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 :)