ティンギー姉妹: A New Baby and Hunting Clam Hunters

Singin

My dear family,

A man walking his pet ferrett BiBichan

Good news! Brother Araki was confirmed on Sunday! He looked so happy,
especially when Bishop Miyake welcomed him to Fujisaki ward. When
Brother Shiki was performing the ordinance and said, 'Receive the Holy
Ghost' Brother Araki said, 'Hai!" or 'OK!' outloud Hahah. It was
really cute. We also took him to Institute for the first time on
Thursday. The first question the teacher asked was, 'Think about
important decisions you have made in your life' and then asked for
volunteers to share what they thought. Brother Araki was the first to
raise his hand, stand up and say, 'This past Saturday I was baptized,
and that is the most important decision I have ever made!' He's
generally a really quiet guy so we were both surprised he was so
confident in front of a bunch of people to do that. He will be a
really strong member for this ward.

pic; singing with Kaneko shimai at the talent show

Among many other things we had a really fun week finding and handing
out a lot of Book of Mormons. On Sunday we were both really tired and
ready to collapse and take forbidden naps in the church but we went
out the door and decided to go to a fun place in our area for a little
adventure. Remember when I went to the top of Fukuoka tower for
District meeting in January? That tower is in our area and right next
to the ocean. I remember during that district meeting Elder Stratford
had us look out on Fukuoka from the tower and reflect about the past
transfer and transfers ahead. At that time I didn't realize I was
actually looking directly at my future area! Anyway, we went to the
area where that tower is and there were hundreds of people out clam
hunting in the giant river leading out to the ocean! It was awesome.
We rode our bikes around that area for a while and talked to three
awesome families in a row and gave them all a copy of the Book of
Mormon! It was definitely a blessing and I totally forgot how tired I
had been earlier that day.

Watanabe family. Honoko chan, the one who shared her testimony is the bottom left. Aren`t they cute!?

We had our big talent show on Saturday and lots of people showed up! A
lot of people dressed up in Kimonos and did weird samurai skits and
whatnot, and we also learned about Okinawan dialect from a native
Okinawaan, heard a duet of 'Somewhere over the rainbow' from a father
and daughter, and I performed a song I wrote on the guitar for the
first time ever I think. Luckily nobody could understand the lyrics so
I wasnt't as nervous, haha. It was a song I wrote after watching
General Conference when i was in Ube.

Sunset

Ok, last night we visited the cutest family of all time. They live on
an island called Nokonoshima that is about a 10 minute boat ride from
Fujisaki. The dad isn't a member but every morning he takes his
daughter to the church to attend seminary at 5:30 and he comes to
church every single week! We"re working on helping him understand the
importance of baptism. Apparently he has some problem with joining an
organization but I think if he understands a little better and also
gains his own testimony by reading the book of Mormon on his own he
will be baptized soon. Anyway, they are seriously the most adorable
family ever. They have five girls named: Nanoko, Kanoko, Honoko,
Nonoko, Konoko. Yeah, I still haven't quite gotten them all down but
I'm working on it! Well, we had FHE with them last night and talked
about the Book of Mormon and how in 2Nephi 31 it says that the words
written are plain and easy to understand. Then we asked Honoko chan,
who is about 10 years old if she feels like she has ever learned
anything from reading it and she told about how she's been learning in
Primary about Alma the younger and the Sons of Mosiah and how even
though they did lots of bad stuff they repented. Then she said that we
also need to do that. I was basically stunned at this little girl's
answer and when I looked at her parents I could tell that before then
they had no idea their children were absorbing the gospel so much. I
think it was a really good opportunity for the Dad to see the
influence the Book of Mormon is having on his kids. Hopefully it gave
him a little push.

With the Watanabe kids playing on their island

Ok lastly, I have some big news. We got a surprise call yesterday from
the APs telling us that a BEAN is coming tomorrow to join our
companionship and make us into a threesome! Its super random because
there are still two weeks left in this transfer...and they haven't
decided who is going to be her trainer....so its kind of just like
she's coming and hanging out for two weeks and dendo-ing with us.
Apparently she had something with her Visa and so she had to come
early from the MTC? Not really sure. Anyway, it should be interesting.
Her name is Takabori Shimai and I think shes Japanese but also lived
in New Jersey...so we'll see if shes more Japanese or American. Please
pray for us that things will go smoothly with our new addition!
Yesterday we went grocery shopping and it was like we were getting
ready to have a baby. "...Well what kind of milk do you think she'll
like? Skim or whole? What cereal should we get? Does she like
Bananas?" All for our new baby!