week 36: He sees the end of the tunnel

Lunchtime!

こんにちは！

No typhoon this week! I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. So this week we went to Family Home Evening for the YSA in the military branch. We went bowling! Then we had a busy Tuesday with cleaning checks and district meetings. We did pass cleaning checks but Elder Perkins used to do barracks checks in the military and so he is really hard. Then Wednesday, I went to the doctor again. I got the cast off! Now I have a half cast that I can remove. It is the best thing in the world. I go again next week and hopefully thats it...no more casts! Then we had junkais on Thursday. So fun! I was with Sister Saliba who trained Sister Evangelista. We had fun teaching a few lessons and afterwards, we did sign dendo. We got a poster and wrote "English Challenge". Then we put a tongue twister on it, and if someone tried it to say it, we gave them free candy. We talked to so many people and so many people had the biggest grins on their faces. After they got the candy, we told them about our English classes. So fun and we made so many people smile. I felt like even the people who didn't want to try it smiled! Friday we came home and had a lesson with Iha San. He read our palms..... Sister Evangelista will get married to a Philippino and have 3 kids.... I will die alone! It was way funny! Then Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference!  Man that was amazing revelation we got! I can't wait to go back and review each of the talks.

Funny keiken: Okay so bowling..I only have my left arm right now so they put bumpers on the lane for me. The first time got 8 pins, and the second, I got a spare.... I was creaming people with my left arm!! I ended up getting in the low 90s. If you have ever bowled with me you know I usually don't do super great, but apparently lefty is the way to go. It was funny and all the YSA were laughing at me!

Spiritual keiken:  When Sister Saliba and I were sign dendoing, the first person we stopped was a member.  She lives in Arizona, and we got to talk to her and her sister. I talked most to the member who was fluent in English.  We talked about her conversion and how she met her husband. When she was baptized her family cut her off. They were super against her joining the church. But now her mom will sometimes go to church and wants the Liahona magazine to be delivered to her house. This sweet member shared these words with me: "I thought I had lost everything when I joined the church. But now I know I gained everything. Joining the Church was the best decision I ever made." All of her family is back in her life now, and they want her sister to go to church. (The member met a nice guy there and was married so they want the sister to marry a nice guy too). It's amazing the plan God has for us. He truly puts us through hard things, because its the best thing for us. He can see the end of the tunnel that we can't see yet, so trust him! 

New words:
そうたいかい(soutaikai): general conference 
けいじ(keiji): revelation (divine)
やくしゃ(yakusha): translator

I learned a lot this week especially from General Conference.  t was amazing to watch it. It's weird that I have only one conference left. Time is flying here but it makes sense..Time flies when you are having fun and I'm am having so much fun! 

I know this church is true and that President Nelson is a true prophet.  The divine guidance we received during conference was from God. I encourage you all to read your favorite talk from General Conference this week. I am so proud to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  

Love Thompson Shimai

Bits and pieces from family emails:
I have started a few exercise with my arm that my uncle sent me...I still can't straighten my arm all the way or touch my shoulder, so it's going to take time.
President Eyring's talk and Sister Franco's talk during the women's session were two of my favorites!
We have dinner with a member tonight, and he is bringing his non member sister along and wants us to teach her about the war in heaven...praying it all goes well!
I love the people here, especially the ward and branch! They are so nice and so willing to help! It's a wonderful place even with the typhoons! The best way I can describe Okinawa is that its like America and Japan had a baby!

So happy to be in a removable cast this week!

Life is so much easier!!

These are the xrays taken this week after

two weeks of healing.

If all goes well, I'll be done with the cast after this week

and I'll be able to do more physical therapy

and hopefully be back on my bike soon!