Monday March 21, 2016

Sunday dinner with members

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So today we went on this long walk/hike with the ward- 15 kilos (almost 10 miles)... My feet can feel it! Started as a YW activity, then evolved to a Youth and Ward activity, and then turns out that none of the YW came...mostly YM and leaders plus family. But still really fun! 

The fuinki (think Twinkie with an f, means mood) changed this week- I feel more potential to work HARDER and through working harder I know we'll start to see the success in ways I wasn't quite as ready to see before. Working on believing in PI's and helping them progress. Areas progress in stages and I don't want to look too far ahead, instead starting from the beginning week by week to focus on taking people up through the chain of progression. 

I'm learning a lot about effective goal setting and planning from Steere Shimai. One of my past goals was to write daily miracles and I've been doing pretty good! So I wanted to share some good moments from this last week. Hopefully they make sense:

3/14- Dad's emails, also some good lessons at Kongo Eki- met a Catholic missionary from Africa and he was the first person we showed the new Easter video to! Also got T and D's pkg sent off (Sent literally right before 5 when post office closes), watched Holland's Face2Face during emails- sugoku yo katta! Very intimate, personal testimony of Jesus Christ. Got to know Blomquist Shimai better in our follow up. Rain didn't last all day!

3/15- Lesson w/ Maekawa. Yoko Shimai doseki- she's so good at connecting with people and having fun! Spirit was really strong in our lesson and now the choice to act is up to her...ended with Moroni's challenge, reading the last part of the BOM intro- have you ever noticed how strong the promise is? The promise is a guarantee that if you read, ponder and pray with an

 Sincere heart, you'll KNOW. She was really surprised by the surety we had. Also met Ueda Shimai (LA with bad health, making banana bread together next week)! Aya came to Eikaiwa again. No time for dinner, but received food!! 

3/16- Member visits! Totsuzen (unplanned visit) Higashino Shimai after not feeling so good about finding time, but VERY uplifted by her! Then evening visited Yamamoto family...so crazy and fun, worked really well, had them play charades with their commitment (showing love, sharing gospel). Plus good game night with a lesson! #Hallelujah video.

3/17- Super strong members (dinner with Ogaki's and felt so much love and they are just good members who get up at 6 am to pray and are seeking to share gospel- not crazy, just very humble and also very fun!)

Also this was the day of crazy grandmas...one of the goals we set off the day was working on charity, so we were given lots of opportunities! Visited a PI who we now think has Alzheimer's or something because we ended up having the same conversation about 3 times. Then another with not many teeth yelled out to us from her driveway- she had a strong Osaka accent and kept telling us she needed a car, but we just have bikes and about 30 minutes later as we charitably tried to listen we finally just had to leave. Interesting/funny experiences, but looking back those are children of God, so I think God was happy with us.

3/18- Koukon with Nakayama Shimai! Lots of Japanese- hisashiburi (long time no see)!. Also I didn't get hit by a car and not hurt...sadly can't say the same for my boots. SO MUCH FUN, SO GOOD.

So I'll explain this a little more. STLs, so we exchange with the sisters in our zone and I was with Nakayama Shimai from Tokyo! We biked out about an hour to a far part of the area visiting different LA's, PI's, etc. It looked ready to rain the entire time, but thankfully didn't until the end as we started biking back. Nakayama Shimai isn't afraid to talk to anyone and she's really calm, and we had so much fun! Then riding back, I tried to go up on the curb with my bike (normally fine) but with the rain ended up falling, sort of fell and slid past a car, BUT I'm totally fine, like nothing hurt at all. Though sadly the slid ripped my boots (Uggs but not). Pretty sad. 

Also new PI (Potential Investigator) who owns a crepe shop near our apartment...!! This could be a very good investigator :) Then wasn't really looking and walked into the street, car was coming, and literally stopped like 2 inches in front of me. God protects missionaries, even sometimes when we're stupid. I pay attention to cars more now!

3/19- Met a PI who turned into a new investigator...really shocked. Expecting rejection at the ping pong. Followed the Spirit. Called Wakayama sisters when needed. 

We just had lots of little "I feel like we should go here/find there/go back and try again". It really feels good!

3/20- We taught YW's on the Atonement, A LESS ACTIVE GIRL WE VISITED AND INVITED CAME! I felt like it was a really good lesson. After church we visited a less active who wasn't home, but since it was a bit far out, we did a little housing in the area- 3 houses in a row had people who actually came outside to talk to us! The first two were grandmas who both said they went to Sunday School when they were young and really like it! 

Then ended the week submitting our numbers. Numbers aren't what really count, but we hit 52 lessons this week and felt really good about it because because most were pretty solid vs quick ones on the street. 

Also one thing I found this morning I wanted to share: with our Atonement challenge, I just finished reading Elder Holland's favorite chapters and am starting at the beginning. At first going back was a little hard because I wasn't seeing the Atonement as clearly, but realized I wanted to find how the Atonement was working in their daily lives, so that I can use it more in mine. So 1st Ne 4:1 And it came to pass that I spake unto my brethren, saying: Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?

He tried again! The Atonement gives us 2nd chances, with the strength and hope to try again. I'm going to use that chance this next week to try harder and dendo better. I hope everyone can find something to try again, better this week because of the Atonement. 

 I was a little sad that the Temple Celebration link didn't work, maybe it's on a time limit, or just not available outside of Utah? I don't know, but thank you for telling me about it!  Lots of people, here are getting excited for Sapporo. Though what we really want is a temple in the Kansai region (Kobe/Kyoto/Osaka).

Even though I had some close car experiences, I'm fine, don't worry! Sadly lots of missionaries here get in bike accidents, but nothing very serious, DONT WORRY! Probably shouldn't have mentioned it...

One of my goals this week is not fall asleep during morning or evening prayers...it's a struggle. New strategy is getting completely off of my futon onto the tatami (traditional straw mat flooring).

Glad the package came, though unfortunately I guess that means I paid for fast shipping :( Learning! I can do normal conversations and gospel, but not specific things with specific vocab, guess I'll be studying post office words for the next time! So I heard about the seaweed! There's a ton of really disgusting treats, thought I'd send
one you'd be more willing to try, we'll see what I can send next, who's up for dried octopus tentacles? :)

Not much else, I mean there's always a ton, but I've got to get going. Love you lots, so grateful for emails and prayers!

Love, Katya