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| Me at the Shimogamo Shrine |
June 3, 2013
Wow! What a whirlwind
of a week! I`m still kind of like, what just happened?
Well to start off, I
went to Kobe on Tuesday for the `Leadership Counsel`. I traveled in with my
Zone Leaders. They`re awesome Elders...but it was so weird not having a
companion. I didn`t like it!
But the training was
really good. All the zone leaders were poking jokes at us all day. They are sad
that it is no longer Zone Leader Counsel and they said that the `brother
feeling` is gone now that there are Shimai. We got a little bit of training in
regards to our position, but not a whole lot. Honestly it`s because President Zinke doesn`t
really know what we are supposed to be doing. He showed us all the
information he received from the church. It was one piece of paper with about 8
bullet points. So we are pioneering it.
It will be an
adventure for all who are involved. But basically because there are so many new
shimai coming in there are going to be a lot of younger missionaries together.
Sisters don`t normally have the chance to go on exchanges (I`ve only been on
one so far), which are great learning experiences. So basically me and my
companion are in charge of 1/2 of the sisters in the mission. And we are going
to have an exchange with every sister at least once a transfer. That`s a bit of
a daunting task for just 2 companionships. So we are actually going to have to
start going on exchanges twice a week! Crazy! (I`ll get to who my new companion
is in a minute)
The rest of the week
was good. Wednesday we didn`t have a lot of finding time but the Lord showed us
that you don`t need a lot to have miracles. We were doing a little bit of
streeting around Kyoto University. We
had 5 minutes before we had to go. We made a contact and at first the girl
really didn`t seem interested. But, we started talking about her relationship
with God and I asked her if she wanted to hear more. She said yes and then
asked if it could be right then. Of course we excitedly agreed. We sat down on
a bench in this little secluded shady corner at the University and started
talking to her about her relationship with God After we said
something she would think about it, be quiet, then state back to us in her own
words what we had just said. Then she would take that to the next step and
teach herself more doctrine. For example, `So, because I am God`s child, He
loves me. Ok. That means I am special to Him...right? But everyone is
God`s child. So that must mean that God loves everyone. And that everyone is
special to God. Wow. God is really awesome.`
Ya. He`s pretty
awesome!
I just love watching
the Spirit work on people. It`s like their spirit is saying, `yes yes, yes! You
finally are remembering!!` So cool! She`s one of our new investigators. Can`t
wait to meet with her again.
Thursday was a little
interesting. We have this couple that has been coming to English Class. They
are from Iran. Neither of them speak Japanese. The husband is a Doctoral
student at Kyoto University and so his English is pretty good. They have been
coming to help out the wife. Well recently Lee Shimai and I have felt like we
need to invite them to church. We planned on doing it this past week. We did
and they said they would go.
Then the husband said
he had written a paper in English and was wondering if we could help him edit
it. We thought this was a perfect foot in the door to meet with them, help
them, and eventually lead the discussion to religion. We set up a time to meet
them and help him edit his paper. Ya. I didn`t realize the `paper` he wanted us
to edit was his doctoral thesis! Oh wow.
my brain still hurts thinking about it. It took a lot longer than we had
expected, and we didn`t get all the way finished.
But we showed his wife
the pictures of the temples on LDS.org and she got so excited. We gave her one
of our pass along cards with the Salt Lake Temple on it. When she saw it she
put her to her heart and said, `Can I keep this forever?` Yes. Yes you can!
They came to church
on Sunday which was so great! At the end the wife looked at us and said, `I
just...love you. two.` We love you too!!! She just has such a big heart and I
love her so much! The husband is really nice but his ideas about religion are
that you just accept all religion if it`s good. We`ll work on that.
But I fully
anticipate them to be the first Stake President and Stake Relief Society
president in Iran. One day...
The rest of the week
was good. A little crazy. We tried to build our relationship with M***
Shimai. We haven`t seen her for a while. We thought that if we took it easy and
just went out to lunch with her it would allow us to be able to meet with her
more frequently. We finally got a hold of her and away we went. It was a
reality wake up call. I guess you could say it was fun. But unfortunately I
think she saw it as just hanging out with her friends. Yes we are her
friends. And yes it is fun to hang out with your friends. But afterwards I just
felt empty. Not because we did anything bad, just because we weren`t doing what
missionaries do. It made me realize how lucky i am to be a missionary. I don`t
want to go home and go back to that feeling. I want to feel like this forever!!
Mom and Dad, are you
ok if I never come home? You could just come visit me. :)
Basically that was my
week.
Oh ya. I almost
forgot transfer calls! Haha. Got transfer calls this morning. I am going to
Okamachi (It’s in Osaka) and white washing (New Area, New Comp, No Investigator
Pool)! My new companion is Kubo Shimai. Yay! My first Nihonjin (Japanese) companion.
I am way excited! I can`t wait for the Japanese help. Hansen Shimai said that
she corrects your Japanese a lot. Perfect!
That is what i am looking for! I am still not sure which Shimai I am
going to be in charge of, but I am ready to get to work!
I love you all so
much!!
-Dobson Shimai
P.S. I might have
cried the other day when I realized that Anderson Shimai goes home tomorrow. If
you see her, say hi for me!!
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