No chocolate! :)

This is what our investigator does every time she gets her picture taken :) We call it the Akikio!

The four of us Sister missionaries in our apartment.  We are getting ready to move so please excuse the mess!

Elder Bullock and I with Sister Takei…she finished her lesson mastery in Japanese!

This week went great!  We had the opportunity to do lots of service.  I love any excuse to get out of my skirt and put on some pants and work hard.  Nothing feels better than jeans and tennis shoes while you're painting or pulling weeds!  But my favorite service this week was going to Naha and volunteering at a hospital there with the Gushikawa Relief Society women.  We handed out donated clothes, jewelry, painted fingernails and gave hand massages.  I've realized on my mission that I am a huge people person.  I just love people!  And I absolutely loved talking to the patients at Naha.  It was a wonderful opportunity.  I've also seen how service can open people's hearts.  We went and helped out one of our investigators this week move some furniture. After we finished, we thanked her and asked for her to let us know if we could ever do anything else to help.  She laughed and said, "Why are you thanking me, Sisters?  You helped me!"  I don't think she realized how much fun we had.  The best way I've found to help me love people is to serve them.  She showed up to church the next Sunday without us even having to invite her.  The miracles of service!  I love it! 

Volunteering at the Naha Hospital!

Lately I've been trying to figure out how I can relate more to the people we teach.  Here, I am a tall (ha ha tall! ... at least by Japanese standards), blond, foreigner, who is 19 and basically fresh out of high school.  We teach people triple my age with lots of differences in hobbies, favorite foods, religious beliefs and backgrounds.  But I have a strong testimony that no matter who we teach or what their background, the gospel of Jesus Christ can help them.  But my job as a missionary is to help them see how it can help them and invite them to apply it in their own life.  This past couple of weeks we have taught the Word of Wisdom a half a dozen times.  I have no experiences with not living the Word of Wisdom (The health code that Mormoms live by….click here Word of Wisdom if you want to read more.) Luckily, I was raised with the knowledge that some things, like alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and coffee are not good for your body and it never was a temptation for me growing up.  But I wanted to be able to relate to what our investigators were feeling when they had to give up something that they love and drink or use all the time.  So for the last two weeks I gave up my favorite food.  Chocolate.  It's my life line.  I didn't realize that I decided to do this right before the biggest chocolate holiday of the year... Valentines Day!  It's been a rough couple of weeks.  Seriously!  But I decided to take it seriously and I'm proud to announce that I have been chocolate free for two weeks!  I had to tape my chocolate drawer shut!  But even though I just gave it up for a little bit to help me understand what our investigators are thinking it's been a really neat experience.  I've learned more about the power of prayer and avoiding temptation :)

Sister Takei with a member of the ward who taught with us…she just got back from a mission to Saparo Japan.

One of our new investigators….we gave her a church tour and then went to eat at an Indian Restaurant! She is a blast!  I can't wait to teach her more!

I love you guys!  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Don't worry about me in Okinawa.  I love it!  I'm working hard and having lots of fun along the way.  Love you!

Hawkins Shimai