Good Morning from Japan!

Good Morning from Japan :)

We made these "bentos"…in Japan it is considered an art form :)  Yes, it is food!

Kind of funny to read the translation into English :)

Summer is officially here in Kurume.  The sweat rags have come out and the make up off.  It's really a miracle people talk to us on the street :)  We have had a fun week.  Full of hand-sized (well, almost) cockroaches, tropical storms, new investigators, and adventures all around southern Japan.  It's been a blast!  

Williams Shimai (Sister Williams) and I have been working on our Japanese a lot and recently have been learning lots of Vietnamese and Nepalese.  The Book of Mormon is not translated into Nepalese so we use lots of fun teaching strategies and bounce around between English, Japanese and Nepalese and Hindi.  Our cute Nepalese investigator is doing great!  We had a wonderful lesson about the Plan of Salvation this week.  In every culture and everywhere in the world, families are central and with the knowledge that our families can be eternal brings hope and comfort.  We had a great discussion with her and she was so cute!  Every time we read a scripture (in Hindi) she would excitedly explain it to us in a mixture of cute English and Japanese.  I love sharing the gospel, but it makes me even happier when our investigators get just as excited as we are about it!  :)  

We have also been focusing on serving people.  When I first got on my mission I expected to do a lot of service.  Anything…mowing lawns (they don't have any here in Japan) or whatever came our way.  But for a solid year we have been offering everyone and anyone who we come across that we would LOVE to serve them.  Missionaries are always happy, but they are especially happy in basketball shorts pulling weeds.  Well, this week we took matters into our own hands.  One of our families who has had a health problem has a huge beautiful garden.  But with how busy they have been it's been a little neglected, so we surprised them and showed up and worked in their garden all afternoon.  It was WONDERFUL!  I have never been so happy raking up old eggplant bushes or radishes.  Williams Shimai and I went in with the goal to help them out with some of their physical needs, but as we were leaving the family asked if we would share a message with them.  We asked what they wanted to hear about and the cute grandma said, "Something about that Jesus Christ you keep talking about."  Gladly :)  It went great!  

I am so grateful to be a missionary here.  I LOVE it.  I can't even tell you about half the amazing miracles that happen to us on a daily basis.  I love it.  I know God is a living God.  He is aware of us.  It is just wonderful :)  I love you guys!  Have a great week!  And be safe!

Hawkins Shimai