Saturday, November 5, 2011

Temple Trip(From Oct 30th)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! To celebrate Halloween this Pday we are....(drum roll) NOT having Pday! Haha. Kind of ironic. My favorite Holiday falls on a Pday but we happen to not be having Pday that day. Its for a good reason, though. We are going to do a session at the temple on Saturday!!!!!! So our Pday has been changed to Saturday. So so happy. Going to the temple on Saturday will be the first time Uchida Shimai and I have been since leaving Provo in April! We're so so so excited! Even though we see the temple everyday missionaries are only allowed to enter once every two transfers. Yayyy.

Today we are just emailing but the rest of the day is chalk full of lessons. This transfer Uchida Shimai and I made a goal of teaching 30 lessons every week. We have yet to accomplish that goal, or even get near to it, but because our goals were super high this transfer we have accomplished teaching upwards of 20 lessons every week, which is insane! The Lord has really been guiding and helping us plan well to meet with those we need to.

My other exciting announcement is that we have a baptism this week!!!! We have been teaching the nine year old son of a slightly inactive Phillippino woman and a few weeks ago he told us that he wanted to be baptized. We are so excited for him! He's such an adorable kid. He's a really amazing artist and loves playing with anime action figures called Donbarusenki. He's just such a good kid. There have been some unfortunate complications with the date he was scheduled to be baptized conflicting with a BYU Hawaii presentation, and some other things, but we're praying that everything works out and the baptism will happen. When he first said he wanted to be baptized he said he didn't want to bear his testimony in front of everyone because he's too shy, but yesterday when we talked to him he said he would do it after all! He's so cute and has a testimony that the gospel is true.  I love these amazing Japanese children who I get to work with!

This past week was also fun because we did companion exchanges with the Sisters serving in Ube. It was only the second time I have done exchanges my entire mission because in Okinawa the sisters were pretty far away and we didn't really get the chance. It was a really fun experience, but mostly made me realize how much I love Uchida Shimai and how when we're called to be companions with someone, that really is the Lord's will. We also had something called "Prep mission" (Those silly Japanese switching words around) where we were able to visit a less active member and do some finding with some YSAs. It was so fun!

Uchida Shimai and I have seen some amazing miracles this transfer in Fukuoka and learned so much! Still learning everyday and becoming more humble. I think that would probably define transfer five for me thus far. This transfer I have really been receiving a lot of help and strength from the Conference notes I took. Lately, I have especially been pondering about and re-reading my notes on Elder Eyring's talk about pushing past our limits. Being a missionary has really made me more aware of my comfort zone and energy limitations, and how when I push past that I always just become more humble and reliant on the Lord. A lot of times we're running, running, running all day,and then when I just want to collapse and take a 3 minute power nap I have to teach Eikaiwa or teach a lesson, or do something that at that moment I just really can't get the energy to do. I can remember specific times when this feeling was SO overwhelming that I literally didn't think I could do it, but I just pleaded with the Lord to give me the energy and help me be genki, and I received what I needed to fulfill His work!!! Because of those small experiences I had in earlier transfers I am able to draw strength through prayer now. I know that what Elder Eyring said was true! When we push past our "limits" in order to fulfill the Lord's work, he always provides us a way to accomplish that work, and in turn we grow stronger and our faith grows.

I love this gospel!

I'm afraid my time is up, but I'll hopefully be able to check my email again on Saturday for a minute to miss any emails that I didn't get to read today. I love you sooo much!!!

Love, Tingey Shimaiiiii

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