November 12, 2012
Hello to all of my dear friends and family at home!
I hope this letter finds you all ganki.
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| Me at Ritsurin Park |
So to start off. At the beginning of the teaching
process with her when we first introduced prayer we asked her if she had any
experience with prayer. She then went into a lengthy explanation about how she
loves this Korean singer. He is her favorite singer. And all that she wants is
to go to one of his concerts and to meet him. The problem is that he really
doesn`t come to Japan very often. She explained that frequently she`ll ask God
to help her meet him.
After we explained prayer she asked if God would let
her meet her favorite artist. We were obviously a little hesitant. We didn`t
want to make any promises that could potentially not be filled. We gently
explained that we know that God listens to us and that He does hear our
prayers, but He doesn`t always answer them in the way we might want Him to.
We thought her faith was amazing, but honestly we kind
of doubted that God would answer her prayer in that way.
Well U**** Shimai found out that her favorite
artist was actually coming to Japan! And he
was stopping in Osaka which is close to where we live. When she came to our
lesson she said she knew that God answered her prayers and that is why her
favorite artist is coming.
This was a wonderful learning experience. The Lord
really is in control of everything. And who are we to say that the prayer of
one of His special daughters wouldn`t be answered?
Of course God is all powerful. He can arrange the
schedule of a 16 year old pop singer in Korea. He has that power. But now our
investigator realizes that He has that kind of power.
I think too often we down play and say that He ceases
to work miracles in the lives of His children. But He doesn`t. He truly wants
all of us to be happy. He gives us experiences so we can be happy. And even
though U*** Shimai seeing her favorite artist isn’t that significant in the
eternal scheme of things, the Lord loves her enough to give her that
experience, and probably more importantly so that she knows that God knows her
and loves her and that He uses His power to bless us.
Because of this experience not only was I humbled, but
U**** Shimai`s faith in the power of prayer grew significantly. Her prayers
being answered played a huge role in her deciding to be baptized.
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| Me, U**** Shimai, and Anderson Shimai |
Yes. U**** Shimai has accepted a baptismal date! We
are so excited for her!
We had a lesson on Thursday talking about baptism. She
says she thinks it is good but she is afraid she won`t be able to endure to the
end. She doesn`t want to start on a path she doesn`t think she can finish. We
gave her a reading assignment from the Book of Mormon. One of the scriptures
talks about laying aside your fears and being baptized.
24 hours later she came back. She sat down, we prayed,
and she said, `I know I need to be baptized`. Wahoo! The Spirit filled the
room. I was all tingly and I knew I need to extend the baptismal commitment
right there. I extended the invitation.
She accepted December 23rd as her baptismal
date. And then the cutest thing happened. Anderson Shimai asked her if she
would start preparing for that date.
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| Me and U**** Shimai |
U**** Shimai got a kind of worried look on her
face. She said, `Do I need to go on a diet?`. At first we were confused. We
didn`t understand the correlation between her getting baptized and going on a
diet. Then we found the error. She thought she was going to be baptized in a
bikini!! We have showed her pictures of people being baptized, but we never
really talked about what you wear. In her mind, since the baptismal font is
kind of like a hot tub, she just assumed that she was going to be baptized in a
bikini.
But amazing her, even though she was self-conscious
about wearing a bikini, she had enough faith and she knew baptism was important
enough, that she decided she was going to be baptized, regardless of the circumstances.
Isn`t she just amazing?! I don`t know if I would be
baptized if I had to do it in a bikini :) :) :)
She is so amazing and we both love her so much. I am
so excited for her to receive the ordinance of baptism and confirmation. I know
that they will bless her life so much! I can`t wait for her to start on that
path towards eternal life!
In regards to the rest of the week....
We found some really great PI`s. My personal favorite
is this super cute Chinese woman. She gave us her number and said we could
visit her sometime when she isn`t working. Hopefully that will be sooner rather
than later, she`s pretty busy at work and isn`t really at home a whole lot. But
we know the Lord will prepare a way.
The rest of the week was kind of a bummer in regards
to teaching. We didn`t get to do a whole lot of it. We either got spoked
(people didn`t show up) or they called and cancelled appointments.
On Saturday we started having this great lesson with a
high school student. We found her in the Shotengai (the big shopping plaza) we
asked if we could share a message with her on a different day. She asked if we
could do it then. Of course we never say no to someone wanting to hear our
message. We tried to find somewhere to go. President Zinke has talked a lot
about creating a Spiritual Oasis in the first lesson. We wanted to have this
for our lesson so she could feel God`s love and want to hear more.
It`s hard
when there are people rushing everywhere and obnoxious music wafting out of
every store.
But we sat down on this random table, prayed and
started talking with her. It wasn`t teaching as we were just doing the `How to
Begin Teaching Lesson` President has asked us to do. We started talking about
who she is and how she is a daughter of God. She seemed to really like it. The
lesson was going in a good direction until 6 other high school girls came up.
They were her friends and they all wanted to go shopping. You could tell she
was having a little bit of an inner conflict.
I think she was genuinely interested in what we had to
say, but she was also feeling awkward about her friends being there. She got up
and was trying to leave. We asked if we could meet again or get her phone
numbers. She said yes, then walked away....Bummer. If she is supposed to meet
us again I know the Lord will prepare a way. I just hope it`s sooner rather
than later. If she can have the blessings of the gospel in her life now, why
wait?
Oh! On Saturday we had a ward talent show. I played
the flute and Anderson Shimai tapped danced. The ward members were greatly
surprised by the fact that she could tap dance. They all thought it was
hilarious.
The members showed some of their own talents as well.
There was karaoke singing, piano playing, reading in English, and traditional
Japanese dance which was way cool.
They were so fun. It was a bummer that none
of our investigators showed up. They had kind of planned it so we would have
something to invite people to. Oh well.
Well I love you all SOOOO much! Thanks for
everything!! I love you and miss you.
Xoxoxo
ダブセン しまい
ダブセン しまい
p.s. This is a story from Nicole's Mom about a tender mercy, a red mamachatti bike
Nicole has never been a fan of bike riding. She grew up in a house on a hill, which is not a great place to learn to ride a bike. So she didn't. We tried to encourage her, but she really wasn't interested. Finally when she was 8 we started to worry that her future might be jeopardized if she didn't learn to ride a bike. We began taking her to the track that goes around the Orem cemetary (nice and flat) and worked with her till she finally learned to ride her bike.
But although she learned to ride a bike, she never learned to like it and only rode it if we forced her. Our family likes to go for bike rides, that is, everyone except Nicole. When we would plan Saturday family activities she would say, "I'll do anything that doesn't involve riding a bike!"
Although we always made sure she had a bike her size that she could ride, it was usually something second hand because she NEVER (despite coaxing) wanted to receive a bike for her birthday or Christmas.
When she received her call to Japan we knew that the Elders usually rode bikes on their missions but she was hoping that Sisters wouldn't have to.
When the letter from the Mission President came requesting sisters to bring skirts that they could ride a bike in we looked at each other and she said, "I'm going to have a change of attitude."
But she was nervous. She had never felt confident riding a bike. She and I began going for bike rides in the morning. She practiced starting and stopping and shifting gears. When she began to feel comfortable on our rides she began riding in a skirt (No, I did NOT support her by wearing a skirt myself. YES she did get some strange looks. How often do you see someone in our country ride a bike in a skirt?!). Once she got used to riding in a skirt she added dress shoes (plus the skirt).
In the MTC she would ride the stationary bike during P.E time to get her legs in shape.
When she got to Japan there was a Sister who had only been there a short time but had to go home for some health reasons. She had a beautiful nearly new red, Mamachatti bike (Mamachatti is the style of bikes the Japanese 'Moms' ride) that she sold to Nicole for half the price of what it cost her.
Nicole thought the bike was the most adorable bike she had ever seen! This bike was a tender mercy for a girl who was very nervous about having to ride a bike in a strange country wearing a dress.
The bike is red--Red is Nicole's favorite color--and the beach cruiser style was easy and comfortable to ride, with a basket for her bag so she wasn't thrown off balance trying to carry it across her shoulder.
She has absolutely LOVED this bike. She has grown considerably in her bike riding abilities and her legs are totally buff now from riding everywhere she goes. She's only had one accident and that was recently and she wasn't hurt--just scraped up her boots.
I'm sure she would have done just fine on whatever bike she had, but our Heavenly Father is tender enough to know that having an adorable-RED-bike would just help out a Shimai that was nervous about riding in a new country.
I asked Nicole to send me a picture of her on her Red-Mamachatti Bike. Isn't she adorable?!
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| My Red Mamachatti Bike |
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