So obviously things have changed a bit as to how I am traveling as a
missionary, because I now can ride my bicycle! I don't now if you now
the song that my title starts out as, but I wrote some extra verses, I
hope you enjoy:
I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike
It's been so long, since I have been allowed to ride my bike.
I now can ride my bicycle, I now can ride my bike,
It feels so good, I truly enjoy riding on my bike!
So is week was definitely an eventful one! Monday we taught Paula
again, and she actually read by herself this time, thou she didn't
remember a lot, but at least she read right? She is so funny, and was
very happy to hear that both of us were staying in Kurashiki. I have
to admit I was very shocked when I found out that I would be with
mills Shimai for three transfers, since at least in my mission it is
kind of rare for that to happen, but she is so helpful, and we
probably needed a real chance to do more missionary work together than
we were able to get done just walking everywhere.
So Tuesday, we tried to visit yajima and set up an actual visit, since
it is now November, and she said she would have time then, but she
wasn't home. Tuesday was a holiday, so it made sense, it just was
unfortunate, but we were able to leave a note letting her now that
we'd be able to come back on Thursday to try again. We also had a
takoyaki party with Ono Shimai, and Aline Shimai to say goodbye to
Viana choro, who was transferring before eikaiwa. Takoyaki isn't bad,
it isn't the best either like some people think it is. It is a fried
ball with octopus inside, that is extremely hot inside, and most
people eat it when it is mouth scaldingly hot. I'm not the biggest fan
of octopus, the texture is weird, but it actually doesn't taste very
bad, especially fried and covered in dough. Viana choro taught
eikaiwa, and he taught about animals, but it was entertaining for me,
but totally too complicated for our students, because he tried to
teach them the Latin names, and they didn't even know the English...
But it ended fun, because mills Shimai and I taught them a girls camp
song, and they thought it was funny, so at least they had some fun,
right?
Wednesday we went to the hospital, and I got permission from my doctor
to ride my bike! He actually seemed surprised, at least he looked at
way, that I hadn't been riding it before now. I would've been, but
mills Shimai wasn't going to allow it until I got an ok from the
doctor, so we didn't, but now we are, and it is amazing! We can travel
so much faster now that we have bikes! We've both lost some of our
biking muscles, so we have to work those back up, but with all the
biking we have to do, that shouldn't take very long. After the
hospital, we went to takahashi and visited Imai San in the hospital.
She is doing better, and was up to hearing a small message, but a real
message,can at is good! She is so sweet, and I hope she can leave e
hospital soon, she doesn't really like being in there. We then tried
to visit the oosugis, and kind of succeeded, oosugi San (the grandpa)
was headed out, so we got to talk to him for a couple of minutes.
Hopefully we can actually get a real lesson with them again soon. I
got to meet komiyama San, whom mills Shimai met while on a kokan
(companionship exchange), and she seems really sweet, she readily
accepted the restoration pamplet when we gave it to her, and asked her
to read it. So we might have another new investigator soon! We also
visited Imai kaicho and reported on our lesson with his mom. He is
constantly trying to find which of his friends he can refer to us
missionaries, which is amazing! He recently gave one to the elders,
and is considering others right now! He is definitely a great member
missionary. And then we headed back to Kurashiki to go to institute,
but we actually didn't end up attending much of it, because we got
called by our zone leaders, because they want to make sure we had
looked at the transfer logistics, which leads me to Thursday.
Thursday we were a shuttle service as you would call it mom, although
we took the trains. One of the Okayama sisters was transferring to
closer to Kobe area, and her companion had to meet her new companions
in Okayama, so we took her to the transfer point in sannomiya, and
then there was another sister who also had no one to go with at
sannomiya that was going to Okayama to meet her companion, so we took
her back. That took up most of our day, but it was awesome to briefly
see some old friends from the mtc, and talk with them for a little
while. It was an extremely long trip though. Once we got back, we went
to visit yajima, and she was making dinner, but we were able to make
an appointment! So that was great, and then we went home, and had
dinner, and then did SKK.
Friday we visited inoue San, and taught her and her daughter who was
visiting. Inoue sidetracked the lesson sometimes, but her daughter
definitely had interest, so we referred her to the Tokyo missionaries,
after we gave her a Book of Mormon and got her contact information.
We use these awesome new pamphlets that they have on the iPad's just
for Japan, introducing what missionaries are, and what to expect, and
also who God and Jesus Christ are. They are extremely useful, and the
Japanese is really good, because they were made specifically for
Japan. My mission is testing them out, and though it was a bit awkward
to use them at first, I am coming to love them, because they seem to
really touch the hearts of Japanese people, and they really love them!
She was kind of funny, taking pictures with us at random moments as we
learned how to make a simple Japanese dish with inoue San for lunch,
most of the time we didn't even know that she was doing it. And then
we went and visited Donna. She is so sweet! She has been keeping the
word of wisdom fully, and she is so much happier. She told us how now
when her husband is drinking, or she smells the stuff, it smells
disgusting to her! Mills Shimai and I were just so happy we were
speechless! She is such a wonderful daughter of God, and is working so
hard to become better. She asked us for advice on how to think more
positively about others who have hurt her, and we pointed her to the
savior, because he truly can fix any problem. We also gave her a
family the proclamation in Portuguese, and discussed the importance of
families. It was awesome! We also had our dendoshunnin meeting, and of
course the new elder was there. He is Brazilian, but raised in Japan,
so I get to try to communicate in just Japanese! Yay! It is hard, but
he is actually fairly good at understanding English, so it is not too
terrible. We also contacted a sweet old obachan in shin Kurashiki by
donnas house, it was kind of an accident, because she had bad ears, so
when we said konnichiwa, she started talking to us, which isn't
normal, and then it turned out pretty well, so that was awesome!
Saturday we had a lesson with ofuji, focusing on the importance of
reading the Book of Mormon. She has a really strong testimony of
prayer, so we are trying to build up her testimony of other things, so
she will actually be willing to receive baptism. It was awesome,can't
went a lot better than last lesson, because we both taught the lesson
together, and I just really prefer and enjoy having more to do with
lessons. We also visited a referral, and though she was having a bad
day due to pain, she talked with us for quite a while, and told us to
come back anytime. Definitely will be doing that! We also tried to
visit some less actives, but they were either not home, or basically
ran away when the heard that we were from the church. They politely
ran away, but still ran away. It was sad, but there was nothing we can
do for them if they won't even talk to us.
Sunday one of the members gave his farewell talk, cause he leaves for
the mtc tomorrow. He is headed to the Sapporo mission. He basically
just bore his testimony, and then we had a musical number, and then
the area seventy, who was visiting, spoke and told stories the rest of
the time. His name is Taiichi Aoba. Does his name ring a bell? He was
mentioned in this last conference. He lives in a small mountainside
village in Shikoku Japan... And he is a potter by trade. He was the
one talked about in elder maynes talk, living a Christ centered life,
and he is awesome! I didn't understand all of what he said, since it
was all Japanese, but I did get a lot of it, because he spoke simply,
and it was an awesome experience. He thanked us for our service,p when
we met him, and it was just an awesome experience. We also visited the
okamotos, finally. The last time we were able to make an appointment
with them was the day of my bike accident. They are fairly busy, so it
just hasn't been able to happen since then, but we were able to go
visit them, and it was so much fun! We shared a message about prayer,
and has some delicious stew type food, and also played games. They
were doing their family home evening last night, so we got to join in.
It was tons of fun!
I love and miss all of you, and I hope you have another fantastic
week! Love you mom and dad!
Love, Sister Makin
This week 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.
This is my mission theme, walk with me, kind of cool considering the
talk I gave in my farewell talk. I have come to understand more about
what it means to walk with Christ. You walk with Christ when you do
what he would do. Doing what Christ does, helps us see people as they
truly are, sons and daughters of God. They are special, no exceptions.
You are special, you are his child, there is no exception to this
rule. He loves you, even if you don't feel like you deserve to have
his love. Show him you love him by exercising you pe faith in him, and
he will help you. Miracles will happen. The spirit will justify, or as
it more clearly says in japanese, make true all of our words. We may
not see the physical mountains move, or the rivers, but the mountains
and rivers that our blocking our access to the hearts of gods children
will move, and will turn from their course, and we will be able to
help our brothers in sisters. Faith is so key to everything we do in
this life, no matter what aspect of our lives it is in, if we act in
faith, we need not fear, and through us, our Heavenly Father will work
miracles that will change the world. Love you tons!
Love, Makin 姉妹
Love, Sister Makin
No comments:
Post a Comment