Welcome Walker Shimai!

 February 18, 2013

Hello Everyone! 

This week has been great! 

The beginning of this week was going with Anderson Shimai to try and say good bye to old investigators and PI`s. Seeing if they wanted to meet again. It honestly wasn`t super successful. 

Funny story. So we were supposed to go to Okayama Wednesday night sleep there, and then everyone would switch companions. We had planned plenty of time to get to the train station, make the train, and even talk with some people. 

Well we wanted to just swing past a PI`s house and invite her to church and see if she wanted to continue meeting with the missionaries. Well she is so cute and invited us into her house. We thought we would just talk for a little time and then leave. But when we looked at our watches it was 7:00. Our train was supposed to leave at 7:40 we were 40 minutes away from the Eiki (train station) and we still didn`t have Anderson Shimai`s luggage. We booked it home and tried to grab all of her miscellaneous bags (which was A LOT). We ended up throwing her 35 lbs `carry on bag` in the back of my bike and rode with grocery bags hanging off both sides of our bikes. We were riding as fast as our legs could carry us. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies. Oh I am sure we were a sight to see. Of course we had tons of crazy looks as the mild manner Japanese people see these two gaijin riding as hard as you would in tour de france with grocery bags flapping behind us in the wind. Even thinking about now makes me laugh. 

Well we got to the Eiki with 1 minute to spare. And there was our cute Branch President just wanting to say a last minute goodbye. I am sure he was embarrassed to see us as we came panting, running with our bags, and Anderson Shimai still had her helmet on. Oh it was embarrassing but so funny. 

(side note* The branch president thought it would be funny to tell all the members on Sunday his experience of watching us come sprinting into the eiki.  Yeah. That was embarrassing.)

We safely got to Okayama. Sleeping in Okayama was kind of an adventure. There were 9 Shimai. 7 futons. 6 blankets. And 5 pillows. Undoubtedly not the best night sleep I`ve ever had. 

Anyways. So me and Walker Shimai became companions! Yay. She is great! 

Honestly at first I was scared out of my mind to be Senior companion! I didn`t feel like I have the skills needed. And actually I don`t have all the skills I need. But I have realized over the past couple of days that I have enough of them. And by me I really mean that the Lord has made up for the parts I don`t have. 

There have been so many contacts where we are talking to people and I have no idea either what they are saying or what I am going to say but then I just opened my mouth, and (this might sound cliché, but it`s true) and it is filled. It doesn`t come out in perfect Japanese. But it comes out in understandable Japanese. Unfortunately most of those people decided to not want to hear more...BUT! I know that it wasn`t because of any fault of mine. 

So this week we decided to visit R****`s daughter. We thought R**** was on her island, she said she wasn`t coming back until Spring. But we wanted to invite her daughter to church. So we rang her doorbell and Rachel came out!! She was actually here! She showed us the results of her English test that she passed. She was so excited. She was so sad that Anderson Shimai had left but she just fell in LOVE with Walker Shimai. They are going to be great friends! We ended up teaching her most of the plan of salvation and she had a lot of her resolves concerned. Walker Shimai helped her so much and I was so thankful! Unfortunately she went back to the Island Saturday night. But she said she should be coming back to Takamatsu this week. So hopefully we will be able to keep teaching her. I just love her!!!! 

Sunday we got a new investigator! Her name is Ke**** San. I think I might have talked about her before...I can`t remember. We found her housing about a month ago. She is a cute single mom with 9 and 7 year old boys. SO cute! She went to college in Texas and now is a private English teacher. So she is fluent in English. We have been trying to get a hold of her but she is so busy with teaching that it hasn`t happened yet. We just decided to swing by her house right after church. She invited us in and we ended up teaching her the whole restoration. She picks and chooses what she believes. She takes whatever she likes from various religions and believes that. But after we told her about the restoration we asked her what she thought. She said, `If that is true. That`s amazing.` She said she is honestly looking for truth and so we taught her and invited her to pray. She said she would try and that we could talk to her how it went. We are going back to meet her on Tuesday. We are so excited! Oh she`s just great. 

Sunday night our Branch President wanted to go with us and visit Iz**** San. He said he wants to help her resolve some of her concerns. So we caught a ride with a couple from the ward and met him at her house. 

The unfortunate thing about Japan is that a lot of their doorbells have cameras. So you can see who is at your house. We could hear her family inside, and all the lights were on. We rang the door bell and there was some commotion  But they didn`t answer.  We rang again and the oldest boy talked to us on the intercom. We asked him if his mom was there and he said she just got in the shower....Ugh! I am 98% sure she was not in the shower. I am so sad for her! She is so close to the truth. She still wants it. But Satan just buckled down and got her! I am so frustrated. 

But at least I know we have done all that we know how. The Lord just has to take the rest. 

Me and Walker Shimai are getting along great! She is awesome and we are trying to be equal pullers. No one is above the other. I am definitely loving being her companion. We probably won`t have much longer together, but we are excited to see the arm of the Lord revealed here in Takamatsu. As we see miracles we truly know that the Lord can take small and simple things (us) and have great things come to pass. What I wonderful privilege to watch Him work through us! 

Well I love you all so much!!!   Happy Valentines Day

-Dobson Shimai