Christmas in Okinawa!

Christmas Day in Okinawa

We had a great visit with McKenna on Christmas Eve!  (Christmas Day in Japan).  She sounds great, looks great and is happy to serving the people of Japan.  She spoke some Japanese to us and it sounded official, although none of us are qualified to critique it.  She did not send a letter because of our ability to Skype.

Sister Capener and Sister Hawkins

Having a Merry Christmas!

A screen shot of our Skype with McKenna!

Fashion statement!

My natural habitat!

The new church ….almost complete!

Great news!  Remember our washing machine?  Well, it (the washing machine) never got better.  In fact, it got worse.  The Williams (the super senior missionaries in our area) sent a repair man to look at it for us.  When he got here, I think he just assumed we didn't know how to use it.  Why would he think such a thing?  He told us that we pushed the wrong button and that if we followed directions it would work properly.  After that conversation, Sister Capener and I felt completely stupid.  But, he said since he was already there he would double check things.  A couple minutes later he showed us a water hose with a huge gash in it. THAT WAS WHY IT WASN'T WORKING!  Sister Capener and I did a leap for joy!  We were so relieved that there was something actually wrong with the washer!  Yippee!  He apologized too :)  It was the only time in my life I was grateful that something was actually broken.  What a relief!  I've had a blast doing laundry lately!  :)

We had an incredible miracle last night. We contacted a less active member, Akiko Shimai last night. We had tried to contact her three or four times when we happened to be in the area, but we had never met her. Last night was our last attempt and on the fourth knock and after no response we started to leave. We decided that we were not going to visit her again. On our way back to our bikes, a little defeated, we heard someone open the door. When I saw it was a woman, I could of tackled her!  She finally answered the door! I walked back and when she saw us she stopped and asked if we were sister missionaries. We answered yes!  Her whole face just lit up.  That never happens.  Usually we have the exact opposite response.  Instead she said that she was so happy to see us.  She had never met sister missionaries in Okinawa before. We started talking and found out that she had served a mission in Hiroshima (when it use to be just the Hiroshima mission) and we had a wonderful discussion about the blessings of going on a mission. We shared our experiences and the joy and hard times we all experience. It was one of the neatest experiences of my entire mission!  Words cannot describe how happy she was to see us and how excited we were to talk to her.  Afterwards, I asked if we could come back next week and get her help while we practiced teaching the missionary lessons to her. She agreed! It was so neat to have such an open conversation with her about the gospel. I love her! Things are going great in Okinawa. I've found that when we work hard and do all that we can the Lord puts people and experiences in our path. 

Our "cold" weather gear and reflective belts for biking in the dark.  Cute, huh?!

Secret Santas with our zone. Super fun!!

 

Mom, Dad, Mo, Ray, Syd and Hannah! I am super excited to skype you on Christmas!  I just realized that Christmas is my next preparation day.  It will be here before we know it!  I can't wait to talk to you guys!  I hope you have a wonderful week!  I love Okinawa.  I love the people and I am so grateful I am on a mission.  Good luck with school, sports and whatever else comes at you this week! がんばてください

 

あいしていますよ

Hawkins Shimai

Families, Friends and Fun!

"Putting on the armor of God" :)

Hikari and I…She is so cute!  Sister Capener and I taught her family a Home Evening Lesson and she followed me everywhere!  She reminds me of Hannah when Hannah was little!

This week has been an adventure.  Let me just start out by saying dogs may be man's best friend, but they're a missionary's worst nightmare!  Everywhere we went this week there seemed to be a dog chasing after us.  Luckily we can out run them on our bikes.  I am grateful we're a "bike riding" mission.  It's safer!  We're going to start buying dog treats.  Seriously though.  The pet store is on our "to do" list today.  

A couple days ago we were biking past the new church building which is still under construction.  We stopped and talked to two friendly men who were standing outside the gate of the church.  We introduced ourselves and asked if they had ever met missionaries before.  Their response was, "I was a missionary."  We weren't expecting that!  Turns out they were the head contractors from Tokyo who had flown down to inspect the building.  We had a great conversation with them and they said that the building should be finished this week!  I hope so!  

This week we had a blast making biscuits with our best friend Sister Wedekind and her Japanese neighbor.  It was a huge treat using an oven.  Afterwards we taught a lesson.  Sister Wedekind's neighbor just had a baby boy and so she was really interested in how the church could help strengthen her family and how she could learn about what she should teach her son.  It was a phenomenal lesson.   We were able to translate for Sister Wedekind and we had a fun lesson in a mix of English and Japanese.  

Sister Wedekind and her neighbor a new baby and I making biscuits!

We also met with a woman I got to know at our Thanksgiving dinner party.  She is a wonderful lady and has two children who are in middle school.  Life has dealt her some pretty hard cards, but she is a wonderful mother and always perseveres.  She wants her daughter to start coming to Young Women's (the church's youth program for girl's 12 yrs to 18 yrs)!  She can go as soon as the new building is ready (Young Women's will change from Wednesday to Tuesday starting then).  As we spoke with her, she shared with us lots of experiences that she has had over the years with the church.  She met a missionary 20 years ago while she was living in main land Japan.  She still had his business card!  She showed it to us.  It was incredible.  And then for the past 20 years she has always had either a Mormon neighbor or friend.  While she was living in D.C. she loved to drive past the Washington D.C. temple.  She loved it.  Hearing her experiences really strengthened my testimony that every time we meet someone we are planting a seed.  Sometimes it takes 20 years or longer for the seed to bloom, but eventually it happens.  I am so grateful for those people in her life who made a difference even if they didn't realize it at the time. 

We had stake conference (a regional church meeting) and our mission president and 2 assistants to the president flew down from Fukuoka.  This picture is of some of the missionaries and church members.

The hardest thing about serving a military branch ( a small congregation) is that so many people are coming and going.  Lute is leaving with her family to go back to the states.  We are so sad!

I love Okinawa!  I love the people, I love the language and I love serving them.  I am just so darn happy!  I hope you have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon!  Merry Christmas :) 

Love,
Sister Hawkins

Thanksgiving in Okinawa

All the missionaries on the island of Okinawa got together for Thanksgiving!

Sister Ande Burger….she put on the Thanksgiving feast!

This week was marvelous.  All of the missionaries on our island got permission to go on base for Thanksgiving dinner.  There were about thirty of us!  It was fun to see everyone and have things made out of an oven for a chance.  It's hard to make pumpkin pie out of a toaster oven which is all we have in Japan (except on the military bases they have real ovens).  I am so grateful for my family!  Mom my cooking is substantially sub-par compared to yours.  I'm working on it :)  It was really nice of the members on the military base in Okinawa to let us come eat Thanksgiving dinner with them.  Lots of them invited their friends and we had great gospel centered conversations.  The longer I am out on my mission (And it's been over 6 months) the more I realize that the gospel positively affects every aspect of our lives.  I cannot imagine trying to navigate the rough patches of life without the knowledge I have.  Life would be harder, it would be less joyous and it just wouldn't be the same without the blessings of Lord's church.  I am one grateful missionary :)  

This week our apartment went from a home for 2 to a home for 6.   We had a zone training meeting so the other sisters in our area came and stayed the night.

Sister Capener and I ….sitting on our futon (what we sleep on).

Sister Coles, Sister Owada, Sister Hawkins, Sister Andaca

It doesn't really feel like December here because it's still sunny and beautiful.  No sign of snow that's for sure!  It did finally start to get cold.  I guess I can't complain too much because it is December.  It's about time.  Sister Capener and I have really tried to emphasize Christmas a lot when we are out on the streets finding people.  Almost everyone celebrates Christmas here, but almost no one knows the meaning behind it or has even heard of Jesus Christ.  Christmas here is really happy and a time for family.  We are trying to explain that no one has to wait until December 25th to feel the joy of the season.  It can be theirs all year long.  Luckily "Merry Christmas" in Japanese is still "Merry Christmas" :)  One less phrase I have to learn! 

The highlight this week was our lesson with Mizue San.  We met her one night on the street outside of a busy store.  She was really sweet, but didn't seem to have a lot of interest in what we were talking about.  But we gave her a flyer and got her number and mentioned maybe she could help us with our Japanese.  She was really enthusiastic about that idea and agreed.  We met up with her this week and had one of the most powerful experiences of my entire mission.  We had dinner with her and throughout our entire conversation with her she was asking really specific questions about what we did as missionaries and what we believed in.  We found out that a week before we initially met her that her grandmother had passed away.  On the flyer we gave her it said that missionaries could help her find out more about what happens after this life.  We bore our testimonies that through the gospel families can be eternal and that death is only a temporary separation.  All of us felt the spirit really strongly.  I highlighted a few scriptures in the Book of Mormon and gave it to her.  She said that she was hoping to find an answer to her questions and felt like the "coincidence" of running in to us was a miracle.  I am recognizing more and more that there are rarely just coincidences out here serving the Lord.  When you're working hard and doing what's right good things happen.  I am grateful that Heavenly Father loves us young inexperienced missionaries enough to let us play a small part in these peoples lives.

On a funny note (mom and dad you will appreciate this): for some reason all my companions sing.  And not just sing, but they sing like angles.  Sister Capener is no exception.  She has a great voice.  And because she is my companion people just assume because she sings well so do I.  False.  Totally wrong.  Yet, I still get wrapped up into every choir performance, stake conference special musical number, etc that is going on in Okinawa, Japan.  The worst part is, I'm not tone deaf and I can tell I'm horrible.  I literally sing like a man who has been smoking most of his life.  I'm hopeless.  So if you're prayers this week could go towards the 6 part song that Sister Capener and I will be singing with 4 other angel-like voices I would really appreciate it.  It's for the open house.  I don't even read music!  I need a miracle.  

Me with a Hindu Book of Mormon….I thought Japanese was hard!

My new friend that I met at the talent show!

Missionaries on bikes!

Anyways family, I love you!  Have a wonderful week!

love,

Hawkins Shimai