What to do in my area?
Yes,
I went there. It`s my mission, I`ll make a bad rhyme if I want
to. :) Anyways.
That
really is the question we`ve been asking ourselves all week.
Okay, it`s the question Derksen Shimai has been asking herself
for her last three transfers, but I just barely inherited this load
too. It`s a new thing for me. I`m going to leave this
place with a stomach full of ulcers and a head full of grey hair.
But it will be good.
Also,
something I learned about the word `grey` this week at Eikaiwa from
Donaldson Choro, one of the Elders in our area. Is `grey`
really the way English people spell the color? I always knew
that you could spell it with either an e or an a and that the a way
was more common. I`ve always liked the e way though, maybe in
part because it is less common and just looks classy. But is it
really just a difference between the UK and the US?
知らなかったです。（Shiranakatta
desu. I didn`t know.) I was criticized for my
preference. Haha. Don`t worry. My country loyalties
haven`t changed. Long live the USA!
Anyways.
This week. Where do I begin?
Well,
first off, I actually met all of the investigators, so they`re more
than just mysterious names on a page. They`re great.
It's beautiful here. It`s more inaka (countryside) than
Omihachiman. There`s a lot of trees, and some of it borders on
the ocean, which I have seen from afar. We`re going sometime
during this transfer.
I
love Derksen Shimai. She`s a transfer below me, so neither of
us are terribly experienced yet. But she loves the people here
with all of her heart. She`s also an incredibly hard worker.
She`s the most fiercely efficient missionary I`ve ever met,
determined not to waste a second of the Lord`s time, and dedicatedly
spends every minute thinking about how to help these people she has
been given. She`s lots of fun, likes peanut butter and hot
chocolate, and is probably just dying to help me with my wardrobe.
(Just kidding. I think. Haha.) We get along well, and it seems
like we teach fairly well together too. (With the direction of
the Spirit of course.) It`s going to be a great transfer.
Let`s
start at the beginning!
Last
Monday...
It
was normal. We emailed, bought groceries, etc. Then we
went to go have a lesson with M********** (shimai).
Unfortunately, her husband was sick, so we couldn`t teach her.
She sent us away with orange juice and chocolate bars! The
people here are gift givers. That night we went to the
A*****s house,a strong couple in our branch whose kids have grown who
hold Family Home Evening every Monday night for the missionaries to
invite their investigators to. We had two there investigators there. We ate some curry, a
yummy interesting oreo jello cake thing, and the Elders prepared a
cool object lesson on Faith!
Tuesday
They
have Eikaiwa on Tuesday here. After some housing, we came to the
church to set up for that and taught A***** a lesson. It was more of
a discussion than a lesson. She`s had lessons with the
missionaries. She believes the stuff. She`s super cute,
she likes the Book of Mormon, comes to church almost every
single Sunday. But, she still doesn`t want to be
baptized. And we can`t figure out why! Okay, well, we
kind of know why. She`s afraid she`ll be `too busy` for church
once she gets into high school. (High school apparently starts
later here. And you have to take an entrance examination to get
in. She just took the exam last week.) Except we don`t
think that that`s really her real problem. We have tried
everything in the book and a lot outside of it. We`re trying to
help her why it`s important to be baptized now, and to understand
just how real the promises of eternal life are! I love her; she`s like my 2nd little sister.
Wednesday
We
had two lessons on Tuesday, one with H***** Shimai, a lady that the
missionaries had only met with once before. We taught her `the chart.` I
think I`ve mentioned it before. It`s a very simplified
version of the gospel of Jesus Christ, focusing on Eternal Life as
the goal and Jesus Christ as the way to reach it. She really enjoyed
the lesson, and has a strong desire for Eternal life. We taught
K*****Shimai later that night. . She believes in God and loves the Book of Mormon
and prays every night. She is just the sweetest lady! She made us toast and fruit and
gave us hugs, loves to throw in little English words in the middle of
Japanese sentences. She believes most of what the missionaries
teach her, but has said many times referring to Jesus Christ, `That
is what YOU believe.` But our mission has a `training plan`
we`re all working on now about connecting to the Savior and
testifying powerfully of Him. Because Christ is the reason
we`re here! And if they don`t understand Christ, then they
don`t have anything. This message doesn`t mean anything.
And our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ.
So
this week, me and Derksen (Daakusen in Japanese) Shimai`s goal has
been to connect EVERYTHING to Christ, to testify of Him, to make
every possible connection we can. We taught her prayer on
Wednesday, and it went so well. She understood why Christ is
necessary when we pray.
Thursday
We
taught S******* Shimai, who had also only been taught once. She
wanted to know why the missionaries were so happy! We taught
the chart to her as well. She is extremely Buddhist, but is
still interested. The lesson went quite well.
Friday
H***** Shimai is 88 and has been meeting with the missionaries for a year
and a half. She doesn`t remember the missionaries names. She
kept calling me `Kawai-san.` `Ms. Cute.` `Ms. Cute, it`s
cold over there, are you cold? Kawai-san, are you sure you`re
not cold?` She is the cutest thing ever. She believes in
God, but next Thursday, we`re going to make sure she knows who he is. Probably pretty important. She makes me laugh.
Also,
we had District Meeting! It`s just us and the
elders, and the elders and shimai the next area over.
They take a bus for 2 and a half hours in the morning to get here,
poor things. And one of the Shimai is DANIELS SHIMAI. HIP
HIP, HOORAY! Remember when I was Sister Scheffler`s companion
for a few days when I killed Walker Shimai off? Daniels Shimai
was in the same apartment. She`s the sweetest thing ever, and I
was so glad to give her a hug! We`ll take pictures next time.
Saturday
Meh.
Sunday
I
gave a talk! My favorite. Since there`s only, at most, 18
people at sacrament, including missionaries and investigators if they
come, apparently each missionary speaks about once a month.
Holy stress! I worked so hard on it this week, preparing a talk
on repentance, stressing and all, and then discovered that there were
only ward members there. *Alas* next time I probably
won`t stress so hard.
But
then we taught K*** Shimai again! She made us a huge,
absolutely delicious lunch, with eggs, salad, tomatoes, soup, sushi,
fruit, bread and honey, a yogurt drink, mugi-cha (barley herb tea--it
kind of tastes like how I imagine herbal tea would if you poured
cigarette ashes into it, but every one here drinks it, so you kind of
just get used to it). However, it was really yummy! And
then, we taught about the Godhead. It went so well! At
the end, we had her read a summary of the lesson, and she made
comments the entire way through it. `God is our loving Heavenly
Father---oh yes, oh yes, I know that. ... Jesus Christ is
God`s son, and through Him --oh yes, よく分かりました．I
understood
that well. I believe she is beginning to obtain a testimony of Jesus Christ. We felt the spirit really
strongly during that lessoｎ
and
felt guided by the spirit, trying to listen to it and say what we
needed to say to help K**** Shimai believe. I feel like she is
sooooo close. Like Derksen Shimai says
every day, `I just want to help these people! I just want them
to get baptized and have eternal life so they will be happy! Is
that too much to ask?` We`re racking our brains, trying to
follow the spirit. You know. The plan right now is to
continue to testify of the Savior, to help her believe in Him to the
point that she wants to follow Him.
Someone`s
getting baptized here this transfer. I`m not sure who.
In fact, I have absolutely NO idea who or how or what or any sort of
those question words. But I know they are. There`s a
mission goal, a mission PROMISE that every companionship will see a
baptism by March 23rd. There`s been about 20 something since
that promise was made at the beginning of the year. There`s 103 to
go. It seems kind of ridiculous, a little bit unbelievable. But
I believe it. When Zinke Kaicho made that announcement, the
natural man in me attacked, saying, `No way.` But the Spirit
yanked me back up again so hard that I could not deny it! Even
when I tried to, the Spirit would not let me get discouraged that
day. So it`s happening. We are going to help one of our
Sisters enter the gate to eternal life. We don`t
know how. But we don`t need to, because there`s one who does.
That leads me to one more thing about this week I didn`t mention.
We
got a new mission training plan. It`s only lasting for two
weeks, and it`s called, `Whom say ye that I am?` And it`s all
about, you`ve guessed it, the Savior. The point of it is that
in these two weeks we come to know who our Savior is. If we are
to testify of Him, to preach to Him, to introduce these people to
Jesus Christ, we cannot just know about Him, we must know Him.
We must introduce our investigators to our close, personal friend,
Jesus Christ.
I`m
so excited for this. I looked up on of the scriptures listed in
the training plan, Isaiah 43:11, which
says ` I, even I, am the Lord;
and abeside me there
is no bsaviour.`
And then upon continued reading, I discovered that Isaiah 43 is one
of the most fabulous chapters in all of standard words. It is
all the Savior speaking, and from it, you catch the powerful majesty
of the Savior as he declares in verse 3, ` 3 For
I am the Lord thy God, the aHoly
One of
Israel, thy bSaviour:
I gave cEgypt for thy dransom,
Ethiopia and eSeba for
thee.` You can feel his love in verse four as he says, ` 4 Since
thou wast aprecious in
my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee:` and in
verse 7 when he says, `I have called thee by thy name;
thou art mine.` I thought that verse 10 captured
the spirit of the training plan, about why it`s important for us to
really know the Savior. It says, ` aYe are my bwitnesses,
saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have cchosen:
that ye may know and dbelieve me,
and understand that I am he: before me there was no God
formed, neither shall there be after me.`
We
are His. We are his witnesses, chosen by Him to teach His
people about Him, to bring them unto Him, unto living water, milk and
honey, and everlasting life. But to do so, we must know and
believe Him, really know He is who He says He is, not just to the
point where we could give that answer in Sunday school, but
to the point where it has really penetrated our hearts, where we
believe so fiercely and so fervently that we do not fear, that we do
not hesitate. And that doesn`t just mean full time
missionaries, either. It is our duty to introduce the world to
Jesus Christ, and our duty to make sure that we know Him well enough
to do so.
We
did once, as D&C 110: 2-5 reminded me.
2 We asaw the
Lord bstanding upon
the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a
paved work of pure cgold,
in color like amber.3 His aeyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his bcountenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his cvoice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of dJehovah, saying:
4 I am the afirst and the last; I am he who bliveth, I am he who was slain; I am your cadvocate with the Father.
5 Behold, your sins are aforgiven you; you are clean before me; therefore, lift up your heads and brejoice.
We were very familiar with that shining countenance once, we knew His voice of rushing waters better than anything. We knew He was our Savior and rejoiced when He was chosen as such. We must come to know Him this well again. My district leader said, `This could very well be the most important two weeks of your mission. It could be two of the most important weeks of your life.` I intend to make them so.
I know that He lives. I know that Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, is the Savior, the light and life of the world, the way back unto the Father after this life. He was a perfect, sinless sacrifice who bore the burden of the world on His back that we might not have to if we would come unto Him. I know He loves us. I know He understands us each individually, and that He is always there, even when we don`t recognize it, even when we don`t turn to Him or don`t quite know how. But He is always there. This is the Savior that I want to know better. This is the Son of God that I want to introduce my investigators, everyone I ever meet to. This is the man that I want to recognize me one day, because I will have become like Him.
This is His church,and it`s true.
There`s a Book about Him. It`s blue.
Have a great week, everyone.
Sister Whitney
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