I want to hear dads talk from stake conference! Do you still have the recording?
We had zone conf this past week. We heard this story. I thought it was interesting.
"So you are walking in this big city, we'll say it is Tokyo, and you
notice that everyone is looking up at the sky. You look up to see what
they are looking at and you see a man walking across a tightrope
between two skyscrapers with a wheelbarrow. It's crazy! But he makes
it across. The police try to arrest him because you can't just do
things like that, but he gets away. So like 4 months later you are in
Nagoya walking around the city when you notice a crowd gathered
looking up at the sky. You look up and you see that same man, walking
across another tightrope between two skyscrapers with the same
wheelbarrow. He makes it across again, you're not that surprised
because you've seen it before. The police try to get him again, but he
escapes. 2 years later you are at the Grand Canyon. You see a crowd
gathered and you spot a tightrope over a huge crack in the canyon. You
see the same man, with the same wheel barrow by the edge attempting to
start the stunt. But this time the police get to him before he can
start. They are telling him that this is impossible and he can't do it
and that they are going to arrest him. You run up to the officers and
start to vouch for him. "He can do it!! Officers I've seen this man do
it twice! I know that he can make it across just fine!" The officers
are stunned. The man, with a serious look on his
faces, looks you in the eye, gestures at the wheelbarrow and says,
"then get in."
What if I was that man? Although I had seen the miracle of him walking across the tightrope, I don't think I would have had the faith to get in the wheelbarrow. Although this story may sound kind of "extreme", it really made me think. We know that Christ performed incredible miracles. We have seen miracles with our own eyes. In fact, we may see little miracles everyday. But even after our natural eyes have seen the mercy and power of God, if we are not nourishing our spirit, and acting on our faith, our spiritual eyes will lose sight of that most important.
This week I have felt overwhelming gratitude for the many things I have been blessed with. Having been born on this earth with the light of Christ, having been baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and for having been born into a good family with righteous parents who have taught me the principles of the gospel and have set a good example for me. I love you so much. I know that we are all qualified for an incredible amount of blessings, but those blessings will only come in accordance with our faithfulness, and how we choose to act on that faith.
This week we had such a good lesson with Aiko! I loooove her. We stopped by her house one night, and she was soooo happy that we came. She is a cute little 60 year old woman, living with her parents. Her mom yells "the church ppl are here" and she yells back "HIIIII COME COME COME!!" We go up to her little room with pictures of teenage boy bands hung everywhere and she is listening to J-pop...every. time. We have so much fun with her, and she has been taking our lessons more seriously lately. She is beginning to have experiences with the spirit, and I hope she will act on those promptings. She is such a special person, I love her so much, and it is so sad when people choose not to follow the spirit. So, so sad.
For EXAMPLE, yesterday we met a former investigator, Yamashita. She only met with the missionaries a couple times, she was put in a hospital for a while, had some nasty disease but is home and doing better now. We knocked on her door, she seemed so happy to see us, she invited is right in, then said "wait here I'll be back soon"....so we sat in her apartment while she left, and came back 10 minutes later with juice and donuts. Hahaha we were there for about 2 hours, she is so sweet, we talked about "questions of the soul" with her, and testified of the Book of Mormon, where all those answers can be found. We testified of Jesus Christ, and how real he is; How real His redeeming power is, and the gift of His Atonement. The spirit was so strong, i felt like my heart was wide open, and that the spirit was speaking directly to her. She is so lonely, and so lost, and we can see how acting on the teachings of the gospel could bless her life. We talked about baptism, and what blessings she could experience by choosing to follow the Savior. However, she may not be ready right now to accept our invitation, she told us she would not be baptized, but I know that now that she has felt the spirit, He will touch her heart again and again, and she will eventually follow Christ. It is the only way we can be truly happy. It is the easiest and best path to take.
Ohhhh hahaha I pulled a MRS DOUBTFIRE this week. We were on our way home from a lesson, and I got hit by a car! First time on the mish. The car hit me, and I fell on top of the hood and took out the Mercedes symbol hahah. I didn't get hurt, but her poor Mercedes was scratched up from my bike.
We met with the Tsuchiya family this week, they are just like you guys. It was soooo fun, one of their daughters wants to go to BYU! I love the people in the Shizuoka ward so so much. TOO MUCH LOVE.
Sorry for the crazy long email this week. Love you guys. PARKER have fun in the MTC. Seriously, don't get discouraged at all. Just enjoy it. You'll want it back when you're gone! You are awesome! Love you.
Love, Sister Wilcox
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