Sunday, September 15, 2013

Summertime! 8/19/2013


Dear Family and Friends,

Konnichiwa from Obihiro! While I can't complain because its nothing compared to the rest of Japan, it is hot. I'm always sticky. Thankfully it does cool down a bit at night but I still wake up sticky. I feel so bad for the missionaries in southern Japan because that's gotta be rough.

This week was a pretty good week. We had two really good lessons with two of our investigators and my two little beans did a good job. Lessons go good when they go according to plan/how we studied for it. Its when they don't go according to plan that all of the teaching lands on me but both are trying very hard to learn more Japanese and participate more. A trio takes a little more coordination but it has its good points, like having 3 different testimonies! But I'm realizing more and more that I really need the help of the members; I need their native Japanese and assistance for sure. Today we had another lesson with one of the investigators mentioned above and we had a member there. Things went so much better with her there. I was really grateful to have her there too, because our lesson was completely different than we planned haha. On a random note, I thought that investigator was maybe late 20s early 30s but today I found out she is 41. That was a shocker. (The Japanese age so well!) The other lesson we had this week was interesting. It went way too long and got way too philosophical but he seemed to accept the simple answers we gave him. When we told him our beliefs on the pre-earth life, he told us a fortune teller once told him he was a happy squid before he got reborn as a human. He laughed, but I'm pretty sure he was serious...

Because it was Obon [festival to honor deceased ancestors], we weren't able to meet with a lot of our investigators. Everyone was having too much fun celebrating the dead. Although, we did get to watch an awesome fireworks show from the roof of our apartment during our dinner break. That was fun!

We did a lot of housing this week and on Sunday while we were out, it Dumped rain on us. Not nice little sprinkles like it normally is, but big fat raindrops. It was warm out so I just embraced it because did I bring a raincoat? No haha. We were all soaked, but we sang in the rain while we went from house to house. People felt sorry for us but I was having fun! We had two dinners at members' houses this week and that was really fun getting to know the members more. Having all 11 missionaries over at once is quite the ordeal but people are willing to open their homes to us hungry missionaries :). We are truly blessed.

So in my personal study, I finally finished Alma. And I can honestly say, I love the war chapters. There is so much in them! I never really realized how much we can apply from all that is in those chapters. Here are some of my favorites:
(Okay not Alma but I like it) Helaman 3:35 Yielding our hearts to God.
Alma 44:4 This is why we need to stay strong in the faith.

Alma 46:15 This is the first time the word Christian is mentioned in the Book of Mormon I'm pretty sure.
Alma 48:17 This is why Capt Moroni is so awesome.

I cant think of anything crazy or hilarious that happened this week but it was a good week. We are all working hard and planting lots of seeds! I love being a missionary and am grateful for the opportunity to serve! Thank you for all your love and prayers :) I love writing letters back so feel free to write letters ;) Love you all!
Love,

Sugihara Shimai

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