Monday, August 18, 2014

Adventure is out there! Part 2



Hi my FAMILY!! I love you ALL! 

Guess what!? I:m TRANSFERRING AGAIN!! I:ve only been in Morioka for 2 transfers, but President Smith I guess loves moving us around and giving us new experiences, because here I go to AKITA! Its by the Sea of Japan!!!! Whewhew! I will transfer on Wednesday morning. My next companion is Carlson Shimai! 
Sister King is transferring from Morioka to Akita.

And what I:m so excited about is that MATAOA Shimai, my very very first missionary companion (in the MTC) will be in the same apartment with us! I:m so grateful and excited to have a second chance to be her friend, since the first time around was a lil` bit rough. But now I love her and can:t wait to make lots of memories with my Tahiti sister! 

This week we went to a lady:s house and helped her clean it. She is not a member, but her daughter in Tokyo is. Her daughter was the one who called us and organized the project for us to come with 4 elders and go help her clean her mom:s house. It:s an old traditional Japanese house and we got to help clean out cupboards and vacuum and such. As we pulled out tons of stuff from the cupboards, it kinda turned into a mini garage sale! They gave me this cute little wooden set of Japanese dolls of a prince and princess, that you put out on March 3rd for Girls Day! 

This week was Obon, which is the holiday where everyone goes with their families to put flowers on the graves. People are really busy because of Obon, and so this week there were only 2 members who came to English class. We decided to have English class anyway, and me and Butler Shimai started teaching English to everyone (the other missionaries and the 2 members). But then a girl who had come to English class last week walked in with 4 of her friends! They are all Chinese and they were so genki! Manjyu:s birthday was the next day so she:d brought her friends and came to the church so we could all have a birthday party together! We put up tables and chairs and had a wonderful birthday party! One of her friends brought wine, so Oomija Choro, our District Leader was just like, Oh hey, lets just have this be a center piece tonight, okay? 

We all just talked and they could all speak English really well. As I was sitting there talking to Wong, who is a college student at the nearby college, it was just such a cool moment, to be in Japan talking to one of my Chinese brothers! Its just so amazing to be able to talk to someone who lives on the other side of the world from me. Its just a very real-earthy-soul-human being-feeling...like we:re all just here doing the Earth Thing! And I:m a Utah girl, and your a China man, but here we are talking and laughing and talking about our families and showing him our family picture! Life is so wonderful! 

This week we went out into the country again and visited a member in our ward who lives all by herself out there. We had snacks and had a good time with her and she was really grateful for our visit!

Then we tried to visit a less active who lives out there too, but he wasn:t home. So we knocked on a couple of doors. And the 2nd house we knocked on, the man answered the door, and right off the bat, he kind of motioned to us to look inside and he said he had a cat. Sure enough we looked in and there was the cutest lil: kitten named Mimi! So cute! We gave him a Book of Mormon and we are going back tomorrow with the elders to help him pull weeds in his garden! 

Another door we knocked on earlier, wasn:t so friendly and no kittens...the lady came to the door and Isogai Shimai said we were missionaries and that we were sharing a message about how God loves everyone, and she said "if God were real, He would help us." And then closed the door. 

Its hard to see so many people who don:t believe in God. Another man we talked with this week, I tried asking him about what he believes in and he said he believes in "nature". So I asked him if he believed that God created nature, and he said no. Sometimes I wonder how someone can start believing in God, when they seem so hardened against it. 

But I love the hope I feel from the Book of Mormon, and Alma and Ammon and the Sons of Mosiah who through the power of the word of God and the power of Christ:s love, were able to help bring thousands of the Lamanites, who were hardened against the truth, to come to know and embrace the Gospel and the Atonement of Christ. That's a true story! So if it happened then, it can happen again! 

This morning as I ate breakfast, we were listening to the hymn "I Stand All Amazed" on an EFY cd. The phrase that stuck out to me was this:  "...that He should extend His great love unto such as I, sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify!..." Isn:t that beautiful, about our Savior:s love? His love is sufficient. Its complete. He loves us so much, and I am so grateful for that! I love Him too. 

Thank you for sending Dad:s journal entries! I:m so excited to read them! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

I love you! 
Love Kingu Shimai






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