Woooooo

3 WILCOX HIP HIP HOORAYS FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU RAN A MARATHON (me and Parker jumping up and down for you because how did you do that?!?!) We are so prouda yew

  

Update on the Gifu:
Cline Shimai and I love housing. If we find any spare minutes you'll find us knocking doors. We have so much fun and it's the quickest way to talk to people (since the streets are more bare than a baby's bottom.) However last week we were riding around OYMing and stopped this lady named Kayo who ended up making a next appointment at the CHURCH and was interested in our message.
*Quick miracle story: we were scheduled to meet with her on Thursday night, so we were waiting at the church with a Sister Asano for the lesson, 10 minutes, 20 minutes pass and she hadn't shown up. :( Well as we are about to leave, the elders call us and one of them got hit by a car and about to get in an ambulance. So we needed to go pick up the elders' bikes, and go to the hospital, but Asano shimais car was too small. Well right then, the Bishopric pulls up in a big van, about to have home teaching at the church...wow sooooo the Bishopric was able to pick up their bikes, and we were able to go to the hospital. The elders are fine, but it was a little tender mercy that the timing was perfect.*
So anyway in the car on the way to the hospital, KAYO calls us and was at work late but rescheduled HERSELF for Saturday. How. Cool. She is 40ish years old, not married, lives alone. We testified that Heavenly Father is a loving father and He knows and loves her. We taught her how to pray, she had a lot of questions, and wanted to meet again. :) Please keep her in your prayers!

This week we had Mission Leadership Conference, and had a little "Skype devotional" with Brother Mills from the MTC (dad and mom- he was the guy in the MTC who asked me about you!) he taught us how to use the new "How to begin teaching" pamphlets, and we were actually able to use them in our lesson with Kayo. Hearing a meeting in English made me sooooo excited for General Conference!! It was so powerful, it made me want to study Japanese harder so that people can understand the Spirit in their own language. Parker, I've been praying for you- sounds like you've got the language down!! You go elder.

Last week, a member from the ward just returned from his mission in Tokyo so we had a Shokujikai after church and a welcome home party last night for him. The family was SOOO happy. They don't have a car, so the 4 of them were riding their bikes around introducing him to us, and visiting other members. It was so cute, I was thinking of you guys and how happy our reunion will be. The dad has been less-active, but for the past month-ish he has been coming to church. He was beaming when his son came home. The daughter also wants to serve a mission, this family is truly the most incredible family I've met on my mission. They are always thinking of ways to help us with missionary work, and are so on fire with the spirit. I hope to be more like them when I come home from my mission. Yesterday ANRI came to the welcome home party! She just got back from Okinawa, and we found out her grandma and friends in Okinawa are against the church. That is making her decision hard, and her strong foundation she had before is falling apart. :( However, today we are going to the mission home with her and Tokiwa chan for an FHE! So excited!

I wanted to share real fast what I found while studying the scriptures.
I was reading in 2 Nephi 25. Nephi is testifying of Christ (when Christ's atonement is foretold, rejoicing in Christ, talking of Christ, Christ hastening his work is the last days, etc). And in verse 28, he says "And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any man the right way; for the right way is to believe in Christ."
You and I have some sort of testimony of Christ. We each have our own talents and abilities, and using those to hasten the work is important. Yet Nephi tells us that our simple testimonies are sufficient. Our responsibility right now IS MISSIONARY WORK. It is part of enduring to the end. We are responsible for "teaching man the right way." But hey, YOUR testimony is sufficient. You can do this. I can do this.
I have grown to love to bear testimony. It is a fiery dart against the adversary, and I love to share my witness of our living Christ. I love Him.

Love love love you all. Hope you have a super happy week!
Love, Sister Wilcox

Xoxo

Well this week was A.m.A.z.I.N.g. Also remember reading shaylees emails and she was like "woooow this week was the best week of my mission!!!" ? Except she'd say that every week? Haha well I finally feel like that! ;) the Lord is hastening His work, it's the best..the BEST to be here in Gifu seeing miracles everyday. My testimony is built up everyday, and I literally feel like I am on a springboard of conversion. The Spirit here is sweet and real and overwhelming. Sister Cline and I feel too blessed, praying that we can carry these feelings into the hearts of the Gifu-ites.

Haha I can't believe you saw the pics and video from the Mexican party. Awko taco. However we felt like it was a huge success in so many ways. We got a new investigator from it! She is a cute little mom named Masako with 2 little kids. She accepted to do 30/30 program. She has rejected the missionaries for years, and the members have been trying for years with her, and somehow the Lord softened her heart, and she said yes. After that we told her we were speaking in church the next day, asked her to come, said she couldn't--Too taihen with her kids. BUT THEN SHE SHOWED UP right as I was ending my talk. But still WHAAAAT she came with her kids, and then her kids went to primary and she went to class. Way cool. Anyway, we were so happy with how things turned out, it was a lot of work, we had to cook the meat for 12ish hours over the week and go early to prepare the food with some members, but so glad that we feel like it was a good use of our time. I think it really helped gain trust with the members, and more than half the people there were non-members. #yay

CHURCH: wow. Yesterday we were at the church from 8:30-6:30. (dad sound familiar?) but it was sooooo great, we were teaching back to back lessons the entire time. We had 3 investigators at church yesterday, were able to teach them all, then the members also had people for us to teach. The recent converts here, Tami and Numa, are incredible. They are on fire with missionary work. They were there helping us teach the whole time. It was so much fun. Not every lesson is perfect and we don't always say the right things, but how perfect is the Holy Ghost, how perfect is Gods love! That is the beauty of it all. We are all working toward perfection, so we can work with others imperfections. We can especially work through our own imperfections and weaknesses that others might not accept, and rely on the Holy Ghost and the Saviors grace to make our message perfectly acceptable.

We talked with A-chan about baptism again. She said she wants to get baptized in January for her birthday. Which is SOOO great, however that gives Satan a lot of time to work against her. Please keep her in your prayers! We loooove her!
We also invited W-chan to be baptized, she said she would, she just has problems with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We would love to hear any ideas you have to strengthen her testimony of the restoration.

Ahh out of time but this week Elder Whiting from the Area general presidency came. This devotional also changed my life. Haha seriously I learned sooo much and felt so close to heaven. One thing that I really loved was..about love. 💙 Elder whiting asked president and sister Ishii to stand up and tell us how many kids they had and how many grandkids. They have 4 kids and 12 grandkids (mahhh I think). Elder whiting then "made a deal" with them and said, "I love you guys so much I'm gonna let you bring 2kids and 7 grandkids up to the celestial kingdom with you!" Sister Ishii said "Dame." Hah Elder whiting then re-thought his deal and said "okay, fine. You can bring 3 kids and 8 grandkids! Are you happy now? you get to have more than half!" She again said, "Dame. We have 4 kids and 12 grandkids." They expected all to be in the celestial kingdom with them. First of all--Fam. I love you so much. We are thousands of miles apart, and I haven't seen you for a long time. Shay it's been almost 3 years. Won't see Parker for 3 years. And yet I feel closer and feel more love for each of you- more than I have in my entire life. I can't imagine the celestial kingdom as a joyful and perfect place if one of you is absent. And what I will never understand in this life is Gods love. He loves us perfectly. And he has already lost 1/3 of his children. And so many more. We must bring His children back to Him. We cannot feel His love and know the spirit without having a huge desire to bring His other lost sheep back to the fold. They are not black sheep, just lost sheep.
We can do this. We have the tools. Now do we have the faith?

I love you. The Savior lives. We are living in the last days, don't take one day for granted. Let's keep progressing together. Love you so much. Xoxoxoxo

Sister Wilcox

Grace

This week was uhhhhmazing. Best week of my mission. Not to be dramatic or anything but things that happened this week changed my LIFE. So many good things with investigators, members, myself. I feel like I understand the atonement on a whole new level, and my mind is so open and enlightened with the Saviors sacrifice and teachings. I love Him! Anyway, MIRACLES this week...

To start off this fab week, Monday night we had a lesson with Anri. Met at the church with her friend Tokiwa who is a member. One of my favorite lessons of my whole mission goooosh Anri is amazing. The week before, we did a mogi lesson with an old couple in the ward- the Imais. We role played the Plan of Salvation, and they helped us so much. Gave us a lot of feedback and helped us get a lesson plan in order to teach simply and powerfully. Cline Shimai and I practiced over and over again. Anyway- we taught Plan of Salvation, and it was really focused on the Savior. When we were discussing resurrection, I was so overcome with gratitude. How wonderful it will be to have a body that feels no pain, no disease, to be perfected and more like our Father. We discussed the Saviors atonement, and what we need to do on earth to reach our goal of the celestial kingdom and access all the blessings Heavenly Father wants to give. We showed the "Because of Him" video--Tokiwa, Sister Cline, and I were all in tears by the end. It is such a powerful manifestation of Christ's love. We asked Anri if she would follow Christ's example and take the first step of baptism in order to begin her journey toward eternal life- she said Yes! It was such a sweet, spiritual moment. Tokiwa said the prayer at the end, and Anri was crying by the end. She gets it! She wants a relationship with Heavenly Father, she wants to follow the Savior. I love being around her, she already radiates the spirit. AHHH love her.

Yesterday, she came to church. She stayed after the 3 hour block while Tokiwa was in meetings, and after we came out of our meetings and lesson with recent convert, we sat down and talked with her for a while. She said ever since the lesson on Monday, she had been thinking a lot about baptism and wants to get baptized. Ahhh she is going to be the best member. It makes me so happy to know that she has felt the spirit and is acting on her feelings. This girls got faith. THEN she told us she was fasting. What? No one told her to, Tokiwa didn't ask her to. She went to INSTITUTE with Tokiwa, they mentioned it there, and she thought "hmm, why not give it a go?" She said she hadn't drank or eaten anything, and had prayed a lot that day. HOW AMAZING IS SHE?! I gave her a talk about the Savior and His Atonement that I had read that week, and she was on the verge of tears. She just thanked us for always helping her feel gods love and caring. The Spirit is working so closely with her, we have said so many prayers of thanks, and know that God is mindful of all His children.

Whiiiiich brings me to my next point. Ohhh my. PLEASE READ "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. I read it in the September 2013 Liahona one morning for personal study. I had prayed so earnestly for guidance on what we should teach Anri next. After reading BOM and PMG, and not really finding what we were looking for, I flipped open the Liahona and found this talk. Not kidding, this talk changed my whole perspective on the Savior, his infinite Atonement, and His Grace. I never really understood grace. I was like the girl in his talk- I know that I need to do my best and the Savior will make up for the rest. But I can't even do my best! I make mistakes all the time and never feel like I am actually doing my best. Well the truth is, the 'Savior paid our debt in full. He didn't just pay it all but a few coins. He paid it all. It is finished.' That doesn't mean we have nothing to do. We have plenty to do- but it is not to pay the debt. Out part is showing our obedience. How comfortable will you be in the presence of God? What did you do that is pleasing in the eyes of God? Well because Christ paid the debt, He in turn gave us a set of requirements. Faith, repentance, baptism, and enduring to the end. "By complying, we are not paying to demands of justice- not even the smallest part. Instead, we are showing appreciation for what Jesus Christ did by using it to live a life like His. Justice requires immediate perfection or a punishment when we fall short." God is a God of justice. We HAVE to be perfect. But there's no way that we can be. So Christ paid the price and made up the difference. We do not need to suffer the punishment. "He can forgive what justice never could." Do you see how incredible the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ really is? He literally saved us. Please read this talk! It makes so much sense, and I can't express the love I have for my Savior. He is the way, the life, the light.

Sorry I know this email is long- but one more story. Last night I felt like we were dendoing with Angels. Last night we finished dinner, and had two options. 1) Go to the church, finish weekly planning and practice our musical number for the mission tour. 2) Go out in the rain and try to visit people. Hey. Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach, right? The Savior would have focused on the one- so that's what we did. We threw on our kappas, and started riding to visit "vegetable lady." Our first week here in Gifu, we were in an area trying to find a less active, only to find that her house no longer existed, but talked to a little old lady at a crosswalk. As we started talking to her, she immediately started handing us vegetables from her basket. Haaa then she took us back to her house and gave us more vegetables from her garden. So nice! She had also told us that her husband had just died a week earlier! So we went back to thank her and had high hopes that we might be able to share a little plan of salvation message with her. Well we drop off cookies at her house and had fun chatting, then started sharing our beliefs about life after death and eternal families. She wasn't super up for it, and wasn't super up for meeting another day. We left, and it was a bummer, but I didn't think much about it. Well before we started riding away, Sister Cline was just standing there looking at the house. I asked her what was up, and she just asked if we could go back and talk to her again. I could see she was having a great internal battle right there of whether to go back up or not. "Sister Cline, do you think this is a prompting? Would you regret going back up to the door or going home? Are we fearing God or fearing man?" Sooo we decided to go back up there and let the spirit speak. She came back up to the door and Sister Cline immediately started telling her about eternal families. She was struggling with what to say and she started crying as she was talking. Anyway, long story short, her son came out and got mad at us blah blah so we left. Sister Cline was sobbing. I thought she was going to say something like "this is so hard, Japanese is so hard, I want to go home.." Or something negative. Instead, through her tears, she said "I just love these people so much, and it hurts to see them use their agency against what we know is true." Oh my heart! I love this girl! I had to repent and change my thoughts and attitude- I want to see the world how sister cline sees the world. She has the biggest heart and is so full of charity. Well long story short (jk this is already long sorrrry ha) we started biking home, and stop this cute little old lady on the street. Turns out, her mother was Christian and she went to Christian churches when she was little. We sang I am a child of God and nearer my God to thee right there on the street with her. She said she loves Jesus and would like to learn about Him again. We are meeting with her again on Wednesday. Sister Clines broken heart and wet face from her tears quickly lit up and and we couldn't stop smiling the whole way home. (Ok we were actually both crying of HAPPINESS from this incredible miracle). I felt like Heavenly Father couldn't see sister cline so sad for any longer, after her great desires and faith, He sent a wonderful, prepared daughter on our path. Haha really though it was SUCH A MIRACLE.

Ok AND found the cutest 30 year old housing (the first house we knocked) who wants to hear the gospel, aaaand went to a members house and she had a referral and we taught her and she became an investigator. Blehhh too many miracles lately. Sorry I wish I could just call y'all up and tell you all this great news and we could scream and laugh and cry together. :)

Wow I didn't even tell you half of what I wanted haha. But you get the idea. The goods are in the gospel. And I love the gospel so much. This church is lead by a loving Father and His son gave us a STRAIGHT AND NARROW path to follow. It's doesn't get more simple than that. I hope you all have a great week, and find joy in serving someone this week. You're the best.

Xoxoxo Sister Wilcox

New Comp (Aug 30, 2015)

Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Threw-up.
Threw-up who?
Nope not threw-up poo, threw-up NATTO. My companion literally threw-up
when her wicked trainer made her try nato for the first time.
HAHAHAHAHAHA sorry I shouldn't laugh. I'll send you the video, she
threw up all over the kitchen floor right when I STOPPED the video.
😁😂

Life in the Gifu is sooo good. The weather is craazzyyyy though. One
day it's a hundred degrees and the next day the rains come down and
the floods come up. My eczema is back. Yum.

We are really trying to do our best finding new investigators. I'm so
blessed with such a wonderful companion who wants to do everything she
can to bring the sheep back to the fold. She has great ideas and a
great spirit about her. I'm grateful to be working with someone who
pushes me to be better, I learn so much from Sister Cline!

So crazy sad news. :( K-chan is no longer an investigator. She was
doing sooo great. Progressing like no one I had seen before. Or at
least that's what we thought. Her birthday was on the 28th. We wanted
to do something special for her. So we called Yagi Shimai, K-chans
friend in the ward who she has been wanting to do a joint lesson with,
and asked her if we could have a little party at the church. She was
excited to, and also suggested that we have a lesson right after since
we would all be at the church. I called K-chan back and asked her if
she could come to the church for a little party and a lesson, and she
got so mad. She was so upset that we would want to have a lesson on
her birthday. She thought that we only wanted her to get baptized and
that we weren't good friends, and was just not being very nice over
the phone. She told us that she was never interested in the church
stuff, she only met with us cuz we helped her with English. 😢 THEN
she went online and read a lot of reviews and anti-mormon literature.
She told us all she heard and read, it was very hard to hear. Very
dramatic. We ended up just telling her that we were representatives of
Christ, and we were glad that by serving her we could also become
friends. We told her that we were happy to have helped her with
English. We want to serve all of Gods children and help them in this
difficult life, and that hopefully we could make hers a little easier
and that she felt Gods love for her. Anyway, I just PRAY that her
anger will be toward me, and not the church. Maybe one day she will
remember the spirit, we know that she felt it. We had special moments
with her, and it really is heart breaking to see Satan influencing
people, and then them using their agency against what is right. For
now, we will just keep praying for her.

On a good note, we are meeting again with Anri today!! Our lesson last
week was...magical. It was just as good as being at Disneyland. :) we
taught the restoration and showed the video, bore testimony and tried
to help her feel Heavenly Fathers love. She came alone last week and
said she was nervous about coming without Tokiwa, but at the end said
she was very happy that she came. There really was a special spirit
there. We are so excited to meet with her again. Please pray for her!
PRAYING that she prayed and read BOM. ahhhhh that would make my life.

Anwayssss to answer your Qs...YES I love going to church now. Haha NO
I don't understand everything by a long shot. But if I really pay
attention, I can understand most. The members are AWESOME and that
makes it very easy to just love and be happy and be myself at church,
ya know? No one leaves church. Until like 4ish. And church starts at
10. Everyone lives so far away. So they just bring their lunch and
pretty much hang out, sing in choir, meetings, etc. The Imai couple
makes the missionaries food every week SO nice.
I have a way cool experience from scripture study this week BUT I need
to go soooo next week. Be excited. ;)
Love you so much. I love Gifu. I love Anri. I love the Savior, and
love His work; it brings glory and everlasting happiness for sure.

From Sister Humphreys this week: "What matters to you, matters to God."

Xoxo
Sister Wilcox