The Kinkakuji

May 20^th, 2013

 Unfortunately, I don`t have a whole lot to be writing about this week. Not a whole lot happened....

We did meet with MM**** San. The Chinese lady who we met with once, she said she wanted to hear more but she was just always too busy to meet. Well we taught her something that President Zinke has been wanting us to teach relatively early in the teaching process. Simply it`s just our Goal-which is to return to live with God. And the two things that are keeping us from that, sin and death, and how we overcome that, which is through the atonement. And how we access the atonement is through the Gospel of Christ.

It may sound confusing but it`s in a nice little chart and is really easy to understand when you see it. Anyways. We taught that to her and she really had a problem with some parts of it. She`s Luthern, so some of her ideas about doctrine are different than ours. 

Anyways. She wasn`t super open, and then she didn`t have any more time so we couldn`t go into it more in depth. She said she wants to maybe meet sometime but she is really busy............ugh.

We also got to teach Mi*** Shimai. She is so great! In our lessons she just seems so hungry for the truth. She said when she was struggling over the past week she prayed to God and felt a very comfortable feeling come over her. She is getting and recognizing answers to her prayers which is awesome.

The only problem is that she is kind of hard to get a hold of during the week. She`ll only text/call us back when it`s convenient for her which sometimes can take up to a week.... Bummer

Other than that. The rest of the week was a lot of finding with not a whole lot of success....bummer

Sorry that`s really boring. But, ya. I really don`t have much more than that.

Well I love you all!

Love,

Dobson Shimai  

p.s. On P-Day last week we went to the Kinkakuji.  The Golden Pavillion

Weird I know, but I like red bean popsicles

Baptism!!!

May 13, 2013

Whoa. I typed that and realized I have been a missionary for exactly 11 months. What?! Crazy!!

Family, it was so good to hear all of your voices! I love you all so much! The next time I hear your face, I`ll also get to see your face. ;) Yay!

[We were able to talk to Nicole for 59 minutes on Mother’s Day.  It was so good to hear her voice.  She is so happy and full of the spirit.  It was great that each of the kids were able to talk to her too. ]

Well not a whole lot of time today. Sorry.

But the most important thing....

AY*** SHIMAI GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay! I was so happy to finally see her enter the waters of baptism! (twice actually...her foot popped up the first time. haha.)

She was so happy and after she was confirmed she had so much more light added to her face! I love it!!!!!!

Quick update. Sh*** San is doing really well. We had a good lesson with her. She said that when she reads the Book of Mormon, no matter what it is about she feels happy. She said, “It is fun. But not…”  and I quote,  “Fun like at a party. Because after a party you feel empty. It`s a lasting happy.`” Wow! I can`t believe she can just recognize that on her own! She is amazing!

We went to a YSA activity with her on Saturday. She loved interacting with everyone and just fits right in. 

Afterwards we invited her to Ay***SH*** Shimai`s baptism. She had a lot of really good questions about baptism. She asked who would perform the baptism, do they have to be qualified, why only boys have the priesthood, and if we baptize babies. When we said you can`t get baptized until you are 8 she said, `Oh. That makes sense. Before 8 you probably wouldn`t understand everything you needed to.` She`s seriously SO GOLDEN!!! LOVE HER!!

She could only stay for the first part of the baptism on Sunday so we didn`t get a chance to talk to her. We were planning on texting her when we got home from church to follow up with it. But she beat us to the punch, texted us and said, `Thanks so much for letting me join you today. It was a very special experience.` I can`t wait to get to talk to her about it.

I am just so happy!

Well the week wasn`t too eventful. Had some lessons. Struggling to find new investigators...

Yep. That`s about it.

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

Love,
Dobson Shimai 

These are pictures from the Young Single Adult Activity we attended with Sh**** San  the members couldn't get over me in this wig and glasses.

Sh**** San was having fun with the monkey suit and crazy glasses

I Love Our Investigators!

May 6, 2013

Wow. It`s already preparation day?! This week flew by! Time flies when you are having fun I guess. But I did go into a mid life crisis when I realized I only have 6 months left. WHAT?! Where did the time go? Everyone says the last 6 months goes the fastest! That can`t be happening. I feel like one of the cats in the cartoons who is digging her claws into the tree but still slowly sliding down. Come November I will hit the ground. ugh. That sounds horrible. I`m just going to stop talking about that.

On to happier things...

This week has been great!

I’ll start off with Ay**** Shimai. She has been amazing! She is working harder to keep the commandments than she ever has. She told us that one morning she opened the fridge and saw coffee and then slammed the door and shouted, `No!` haha. She is actually going to be able to be baptized this week!! I can`t wait! We had some great lessons. We did a life size version of the plan of salvation. Those are my favorite. I think she really enjoyed it and understood it more.

The members are all wanting to get on board to help her. They assigned everyone a different day to call her and encourage her and tell her not to drink coffee. She is excited to be getting all of the attention and I think it is going to be just what she needs to make it through the next week.  yay! Way excited about her!

Next. We met with Sh***San (the Chinese girl). We taught her about prayer. She still is iffy about who God is and if He is really there. But after we explained prayer she said, `So, if I have to make a big decision. Like, whether to stay in Japan or go back to China after I graduate, I can ask God about that?` So I think she really understood the concept well and she seemed excited to be able to have that help in making big decisions.

She was supposed to come to church but then she said she made a mistake on her paper and had to fix it instead. But before we even asked her she asked when the next time we could meet was. yay. I love it when investigators are asking YOU when you can meet instead of the opposite.

The next one. M**** Shimai. I LOVE HER!!! Really though. Like, SOO much!

Well we taught her a lesson on Wednesday after Eikaiwa (English Class). We taught her about prayer. I am not sure how well she really understood it, but she said she would try it.

Then she called us the next day and said she had some English questions and was wondering if we could meet her and talk about them. We agreed. We thought it wasn`t going to be very long, and we decided if we could talk a little bit more about the gospel in the end, we would, but we wouldn`t push it.

Well after we answered her question she started talking. She asked us awesome questions like, `Why did you decide to be a missionary?`

Also, `When my friends went to Utah they talked about a big church that they went and saw. Do you have one of those?` We pulled out a picture of the Salt Lake Temple and showed it to her. `That`s it!!` We briefly explained what happens in temples. She then said that she wanted to go. We explained our role as missionaries, and how we want everyone to be able to go into the temple and eventually return to heaven. The more we explained the more excited she got. We ended up showing her the baptismal font in the church and talked about how it is the first step to getting to the temple and eventually to heaven. She was so excited and right then and there we invited her to be baptized. SHE chose the date and is now working for June 30th!!!! Yay! We were all so happy!!

She also really opened up and told us some of the concerns she has been having lately. Both me and Lee Shimai have experiences with similar situations. We talked about how much God helped us through it. I think she is understanding so much more and now trusts us.

I can`t wait to see her progress! I know it`s selfish, but I don`t want to transfer. I want to stay and see her go through the whole process. She is GOLDEN!!!!!!

I`ll have to take a picture with her this week so everyone can see how cute she is!!!

That`s about it for the week. We really have been praying and working our guts out trying to find new investigators. But not yet....This week. I can feel something good coming. I am praying and praying to find a family. I miss teaching families. They are my FAVORITE!!!!

But that is about it from over here.

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

Love,

Dobson Shimai

p.s. Sorry no pictures this week