It's been a great week here down in sunny and
warm Okinawa (despite the crazy subject line). Loads
happened so I'll
try to type as fast as possible.
Tuesday- We
ran to the ocean in the morning. We still haven't found a beach to run
to though. But the oceans and rivers here are this really pretty teal
color that is sort of unreal. I love it. Everywhere we planned on
finding ended up being a casino or a hotel. It was actually pretty
funny. We were disappointed at the time so we had an ice cream break. I
had this chocolate waffle filled with chocolate ice cream which sounds
so weird but is so delicious.
[Ohaya Japanese Waffle Ice Cream Chocolate Monaka]
Wednesday- I
testified of God to a random person on the street and testified of Jesus
Christ in a lesson. A fairly successful day. Our lesson with a recent
convert - S - went awesome. She studies the gospel in her spare
time because she really wants to understand what's going on. She knew
every little detail about the Fall (which is weird in Japan because
their not generally Christian). Tender mercy of the day- I hadn't said
much in our lesson with S and I wanted to say more. The member who
was jointing [Helping teach] with us turned to me and asked me to testify of Jesus
Christ (which is something I'm capable of doing in Nihongo). It was
great.
Thursday- We had a Zone Meeting in the
morning [meeting for all the missionaries and the leaders in the geographic area] which was good and also really long. We had to leave before the
end because we had a lesson with S. She taught us some oragami
stuff at the end of the lesson. It was really fun. We had dinner at a
members house. M and her 4 year old son. We had Japanese
curry (yum) and taught a short lesson for her son and then talked to her
about the temple. She hasn't had the chance to go yet. We talked a
little about the blessings that come for the temple. She was super cute.
I felt comfortable talking (in Nihongo) with her because she was very
patient. So I talked more Japanese to her than to anyone else I think
(except maybe my doryo).
Friday- Lots happened
but the most important thing is-- I HANDED OUT MY FIRST BOOK OF MORMON.
BY MYSELF. IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. It was so fun. And it made me want to
dendo (missionary work) even harder. I think it may be a turning point.
Before I was just doing and expecting not to understand. Now I try to
understand and even when I don't, I smile and say like the 4 sentences I
know. So Friday might be the best day of this week. I've got some dendo
fire! At night, we went with S and a member to this fish aquarium art exhibit. It's hard to explain but it was art, with fish aquariums.
It was so Japanese. And super interesting. Probably the coolest art I've
ever seen.
Saturday- Now to address the
subject line. I crashed twice on Saturday. Once was in the morning on my
bike. It was raining pretty hard and we were going down a hill and I
totally slip thunked. The ground was so slippery that I slide like 10
feel. It was pretty funny. I escaped with just a few cuts and bruises.
Then, after lunch, Lowe shimai made a sudden turn and I tried to follow
and crashed into a pole. My hand took most of the impact so it has a
sick looking bruise on it. I'm amazed I didn't get more seriously hurt
though. The Lord really does protect His servants. I gave out another
Book of Mormon and we got a baptismal date. We had our first lesson with a lady who
had been meeting with the missionaries 6 months ago. WE called her and
she said she was planning on calling us. So we met and (I) asked her to
be baptized on Dec 12 and she said YES! Our mission has a goal to have 2
baptism dates by Thanksgiving and 1 baptism by Christmas and I may have
thought it was impossible because we came into the area and we had no
investigators (no potential ones either). But the Lord works in
mysterious ways, that's for sure.
Now for the monsoon. We were out
dendo-ing at night and heard this announcement go over these hidden
speakers they seem to have all over the city. Anyway, we didn't
understand the message so we kept biking. 5 minutes later we were hit
hard. Apparently (out resident Nihonjin told us) the message had been
warning of a monsoon that was going to hit the area. Anyway, we didn't
know so we kept riding until it was so bad we couldn't ride anymore. We
were completely soaked and it was hard to stand straight because of the
wind. It was raining so hard I could see better without my glasses.
Anyway, we ditched our bikes and walked 3 miles home in ankle deep
water. We sang the whole way home. It was so much fun! Dad, I would like
to let you know that despite the amount of water that hit my bag you
got me, everything inside remained completely dry. It was magic. I was
fairly amazed. It really is water proof if it kept everything dry in a
monsoon.
Sunday- Sorry this is so long. Sunday
was good. All the members think I'm hilarious. I'm not. I just don't
speak the same language as them so I make a lot more faces and do
ridiculous gestures and make sounds. It's my only way to communicate.
But they think it's the funniest thing. Miracle moment- While biking in
the evening, I prayed to find someone who was interested enough to
invite us back of a lesson. We got lost and decided to house [knock on doors in] this random
apartment. The 3rd door we knock on was this cute lady. AND SHE WAS
INTERESTED. She was the first person we've talked to this transfer that
was interested enough to meet again and promised to read out of the Book
of Mormon. Holy cow, God does answer prayers. And I've found out the
more specific you are, the more likely it will happen (with righteous
things of course)
Anyway, it's been a great week. Today we're going to this super famous street in Okinawa that's 3 minutes from our apartment. [maybe Kokousaidori Street?]
I love you all!! Don't forget to pray (about really anything). He will listen.
Love love love
Bearman shimai
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