Awake my soul

The title of this email does come from the scripture in 2 Nephi 4:28 but it more applies to a funny story that happened yesterday during church. I was sitting next to a ward member and I was feeling a little sleepy so I pulled out some mints and offered her some. Lately as time has been creeping for me to come home I have also become immensely sleepier. So lately I've been buying super strong mints. I accidentally poured 2 mints into this members hand and just told her she could have both. She ate them, her eyes got wide, and then she whispered, "awake my soul!" in English. It took all of my strength not to burst out laughing in the middle of sacrament meeting but I did it. I love serving in this ward.

This week was a really rewarding week. We got to see a couple of our investigators progress a little more and found a couple of new investigators. I had a lesson in Portuguese this week! So we have these Brazilian investigators that I've told you all about before and lately we haven't been able to meet with them. But we met with them and Skyped with an office elder who is Brazilian and it went SO WELL. The mom had so many awesome things to say and so many appropriate wonderful insights, it was so easy! It didn't even feel like a lesson, but more like a discussion. When teaching people in Japan trying to get people to say what they feel and think in this country is like pulling teeth. It was incredibly refreshing to just have a really good gospel discussion in a language they could understand.

Then this past week one of our investigators accepted the invitation to be baptized and we had Family Home Evening with her and her family yesterday and it went awesome! Now the whole family became investigators and it is just super rewarding to see how the gospel brings families closer together.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve as a missionary in Japan! I love this place and I love these people.

I hope all of you have a fantastic and happy week!

Love your Japanese friend,
Aulick Shimai,
アウリック姉妹