Monday was hectic...a lovely blizzard decided to grace us with its presence leaving behind like 2 feet of snow. Which would have been fine if we didn't have interviews the next day. So we tried to make our way to the train station and....it's shut down, there are no trains going in or out. Yippee! After many failed attempts we called in a favor to the lovely Swasey Kyodai to give us a lift. We and the Elders piled into his tiny truck and made our way through the storm! It actually wasn't too bad by the time we left, which was about 7:30 pm. We had a great time!
At one point traffic stopped moving and we were stuck on the road for 30 minutes and eventually we were able to get off the highway and go through a back road which no one was on. It was a real adventure. Around 11 pm we made it to the sister's apartment in Yonago. It's normally an hour train or car ride but it took...you do the math, too long.
Tuesday was just as sunny and bright as Monday...ha, it wasn't. More snow piled in. Finally our president and his wife arrived and we could start interviews. Four missionaries couldn't make it because a tree fell on the train tracks. Such a mess! Because we couldn't take the train back we spent half the day with the Welchs and other missionaries.
Amongst the chaos and shinanagins, it was my turn for an interview. My final interview with President Welch. Oh man...it was sooooo good! We talked about the future and such. As we talked I could really feel the love he has for me. He has really been called of God. He really is a shepherd watching over his sheep (us missionaries). At the end of it all, tears were in his eyes and mine. I really love this man and his wife for all that they have done for me. I can't believe that the days are over with so quickly.
Later we all went to Ramen together and we were expecting to pay our own meals and the lady who ran the shop (a member) was trying to give us our tickets and President just reached down and snatched them out of her hand and said, I've got this. Welch Shimai was like, "Just let him do it, it makes him happy," to which he replied with a huge grin on his face, "You don't always get to take your kids out to lunch."
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| President and Sister Welch, I am right behind Sister Welch |
The rest of Tuesday was devoted to shoveling snow and pushing cars out of tight spots. They don't use salt to melt the snow creating huge, packed-down snow hills in the middle of the intersections. We spent the night again with our Yonago Shimaitachi, two sweet Japanese sisters, Eguchi and Tachiguchi Shimai.
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| Eguchi and Tachiguchi Shimai (left), me and Laxton Shimai |
They are so cute and I love them so much! We finally were able to make it home to our area Wednesday afternoon when the trains started running again. They just came when they did, there were no set times, it was crazy. As crazy as trains can get I suppose. By the time we got home we were wiped out.
Friday we had district meeting in Tottori. Another last. Sigh it didn't help when I showed up, I looked up on the white board and it said, 'Oswald Shimais last district meeting: District meeting.' It wasn't nice... I gave a death glare to Elder Wheeler who just laughed. Together we all watched the Missionary broadcast and it talked about new schedule changes for the missionaries. It won't start till next transfer so I really won't get to experience it so I just told the others good luck, ne!
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| Mr. Gadget / Mary Poppins |
Afterwards we got lunch, shabushabu. So delicious. Oh...yum. Later that afternoon we had a lesson with Kiyoshi. We sat in his apartment and we talked about Jesus Christ and his Atonement. In the middle of the lesson he turns to us and says, I want to become more like Jesus Christ. And it was like, wait, what!? Uh, ya we can help you with that!! Ahhh so good, he's like in Ether. He is doing so good. So is Natsumi chan! Ahh she came to church yesterday and she just loved it! This week was crazy and I don't think I can remember much else about it....sad, oh well! Last night we downloaded the Joseph Smith movie and watched it together and I got so pumped about the gospel...that I couldn't sleep! Man I love Joseph Smith! He was SOOO cool.
Saturday night we went to the Miamotos for dinner and it was so yummy!
Well life is short...
Love y'all,
Madeline Oswald Shimai
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