Dobson Shimai: A Week of Miracles


Takamatsu Chapel

Monday October 15^th, 2012

It has definitely been a great week. Full of mini miracles every day. Where to start?

This week was awesome in regards to contacting. We ended up finding a lot of PIs (Potential Investigators) and even had return appointments for some of them. As we were riding away after a particularly good contact I said a silent prayer of gratitude. Then I had the impression in my mind, `You fasted, prayed and asked for them. Now I am giving them to you.` Whoa! Way cool right?! We had fasted last Sunday to find people to teach. We pray to do so multiple times each day. It was so cool to see the Lord blessing us. I feel so lucky.

That is definitely not the only miracle that happened this week. We had an appointment with the lady I talked about last week, that we found last Sunday. I was so excited to go teach her! We went to her apartment at the specified time, rang the door bell and....nothing. You could definitely hear someone inside, moving around. But they never came to the door. We rang twice. Still nothing. I was heart broken. We had gotten spoked. We went to our back up plan and started housing in the surrounding area. No one was home or interested. Honestly, I was discouraged. I was so excited to have a new investigator and to start teaching again.

We were going to head back home but we decided to ring the door bell one more time. We did and she answered!!! I guess she just didn't hear us. But she let us in and said we could talk.

She was so sweet. She tried offering us drinks. But everything she tried offering us was everything we can’t drink. Bless her heart. She felt so bad. We felt bad too. We didn’t want to offend her, but we also can’t break the word of wisdom.

So we sat down with her and we actually didn’t teach a `lesson` per say.

Every month President Zinke comes out with these training plans. They are specified things designed to help us with missionary work. This month`s training plan is all about setting expectations at the beginning of the teaching process and using the `how to begin teaching` section of Preach My Gospel. So we sit down with the investigator and get some back ground information about them, experiences that have helped them believe that God exists, our expectations, etc.

So we just did that with her. Before we started however, we had a prayer. (Of course). I prayed very simply but the Spirit was present. After the prayer she was crying. She talked about how she had just gotten off the phone with her 14 year old son. He is living away at a boarding school and is having problems with being bullied. She said in the prayer she just felt peace when we prayed.

The Spirit is so great!

So long story short with her we set expectations and she is really interested in learning more. We asked if we could meet again and she said yes. And she asked to come to church before we could even invite her! Yay! We explained a little bit about General Conference and said if she wanted we were watching it on Saturday and Sunday. She said she would come.

And sure enough. Saturday afternoon she came! She couldn`t stay for very long. But the Lord is definitely in the details in our lives. She listened to the talk by Elder Nelson addressed to those who should talk to the missionaries. I was SO excited that she got to hear it! She said she liked it and had questions.

Awesome!

On Sunday she came again! We taught her a brief lesson about prayer and God. The Japanese don`t really use the word love, or loving. It`s hard to say `God is our loving Heavenly Father` when they don`t really understand what that means. Luckily we had a member there who helped build a bridge between cultures.

The lesson went really well and you could see the Spirit working with in her. She is so tender hearted and is yearning to learn more. We are meeting again with her tomorrow. I think she is definitely one of the elect that is waiting for the gospel.

I can`t wait to see what progress she will make this week!

I don`t have time to share all of the miracles that happened, but I just love General Conference! It has such a power that can bring people together.

Saturday night we went to visit the family we`ve been trying to teach. We had a great conversation with the mom. We talked outside their house for 30 minutes and she just really opened up.

Basically she says she isn`t very interested in the church. She thinks she is strong enough without it. But she REALLY wants us to teach her kids. She thinks it could help them. We know that those adorable little Asian children of hers are going to be the door to her heart and being able to teach her as well. We hopefully will get to start teaching them this week.

BUT the cool miracle was that she brought her kids to part of Sunday`s Conference! I was so excited! They actually came.

We didn`t get to really watch the Sunday afternoon session because we were teaching our investigator and working with the family. That was so worth it though!

It was a great day of miracles!

Oh! We got to start Eikaiwa (English class) this week. That was fun. All of the students there were so eager to learn. There is this new standard coming out from the church. Basically it`s like the MTC. We aren`t allowed to speak any Japanese.

It`s all English.

That isn`t really a problem for me....I can`t speak Japanese, and I teach the intermediate class, but the look on the poor students` faces for the beginning class was great. I wonder what my face was like that first week at the MTC....

Like I said. We didn`t get to watch conference. It was so great! (It was in English so it made it even better, because I knew what they were saying :) )

It`s cool studying about the gospel and the authority to preach the gospel, and then to watch conference and realize that the men who are speaking having God`s restored authority here on the earth. They are His representatives, and are truly amazing!

Basically it was just a great week! The Lord is moving His work along.

I love you all lots and lots!

Love,

Dobson Shimai