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| This has to be one of my favorite photos of Lucy's mission. Look how serious that guy is! haha! |
Dear Famdamily,
Good morning! Sorry this is a day late. Yesterday for Pday we ended
up going to the Aquarium last minute so we didn't have time to email.
Yamada Shimai hadn't been yet so we decided it was a good idea to go. We
were also able to go to the Planetarium, which was really cool. A few
weeks ago I studied the first chapter of the Gospel Principles book for
my language study, so I was really excited when during the Planetarium
presentation I was actually able to recognize the words for "planet"
"milky way" "galexy," ect. Way cool!
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| Lucy's new companion Yamada Shimai and Shuko maybe? |
Thank you so much for the wonderful packages you sent for my
Birthday! It was so fun to rip them open right when I woke up. I also
received a lot of fun gifts from members and investigators, including
two shirts (one with a picture of this Okinawan vegetable called a
"goya" on it and another with a "sanshin" or Okinawan instrument), lots
of Bananas (45 or so in total), a keychain and delicious beef jerky from
Taiwan, and lots of pies and cakes. It was really great, but I also got
a little homesick for probably the second time on my mission so far
from opening the packages from home :(. I was forewarned that Mission
Birthdays aren't the greatest thing in the world, so I can't say I was
too surprised. Wednesday night for the Eikaiwa party a good portion of
Naha ward showed up, though, so it was a great opportunity for the
members to bond with our Eikaiwa students.
This week we had Ward Conference, as well as the Eikaiwa party,
district meeting, ect, so it ended up being probably the most
unproductive week I have had on my mission so far, and it didn't feel
too good. By about Thursday I was feeling really crummy, even though we
had had a lot of activites and plans that week. I realized that we had
been so busy preparing for the big events that we hadn't been able to do
very much finding, and didn't teach very many lessons until near the
end of the week. Once I understood what the difference was in the way I
felt, I was able to really learn a good lesson from everything that
happened. We learned that as full-time missionaries for the Lord at this
time, doing anything besides pure missionary work doesn't end up being
very fulfilling. Serving the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and
strength is the only way that as a missionary we can do what we do every
day. Luckily I have been extremely lucky on my mission so far to have
had an amazing trainer who taught me what it means to be a good,
hard-working missionary, and other companions who were also willing to
work hard...so this week was the first time I felt like I wasn't
fulfilling my purpose. I'm so grateful for this experience because now I
felt the difference, and it makes me want to work even harder to avoid
having that feeling ever again.
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| Birthday Presents! |
In the past 8 months or so I have had many difficult times,
struggling with the language, teaching, being scared to talk to people,
feeling inadequate for all that is required of me....but every time I
have been able to overcome these feelings and push through with
faith with the help of the Lord. I have come to realize that Heavenly
Father is constantly sending me these difficulties to test me, and that
when I rely on him I am ALWAYS able to overcome them, and actually
am stronger and more resilient after the fact. I feel so grateful for
the time I have had so far to discover that I can accomplish any
difficult thing. My faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father has grown
so much, and I expect that it will continue to grow in the coming
months.
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| Birthday Bananas |
One bit of exciting news from this week: Even though it was a hard
week, we had an amazing Sunday where our miracle investigators
Kinjo Mariko and her daughter Shuko came to church for the first time.
Shuko chan told us that she wants to become a missionary someday, that
she LOVED Young Womens, and she wants to come to church again next week!
This little 11 year old is the driving force in her and her mom hearing
the lessons and coming to church. Isn't that amazing? If all goes well
she will be baptized on the 24th of this month!
I have to go dendo now but I love you all so much and I want you to
know that I know this gospel is true, and it just makes me so happy! I
am loving every minute of life here. I'm also sorry I can't write to
each of you individually very much, but know that I love you so much and
think about you all the time!
Have an amazing week!
Love, Tingey Shimai
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