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