Transfer 2 in Fukuoka

Lucy teaching English class. She kind of looks Jewish in this photo.

Hello!

Well, this past week was very eventful. We had transfers, but I didn't get transferred, which is not really a surprise. Uchida Shimai didn't transfer, either so we have another 5 weeks of Fukuoka bliss! Yes, I said five weeks. This transfer is shorter than usual so that transfers don't fall on the week of Christmas or something like that. Because we had transfers I was able to take out the new sister missionaries to do some dendo! We did some streeting, housing, and visited an 80 year old lady who has 7 cats. I think it gave them a pretty good idea of what their next 15 months will look like, haha. Our whole district stayed the same except for our district leader, Elder Anderson, who got transferred to Hiroshima. Our new district leader is Elder Stratford who was in the MTC with me, Sister Uchida and Elder Ushiro, so basically our whole district is our doki (our group who left the MTC at the same time)!

New Beans

Playing at the beach

The most exciting news this week happened last night when we were finally able to teach the Oyama family again. We taught them the Plan of Salvation a few weeks ago but they got busy and we weren't able to teach them lately. However, we taught them about the Restoration of the gospel last night and I wish you all could have been there! The spirit was so strong, and it was especially really cool to tell 14 year old Yuto-kun about how Joseph Smith, at his same age, prayed to Heavenly Father with faith and received an answer to his question. The parents were SO into the lesson and when we were talking about how the Holy Ghost testifies the truth to us the mom got so excited and said, "I've felt that before!!! I know what that is!" It was so cool!! They especially loved the explanation of why so many different churches emerged after the death of Christ and his apostles, and how using the Bible they all translated the teachings of Christ differently. It really hit home with them about the importance of the Book Of Mormon and the role that it plays in helping us understand the fullness of the gospel. It was just such a cool lesson. My favorite part was how 9 year old Shintaro kept saying things like, "ohhh, ok, I get it," "Ahh, that makes total sense!" Haha. It was so awesome! They are progressing SO well and this week they committed to reading and praying everyday as a family to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's restored church on the earth today. I KNOW that if they're sincere they will receive an answer! They are so special! I don't ask very often for you guys to pray for our investigators, but PLEASE pray that the Oyama family will be able to feel the things we're teaching them blessing their lives. I love them so much.

Hikaru-Kun. He's ADORABLE!

Last Pday we went to a place called Aburayama, which was probably the most fun Pday I've had so far on my mission. We drove up the canyon and at the top there was this huge ranch called "Momo land" where there are these two super long slides that take you down to the playground/field area. You can also buy fresh milk and soft cream from the dairy, and pet all of the animals like cows, goats, horses, etc. We sat on the hill overlooking Fukuoka and ate lunch. It was just a dream come true! We also randomly ran into a friend of the member we were with and were able to invite her to Eikaiwa. Hopefully she comes and we'll be able to teach her!

Awesome companion

Soft serve ice cream that the Japanese call soft cream

Having a blast, but looks like Lucy's freezing cold!

Fukuoka is seriously amazing. We get SO many referrals from the members and tons of the students who we teach English to end up wanting to hear our lessons because of the way they feel when they're in the church and talking to the missionaries and members. From that alone we are teaching more people than we can handle! I've been a little sad in Fukuoka this transfer because we haven't been able to do a lot of finding, which is probably my biggest strength as a missionary. We are teaching so many people and a lot of times they live super far away so a lot of our time is spent riding bikes to appointments and only being able to hand out a pass-along card or two when stopped at a red light. I'm not the most talented public speaker or teacher, either and about 4 times a week I'm standing in front of a crowd teaching English or giving a spiritual message, which makes we just want to die from my public speaking fear, haha. However, I have noticed that my public speaking and teaching skills are slowly improving, so I'm guessing that serving in Fukuoka is just a blessing/challenge that has been given to me from Heavenly Father to help me improve!

At the beach.  I hope you got some shells.

Goofy missionary pose.  haha.  Taking a photo of the exact same smile gets old on a mission, doesn't it:)?

Well, everything is wonderful here and I'm learning and growing a ton everyday. Last transfer was definitely a tough transition, and I still miss Naha like CRAZY but I know that the Lord has called me to Fukuoka to teach and find those he has prepared to accept the gospel!

I love you all sooooo much. Today I read John 3:3-11, which is about bearing testimony. Read it if you get the time and tell me what you think!

Love, Tingey Shimai