Konnichiwa, kazoku!
I feel like every week I just have entirely too much to say and no time to say it all. Ganbarimasu!
Thank you for telling me all about your week. I can't believe school is already starting for you. In Japan, the start of the school year is March or April ish. I have so many thoughts to tell you about the schooling here - but I'll save that for another day. As far as the scripture study - that's wonderful! I was talking with Sou shimai about how we had done that growing up and she said she was so jealous and definitely wants to do that with her family in the future. Speaking of Sister Sou - today is her 2 year baptism anniversary (sorry if that sounds weird - I honestly don't know how to say it in English). She is such a champion. Baptized two years ago today. The exciting news is this - the saijo elders have a baptism today! Okayamasan will be baptized tonight, so all of us missionaries, okayama san, and some ward members are heading in to Hiroshima \city (about a 45 minute train ride away) in a few hours to go do some fun things, maybe go to the Hiroshima castle, and eat before the baptism. Can't wait!
Sou shimai - she's grand. She is super cute, 24 yrs old, fluent in Japanese, and has pretty good english. We have been having a goal to both SYL more (speak your language) - so she is trying to say more things in English and I am trying to only speak Japanese to her. We have a funny little mostly japanese, partially english language going on. It is always a party. I will try to send a picture of us soon.
We were able to meet with a lot of our investigators this week! That is always a happy thing. Tomikosan is still having a pretty hard time with Willes shimai being gone - but we're working with her and keeping up daily contact. Just trying to show her our love and support. Her baptismal date has been dropped for a bit - we're still working on some concerns that she has first. However, I do have full faith that she will be baptized one day. She is still pretty concerned about paying tithing because her money situation is pretty hard. But it's okay - little by little - we'll get there!
Takedasan is doing great. She really has a strong desire to know the truth. She started coming to Eikaiwa and really liked it - so she will be continuing that and is planning on coming to church next week!
Biggest miracle of the week - we had 9 investigators at church this week (between all of us missionaries). There were 10 missionaries, 10 nonmembers (one of the member's mom came), and 7 members there. The biggest part of that miracle - it was a typhoon and they all came to church! We were warned that saturday and sunday were supposed to have a pretty bad typhoon blowing in. I didn't think much about it - it is always raining here. BUT Saturday afternoon and night were just about the craziest weather I've seen here. There were huge winds and lots of rain - we were visiting an investigator on the other side of town and ended up walking our bikes the whole way home because there was no way we could ride in that wind. Yay for adventures - it was fun because we never walk! The investigator we were teaching was fu san. (chinese). It's funny, because the word in Japanese for couple, like a married couple, is fufu. So, we were teaching the fu fufu. Fun to say. Anyway it is really a neat experience to hear one asian language that I don't understand at all, but then be able to talk and communicate in a different asian language that does make sense to me, even though I didn't even know how to say hello a year and a half ago.
Last cool story of the week - I was a little frustrated the other day. I felt like I;d been trying my hardest and really doing all I could do, but was having a hard time recognizing revelation and knowing what to do to help some of our people. Sou shimai and I talked it out, and she really helped me feel better. That evening, we went to visit a potential investigator, who ended up not being interested in our message. We prayed to figure out what we should do, and I remembered that a former investigator lived pretty close by in that area, and felt like we should go visit her. She had been dropped because her husband was against the church, and she bacame very busy. That was during my first transfer here in Saijo. Well, we went to visit her, and she was so happy to see us! She said she'd been reading the Book of Mormon and thinking about us lately. We were able to set up another appointment with her to talk more about these things. That was a miracle in and of itself, but the biggest miracle to me was that God really does know our circumstances so well. He knew that that was something I had been worried about, and showed me that he cared for me and would help me as I continue to do His work. I know that this work is the Lord's work, not ours. I continue to see so many miracles every day. I feel so blessed to be here having this opportunity to serve. I love it so much. Thank you for all of your love and support!
Ai shite imasu!
Flake Shimai
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