Wow! I can hardly believe my MTC time is coming to a close. As of yesterday I've been here two full months! It's felt like an eternity!!! I'm so excited to actually start doing what I came out here to do! I should get my travel plans either Thursday or Friday. It will tell me everything I need to know about getting to Japan.
It's weird to think that I won't be here anymore! I feel like this has been my mission. And the thought of Japan is sort of a hazy dream. But seriously....I can not wait to get there! I'm so antsy! Sometimes I have a really hard time focusing, I just want to go! Alas, I really do need to focus. My Japanese is not nearly where it needs to be. But...I'm just excited to go.
Ok, to start off... I have LOVED working with the Nihonjin Shimai (Japanese Sisters) this week. They are so cute!! They all have strong testimonies and are going to be such a huge blessing for the growth of the church in Japan. I can't wait to see what miracles they perform! One night, at 10:30, we had just turned the lights off in our room and we were all lying in bed. It sounded like someone was trying to get into our room. Our door was moving back and forth. Black Shimai got up to see what was going on. All these little feet ran into the bathroom. When we woke up the next morning there were all these cute hearts on our door. They said cute little phrases in Japanese like, thank you, good luck, we love you. It was all the Nihonjin. I just love them.
There is one thing, however, that might be a problem. They all talk SUPER high. They have high voices and when they get excited they go even higher. As we were sharing pictures of our families with each other, they were looking at mine saying, "kawaii, kawaii" in their high pitched voices. As I was looking at their pictures...I DID THE SAME THING! My voice went up like 3 octaves. I didn't realize what I was doing until after I left their room. I'm already becoming Asian! I am afraid I will come home with a super high pitched voice. It would be entertaining for about 10 seconds. Then I think I would become very annoying. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
On Sunday, Krueger Kaicho, our branch president, got released. He has been serving here for four years. And that is the longest they let them stay. He was sad to go. We now have Brother Mack as our new branch president (he was the first counselor before) and I like him a lot. We have a Brother Johnson as 1st counselor, we kept our 2nd counselor Brother Butler (he's my favorite) and we got a 3rd counselor Brother Weedman. I think Brother Johnson and Weedman are both from Highland. They all seem like very sharp men. I'm excited to get to work with them for even just a little bit of time.
I'll share a quick insight I found as I was reading my scriptures this week....I was reading in Mosiah and I was reading Abinadi's address. He was a powerful teacher! You can feel the spirit just by reading his words. I'm sure that hearing him speak them made it infinitely more powerful! But I was thinking as I read this, it's a PERFECT missionary scripture! He taught with the power and authority that every missionary has. He taught better than I will ever be able to do, yet he only touched the heart of one person, a young priest, Alma. Two things I've come to learn from this. 1: Even if I teach to the best of my abilities and with the Spirit, people still have their agency. They must choose whether or not to accept our words. And if they don't accept, it's usually not because of our teaching. 2: Even if I don't think that I have made any progress, or touched anyone's life, I may be wrong. I don't know if Abinadi knew the power and influence that Alma would have once he was converted. But he taught anyways. AND because that one heart was changed, hundreds of thousands of people's lives were influenced! Think about it. Alma became a prophet. He taught and baptized people. He had sons that were missionaries and taught and baptized people. And they had sons. And they had sons. So many people were blessed because Abinadi was able to touch the heart of a young man. This is something I think we, as missionaries, need to remember. Even if it doesn't feel like we are having success, we have the ability to touch one person's heart. And we have no idea the influence that will bring to others. Even if we are our only convert on our mission, we can influence our posterity. It's a huge domino effect!! I just love this gospel. I'm grateful that I get to teach it to the Japanese people. Thanks for all of your prayers! I can feel them strengthening me throughout the day. I love you all!
Dobson Shimai
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| The Sisters Going to Kobe |
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| All the Kobe Missionaries going Ninja |
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