Every Prayer*

This week God answered every single one of my prayers. This was how
our week went down.

1. Guide us so we can meet Leo, and bless us with the courage to teach
him the gospel
A member from this English Ward gave us a tip that Leonardo DiCaprio
was in town. In town, as in in the neighboring city to the church that
is off limits to missionaries after 6:00 PM. But the possibility of
walking down the same sidewalk as a celebrity drove us insane. We
gossiped all throughout the week, joking about fasting over the chance
of meeting him. But this week those words actually escaped the mouth
of a sister missionary as we were doing a group prayer. We giggled,
shouted the most faithful "AMEN!" of our lives, and headed out the
door.
That day we actually had a tour of Tokyo planned. We were going to
walk around under the guidance of a man who spoke decent English with
a bunch of other foreigners living in Japan. It was in the morning,
and still very cold. When we arrived, there were friends of ours there
too. One friend, a particularly crazy grandmother ran up to me, nearly
yelling: "It's so cold! Feel my hands!"
Now a gift I've been bestowed by God is warm hands. No matter what, my
hands are warmer than the general public. So this crazy grandma
realizes this and is grabbing at my hands in such a frenzy that she
captures the attention of a couple standing nearby. She urges them to
feel my hands as if it's some life changing experience and I'm just
shrugging my shoulders telling this girl around my age "Go for it."
She touches my hands and awes in such a way that her boyfriend walks
over too and says "May I?" He doesn't wait for a response and suddenly
I'm holding hands with a member of the opposite sex for the first time
in a year.
It was actually a great ice breaker and we kept right on talking as
they held my hands. Turns out they're both from China, met there,
moved out here together for school. They were both looking for a
church! Of course they ate up everything we had to say about being
Christian missionaries and we exchanged information with them and
invited them to church. They came the very next day. Right before I
introduced this adorable couple to my companions, I asked him: "By the
way, what's your name?"
"My Chinese name is pretty hard, so you can call me Leo."
...I met Leo. He held my hand. God answered my prayer. We're going to
baptize Leo.

2. Please answer Y's Prayer
My best friend in the whole of Japan is getting baptized on April 16th
but she still doesn't know about Joseph Smith. This week she had a
dream she was in the sacred grove with Joseph and felt happier and
more peaceful than ever. Y. is just so humble! God trusts her so
much He tells her like everything by dreams.

3. Bless D that she can sleep well tonight
We're teaching another friend who came to church for the first time
last week on her own just because two of her Mormon coworkers didn't
drink any alcohol at a business party. That takes some faith. As we
were teaching her the Restoration she let us know that she has
insomnia. It's a problem that bleeds onto all her other problems and
makes them a whole lot messier. She accepted the message pretty
readily, but was too shy to pray at the end. I said the above prayer.
It seemed like the end of an ordinary lesson.
The next day she messaged us on Facebook and told us she felt amazing.
She had slept cradling the Book of Mormon in her arms. She slept
peacefully all night! She was ecstatic to meet again, so she came to
the General Women's session of Conference. There, she told us she
believed Joseph Smith had seen God and Jesus Christ, and that she
would start taking work off on Sunday's, and that she would be ready
to be baptized in May. Lots of prayers answered, but the fact that
she slept well this week was an answer to them all.

4. Tell me why I'm out here
Again at the General Women's session of Conference, we were waiting
for another friend who never answered our calls. She was a long time
investigator of my third companion and she became really concerned
about this friend. The conference had already started but Sister
Crellin wanted to go outside and look for her. So we did. We just took
off running to that nearest station, didn't even slow down to pick up
our coats. So I'm out in the dark cold standing around wishing I was
listening to conference when this friend texts an apology and says she
won't be able to make it.
Well at this point I was pretty mad. Not necessarily at any particular
person but I was just upset at the circumstances. I prayed to God,
almost sarcastically, "Why am I out here?"
My companions were far more upbeat than I, as we marched back to catch
the last twenty minutes of conference. As we were about to enter the
church, a girl about our age caught all of our attention.
Instinctively, we stretched our neck so to look at her, and then one
of my companions just said: "Let's talk to her!" We had been talking
to people all our way up to the church, experiencing about ten
straight rejections. But as soon as we talked to A, we knew she was
going to be so different.
She is half Japanese, half American. She believes she is a Christian
like her mom, but the tarnished reputation that Christians have have
made her too shy to say it out loud. When we said we taught people
more about Christ, she asked if she had to pay. When we said "Mormon"
she said her mom loves Mormons. When we asked her if she knew if
anyone else was interested she said she did, and suggested that we all
five meet on a weekly basis. Obviously someone of this caliber was
enough reason to be missing conference. We only saw the last ten
minutes, but A. was worth it. We got to tell all the sisters the
miracle afterwards.

I don't do missionary work. I watch it happen.

That was my week! God hears every prayer and will answer it, but maybe
not in the way you expect it!

Love you,
See you soon,
Sister Goldsberry


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Found this cute girl playing her guitar in the park and sang along with her.