My dear wonderful family!!
Hello from one very happy missionary! I love it here! This week
we saw so many miracles for our investigators! It was incredible!
Tuesday, we biked over to a PI's [potential investigator’s] house
that we'd visited a couple weeks ago and pinged the door and knocked and heard
the dogs and people inside but no one answered. So we went backto our bikes to
leave when I noticed this house with a watering can out front and I thought
"I bet the people who live there are really nice people" so I said to
Orgill shimai [Sister Orgill] "Can we house this one?" And she said
"sure," so I rang the doorbell and she said "be ready cause
you're doing it," and the door opened and this lady looked out so I held out
an Eikaiwa [English class] pamphlet and said "We teach English" with
a horrendous accent. She should've closed the door. But she didn't.
Miracle--she starting chuckling and took the pamplet and came outside to talk
to us and we talked for a[b]out 20 minutes. Her name is Goto-san and her
father is law is Christian. (And during that conversation the PI who
ignored our knocking starting walking her dogs in the neighboorhood and looked
very guilty when she saw us. Haha.) After that we biked over to a LA's [less-active
member’s] house (the Tota couple). (They'd come to church Sunday so we stopped by to see how they liked it) and
they said--before we'd even asked them about church--"Hey, did you
see us at Church yesterday? We're going next week too!" They've been less
active for over 20 years. Miracle! They were so proud of themselves too.
They're so adorable! Then we went to a former investigator's house
(Oikawa-san) for our appointment (she hasn't met with missionaries since
2007 so we called and asked if we could meet). It was amazing! A miracle! She
was sooo cute! She was talking all about how she loves sumo and baseball and
thens he [then she] bought herself corn soup and us hot chocolate and told us
the Book of Mormon was like Sherlock Holmes and that Joseph Smith was handsome.
But as we starting teaching and reading the Book of Mormon together she settled
down and even said the closing prayer. It was so amazing! Miracles!
Tuesday, we had an apointment with another former that fell
through (Noguchi-san) but she still wants to be our friend and meet us so
we'll see how that works out. We also had DCS--which was awesome as usual. :)
Ishizaki kyodai [Brother Ishizaki] told allt he [all the] missionaries who were
transfering that "There are people you are supposed to meet in whatever
area you are called to serve. Please, go and find them! Work with the members.
Kamisugi is no. 1 for working with members. Take that to other areas."
Then, to all of us, he asked "Do you think it's posslbe to be perfect in
this life?" (Most of us said no.) I think it is, he said. No 100% perfect,
not all the time, but in little small moments and certain commandments or
situations, we can. To become perfect:
1.
Come unto Christ.
(Believe in him.)
2.
Cultivate God's heart.
(By not doing by [bad?] things.)
3.
Turn your thoughts and
feelings toward God. (By doing all that you can do.)
4.
Accept God's grace.
We can't be 100% perfect in this life but there are things and
moments in which we can be perfect. Don't compare yourself to other people or
yourself yesterday. Just focus on what you need to do right now. If you do all
this and you don't feel joy it's okay. Don't focus on your w[e]ak points. Focus
on the Lord. Each morning and night ask yourself: What do I want to do better?
Focus on the things you can do. You're in training to become perfect. It takes time. Nourish
the talents you have. For your weaknesses, set goals, step by step, to improve.
Do what you can with what you have. Your percent of doing all you can is always different. Some days are super spiritual and
some aren't. What was all you could do 2 months ago won't be the same as right
now. It might be higher or lower. It just depends. Just focus on what you can
do now. Failure is giving up. Success is to just keep trying.
It was so good!
So, we were biking back from that meeting and I was turning this
corner and I went skidding so I stopped and looked back at Orgill shimai in
shock and confusion. She starts laughing at me as she rounds the corner,
thinking "haha, now we're even!" when she completely biffs it and goes down. We both busted up laughing. Falling off the
bike score: Me: 0. Orgill shimai: 2. :)
Wednesday was transfer day! Since we're staying in Sendai,
Orgill shimai and I got to be companions with Hyodo shimai [Sister Hyodo] that
day until we dropped her off at the Honbu [mission home] because she's finished
her mission! So, after morning study we took Nishikawa shimai and Hamano shimai
and their luggage down to the Eki [station] on the subway (love the subway!)
and met up with their new companions at the stained glass (Where everyone
meets). We said our goodbyes and greeted Hyodo shimai and dropped her luggage
off at the lockers in the Eki and then subwayed ourselves back up to our
apartment for lunch and then went and visited old investigators she'd taught
(she'd served in Sendai for 3 transfers)--which was awesome because we finally
got to meet some of them who we'd been unable to contact before! Then we walked
to teh [the] Eki and bussed it to the mission home to drop off Hyodo shimai.
The mission office was way cool! It was my first time inside. It was clean and
new with big desks and computers and a wall of pictures of all the missionaries
organized by area--so I got to see where everyone from my doki [MTC training
group] is now! We said bye to Hyodo shimai and shook hands with President
Rasmussen and then bussed it back to Sendai and subwayed it back to our
apartment so we wouldn't be late for Eikaiwa and grabbed Ishiiya dinner and
hurried off to class. Class was way fun! We only had Abe-san and Cindy-chan
(Chinese LA, SUPER good at English) so Orgill shimai taught Abe and I taught
Cindy and she asked really good questions and it was so fun to teach her!
Thursday, we mogied [roleplayed] with this incredible
82-year-old dendo [proselyting] fireball (she's served 2 missions herself). It
was so funny and awesome! We told her what lesson we wanted to teach and she
taught it all to us, haha so we only had 15 minutes to teach her ourselves and
even then she kept on inturrupting me asking me what I meant when I hadn't even
finished my sentences. (She's generally very rough on missionaries, haha). But
by the end she actually seemed to like us and even gave us chocolate. What?? It
was so awesome. From there we went housing and foudn 2 PIs. We're thrilled!
Mistake of the day: This lady opened up her door and I said "We're
missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Can we meet
you?" and she said "Uh, nai [absent]" and quickly closed the
door. Whoops! Haha. (I meant to say 'have you ever met missionaries before. :D)
Friday, Oikawa-san stood up our lesson and our joint told us to
drop Oikawa because she's too forgetful. We housed. No success. We were feeling
a little sad. But then we went to dinner with the other shimai and Cindy-chan
and then played zoo. I loved the scripture they shared with her: Alma 26:37.
37 Now my brethren, we see that God
is mindful of
every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he
numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this
is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God
forever. Amen.
No matter what country you're in, no matter what your
situation, God is watching over you and loves you and will help you if you
turn to him.
I love it.
Saturday we read this awesome book of ideas for destressing for
missionaries "Adjusting to Missionary Life." It's so awesome!
Sunday we had a dendo fireside/potluck lunch after church and we shared
ideas of simple ways for the members to dendo so every companionship did a
funny skit and our WML [ward mission leader] explained inbetween each one. We
suggested inviting people to Eikaiwa, putting a picture of the temple on your
desk, inviting people to church activities, and inviting people to play
basketball with the missionaries. It was way fun. My Japanese is still very
clumsy. I practiced and practiced and I got all of my lines right except for
the last one and afterward Orgill shimai said (about that last line) "I
don't know what you were speaking but it wasn't Japanese and it wasn't
English." Whoops. :) Thankfully my last line was just "my lunch
break is over soon so see you later!"
New talent I discovered at the potluck: I can cut and eat Jello
with chop[s]ticks with one hand. Who's impressed??
This week as I've been reading the war chapters in the BOM I've
just really been struck at how the Nephites have these years and years and years of war with the [with the] Lamanites, but they
never lose hope or give up. They have faith and just keep trying and keep
fighting to protect their families and their religion and freedom. And despite
the bad circumstances, they grow stronger in the faith (Hel. 3:35) and they chose leaders who are men of God (3
Ne. 3:19) and their religion is not separate from
their everyday lives and decision making (3 Ne. 5:3-4). It's something they use
and lvoe and depend on. Such good examples!
Everyone here tells me that I'm "cute". (BIG
compliment here). They also call me "Bellows-chan" (the suffix they
use for adorable things). Sooo yeah... Haha.
The new missionary is awesome! Her name is Isogai and she's from
around the Kobe mission area. She also is an excellent cook and seems to be
doing great! Yatta! :) She's 23. She's so cute. Our apartment is now just the
four of us--Kirby shimai, Isogai shimai, Orgill shimai, and I. It's quieter!
But it's way fun. :)
The weather has been way good this week--we even had a day where
we didn't wear jackets. Yay! It snows regularly but it hasn't stuck yet so
that's good!
This morning we went to go visit an investigator we dropped my
3rd week in the field. We biked up this mountain to get there, even though we
weren't sure if she'd even talk to us. Miracle: She not only talks to us, she
lets us in and lets us teach her a 40 minute lesson. It was a miracle! I could
tell she really does have faith--no matter how much she's afraid of it. It was
amazing!
Thank you so much for all your letters and emails!! Mom, I got
another letter from you this week--I love it! Thank you thank you!! I'm so
proud of my amazing missionary family!
Mom! I love your stories about visiting teaching! You are an
amazing missionary! June for Oxford! Yay! Dad your pit crew adventures sound so
fun! Happy birthday to Uncle Peter! I hope you guys get to do the Lamb of God
program! That would be so amazing! Tyler, Tyler, you future graduate student.
Sounds like you are doing awesome things! I'm proud of our basketball and rugby
stars! I'm sorry I don't have more pictures! I will try to send more next
week! Thank you so much for the recipies! I feel so blessed by my amazing
family and so proud of all you are doing!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Your missionary,
Bellows shimai :)
P.S. Dad, when we teach the Plan of Salvation here we use a lot
of visuals and emphasize how our personalities stay the same throughout--despite
the veil and death. (To show how we can't just not accept the gospel in this
life because we don't want to live it now because we'll have the same desires
when we die.)
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