Hermana Tapia: 日本の姉妹 👭🏽

こんにちは everyone!!!

Hope you all are having a great start to November! It's been a blast and a half these last few weeks. Here's the updates:

♡ I am a Madre again!!! I am training an adorable, funny and hardworking hermana from Lehi named Hermana Takahashi and this week was her first week in the mission. Her parents are from Japan and South Korea which is why she has the awesome last name. We were meant to be companions, we get along so well and are a lot alike! We have a goal to learn Japanese... after we make sure she learns Spanish... haha!

♡ A sister we have taught for over 4 months read the Book of Mormon in 17 days. No lie! She was receiving a ton of anti-Mormon literature from people from her old religious congregation and she became confused. We explained to her that faith does not equal physical evidence and physical evidence does not equal faith. That the only way she can know if it's true is by reading it and praying about it. She did and she now knows without a doubt that the Book of Mormon IS the word of God. That it provides us with sacred truths that were lost after the death of Christ and clarifies doctrine that others have misinterpreted from the Bible.

I want to stop and talk about this point cause it's so important and I've been thinking about it a lot.

This anti-Mormon literature, it's become a very common theme in my mission to have people we are teaching run into negative articles and videos on the restored gospel online. This sister shared how her friend sent her a video of a man who lost his testimony of the Book of Mormon and left the church after studying anthropology to prove that the Book of Mormon IS true. Apparently he couldn't find physical evidence and ultimately gave up searching and decided to throw away his testimony.

As soon as she said that I thought of the story in the Bible on the Tower of Babel. You know what I'm talking about right? A ton of people want to prove God is real so they start building a tall tower in hopes that they will reach Heaven and prove that it really exists. Funny, huh. Well, what does God do? He gets offended! He gets mad that they would think of such a thing. That they would believe that physical evidence would help them believe in Him after He had shown them so many miracles and blessed them. So, God gets mad and He changes all their languages so they get all confused, stop building the tower and disperse.

What does this tell us about faith and physical evidence? They are not a result of one another! If we still had the golden plates that contained the writing of the Book of Mormon we would believe it just cause we see it and not because we personally read it, pondered it and prayed about it. There would be no need to develop personal testimonies, it would completely eliminate a need for faith therefore eliminating personal revelation.

Why are we so quick to doubt our faith and testimonies and so quick to believe silly things on the internet? When we have faith, exercise it and personally seek answers from God we can receive a PERSONAL, powerful, and a sure testimony of all things. I'm so grateful for this principle because it has allowed me to maintain my own testimony of the restored gospel and it was priceless to see this sweet sister experience the same. She read it, prayed and she knows it's true. Not because of any kind of physical evidence but because of the holy ghost as a result of her faith.

Alma 32: 21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

Ok, my faith rant is over now hahaha!

♡ We have been teaching a family since April that never received a confirmation that the church is true but read their scriptures daily, came to church consistently, met regularly with us, etc. I became worried wondering what we had to do to help them. Every time I felt I had done all I could I would kneel in prayer to ask for help and I got a sweet confirmation from the spirit that it would happen in the Lord's times and that the family and I just need to be patient and consistent. Well, this week at the end of our lesson the oldest daughter says "Oh Hermanas, I want to be baptized." Then he brother goes, "Yeah me too, I've always known the church is true I was just waiting for my sister." And I was SO SHOCKED. It just came out of nowhere and was a result of them being consistent and faithful. After that lesson Hermana Takahashi and celebrated in the parking lot by jumping and hugging. Prior to the lesson I expressed concern that the family is not receiving an answer and just like that Heavenly Father reminds me that He has everything under control. I love la obra guys, the church is TRUE!

♡ Yesterday we broke a zone record of 18 people at sacrament that we are teaching that have not yet been baptized. I almost died of happiness... and stress... but mostly happiness.

This area is awesome!!! I have 2 transfers left in the mission and since I will be training Hermana Takahashi for 2 transfers I will be ending my mission in my beautiful area of Spring Lake and I COULD NOT be happier. My area has become a temple to me. I love it so much.