This has basically been one of the most hectic weeks of my mission. As always, transfer calls were not at all what we expected. Exactly the opposite, in fact. My new companion is.....(drum roll, please)..... Sou Shimai! She is the girl from Taiwan that I have been in the same apartment as for the last 3 transfers. We came to Saijo at the same time, but she has always been in the other sisters' companionship. We were SO surprised. It definitely meant some juggling with investigators (because she brought all the Chinese investigators into our companionship) but it has been a fun adjustment.
A bit about my new comp - so she is from Taiwan, and is a recent convert - August 11 is her 2 year mark. Pretty cool, right? She is fluent in Japanese, her english is decent, and she is way nice. She is on her 4th transfer - we came to Saijo together at the same time when she was a bean. It has definitely been an adjustment teaching lessons again where I have absolutely no
idea what's going on for part of the lesson. we usually make sure to roleplay (is that what you call it in english?) during companion study. We either teach their lessons in half chinese, half japanese, or half chinese half english - depending on which language they are better at. A few days ago, we taught the law of chastity to Teena - she is really cute, college age, and has a baptismal date for next month. Chinese, Japanese, and english all in one, teaching that commandment - yep. An experience, to be sure. But it went well, so that is happy.
This week was crazy. Here is the lowdown. Willes was down in Fukuoka for trainers meeting sunday night and monday, it was transfer call pday on tuesday - turned our lives upsidedown a little to discover that Sou shimai and I would be companions, and burgon was getting a bean. Wednesday was crazy - last lessons and goodbyes with investigators, eikaiwa that night, and willes was off early thursday morning. Sou and I became comps early thursday morning.
Miracle of the week. So honestly from all the hustle and bustle I was pretty exhausted, and Thursday and Friday really were an adjustment for me. I'd been with Willes shimai, one of my best friends for 4 1/2 months. I felt like my Japanese wasn't adequate to fully communicate with Sou shimai, and I felt like my body was just so utterly exhausted that I wasn't giving enough to do missionary work, but also that I couldn't do anything more than I already was. I got a blessing from the elders friday night that was one of the most comforting of my life. I was promised that our language barrier wouldn't be a problem,. and a few other things. The next morning when I woke up, my pure exhaustion feeling of the day before was gone. I felt like I was back to normal, and like I had had a huge burden just lifted off of my shoulders. It was such a huge testimony builder to me of the importance of relying on The Lord. He will make our burdens light and strengthen us so that we can do the things we need to do. Since then, things have been great here. I mean it's not perfect, we're not perfect, but things are going really well.
We set a baptismal date with Takeda san this past week!!! She is really progressing and wants to have that fresh start that baptism brings. I am so excited to keep working with her.
Tomiko - - so she has had a really really hard time with the fact that Willes shimai left. We are getting her going bit by bit. She came to church yesterday, and bore her testimony in fast and testimony meeting. It was so good. That was the first time she has borne her testimony in front of other people - I was so proud of her. Her prayers are so sincere as well. It makes me want to cry when I think of where she was 3 months ago and how much she has progressed since then. I love her so much.
I love all of these people so much. I feel so lucky to have at least one more transfer here - hopefully more. I am hoping that I will get to finish my mission here. I have learned and grown so much in the past year. Missions really are incredible, aren't they? Wow.
Well that is most of our week! Gotta run but I love you all! Have a good week!
Flake Shimai
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