So. Here`s a lesson for all you kids
preparing to go on a mission. And all you folks living life: Be careful
what you pray for. :) For example, if you set a companionship goal for and then
pray for faithfulness, you`ll get plenty of experience to test you
faithfulness. Haha. But really though.
As you can maybe imply from that first
paragraph, it was a bit of a rough week in Omihachiman.
When we started this new transfer last week,
Sister Walker and I made some companionship goals. One of these was to be
faithful, to stay true to the Lord and positive no matter what happened.
The Lord clearly took the `no matter what` part seriously.
I got sick, appointments were cancelled,
investigators got sick, it was impossible to set up new appointments, no one
came to church (last week we had 5), and not just one, but 3 investigators
dropped us this week: "Katie, Analisa, and yes, Lily", who actually just
called to drop us while Sister Walker was emailing this morning. That`s a
really significant portion of our teaching pool. Ouch. And it
hurts that they have chosen not to come unto Christ and receive the unimaginable blessings that come
from that. It hurts most with "Lily", who even told us in our last lesson
that she KNOWS that this church is true, that the Book of Mormon is true, that
Joseph Smith was a prophet who restored God`s true church on the earth today,
and that President Monson is the Lord`s living prophet right now. She
knows it. And it`s really sad that she, "Katie", and "Annalisa" won`t follow
through with it. Hopefully one day, when they`ve been prepared, they`ll listen again. Because God`s plan is perfect. And we
shall remain faithful to it and have hope.
Anyways, now that I`m done with that slightly
depressing schpiel (my bad), I`ll let you know a little bit more about what
went on this week.
Because we didn`t have a lot of appointments
this week, we had a lot of finding time. A LOT. So that`s what
mostly characterizes this week.
On Tuesday we taught "Lily" about temples,
hoping it would strengthen her desire to be baptized. It went fine but didn`t
quite have the impact we were hoping for. And then....we did a lot of
finding.
Wednesday, we had Zone taikai (conference) in
Kyoto, combined with one of the zones from Osaka, methinks. These Zone
taikai`s happen about once every three months. It took literally ALL day.
We left at 8 am and
didn`t get back until almost 8pm, waaaay late for
teaching Eikaiwa. Luckily, the Elders managed to snag a faster bus and
caught an earlier train, just a little bit late for Eikaiwa and were able to
teach. It was a really good taikai though. Really busy for Walker
Shimai too. We were assigned to do an anshou (recitation) of the first
vision, she played the piano, and found out that she was giving her final
farewell testimony before going home at the end of this month. That was
probably a little bit stressful. I really loved how they started the
takai, though. They started with a slideshow about why it matters that
we`re here. It asked a question, `How much do you think it mattered to
HIM?` and then showed a picture of the Christus, zoomed in on the nail prints
in Christ`s hands and feet. `If it didn`t matter, you wouldn`t be here.
But you are here. And it does matter. It matters to Him.`
That really helped me a lot this week. Walker Shimai`s farewell
testimony was really good too. She said a mission is like a field of roses.
You look at it and say, `Wow, that`s beautiful. I want to go there, and
reach the other side.` And then you get in the middle of it, and feel all
the thorns, and get cut up and bloody. But you have moments where you
pause and say, `Wow, this is really beautiful, what I`m doing. It`s hard,
but it`s worth it.` And then you finally reach the end, when you can`t
believe that it really is the end, and you look back and say, `Wow. That
was beautiful.` For the little time I`ve been out on my mission, that
seems to be true. Missions are hard. It`s the hardest thing I`ve done so
far. But it`s beautiful too. Just like life.
Thursday, obviously, was Thanksgiving.
It started out unfortunately, being dropped by "Analisa" and "Katie", but we
made the best of a crummy day and made a delicious Thanksgiving feast! Due
to the unfortunate lack of turkey, we instead made easy chicken pot pie as the
main dish. Then, using the recipe my angel mother sent me, we made yakimo
sweet potatoe casserole. So. Good. But really though.
We had mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, raspberries, mini sparkling
cider Martinelli`s (a few of these things were given to us by our wonderful
member friend Anderson Shimai), and then, the crowning jewel of it all, a Tim
Tam Slam. A Tim Tam is an Australian chocolate `biscuit.` To make a
tim tam slam, you bite off opposite corners, dip it into some delicious American
hot chocolate, and suck as hard as you can until the tim tam is liquified into
a sort of warm brownie mess infused with the extra delightful chocolate
sweetness of the hot chocolate. The deliciousness there of lies beyond
description. It was a good night. :)
Friday was a lot of finding and a lesson with "Lily" about prophets where she bore her testimony of this church to us.
Saturday we taught "Carole" and her daughter "Rylee" about the Restoration. We gave them a Book of Mormon and extended a soft
baptismal commitment, which they readily accepted. We have another
appointment with them next Saturday, where we hope they will accept a baptismal date! That
would be awesome!
Finally yesterday, we went to church and then
went to Otsu for the baptism of two adorable little 8 year old girls from the
ward.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
The Church is true. The Book is blue.
Love, Sister Whitney
Thanksgiving Dinner In Japan
Us and our yakimo sweet
potato casserole! Which was ridiculously delicious by the way.
Walker Shimai is, as she would say `Obsessica Simpson` with it.
Basically Walker Shimai made it, but I got the recipe from my mama!
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