Missing White Bike Helmet and a Baptism Next Sunday

It's that time of week again. Jordan said their week was kind of slow but she thinks / hopes this week will be (much) better. They did lose a day because of zone conference. I want to share a few things regarding two things mentioned in her email so that those of you reading this who aren't LDS / Mormon will have some proper perspective. First of all, she talks about a commandment not to drink coffee or alcohol, or smoke / use tobacco, etc. We believe that soon after the church was restored, Heavenly Father revealed the Word of Wisdom (this can be found in the Doctrine and Covenants) which tells us that we shouldn't drink hot drinks (which is interpreted to mean tea and coffee) or to use tobacco or other addictive substances. We are supposed to eat healthy and the WOW says we should eat meet sparingly (we all have our own definition of "sparingly." I'm a meet-eater so...

The other thing to understand is that one of the central things we teach and believe in our church is the Plan of Salvation. This has many names including the Plan of Happiness. It is the theme of our Sunday school lessons this month and it's Jordan's word of the week. The link is to a video that explains the plan - it's a beautiful plan with an amazing message. If you want to know what it is, the video is only 10 minutes long. Here's her email.

こんにちは,

Another great week in the land of the rising sun. We didn't teach a whole lot of people, but we taught a whole lot to Engrid (I realized I've been spelling her name wrong this entire time, awkward).

Zone Conference:

We got to see President and Sister Nagano this week!! That automatically made the week great. We had zone conference on Tuesday and that was basically our whole day because it was from 9:00am-4pm and a 2 hour train ride both ways. In zone conference we talked about the need for daily repentance and how we can help our investigators repent. They told us that everytime we give a commitment to them we are inviting them to repent (change), so we really need to focus on our commitments. Sister Nagano gave a training on how to get the ticks off our futons (beds). We have to use the futon dryer to first kill all of the ticks and then we have to put tights over a vacuum and vacuum the dead ticks up. She talked about it for a whole 20 mintues and really passionately. Haha I love her.

Engrid:

We taught the Word of Wisdom to Engrid this week and she was a bit shocked to hear that we don't drink coffee or tea or alcohol. She drinks coffee everyday and wine often too, but right when we told her that it was a commandmemt from God, she said okay from now on I won't drink anymore coffee or alcohol. Wow. What great faith she has in our Heavenly Father and Savior to say that immediately. She is such an example to me.

She called us Sunday morning and asked if she could drink hot chocolate. Yes, drink all of the hot choclate you want, just no coffee! Haha. She came to church and then after church we taught her more commandments (the law of tithing, law of chastity, keep the sabbath day holy, fasting). It was a lot to teach in one lesson, but with an investigator like her, it all worked out! After every commandment we taught her, we would ask her if she would keep it and she would say, "Yes of course, it's a commandment from God," in her cute Filipino accent. Her baptismal interview is on Wednesday this week and then her baptism is on Sunday right before church. I'm so excited for her!!

Funny story:

Last p-day (monday) we were at this mall and when we came out, Gorner Shimai's bike helmet was missing! Someone stole her bike helmet!! I didn't think that happened in Japan. We're on the lookout for anyone with a white bike helmet.

Word of the Week:

Plan of Salvation

Sukui no Keikaku

Skoowy-no-kay-kaw-koo

Just remember that I love you, but God loves you more!!

愛しています,

Wunderli Shimai

Pics:

1. Always representing! Go utes!!

2. Cool sun pic

3. Our eikaiwa class! They're the best!

4. Our kids Eikaiwa class