Learning To Be Humble

August 19, 2013

So I know that I said last week that the Lord was just preparing us to have a better week this week. Apparently I wasn`t humbled enough and I needed to be in the oven a little longer. 

This week was rough again with people`s appointments falling through or getting spoked. It always was hard with the huge summer holiday all of Japan had this week. I know I shouldn`t blame our lack of success on that, but....it`s hard to be meeting with your investigators when they are in a completely different mission`s area.... 

But, I think we finally learned our lesson and how that this work is not and never can be about us. The Lord made that very clear. 

But as we have really tried to humble ourselves last week we have been blessed with things for the up coming week and our planners are quickly becoming full. Hooray!  

So. Yep. 

We did get to teach Y**** K****. Poor man. He is just so lonely, and I can tell he just wants to be loved. He doesn`t feel like he is worthy enough to repent. Apparently we didn`t explain repentance clearly and simply enough. Hopefully he will see how he actually can repent as he reads about Alma the younger`s repentance process. I told him that this man was trying to destroy the church and then he eventually became a prophet. We`ll see if that got the point across. :) 

Couple of cool things did actually happen this week. 

So I went back to Shimogamo and did an exchange which was fun.

 But the miracle that actually did happen, happened here in Mikunigaoka. Because me and Nakatsuka Shimai were gone in Shimogamo, our 2 companions (a first and second transfer missionary) were left on their own. 

They were obviously apprehensive about the Japanese. But the Lord proved that He doesn`t need Japanese speaking ability. He can do his own work. 

They met a Japanese woman and they started contacting her. But she, seeing that they were struggling with Japanese and obviously not Japanese, said that she could speak English. But her Spanish was actually really good. Well, my companion, Chavez Shimai, her first language is Spanish. So she was able to talk to her and explain who we are and what we do. The lady said that she would be interested and Chavez Shimai was able to set up an appointment and explain where the church is. So we have an appointment set up with her this week. So...excited about that. :) 

Also. This week Chavez Shimai lost her bike key. We couldn`t find it any where. And we really needed her bike. So we carried her bike the 1/2 a mile to the bike shop. 

The guy said he would fix the bike in a couple of minutes. So we were just waiting at the shop. Then a lady approached us and asked if we were missionaries. She is a member in the ward next to ours. We started talking with her and she introduced us to her friend who is not a member. We had a good conversation and then they left. 

I thought, well that was cool. Maybe that is why we needed to go to the bike shop. 

Well on Sunday we had stake conference. And before the stake conference all the missionaries in the zone got together and we went and did mini splits and went finding to try and invite people to church. 

I went with a new sister, Hamilton Shimai. Time was running out and we hadn`t found anybody yet . So we said a prayer to know where we had to go. 

We saw a house and we felt like we needed to go over there. So we hopped on our bikes and started peddling really fast. Just as we are about to get over to the house, we see the member from the bike shop, and her friend. He was giving her a ride to church, but he wouldn`t come in. 

We got to talk for just a second, but then he drove away. 

 

I just don`t feel like it was a coincidence that we met this man who doesn`t even live in our area twice in 3 days. We were talking to the member about him and she said that she has invited him to church, but he is too nervous to come. But she said because he met us now he wants to start coming to our English class. Which is improvement because he wouldn`t even walk into a church 3 months ago. 

Yay! I don`t know what is going to happen with him, but I feel like a miracle is in the beginning stages. :) 

Well, out of time. But I love you all so much!! 

Have a great week!! 

Love,
Dobson Shimai 

This is for Dad who loves wacky signs

The Weather is Hot, but the Work is Not

August 12, 2013

Hello everyone! I hope you are staying cool wherever you are. It sure has been hot here!! 

This week was....well. Let`s just say we`ve had better. 

We were really excited for the beginning of the week. We had a lot of appointments set up with investigators and PI`s. 

Unfortunately almost all of them ended up falling through. They either called 30 minutes before the appointment or they just didn`t show up. 

Honestly, at first we were really frustrated. But now we just feel like it is the Lord testing us, and hopefully we proved faithful enough for Him to bless us this week.  We really feel like the miracles are going to start coming. 

So get ready for a long email next week. :) 

We did get one new investigator which was exciting. We met her almost 3 weeks ago at the train station. She is super cute! She works with kids who have special needs so we became friends fast. 

Well this last week we were finally able to set up an appointment with her. 

For when we are teaching a lesson for the first time with someone, President Zinke has come out with a lesson plan he wants us to follow. It goes very slowly and just talks about God, our relationship with Him, and our role as missionaries. 

He has a specific order and flow he wants us to use and we really have been putting a lot of emphasis on it lately, and have really been practicing it. Well as we were teaching her this lesson we would finish one section, then she would ask a question. And almost every single time her question could be answered perfectly in the next section we would move on to. 

So cool! President Zinke really is an inspired man! 

Another good thing we had from this week was Zone Conference. Always sooo good! I just love the Spiritual boost I always get. 

This one was really focused on understanding the language of the Spirit and improving our prayers. This is something I really could work on. Making my prayers more of a conversation, just like it would be with my earthly father. It should be just like that, if not better with my Heavenly Father. 

Really wish I had more to share for this week, but that`s about it. 

I love you all so much!! 

Love,
Dobson Shimai 

We went to an aquarium on P-Day.  So much fun!

The Ups and Downs of Missionary Work

Mission Leader Counsel is always to great

August 5, 2013

Crazy week. I guess it always in on a mission. 

On Tuesday me and Nakatsuka Shimai got to go to Kobe for the Mission Leader Counsel. SOO good! I think the best part about being a leader is that you get all the sneak peeks and the specialized training. Love it! Plus. You can`t complain when there is Costco Pizza involved. 

I`ll send pictures. 

The only downer part about going to Kobe was that I had to leave my precious companion. It was her birthday! And her and Nakatsuka Shimai`s companion, DeKlerk Shimai, had to go out and work by themselves. haha. They were so scared, but they worked hard and nothing too terrible happened. So I am proud of them. 

Wednesday we went to go visit this little old man, K**** San, that has been an investigator for a while. But he hasn’t been really solid. We`ve been wanting to help him but we always felt like something was missing. Well as we started teaching him about prayer he started going off about how there is no point in even teaching him because his head was too thick and he wasn`t really going to learn. I asked him if God really did exist, would his life change. He quickly said no and that he was completely content to sit in his room all day just watching TV. He told us that he actually didn`t like our message, but because he is lonely he likes us coming back. 

Well, he is lonely, and I do want to help him. But he flat out told us he wasn’t interested. So...we dropped him. Poor man. 

Thursday was total craziness. We didn`t get to eat lunch until 5pm. That`s how crazy it was. But it was worth it. We got to teach I**** Family. (The 14 year old boy and his mom). We taught them about prayer. We asked them if they could ask God any question, what would they ask. Koki Kun, the boy, said that he wanted to know how old God is. Yeah. I definitely don`t have that answer.... The mom wants to know why there are wars and suffering in the world. She really is so tender hearted! She just opened up her heart to us and started telling us all of her fears about the world and her kids. It was very enlightening and hopefully we will be able to help address some of her needs. 

Right now she is listening only because her son is listening. But I really feel like we need to focus on her as well. 

After the lesson both me and Sister Chavez looked at each other and we said, `They`re so getting baptized!` They obviously aren`t ready yet, but I think they really might be someone who is going to be baptized. I just hope I get to be here when it happens. :) 

We also then taught Y**** San. We tried to go back and teach him very simply. Because he has  been meeting with the missionaries for over a year he thinks he knows everything, but he has a lot of misinformation. He still is having a hard time with prayer. Which means he doesn`t understand God. 

The previous missionaries said that whenever you try to teach God that he brushes it off and says that he already knows. 

So we tried a different approach talking about God and Christ`s relationship. (because he loves Christ). Well...long story short. He didn`t know that Heavenly Father and Christ were two separate beings....yah. That`s a problem. So we are working on that. 

I really wish I could just erase all of the stuff he thinks he knows and start from scratch. It would be way easier, but we`ll keep on working to help him understand... 

We also then taught C**** Chan. Love her. She is so nice. We asked her why she was meeting with us. She said that she likes us and that her heart feels warm whenever she is with us. I asked her why she thought we were meeting with her. She didn`t know.... We then started explaining how our purpose is to help people receive Eternal Life. We intended on teaching the path that gets you to Eternal Life, (faith, repentance, baptism, etc.) but we didn`t get past Eternal Life.

She flat out told us that she doesn`t want to go there. Her reasoning is that if she were to go to Eternal Life, only good people would be there. If there was only good people then there wouldn`t be bad or scary people. (Boy am I looking forward to that) But she thinks that she learns the most when she has scary or bad interactions with people. So she wants to keep learning and growing by living amongst bad people. We told her that we can only continue learning and growing in Eternal Life, but she was still pretty dubious about the whole thing. 

Plus she is still pretty firm in her belief about reincarnation. I sure don`t want to be reborn as a mosquito or plant. 

Well we are thinking maybe the plan of salvation would be a good next step with her. But we are still thinking.... 

Friday and Saturday I went on an exchange which was fun. Left Chavez and DeKlerk Shimai alone again. But of course they did awesome. 

Sunday both C**** Chan and Y**** Kyodai came to church which was exciting, but both left right after sacrament meeting...bummer. 

BUT good news!! Every month on Fast Sunday the mission sends out a list of names of people who have family members that are opposed to them listening to the gospel or getting baptized. Then we all kneel and pray for them. 

On that list this week there were 2 of my investigators from Takamatsu!!! U**** Shimai!! Wahoo!!!! Obviously it`s not good that her family is opposed to her listening to the gospel, but she is an investigator again! I am seriously so happy!

And same with N**** San! Seriously, so happy. Even if I don`t get to be there for their baptisms, at least I know they are closer and have a chance again to listen. 

Just a shout out for my AWESOME ward mission leader. K**** K****. I seriously love that man. This week we decided that he must be one of the 3 Nephites just quietly moving the work along here in Japan. He makes me want to be better and better every day. 

Well, that`s basically it from over here. 

I love you all so much! 

Love, 

Dobson Shimai