Hard work pays off!

Thanks so much for your letters!  :)  Sydney told me in her letter that... "Today Hannah said the dinner prayer and said "please bless that McKenna is not lonely in Japan"  Cute!  I'm glad that I'm not forgotten even though I'm half way around the world in Okinawa!  :)  Love you guys!  Don't worry Hannah!  I'm not too lonely :)!  In fact it has been an AWESOME week!  Did I mention I love being a missionary!  Because I DO! 

OK... buckle your seat belts because this week was awesome! 

Sister Watanabe's new English phrase is:  Holy Moly!!!  (It describes how good this week was and how hot wasabi is.  (I will not eat that again!)

So we have two military branches (congregations) that we help with!  I love them to pieces.  They mainly live in Kadina which is quite a bike trek for us.  But last week we designated Wednesday and Thursday as our "Kadina day" and we spent the night with some of the other sister missionaries over there to cut our biking time in half.  My legs were grateful.  Oh speaking of biking... I have man thighs!  Gross!  I have muscle where I didn't even know muscle could be.  Luckily all we do is wear skirts. 

Anyway... we were visiting a family and they are from Texas.  The mom is so cute!  When we stopped by she had three other friends over also from Texas.  When I walked through the door it was like... America!  Oreos on the table... I saw a couch and a table!  People were eating cookies out of a..... (wait for it.....) NORMAL SIZED oven!  Crazy.  They were all so sweet!  I don't know how they do it, moving from place to place.  These military families are so strong!  They have wonderful testimonies and the cutest families!  I love them!  I LOVED going to Kadina.  Great workout and we were able to meet member after member.  I loved getting to know them better.  We were able to meet up with some of our investigators too.  It was the most productive time that I've had here yet. 

I've decided that post-mission I want to become a spokeswoman for Secret Deodorant.  It has passed the Okinawan heat test.  After biking so much uphill for 40 to 50 minutes you are so sweaty!  Some sweet lady gave Sister Watanabe her towel.  Sister Watanabe tried to say "no", but the lady said we needed it more than she did :) Embarrassing!  Lots of people want to hear why we are out here.  When I tell people we are volunteers they look at us like we are crazy. But truth is I wouldn't be anywhere else!  Holy Moly..... I love this gospel and I am so happy when I share it!  I just love people.  And these Okinawan people are my brothers and sisters and they deserve the opportunity to hear this message. 

Sometimes you just have one of those days where everything goes wrong though.  Missionary work is hard!  It's not for the faint of heart!  The other day I had a just down right awful day... everything that could have gone wrong did.  I got a bloody nose.  The first person I saw was not nice at all and as I got back on my bike my pocket got caught on my seat and ripped.  Then it rained... a lot and no one was keeping up their appointments.  But I remembered a quote by Sister Hinckley... "There are two options in life.  You can either laugh through it or cry through it.  Crying gives me a headache; I prefer to laugh."  And then I realized that there is not bad weather as a missionary and you just try your best and see what happens.  I just laughed my way through the rest of the day.  I'm pretty sure that Sister Watanabe thought I was losing my mind, but I had a pretty good rest of the day :)  There are no bad days in the mission field!

I've learned that you have to talk to everyone on your mission!  There are incredible people everywhere with great stories and wonderful personalities.  I was biking up to music town and it's quite a trek.  I saw this older lady and I didn't want to stop because that meant I would have to attempt to get my momentum going again.  Lame....I know, so I stopped.  She was the coolest lady ever!  She invited us into her store and gave us water :)  She was an angel and we were able to share a great message.  She gave us her business card. I am so grateful I stopped!  I've realized that great things happen when you're most tired or when you are most likely to quit or give up.  You have to go that extra mile and that's when the miracles happen :)

We have a great investigator, Uho Chan.  She is incredible.  She is 21 and she just came to church this Sunday.  I took the lead in our lesson (way scary!) and i started through the restoration and when we got to the Book of Mormon I showed her mine.  She interrupted me and asked if she could buy one.  I told her that it was a present from our Heavenly Father and that it was absolutely free.  She looked so happy!  We went to a member's house after that and she carried her Book of Mormon proudly throughout the night!  We shared a thought with the family about the Book of Mormon and every member in the family shared their testimony about it!  It was wonderful to have Uho Chan in that environment!

Lastly, we got a ride from a member to her house the other day to teach a lesson.  I was asking about her family and she has two sons.  We talked about them and I got to learn a lot about her.  Before we got to her house she suddenly said, "Oh!  And I have a daughter in heaven too!"  She pulled out a picture of her little girl who was a twin with her son.  She had died after birth.   She carried that picture with her in her car so that it was with her everywhere she went.  It was so sweet.  I had to stop myself from crying.  Here was this cute mother who had a wonderful daughter who she knew without a doubt was in Heaven right now.  That was the biggest motivating factor behind my decision to go on a mission.  My family is the most important thing to me and if I couldn't see them and live with them after this life that would be devastating.  This mother's love for her daughter was so sweet and I couldn't help but to think of how much our Heavenly Father must love us.  I know with absolute surety that through Christ's gospel our families can be together forever.  If this knowledge doesn't give you peace then Idon't know what else will.  I love being a missionary and the opportunity I have to share this wonderful message of hope with others!

Have a wonderful week!

Sister HAWKINS :)  

Lost in the Tide of Okinawa?

I love Watanabe Shimai and I love Okinawa!  Through the sweat, blood (not really, no crashes this week) and tears (Japanese is hard!)  I've come to really love these people.  I'm worried about this upcoming transfer.... what if I'm not with Watanabe Shimai or not in Okinawa?  It's going to be a tough goodbye!  I can't think of a better place to be right now than serving the people of Japan.  I love it!  I'm exhausted, but I think that means I'm doing it right :)

I'm glad I'm from Washington!  I use it as a talking point all the time.  I always introduce myself and somehow they guess that I'm from America. :)  Then they ask where in American I am from.  When I say I'm from Washington they immediately talk about Seattle and Ichiro.  These people love their baseball.  I then try to be creative and relate it back to the gospel and why I'm here.  Most people think it's really interesting that I'm in Japan trying to speak their language while my family is still in the states.  They want to know why on earth I would come!  Well, I always love to share that :)  

We had a youth fireside at the beach the other day (the church as no air conditioning so it's almost better to do things outside).  I took my camera and I put it a safe distance away from the water (or so I thought)....well, the tide ate it.  I feel horrible!  Luckily, I was able to save the memory card, so I didn't lose all my pictures.  Stupid!  Well I won't do that again!  Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) said that she knows where to find cheap cameras so that is on my list of stuff to get.   So this week's pictures are a little lame, but next week will be better! :)

A lesson on "tides" :)

It's been especially hot and humid here this summer.  It's 8:40 at night and I'm sweating buckets.  When I first got here I thought it was a little weird that everyone carried around towels with them.  Well I've adopted that practice.  It is so hot!  Like nothing I've ever experienced.  A ward member was telling me that last summer they had a typhoon every other weekend.  We haven't had one yet.  I can't believe it's already p-day (Preparation Day)!  Time goes by so fast (and so slow too, whenever we bike hills, for example :).  We usually cook for ourselves, but the church members are so kind and feed us occasionally.  Once a month they put together a fruit basket for the missionaries.  It is big.  It's overwhelming how kind they are to the missionaries.  We are so lucky!

Some of the pictures I sent last week were from Asa.  It's a traditional Japanese dance.  It was really neat to go watch that.  It was held at the zoo so I got some cool pictures of bats (they are not bats like we know, they are more like flying foxes), ponies (apparently they are rare here in Japan) and fake pandas :) It was a great p-day!

Bowling on P-day!

We had an apartment check this week.  It was my first.  We cleaned a lot and then we cleaned some more.  We passed "inspection" and our reward was American cereal and cleaning supplies!  It felt like Christmas :)  We immediately ate Lucky Charms for a mid meal snack to celebrate!

Sweet rewards!

I sang for an investigator.  I sang!  I hate singing.  Actually, I despise it.  But he said that he loved hymns and I said great!  We have lots of songs that we sing at church and he wanted an example.  How could I say no?  I made him promise that he would come to church if I sang.  Well, he agreed so I was forced to sing.  I think it was a good trade off, but wow I really botched "I am a Child of God."

We had zone conference this week.  It meant that Watanabe and I navigated the bus.  I'm so glad I had her!  I would still be lost if I was by myself!  Thank goodness for companions!  It was great to travel and multi-task.  The AP's (that is missionary slang for Assistants to the President of the Fukuoka, Japan Mission - two missionaries that help the mission president and his wife oversee the other 230 missionaries in our mission) thought I was so funny because I talked to everyone.  I have no fear, but whatever comes out of my mouth is usually less than perfect Japanese.  But someday it will be perfect so I'm preparing for that day now! I found a new investigator on the bus :)  Yata!  (This means "I did it" or "Hooray")

I'm starting to make phone calls to people on my own now!  Always with Watanabe Shimai close by.  She sometimes has to translate mid conversation what is going on but I'm slowly getting better!

I absolutely love it here!  I have never worked this hard in my entire life.  I have never been so sure that God lives.  He loves us.  We went to a less active member's house the other day and talked about church.  I asked why she wasn't coming to church.  She has a really bad knee and she is in a lot of pain.  So I offered to wheel her to church.  I have never felt so much love for one person.  I knew that our Heavenly Father loved this woman so much.  Here she was in the middle of a tiny island in Japan and I just had this overwhelming feeling that she is a special daughter of our Heavenly Father, that He understands her and loves her.  That is true for all of us.  He is as close to us as our knees are to the ground.  And I really do spend a lot of time praying these days.  I need help :)  I love you family!  Be safe!  And have an incredible week!

xxooxxoo

Hawkins Shimai

Okinawa week 3 :)

I am SO HAPPY!  We had an absolutely wonderfully fantastically super duper week :)  Miracles, bike wrecks (the bike is fine and I think the post I ran into should make it), a new investigator and an adventure on one of the bases!  :)  I'll fill you in.... It's been GREAT!  

Remember how I'm really bad with directions?  Well it hasn't gotten any better in a foreign country and in a foreign language.  It's gotten worse!!  But luckily Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) is a pro.  I'm trying to learn a lot from her before she leaves me (she only has one transfer left before she goes home.) :(  Mom things are great.   I'm adjusting and working really really really hard.  I'm exhausted.  I never knew the meaning of tired before I got here.  The humidity and heat really kill you.  And we bike everywhere and are outside constantly.  But I love it :)  

The newest phrase I taught Watanabe Shimai in English this week:  "I think I'm going to die."  We biked up the longest, biggest hill for a solid 8 minutes.   There is no exaggeration there.  I had Frank Phelps' voice in my head from basketball season.  I wanted to crawl over and die, but Frank got me through it :)  Hence when we finally made it to a less active (unless active is a term that members of the LDS church use to describe someone who is a baptized member but who for whatever reason doesn't attend church very often or at all) member's house Watanabe Shimai quickly learned the phrase "I think I'm going to die."  :)  But I'm alive and we got a great work out and taught a lesson!

The more I am out here the stronger my testimony gets that God is not distant.  He is involved in the details of our lives.  He knows us individually and by name.  And above all He loves us.  Acts 17:27 is my latest favorite scripture.  (Verse 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:) I love the scriptures!  I was reading D&C 100 the other day and I felt like it was written just for me. 

We had miracle after miracle this week.  On our way home the other day I stopped a woman and started talking to her, gave her an Eikiwa pamphlet, etc.  Well, I turn around to hop (stumble) back on my bike and some cute little lady starts rapidly firing questions at me in Japanese.  When I finally had her slow down, I realized that she was asking me if I was a Mormon.  Well you bet I am!  She had a ton of questions about the church and I did my best to answer them.  Watanabe Shimai was caught talking to someone else.  This lady had met a member about 2 years earlier and saw the missionaries every once and awhile on their bikes, but hadn't been able to talk to one until now.  It was so neat to see what can happen when someone is simply a good example.  Now we have a new investigator :)  

Sydney wrote me a letter and it had a tons of ?'s so I'll try to answer them for you :)

1.  So missionaries can use Facebook now and ipads? When is your mission getting that?:  I have no idea :)  But I would love to have an ipad to show pictures!  Lots of people here have no concept of God as a God with a body that looks like us (we were created in His image).  It would be a great teaching tool.  But I don't know when we're getting them.  I'll keep you posted!

2.  Where do you live?  In an apartment.  Missionaries don't live with church members here because for the most part every one's home is very small.  

3.  Are you in a big city?  I think I am :)  Have Dad google it.  It's not rural that's for sure.  (Note from "editor":  Okinawa City has a population of approximately 139,000 people, 2650 people per km2.)

4.  Is the food  disgusting?  Well It is interesting that's for sure.  THIS WEEK I ATE:  fried squid (it wasn't bad,  it was a little gross to look at though), peanut tofu (bad bad bad decision, did not taste good), octopus (the name for it here is tako, ("taco") that is a totally deceptive word.  It's pretty chewy and well I'll leave it at that.  After that....well, I stopped asking what the food was and just ate it.  

5.  Are you currently teaching anyone?  Yep!  We've got our hands full.  We have about 7 (+a family) of investigators.  

We have Eikiwa (English) class every Thursday.  It's been kind of dying with the same old people attending, but this week we made some big changes and it payed off.  We had a huge turn out and lots of people said they were excited to come back next week.  After class we had a talent show. It went really well!  Until the very end when we had a food eating contest... with the new American missionaries (and two marines joined in)... we ate nato (fermented soy beans).  That was the grossest thing I've eaten yet.  I took my spoon to put it into my mouth and IT'S GOOEY!  I let the marine win.  He looked like death afterwards.  No update on his condition :)

Watanabe Shimai and I have had a great P-day(Preparation Day)!  I'll fill you in... We went and did service for a couple of hours on base.  There is a cute family that is "pcs-ing" to the states.  They have 5 girls and 1 boy.  Cute, cute family!  Well, it was the mother in the family's birthday today and she was in the house cleaning so we came and joined her with a married missionary couple, the Williams.  It was a lot of work and mom I wanted to thank you for teaching me how to clean.  We got a lot of work done!  Afterwards, the Williams couple took us to Subway!   I ate a sub :)  It tasted like home!  So weird to be on base and feel like I was back in the states.  But the family we served are somewhat recent converts and they're getting sealed together as a family for time and eternity in the temple in about two weeks!  I am so excited for them.  I wish I could be there! 

The Williams

Eating at Subway!

Oh, so I crashed on my bike on our way to a baptism.  I think the sidewalk and bike will be OK. The worst part was I did it in front of an auto shop.  Tons of people rushed to my aid.  So EMBARRASSING!  Thank goodness for helmets!  I'm a danger to the people of Okinawa.  Keep them in your prayers :)  

The Kardina sisters had a baptism!  Jessica (she is a "halfu" as the Japanese say), her dad is American and her mom is Japanese.  She is a wonderful girl!  Her parents are both not members but they came to her baptism and are extremely supportive.  I want to teach them!  :)  Wonderful family.  At the baptismal service we had an extremely less active member come... Mr. O.  He was in the big gang here.  He is missing some fingers.  He never lets us share a message and so I wanted to drop him from our "visiting" list.  We are so busy that we just dont' have time to meet with people who don't want to see us and who are so uncooperative.  So I was praying and trying to figure out how to tell Watanabe Shimai that I didn't think we should visit him anymore.  But I couldn't do it, so we visited him again.  I decided that I was going to pull a stubborn, foreigner move and just pretend I couldn't understand him when he said he didn't want to hear our message :)  That doesn't sound like me at all, right?  Well, I ended up praying and sharing a short message.  Then in broken Japanese, I invited him to the baptism.  (This was about 2 weeks ago).  Well......He came.  HE CAME!  I could have died.  I did a double take at the baptismal service.  Best day ever!  Never saw that coming.  I could have hugged him!  (I didn't).  It was great.  I still can't believe it! 

Well, I loved this week!  I still "think I'm going to die", but I am so HAPPY!  Eventually my body will catch up with my plans for this wonderful area.  I love you so much!  So so much!  Thanks for your letters and love!  Have a great week!

More Details! 2nd week in Japan

Thanks for your letters!  It was fun to read what everyone is up to!  To answer your questions mom...

I'm adjusting fine.  I had no jet lag or time zone tiredness which is a huge blessing since I was expected to hit the ground running.  I haven't missed a beat!

I email at the church building in Okinawa.  There are two computers so we bike our way over here sometime Monday to email you :).

Sister Watanabe and I serve in all three wards (congregations) in the city.  We go to two Sunday ward meetings every week.  Sunday is the day I'm most exhausted.  I'm HORRIBLE with names so having to learn triple the amount is exhausting.  But there are two other sister missionaries and four elders who help us out because our area is so big.  

Nope, I haven't been using the bug spray, just the anti itch cream.  Maybe I should prevent instead of just treating.  I'll take that into consideration :)

The grocery store... wow what an experience!  It's like Costco, but tiny and packed with a lot more people.  They have food samples and workers stand over the food with fans to wave the smell around.  I've had more interesting food than I care to list off.  Basically I have no idea what I'm buying.  Surprising, a lot of the foods are American brands.  So I usually can guess.  Plus I have a saint as a companion so I'm not starving.

Holy moly!  I'm at the church and we just heard a burst of thunder and pouring rain.  My first rain storm :)  I'm going to be soaked.  Time to test out my rain gear.

So this week has been FANTASTIC!

- Bikes are hard and I'm not graceful.  I've got skirts caught in my tires more times than I care to share, but I've figured out a unique strategy.  You see someone across the street, you bike over to them, greet them, try to get off your bike, fall, they help you, they have sympathy, BAM!!... share the gospel.  I'm very consistent.  My poor skirts and legs take a beating, but we've been able to share a lot of lessons that way :)  I'm just taking one for the team.

-  I experienced my first "splits" (term that missionaries use when two companionships "split" with their usual companion and spend a day with one of the missionaries from another companionship).  The first person Sister Black and I contacted is now an investigator!  She is a great lady with three kids.  We were able to meet with her again the next morning.  She seemed very interested in the Book of Mormon and eternal families.  I'm excited to meet with her again.

-  Our Eikiwa (English class) is great!  We meet once a week on Thursday and we teach English.  I love the responses we get!  English is so hard!  Nothing makes a whole lot of sense.  But I love talking with people!

-  My basketball skills haven't completely gone to waste.  We play basketball on P-days (preparation day) with our Eikiwa (English) students and it's a lot of fun!  It's nice being the tallest for once! 

-Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) is hilarious.  I love her.  I found out that whenever she wants candy she opens up our pantry and pulls out some cough drops.  She's had almost all Japanese companions and none of them knew it was medicine and not candy.  I love her!  She's only got one more transfer left :(

-  We taught Hedico San.  She has a baptism date for Aug 23rd.   She's a 70 year old lady and super nice.  She's got spunk, but her hearing is really bad.  We taught her the first lesson and I shared the Joseph Smith experience with her.  Well I was so nervous that I kept forgetting the words.  Watanabe Shimai was so nice that she whispered the words I would forget to me and the best part was our investigator couldn't hear her whisper.  :)

-  By the way...The bats here are bigger than birds at home.

-  I'm learning the in's and out's of contacting.  If there is someone within eyesight I'm pedaling my way over there.  We meet A LOT of people everyday.  It's a great experience.  There are so many good people here and I love hearing their experiences with religion and helping them learn more. 

-  We were exhausted last night!  It was so hot, but we had 10 minutes so we decided to go "housing".  That is term that we use for "knocking on doors" of houses or apartments to see if we can explain the beliefs of the church to people who may be interested in learning about our Heavenly Fathers Plan for us on this earth.  We went to the fourth floor of an aparto and found... a golden investigator!  We had such a good experience with him.  He was very interested in Christianity and the church and how the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together to answer life's questions.  And he asked if he could talk more with us!  That was a first :)  Miracles happen everyday here!  I love being a missionary!  It is such a great experience.  I am so blessed!  Sorry this weeks letter was so short!  I love you family! Have a great week!

Sister Hawkins!