Halloween in Japan :)

Sister Missionaries…strike a pose!

The Williams (I love them! They are the best senior Missionary couple ever!) as Jonah and his wife and their van, as the whale.

I got a new backpack and now I have a "twin", one of the Elder's has the same one!

This week was an adventure!  It was super fun.  I'm starting to get some of this crazy language down and I am getting creative about how I get around the really hard things like kanji!  I'm slowly learning it, but it's still way out of my league.  Yesterday we got a text message from an investigator in all kanji so I walked up to a nice looking lady on the street and she read it to me.  We were able to explain what our purpose is here and she was really nice!  We have an appointment this week with her :)  I guess being somewhat helpless can pay off every once and awhile!

Dad stop worrying about me on my bike!   Don't worry, I'm being safe!  The only incident on my bike this week was during our heavy rain/windstorm.  I was at a stoplight and a huge gust of wind hit me and I fell off my bike into a bush.  So embarrassing!  And then my bike fell on top me!  It took Sister Capener and I awhile to dig me out of that one.  I swear it was the wind and not my lack of coordination on a bike that caused the accident.  But the bush and bike are fine now, promise!

This week we had a blast!  We were able to teach Taeko Tamaki a family home evening lesson.  She has five cute girls so I felt like I was back at home!  :)  It is so important for our investigators to develop a relationship with their Heavenly Father through prayer.  We taught a lesson about prayer and played a fun family home evening game where we hid sheep around the room and they have to find them and bring them back to the Shepherd.   We brought Sister West with us.  She is one of the wonderful military ward missionaries who speaks Japanese.  It went wonderfully!  We also had a branch activity for one of the military branches.  It was super fun.  I"ll have to send you a picture of the Elders' costumes.  They were frogs, I think. 

Frogs?

Lots of the less activities that we have been visiting came to the activity so we were super excited!  Halloween in Japan is fun.  I love it here!

We have such wonderful wards and branches here!  Our members are so kind and helpful.  They really go out of their way to help us.  Sister Wedekind, especially, is a super star missionary. 

Sister Wedekind (lower left of picture)…a super help to the missionaries!

She is super busy herself with lots of kids and activities, but she always is inviting her friends and neighbors to our free Japanese and English classes.  She was so kind the other day.  We asked if she would come with us to visit a family and not only did she come she managed to fit both our bikes in her tiny car to give us a ride back home so we could be back in time for curfew.  I wish every mission had a Sister Wedekind!  Love her!

Lastly, our miracle for the week.  This week Sister Capener and I braved typhoon winds and went out to do some service for one of the investigators in the Gushikawa Branch who is trying to decided on a date for baptism. On our way there our investigator canceled due to the weather and hazardous conditions. We went out and tried to "house" and meet people, but we were having no success and it wasn't very effective. So Sister Capener and I said a prayer and decided that we should go back to our apartment and look at names in our area book. We sat down and started calling everyone who had received lots of lessons or had a previously scheduled baptismal date. I called a woman named Ganeko San and not only did she answer she said it was OK if we came by in a half an hour. We were so excited! We met her (through a series of miraculous people and events placed along our way to help us get there) and had the most spiritually inspiring lesson I have had on my mission. We talked about temples and families and Ganeko San loved it. During our lesson we learned that Ganeko's daughter is one of the Elder's sister-in-law. It was an incredible miracle. After the lesson we realized how many people must be praying for her. We really felt guided to go visit her and then to find out she was related to one of the Elders was wonderful!

I hope you guys have a marvelous week!  

Love you!

Hawkins Shimai

Sister Latu and I after a Companionship trade (we call them splits).  I love her!

Justien…she is a super member missionary!