Subject: Staying in Imabari! WE'RE BOTH STAYING!! We're so happy to stay here, we've have lots of  Tuesday we went to SGG- Unknown acronym of the English group. KISEKI (miracle): they brought their BOM's!! That's a huge deal! We've been trying forever to get them to bring them and this time we didn't even ask/beg! Every Tuesday night we have a lesson with a recent convert (Kobe Mission they are considered recent and continue having lessons for 2 years). Honestly this was a Gift of Tongues lesson. Lesson was about Saigo made Taishinobu: Endure to the End, and we read the end of 2 Ne 31 together and discussed and watched the Mormon Message about the cruise ship guy and I just felt like I could talk and understand more than usual. After, we asked a few members to help us prepare for the Halloween party and everyone we asked came! We made cardboard cutouts of Halloween creatures for a bean bag toss. I forgot to take a picture, they turned out pretty good! Wednesday morning we went to an older members house with Yamamoto Shimai helping with the Visiting Teaching message. Yokota Shimai, the older member is an amazing example because she's just been so strong in the church, she can't do a lot anymore, but she is a retired flower arrangement teacher so she still brings flowers for Sacrament meeting. So cute! In the afternoon we travelled to Takamatsu to stay the night in order to get to Okayama the next morning for TTTM- trainer trainee training meeting! Thursday- TTTM! Okayama used to be a mission, so they have a regular older big church that could fit the 50ish missionaries that came! Saw some of my MTC friends! It was just a lot of talking and so much fun to see people!  After, we went straight to Matsuyama, another sleepover because Friday was ZTM - lots of traveling! ZTM (Zone training meeting), big surprise- I sang. Thank you Mom for sending music! Then we were finally back in Imabari, in time to wish Hana Chan - only YW in the branch, happy birthday! Saturday. Halloween Party. So. Much. Time. Honestly our whole day was helping with that party, we were exhausted and like the idea of simple parties :) the Niihama elders came to help! We had the whole place decorated and the Scott's invited all of their English students, which was the majority of the guests. We guessed about 50 would come, no, 110! It was a mad house! The Halloween party ended at 6:30 and we had 1/2 to clean up and get ready for the Music Evening/ Talent Show- Niihama sisters came and performed- Samoan dance, Niihama elders sang+piano,  I sang "Dreamed a Dream"-Les Miz, kind of funny- Branch President's request! A couple other people performed- Branch president's family are super talented with singing and guitar! It was very fun and much more relaxing than the Halloween party. We had an investigator come and a couple potential investigators from Eikaiwa come!! Sunday was nice and calm after Saturday! Lots of member lessons! In the afternoon we went over and helped Murakami Shimai (RS Pres) with iPad troubles, it's kind of funny, we've don't a lot of member tech support, mostly with Family Search. Anyways, it took a while, but 1 success- their dog, King, finally likes me! The dog barks and won't come near me every other time we've gone over and this time she finally warmed up and decided to come sit on my lap- success!  We're so grateful to be staying- more time to help out in this area! Love you all! Love, Wagstaff Shimai |
Halloween Party from **** :)
Thankfully the members in charge finally realized this party is too much work, so I think this was the last year. Niihama elders (our District Leader) came to visit some of our investigators/less actives and Halloween party prep took so long that we had just enough time to visit one. Of course maybe that just means we really needed to visit
her! I really haven't worked with elders much here and it was funny seeing that sometimes, they are just young and immature, thankfully not too bad. They dressed up as body guards and everyone was obsessed with
them, especially Elder Falute because he's from NZ/Australia.
Miracle yesterday we met with Kondo Kaicho (Kaicho: president) for a dendo (mission/missionary work) fireside we're doing next week. We had plans, but felt like we needed to talk to him again to see if we were meeting the members needs. Through talking, found out that we needed to change our approach with the fireside. We were going to focus on sharing gospel with friends, but he explained that a lot of people aren't ready to do that because they are really struggling. That went right along with a lot of our meetings this week- first we strengthen ourselves, then we can reach out to others. So now our focus is going to be strengthening them, hoping to reach the point where they can reach out.
Church really is different on this smaller scale- no worrying about Big temple celebrations or scout activities here. I honestly hope I stay in little branches my whole time here because they are the ones that need the most help, not the thriving wards in Kobe or Osaka- even if those areas do have more baptisms. Rees Shimai (from MTC- saw her at TTTM!) said strengthening the Japanese members might be one of the most important things we do because they're staying here, we're not. It was like what mom said about her little branches in Guatemala. :) Who knows, they might even have a ward there now!
I love you guys so much!
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| Matsuyama Zone from last week's meeting |
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| Also the cutest member of our branch-he practices his peace sign a lot! |
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