Moving Walkways and the Atonement

Monday September 17^th, 2012

Hello to my beloved family and friends! 

Things are going great here in Akashi! We had a baptism yesterday!!! It was the Elder`s Baptism, but it was with a man that Anderson Shimai found with another companion. It was so cool to see the ordinances of the priesthood in action!

It`s always so good to remember why we are here. Knocking hundreds of doors and being rejected by all of them is totally worth it, if you can bring just one person to the waters of baptism. That is why I am here in Japan. To bring others unto Christ. 

We have a couple of really promising potential investigators! There is this super awesome Chinese lady! She speaks Mandarin, English, and Japanese. We randomly found her as we were trying to find another potential investigator. She seemed very interested. She said she was a house wife and is bored a lot of the time and would love to hear our message! Those are definitely not words that we hear on a regular basis. They were like music to our ears! We`ve tried contacting her again, she was gone...but this week...hopefully we`ll get to talk to her. 

Saturday was an awesome day! We had an appointment with this lady who we found ‘streeting’ at the train station my first week here. She volunteered with some company and visited Utah. She`s been to temple square and liked the feeling there. We met with her in the park. We had an AMAZING lesson. The Spirit was there and she understood what we were talking about. I was on fire and SO excited! 

Then as we were leaving the park from our lesson we ran into this other potential investigator. In a city of 700,000 people, there are no accidents. I know that the Lord definitely put us in the place that we needed to be in so we could run into her. She was going to practice her accordion in the park, we went and listened for a little bit. Then we had to leave because we had another appointment. But we felt like we needed to invite her to the baptism that was going on the next morning. She actually said she would come! 

Both of these women are awesome!  You can definitely tell that the Lord has prepared people for us. The only bummer is that at the end of the first ladies lesson we gave her a pamphlet to read before our next lesson. That night she called us back....she felt totally overwhelmed and said she didn`t want to meet with us anymore. Super big bummer. We finally had a new investigator and got dropped by her all on the same day....It kind of hurt a little bit. I was so excited about her, and felt so invested. When she said she was no longer interested I felt somewhat responsible.

Questioning if I had done and said the right things. I kept asking myself if I had actually felt the Spirit and done what it asked me to do. It hurt when she was no longer interested. Not because of me. I am very aware of the fact that this work is not about me. I can`t do it by myself. It`s not the fact that she didn`t want to keep talking to us. It`s because she is rejecting the one person she needs more than anything in this world. That is her Savior. I just want for her so badly to recognize that! I hope that one day she`ll remember what she felt when we were with her...The Lord works in mysterious ways to the eyes of men.  

But the good news is that the accordion player actually came to the baptism! She couldn`t stay for church, but she said she would like to talk about some questions she had about the baptism.  Anyways...hopefully she`ll actually want to meet again. 

We`re still going strong with our one investigator. We`ve had to push her baptism date back a couple weeks. Hopefully she`ll make it. 

New Missionary Training Meeting

On Thursday we got to go to Kobe! We had a training for all the trainees and trainers. It was super awesome! We learned about a lot of great ways to be missionaries.  At the training meeting this week I definitely became more grateful for Sister Anderson as my trainer.  I really had the impression after that meeting that the Lord gave me Anderson Shimai to teach me how to work. To know what it is like to be a good missionary, valuing the Lord`s time. I’m so glad she’s my trainer.  She's awesome!

It was fun to see Long and Hansen Shimai at the training

I want to share one thing that Sister Zinke shared at our training meeting.  She talked about the enabling power of the atonement, which is something I've been learning a lot about. She compared it to those moving walkways in the airports. She talked about how when you get on those things, you`re walking capability isn`t necessarily increased. It`s not like you all of a sudden take bigger or faster steps. But when you get on them, they enhance how far you go. It increases your ability to go farther.

It`s the same way with the atonement. When we rely on the enabling power of the atonement, our abilities are enhanced. I just think that is so true. I`ve definitely noticed that in my life as a missionary.  The atonement is amazing! 

It`s cooling down here in Akashi which is kind of nice. I don`t sweat as much, but with the humidity you can`t but help being somewhat sweaty all the time. :) 

Well...the church is true. I love you all! Thanks for your constant support and prayers. I need them every day. 

Love,

Dobson Shimai 

  

 

I had an ice cream cone that I bought the previous day. But I was saving it. Then during companionship study Anderson Shimai was REALLY craving chocolate. The only chocolate in the house we had was that ice cream. So we decided to split it and eat it. It was delicious! 

 Here are some pictures of some questionable food. This is the story....

We had some bananas that were about to go bad. We also had a dinner appointment at a member`s house. We thought about being hospitable and making banana bread. So after church while I was making lunch, Anderson Shimai started making the bread. We put it in the oven and after the designated time we pulled them out. They looked very moist. So we tried cooking them for a little bit longer. We pulled them out again and they were stilled very damp. We cut them open and the whole bottom was sopping. In frustration Anderson Shimai called out, "I don`t understand why they are so moist! All the have are Bananas, eggs, sugar, flour...oh wait. Nope. I didn`t put in any flour." We both died laughing. Good times. We decided that while obtaining the gift of tongues, we`ve lost the gift of baking. Tis true.