March 14, 2016

This week was miracles galore. We had a lesson with Shigeharu San, hinata chan, Keiko San (a new investigator we found housing, she's in her 50s) and we had a lady come to church! 

Takahashi San is a sweet lady that komatsu Shimai and I met streeting back in January. We talked with her and her daughter about baptism and gave them a Book of Mormon and swapped numbers. She said she'd be busy for the next couple months and to call in March or so. So Anderson Shimai and I called her and she said she still had interest and that she would come to church on Sunday! She invited herself to church. And we didn't have to plead. And we understood what she was saying. Over the phone. In Japanese. Miracles my friends! And then she actually came! The second and third hour the ward mission leader taught a lesson about God and Christ and this life's purpose and she intently listened the whole time. He also went off on a little tangent about the word of wisdom and I was just terrified it would scare her away, but it didn't! We are going to have dinner with her this week and she is so excited to meet with us again and learn more! She knows a little English and when she texts us it's half in English and half in Japanese. It's the cutest. The lord is truly blessing us with the most patient, kind investigators. Between her, Hinata chan, Shigeharu San, and Keiko San, we are being so so so blessed. 

Yesterday in our lesson with Shigeharu San we talked about faith. We read from alma 32 about a seed of faith being planted and how, like plants, we need things to be nourished and grow. Those things being scripture study, prayer, and church. When we started meeting with Shigeharu San, he did not understand the scriptures. But last night as we asked him to read a few verses, he completely understood and then shared his feeling and thoughts about them too! He is making so much progress, we just need to help him realize his faith! Chris kyoudai was our joint again and he was wonderful as ever. He's just a powerhouse of simple, powerful testimonies and explanations of the things we are teaching. We talked again about baptism with him and a little about his concerns. He said it was a little scary that it was in water. We were a little confused but figured he probably just wasn't a fan of water. Turn out he thought he had to be baptized in a river like in the picture we showed him of Christ being baptized by John the Baptist. Luckily we were in the church for the lesson so we walked over to the font and opened it up to show him! He was much less concerned after that, so at least we were able to dispel one of his concerns. 

This week I've been thinking about how much the Lord is in the details of our lives. One day this week we had picked a place from a map to dendo, and got there to find a big empty field. We decided to just do some apartments close by, but it was a really slow time of the day. I was kind of bummed and just questioning if we were really where the lord needed us to be because our initial plan was a dud. Then miraculously we housed into two of our eikaiwa students, one being a little girl who was home alone, and the other being a mom and her two kids who we just adore. The mom invited us in and we looked at her photo albums, she fed us, and we just talked with her. She doesn't have interest in the gospel right now, but being able to strengthen our relationship with her was so incredible. So, I'm realizing more and more that the lord really is guiding us every day even when I don't realize it at first. Because after all, this is His work.

Please pray for all of our incredible investigators! They are all miracles and are so dear to Anderson Shimai and I. 

Thank you all for your love and support! 

Love, Sundell Shimai 

Here's picture proof that the Lord is patient with us, despite our imperfection (mine being struggling though morning studies sometimes and zonking out) ((at least I have the grammar book cracked open in my hand, right?))

The relief society had a spring vegetables cooking class this week! Deeeeeeeelicious. Not sure if I could even find half these ingredients in America though.