What a birthday! # 20

Some of the sisters from church took me to lunch ……at Chili's, yes in Japan.  Me, Sister Olsen and Sister Finlayson.

At Chili's….they said it was the busiest Chili's in the world!

Sister Finlayson gave us dinner in a box for my birthday!  It was so thoughtful of her and delicious! 

Inori Shimai made me a cake for my birthday and everyone sang to me after conference.

One of the church members asked me what I miss most about the United States and I said real cinnamon rolls.  The Flake family surprised me with this!  Don't worry I shared :)

This week was Kawamura Shimai's birthday too.  We invited Capener Shimai and her companion over for splits.

Sister Olsen and I went to teach a lesson and they surprised me with a birthday cake!

Thanks for your letters and everyone's birthday wishes!  I had a great birthday and stayed super busy.  All of the members were so kind to me and I had lots of calls from people singing "Happy Birthday".  It was fun and I'm super grateful to be serving in such a wonderful area.  These people here are more like family then they are friends.  I love them!  My birthday was really fun.  Lots of members went out of their way to call me or drop something by.  It was really thoughtful and I felt really blessed.  The members here are really extraordinary.  The other sisters in our apartment Miller and Kawamura were really funny too.  I woke up at exactly 6:30 thanks to the loud firecracker type devices they had found in the dollar store.  Our room smelled like gun powder for a while :) 

This week went by quickly.  We are almost half way through the transfer.  Yesterday was wonderful!  I love General Conference (semi annual worldwide Church broadcast), but being a missionary listening to it just makes it that much better.  I really liked all the talks, but especially Elder Bednar's talk about needing spiritual traction.  One of our investigators really LOVED that talk, too.  Elder Ballard's talk "Follow Up" and the other talk about our life's "4 Minutes" were some of my other favorites.  I walked out of that Church building completely refreshed and ready for the next 6 months.  Our investigators that came with us loved the talks too.  They stayed the whole Sunday and when I checked in on them (there was a separate room for the American missionaries) they had a huge smile on their face and said, "Americans really know how to give speeches." I laughed and explained that the speeches were from God and that the great feeling they felt was the spirit.  :)  It was great all around! 

What the rainy season means for our poor umbrellas !!

Our district in the massage chairs on preparation day!  It was the best kind of break ever!

Sister Miller drew a picture of me :)

We found a new investigator a week or two ago.  She's an American and we found her housing (a term missionaries use to describe going from house to house knocking on doors).  It's always a little intimidating talking to Americans so I did lots of small talk, explained who we were and weaved in religion and when I asked her a little about her religious background she explained to me that her father is Muslim.  We had a great conversation about that and then I asked her if her mom was also Muslim.  Her response: nope, she's Mormon.  My jaw dropped to the floor.  It was pretty funny because that was the last answer I was expecting.  We laughed pretty hard.  She did too.  She knew who we were from the moment that we knocked on the door.  She isn't a member herself, but we invited her to hear a little more about the church and she agreed.  We were able to go back this week, just the other day and we had a SUPER wonderful lesson about the Restoration of the gospel.  We explained really simply that this church is not just another religion, but it is in fact Christ's church restored on the earth.  The more I study the scriptures and Preach My Gospel manual the more I love the Restoration and how it sets us apart from other religions.  I think the reason most people think Mormons are weird is not because we're strange :), but because we are actually unique.  We are different.  She's letting us come back which was really exciting!  She accepted our commitment to read the Book of Mormon and we're excited to meet with her again next week!  

We had interviews with Kaicho (mission president) this week.  Recieved training from the AP's and Sister Gustafson.  We are so far away from the mission home that we rarely get to see them so it was nice to hear what is going on in the mission and see how we can improve.  Lots of our investigators are really progressing.  We have two with baptismal dates and several baptismal dates that we hope to create.  I love teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Restoration and the Plan of Happiness.  A mission has been so wonderful for me.  I know how to be persistent, work hard, love others, and be effective.  I can't wait to be a member missionary too.  I absolutely LOVE Okinawa.  I love my mission and it's flying by.  Thanks for all that you do for me!  I certainly could not do it without you!  I love you guys and have a super week! 

Love,

Hawkins Shimai