October 14th
Sorry this is so late, we spent our whole pday with a family in our ward, they took us sight seeing and we didn't have any time to do anything else- however I LOVE them and their kids so it made up for stealing all our time ha...don't be surprised when i come home with a Japanese baby in my suitcase..I want to kidnap them ALL. They are sooooo cute. AHHHH!!!!
So. Ready for the big news??
On our way to bowling last week (it was way fun by the way) I got a call from my President...he asked me if... I WOULD TRAIN A NEW BEAN AGAIN. I was so surprised!!! That was the LAST possible scenario that I would have guessed would be happening. There were only three sisters coming in this transfer alongside 27 new elders, so I didn't think I would be called upon to train since I had just trained Sister Nelson...however, I was wrong. Ha. My first thought was...'What is he thinking!?' My next thought was...'If the Lord thinks I can...then I will...so I agreed to train agree.
Her name is Sister SOUTHWORTH, she is from Kaysville Utah, is 20 years old and is having a little bit of a struggle adjusting to the mission field I think. I remember my first two weeks I was so awkward, so maybe she is just going through that awkward transition phase like everyone does...you don't realize how weird you probably were as a Bean until you get to train one. haha :)
Sister Buhler transfered to a place called Kumamoto, it is really far south, almost by Okinawa I guess- I MISS HER. Oh my gosh. I love her so much!!! She is the best person ever, I can't even begin to express my love for that saintly woman!!! The patience that she had for me...I hope to one day train as good as she was able to train me.
Miracles:
We were able to meet with our cute little MARIN this last week, we went to dinner with her and talked about the church. After she gets back from Hawaii she is planning on coming to church. I love her, she is SO cute. I will update you on her progress as it unfolds.
Some sad news...our baptism has been called off, due to our investigator having some mental issues...however, I feel very confident that the Lord is extremely aware of her and loves her. I am not worried about her, or disappointed that she is not getting baptized.
NEXT....
GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OH MY
GOOOOSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BEST THING OF MY LIFE!!! EVERY TALK WAS SOOOO AMAZING!!!! I loved every single one, I don't think I had a favorite because they were all SO inspired from our Heavenly Father. I definitely was touched by Elder Hollands talk as well...I feel like all who were watching related to it in some form or another.
The whole theme of Conference was MISSIONARY WORK!!!!! I can't even describe the urgency that I felt to hasten our Heavenly Fathers work. Jesus Christ is coming!!! I hope you all really contemplate and PRAY DAILY for OPPORTUNITIES to share the gospel! Please please find out who the missionaries are in our area and pray for them AND their investigators BY NAME. EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY. That is coming STRAIGHT from a PROPHET OF GOD.
I love this gospel. I am so grateful to a LOVING, KIND, ALL KNOWING Heavenly Father who sent his living servants to address all of his children about his concerns for us. He wants us to be happy, he wants us to understand his plan for us. Please, PLEASE, search the scriptures daily, DAILY. There is no excuse as to why this cannot be an every day activity. PRAY DAILY, DAILY. If you don't know why scripture study and prayer is important, I encourage you to re listen to general conference and you will find the answer. We are all children of God. We all need the Savior. We ALL need his grace in order to return back to live in the Presence of our Heavenly Father. The call has come from God...get involved in missionary work...the Savior is coming. The end is nigh, even at the doors...no excuses. If your testimony is weak, strengthen it. If you have made mistakes and need to repent, repent. If you aren't paying an honest tithe, pay it. If you don't have a current temple recommend, get one. If you aren't praying and reading the scriptures DAILY, do it. If you aren't going to church, or attending all your meetings, go. If you don't have happiness in life...FIND IT. Find it through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his Atonement. This will solve all problems. ALL problems. DO YOU HEAR ME?! ALL PROBLEMS we face in life can and WILL BE resolved in and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. If you are looking for ways elsewhere to mend a broken heart, heal wounds, or fix illness...look to Christ. He will heal all. This is my sincere testimony.
I love you all, I look forward to hearing about all of YOUR miracles in missionary work this week!
My love is always here for you all. We are all engaged in this work together.
Love, Sharp Shimai
Friday, October 18, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Heavenly Father works in very unique ways
October 7th
Pday is on Tuesday today- we are having a zone pday in yamaguchi, we are getting food as a zone and then going somewhere to go bowling! Should be fun :)
Updates:
Sister Smotherman got a call last week from the AP's and they told her that she would be becoming a breaker (thats what they call you if you are not training a new missionary, but you are becoming companions with someone usually who was a Bean their last transfer.) I immediately assumed that she would be breaking Sister Nelson and that I would maybe be getting a new companion or transferring to another area....
Sister Smotherman went to her meeting last night in Fukuoka and they told her that she would be Breaking Sister Nelson, which means I am getting a new companion and I am staying in UBE for this upcoming transfer. I have some mixed emotions about it, but obviously the Lord knows what he is doing. I was hoping that maybe I would stay and there would only be 2 sisters in Ube and that they would send Elders here to live in the old apartment so it would just be us and Elders, but from the sounds of it, they are just keeping it a four man Sister area this transfer :( WE NEED ELDERS HERE!!! Hopefully next transfer...
Miracles:
WE SAW SO MANY! Okay first though, let it just be said that I know I complain about the language a LOT, but its not ruining my life or anything like I probably make it seem. haha. Yeah, of course it would be nice if I didn't have to deal with a language barrier every second of my life, but whatever, the Lord has a different kind of missionary work for me to do here...I'm accepting it ha.
In the last month and a half I think I have had 5 flat tires! Two of which occurred in this last week. NOT fun. However, a really great miracle came because of the timing that I got my flat tire on Sunday...
Sister Nelson and I decided to bike waaay across town to visit a less active member and a few other people that lived in the area Sunday night. It was probably a 70 minute bike ride...as we were approaching a stop light, there was another young teenage girl on her bike waiting for the light to turn green. As we pulled up to the light, I said hello to her, and when I saw her face she looked SO familiar...the the first thing I said to her was 'Have we met before'?? She was like umm... no i don't think so. But you can speak to me in English! She studied English for a year on her own, and she was so good, her English was amazing. We began speaking to her in English and told her why we were here in Japan, and she was so happy to find out that we were Christian. Apparently she is going to Hawaii in 2 weeks for a school trip, and then she is going to New York for a month and a half for Christmas, and is staying with a Christian family. Her name is Marin, she is 17 years old and she was asking us if she could come to church and we of course said yes and asked if we could meet with her again. We got her information, and gave her a book of Mormon and directions to the church. She was so excited! She said that she was headed to the gym and that we could call her this week...when she biked away me and Sister Nelson were freaking out about how great she was.
When we finally made it to the less actives house, we housed in the area for a little bit and then decided to head back about and hour and a half later...when we were biking out of the apartment complex we were in, I noticed my lovely back bike tire was making a weird sound...I looked back and it was nice and flat :) I told Sister Nelson that we had better start walking back right away if we wanted to be back before curfew...
About 30 minutes later I looked back to say something to Sister Nelson and here comes Marin biking up the same road we are on and asked if she could walk to the bike shop with us to get my bike fixed!! It was like a 40 minute walk from where we were and we were like 'Yeah, but its super far, are you sure you want to walk with us?! she said she didn't mind :) on the walk to the bike shop we told her all about our message and the restoration on the gospel. She thought it was 'so cool' and agreed to come to dinner with us this week at our favorite sushi restaurant here in Ube, (which she just so happens to work at)...
I know that Heavenly Father works in very unique ways, and in order for us to get to know this cute little girl better he allowed my bike tire to go flat so that we would some how end up at the right place and the right time so we could run into her again. It was a miracle.
We have a baptism date! For November 2 with this sweet woman named Suetomi San. She has been meeting with missionaries for YEARS. She meets with Jehovah's witnesses sometimes too, but she doesn't really like what they teach. She has some mental problems, so i think that is mainly why she hasn't gotten baptized, but she committed to a date! She came to church last Sunday and bore her testimony in relief society, Sister Nelson and I were so shocked. We went to her house almost every day last week, rain or shine, and she expressed her love and gratitude for us, it made us so happy. We love her. I will give more updates as her baptism gets closer. Suetomi is probably in her 60's...
We have another investigator named Kanyeya Yasu- she is SO CUTE. She is probably also in her 50's or 60's. I really can't tell with Japanese people they all look SO YOUNG. We have been visiting her for 3 weeks now, and she accepted an actual return appointment last week for tonight at 7. So we are really excited to go teach her, we love her and she is soo nice. I feel like she is really receptive to the spirit too. So I will give you more updates on how our lesson goes tonight!
Miracles are happening everyday here. I am so grateful to be here. I am sorry I don't have more time, but I love you all. You are all in my prayers!!!
Sharp Shimai
Pday is on Tuesday today- we are having a zone pday in yamaguchi, we are getting food as a zone and then going somewhere to go bowling! Should be fun :)
Updates:
Sister Smotherman got a call last week from the AP's and they told her that she would be becoming a breaker (thats what they call you if you are not training a new missionary, but you are becoming companions with someone usually who was a Bean their last transfer.) I immediately assumed that she would be breaking Sister Nelson and that I would maybe be getting a new companion or transferring to another area....
Sister Smotherman went to her meeting last night in Fukuoka and they told her that she would be Breaking Sister Nelson, which means I am getting a new companion and I am staying in UBE for this upcoming transfer. I have some mixed emotions about it, but obviously the Lord knows what he is doing. I was hoping that maybe I would stay and there would only be 2 sisters in Ube and that they would send Elders here to live in the old apartment so it would just be us and Elders, but from the sounds of it, they are just keeping it a four man Sister area this transfer :( WE NEED ELDERS HERE!!! Hopefully next transfer...
Miracles:
WE SAW SO MANY! Okay first though, let it just be said that I know I complain about the language a LOT, but its not ruining my life or anything like I probably make it seem. haha. Yeah, of course it would be nice if I didn't have to deal with a language barrier every second of my life, but whatever, the Lord has a different kind of missionary work for me to do here...I'm accepting it ha.
In the last month and a half I think I have had 5 flat tires! Two of which occurred in this last week. NOT fun. However, a really great miracle came because of the timing that I got my flat tire on Sunday...
Sister Nelson and I decided to bike waaay across town to visit a less active member and a few other people that lived in the area Sunday night. It was probably a 70 minute bike ride...as we were approaching a stop light, there was another young teenage girl on her bike waiting for the light to turn green. As we pulled up to the light, I said hello to her, and when I saw her face she looked SO familiar...the the first thing I said to her was 'Have we met before'?? She was like umm... no i don't think so. But you can speak to me in English! She studied English for a year on her own, and she was so good, her English was amazing. We began speaking to her in English and told her why we were here in Japan, and she was so happy to find out that we were Christian. Apparently she is going to Hawaii in 2 weeks for a school trip, and then she is going to New York for a month and a half for Christmas, and is staying with a Christian family. Her name is Marin, she is 17 years old and she was asking us if she could come to church and we of course said yes and asked if we could meet with her again. We got her information, and gave her a book of Mormon and directions to the church. She was so excited! She said that she was headed to the gym and that we could call her this week...when she biked away me and Sister Nelson were freaking out about how great she was.
When we finally made it to the less actives house, we housed in the area for a little bit and then decided to head back about and hour and a half later...when we were biking out of the apartment complex we were in, I noticed my lovely back bike tire was making a weird sound...I looked back and it was nice and flat :) I told Sister Nelson that we had better start walking back right away if we wanted to be back before curfew...
About 30 minutes later I looked back to say something to Sister Nelson and here comes Marin biking up the same road we are on and asked if she could walk to the bike shop with us to get my bike fixed!! It was like a 40 minute walk from where we were and we were like 'Yeah, but its super far, are you sure you want to walk with us?! she said she didn't mind :) on the walk to the bike shop we told her all about our message and the restoration on the gospel. She thought it was 'so cool' and agreed to come to dinner with us this week at our favorite sushi restaurant here in Ube, (which she just so happens to work at)...
I know that Heavenly Father works in very unique ways, and in order for us to get to know this cute little girl better he allowed my bike tire to go flat so that we would some how end up at the right place and the right time so we could run into her again. It was a miracle.
We have a baptism date! For November 2 with this sweet woman named Suetomi San. She has been meeting with missionaries for YEARS. She meets with Jehovah's witnesses sometimes too, but she doesn't really like what they teach. She has some mental problems, so i think that is mainly why she hasn't gotten baptized, but she committed to a date! She came to church last Sunday and bore her testimony in relief society, Sister Nelson and I were so shocked. We went to her house almost every day last week, rain or shine, and she expressed her love and gratitude for us, it made us so happy. We love her. I will give more updates as her baptism gets closer. Suetomi is probably in her 60's...
We have another investigator named Kanyeya Yasu- she is SO CUTE. She is probably also in her 50's or 60's. I really can't tell with Japanese people they all look SO YOUNG. We have been visiting her for 3 weeks now, and she accepted an actual return appointment last week for tonight at 7. So we are really excited to go teach her, we love her and she is soo nice. I feel like she is really receptive to the spirit too. So I will give you more updates on how our lesson goes tonight!
Miracles are happening everyday here. I am so grateful to be here. I am sorry I don't have more time, but I love you all. You are all in my prayers!!!
Sharp Shimai
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