday. We were getting on the train and I
started talking to a girl standing next to us. We ended up taking the
whole train ride and taught her about how she has a loving Heavenly Father. I asked her if she has ever felt that God existed and she said she has. I asked her how, and she talked about how she was in the earthquake a few years ago and for a while after the earthquake she had no idea where her parents were. So she prayed to God. She said she felt peace and knew everything would be alright. We were able to give her the Book of Mormon and talk to her about how there is a God and how through the Book of Mormon we can learn more about Him and His
plan for us. It was such an amazing experience. She took the Book of Mormon and hugged it. She said it was her treasure. We weren't able to get her number because her parents are strict about that, but we
invited her to eikaiwa and church and she said she would try to come. I don't know what will happen with her right now but I do know that God placed her in our path to let her know that he is there and he
loves her. I felt an overwhelming feeling of love for her and it was such an amazing experience. I hope we can talk to her again soon though because she is so ready to hear the gospel!!! Miracle people
are the best. :)

3. This week my testimony of the atonement grew a lot. I realized that through the atonement of Jesus Christ our hearts can not only be changed and become better, but they can also be enlarged. Through the
atonement we can feel MORE love. As I watch the atonement work in the lives of those around me, here in Japan and at home, my love for those people grows. I can't even really discribe how it feels to see people
you love change and become better. I am sure you have felt it. But it is happy. I think that is how Heavenly Father feels when we repent. I  am so grateful that I can continue to grow And change through the
atonement of Jesus Christ.

I knows the this work is true and It is happy work.

Thank you for all of your love and everything!! You are the best!!!

Love,
アシュビー姉妹

Ps..... In can't believe it is already halfway through
August.......... Crazy how fast time flies.... :) have fun with school
starting again soon!!!!

Families are forever :)

Dear my lovely family,

I just love you all so much and I am so grateful for you examples in
my life. :) thank you for everything.

This week has been great!! We have had some really cool experiences with finding and meeting more former investigators at random times. It
was like they just came to us. You never know who The Lord Is going to put in your path. :) so glad to have The Lord guiding this work.

This week while we were visiting a less active member in the ward with another member I realized how truly grateful I am for amazing ward members. I have been so impressed by the members here in Japan. If they are an active member, they are a strong active member. They truly live their faith. So many ward  members are part-member families, or have less active family members. Probably almost all of them. And  they help the missionaries so much!! It is hard but the try to share the gospel and be good examples to there family members and friends. So many women in my ward have inactive, less active, or non-member husbands, but they faithful come every week to church and do what they can to fulfill their callings. I am so grateful for their example. They have such grateful faith. The members here are amazing!!!! Utah is great too.... But maybe I didn't realize truly how much members do until I came to Japan. :) I am so grateful for that.

To add to this member note.... Members are key to missionary work!!! It cannot be done with out the members help. Investigators need friends and those friends need to be members of the ward. So grateful for members that have reached out to our investigators. We have one investigator right now that is slowly changing as she has been invited to sing in the ward choir. Such a cool experience for her. Hopefully it will help her grown and gain a testimony.

Sorry this was more a grateful for the members of Japan letter. I don't have much more time to write...oops. :) but this week was great! It has been a little cooler these past few days thanks to a small storm, but that was a nice change. :)

Well I love you all and hope you have an amazing week. Keep praying and reading the Book of Mormon. It is by small and simple things that great things are brought to pass. :) you never know how much your
faithfulness will bless the loves of others. :)

Love,
アシュビー姉妹

Cute lanterns In Fujisawa made by the kids In school. :)

These bugs are everywhere right now and they are huge!!!!! And so
loud!!!!! Haha :) cicadas

There is a baby on the way?!? :)

Okay my dearest family,

I don't know about all of you but I am way way excited to see what this baby is going to look like?!?!? I would even say I might be the most excited for this baby to be  born.... Well Nicole and Matt can be first excited....but I might take a close second. :) I pretty much tell everyone I meet that my sister is having a baby any day now, but she is in America and I am from America... Actually now I am a church volunteer missionary. Have you ever seen missionaries before?.....haha okay maybe not quite to that extreme, but I am really excited. Haha :)
send lots of pictures please.
So today we had temple Pday:) always my favorite Pday of the transfers. The temple has so much peace and comfort. If you need a little kore happiness or peace in your life I suggest going to the temple. It always works for me. :)
So much has happened this week!!! Fujisawa ward had a baptism!!!!! The first this year and it was such a happy day!!!! The Fujisawa ward is
amazing. The ward members want to help the missionaries so much. The sister that was baptized was a referral from her friend and she has been investigating for over a year I believe. Such a cool story. She wasn't going to get baptized for another couple months and then she just decided to give up tea and coffee and get baptized. She is amazing. It was a great meeting!! I was reminded so much of how important our baptismal covenants are. Those were the first promises we made to follow Heavenly Father. :)

This past Sunday we saw a really cool miracle. After church our plan was to go to a park by a members house and do some contacting. Well the elders all of a sudden ride past us on their bikes going to the
same park...so that was so good, good thing we had a back up plan!! Haha there is another park really close by so we went there instead. There were only a few people there so we decided to do some housing.
We housed and housed and nothing..... It was getting time to head back for dinner so we decided we would just finish these last two houses on the street and then head back. The second to last house we walked up
and saw a lady watering her plants. We started talking and she didn't seem to interested. Then I pulled out the Book of Mormon and she was all of a sudden like, "hey I know that church!" Come to find out she
has a friend who is Mormon and she is a former investigator of the church!!!!!!! When we got home later we found her teaching record from 7 years ago with no contact informations at all. Just her name and
what she was taught!!!! It was so cool!! She said we could come by again and talk to her more. Such a cool miracle there is no way anyone would have know how to find this lady, except god. :) it was cool to see that even when your plans get changed you are still being lead by the spirit. Everything happens for a reason. :) so grateful for that!
Well I had a great week and I hope you all did too. :) have fun with
the baby. :)

You are the best family ever. Love you all.

Love, sister hannah ashby

アシュビー姉妹

"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 :)