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| What? Emma is the tallest person in this picture! |
Before
Okinawa- I was up for like 27 hours straight. When I met my Mission
president for the first time I probably looked like a zombie. We spent a
couple days at the mission home (which happens to be right under the
temple and right next to a zoo). On of the days we were there, we went
out dendo-ing [contacting and talking to people on the street] with missionaries in the area. It was my first time
talking to people and let me tell you, 100% of the time I had (and still
have) no idea whats going on. That's ok, I have my assigned lines. God
is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. He loves us.
Getting
to Okinawa- was a mission. I almost missed my flight becasue the APs [Assistants to the President] forgot to buy me a ticket. I had to sprint to catch it. It was a 2 hour
flight and I slept the whole time. The day I got there we didn't do much
because my trainer wasn't there yet and we had to go back and forth to the
airport to pick people up.
In Okinawa- I've had
so much fun doing missionary work. I can't say much but I'm getting
better. I invited someone to baptism (I think she said no) and gave away
a BoM [Book of Mormon] (well, my companion did). I have a bike now and it has a sick
basket to throw everything in. My doryo doesn't have her bike yet so we
walk for the most part. I gave a talk in sacrement meeting. Now everyone
thinks I'm fluent in Nihongo. Actually no, I opened my talk with I
don't understand Japanese. But then I said that through Jesus Christ I
can learn Japanese. For the most part, we've been streeting and housing
because we are currently investigatorless [people willing to sit down and have the missionaries teach the lessons. That should change soon. I
think that in the 3 day's I've been here I've talked to 35 ish people.
We do have one person we're teaching after baptism lessons. She got
baptized on Halloween and is so cute. But she talks a lot. We've had one 2
hour lesson with her where she talked and I had no clue what was going
on. It's ok becasue at church she wanted to sit next to me.
My
doryo- L shimai, from Illinois, is amazing. She makes me yummy food,
is way encouraging about my less than stellar Nihongo, and we have a
good time together. She's been out for like, 7 months I think. I love
her.
One funny thing that happened was (we can
only approach women in Japan) I was taking the lead (we had bikes at
this point).We were riding along under a bridge and I saw what I thought
was a woman so I started to get off my bike (which is a mission in a
skirt) but as I got closer I realized he was not a woman so I had to
awkwardly ride sidesaddle forever. Lowe shimai thought it was
hysterical.
You know, it's been a really rough
week. Between the jet lag and the not understanding anything, it was
pretty hard not to start crying. But, in a weird way, looking back, it
was fun? even though it's so scary, I really am happy to be sharing
God's love with others. I love this gospel and so do the people of Japan
(they just don't know it yet). For the most part, people here don't
know who God is. And when we stop to talk to them, most of the time they
don't really want to listen. But we testify that God loves them. So we
give them a little bit more knowledge than they had before. And a little
bit more happiness because that's what this gospel brings. I've really
realized that in the last 3 days. Even though everything I do is hard,
I'm happy. And that's because of Jesus Christ.
Sorry
if this email is a bit disjointed. The keyboard is weird so it's hard
to write. I promise to do better next week. Also, next week I shouldn't
be as jetlagged.
LOVE YOU
Bearman shimai
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