I love her story on faith and how it was manifested so quickly - it doesn't always happen that fast but faith is so important. Enjoy and thanks for reading.
こんにちは、
All is well in the land of the rising sun, although it is absolutely pouring right now! But I just love doing His work, rain or shine; I just love being a missionary.
Scientific notation:
I honestly didn't think learning scientific notation in high school would ever come in handy or be useful to me in anyway. Well it turned out I was wrong! One of the YSA ward members is going to a college that is all in English (her classes, textbooks, the instruction, everything) and she doesn't speak any english at all or understand much of it. She wants to learn English, but is struggling with school right now because she can't understand anything. We offered to help her in anyway we could and met with her for an hour to help her with English. She brought her math textbook (all in English) and wow it was such a nice reunion :') For those of you who don't know me as well...I LOVE MATH. My face literally lit up when I saw the textbook and my companion just looked at me like I was crazy. I was looking through the textbook and boy I would not understand it at all if it was in Japanese!! Like polynomials, scientific notation, factoring..all of it in English!! So she needed help with her scientific notation homework, well it had been a long time since I looked at any type of math problem let a lone scientific notation. So I reviewed it a little, but then was able to help her with it! By the end of it she said she understood it and was so grateful. Kids, pay attention in math class, it will come in handy eventually.
Aya chan aka the most prepared person ever:
Sister Her and I have been working crazy hard these past couple of weeks and haven't been able to find any solid investigators. It's been a little hard hearing about everyone else's miracles and not really seeing any big miracles of our own. Saturday during personal study we both decided to study personal revelation because we wanted to get more revelation for our area. During companionship study we both shared with each other that we had a strong feeling that we were going to see a baptism together. We didn't know how because we literally didn't have any solid investigators, but we had a strong feeling so we didn't question it.
Saturday night we got a phone call from one of the Elders in our area and they told us that when they were at the Takadanobaba teaching station that night that a girl walked in wanting to learn about Jesus Christ and that she was going to stake conference the next day.
Sunday morning comes and who gets there 30 minutes before stake conference starts? Aya chan!! We met her and invited her to sit with us during stake conference. She is 25 years old and lived in America for 3 years so she speaks english fluently! She told us that she met a missionary 5 years ago going from Brazil to America and that she was having problems with her plane ticket. He was in line behind her and asked her what was wrong first in Portuguese (he was coming home from his mission in Brazil), she said she didn't know Portuguese so he then asked her what was wrong in English, she then said that she didn't really know english (this was before her 3 years in America), he then asked her what was wrong in Japanese (turns out he is half Japanese so he spoke it growing up)!! She was so impressed and she loved his kindness. He ended up helping her out and then he talked to her a little more and asked her what she thought the purpose of life was. This is where she took a break in the story and asked us, "What do you think the purpose of life is?" We then pointed out where she could read it in the book of mormon and she said she would read it. She then told us that this question hasn't left her head in 5 years. 5 years and she hasn't been able to stop thinking about the question or the nice missionary that she met.
During stake conference, I pulled out my tablet to get to the hymn book and I was going to share it with her, and then she told us that she already has the LDS hymn book app on her phone... I don't know why it's taken her 5 years to come in contact with the missionaries, but I'm so glad that it's happening now. She also only moved here a month ago and just so happened to move 10 minutes away from the church.
After stake conference we were able to talk to her a little more and she tells us that "everyone needs to hear our message." She hasn't been taught any of the lessons yet she knows it's that important!! We were also able to get some YSA ward members to fellowship her and one of them invited her over for lunch that day! I'm so excited for Aya chan and I feel so blessed to be apart of this miracle.
If I learned anything this week, it would be that no effort is wasted. Aya chan was first introduced to the church 5 years ago and is now ready to learn more. No conversation, no hi, no effort is ever wasted when you are doing the Lord's work. Share the gospel!!
愛しています、
Wunderli Shimai
Pics:
1. We went to harajuku for pday!!
2. and 3: yummy shakes
4. This is how we bake in Japan since we don't have an oven. Also notice how high it is compared to our door because our apartment is tiny and has no space- the toaster is on top of the microwave, which is on top of the fridge
5. Tokyo zone conference
6. This random table and flowers that we found on exchanges in Urayasu
7. The urayasu Sisters and us!!
8. Indo curry!!
Another week is in the books which means she's one week closer to coming home. I think she still has a lot to accomplish while she's there and I'm excited to read about the progression of the new investigator they are teaching. One week from today, she will have been out 11 months, for those of you keeping track. :)
As always, thanks for your support via thoughts, prayers, snail mail, and email. It's all very important to her and us. Until next time, make it a great week.
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