#24 Wonderland

This week was going pretty well..until I got sick. Tuesday morning I woke up with one of the worst colds I've ever had. It completely threw me off of my game. I felt like I was moving in slow motion - I could not get up and do anything without getting dizzy and eventually collapsing onto my futon and sleeping for the next four hours. I was pretty sick for about two days or so, but my companion and I realized that the longer we would stay in the apartment, the harder it became to do even the simplest of things. It was rather like a Wonderland. I would rest, hoping to get better, but it seemed like nothing got better and time had no rules. Nothing seemed to make any sense.　

 

Finally a few days later we made it up and out of that rabbit hole. I still wasn't feeling 100%, or even 75%, but I figured I had spent enough time in Wonderland, and I just needed to get out. Since then, time has resumed it's usual course, and we've been going back to our usual routine.

 

This past week feels like it was pretty uneventful, and I realize that sickness will do that to you and healing takes time (I'm still waiting on that extra patience I ordered). We were able to plan more for the next week, and I have to say I'm pretty excited for the activities that this coming week holds. We've made a lot of appointments with members, and more with our investigators. Grant Shimai is awesome at finding people to teach, so now we teach a total of six people about  the gospel. I can't wait to meet with them - gotta love missionary life!

Ever wonder what missionaries do for fun? (Links to hand bell videos. 12/2013)

These links are to some hand bell songs played by missionaries and friends of the missionaries in the Komatsu Ward in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan in December of 2013.  Enjoy...

天を降りし神の御子(Away in a Manger)
第一松寿園(＠Daiichi Syoujuen)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D0FW5yIWPjdA%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player&k=wlPCrglRP6kzT4RbABWMaw%3D%3D%0A&r=jROoNSrjnYE2enmfXv6r142MvZY%2BSq%2FG%2ByDnVFOhatY%3D%0A&m=NA%2FIg%2F1fN8isYuOaW8nou0jbh9ZxIFPM0X75xwKaBNs%3D%0A&s=c287ca14bd437e4b0c8ed5454b92a778f0fa11650201a174997204affe6bfbb4

星に願いを(When You Wish upon a Star)
第一松寿園(＠Daiichi Syoujuen)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D53Iu1vHGnyU%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player&k=wlPCrglRP6kzT4RbABWMaw%3D%3D%0A&r=jROoNSrjnYE2enmfXv6r142MvZY%2BSq%2FG%2ByDnVFOhatY%3D%0A&m=NA%2FIg%2F1fN8isYuOaW8nou0jbh9ZxIFPM0X75xwKaBNs%3D%0A&s=d00e4d1d2867b302bd9403c1ddbb318e62d0bbda0a629bbe37e60adcb56c1f99

天を降りし神の御子(Away in a Manger)
第二松寿園(＠Daini Syoujuen)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3Dd6pCR-Njyhk%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player&k=wlPCrglRP6kzT4RbABWMaw%3D%3D%0A&r=jROoNSrjnYE2enmfXv6r142MvZY%2BSq%2FG%2ByDnVFOhatY%3D%0A&m=NA%2FIg%2F1fN8isYuOaW8nou0jbh9ZxIFPM0X75xwKaBNs%3D%0A&s=e465906a094432d692837ed93118cb3919be149e9e6b95f53bfdcee83d071bc5

星に願いを(When You Wish upon a Star)
第二松寿園(＠Daini Syoujuen)
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DAgLLCvBMnQo%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player&k=wlPCrglRP6kzT4RbABWMaw%3D%3D%0A&r=jROoNSrjnYE2enmfXv6r142MvZY%2BSq%2FG%2ByDnVFOhatY%3D%0A&m=NA%2FIg%2F1fN8isYuOaW8nou0jbh9ZxIFPM0X75xwKaBNs%3D%0A&s=4dfd3d98a935a2167f9d061816eff7ba919a27ad25a7c9ec3c77621d9102e3b9

Some Photos from Jan and Feb 2014 (Komatsu, Japan)

 Shoveling Snow at the church parking lot (1/11/2014)

 Making treats with mochi (thick rice paste made by pounding cooked rice with a hammer or wooden mallet), and making the mochi.

 Eating mochi (thick rice paste) which was made as part of the activity.

Enjoying treats under a warm kotatsu table (heated table) on a cold day.

#23 "True To Your Heart"

I know it's only been one week, but I already love my companion. She's fantastic! Her name is Sister Grant. She is from Price, Utah, she loves to sing, she loves sweatpants, she's gorgeous, and she's so funny!! I absolutely adore her.

 

This week was mainly showing her around Komatsu, and introducing her to the people there, as the weather would permit. That and just getting to know her - she's so great!! I swear we're twins or something because sometimes I'm about to say something and she says the exact sentence word-for-word what I was going to say. Sometimes we just get carried away talking, I absolutely love her.

 

This week I certainly met a challenge. One of the people we had been visiting had previously met with missionaries, and had been so close to having faith in God, but she had to stop when her husband passed away. Missionaries had visited her since then, but she didn't continue to try as hard as she had in the past to gain a relationship with God. This week, I asked her one more time, please just try to pray again, to know if this is true. I told her that because I had tried, I KNEW it was true. I told her that I know that God lives and loves me. As I told her I felt my heart burning, I could feel God in the room with us. I felt so close to Him, like He was sitting at the table with us. I asked her to try again, and that I know she can know for herself. She wouldn't answer my question, but instead said something sort of round-about. I asked again, and she didn't give a direct answer. This repeated, where I would ask, she would not answer, and I would tell her that I knew she could do it if she truly wanted to. Eventually she told me that she didn't want me wasting my time, and that she was never going to try again.

 

I was heartbroken. I could not understand for the life of me why God would tell me to keep going, why He would fill me so strongly with His love, and ask me to share it with her, only to have her say no. I have a feeling that I will never know. But this much I do know;

 

"You must be true to your heart, and then the heavens will part and they will shower you with my love"

 

This song comes from the credits at the end of the film Mulan, and this week they hit me hard. I was true to my heart - I told her what I know to be true. It wasn't until I left her house, that I felt that over-whelmingly warm and loving feeling leave me that I realized God really had been there with me, even though she rejected my efforts. He did shower me with His love, and even though my heart is so broken for this woman, I still love her very much and I feel even more energized to do His work.

#22 "I Wanna Be Like You-Hoo-Hoo"

Every one holds their breath from the hours of 10 until 11AM on the morning of transfer calls. There is not a single sound, as we all try to focus on studying, but really listen to the sound of our hearts pounding waiting to see if the phone will ring and if our life for the next six weeks will change.

 

That might be a little more dramatic than reality, but in all honestly my heart was going crazy! We waiting on Saturday morning to see if we would get a phone call and sure enough, the phone rang. First they talked to Ishida Shimai. She is leaving Komatsu! She has been here since August, so she is out of here. She will be moving closer to Nagoya (so no more snow, she is so happy about that), to Okazaki. Then she passed the phone to me...

 

I get to stay! I cannot express how happy I am to stay in Komatsu. I love this ward, and I love this town - I don't think they could have moved me if they wanted to!! I get a new companion tomorrow, her name is Grant Shimai. I've only met her once, we ate lunch together in a group of sisters when we had a conference a couple weeks ago. She's older than me, both in age and mission-life. It's pretty exciting for me, and I cannot wait to show her around Komatsu!

 

So that's it for me - no more MTC, no more training, I'm officially an average missionary. I guess this means I should actually learn Japanese now...

 

My Disney reference for this week comes from Jungle Book. As my trainer leaves, I'm pretty sure I will sing this song to her;

 

"You'll see it's true-hoo-hoo, (she doesn't believe me yet)

an ape like me-hee-hee, (after living with me for three months, yeah she probably thinks I'm an ape)

can learn to be (after all of that training) 

like someone like you!" (hopefully...)

 

I don't know if she'll believe it, but here's to proving it's true!

がんばりましょう！

#21 "Chim chiminee"

Now as the ladder of life has been strung,

You might think a sweep's on the bottom most rung.

Though I spend me time in the ashes and smoke,

In this whole wide world there's no happier a bloke.

 

Thank you Burt, from Mary Poppins, for perfectly explaining mission life.

 

A lot of people seem to think missions are all work and no play. I must admit when I was little, I would just admire their diligence from a distance, and then thank God that I could play around all day.

 

True, missions are hard. We do work, every day. We study our scriptures, I attempt Japanese, we hop on our bikes and GO. Every day. There's no holiday, no exceptions, we work every single day. But "in this whole wide world there's no happier a" shimai.

 

I honestly love what we do. Yeah it is hard work, but it's fun too! Sometimes we just have to look past the "ashes and smoke", or "snow and rain" if you're a missionary in Komatsu. When we do, we can truly see the happy things in life.

 

For example...

 

We were walking through the park after a very long day of visiting people. Most of them have left the church, but we thought we would try to reach out to them anyways. Pretty much every single person wasn't home. We had started out the day right at 10AM, and by the time we finished, it was around 5PM. I was exhausted, and I felt like my legs could not hold me up anymore after all the cycling we had done. We decided to go to the park to try and talk to some people. At the park, I saw a woman sitting by herself, and I felt a whisper saying 'go sit next to her and talk about the weather'. She was all alone, typing on her phone, and she looked somewhat cross, so I ignored the idea. But once more as we looked around at all the people in the park, I was told again to 'go sit next to her and talk about the weather'. So I did! I went and sat next to her and made some comment about the weather. She looked up from her phone and commented and then went back to her task. 'try again'. I made a comment about the weather lately, and this time she put down her phone and said a couple more sentences. She then asked where I was from, and when I responded America, she started talking in English! Our conversation then turned from our hometowns to our english class, to being a missionary, to teaching the gospel. The next thing I knew she asked us where our church is, what our phone number is, and if we wanted to visit a museum with her sometime.

 

That was a miracle. I smiled the whole way home, and I felt somewhat dumb, because the only word that I could say was 'wow'.

 

In this whole wide mission, there's no happier a shimai.