Sister Harris in Japan!: Aw Man, I Just Love Teaching About The Atonement!

I almost got to go on a real run this week! I had a dream that I did. It was Tuesday night, and I knew that we would be kokan-ing (going on exchanges) with the Sister Training leaders in a couple of days. I also knew that just two weeks before Ochoa Shimai were in the same travel group to transfer to the new area and we talked extensively about how much we love running. So Tuesday night`s dream involved us going on a big long run through Imabari as fast as we wanted! I WAS right about kokan-ing with Ochoa Shimai, but she unfortunately didn`t bring her tennis shoes, so there went that dream. The kokan was still great though. But that`s wasn`t until Thursday.

Monday:

WE CLEANED MOLD! YES! We got a call from the mission office telling us we needed to deep clean the mold from a lot of things in our apartment. But then the air conditioner was really moldy, and we didn`t know how to take it apart to clean it, so we were forbidden to use our air conditioner until someone came to fix it. (If you`be ever been on this island in the middle of the summer, then you know this is a death sentence.) However, we were strong little soldiers and marched on for the week! Also, we had Family Home Evening at O*** Shimai`s house. We were going to teach a lesson to our investigator that came until O*** Shimai decided she was doing a lesson on family history instead. The food was delicious, however, Okinawa Tacos (Rice with taco stuff on top). Some of the yummiest food I`ve had in Japan!

Tuesday:

We did some housing, and visited a PI the elders passed to us who set up an appointment. YES! We also had a lesson with H******* Shimai (whom we love) about the beginning of the plan of salvation. We also got notice that we were going to go on Kokans with Sister Training Leaders on Thursday after the Meet the President Conference. Which meant, make sure the apartment is really clean before you leave so they don`t judge you when they come. Haha.

Wednesday:

To be honest, not a whole lot happened on Wednesday. We decided to go to the more `city` area and try...wait for it...streeting! It`s a completely foreign experience to me! So we rode our bikes there, and looked for place with a couple of people around so we could try out our streeting skills...and kept riding...and kept riding...for about a half an hour around this place and found one person. So then we decided housing was probably a better use of our time. Haha, alas, I am the forever inaka missionary!

(Thing for mom--you wrote in my letter about most missionaries not being in the city. I really am okay with that. I think I like the inaka better. Having a million people around is really overwhelming. The only reason I wanted to go to the city is because it`s something different, and I just wanted to try it, just once, to see if I was any better at being a city missionary than I am at being an inaka missionary, which I`m just not very good at. But it doesn`t look like that`s going to happen. Which is okay.)

Then we had Kodomo Eikaiwa (kids English class) taught by an American and his Japanese wife from the branch, and we headed off to Okayama to spend the night before the conference the next day.

Thursday:

We met the new mission president! President Phillip Welch and his wife. I like them a lot. They clearly really love Kobe and and us and the work. I`m excited to spend these next 5 months with them. And apparently, there are some worldwide mission changes. Now before being baptized, investigators must also hear lesson 5 (about laws and ordinances). Until now, that was an after baptism thing. And the world is now supposed to be focusing more on less actives.

And during the conference, for some reason, I just felt good. Which was then added on by the fabulous copy of the Ensign I read on the 4 hour long train/bus ride back, and then on our great kokan with the STL`s. I kokan`ed with Ochoa Shimai. She`s from Mexico, but because she lived in Utah for so long, her English is perfect. I absolutely loved kokan`ing with her, and asked her probably every question humanly possible. Poor girl. It was so fun, though! We went and taught H******* san about the fall and the Atonement, and it was so powerful! One of the most powerful lessons I`ve ever taught. Aw man, I just LOVE teaching about the Atonement. Just give me a couple miles worth of people who want to hear about the Atonement, and I`d teach that for the rest of my life! The entire day was just a wonderful experience in general.

Mostly what I got from that day was the impression, `Try again.` Yes, I`ve tried for a year, and it hasn`t been a perfect year, but I can try again. I`ve got 5 months to do something right now. Something from that article also fit with something Ochoa Shimai said during our kokans that really helped me. She said that when we make mistakes, we don`t need to beat ourselves up and rerun it through our minds over and over again. She said that instead we should thank God for our mistakes as an opportunity to teach us how to do better next time. I hadn`t really thought of that before. It helped a a lot, especially when I sometimes feel like I haven`t done anything on my mission BUT make mistakes. I must be learning SO MUCH! :) I also got a lot about trying to receive personal revelation and working with members.

Friday:

More kokan stuff and weekly planning. But Eddy Shimai and Hayashi Shimai went to go teach the PI from the referrals, and she became a new investigator! Yay!

Satuday:

We taught lessons to a couple of people named O***.

Sunday:

Church and visiting LA`s and stuff, and I have to go!

Love you!

The church is true,

The book is blue!

Love,

Sister Whitney

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A fancy Japanese hair clip thing I bought .

(It was, like, $13 bucks, though!)

We went to Okayama on Wednesday night for the Meet the President conference in the morning. And this is what the manhole covers there look like! It was awesome!

Hayashi Shimai and Ochoa Shimai (our Sister Training Leaders) and Sister Eddy with the yummy meal we made (Hayashi pasta and a yummy salad with mysterious calorieless salad noodles). It was really yummy! (We went on exchanges with them this week.)