Make Weak Things Become Strong

Hello one and all!

It's been cold here in Japan, but from what I've heard from the church members here, it's even colder in America! I hope everybody is staying warm and drinking lots and lots of hot chocolate! Whenever my companion and I return to our apartment after a long day of walking the streets of Japan, my companion ALWAYS warms herself up with a nice cup of hot chocolate. I just drink some hot lemon juice, which doesn't really sound all that great, but it's actually pretty good.

I'm keeping warm with layers and my LL Bean coat!

Speaking of snow, when we went outside to exercise this morning, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. Now, I say snow, but really it was mostly just frost. My companion tried to make a snowman, but it was no bigger than my thumb, and it kind of melted shortly after, haha!

Anyways, enough small talk about the weather, and on to the important stuff. 

Relying on the Lord.

I've heard that phrase a million times. And before my mission, I thought I knew what that meant. It sounded easy. "Yeah, sure, I can rely on the Lord. No big deal." But I've come to realize it goes much deeper than that. It goes beyond understanding the principle in my head; it needs to move down and be fully accepted in my heart, the place that it really matters. 

At times, I find myself all wrapped up in doubt and fear, and that frustrates me to pieces. I want to be like the faithful prophets and missionaries in the scriptures, believing that the Lord will provide all that is needed to succeed, letting go of the "natural man" and booster-rocketing it to spiritual "home-plate" as it were. But it's not as simple as it sounds, as is most things in life, I would say. We go out streeting or housing, and I STILL get nervous and scared, even after all the miracles I've experienced. It's incredibly frustrating to me, because all I want to do is be a true disciple; a true follower of Christ. I want to be the kind of missionary that the Lord can trust and use as a tool in His hands at all times. 

The other day in companionship study, I expressed a bit of these feelings and thoughts with my companion, and she gave me some great advice. What she told me was that God could take away my fear and doubt in an instant, and I don't deny that. But He hasn't. She asked me to think about why that is. She went on to explain that although God could take away all of my fears and doubts and weaknesses in an instant, that's not how He works. In the Book of Mormon, it reads:

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27)

Like this scripture says, God gives us weakness for a purpose. He loves us enough to give us weaknesses. He loves us enough to let us struggle. He loves us, and He knows that if He were to make us perfect, then we would never learn anything. Becoming Christ-like isn't easy for a reason. My companion told me that the first thing I had to do is accept the fact that I have weaknesses. God already knows that, and He still called me to this mission. So those weaknesses don't matter to Him. My Mission President explained it like this:

"The Lord does not expect perfection from us at this point. But He does expect faith, humility, and diligence on our part. We need to remember who we are and who He is. He is the creator of the world. He is the Savior of your soul. He is your Lord and Master. He has all knowledge. He has all power. He does not ask us to have all knowledge or all power. He already has it...The Lord knows each one of us. He called us not in spite of who we are, but because of who we are. He knows things about you that you still do not know. He knows your potential." This lead me to think about the apostle Peter. Peter was far from perfect. He didn't understand all of what the Savior taught. He didn't have perfect faith or perfect knowledge - he even denied the Christ THREE TIMES, even after all that he had witnessed and experienced. His fear overcame his faith. Jesus knew all of this when He invited Peter to come and follow Him. He knew all of Peter's weaknesses, yet He still called Peter to be His disciple. Why is that? Why did Jesus invite imperfect people, the sinners and the broken-hearted, to come and follow Him? Why? Because Jesus knew who Peter could become -- A strong leader full of unwavering faith.

Jesus, even the very Christ, knows our unlimited potential. So, I figure I shouldn't get caught up on the fact that I have weaknesses. Christ understands that, and yet He still called me to be His missionary, just like Peter. What I should focus on is that my weaknesses are learning opportunities. If we each look at our weakness in that light, then we should be almost grateful for them, because they humble us and give us the opportunity to become more like our Father in Heaven; to learn more about Him, and draw nearer to Him. In all honesty, that's what this life is about. The purpose of this life is to have joy and to prepare to return to God. In order to do that, we needed to be given weaknesses to learn and grow from.

My mission president also said, "Don't let Satan mess with your mind and weaken your faith...." We just need to accept that we are all weak. We are all mortal. We each have the qualities of the natural man inherently embedded inside us. I know I personally, need to stop letting those facts become openings for Satan to dowse the flame of my faith. I need to just accept my mortality, and then turn all my weaknesses over to the Lord. Just let it go. But how can we do that? Well, I have determined the best place to start is discussing our weaknesses with the Lord in prayer; they aren't anything He doesn't already know. The Lord can, as it says in Ether 12:27, "make weak things become strong."

Sister Weigl

My new red bike - check out the basket cover
It is even tall enough!

Sister Missionaries are Great!

PART OF SISTER WEIGL’S LETTER TO DAD, MOM, AND ANDY:

.....Well, Andy, you are going to love this! Today T-Shimai and I went shopping for some boots (January and February are the COLDEST months in Japan, and my one pair of rain boots weren't cutting it - we went to this one store and I found a GREAT pair that are SO WARM and COMFORTABLE, I feel like I am walking on clouds when I wear them, and they were 50% percent off, so I am very happy). But anyways, Andy, you are going to love is this: 

Can you believe there is a Top Ramen Noodle Museum!

Statue of Momofuku Ando (Inventor)
 outside the museum, holding a chicken ramen packet
in his hand and standing on a giant cup of noodles

Yes, that's right! We found the Instant Ramen Museum! I bought a Cup of Noodle Key chain! Today is a holiday in Japan, so the wait for the museum tour was 90 minutes long! So, we plan to go back next week when there will be less people. But we are so excited! We went inside and saw a bit of it, and it looks like a lot of fun!

Today is Seijin no Hi, which is basically a "coming of age" day. All the people who turned 20 last year (20 is the legal age here) get all dressed up. The girls wear these really fancy kimonos and the men wear suits. I don't exactly know what else they do besides get dressed up, but I've seen quite a few people all dressed up today walking around on the streets.


Hmm...here are some highlights of the week:

- We went to Choir practice on Sunday after church is over...the members love T-shimai's voice (she's really good at singing).

- The Elders in our district had NINE investigators at church on Sunday. 

- We had a dinner appointment with the Bishop's family. 

- We went with a member to visit a member's friend and ended up talking with them for two hours or so. She's not an investigator yet, but she agreed to let us come back and teach a lesson, so fingers crossed.

- LOTS AND LOTS OF FINDING. We haven't found any new investigators yet, but that's okay. We are just going to keep on working!

  

Ippuudou  (一風堂) Ramen Shop at Ikeda City 

This restaurant is located near Ikeda train station, and it is just a short walk away from the Momofuku Instant Ramen Museum. Note the motto of the restaurant "Your happiness of eating ramen makes us happy." So we were glad that we did not miss it!