I Want To Be HIS Servant.

It was another great week here!  We taught a lot of good lessons (good because of the Spirit obviously, not because of us).  

 
 
Monday

Preparation day stuff and FHE at the A***** .

 

Tuesday

An adventure housing in T********* after S***** Shimai couldn`t meet.

Taught A**** about fasting in order to teach her about the Word of Wisdom!

Eikaiwa - we learned everyone`s favorite ice cream flavors. 

 

Wednesday 

Had a lesson with K***** Shimai (who is 82) about God.  She remembered everything from our cute little book!  And she likes God. 

 

Thursday

Also, we found a new investigator  named T***** Shimai. She thinks Christians are cool. The best part? She`s not an obaachan!  She`s 27 and has a little family!  We`re really excited for her.

 

Friday

Zone training meeting.

Then, I got us lost on the trains.  We took a train from F********** (where ZTM is) to A**** to wait for a train back to M******.  Then we got on that train...and found ourselves back in F**********, with an hour to wait before the next train to A*****.  (face palm).  Luckily, N************* was able to move back her appointment to the evening, so we got to teach her as well.

 

Saturday

Taught K***** Shimai with another little book about eternal life.  She wants it!

 

On Sunday

My heart broke a little bit when A**** didn`t show for church.   But it`s okay; all things are done in the wisdom of the ward! 

 

Our 90 year old little obaachan, S***** Shimai, wants to be baptized even more than ever!  We were worried because she didn`t quite realize that being baptized meant joining another church, and she seemed to be quite fond of the Catholic church she was already a member of.  But we taught her the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith with A**** Shimai last night, and it was incredible.  We taught it, and then said that through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ restored his perfect church, now called the Matsu Jitsu Seito Iesu Kirisuto Kyokai.  She leaned forward in her chair and said, `Where is this church?!`  And she believes it.  It was fantastic. 

 
I read a talk by Elder Holland this week called `The Inconvenient Messiah,` (Click to read the talk by Elder Holland) which is probably one of the best talks in the existence of ever.  My favorite part this time was actually an experience Sister Holland shared about their daughter losing a school election, and the prayer they said together when she got home.

 
"Heavenly Father, I promised you I’d do anything if I could win, and now I know I must show how to be a good loser.” And then she said, “I don’t want you to be my servant anymore. I just want to be yours.” `You see, it was because of her pain and disappointment that she was given to say in a twelve-year-old way, “Maybe what I wanted would not be the best thing to serve you at all.` ” 

 

That hit me hard.  I realized that the thing that I am more terrified of than anything is disappointing the Savior. The last thing I want is to leave my mission and to not have given everything, to have Him look at me sadly, shake His head and say, `You know, you really let me down.`  I can`t even imagine anything worse.  And so I decided this week, that I don`t want the Lord to be my `servant` anymore.  I don`t want to just make o-negai`s (requests) and beg Him that this wonderful path that I`VE planned on will work out.  I want to be HIS servant.  I want to completely align my will with His and give Him every little thing I have to give.  (And if that involves all of this less active work, then so be it.  I shall try to give my heart to this as well!)  My Mom sent me a quote from conference this week that said, `Obedience is a choice.  It is a choice between our own limited knowledge and power and God`s unlimited wisdom and omnipotence.` by Elder Perry. 

 

Obedience isn`t a problem with me, but sometimes Faithfulness, and that`s just another step up from obedience.  I want to really, really trust Him and really become the best servant of the Lord that I can be...forever.  I want so much to be a true disciple, so that in the last day, He will welcome me, so that He will recognize me because I am like Him. So that He will say, `Well done, thou good and faithful servant.` 

 

That`s what I want to be. I`ve got a little ways to go, by I`m working on it, because I love Jesus Christ! 

 

The church is true!

The Book is blue!

 

 

Sister Whitney

 

After our lesson this week, K*****  Shimai gave us this GIANT metal box thing just full of these Japanese rice cracker treats.

 We went out to sushi this week!  It`s the same type of restaurant that I went to with Walker Shimai.  

There are these little conveyor belts that run by all the tables with food on plates, each for 108 yen (about a buck and 8 cents) and you just pick up what you like.  And you can order ones specifically from a screen next to your table and they send them out on these little `shinkansen` (bullet train) like doohickeys.

 

Tempura shrimp. I actually really like the tempura shrimp.  Everything else I just kind of tolerate.

 I ate fish eggs, just to say I did.  They were gross.

 Our zone at zone conference.

 Me and Broadhead Shimai and Tenney Shimai, all in the same zone!

  Me and two of my Sisters!  A. Shimai and P. Shimai were both trained by Walker Shimai (together) two transfers before me.