MONDAY
We went for a run at the beach! Well, it
was a run that mostly turned into us taking a lot of pictures. We also had some
fun down by the water, trying to be close to it, but be simultaneously be
obedient and stay away. We decided at some point, that it was okay to
touch the water with our hands, but if it touched our feet...then that was
totally disobedient. We realized about half way through jumping back and
some alarmingly close calls that we don`t think there actually is a rule in the
mission about it...and the white handbook just says not to go swimming...and
letting the water touch your feet is by no means going swimming.
... But, we continued the delightful dance against the tide anyway.
You can never be TOO obedient, right? And I remember Dad telling me that
that was the rule on his mission...so he just walked on his hands through the
waves. That`s a dangerous game, Dad. :) For a couple of minutes, we
tried to actually run...but it was too sandy, and we almost twisted our ankles
trying to get through that stuff. But, what do you do?
And then we had FHE at O Shimai`s. ALSO, on Monday I bought a large bag of Daifuku
MOCHI, and have been largely enjoying my life ever since!
TUESDAY
It was a pretty cool day. We fasted for
H Shimai, who we had a lesson with that night, to be able to understand
her needs better and how we can help her prepare for baptism.
Before her, though, we had a lesson with
Y Shimai, our sweet little Obaachan, about prayer. We got there, though,
and instead of answering the door and ushering us on in as normal, she answered
with the door closed, `Nan deshoo ka?` What is it? What do you
want? Perplexed, we answered, `Shimai senkyoushi desu!` It`s the
sister missionaries! After a moment`s hesitation, she answered the door,
and had the biggest look of shock and confusion and joy on her face! We
came to visit on Sunday,
but she hadn`t been feeling well and was sleeping, so we just talked to her
husband for a little bit. Then we told him we were going home (to our
apartment). Apparently, however, he took that to mean that we were going
to America, and told Y Shimai such! She kept saying how happy she
was that we were still here, and how sure she had been that we weren`t leaving until
December, and she was sad that she would never get to see us again. But
all`s well that ends well! We had a good lesson too. We were able
to introduce her a little bit to Jesus Christ, and she seems to be getting the
difference about how Buddhism and Christianity or different, and she said she
wants to believe in Jesus Christ. We also were trying to get her to pray out
loud, but she said she was embarrassed because she didn`t know what to pray
for. We offered to do something that we do a lot to help make it easier
for investigators to pray--one of us says the prayer as a demonstration, and
then the investigator prays. She agreed to do that, so I began like I
usually do, `Ten no Otoosama,` (Heavenly Father)...but this time, I heard an
old sweet little voice repeat after me, `Ten no Otoosama.` I was
confused, so I just kept going, `Thank you for the beautiful weather today.`
And then just, `Thank you.` We finally realized that Y Shimai was copying me, just like a little kid when the parent tells them what
to say! When I figured that out, I slowed down, and it ended up being a
really tender moment.
When we were biking to H Shimai`s
lesson, we had a cool experience. We were just riding along the side of
the road, when a guy riding his bike starts calling out to us from the
other side of the street, just the friendly words gaijin exchange with each
other like, `Where are you from? Why are you in Japan?` sort of
deal. But we were yelling across the street, and couldn`t really hear, so
he ended up just crossing the road and we got to talk to him for a little
while. We talked about church and about general conference and about how
there`s a prophet on the earth today! He expressed interest in coming to
conference and church as well, which was way cool! Plus, his name is I,
and he`s Nigerian. However, he did make a lot of uncomfortable comments
and questions about whether we could get married, if we had boyfriends, and how
he would now be our new boyfriend. Probably he`s going to be passed to
the elders. Most definitely. But still cool.
H Shimai`s lesson was not exactly the
miracle, deal-breaker we intended it to be. She didn`t have as much time
as usual that night, and we ended up doing a lot of follow up (to find out she
really hasn`t been reading or praying lately, which is a little bit
discouraging), and didn`t end up getting to share the message we had planned.
We had a lot of plans and a lot of lessons for
the day, and to be honest, most of them fell through. But I`ve just been
trying to learn that I don`t get to pick my miracles, and that God knows how to
do his own work! While we didn`t get to teach some of the people we
wanted to, we did set up a couple of appointments, and found Ike. And
while we didn`t find the missing piece for H Shimai, we were able to
find some things that she`s missing from her foundation now that we can work
on, and will help to make her next lesson better. I know that the Lord
leaves no prayer unanswered, and sometimes we just have to work, trust, and
say, `Lord, I believe.`
WEDNESDAY
We had a lesson with the W`s and Y
Shimai at the church about repentance, which was really good! And the
W`s are the coolest thing ever. And then, a new guy came to
Eikaiwa. Howard Shimai, like the champ she is, went and talked to him for
about a half an hour afterwards, first just starting with normal conversation
which eventually worked its way into some deep, DEEP doctrine. First thing, I`m
just trying to involve everyone in ping pong, and next thing I hear, `Well, what
does a puppy become when it grows up?` out of nowhere. Do you know that
example, about how like a puppy (which is the offspring of a dog) grows into a
dog, we (as offspring of God) will become gods? I heard that, knew what
she was going for, and wondered what the heck was going on, and how my
companion is such a champ! However, the comparison never actually got
made, as apparently ping pong just seemed too fun to resist, and he left the
conversation, but we switched him numbers, and he says he wants to meet with
us!
THURSDAY
We had a lesson with the M couple, and
did some heartfelt testifying and experience sharing. It was one of those
lessons where you KNOW you have been guided by the Spirit, so even when at the
end, they say they`re going to have to think about whether or not they want to
meet again, you know you have done all you can. Also, M Shimai
gave us some yummy mysterious blocks of ANKO, bean paste! My favorite!
(But seriously though. I really like Anko. It`s best in
mochi, but apparently it`s not bad plain, either.)
We were a little bit late for our appointment
with O Shimai and the W`s, so we were speeding by on the road, when we
stopped at a light with a WHITE guy on a bike! He`s from California (and
here with his wife! So no worries about awkward boyfriend comments or
anything), and had a good friend who went on a mission a while back. We
talked to him for about 5 or 6 rounds of lights, before we all realized we were
late to wherever we had to be, but we switched him numbers, and he`s a cool
cat! Another little tender mercy from God!
And O Shimai`s lesson went really well. It
was about the Holy Ghost. She was really sincere, shared some good
experiences with us, and her desire to feel it and be worthy for it was
strengthened.
Then we went to go visit a really far away
less active, who has virtually no interest, with N Shimai. I`ve
visited her before, but she seemed particularly genki this time! Still
not interest, but it was good to see her almost happy!
Finally, we got home a little bit late,
visited a previous investigator (well, she became a previous investigator,
because apparently she STILL has no time to meet. Come on. Nobody`s
too busy for the gospel!) But. We would have, at that point, been
perfectly justified in going home to eat dinner. But we decided against it and
instead made our way to the eki (train station) to chirashi kubari (hand out
Eikaiwa fliers). And there was nobody there. Like, one person every
couple minutes or so. But we stayed, and handed them out to those couple
of people. When all of a sudden, who should cross our path but yet
another WHITE GUY! He`s an eccentric film making fellow named K from
Hawaii who`s been in Japan for a while and is visiting all of the Buddhist
temples on Shikoku. He was super interested in our Eikaiwa Chirashi,
asking us what we do, and concluding, `So what you do is...you teach these
people free English, and then you transform their spirituality?`
...I guess you could call it something like that? Haha. We told him
about general conference, and he said he was desperate for anything from the
States and would love to come watch it with us! He even said, `Maybe you
can enlighten me.` Haha. You have no idea,
K! But, he`s a cool. Also, a really close talker. Sort of
concerning, but another miracle from God! It was just one of those
moments where we were showing God that we wanted to serve Him more than
anything else, and He put a little miracle in our path.
FRIDAY
Zone Training Meeting! Which was
delightful. We got a new mission scripture and theme for the Welch Kaicho
Regime. Instead of `True Disciples--One and All,` the theme is now `Walk
with Me` and the scripture is Moses 6:34,
`Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.`
And for all of you who watched General
Conference, you know how inspired this theme is! He presented this at the
Mission Leadership Council BEFORE General Conference, and I swear half of the
talks referenced it, and there was even one directly about it! I`m
excited to do some more studying about the path the Savior walked--where He
walked, why, with whom, and how. I want to be a true disciple on that
road right next to Him! I know He can take my path and make more out of
it than I can.
Afterwards, we went out to Kurazushi, a sushi
restaurant, with the W`s. And it was the first time I`ve actually really
enjoyed a sushi restaurant! I can`t eat all sushi, though, just the
really tame stuff, like the salmon with avocado, and the tempura shrimp, which
isn`t technically shrimp anyway, that one. But it was DELICIOUS. I
unfortunately, however, forgot my camera there.
Afterwards, we had short little lesson with
Y Shimai. She said she was tired and didn`t feel good (poor thing
had a rough day for an 81 year old), but after we talked to her for a little
while and testified about God`s love, she said she felt genki and we had fixed
her right up!
SATURDAY
GENERAL CONFERENCE = MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS.
TIMES A THOUSAND. But really though. The Saturday sessions were probably the best Conference
sessions of my entire life. Talk after talk was like, `BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!`
Each boom meaning, of course, spiritual revelation/wonderfulness. In
particular, I loved Elder Jorg Klebingat`s talk, his practical advice, and his
wonderful promise, `No matter what your current status, the very moment you
voluntarily choose honest, joyful, daily repentance by striving to simply do
and be your very best, the Savior’s Atonement envelops and follows you, as it
were, wherever you go. Living in this manner, you can truly “always retain a
remission of your sins” (Mosiah 4:12) every hour of every day, every second of every minute, and
thus be fully clean and acceptable before God all the time.` Which is probably one of the coolest promises I can think
of. This is something that I`ve been thinking about my entire mission,
and it felt like every second of it was personal revelation just to me.
And every other missionary ever, I think. Every missionary I talk to says
this was their favorite talk! And I know that this is true! I`ve
felt that this transfer, and I know that we can know where we stand before
God. It`s still a work in process for me, but it`s a process worth more
than almost anything I can think of. Also, Elder Christofferson`s talk?
`We do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or
goodness before God will help—divine aid can be ours every hour of every day,
no matter where we are in the path of obedience.` So powerful! I
know that no matter where we are, God wants to help us, not only after, but
before and during, all we can do. Basically...conference is my
favorite. I got a lot of direction I needed.
SUNDAY
General
conference! Again! No one ended up coming, but that`s alright.
Something Howard Shimai and I talked about a lot this week are `unfinished
miracles`--something that seems like a miracle, but then ends up being
nothing. Like the investigator we dropped this week--she was the one I
decided to stop by her house and ring the doorbell and she became a new
investigator. But she only met twice, and it doesn`t seem likely that she`ll
meet again. If we`re going to be honest here, I feel like my mission has
been mostly made up of unfinished miracles. People I`ve found with lots
of interest, who get busy or who`s families are against the church. People
who say they will come to church, and never do. Numbers you get that
never get answered again. The like. But that`s the point of the
word,`unfinished.` My timing and my understanding is limited. Just
because the miracle or the story doesn`t `finish` when I say it should, doesn`t
mean that it won`t finish. It doesn`t mean that it still wasn`t a miracle
in the sight of the Lord. Because I believe it still was. Just as
much as every miracle needs an ending, it needs a beginning first. And if
I`m here just to start a bunch of miracles, then that`s my part. And it`s
not the end. Because I have not only `unfinished miracles,` but an
`unfinished mission` as well. This refers not so much to the transfer I
still have left, but the lifetime I still have ahead of me. I`ve come to
realize during the last year or so that my mission is meant to be my ENTIRE
life long, and that I must give everything. The Lord needs willing hands
to help His children, to go His way and walk with Him, and that is what my
mission has been training me to do, what all of our lives up until this point
have been leading us to right up to now. The story is unfinished.
There are more miracles that must be begun, continued, and completed.
Let`s all be a part of it. Because `The Living Lord directs his living
church.` I know that this is that church. I add my small,
insignificant witness of the Savior to the many witnesses that have been given
of Him this weekend and throughout history. Jesus Christ, the Savior, is
the Son of God, and He lives. He lived for us, He died for us, and He
lives for us once again. He is actively involved in each of our lives,
knows us perfectly, and wants each one of us to walk with Him.
The church is true!
The book is blue!
I love you all, and I
LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!
Love,
Sister Whitney
Sister Whitney
About the beach...we went and took lots of
pictures but...after Zone Training Meeting, we went out to sushi with the W`s...and I left my camera in the restaurant...but it`s okay
because the Zone Leaders are going to get it for me today and bring it to me at
District Meeting on Friday. ... But it does mean no pictures for
today. I will try to steal some from Sister Howard.
