An Earthquake and The Work of the Kingdom

April 16, 2013

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is find and dandy! I love you all so much.

Yes. There was an earthquake this week on Saturday. We woke up at 5 in the morning to an annoying beeping coming from the phone. With sleepy eyes we were trying to figure out the kanji in the message when our futons jolted on the floor and slid a little bit. Then we realized that the phone message was an earthquake alert.

I guess we aren`t very Japanese because we sat up. And after it stopped shaking we went back to sleep. We were lucky as there wasn`t any damage in our apartment or in Kyoto.

Some other areas had some cracks in the walls and stuff, but we were pretty far away from the center so we were safe. :)

Honestly, I forgot about it until I read your emails asking me about the earthquake. Haha.

The members and some of our investigators were all worried and were talking about it. They are a lot more nervous when it comes to earthquakes. Probably because they have had lots of previous scary experiences.

But all is well.

This week was so great!

We had a lesson with Fukushima San. She came into the lesson and had written out a bunch of lyrics of a song she either wrote or listened to....I`m not quite sure. But it was about a lot of weird stuff about this life. I won`t go into details but I am really glad that we started teaching her the plan of salvation that lesson. I think it really helped answer a lot of her questions. There isn`t a whole lot to do on updating about her.

We also had a lesson with Ni*** Shimai. Wow! Well first as we were following up on her reading and praying was going she talked about how much she is studying and praying. She pulled out her notebook of all the things she had been studying. Her references from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. As she was showing the member the member just started bawling. She said, `Oh Sister! I can`t believe there are actually people like you that want to learn so much!` I think it was a good testimony strengthener for our member.

But if that wasn`t a strong enough witness, Ni**** Shimai then pulls out her little planner and turns to a page. There she had written peoples names, places of birth, and death dates. She said that they were mostly her grandparents and her husband`s siblings and parents. She said she has recently had a whole lot of time and she hasn`t been sure how to fill it. She said she felt like she needed to start gathering all this information on her relatives. So she did.

As the member heard this she turned to us and her mouth literally dropped. Then came the tears again. The member turned back to Ni**** Shimai and said, `This isn`t going to make any sense, but I am going to explain it anyways.` And then proceeded to explain family history and temple work. The member then said to Ni**** Shimai, `All of those people want you to do their work! Quick. Get baptized fast!!!` Well I am glad the member said. I wanted to, and her Japanese was much more understandable.

I am not sure how much Ni**** Shimai really understood. But the idea didn`t seem to bother her.

At the end of the lesson we ended up talking about baptism again. She really is progressing so well and we want to help her start working for a goal. But as we brought it up again she is still very set on the fact that she doesn`t know everything. She wants to know it all before baptism. We told her that wasn`t necessary and tried to explain that she would keep learning. That we didn`t even know everything. But she still wouldn`t take that for an answer.
We are going to keep working with her on that.

But she did come to both the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions of General Conference! Yay!! Obviously we were so thrilled. She said she liked them a lot and wants to talk about it at our next lesson. So we`ll see what she thought.
And that`s Nishi Shimai.

Next is Ay**** Shimai!!

Wow. She is really working so hard and everything is coming together very smoothly for her baptism. We are so excited! She passed her interview on Thursday! And we ended up meeting with her yesterday and just walking through the program, what it would be like. And you could just see the light that was coming into her eyes. She is so excited and said she can`t wait to get baptized. She`s actually going to make it!! This Sunday before church! Wahoo. I really am just so excited for her.

We didn`t get to meet with M**M** and Jo*** this week. Jo*** started college this week and M**M** started teaching so they both are way busy which is a total downer. But they said they do want to meet again so we are hoping to set up a time this or next week.

This weekend we watched GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! I have always loved General Conference but it is just so much better as a missionary. The 2 hours sessions just seem to fly by. I could hardly believe when they were over.
Obviously I loved all of the talks. I am excited that the rest of the world is catching the `wave` of missionary work. It`s so excited to see everyone get on board.

After the Saturday session we had some time before we had to go home. We ended up doing some housing pretty close to the church. There we met an elect. She is so prepared and we are so excited about her!!!!

She is a college student. She is Chinese but speaks fluent Japanese (way better than mine) and really good English. She has a boyfriend from Germany  who is studying at Cambridge right now. She said she misses him a lot and wants to meet with more good people her age group. Perfect! We actually have like 5-7 YSA in our ward!

She has been to Catholic church before with her boyfriend and said she is interested in Christianity. We ended up inviting her to General Conference. And she came! We asked her if she wanted to watch it in Japanese, Chinese, or English. She chose Japanese and we had her sit next to one of the cute members who just got back from her mission. I guess she had to leave 15 minutes before it ended but she wrote us a note. She said, `Thank you so much for inviting me. Everyone is so nice! I am coming again next week. Let`s meet again. Shall we?` And then her phone number and email address! What?! I have never had someone take that much initiative in meeting with us. So excited!

We contacted her. She said she is really busy this week but asked if we could meet before church. The ONE week someone wants to meet with us before church, we have a baptism. Ironic, isn`t it? But we invited her to the baptism and she said she might have to come a little late, but she will really try to make it.
I have such a good feeling about her. I am seriously so excited!!

Yesterday we had Zone training and Interviews. Interviews were great. We had training from Pres Zinke and the assistants. Sister Zinke always comes. And we had a good talk with her. By October we are supposed to have 80 shimai! And there could be more as they are still assigning mission calls! Right now we only have 22 Sisters in the mission. And that is including the new Sisters who just got here this transfer! There is no way that they are going to be able to train all of the new ones coming in. Because of that they probably won`t be able to implement that new Sister leader position in right away. They are thinking 3-4 transfers from now.
 

I really just feel so blessed to be in this mission at this time. It`s going to end up being a little crazy. Who knows what these next couple of transfers will bring. But I am excited for the challenge and ready to go to work! 
I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week!!

Love,
Dobson Shimai

Konichiwa! What an Awesome Week!

April 8, 2013

Konnichiwa! Ogenki desu ka. Kono mairu wa zenbu nihongo dattara, daijobu desu ka?
Tabun nai  to omoimasu.....

(Translation: Hello. Howare you? If this email was all in Japanese would that be ok? Probably not....)

Well it sounds like things are going well at home. I am glad to hear. I hope you all enjoyed conference. I can`t wait to watch it next week! I am SO excited!

Well quick update on this week.

Investigator 1: Ay*** Shimai. She got pretty sick this week so we weren`t able to met her and she wasn`t able to have her interview. She won`t be making the 14th. Hopefully the 21st but we still aren`t sure... That`s about all that needs to be said about her.

Investigator 2: Fu*** Shimai. She is doing well. We had a lesson with her last week. We mostly talked about God again. We had told her before, but when we said that He is a human and has a body she was super surprised. Apparently we didn`t teach it well enough the first time. She asked a lot of good questions and said she wants to continue learning. Yay. She is just continuing to be awesome.

Investigator 3: Ni*** Shimai. HOLY COW!! She is probably the most diligent, studious, awesome investigator I have ever had!

Last week she wasn`t able to come to church so we didn`t set up another appointment. So we decided to visit her and try and set up one. She invited us in and we sat down and talked for a while. When we asked her if we could met again she readily agreed and then said, `Ok. What`s my homework? I want to be ready.` We told her that we would be talking about prophets. We asked her to read from the scripture guide in the back of her Book of Mormon. (It`s like the equivalent of the Bible Dictionary-which they don`t have in Japanese) The part we wanted her to read was just a couple of paragraphs. She looked at the section and then wrote down all of the scripture references they had and said, `I`ll read these too.` She really is just thirsting for that knowledge and is wanting more and more. We need to give her more of it. We aren`t giving it to her fast enough!
 

Well she showed up to the lesson 2 days later. She had read all the scripture passages and then pulls out a bible and said, `I  got this bible from the Jehovah`s Witnesses. They also have the references on prophets. THis is what I found.` And then shows us pages of references talking about prophets!  Wow! Can you say amazing?!

The only problem is that we thought she it was going to be way easy to describe a prophet and then move smoothly into the restoration. But no. She wanted the DEEP explanation of a prophet. THe only problem is that I don`t even know the deep explanation of a prophet, nor how to describe it adequately enough in Japanese. Ya. Basically we talked for an hour about prophets. She wouldn`t let us move on because she didn`t feel like she understood it well enough. She said she wanted to study more and then come back and talk about it. Ugh. I wish I could have given her the answer she was looking for.
 

But before she left I felt like I should ask her why she wanted to continue meeting with us. Her answer was short. Simple. To the point. `I want to go back to God.` Well. That`s good enough for me!
We are meeting with her again this week. Hopefully we will be more prepared this time.

Investigator 4 &5: Yes! We got 2 new investigators this week! We are so excited! It is a Chinese mom who is a professor here, and her 20 year old son. Her name is Z*** M*** M***. His name is N***.
They were a referral from a member in Kansas (where they lived for a while). We got it clear back in September and we have been trying to contact her since then, but she has been so busy that she hasn`t been able to meet. We tried calling her again to set up an appointment and she asked us to go to her house 2 hours later. We were so excited!

Wow! She is just amazing. She really opened up and told us very personal stories about how she know God lives and is watching out for her and her 2 boys. She lives a pretty hard life but she is amazing! They are Luthern, but when they lived in Kansas they had some contact with the church and went to some activities. They were super impressed by it and she wants to learn more. They really are so amazing! I can`t wait to met with them again!!

And that is basically it for our investigators this week. 

Just something I wanted to share that I have been thinking about lately. So we as missionaries in Japan ride our bikes. A lot! And `all things denote there is a God`. So I think that includes our bikes.

As a mission lately we have really been studying the Atonement lately. How to use the cleansing power to access the enabling power of the atonement.

And this week as I was riding my bike I realized that the enabling power of the atonement is like a bike.

If I get on a bike and put it in first gear, I start moving. I am moving more than I would if I was just walking. But if I am willing to put in a little extra effort and switch up to gear 2, I get propelled a little bit farther. I can go more of a distance.

As I am willing to move up to the next gear I go even farther.
Once i start getting to 4th and 5th gear I am having to put in a considerable amount of effort. My legs may get kind of sore, and I may want to rest. But I am moving across a considerable distance.

Once I get to gear 6 I am maxed out. I`ve pushed all the way. But as I think back to how far/fast I was going on my lower gears, and then realize my progress, I can see how much more I am accomplishing.
 

My gears are always able to propel me forward. More so than I could if I was just on my own. The bike has the mechanisms to propel me forward. It`s a perfect equation (Well I`m guessing.) But the bike is limited as to how far it can take me. I have to be the one who chooses which gear I put it in. How much effort I am willing to give.

It is just like the atonement! Our Savior is standing there. Wanting us to ride on His bike. He wants us to get on so He can magnify and propel us forward. But He will never 1) Force us on to the bike. And 2) Make us go to a gear that we don`t want to. But as we do choose to put in our fullest efforts, He will be able to lengthen and extend us to do, be, and go farther than we ever could on our own.

And so it is in missionary work. Of course the Lord will help us in His work. He wants to do that. But, as I give my fullest efforts to the Lord, He takes and magnifies my every move.
I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ!

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love,
Dobson Shimai

P.S. We have interviews next Monday so I won`t be emailing until Tuesday.

Here are pictures from Last Week's P-Day

 

This is a Shinto Temple in Kyoto We Went To

I feel so Lucky to Be in Kyoto Right Now

 

 

 

 

This is One of My Favorite Desserts:  Cherry Blossom Mochi with Red Beans

Cherry Blossoms and Spring

April 1, 2013

Wow. It`s already April! I can hardly believe it!

It is so beautiful here. The cherry blossoms have all popped and it looks like there is snow and popcorn everywhere! It is SOO pretty!

 

I see people traveling all the time. It`s always super awkward though because you don`t know if they speak English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, etc. I`ve tried saying hello to people and they give me funny looks and then start talking in another language. It`s usually safer just to talk to the Japanese. I can communicate with them. (Well, for the most part)

Well this letter is going to be a little bit shorter. We are getting together as a district and going to go see some cool things around Kyoto. I have to leave soon to make it there in time.
Anyways. Quick run down.

Ay*** Shimai is doing great. She really is working so hard for her baptism. You can tell that she is so excited! We taught some good lessons to her last week and she has her baptismal interview scheduled for this week! We are so excited for her!!! She should still be set for getting baptized on the 14th.

We taught our investigator Ni**** San this week too. As we were planning her lesson it just wasn`t coming and we were struggling to find something that we should teach her. Whenever we tried planning something new it had the same thing. We couldn`t figure out what was going on so we decided to pray and see what the Lord wanted her to hear. We really felt like we just needed to ask a bunch of questions and find out more about her situation.

When we got to the lesson that`s exactly what we did. We didn`t teach anything new. Basically we just sat there and her and the member who was in the lesson just talked. Normally that would be kind of annoying.... But the member was talking about a lot of awesome things and actually ended up answering a lot of her questions. She helped SO much and we are so grateful we had a member there.

Ni**** San is just amazing! We found out that she has been searching for some church. She`s met with tons of other churches. But she said she keeps coming back to ours because she likes the way it feels.

Because we actually followed the Spirit and didn`t feel pressured to teach a specific lesson, we learned so much more about her and now we feel that much more ready to help her in our next lesson.

hough.
Before we left Ni**** San asked US to give her `homework`. She is wanting to learn and study while we aren`t meeting with her. How awesome is that?!!

We also met with Fu**** San. She is this old grandma that Davis Shimai found before. They had one lesson with her but then she was super busy and couldn`t meet for a while. Well we got to meet her this week. She is a spit fire. She is trying to learn English and has her own set of beliefs. She reminds me of Ra**** which is funny.  She is not nearly as sassy as Ra**** though.

We taught her the Restoration which I think she enjoyed. She loved the idea of praying and having a conversation with God. She went to a Catholic school growing up and believes a lot in that. She seemed to like the idea of the Restoration and was excited to meet again. Even before we asked her to pray, she told us that she would pray every day. That`s the 2nd time that`s happened in 2 weeks! I love it!

She was so excited to come to church too on Sunday.

Then on Friday we got a call from her while we were in District meeting. She left us a message and it said (all in English), `My God. I believe my God. Can`t go churchi. Goodbye.`
UGH! What? Well I called her back and we had a good conversation. She agreed to meet with us again and continue studying. But she said she can`t come to our church because it`s not what she believes.

That`s a downer but at least she is willing to meet with us again. I`ll take that. We are praying that we will have a stellar lesson through the Spirit.

So here in the main part of Kyoto there is a HUGE river. And there are cherry blossom trees lining the whole thing. It is so pretty and tons of people come and take pictures and go on a picnic. It is an AWESOME place to go finding because people are just super relaxed and are enjoying life. The only downer is that a lot of the people there are traveling. We have sent some awesome referrals to Tokyo though! Hopefully something will become of that.

Sunday was a little crazy. We were meeting with this 40 year old former investigator from the area book that we called last week. She said she wanted to come to church but couldn`t remember how to get there. We ended up meeting her at the train station and riding a bus back with her to the church. We barely made it to church in time for the sacrament.

Some of the members remembered her and did great at welcoming her back.
She went to Sunday school and the lesson was on Fasting and Fast offerings. She was a little squirmy through the whole thing and then said she had to leave in the middle of it.

Later that night we got a text from her saying that she couldn`t keep meeting with us. She was worried about fast offerings and her parents told her that she shouldn`t be Christian. That she has to be Buddhist.

 We asked her if she would meet with us at least one time, but no response..... Bummer.

Oh. I guess it was Easter on Sunday huh...They don`t really celebrate Easter her. But Happy Late Easter!!

Well. That basically sums it up for the week.
I love you all SOO much!
-Dobson Shimai

This is a member family.  The Dad is Chilean and the Mom Japanese.  Their kids are So CUTE!!!

We were streeting when we ran into these two girls from Taiwan.  They are from Taiwan.  The one girl is waiting for her mission call.  She knows Sara Gummow!!!  They worked at the Polynesian Culture Center together.  Talk about small world.

Thanks for the Birthday Cake Mix...MMMMMMmmmmm