week 58: smashing fingers and sharing the gospel

- March 18, 2019

The sweet Perry family had us over for dinner this week!

こんにちは！元気ですか？

This week was crazy busy but flew by extra fast. So Monday, I flew out to Fukuoka. Tuesday, we had MLC (mission leadership conference) and it was really fun! We got to stay at the Fukuoka Sister’s apartment and slept on real beds! Like a mattress!! Just so you know, I’ve been on futons on the floor for a year and a little more. So that was crazy good! After MLC, we got back on a plane and came back to Okinawa, and had a sleepover at the Naha sister’s apartment. Wednesday, we had zone conference and I got to be back with my comp. Thursday we had interviews and tried out a Korean BBQ restaurant. The eikaiwa and one of the students who is learning Japanese freaked out at our Japanese and wanted to learn how we were doing it and if we could teach him privately. We told him we could do 30 minutes of Japanese and then a 30 minute lesson. He was all for it! Friday we planned a lot and we had a relief society activity for the Okinawa ward. Saturday we had a relief society activity for the Gushikawa branch and then taught our new investigator, who we found out was a Catholic priest! We also had a dinner appointment! Yay! Sunday, we went up to Schwab (a different military base) to support the saints up there. We were the first missionaries to ever go there! Afterwards, we had a surprise dinner because the elders were sick…sad for them, happy for us!

Funny keiken: Okay…we had a lesson on Saturday and the elders were coming. I prepared for the message just in case they weren’t prepared. I remembered a video of my cousin smashing his finger with a can (on his mission). The way he did it, it didn’t hurt his finger and he actually bent the can. So of course, all morning I built up the courage to do it and even practiced at the apartment. I shared the message, and then did the can thing. I thought Elder Smith was going to die because he was so scared I would break my finger. If you know me, you know that I love to scare people! This was the best way because I got to scare people and teach them the gospel at the same time!

Spiritual keiken: It would have to be going to the Schwab branch. The marines on Schwab are only there for 6 months. They could easily choose to not come to church because we don’t have their records, but they choose to honor their covenants and priesthood, and be accountable to God. Their sacrament meeting was so sacred. Sometimes it gets easy to “forget who we are” or “forget our standards” especially when we are away from home and no one will know what we are doing. But there is one person who always knows and He is the only person that matters because He is God. If we follow His commandments because our we want to look good to our parents or friends or have a good image then we’re missing the point. We need to get on a higher lever of keeping the commandments and serving others. God wants us all to return to Him.

New words:
たいてい(taitei): usually
あおあざ(aoaza): bruise
つる(tsuru): to fish

I love you all. This week was amazing! Thank you always for the support and prayers. I know this church is true and if we have a foundation on Christ, we can withstand anything the world throws at us!

Love,

Thompson Shimai

Bits and pieces from family emails:
At our MLC we talked a lot about working with members, current and returning. I was able to answer a lot of questions since we have done so much member work in Kadena.
Four sisters in one apartment is squishy but so fun! There is always someone to talk to!
The week was long...felt like 2 weeks...but so fast in other ways.
Teaching the catholic priest was interesting...he's also a chaplain on the base. I think he's really just wanting help with his Japanese, but we're excited to see where it goes.