WELP

September 30, 2013

I know I say this basically every week, but I can not believe how fast the time here is going!! The weeks just keep getting faster and faster!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! 

Well this week was interesting. We`ve seen both the good, the bad, and the funny. 

Let`s start with the good. Shall we.... 

First of all. The good news always has to start with M**** San! Wow!! I am blown away by him every week. He is just so solid! He loves the gospel, and knows that it is helping him. He really doesn`t have any big concerns, his main thing is that he wants to understand everything in his mind as well as his heart. To me the gospel makes sense in both. But for someone who has never heard something like this before, and who is a scientist and likes experiments, it`s been a little bit challenging. But he really believes and is willing to walk by faith and continue on. 

In fact, this week he passed his baptismal interview!! Yay!! So he is all set and ready to go to be baptized this next Sunday!! I seriously can`t wait! And obviously we are so excited, but the ward is also just thrilled. They need some strong people to be baptized. Honestly, most of the baptisms here over the past couple of years are people who are a little mentally unstable and need a lot of help, or are all less active. I think that has been really hard with the ward and their faith. 

But they see Matsuzaki at church every week, and while talking with him they realizing how strong he is.  This has been so good. Thye all seem to have a new excitement in missionary work. Hopefully this will be the spring board into even more miracles. :) 

Then there is the beloved Y**** Kyodai. I love that old grandpa so much! He loves church, and you can tell he wants to make it a part of him, he is just scared to let go and fully embrace it. But we are slowly making progress.  I think his heart is warming up more than it was in the past. 

And in regards to the rest of our investigators...Ya. That`s probably the bad. We had lessons with a lot of them this week. Unfortunately most of the lessons ended with them saying something like this, `I can tell that you really believe this, and that you care about I, but I`m not willing to change my beliefs to conform with yours. There are lots of different paths to the top of the mountain. You take yours, and I`ll take mine.` When I tell them that we aren`t climbing a mountain, they beg to differ and politely bow out. Ugh! 

With the rest of our investigators, honestly, no one will answer the phone. So we unfortunately had to drop them. 

There was a lot of dropping of investigators this week. And of course me and Crofts Shimai are sad about that. We want our investigators to just take what we are handing out for free. But we aren`t discouraged. Maybe this `purge` if you could call it that, is what we need to start a fresh. Now we have more time to focus on those who are willing to change and want to accept the gospel. So, I am excited about that. 

To end on a lighter note....On Saturday we had a ward BBQ.  Japanese BBQ`s are a LOT different from American BBQ`s...but it was still fun. :) 

The funny part is that on the way to the BBQ, which was an hour away, Croft Shimai`s tire popped. Luckily a member was nice and fixed it at the BBQ. But, we left the BBQ kind of late and didn`t have very much time to make it to the church for M****'s baptismal interview. We were peddling SO hard. We made it just in time. But right as we got to the church Croft Shimai`s other tire popped. 

Oh goodness. Well, it was a blessing that it didn`t pop until we got to the interview, or else we would have been in big trouble. 

Well, I love you all so much! Have a splendid week!! 

Love, 

Dobson Shimai 

Here are pictures of the ward BBQ
 

KINJIN

Zone Meeting

September 23, 2013 

HELLO EVERYONE! Isn`t life just fantastic? The weather is so nice! Has anyone seen the moon recently? This last week it was HUGE and yellow. SO pretty! What a great time to be alive!! 

Well things here are going pretty good. We met with M**** San this week a lot. Really, he is so solid!! I LOVE meeting with him! 

In one of our lessons with him we were teaching the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was SO strong. I felt like both previous and future generations of spirits were all peering into the room watching him learn. Of course they desire his salvation, but they know that as he accepts this, then he will also help them get their salvation as well. We really aren`t alone in this work. 

On our lesson on Friday at the beginning he started bearing his testimony to us. He just said how he knows that God set up everything perfectly so he  would be able to be listening to this message at this time. He just opened up and said how he knows that God has been guiding his life so that he would be open enough to hearing this message and actually have time to study it. 

It is so true! The Lord is guiding our lives, helping us be exactly where we need to be so that everything will work out for our good. We have no idea how intimately involved he is. But it sure is a cool feeling when your investigator can recognize it. :) 

My favorite part of teaching M**** San was when we were teaching him the commandments this week.  We were able to teach him half of the commandments including law of chastity and word of wisdom in one lesson. Not the easiest commandments.  But he said he had no problems and from that day forward he would live them! Wow! 

At the end of the lesson we gave him some Book of Mormon homework. About 30 verses or so. He said, `Ok. I`ll read it. What else?` We just can`t keep up with how fast he is progressing! Yay! 

He has his baptismal interview this week and should be all ready to go next week. I can`t wait! :) 

We were able to meet with a previous investigator Ch**** Chan. I felt like we should just go visit her and see how she was doing. We knocked on her door, she came out gave us some fruit and then asked if we could meet again at the church. Um. Yes. I think we can handle that. :)

Honestly...the rest of investigators don`t really want to be contacted it seems like...I hate that. We will just need to find some more that do want to be contacted. 

I am doing great. I am sad at how fast my time here is winding down.  I love this work. I love the people here. I don`t want to stop working among them. 

I am not going to think about it. I`ll just keep working. 

Mom...you`d be ok if I didn`t come home...right?  (MOM SAYS NO!)

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

Love, 

Dobson Shimai 

P.S. This last week I was on an exchange and I found out that with in the last 2 transfers when I have been on exchanges with other people, the potential investigator families I found with them are now all progressing investigators! I think the total is now up to 4. I am so happy for them!

 

District Gyoza Meeting

Zone Meeting

How Wonderful to Teach the Word of God

September 16, 2013

Wow. The time just keeps getting faster and faster! I can hardly believe it! 

Well. This week was pretty awesome. Lots of exciting stuff happening. 

Let`s start off with the wonderful M**** San. Wow! He really is so golden!! 

Last Monday we taught him and we felt like we just needed to focus on Joseph Smith`s experience and connect it to prayer. We weren`t really focusing on the restoration itself. Just that we can pray and receive answers. 

We watched the restoration movie with him and afterwards asked him if he had any questions. He said, `In the movie he was looking for the true church. But then God came and told him there wasn`t a true church. So...` Then he gave us a dubious look with the kind of, `who are you?` attitude. Not in a rude way. IT was a very legitimate question. He is way smart. Not a lot of investigators pick up on that while watching the movie. 

Long story short...We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! I am so happy! He really feels so solid! 

We also taught him on Saturday and Sunday and we are meeting with him tonight. He really just has such a desire to learn. And whenever we teach a concept we will explain it to him, and then he will explain it back to us and teach himself if there was something he didn`t understand very well. I`ve never taught someone like him. It`s definitely a challenge trying to keep up with all of his questions, but I like it! 

On Thursday we met the cutest old lady! She is 89! She is this little 4 foot something grandma who is actually a Christian. A rarity for Japan. She told us that she recently moved and hasn`t been able to go to church because she lived too far away but she said that she has been wanting to go to church. She says she knows she is going to die soon and she wants to go to heaven. So she really wants to go to church. Well the best part about all of this is that she just moved 1 block away from the church! She can come to church! 

On my mission I`ve really come to believe in a theory I like to call `Spiritual Hot Spots`. Almost all of my investigators I`ve ever had live close to either; the church, my apartment, or the members. Thinking back I actually think it is every single one. The Lord is preparing people to receive us. And I think that a huge part of that is actually by leading them to where they can occasionally interact with a member, or a place where we are going to be able to find them. 

Side note. But something interesting to think about. 

A lot of our other investigators have been setting up appointments with us and either not showing up or cancelling right before. So...that`s still been frustrating. But I am excited for this coming week. 

Well. I love you all so much! Best of luck this week! 

Love,
Dobson Shimai 

My Mom sent Brownie Mix with my Dad.  We made it up, so excited to have Brownies.  But then we realized, "Hey, we don't have an oven".  But no worries.  We just poured it over ice cream and MMMMmmmm

Brownie Mix...But No Oven

But we have ice cream!!!

MMmmmmmmm

 

A Week of Miracles (Finally!)

September 9, 2013

Wow! What a great week! So many cool things happened! But due to a lack on time I will keep it short and just do my 3 favorite miracles. 

First one. 

On Thursday we FINALLY had a lesson with I**** family. The mom and her 13 year old boy. We haven`t met with them for almost a month. 

While we were preparing the lesson I really felt like we needed to share the Joseph Smith story. And no offense to the restoration, but generally that doesn`t come until a little bit later in the teaching process. These two  don`t even understand about God, I didn`t want to heave the restoration onto that unsteady foundation. 

But every time I went to make another lesson, I felt really strongly like I was supposed to do the restoration. 

Well we show up to the lesson. The mom welcomes us in and then says that her son has 2 friends over. They brought some war games and were playing it upstairs.

She was NOT happy about the fact that there was a war game going on in her home. So she told us that she wanted all 3 of them to come downstairs and listen to our message.

Reluctantly 3, 14 year old boys all came downstairs. We stuck with our plan and simply set up the restoration movie and then watched it. The whole time our investigator was messing off with one of his friends and was not paying attention. But the other friend was sitting intently in the front of his seat, soaking up the whole thing. 

After the movie we asked them if they believe that something like this could actually happen. The mom quickly said no. She said that if she couldn`t see there would be no way she could believe it. Same with her son. Because science doesn`t support it, he can`t believe it. One friend dodged the question, but the last one said, really boldly, `YA! I totally believe that could happen!` Yay!! He is so cute! Dad, he reminded me of what you must have been like at that age when you started investigating the church. I bet you were golden. ;) 

Well at the end of the lesson that friend who does believe asked us if he could pray. Umm...YA! So we taught him how to pray. He really wanted to pray, but he was really nervous. He asked if first he could practice in his heart. We gave him a couple of minutes, he practiced, and then he prayed out loud. In front of his 2 friends and everything! Then he made his friends pray. Haha.

Well needless to say, that was a fun experience. He even became our new investigator! 

And boy, am I glad I decided to listen to the Spirit! !

Next miracle. Well that Thursday night we got a referral from the mission home. They got it from the MTC. They gave us the address and phone number and we went on a phone hunt for this person waiting for the gospel. 

Well...I am STILL not good at finding Japanese addresses, so it took us a while. But we finally found it! We show up, and it`s an apartment complex and we didn`t have the room number. We looked through some of the mailboxes to see if we could find the name on a letter or something (probably illegal, I know) but nothing. Well it was getting late and we had to go back so we called it quits for the day. 

But we felt like we needed to go back on Saturday. So we prayed to figure out when we should go. We felt in the middle of our study time, so we shuffled some things around and went back out there in the morning. 

We still didn`t have the room number so we just decided to start knocking on all of the doors. And by knocking I really mean ping-pong. So we do the whole first floor. No answer. Then we do 1/2 of 2nd floor. And no one had answered.

Then we ping pong this room and someone FINALLY answers. So I start talking to them through the little doorbell intercom thing. I say who we are and what we are doing. And the response comes back, `oh. I`m already listening to your message.` Sometimes people think we are Jehovah`s Witnesses so I clarified who we are. `I know.` umm....ok. Then the guy through the intercom said, `hold on just a sec` (In Japanese). So we are just waiting in front of this door.

Well, the person on the intercom didn`t hang it up, so we can hear the whole conversation that he is having in his apartment. We heard him saying, `Ya. They`re at my door right now. Should I let them in? Ok. I`ll let them in.` Except for this was all in ENGLISH. 

So this guy comes and answers the door, and I reexplain who we are. (We were still talking in Japanese) He then said that his friend is probably the one that told us where he lived. I asked if he was Matsuzaki San. The referral we were looking for, he said he was. Sweet! Well then he said, `hold on a sec`. He goes back into his apartment and then comes back out with his laptop in his hands. 

He is skyping with a girl who lives in the Philippines. She is his English teacher/girl friend. And she is a member! She served her mission in California. So we got to start talking with her and all of us where freaking out about how cool the whole situation was. She just goes off on how much she loves Sister Missionaries and how prepared this guy is. She said he is so ready for the gospel.

As we were talking with her, I saw, on his computer, all of these mormon messages pulled up. She said right when we came to the door they were just having a gospel discussion. Yay!!

Long story short, we set up an appointment for him to come to church the next day. And then a lesson appointment on Monday. Kim, his girlfriend, asked if she could `sit in` on the lesson. Haha. YA! 

It was just such a cool experience! I just made me that much more aware of how well God is in control of everything. His timing is perfect. If we had knocked on his door 2 nights before, he wouldn`t have been talking to Kim, and we wouldn`t have been able to meet her. Wow. 

And that is a shout out for member missionary work, because really he is so prepared because of her. 

Well he came to church on Sunday and we got to teach him about God and our relationship with him. He really seemed interested and liked the ideas we talked about even though they were all new to him. At the end of our lesson we asked if he had any questions. He asked us how can he know and believe for himself that what we are saying is true. Those words were sweet music to my ears! I am seriously so happy about him!! Well, we are teaching him tonight, and I can`t wait!! 

Ok. Real quick. Last miracle. 

We decided to do some more calls from the area book. We came upon this record for this girl who the missionaries hadn`t met in about 2 years. But she received all of the lesson and was going to be baptized, but her mom wouldn`t let her. And then she just kind of disappeared. 

We called her up and asked her to meet with us again. She seemed really excited and agreed. 

Well we met her and started talking with her. She just got married two Sundays ago and is going to school to be a professional dancer. She is SOO cute and SO sweet! 

We also did our first lesson with her and she just loved all of it. She said that she prays every day before she leaves her house and before she goes to bed. And every time she does that she says she feels God`s love. 

At the end when I asked her why she decided to meet with the missionaries again she said that the day before she got married she saw us on our bikes and we smiled and waved to her. She said she felt like she needed to meet the missionaries again, but because we were new and she didn`t know us, she didn`t say anything. But when we called her she knew that is something that she needed to do. 

I just love how the Lord is preparing the hearts of people to hear our message. 

I am just so happy! 

Oh ya! Then, of course it was a surprise to see dad show up to church on Sunday. What I lovely surprise. 

All of the members loved him and were shocked about how similar we look. And that we both have huge noses. They couldn`t get over that. 

Of course it was so good seeing dad. But it didn’t  feel like it had been 15 months. It really only felt like it has been a month since I`ve seen him. 

And I do love all of you back home, but seeing dad actually didn`t make me homesick at all. It just made me want to work even harder and use this precious time that I have left, effectively. 

Well I love you all so much! The church is true! 

Love,
Dobson Shimai 

(Derek just started a new job working for Family Search over Asia. He spent two weeks in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.  His meetings were set up in Tokyo.  The guy who was setting everything up said, "If you don't mind my brother is a Stake President in Osaka and I'd like to go down there and meet with some people, even though it's kind of far."  "I wouldn't mind at all," he told him, "My daughter is currently serving a mission and is in Osaka!"  Derek got permission from President Zinke to see Nikki.  He even spoke in her ward, then got to hear her teach the investigator class.   The ward mission leader told Derek how loved she was and how absolutely amazing her Japanese is.)  I'm totally jealous.  The only consolation is that I can see her soon.