IT'S TRUE!

Can you tell which side is mine?   RIGHT SIDE! STRONG SIDE!

Dearest FAMILY of mine! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! I LOVE YOU FROM FOREVER TO FOREVER! 

The first thing I want to share is my testimony! Dear Family, Dear friends, Dear world....I know this Gospel is TRUE. I KNOW it. 

Something about coming out on my mission really made me take a step back and look at my testimony. For a long time, I:ve just kind of felt this cloud of doubt lingering around me and feeling like holding back, not being quite sure if I had a strong testimony of my own. 

I think I:ve been waiting - feeling like I have to have that moment down on my knees when my heart burns and the Spirit tells me it is true. But I:ve come to realize, I don:t need that. And I don:t need to wait for that moment in order to move forward. I feel like my testimony grew differently than that. 

There wasn:t really the one moment down on my knees when I suddenly know it was all true. I:ve been taught to believe my whole life. I:ve been nurtured and grown grace by grace in the light of the Gospel. I think I:ve also been blessed with the gift to believe. Because of that, I never really questioned or doubted, I just always believed and felt I belonged to the true Church of God. Because I believed it and because I:ve lived it and am living it - and because I:ve had countless moments and experiences of feeling the power of the Holy Ghost helping me to feel and know that, yes, this is really true....I believe and feel that I CAN honestly look people in the eye, stand up tall, with a big smile on my face and say from my heart that "I know this church is true!"

I know I have a testimony. And I know I have a testimony through the power of the Holy Ghost. I have been so doubty and wishy-washy and wondering if I can really say that "I know by the power of the Holy Ghost." But now, all of that changes. Because I know this is true. Its all true! Hallelujah! I especially remember one moment back in my first area in Izumi when I was a bean, as I was thinking one morning about my testimony, and if I had one....I looked up at our family picture and I felt this thought come to me "What more evidence do you need?" My whole beautiful life, our whole beautiful family has been blessed and grown through the Spirit:s power and our Savior:s love and our Father:s tender care and mercy. Its all true and its all beautiful! 

AKITA!

My new area is great! Its so small and quiet here! I feel like the streets are so quiet compared to my other areas! There:s hardly any people and bikes and cars about it feels like! But I like it! My new companion is good, and she is actually in her last transfer! So she goes home in 5 weeks! We are going to work hard and one of our investigators, Eriko san has a baptismal date in a couple of weeks for Sept 13!! So I:m excited to get to help her prepare these last couple of weeks! 

Me and Carlson Shimai with two girls who came to English class! 

I love you so much! I am so grateful we are a family for forever and ever! We are so blessed! Truly, SO blessed! Eternity is going to be awesome! But today is part of our family:s eternal history too, so lets embrace it! All my LOVE!

Kingu Shimai