Adventures in Okinawa

Some of my Zone at the Aquarium on Preparation Day!

Sister Coles and I ....we were at the Missionary Training Center at the same time.

Sister Capener and I at the Aquarium

JAWS!!

Watching the Whale and Dolphin Show

The Whale Show

Oh, before I forget... if  i don't get an answer to the following question (again) I'm strapping sea turtles together and floating to Washington to get an answer.  Morgan and Hannah, did you get your birthday cards?  That's all :)  

Young Women from the Kadena Branch (Congregation)

This week was SUPER!  I love working hard.  Things just work out when you're trying your best and relying on Heavenly Father.   Being a missionary is incredible.  And just to put a plug in for senior missionaries (they're not very senior in my opinion but...)  just do it!  Go on a mission no matter what age you are!  It is a blast sharing the gospel.  You get to meet your brothers and sisters all around the world and you get to help them learn about the greatest gift they can ever receive.  I love it! 

The most entertaining part of the week came from teaching the Young Women in the Kadena branch (congregation).  Teenagers completely freak me out.  And they can smell fear.  I don't know about Sister Capener, but I was extremely nervous. I wanted them to like us!  We planned out the entire evening (with lots of praying involved... I needed Heaven's help for this one!)  and then we arrived with Sister Wedekind, the young women's president, at the Religious Education building on the Air Force base where we were going to have the Young Women's meeting.  When we arrived, one of the leaders tried to unlock the building and then rushed back to us.  There was a massive sign hanging over the door saying that there was an infestation of Habu in the building and not to enter.  Habu is one of the poisonous snakes on the island.  I took this as a sign... a bad sign.... a very BAD sign.  What are the odds?  After calling the Chaplin team on base and finding out that the danger was actually very real, we went back to one of the young women leader's home.  (Mom, you would have loved her!  Stacey Heaton.  She reminds me of Sara England.  She is so dar n cute!  She had the cutest decorated military house I have ever seen!).  After the slight bump in the road (POISONOUS SNAKES), the rest of the night went really well!  We had each of the girls open a "missionary call letter" (luckily Sister Capener brought hers so we could use it as a reference) and read where they were going and what language they would be speaking.  Coincidentally, all the girls were leaving in one week from Wednesday.  What are the odds? :)  So we had a crash course on missionary work.  It was fun to talk about the preparation needed.  Everything from what clothes are smart to get (like biking shorts!) and what we recommended reading in Preach My Gospel (start with chapter 3).  It was a fun night!  And the best part was at the end, Sister Capener asked if any of the girls planned on serving missions.  Almost all of the girls raised their hands!  Oh and the young women leaders and girls gave us a cute "thank you" basket.  Toothpaste, a toothbrush, deodorant, and hair ties that come in packages bigger than 2 (yippee!).  It was a fun night!  

Just an editor's note!  Not seen by McKenna

NOTE FROM EDITOR :)

A habu (pronounced "hah-BOO") is a venomous snake found in southeast Asia (Japan, Phillipines, Taiwan, southeast China).

Habus are pit vipers, more closely related to the adder than to any species of North American snake. The actual "habu" (Trimeresurus flavoviridis) is relatively small, not usually getting longer than 5 feet. They are not typically aggressive but will bite if provoked.  They are not as deadly as cobras or mambas, but are more much more dangerous than most North American venomous snakes.  There are almost a dozen species of habu; the variety native to Okinawa (Trimeresurus okinavensis) is supposedly greenish or greenish-yellow; however, all habus are extremely rare in North America (less than a dozen specimens in all zoos combined) and photographs are very hard to come by. 

When the A-12s (and later the SR-71s) were first flown to their new remote base at Kadena AFB in Okinawa, the local people thought that this strange and somewhat wicked-looking airplane was shaped like the habu snake.  They started calling it the habu airplane, and later just habu.  Crews who flew the airplane were also called Habu, and the name came to be recognized with the blackbird program and even incorporated into the insignia worn by the crews on their uniforms. 

Speaking of Young Women's... I got a surprise in the mail from the young women in our ward!  Girls, thanks for your cute card :)  It's hanging up in our office!  You girls are so creative!  Thanks for making my day :)

Sarah is our newest investigator.  She lives on Okinawa and her husband is in the army.  She is just a super woman.  She was originally being taught by the elders, but they were transferred so we were asked to continue the lessons.  We had the best lesson I have ever been able to be a part of.  However, she walked into the appointment upset and angry.  She said she wished we had rescheduled and that she didn't have time for this.  Well, if I wasn't praying before I certainly started when she said that!  My heart just dropped.  It was the first time we met her and I wanted her to have a good experience.  We started by asking her about her religious background and she stated bluntly that she had none.  So we eased our way in to the  gospel of Jesus Christ and taught simply and plainly.  We had a member there, Sister Westin, and the senior couple with us and their testimonies blended in perfectly with the lesson. Sarah asked great questions and the neatest part~the spirit was there.  It was powerful!  I felt like that lesson was orchestrated from heaven and when we ended none of us, including Sarah, had a dry eye.  That experience just confirmed to me how crucial the spirit is.  You can be the best, most charismatic teacher there is, but if you don't have the spirit then nothing good will come from it.  After Sarah's stressful,hectic, bad day, that lesson was able to calm her down and redirect her.  It was the neatest experience I've had here.  I can't explain how cool it was.  Sister Capener and I did a dance of joy when we got home.  We seriously did.  Great day!

Lastly, we have a non member who we are befriending.  Her name is Miyagi.  She is the kindest women.  She is from mainland Japan and has two kids.  Her daughter is a member, but she has never joined the church.  Her husband was really active.  He was from Florida and was stationed in Japan.  That's how he met Miyagi.  He tragically passed away a few years ago while he was deployed in Afghanistan.  After that experience, their family became less active.  Recently the mother and her two daughters moved to Okinawa.  Her story is all about members befriending those around them.  We introduced Miyagi to a member and that member has been such a great missionary.  All Miyagi needed was a friend and this member did a great job of being a good example and was willing to go out of her way to invite her to church activities and other activities they did as a family.  I really hope that Miyagi is able to start coming to church with her daughter.  I am excited for her!  And I am so grateful to the members who have been so kind to her.  Missionary work is a group effort!

I love Okinawa.  I love my companion.  And I love being a missionary!  I am just so happy!  The gospel is not hard, life is.  And the gospel can help everyone of us with whatever concerns or trials that we may have in our life.  I love it!  :) 

Have a wonderful week, I will check in with you later!

Love you!  From the middle of Okinawa, Japan...

Sister Hawkins :) 

Will's baptism....I gave a talk.

My zone :)

Cloud nine :)

The sea wall

Sister Capener and I at the sea wall.

The sea wall

The other day we were looking at the map (a regular occurrence) and a man stopped to see if we needed help.  He was from Mississippi.  It was weird to hear that accent in Okinawa.  I'm doing really well!  I'm on cloud nine because 1) I love missionary work and 2) our sweet primary president (the lady in charge of the youth ages 3 to 11 in one of our congregations) gave us a jar of peanut butter, life couldn't be better. 

I've realized that lots of people recognize that you're a missionary far before you introduce yourself.  If they don't know specifically who you are they know you're different so they take notice of what you do.  It is so important to be a good example at all times.  I love meeting kids!  When you shake their hand or give them a high five they just look at you like you're super cool :)  All the kids in our ward (local congregation) are hilarious.  I get called.... Sister, Sister Hawks, Hawkins, Hawkins Sister, Sister Hawkins Shimai, and Miss Missionary :)  The other day I asked 4 year old Marshall Widiken a question and his eyes got really big and he looked disappointed.  He shook his head and sighed, "Well I thought missionaries knew everything, but I guess you're not a smarty pants like me."  It was a rough day having to let down a four year old and tell him even missionaries have questions :)  

Marshall Widiken, Mr. Smarty Pants

We met with the Kojya family the other night.  It was an appointment Sister Watanabe made before she left.  She just left us a note about it with only their phone number.  Well I knew their wasn't a Kojya family in our ward and they weren't in our area book so they weren't investigators.  We called and got directions to their house (turns out their son had to show us the way from the nearest family mart because we couldn't find it... oops!).  Our Japanese is OK, but it's still hard to get the small details.  So we had a great evening with them and shared a good message about how Heavenly Father is aware of all of us and then testified about it.  Turns out that the family are not members of the LDS church.  They have a son who converted 5 years ago though.  He went on a mission and just got married in the Tokyo temple.  The family had called Sister Watanabe and asked her to come over because they just liked having members of "the Mormon church" in their home.  I am so grateful that their son is such a good example to them.  You never know what's going to happen, but being a good example never hurts.  

Family Home Evening with the Scotts!

We played soccer on base this past Saturday.  The branch president invited us over because their are lots of non members that go.  I am so sore I can't laugh.  Who would have thought?  I guess you use lots of different muscles while playing soccer than when you're riding a bike.  Also I spoke in church this Sunday!  In Japanese!  It was nerve racking.  I usually don't mind speaking, but I didn't want to embarrass myself up there!  It went pretty well, I think.  Lots of people were really nice afterwards and they told me they loved my talk and that my Japanese is great (I was tempted to tell them that lying in church is a sin :)  But it's over!  We had two investigators come to sacrament meeting.  Yuho San and Mikiko San.  I was so happy to see them there!  Mikiko San was crying during one of the talks.  She said she loved coming to church!  And I noticed Yuho San open up her copy of the Book of Mormon and follow along with the speaker!  Yippee, it was fantastic! 

And lastly for some entertainment!  Every Monday and Thursday the garbage truck comes by.  Well it comes by at 8 in the morning and we sometimes forget, like last week.  Well, this morning we were in the middle of personal study when, BAM, we heard the garbage truck song!  We sprinted down 4 flights of stairs to get the garbage in the bin in time.  Success!  :)  Exhilarating.  Life is great!

I love you guys!  Thanks for all your support!  Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Hawkins

We met the lady who owns this garden...she has been working on it for 50 years.

Even in Japan!

Same garden...different view.  It was beautiful!

Exact Obedience Brings Miracles

What do these symbols mean?

I don't hate a lot of things.  I am usually a really happy person, but right now I could kill our laundry machine.  It's covered in Kanji (Japanese characters).  It better shape up or it's going head first over our balcony.  It took us two days to get 1 load of laundry done because it wouldn't drain.  I think Sister Watanabe must have put it on some sort of timer before she left.  Sister Capener and I have done a lot of laughing lately.  Our method:  push as many buttons are you can, push start and then when that doesn't work, try again!  It's been pretty amusing.  Finally we gave up and just took everything out, wrung it out in the bathroom and hung it up inside with tons of fans.  It looked like our kitchen had been hit by a tornado of bed sheets :)  

So just some random things:  A member told us that the 2020 Olympics will be in Tokyo!  Exciting!  :)  I wish you could see Sister Capener and I use the phone:  We put it on speaker so that both of us can try to decipher the Japanese.  Oh and speaking of the phone we just barely (after a week and a half) figured out how to listen to our 7 voice mails.  Oops...  We had a zone meeting and the zone leaders told us that over half of the missionaries in our mission are 4 transfers and younger.  We have a very young mission.  We accidentally texted the wrong scripture to an investigator.... after she sent us a text back a little confused we sent the correct scripture and looked up the scripture we sent.  A very interesting verse about the reign of the judges :0  We now triple check text messages before we send them.  

We are working really really hard.  Time is flying by!  It's already p-day.  We cover 3 massive congregations (wards) (I don't count the military branches as branches because they're bigger than our Okinawa ward).  There are so many families that we're visiting.  Especially the military families, because we really need their help.  You can't proselyte on base.  We have to take our name tags off before we enter.  That means we have a hard time finding new investigators for these wards so we try to encourage them to invited family and neighbors over when we teach Family Home Evening.  It's been working out pretty well so far.  These families are so strong and they are great missionaries.  It's a wonderful privilege to work along side them. 

The addresses here are completely different than they are in the states.  It's pretty confusing.  I took a picture of an investigator's address in our area book and on our way there that night we stopped an older grandma and asked her for help finding the address.  I showed her the picture on my camera.  She exclaimed that it was really far away, it would probably take us an hour and a half or maybe two and at this time of night it wasn't a good idea to go there.  We though we were just a couple minutes away and figured she was confused.   When we got back to our apartment that night I realized I accidentally showed her the wrong address.  The address I showed her was all the way across the island.  No wonder she was so worried about us!  :) Embarrassing! 

We taught our first full lesson in Japanese by ourselves to an investigator.  Akasaki San is a mom of four girls.  The elders found her while they were "housing" and they passed her off to us.  She is wonderful!   We taught about Joseph Smith and the restoration.  It was difficult to only rely on Sister Capener and my Japanese to explain things so we kept it simple, used scriptures to help explain and testified.  I think it went pretty well.  She said we could come back.  Next time we will try harder to find a member to come with us.  It will help with our explanation and hopeful Akasaki San with be able to find a new friend.  

Caught in the rain without my rain gear!

Tsunami warning level :)

We had the opportunity to go to Kadena the other day to visit a family.  It's a super long hour bike ride but we arrived and we were able to share a great message about families and Heavenly Father's commandments.  I have recognized more as a missionary that obedience brings blessings.  They keep us safe, and they don't restrict us.  In the MTC (Missionary Training Center) the mission presidency had the saying that "obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles."   And I need a miracle :)  

I know this is God's work.  I really do.  Before my mission I forgot that missionaries are real people too.  I just assumed that they automatically knew how to teach, what to teach and how to find people.  But that is not the case!  There is a huge learning curve.  I was really worried when Sister Watanbe left.  We have lots of investigators and they rely on us to teach, to explain and to guide!  I love these people.  I pray for them, I study for them and I think about how we can help them constantly.   But how on earth was I supposed to do that in broken Japanese?!?  But especially this week I've realized that as long as you're trying your best and you're doing what you're suppose to do, good things happen.  Heavenly Father is not going to allow someone to fall away because we can't speak the language perfectly.  We just try our hardest and He makes up the rest and more.  The more I am a missionary the more I am certain that this church is true.  No one in their right mind lets a whole bunch of 18, 19 and 20 year olds lead your missionary force.  If this work rested solely on our abilities it would have ended a long time ago.  But it's not us and it's not our talents that convert.  It's the spirit and it's the truthfulness of this message.  That is extremely comforting as a missionary.  

A sweet treat!

In Music town!

I love you guys!  I pray for you all the time :)  

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Hawkins

Life without Sister Watanabe

Sister Watanabe leaving :(

This week was an INCREDIBLE one! I know I say that every week, but really this week was full of miracles. So Sister Watanabe was transferred. She went to Hiroshima. She only has one transfer left so everyone was really surprised, including me. Then I asked who my new trainer was. I was told Sister Capener.

Sister Capener and I

On my beloved bike!

She was serving in the Naha Higashi ward for two transfers. Then I remembered that I had met her once before.... IN the MTC (Missionary Training Center). That's how new we both are. She has one more transfer than I do. I am now a "transfer two" and she is a "transfer three". Three! Did I mention only three? When I heard this I freaked out. I don't speak Japanese! Not fluently at least! And we have investigators and ward members who only speak Japanese. I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I cried, in fact. It was just a tough week and I wanted to punch something (missionaries have real feelings too). But I spent a lot of time on my knees and I just decided that it was going to be alright. What better way to truly learn Japanese than to need it for survival, literally. When I met Sister Capener for the first time (actually second time), I realized all my worrying was for nothing. I love her...I really, really do. She is super! She is 21years old and from Nauvoo, Illinois. She attended BYU before her mission. This will be an absolutely incredible transfer. She works hard. I was worried that we weren't going to be able to make appointments that we wouldn't be able to find investigators, but all that was wrong. We have so many appointments right now that we are having to schedule them for two and three weeks out. We met three incredible solid new investigators in four days. I have never had to rely more on the Lord, but it is been a huge blessing. Big things are happening here and I am excited!

There have been some funny things happening too. For example, kanji (Editors note: Kanji is a system of Japanese writing using Chinese characters). You can't look up kanji and you can't sound it out. So imagine how frustrating it is for us to figure out how to use the AC or the washing machine. Our first text message took us forever to figure out.


Our first text message...30 minutes!

We are constantly having to ask people to send their messages in hiragana (Editors note: Hiragana is the more cursive and more widely used form of kana (syllabic writing) used in Japanese, especially used for function words and inflections) just so we can attempt to read them. It takes two of us to do phone calls because people talk so fast! The names of investigators are all in kanji too. I never had practice with this because Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) took care of it all, because she could actually communicate! Well let's just say I'm learning really fast.

I told Sydney I would send a picture of a keyboard here. Notice the small space bar and the hiragana!

I have mentioned before that I'm horrible with directions. Well that problem has been magnified now that I'm the area "senpai" (I have seniority in the area) and am expected to find where people live. I'm getting really, really good with a map. I've found that asking people for directions is a great finding opportunity. Honestly it's been working out pretty well.

We found three new investigators this week. It was a huge miracle. Two of them are Americans and one of them is from
Okinawa. I'll tell you about Paige. She is in high school and she has lived in Japan her whole life. Her mom is Japanese and her dad is American. Initially, we made contacted with someone from China. Luckily Sister Capener had a Chinese pamphlet. After doing a lot of talking with our hands, we left the Chinese lady with the pamphlet and went on our way. Afterwards, I remembered that there is a lady in one of the wards here who speaks Chinese and so we went back to find the Chinese woman, but couldn't find her. We said a prayer and then continued to search. About 5 minutes later, we found Paige instead! We taught about the restoration of the gospel in 15 minutes on the street. It was incredible to do that. Sister Capener and I worked so well together and we could really feel the spirit testify. We have an appointment with her this coming Saturday. Sister Capener asked her how she felt after we finished the lesson and she was so sweet. Paige said that she had thought about these questions and she felt great that we had cared enough to share this message with her. It was incredible! Please pray for Paige that she will be able to make it to our lesson and continue to progress.

Lastly, I bore my testimony in the Okinawa ward yesterday. I was so nervous because I was in front of our entire ward and here I was crying and speaking in my second language. After I finished a sister in the ward went up and bore her testimony. She was so kind. She told her conversion story. She was taught by two American sisters who had only been on the island for 2 or 3 months. They didn't speak great Japanese, but when they taught her she understood and she was able to feel something different. She testified that Japanese doesn't convert people, but the spirit does and she thanked me and Sister Capener for learning her language to teach her brothers and sisters. It was an inspiring meeting. I testify that God lives and that He knows us. I was so scared starting this transfer, but I firmly believe that if you try your hardest and go in the right direction that good things happen. That things fall into place and that miracles occur. I love this work. It's JOYOUS :) It's incredible and I have never had a more fun time in my life. I wish you could see me. It's hard to describe in such short time what's happening. I love contacting people. It's a blast. I love people and I love missionary work. Sister Capener is awesome and I love her. I'm excited to see what miracles happen this transfer.

Mikiko San, an investigator



Pray for me :) I could use a lot of help :)


Your missionary in Japan!


Sister Hawkins



Sister Lowe, me, an investigator and Sister Watanabe




Sister Burger and I ....she is related to the Websters :)  in Entiat, small world! She has even swam in Grandma Hawkins' pool in Yakima!

My first typhoon!

 

We had a typhoon!  Lots and lots of wind and rain!  We couldn't use our bikes because the wind was too strong.  So we had to stay close to home.  It was an interesting week that's for sure :)  It was my first typhoon experience so I had lots of fun with it!  :)  Lots of "firsts" this week... I taught Eikiwa (English class) for the first time, I went to the hospital, (to see a church member's family, mom, so don't freak out :)  rode in a Japanese taxi, and I learned about second hand kissing....

This past Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was a special holiday here.  For those three days every one's ancestors come to visit them.  Almost everyone has an altar and pictures and ashes of their ancestors in their home.  At meal times they put food on the altar and they also give them presents.  I don't know a lot about it, but it's pretty interesting.  It also made finding, teaching, and meeting with  church members, non-members, and investigators near to impossible.  And I hate impossible!  So we had to work super hard this week.  We focused our message on eternal families and the plan of salvation.   It was neat to be able to build upon what they already know and be able to share more with them. 

We went to the hospital to visit a church member's younger sisters.  Neither of the sisters are members.  It was so touching to see what their older sister had done for them.  She visits them daily. One has developmental issues and the other has a heart disease.  This older sister is such a great missionary.  She had us come with her to teach the first lesson, but she had pretty much done our work for us.  She'd given them a Book of Mormon and some lesson pamphlets and most importantly through her example and her testimony her sisters were able to learn about the gospel.  She was such a great example to me of what it means to share the gospel out of love and concern. 

Sister Williams (Older couple who are serving as missionaries in my mission) showed me an article about how sweat clears your skin.  I got a good laugh out of it.  If that truly is the case I'm going to come back home looking really good!  Oh, and I got a lesson from a Japanese women about second hand kissing and Japanese culture.  At a recent church activity we ran out of spoons to eat ice cream so I borrowed an Elder's spoon ... (don't judge.. I can't eat ice cream with chopsticks!).  Well, apparently using someone else's spoon to the Japanese people is like kissing.  In fact they have a special word for it.  Translated it means "second hand kissing"...  Oops!   They really should teach you these things in the Missionary Training Center!  

These are two Okinawan mascots....this happens to be a keychain, but these mascots are EVERYWHERE!

Miracle of the week!  In the middle of our training session on Saturday we got a call from the church saying that there was an old investigator there who wanted to speak to the missionaries!  I could of died!  She wanted to speak to us!  Usually it's the other way around :)  We rushed over and met a woman in her late 20s who had the lessons a couple years ago, but stopped.  She asked if we still taught the lessons.  You bet we do!  We were able to share lesson one and invite her to come to church.  We  called her Sunday morning and she came!  It was incredible.  We had a church activity later that night (the second hand kissing incident) and I invited her to come to that too.  Not only did she come, but she came early and I found her reading her Book of Mormon.  No act of missionary work is ever wasted!  I"m so grateful for those missionaries who shared the gospel with her earlier.  Because of that she is really progressing now.  Heavenly Father works in mysterious and wonderful ways.  

Love, 

Sister Hawkins!

Companion exchange ....Sister Hawkins and Sister Nakamura