Ok, so I just have to start with Hamu. This is so cool! We were on junkai Tuesday (companion exchange). I was with one of the STLs (sister training leader). We were out streeting, and went up to this girl. She's probably 15. We started to talk to her, and she said, IN ENGLISH, "I'm Christian." We were like, Great! So are we! And you speak English! We talked to her (in a mix of English and Japanese) about how she learned English and what she believed. She said she learned English from reading the Bible. Whaaa????!! She learned some at school, but that was how she learned more. She said her mom is also Christian and interested in religion. So we explained some to her about the Church, and talked about The Book of Mormon. We told her that she could have a copy of the Book of Mormon to read it she wanted. She was really excited and said that she wanted it, but was it ok if she could have two so she could give one to her mom too? We obviously told her yes! So we talked a little more and asked her if she thought she wanted to learn more. She didn't even hesitate. She said, "Oh, yes, I want to learn more." It was cool! We set up an appointment. She's kinda busy, so we can't meet until this Thursday, but we're meeting with her then!! We traded phone numbers, and then we left. Like 30 minutes later she emailed us asking if it was ok to bring her friend to the lesson on Thursday!!! Stop it!!! We were freaking out at this point. We told her yes! So, I am mostly just super pumped for Thursday! We emailed her the other day to make sure it was still good, so I am hoping they come! Yatta!!! :)
Other than that, we have been hunting down all the addresses on the less-active/former investigator lists. It's been an adventure, lemme tell ya! So I already told you about the lady that had died. Now we have dead, moved, and the building no longer exists! Trying to find some addresses here is a joke. Really, though...it is hard. Even for the Japanese...and they made them up! So we are updating the list. (You're welcome future missionaries of the Fujisaki area!) It's pretty neat.
Also, it's starting to get kinda cold. I had to pullout my fleece lined tights and my cardigans and jackets. It literally rained for three days straight last week. But you just tough it out in the rain. It's not so bad.
We are finally starting to get to know the members too. The members here are seriously awesome. I love them. This is more a family ward. Okinawa was not. There are a few young married couples with babies and little kids. So fun! I love the kids. They're hilarious! I can't understand most of what they're saying, but they're adorable!
We also helped with the Halloween party. That was so fun. We got a potential investigator out of it too!
I love the Bishop and his family. They are amazing! They have two little girls (maybe 10 & 6). The Bishop's dad is his first counselor. They had us over for dinner last night. So fun! The Bishop is totally pera pera (fluent) in English but he speaks Japanese to me. Thank goodness! He loves sports and was talking to me about it. I told him I love baseball, and he was dying. He thought it was so cool. He was talking a little about the post-season and was like, oh but you don't know! But he's really amazing and very involved with missionary work too, which is so nice!
That's about it. We're going to the Fukuoka Tower today. Yay!! I'm excited! And tomorrow is Zone Taikai! So I get to see my friends!
Love you lots!!!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Whitewashing
So we are whitewashing an area (For those who don't know what whitewashing is - it's when two new missionaries go into an area and completely start from scratch...finding people, touching base with any members in the area...and it IS tough!). It's tough. Especially considering the fact that we are only 2nd and 3rd transfer missionaries (6 & 12 weeks into their time in Japan).
Last Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting. We all met at the Fukuoka Chapel. That's like a 30 minute bike ride for us, so it's not bad at all! The training was SO FUN!! There are 38 missionaries in the Fukuoka Zone! Wow! So big! It was so good to see everyone! Kuchar Shimai, Bush Shimai, and Merrill Choro were all there. (from her MTC district) It was super fun! They are all doing awesome, of course! I love them! The training was really good, and we got to meet some new people. The APs and the Zone Leaders are really cool. I like them all a lot. After the meeting, the Assistants told us a good place we could go get some Fukuoka ramen. We went with the other Fujisaki sisters and Merrill Choro and his companion. It was way good!
So a couple of stories from this week:
1. We went to visit a less-active lady because it was her birthday. So she lives 10 miles away, up an ENORMOUS hill. We did it though! We decided to visit a member family that lives up there too. So we went to their house first to talk to them about one of our investigators. Anyway, we asked them about the lady we were going to visit. The record we had said she was like 40. They said she had died!!! She was actually over 70, and had passed away. It was REALLY awkward! So...sometimes you ride 10 miles up a gigantic hill to visit someone who is actually dead. It's really kind of funny....OH! not that she died!...but it's a funny story!
2. So a lady showed up to Eikaiwa (like an English class). She had a chirashi (flyer) that I think was put in her mailbox or something. She stayed for all of Eikaiwa, and she agreed to meet with us to talk about church! So we made an appointment, and taught her a couple of days later. She is really cool. I don't know how interested she is in the Church, but she really wants to know the truth. We had a good lesson with her. We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and had a pamphlet out. Before we could even ask if she would take them and read them....she asked if she could have them! We told her yes, yes please take them and read them! We asked her to read a few passages in the Book of Mormon and if she had time to keep going. She said she would, and she has a Plan of Salvation pamphlet that I think she will read because she seemed really interested in that. We teach her again tonight! She asks lots of questions, and really seems to want to know the truth! I really like her!
Unfortunately, there's not really a lot more to talk about.
Baseball is over here in Japan, so I can't go to a game in that beautiful stadium! :) There are no basketball hoops, so we run on this cool pathway by the river. It even has markers to tell you how far you've gone. We go about 2 miles every day, about...We are out of shape!
It's starting to cool down here. It's like fall weather. I like it! I hear it gets pretty darn cold in the winter, though, so we'll see!!
Last Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting. We all met at the Fukuoka Chapel. That's like a 30 minute bike ride for us, so it's not bad at all! The training was SO FUN!! There are 38 missionaries in the Fukuoka Zone! Wow! So big! It was so good to see everyone! Kuchar Shimai, Bush Shimai, and Merrill Choro were all there. (from her MTC district) It was super fun! They are all doing awesome, of course! I love them! The training was really good, and we got to meet some new people. The APs and the Zone Leaders are really cool. I like them all a lot. After the meeting, the Assistants told us a good place we could go get some Fukuoka ramen. We went with the other Fujisaki sisters and Merrill Choro and his companion. It was way good!
So a couple of stories from this week:
1. We went to visit a less-active lady because it was her birthday. So she lives 10 miles away, up an ENORMOUS hill. We did it though! We decided to visit a member family that lives up there too. So we went to their house first to talk to them about one of our investigators. Anyway, we asked them about the lady we were going to visit. The record we had said she was like 40. They said she had died!!! She was actually over 70, and had passed away. It was REALLY awkward! So...sometimes you ride 10 miles up a gigantic hill to visit someone who is actually dead. It's really kind of funny....OH! not that she died!...but it's a funny story!
2. So a lady showed up to Eikaiwa (like an English class). She had a chirashi (flyer) that I think was put in her mailbox or something. She stayed for all of Eikaiwa, and she agreed to meet with us to talk about church! So we made an appointment, and taught her a couple of days later. She is really cool. I don't know how interested she is in the Church, but she really wants to know the truth. We had a good lesson with her. We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and had a pamphlet out. Before we could even ask if she would take them and read them....she asked if she could have them! We told her yes, yes please take them and read them! We asked her to read a few passages in the Book of Mormon and if she had time to keep going. She said she would, and she has a Plan of Salvation pamphlet that I think she will read because she seemed really interested in that. We teach her again tonight! She asks lots of questions, and really seems to want to know the truth! I really like her!
Unfortunately, there's not really a lot more to talk about.
Baseball is over here in Japan, so I can't go to a game in that beautiful stadium! :) There are no basketball hoops, so we run on this cool pathway by the river. It even has markers to tell you how far you've gone. We go about 2 miles every day, about...We are out of shape!
It's starting to cool down here. It's like fall weather. I like it! I hear it gets pretty darn cold in the winter, though, so we'll see!!
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Back to Fukuoka!
Well...I'm in Fujisaki this transfer! I'm so excited! It's right in Fukuoka and it is SO much different than Okinawa...in good and bad ways. First things first...my companion...is still Kuroki Shimai!!!!! Stop it!!! We transferred together from one area to another. Weird right? No one has heard of that happening before. Making history...no big deal...I was SO excited when they told me! I love her dearly! I don't know how excited she is because she has to break me in, but I think it's great!
We also found a new investigator the first day we were here! She was the second person that we talked to. Cool right? We meet with her tomorrow.
There are 4 sisters in the ward and we are all crammed in a tiny apartment again. Our apartment is like 50 years old and the tatami (carpet, mat) has holes and gives us splinters! :) We have to turn like 3 knobs and push a button by the shower to make it work and it's the only place in the apartment that has hot water. There is only room for 3 at the kitchen table. We are on the fourth floor, so our view is pretty neat! There were 3 sisters here before and only one stayed. The area pretty much got whitewashed so it's pretty much like starting over here.
Fujisaki is the northeast-ish (I think) area of Fukuoka. It is way cool though. There are temples and shrines all over the place here. There are SO many people, which is awesome, but people here aren't nice like in Okinawa. It's easy to get contacts, but hard to get GOOD contacts. The weather here right now is wonderful! It's way less hot, and not even close to as humid as Okinawa. I love it! But is gets cold in the winter and we only have small heaters in the apartment. I am excited though!
Guess what's in our area??? The Yahoo Dome!!! So awesome! I want to go SO bad! I'll have to talk to someone about that! :) The Fukuoka Tower is also in our area and the river is pretty cool.. We are really close to the honbu (mission home) and the Fukuoka Chapel is where we have district meeting every week. It is pretty here. They have mountains!
Leaving Okinawa was so hard! I don't think I realized how hard it really would be. I LOVE the people there. They were all so nice. People brought us treats, and gifts, and we took tons of pictures. People cried, and it was just rough. I'm so grateful that I got to know them. They are amazing people!
We finally got to watch conference! It was SO good!! I love it every time! They had a little English room set up for me and Wilson Shimai, and anyone else who needed/wanted English. So it was just us, except for one session an American guy and his Japanese wife from our ward sat in.
The Church is true! I know it is! I'm so grateful for it, and the knowledge we have. Love you all! You're in my prayers!
 |
| Kuroki Shimai and Babcock Shimai in Fujisaki (Fukuoka) |
There are 4 sisters in the ward and we are all crammed in a tiny apartment again. Our apartment is like 50 years old and the tatami (carpet, mat) has holes and gives us splinters! :) We have to turn like 3 knobs and push a button by the shower to make it work and it's the only place in the apartment that has hot water. There is only room for 3 at the kitchen table. We are on the fourth floor, so our view is pretty neat! There were 3 sisters here before and only one stayed. The area pretty much got whitewashed so it's pretty much like starting over here.
Fujisaki is the northeast-ish (I think) area of Fukuoka. It is way cool though. There are temples and shrines all over the place here. There are SO many people, which is awesome, but people here aren't nice like in Okinawa. It's easy to get contacts, but hard to get GOOD contacts. The weather here right now is wonderful! It's way less hot, and not even close to as humid as Okinawa. I love it! But is gets cold in the winter and we only have small heaters in the apartment. I am excited though!
Guess what's in our area??? The Yahoo Dome!!! So awesome! I want to go SO bad! I'll have to talk to someone about that! :) The Fukuoka Tower is also in our area and the river is pretty cool.. We are really close to the honbu (mission home) and the Fukuoka Chapel is where we have district meeting every week. It is pretty here. They have mountains!
Leaving Okinawa was so hard! I don't think I realized how hard it really would be. I LOVE the people there. They were all so nice. People brought us treats, and gifts, and we took tons of pictures. People cried, and it was just rough. I'm so grateful that I got to know them. They are amazing people!
We finally got to watch conference! It was SO good!! I love it every time! They had a little English room set up for me and Wilson Shimai, and anyone else who needed/wanted English. So it was just us, except for one session an American guy and his Japanese wife from our ward sat in.
The Church is true! I know it is! I'm so grateful for it, and the knowledge we have. Love you all! You're in my prayers!
Monday, October 7, 2013
Typhoons and Transfers????
I still don't know what's going on with the transfers, but I will find out today. I am pretty sure I'm going to be transferring, and it sounds like I will be headed off the island. I don't know that but that's kind of what it feels like. I would LOVE to go somewhere cold for the winter. That sounds strange, I know, but it's true! So I will let you know in my letter next week where I am! Now you get to wonder and guess for a week! :)
I am so jealous that you have seen conference! I have been looking forward to it for weeks! We will see it next weekend, and I am PUMPED!
This week, we pretty much had to stay inside for two days. Two typhoons hit. One on Saturday, and then Sunday was fine, and the other one was on Monday. So we were supposed to stay inside. We did Area Book dendo (missionary planning book), and lots of studying!
We met some pretty cool people this week. The other night, we were on our way to an appointment, and we stopped this lady to talk to her. We talked to her, and she actually seemed pretty interested. I was imagining her in the temple, and I thought, "Teach her about the temple." That seemed a little weird because we were just doing our regular stuff, and I have never taught anyone anything about the temple. So pretty much it could very easily end in complete disaster. I stood there for a second thinking about it, and then told my trainer we needed to teach her about the temple. So I waited for a pause, said a prayer, and started talking. Surprisingly it actually kind of made sense. It wasn't really smooth or eloquent by any means, but I think she understood what I was saying. I asked if she had heard of temples and showed her a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. She said no, so I told her it was God's house, and it is a sacred place...that through the covenants we make with God there, we can live as eternal families. We can do baptisms for the dead for family members that have died. She was like, "oh cool". It wasn't anything really awesome, but she said she liked it. Both of her parents died, so eternal families would be cool. Yay! That was pretty neat. She is going to meet with us again too!
We also met a lady who we asked to get baptized when we talked to her on the street. I said, "When you know these things are true..." and she cut me off and said (in English...whaaa???) "Oh, I know they're true." So I asked if she wanted to get baptized, and she said yes! So her date is for October 28th. Her daughter is in the Junior Olympics though, so she is really busy, but we have an appointment set up!
Did I tell you I ate natto (fermented soybean mash)? If not, I did and it was gross! I also ate goya (Japanese cucumber/squash...depending on where you look this word up online :) ). I actually kind of like it, in a weird way. I would never crave it, but when I ate it, it was decent.
We met with the Tenuya family again. I can't even explain to you how much I love them! The parents are both less-active, but the two kids are both active. They are both planning to serve missions next year. The daughter is 23, and she is AMAZING! I love her dearly. Her little brother is 17, and he is so awesome too! The parents are great parents!...They love the missionaries, though, and they have done an incredible job raising their kids! I hope with both of their kids on missions, they will have the desire to come back! I LOVE them!
I got a flat tire on my bike this week, so I took it to get fixed. The guy fixed it, we went home for dinner, came back out, and my tire was flat again! So the next morning, we took it and got it fixed...30 minutes later when we got to our appointment, my tire was flat again!!!! So I looked at it and there was a big ol' staple thingy in it! So I yanked it out, and we took it back one more time. We told the guy what happened, and he fixed it one more time. Luckily, now it is holding air! Flats are called panku here. So I got three in a day! Good times! Sometimes your tire just has to get flat! We met a girl on the way to the bike shop though, so way to go tire! The Lord works in mysterious ways! :)
Things are going well! I'll probably be emailing you from somewhere different next week. Take some guesses Love you all so much!! Thanks for all the love and support!
Shout out to Z-man! Happy birthday! I thought of you all day yesterday!
I am so jealous that you have seen conference! I have been looking forward to it for weeks! We will see it next weekend, and I am PUMPED!
This week, we pretty much had to stay inside for two days. Two typhoons hit. One on Saturday, and then Sunday was fine, and the other one was on Monday. So we were supposed to stay inside. We did Area Book dendo (missionary planning book), and lots of studying!
We met some pretty cool people this week. The other night, we were on our way to an appointment, and we stopped this lady to talk to her. We talked to her, and she actually seemed pretty interested. I was imagining her in the temple, and I thought, "Teach her about the temple." That seemed a little weird because we were just doing our regular stuff, and I have never taught anyone anything about the temple. So pretty much it could very easily end in complete disaster. I stood there for a second thinking about it, and then told my trainer we needed to teach her about the temple. So I waited for a pause, said a prayer, and started talking. Surprisingly it actually kind of made sense. It wasn't really smooth or eloquent by any means, but I think she understood what I was saying. I asked if she had heard of temples and showed her a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. She said no, so I told her it was God's house, and it is a sacred place...that through the covenants we make with God there, we can live as eternal families. We can do baptisms for the dead for family members that have died. She was like, "oh cool". It wasn't anything really awesome, but she said she liked it. Both of her parents died, so eternal families would be cool. Yay! That was pretty neat. She is going to meet with us again too!
We also met a lady who we asked to get baptized when we talked to her on the street. I said, "When you know these things are true..." and she cut me off and said (in English...whaaa???) "Oh, I know they're true." So I asked if she wanted to get baptized, and she said yes! So her date is for October 28th. Her daughter is in the Junior Olympics though, so she is really busy, but we have an appointment set up!
Did I tell you I ate natto (fermented soybean mash)? If not, I did and it was gross! I also ate goya (Japanese cucumber/squash...depending on where you look this word up online :) ). I actually kind of like it, in a weird way. I would never crave it, but when I ate it, it was decent.
We met with the Tenuya family again. I can't even explain to you how much I love them! The parents are both less-active, but the two kids are both active. They are both planning to serve missions next year. The daughter is 23, and she is AMAZING! I love her dearly. Her little brother is 17, and he is so awesome too! The parents are great parents!...They love the missionaries, though, and they have done an incredible job raising their kids! I hope with both of their kids on missions, they will have the desire to come back! I LOVE them!
I got a flat tire on my bike this week, so I took it to get fixed. The guy fixed it, we went home for dinner, came back out, and my tire was flat again! So the next morning, we took it and got it fixed...30 minutes later when we got to our appointment, my tire was flat again!!!! So I looked at it and there was a big ol' staple thingy in it! So I yanked it out, and we took it back one more time. We told the guy what happened, and he fixed it one more time. Luckily, now it is holding air! Flats are called panku here. So I got three in a day! Good times! Sometimes your tire just has to get flat! We met a girl on the way to the bike shop though, so way to go tire! The Lord works in mysterious ways! :)
Things are going well! I'll probably be emailing you from somewhere different next week. Take some guesses Love you all so much!! Thanks for all the love and support!
Shout out to Z-man! Happy birthday! I thought of you all day yesterday!
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