November 19, 2012
Hello to my dear
family and loved ones!
Yay! It`s the start of transfer 3. I am no longer a `bean` or greeny. We normally receive transfer calls Monday morning and then transfer on Thursday. But for some reason we are receiving the transfer calls tomorrow and still transfer on Thursday.
So next week, who knows where you`ll be getting an email from! Maybe I`ll stay in Takamatsu. (I`m crossing my fingers).
Where to start with
this week?
Well first to start
off with the cool experiences we had last Monday.
First. We were
teaching I*** San and we asked her how she was doing. Last time we taught
basically the whole restoration and she seemed pretty confused. We left her the
pamphlet and asked her to read it. Well on Monday we asked her how she did with
the reading. She said that she read the pamphlet, still didn`t understand it
very well but that she read from the Book of Mormon. That was nice since we
hadn`t asked her to. We asked her where she had read. She read from the very
beginning, (testimony of Joseph Smith) up to chapter 8! She said whenever she
has time after work she likes reading it. She says it is interesting, and she
wants to learn more!! Wahoo! We are so excited about that. She really is
progressing so well!! Today we are re-teaching the restoration to her and her
boys. We have planned for a long time. We really want to help her understand.
And I think she has real intent and is genuinely interested. We are excited to
see her continuing to progress!
After our lesson with
her we decided to just drop by the O***family. We didn`t go with our member
who helps with deaf interpreting, but we just wanted to see how they were
doing and invite them to church.
The mom came out and
talked with us for a little bit. She
told us the coolest thing! She said normally when Christian people come to her
house she doesn`t listen. She said they are all angry and just say, `You have
to enter our church` and yell at you about God. But she said when we came there was this
feeling. (And I wish I could express it like she did, but it doesn`t work in
written words.) She made this noise,
kind of like, `whoa` and her hands were beckoning to her body. She said she really felt something and she
wanted to know why we were different. That
is why she has been letting us come back.
That was a really
cool experience and reminder. I remember
when we met them that first time. It was freezing outside but my whole body was
warm. We all felt the Spirit so
strongly. I am so grateful He was there. He really is the only thing that helps people
see that we are not just another Christian church.
Also, when we invited
them to church at first the mom was a little hesitant. But then her 10
year old daughter (who has been to our church) got down on the ground, bowed to
her mom, and BEGGED to go to church. We
are so grateful for the faith of that little girl. We feel like she will be a major factor in
helping her family progress in the gospel.
This week we had a
district conference in Marugame, so they weren`t able to come to church, but
hopefully they will make it this week! We are teaching her today as well
and we are so excited!
This week we went
with our ward mission leader and his wife to visit this PI (Potential
Investigator) . I don`t remember if
I`ve talked about him before. He is this
old Buddhist man who is pretty sick. We
gave him the Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. Well he let us in and was actually happy to see
us. He hasn`t read the Book of Mormon
because he says the words are too small. We are buying a magnifying glass for
him today.
We were planning on
teaching a lesson but it ended up with him just talking the whole time. He was telling us all about his life. He
really is such a tender hearted man. All
of the kids in the neighborhood basically eat and play at his house. They all just love him.
As he was talking he
was using all of this hard Japanese that I really didn`t understand. I felt like I was riding a bullet roller
coaster. Mouth open and flapping as the
wind is zooming by at incalculable speeds. I was hanging on for dear life and pleased if
I caught the concept he was discussing. But towards the end of the conversation
he turned to me and said, in Japanese, ‘You don`t understand Japanese.’ I responded, ‘Not really’. He then went to
say that I he was impressed that even though I didn`t know the language that I
was still out working. I felt a little better about myself. Maybe my lack of
language ability is able to actually bless someone`s life. I didn`t catch the
rest of the conversation, but I thought that was a cool experience. We didn`t
end up teaching him, but after the meeting we both felt like whatever happened,
needed to happen.
We are going back again
this week and hopefully we will get to teach him then. He just lives at home
and feeds the neighborhood children. So he has a lot of time to be taught!
Yay!
 |
| Marugame Tample |
President and Sister
Zinke were there and it was fun to see them. The whole afternoon was just
Spiritually uplifting.
Instead of returning
straight home after the meeting our ward mission leader surprised us and took
us for a little...culturally enriching activity. We went to this little temple
in Marugame and then to this cool pavilion. I really don`t know the
significance of either of them, but the view was fantastic! I`ll send pictures.
It was fun going there. Because it is an Elder`s area we would probably never
get to go there for sight seeing. So that was fun! 
Well that`s about all
I have time to explain this week. I love you! I hope you have a great week.
Hopefully I`ll still be emailing you from Takamatsu next week. ;)
The church is
true! -Dobson Shimai
 |
| It's getting colder! |
 |
| Bridge from Marugame to Okayama |
The members in Takamatsu are SO great. They brought us food for Thanksgiving! We put the oranges under our little Christmas Tree. :)
Nicole also sent these pictures from opening the Halloween package. It's the wrong holiday, but they were too cute not to include.
No comments:
Post a Comment