The kind of missionary I want to be

Happy December!

Puppet Master

Well, the only unfortunate thing that happened this week is that we got word from our district leader that the Fukuoka missionaries are no longer allowed to use the mission home computers, which  means that four of us have to share the one computer in the church every Pday. We're not sure what the reason is but that cuts email time to 30 minutes instead of an hour so my emails will be extra short from now on I guess.

Dinner at the Fukuyama family's house

This week as SO eventful! I don't even know where to begin. So many hilarious/awesome things happened but guess since I have very limited time I'll just tell you about the most memorable spiritual experiences. We were invited by a couple named the Izumis to come to their house for dinner. They liver super far away so we had to ride our bikes 15 minutes to the station, ride a train for 15 minutes, and then have them pick us up and drive 10 minutes to their house. You can see how giant our area is! Anyway, it was our first time meeting the wife. She hasn't been able to come to church because she has intestinal cancer (her intestines are literally sticking out of a hole in her stomach; she showed us!), but she has the strongest testimony of anyone I've ever met. She and her husband are planning on filling out their papers to serve another couples mission if she is able to get approval. I couldn't believe she would want to leave on a mission in that state, but she knows the blessings that come from serving the Lord full-time. Anyway, that night was filled with nothing but amazement and testimony strengening. She gave us advice about visiting teaching and they told us their conversion story. They then pulled out keepsakes from when they took lessons from the missionaries back in the 70's. As a baptism present, their two Elder missionaries wrote a book outlining every lesson they had ever taught them, what they taught, how they felt, etc. So the Izumi couple has a detailed record of that time, which I thought was so amazing. We were reading that book and the love that those missionaries had for that couple was practically jumping off the page. It was humbling to see how much the Izumi's treasured that gift they had received, and they had also pasted every single note, scripture homework assignment, etc that they had ever received from those missionaries into an album that they also showed us.

        Really happy to be holding a fake baby

We came away from that experience in awe of that couple's faith and for how deeply impacted they were by those two Elders some 40 years ago. They are even still in contact with them and showed us recent pictures of their kids' graduations and weddings. It really strengthened my resolve to never lose contact with those I meet and teach during my mission.

I found Charly in Japan! Our investigator's dog

        The Flying Squirrel

Nabe party

Ok, I've already run out of time but here are just a couple other funny happenings from this week:

1. We visited a couple for the first time who we were recently assigned to start Visit Teaching and they have a pet......FLYING SQUIRREL! It wouldn't come out of the cage but they said the next time we come they'll have it fly for us!

2. Last Pday we went to the mall looking for some new skirts and all of a sudden in the big main area this Brazilian puppet master came out and did this awesome act with all these puppets and music.We were so happy we felt like we were at Disneyland

3. I got a haircut and got bangs! When the elders saw me for the first time Elder Triffitt from Australia said, "So are you gonna be bangin' it from now on then?" Hahahahahah.

4. Nabe party with the YSA\s at the ward mission leader's house. It was a blast, and we had 3 investiators come!

5. Our investigator Mineoi san is following the Word of Wisdom this week by not drinking coffee, tea or alcohol so Sister Uchida and I gave up sweets. Probably a good thing, eh? haha

Ok, I love you and I love this gospel! Have a great week!

Love, Tingey Shima