To my FAMILY! I love you!
Here is the latest and greatest:
Last Tuesday me and Isogai Shimai went to visit a less
active brother for his birthday. It turned out he wasn:t home, but we got to
talk to his mom, who is also less active, for a little bit.
Then we decided to do some housing on that street. I
actually really loved it! I held a Book of Mormon and just felt more happy and
enjoyed trying to talk with people. The last house we visited, the lady told us
right off the bat that she wasn:t interested, but instead of just accepting
that and moving on like usual, I just asked her if she was Buddhist, and from
there had a good 15 minute conversation with her. She was actually really
friendly!
She talked about how Buddhists really focus on their
ancestors, and I felt like I should invite her to do family history, but I
didn:t....I wish I would have been more brave! Sometimes though its still a
little hard to know quite what my companion and what people are saying exactly.
But I guess I shouldn:t let that stop me. As we were saying goodbye, she shook
our hands and thought they felt too warm, so she invited us into her genkan and
gave us mogi cha to drink to cool down, even though it was night and really
cool outside.
After leaving and we were walking back to our bikes I was
like "I LIKE DENDO!" And I really meant it! Which, I guess I:m just
telling you dear family this story, not because its some amazing "last
house" missionary story, but to share my real life with you....
Feelings of both happy and content and liking being a missionary and also
still having feelings of fear and disappointment.
This week I got to have my first real interview with
President Smith! It was amazing! I love Pres. Smith already! His big thing is
this: "If you want more faith, be more obedient." Right now he is
really focusing on and feels that the people in the Sendai mission, need to
know that God loves them. It is so sad, to see just how many sad and
unconfident faces there are here. Every ONE needs to know that they are loved;
that there is a God, and He loves them. I really think President Smith is
right, because that is exactly what President Monson:s last talk was about:
loving God and loving our fellow brothers and sisters. President Smith
challenged me and my companion to tell 100 people that God loves them, and he
promised us that if we did, probably 99 of them will not be interested, but
promised us that at least 1 person will want to hear more! I believe that and
want to act on that promise!
I told President Smith how that very morning during
companionship study, I had practiced in Japanese that very thing...telling
people that God loves them. So right then, he asked me to show him what I:d
practiced. He gave me 10 seconds to get the message out that God loves him, but
by the time he:d "closed the door" I was still trying to get out that
we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Then he showed me how he would do it. He "knocked" on my my
door and then his very first words were that God loves me. He said that
people may forget the name of the church, if that is all they hear before
closing the door; but if all they hear before closing the door is that God loves
them, then they will always remember that. And later down the road, when their
time is right to let the missionaries in, they will remember that.
This week all 8 of us missionaries and a few of our
investigators/recent converts went to the house of a man that the elders have
been working with. The man:s house has been really dirty, so they:ve been
cleaning it up and teaching him a little about the Gospel I think. They made
the goal that once it was cleaned up, they would have an party! So Friday night
was the day that they could finally have a party! We all went to the man:s
house (he lives all alone with his cat) and made dinner and sang hymns and
filled his house with talking and music and good food. Thats been one of the
most surprising and sad things for me to see here on my mission, is how many
people live all alone, even young college kids. I:m grateful though that we
could go and bring some happiness to this man and help him not feel so
alone.
Yesterday on Sunday, our investigator Miyuki san came to
church! Oh, how much I love Miyuki san! She is a good soul! She has been an
investigator for a really long time, but still hasn:t been baptized yet. Her
husband is really against her getting baptized and though she loves the church
and God, she still isn:t quite 100% committed. Anyways, I love her still. She
speaks English well and even though she:s a lot older than me, we can still
just laugh together and love each other. This coming weekend is the biggest
Festival here in Morioka!!! I:m SO excited! Miyuki san will be playing a big
drum in the parade, so I hope we can see her in it!
After church Rio Shimai got her recommend to go to the
Temple to do baptisms in a couple of weeks! And then also did family history
and is taking a family name to the Temple! Whoo-hoo!!!
It was so good to see the light in her eyes and how excited
she was about it all! Us missionaries also just got permission that we can do
our own family history now during companionship study if we want! I love family
history! Mama, I remember just a week or so before leaving on my mission, when
we were driving in the car and telling you how I want to do family history so
much, and I remember you turned to me and said, "Dont forget." I
loved that. I haven:t forgotten!
I really love a sister in our branch here. Her husband isn:t
a member, but she is so faithful and drives a long way to come to church
everyweek with her two little kids. She can also speak english really well, and
whenever I call her she answers in english for me! She is the sister that we
did service for when I first came to Morioka (we pulled her weeds a couple of
times). I feel like that really started our trust and friendship, because now
she is coming to us and asking us to do cooking activities with her to invite
her non-member friend to, or to invite less-active/sisters who are struggling
right now, to come to. I:m so grateful for this sister and I love her!
Me and my companion Isogai Shimai are getting along great!
She is my favorite Japanese companion I:ve had! I feel like I can be more
myself around her and we have been having more fun and laughing this week! Its
such a good thing to be able to become a friend with someone on the other side
of the world, who:s life and family is different from me. Learning from her is
giving me so much perspective and gratitude. Oh, family, we would do good if we
never, ever complained again in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for.
Last night while me and Isogai Shimai ate dinner I started
asking her more about her running. I think I told you before, but she was like
a WAY legit runner! Her team was #1 in Japan. She got paid to run, like it was
her job! But she was telling me how boring and absolutely exhausting it was to
run and train for hours and hours day after day after day. She ran 1500 meters
(1 mile?) in 4 min 39 sec! Its so interesting, because as she is telling me
this, I:m thinking its amazing and SO fast and I:m trying to tell her that, but
she is just like, "no, no, its so slow."
Butler Shimai is also in our apartment and I just love her
too! We have so much fun together and dance and listen to our favorite EFY
songs over and over together and sometimes exercise out on the porch together
in the mornings.
I love you my family!! OH, how much I love you!
Keep praying for me, especially that I can be brave! I am
always praying for you! I LOVE YOU!
Kingu Shimai
