Hey y'all! This week turned out to be absolutely, freaking fantastically wonderful! Why you may ask? Let's see just magical investigators, the best udon ever ( one of the top 15 in the world that cost like 12 bucks a bowl), our spirits our high! We served! We did ukulele dendo! Wow, so many Miracles! But also first let me just say that we are so sheltered/no connection to the news of the earthquake that hit the Fukuoka mission. We have been receiving aftershocks but we haven't felt too much. I'm so sorry to hear about those people but if you have any information please let me know!
Monday was a cry fest....ya that doesn't sound very happy but we did we have had a hard week before and we all got bad news or something of the like so we cried....but then we went shopping!!! Made our day better! Then we taught an awesome lesson at FHE and so we turned the chapel into a maze and related that to life and how we need to follow the spirit. There is a better explanation of that but there is no time to explain.
Tuesday! The first part of the day we woke up really early to go see the sunrise peak over the only mountain in our area called Sanuki Fuji. I got pictures! :) We also did....a service day...well everyday is a service day but today was specifically physical service. So we brought treats to peeps, wrote nice notes to them, and then we taught Yura like three lessons about the temple, baptism, and the word of wisdom...in that order. Yura is totally going to get baptized and is already saying, "When I get baptized..." She's so cute I just love her! Also can I just say how much I love teaching English! We talk about the strangest things...like toe socks and how healthy this man's farm is...he's totally hipster.
Wednesday we filled our days with magic! Or just a lot of people to visit! We have been so busy...even though they are just members we worked hard to fill our days with something. When we got to the church later that day we saw on our missionary email that we had a new referral!!! And guess what! he referred himself! We were so excited. It gave us his name, address, and all that jazz to go find him. So after five we went over and knocked on his door. To our surprise we met this Filipino kid named Jeff. We told him who we were and he was like wow that was really quick. He had signed himself up to meet the missionaries. His one friend asked him, why don't you give religion a try? So he did. Then we met him!
So when we first met, turns out that he already had 2 English Book of Mormons sitting in his apartment, he said it was here from the people before. We taught him about prayer and asked him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. We was really sweet and kind. We asked if we could pray with him and afterwards he said that felt really good like when we prayed we were actually talking with someone! It was so good. He was so interested in what we had to say and asked us if we could meet everyday! No...pandjwjdjsncjdkc of course you can!
After meeting with him, Gibson Shimai and I were in shock...we were bikuri shita 'd (surprised). We had to walk a little ways before we started shouting and dancing for some serious joy! We went back to the apartment because the other sisters were home sick and we immediately told them our good news! I'm pretty sure the sisters couldn't understand what we were talking about at first because we were just shouting like two crazies just out of the hospital. Anyway that was Wednesday. And it totally was a blessing from God.
This transfer was so rough people falling apart, no one to teach, hospital visits, crazy spainard drama, crisis of faith....but we pushed through, we gave it our best and let me just say since its been a week for me but two for you I loved elder Holland's talk when he talked about how God doesn't just reward the perfectly faithful, he cares and loves all of his children and for the best that they can preform. This line in particular, "He will help you get back up. He will help you repent, repair, fix whatever you have to fix, and keep going. Soon enough you will have the success you seek." Meeting Jeff was the miracle of the transfer!
Thursday we played with the neighbor kids and it was so much fun! They always come, ring our door bell at dinner time and we go play jump rope or race each other or I blow bubbles :) then later that night we also went and taught kids eikaiwa! I love these kids because they are so sassy and smart! And I love making them laugh because Gibson and I are dancing to " The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock.
Friday was another good day. We met this old man with purple lips....then we went to the park with my ukulele and first I played for this woman who I thought was young enough to be her grandson's mother, and this 2 year old. He enjoyed the bubbles I had, like he screamed every time he saw them.
We passed by a hoard of middle school boys playing soccer. We then we moved to a different part of the park just next to them and just sat in a field (this sounds so hippie of me.....oh well :) and I pulled out my ukulele and started singing. Slowly and at one at a time a few boys came and sat down on the ground in front of me and listened to me play then all 23 of them! I'm not even joking on how many. They just sat down and listened! They were so sweet! After I finished one song, they clapped and I was like I'll play one more okay and they all shouted okay! I sang and played the Jerusalem song, or viva la vida, and Gibson and I could see them whispering together and trying to figure something out. After I finished they clapped again and they tried to give me a 10¥ coin. It was so sweet. I kindly declined and then invited them to eikaiwa. Later on that day and during the week we would see these boys all on their bikes and they would shout to us all the English they know :) If you know me that totally made my day :3
Later in the day we walked to Jeff's house and asked if he wanted to see the church. He's like sure I have nothing else better to do. So we took him to the church and gave him a tour! It was awesome to see all the different rooms and explain what people do in them we showed him the font and such and this picture of Jesus. And that's when he says, "Oh Jesus visited the Americas right? I read that in that book you gave me!"
"So you got to read the introduction..."Gibson started to say. "Oh no I read up to that point in the book like Nephi 3 right?" It took all of my energy to not scream and jump up and down. "Wow..that's awesome," that's freaking insane, "how do you like it?" "It's like reading a Harry Potter book, if I get tired, I'll put it down and then I'll pray." I was so bikurishita'd. We took him then to the chapel and seriously the spirit was so thick when we walked in. It was like coming home and I knew he could feel it. He keeps telling us the more he talks to us the more interest he has! He asked if it was okay for him to come to church.
Saturday I died. Or I got a sinus infection with a massive headache...but that did not keep me from going to Sensei's, number 11 out of 15, of the best udon in the world! They are these thick noodles that are so yummy. You can put it in a soup or curry. I had it with curry. Way good. Member Brother Ikiechi, knows the owner who by the way wakes up at 5 every morning to hand make his noodles, and bought us some also they were having some conference there so we were the only people there to eat. We had the whole place to our selves. The people were so kind to us! That about sums up Saturday.
Sunday Jeff came to church! Yay!!! And stayed the whole time! In the third hour we taught him the whole Restoration and he said, that makes sense! And he wants to learn more and more! Turns out he knows, Kristen, an American member here from before and so she invited us all to her house for dinner later that night! He is so amazing, if I took the time to tell you how awesome this kid is it would take too long! I know how God feels!! He just wants us to come to learn to get excited about learning and finding truth!!! AHHHH WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?!?!
So that's my week...and today we are going to explore some ogre caves....we'll see how that goes!
Love you all!
Oswald Shimai!
Tuck-N-Roll
