Weeks 39 & 40: Why do you have a zit?

Hermione and Dumbledore wands

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about some of our investigators:

Shimabukurou (this means island bag)
She is a sassy lady in her 70s that gives us cherry drinks and processed cheese slices every single time we come to her house. She loves changing the conversation: look at my fat goldfish that I feed three times a day, why do you have a zit on your chin--don't touch it, but really don't you have cream, eating healthy is how I'm independent, the pictures of people on your flyers are Japanese unlike
Jehovah's Witness' flyers and that's better.

She told us the weather is too hot to get baptized because then she would have to come to church every week in the hot weather. I've asked her on two separate occasions what is her biggest worry about baptism, and she is very adamant that "I have NO shinpai (worry)! It's just too hot!" She's probably the most elegant Japanese lady I know. We call her every night and read a scripture to her and she loves that. We love her and pray for her everyday. I don't know if she will change her mind about baptism anytime soon, but regardless it's just really fun to teach her.

Higa:
This young family of three (and dog) have the cutest two year old boy named Manato. This is my first time of the mission teaching the gospel to an investigating family with a kid there. He is so excited when we visit, dancing around and trying to play tag with us. It melts my heart. The first time we came to their apartment, we hadn't knocked on their door in the apartment when the wife came out and gave us popsicles because it was hot. The wife has been taught by missionaries before, but not her husband. We are going to teach them about scripture study next.

Yamazato:
Before this transfer, Yamazato would only take lessons from the missionaries when her husband wasn't home. We hadn't seen her all this transfer--I'd only heard a lot about her. Then, this week, we get a text saying it's her day off and that she'll meet us at the church. We go to the church and she pulls up in a red sports car and tells us to get in--she wants to drive us to her house. Next thing we know, we're walking into this really nice Japanese house with a three foot ship model on display in the genkan (entry way). Her husband is home. They sit us down at a dining table and the husband started asking a million questions relating to the restoration of the church, and the wife was so excited when we mentioned the plan of salvation. She had a missionary moment and taught him about the celestial kingdom. At the end of the lesson, the husband asked, "Do you like fantasy? Yes? Do you like Harry Potter?" Then the wife brings out these gift bags with Harry Potter wands. Mr. Yamazato decided to give the Hermione Granger wand to me (because he thought I looked like her) and the Dumbledore wand to my companion, Sister Perkins (because she's a great sensei for all of us). We are going to invite them to baptism next time.

Dueling wands

Well, those are some of the investigators that have made this transfer come alive and make me fall in love with Naha a little more each day.
:)
Rogers Shimai

Sister Perkins being an island girl

Mario Kart :D

"If only my hair looked like this fry"

Sister Nakahara and her friend

Shiiquasa (pronounced like Mufasa) is a fruit of Okinawa that I <3

Shiiquasa soda

Sister Page!!!

With my Hermione wand!

Cool Sisters

Weeks 37 & 38: Jungle Service

Tropical Naha

 Hello. It's hot. Regardless of if it's sunny or rainy, I end up windshield wiping my face. Most days my hair has mermaid waves like mermaids that die and wash up on the beach. The days are a blur of heat waves. Amidst those heat waves, we are seeing many miracles. And I'm learning to love the weather too.
 

Light Rain

 When the rain flecks down lightly, I mistake it for spit flying from the mouths of the people we talk to all day. But one night, the rain was sheeting down not so lightly while we were knocking on doors and we didn't have kappas (raincoats) or umbrellas. We talked to this lovely family of three, and the mother was so concerned about the rain that she drove us home. Wow! The kindness of strangers blows me away. They are new investigators now.

The missionary training conference was so spiritually edifying.  I have experienced more rejection here on my mission than at any other point in my life, and yet I have never experienced having such great purpose before. I am a missionary of Jesus Christ's church, and though I have yet to see a baptism on my mission, I know I am called to the work. D&C 123:17 "Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power."

Apartment Squad

Sometimes, it will feel like we aren't making a difference as we go about trying to do good. I went on exchanges with Sister Page to go weed an investigator's yard. So we slather on the mosquito repellent thinking we're good to go and then the lady leads us back into an actual jungle with banana and papaya trees and beehives. In a skirt I felt rather unprepared and maybe a little terrified. After pointing out the target area, the lady disappears back inside and there Sister Page and I are standing on this bouncy mound of dead plants swarming with bugs, hacking away with sickles, because SERVICE! After an hour, we emerge from the war zone with more than a few mosquito bites and the lady is just gone. We knock on her door a few times and never get an answer. What a day, what a day. Haha I want this story to end with - "and then she met with us later and decided to get baptized." But honestly I just am happy to have had that memorable experience since I've had so few solid service opportunities.

As I'm writing this email, Elder Miyagi just sneezed and said, "Bless me." favorite thing 😂

These past two weeks, I've found myself returning to this quote again and again:

"And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide,
Let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need,
but not your emptiness."

-Kahlil Gibran

God wants our earnest desires and honest needs. When I pray, I want to feel that I am giving God my best efforts. I don't want to let a problem get in the way of loving people. LIVE IT. LOVE IT.  It's just about the simple things.

Rogers Shimai

Helmet for safety

Sister Page and her beloved violin

 

She gave me this cute dolll! ^__^

How many buns?

Naha is ghetto and beautiful

One of our lovely investigators spoiled us with a three course breakfast. ^__^

Tropics!

Squid ink turned my tongue black. I felt like Voldemort eating
unicorn blood. (Strong fish flavor.)

When someone anonymously calls about "powerful bowel movements" to
the public church phone.