Dear family,
First things always first...I love you!
Here is how my heart is doing...after what were probably
some of the hardest 6 months of my life....I am going to be okay. Yes, I am
going to be okay! Is it still hard? Yes. Am I still homesick? Yes. Will I
probably always be a little homesick as long as I am away from home? Yes. But I
have been thinking about how I can be a missionary and constantly be pitying
myself and be miserable, or I can be a missionary and make it marvelous! Maybe
easier said than done, but I want you to know that I am going to try!
I love love Micail's story about the crabs.
Because I believe it is so true. Leaving the trash behind takes two choices on
our part. First we have to choose to use the gift of our agency to try and try
and try. And then we also have to choose to be humble and let Christ love us
and heal us. I remember my institute teacher teaching us that "more grit
and determination in yourself to change will only last for so long. We truly
need our Savior to change us." I believe Heavenly Father and Christ love
us so much and they want to help us reach our potential, but first they want to
see if we really want it too, and if we are willing to try.
Here is a quick update for the week:
- We found 2 new investigators! Its a mom and her daughter,
who used to be old investigators. We visited them and taught them a little
lesson about God and made a next appointment for tonight!
-At the old folks home this week we went and cleaned
wheelchairs for our service.
-I had one of those missionary moments where you are at a
lesson and they are giving you food to eat, but the oranges they give you are
just TOO gross to choke down. Oranges don:t sound to bad to eat, right? Wrong.
Too much pulp. Too dry. Too sour. We had to sneak our unfinished oranges into
my bag, while our investigator went to get us more mugicha to drink!
- I have really been wishing to look at the stars. So this
week, when me and George Shimai were about to go take a present to one of our
investigators, we stood outside her apartment and looked at the stars. I loved
that moment. I just stood still. I looked at the stars. I loved it so much I
almost cried. It felt so good to just be still and look up to heaven.
- We live on the 5th floor of our apartment, and the other
night as me and George Shimai were headed down to the 1st floor, we boarded the
elevator, the door shut and George Shimai pushed "Level 1"...then to
change things up a bit, I pushed all the buttons in between...just like Buddy
on the movie Elf...for some reason this just tickled my funny bone and I
laughed so hard!
- This week we did a practice lesson called a
"mogi" with a member in our ward. A lot of times here in Japan, when
you go to someone:s home, you kneel/sit on the floor around a little table. I
sat in "saiza" for 1 HOUR. Which basically is kneeling/sitting on
your feet for an hour. Whoa Nelly. Couldn:t really walk too good after that! :)
ouch. But at least it was very polite!
- Our ward had a baptism yesterday! The other sisters
investigator was baptized yesterday! It was beautiful to watch him and his
expression on his face as the baptismal prayer was being said and as he laid
back into the water.
Well, its time for me to go now...
I. Love. You. Always.
Love Kingu Shimai
No comments:
Post a Comment