こんにちは,
Miracle of the week: I ate rice with chopsticks and didn't spill anything at all (okay not the real miracle but I am proud of myself) , the real miracle was my first lesson!!
I taught my first lesson last Saturday and it went amazing. We taught Yoshiko San.
A little background: Call Shimai met her in the street a week before I got to the mission field and she wouldn't meet with the missionaries then. We went and visited her house (an hour bus ride) but she was busy at that time. We called her and set up a lesson time for Saturday!! She has a testimony of Jesus Christ already and her Christian Church that she was going to closed down. She's about 40 and talks super fast Japanese.
So we met at the church and we started talking about what we were going to teach and she just started crying and saying thank you (she said other stuff too but I'm not exactly sure as to what). Then we started teaching the restoration. We showed her the Mormon message "The Only and True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent." We looked up at her after the video and she was just balling. She was so receptive of our message. Then at the end, me being a bold American, I invited her to be baptized. She didn't say yes.... but she didn't say no either. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and we have another lesson with her Saturday. I couldn't understand hardly anything she said in the lesson, but the spirit was so strong that it didn't matter.
A little background: Call Shimai met her in the street a week before I got to the mission field and she wouldn't meet with the missionaries then. We went and visited her house (an hour bus ride) but she was busy at that time. We called her and set up a lesson time for Saturday!! She has a testimony of Jesus Christ already and her Christian Church that she was going to closed down. She's about 40 and talks super fast Japanese.
So we met at the church and we started talking about what we were going to teach and she just started crying and saying thank you (she said other stuff too but I'm not exactly sure as to what). Then we started teaching the restoration. We showed her the Mormon message "The Only and True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent." We looked up at her after the video and she was just balling. She was so receptive of our message. Then at the end, me being a bold American, I invited her to be baptized. She didn't say yes.... but she didn't say no either. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and we have another lesson with her Saturday. I couldn't understand hardly anything she said in the lesson, but the spirit was so strong that it didn't matter.
Some wunderful things that happened this week:
-Sado has more shades of green than Crayola!! Call Shimai and I get up and run through the rice fields for exercise every morning and it's just gorgeous.
-We got materials to make our own pens and they are the best pens ever!!
-For FHE (which is actually on Friday's) we played ping pong in the church (that's right my cute little church building has its own ping pong table), and I beat the bishop!! Everyone was very impressed with my ping pong skills (watch out Dad, Mom, and Jantz). They may not understand everything I try to say to them, but we have a deeper understanding: ping-pong.
-Sado has more shades of green than Crayola!! Call Shimai and I get up and run through the rice fields for exercise every morning and it's just gorgeous.
-We got materials to make our own pens and they are the best pens ever!!
-For FHE (which is actually on Friday's) we played ping pong in the church (that's right my cute little church building has its own ping pong table), and I beat the bishop!! Everyone was very impressed with my ping pong skills (watch out Dad, Mom, and Jantz). They may not understand everything I try to say to them, but we have a deeper understanding: ping-pong.
We took an hour train to Ryotsu and did knock on some doors and talked to some people in the street. No one really wanted to listen to our message. Japanese people are so funny; they will either just talk to you with the front door still closed or open it a tiny slither and then say "ii desu" (I'm good), and then slam the door. By the way, this whole day it was just pouring rain. When we got back to the apartment, we looked like we took a shower with all of our clothes on. So anyway, it was a pretty hard day, but then on the bus ride back home, we met a teenage girl who was super interested in our English teaching service and gave us her address!! Miracle of the day!! Hopefully that can go somewhere.
Another day, we biked 40 minutes to this new place, Miakawa (mad respect for my dad right now, bike riding hurts my butt and legs), but we rode up this huge hill and there were all of these traditional Japanese homes (sliding doors, sacred-looking, tons of plants in front of the house). We go up to this one and the lady told us to come in, we slid the door open and the house looked like it was abut 400 years old. The lady (probably about 40), was super scared of us at first but as she warmed up, and as we told a little of our message, it turned out great and she invited us to come back anytime.
Throughout the days, I'm seeing a ton of little miracles. It may take knocking on a thousand doors, but we're going to find that one person who wants to hear the gospel. The miracles may not seem like a ton, but they are for Call Shimai and I because we know it took hard work to get those little miracles.
Just Japan things:
-the dollar stores here are magnificent, they have so much stuff and it's of good quality
-you can't eat while walking!!! (I got yelled at for this) apparently it's rude or something, but it's way convenient, come on Japan!
-when we were riding our bikes to Miakawa, we rode through some rice fields and there was a high quality vending machine in the middle of all of it.
-the dollar stores here are magnificent, they have so much stuff and it's of good quality
-you can't eat while walking!!! (I got yelled at for this) apparently it's rude or something, but it's way convenient, come on Japan!
-when we were riding our bikes to Miakawa, we rode through some rice fields and there was a high quality vending machine in the middle of all of it.
Favorite word of the week:
Japanese: ohisashiburi
Pronunciation: oh-he-sashi-booty
Meaning: long time, no see
Japanese: ohisashiburi
Pronunciation: oh-he-sashi-booty
Meaning: long time, no see
Also, I heard that we beat USC, go Utes!!
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai
Wunderli Shimai
Pics:
1. Last p-day me and Call Shimai made pens!!
2. the toilets in Japan have all of these weird gadgets
3. Our branch ate food for the last our of church
4. Name tag pics are always necessary
5. Rice fields/normal morning run
6. These huge things are Japanese grapes!!
7. Another food pic, but in Japan they have little bowls for everything, hardly any plates
8. Pass this view every time when I go to the church
9. Sadoooooo
1. Last p-day me and Call Shimai made pens!!
2. the toilets in Japan have all of these weird gadgets
3. Our branch ate food for the last our of church
4. Name tag pics are always necessary
5. Rice fields/normal morning run
6. These huge things are Japanese grapes!!
7. Another food pic, but in Japan they have little bowls for everything, hardly any plates
8. Pass this view every time when I go to the church
9. Sadoooooo
I love this email and group of pictures from Jordan. It sounds like she had a busy and productive week. She is definitely having great experiences that will serve her well and she'll be blessed for her efforts. As always, she loves and appreciates your support as do we (her mom and dad). Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section or ask questions.
I'll be out of town next week on my hunting trip unless I get luck on my first day so the blog post will be later than normal but I'll get it up as soon as I can after I get home.
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