December 10, 2012
愛するかぞくとともだち！
How is everyone?
Things here in Takamatsu are cold and
crazy. That`s usually how life goes though...right?
First of all I wanted to thank all of
you who sent me cute notes for my Christmas tree! I haven`t put them up yet,
I`ll do it today. But they are all wonderful and mean so much to me. Thanks!!
Where to start?
Last Monday was CRAZY!! We taught
I***`s boys! That was so fun! I am not sure how well they
understood....but they all said they would pray. And when we talked to her on
Wednesday she said they are all praying! Cute them. I just love them!
We also taught the O*** family. I am
not sure how much interest the mom really has. But the cute 10 year old
daughter just loves it! She told us she has been praying. She prays at school.
She puts her head on her desk, folds her arms, and prays in her heart. She says
she loves prayers. Then at the end of the lesson she prayed. She was so cute
and said, `My mom can`t hear. But I love her. And I will make a cake for all
the people who can`t hear.` She is sooooo sweet!
Well as we were riding home, it was
getting pretty late and we were riding fast. Then...POP! My tire popped! There
was no way I could ride it and we were a good 45 minute walk from home. Luckily
we were close to a member`s house. We asked if we could park our bikes in front
of their house. They were so nice and said yes, then gave us a ride home. When
we pulled up in front of our house we saw our futons hanging outside to
air....soaking wet. It was raining.
We both just looked at each other and
started laughing. We were exhausted. We just thought it was hiliarious.
Anyways....
For the rest of the week...
On Wednesday we met with I*** San
again. It was AWESOME!! So we started talking and she really opened up. We
asked if she had any questions about anything we had taught up until that
point. And then she said she had been doing some reading about our church on
the internet. She had questions about the Pearl of Great Price, Word of Wisdom,
Law of Tithing and a couple other random things. She really has such a sincere
desire to know the truth.
I asked her why she kept meeting with
us. She said it was at first because we just kept coming back. But now she
really wants to know if this is true. (Kono koto wo shinjitsu ka do ka shiritai
to omoimasu.) That is music to a missionary`s ears!
And then she told us that her boys had
a questions about Heaven, and where they go after they die. And so she taught
them part of the Plan of Salvation, mainly 3 kingdoms of glory! Isn`t that so
cool?!!! Our investigator is teaching her boys the Plan of Salvation!!
As we were sitting there listening to
her, I couldn`t stop smiling. I was so happy! I was filled with this joy and
this special love for her. I am sure every missionary has felt this way at one
point or another. But it was just...blissful.
So needless to say that was a great
moment.
After her lesson we went and taught the C*** couple. (From Africa) The Spirit was not quite as strong in that lesson....I think the wife, T***, has a lot of real intent. She honestly wants to know if it is right. P*** on the other hand...I think he wants to prove us wrong. That`s a bummer. Their main question was about the Spirit World and so we tried teaching that but ended up teaching the whole Plan of Salvation.
We aren`t exactly sure how to help
them. The lesson we have with them this week will kind of be like...either it`s
true or it`s not. You can choose to get caught up in the difference of wording
in the scriptures or you can just accept the message as a whole. Do you want to
keep learning? That will be a little scary...but hopefully it will go well.
They actually came to church on Sunday
which was great! T*** was so sweet and wanted to take a picture with us. She
had a lot of really good questions. Not about proving it wrong, I think she
genuinely is curious. I think she also needs friends. Cute her. She just moved to Japan. She doesn`t
speak any Japanese. And her husband is at school all day. No one that she lives
by, or who goes to her church speaks English. I think she is a little lonely. I
want to help her so much!! Hopefully P*** won`t get in the way of her
progression.
Anyways...Moving on.
Thursday was great! We went to Okayama
for a big conference. Elder Yamashida from the 70 came. He spoke and did some training. (He spoke at
General Conference about a year ago).
As he walked in we were all singing
the `Armies of Helaman` song—Kobe, Japan Mission style. It was so fun to hear
all of us, as missionaries, unified. It was a really cool experience! I was
tingly all over. The Spirit is awesome!
He taught us a lot about teaching
strategies, especially for Japanese people. How to help them, how to show more
respect. It was really useful! I am bowing a lot more and a lot deeper now than
I was before.
A shout out to my wonderful companion! It was her birthday on Friday. She got flowers from the branch, and a cake from a cute Eikaiwa student. But the day wasn`t like...extraordinary which I feel bad about. Hopefully she had a good day.
Oh. On Friday we met this interesting lady. We met her as we were going to visit another PI who works in a little coffee shop. The two are friends. So her name is M***. She is ½ Japanese ½ Mongolian. But grew up in Russia. And went to school in Korea. And she loves English. She is 77 years old and kind of looks like a gypsy. She is Catholic. And she is just such a hoot. When we handed her our flier she opened it up and saw a picture of Christ. She just started weeping. She kept saying, `He is my Father, He is my Father`. It`s weird to see someone first, know who Jesus Christ is, and then to feel such love for Him. It was really cool.
And on Sunday she came to church! I
looked at her when they were passing the sacrament and she was just weeping.
She really is so moved by the Savior.
She had to leave right after Sacrament
meeting so we didn`t get to meet with her. But we are meeting with her this
week. Hopefully she will start listening. I think she would just latch on to
the gospel!
We met with S*** (the Chinese
girl who just showed up at church) on Thursday and passed her the pamphlet
about Joseph Smith. She said she would read it before Sunday and then gave us
cute little Christmas presents. But...she didn`t come to church and won`t
answer her phone...Bummer.
U***Shimai. Yah, she`s had sort
of a hard week. She has regressed a little. She isn`t really praying and
reading and she won`t come to church. She won`t be able to baptized when we
scheduled. But hopefully she won`t slip away.
Oh. Cool experience! So our Zone
Leaders asked to make calls every Friday and Saturday night inviting people to
come to church. We were looking through the area book and decided to call this
previous investigator. He only met with the missionaries once or twice and then
stopped because his brothers told him to. Well I called him and told him who we
were and asked if he would like to go to church. He said he would! (That
doesn`t normally happen). And sure enough, he came!
His name is N*** San. He is
probably in his early 40`s. He stayed for all of church and then we taught him
after. He is really interested and said he wants to learn about God. Also, he
wants his heart to be clean. As we were teaching him he was understanding
really well. We explained baptism a little and he said he wants to be baptized
and actually set a date! January 13th!! He said he wants to meet
during the week and on Sundays. He is just the best! He is such a sweet, tender
hearted man. He said he doesn`t have any friends and wants help from God with
his relationships. Cute him. He will
love not only the Spiritual strength he can receive from the Church, but I
think also the social part will play a big key in helping him.
This week we have a lot of first
lessons with people. We are pretty excited. Hopefully we can start teaching
even more people! But truly the Lord has blessed us so much! We had 3
investigators come to church, we are teaching a lot of investigators, and
finding more! The work is moving forward!
Enjoy all of the wonderful Christmas
preparations!
Love always,
Dobson Shimai
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