I am transferring to a new area!

I`m transferring!  We just got the call today.  I will be going to Nakagawa.  It is in the Fukuoka Prefecture.  It is a new area that they are opening and I will be a Sister Training Leader there with Ogada Shimai (a super, cute Japanese girl).  She will be my Sister Training Leader companion over the 2 zones we will be helping.  My normal day to day companion will be Sister Crump.  A relatively new missionary.  She was in Nagasaki a transfer ago so I know who she is.  I am SO sad to be leaving.  I love Sister Williams and I have ABSOLUTELY loved Kurume.  I was quite upset to leave Okinawa, but I just cannot believe how quickly I have come to love Kurume.  I am so grateful I had the chance to work here.  It is so hard to leave somewhere when you have invested so much into it.  So many hours of labor and love have gone into these streets.  I love these people.  I love this area.  I have grown to love it and now I don`t know if I can stand to leave it.  When I first got here I never thought that I would be sad to leave.... we had no investigators and it was a dead area.  But now as I think about our investigators... I start to loose it.  I love them.  They are so much fun to teach!  I am learning so much from them.  Nakagawa will be great I am sure of it.  But I am so so sad to leave.  

This week was just wonderful... I want to tell you about two lessons really quick!

• Our totally cute Chinese investigator!  He is adorable.  20 something and just so smart.  My Chinese is horrible, but with our investigator it all works out.  He is fluent in Japanese and Chinese and his English is not half bad either.  We stopped by to teach him this week and his roommate was there.  Normally with college age students that means talking about religion is not OK.  But he was great!  He invited his roommate to come listen to us (awesome missionary!).  The friend had a close Christian friend in China and had even prayed once before so he was a great asset.  We taught about God.  Something neither of them had particularly thought about.  I just love teaching about God!  Religion doesn't have to be used just as a Bandaid when something goes wrong.  It is the source from which we can constantly receive strength, guidance, peace and assurance from during ANYTIME of our life, wonderful or horrible as it may be.  When we taught about prayer both of them kneeled down with us in their genkkan (entry way) and we said a prayer.  It was just the neatest thing.  The spirit was definitely there and even though it was a strange mixture of English, Japanese and Chinese I am sure Heavenly Father got it :)
• Lastly, one of our friends from Eikaiwa (English class):  He is a great guy and has a cute family of four kids.  He has been letting us practice the lessons with him.  He is a huge help and we love teaching him.  He always has great questions and reads the Book of Mormon thoroughly.  He is great!  We had a lesson with him last week.  The Plan of Salvation.  It was a really neat lesson.  It just is so applicable to each of our lives.  And as we taught I could really feel the spirit.  Just peace and happiness as we talked about eternal families and where we go after we die.  I think death, especially in some cultures is viewed as really scary and as the stopping point.  When we talk to people on the street about the after life they just shake their heads and say they don't know.  A majority also say that if they could live with their family eternally even after they die that they would love it.  That is what the Plan of Salvation is about! And our Eikaiwa friend really liked it.  I have felt the very real peace that comes with the knowledge of the plan of salvation.  What you don`t know is naturally scary but when you come to know, when you learn, study and pray about what the Bible and Book of Mormon teaches it is a huge source of peace.  It was a great lesson and really fun to teach.  Our friend even called us afterwards.  Said that he already had read the 3 chapters we had assigned him in the Book of Mormon and wanted to know if we could teach him "for real" not just for practice, that he wanted to learn :)  

I am excited for these next six weeks.  I don`t know what I am more sad about.... that I am transferring and leaving all these people I love and pray for in Kurume or that the next six weeks are my last that I have on my mission.  Words cannot describe how grateful I am to have served in Kurume.  It has strengthened my testimony that the Lord has people prepared to hear the gospel everywhere.  I know that God lives.  That He knows us and our situations.  He hears our prayers and knows our hearts.  And most importantly He loves us.  One of my favorite scriptures is in Acts 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:  If we seek God we will find Him, for He is not far from everyone of us.  I know that this is true.  

I love you guys.  Have a wonderful week.  P.S.  Please pray for me :)  Rumor has it that Nakagawa is pretty darn cold in the winter time.  I am still living from my Okinawan "winter" closet :)  It will be a fun 6 weeks!  :)  Poor Crump Shimai (Sister Crump) has no idea what she is getting :)

Love you!

Hawkins Shimai

Typhoons!

They thought the typhoon would be as bad as the one they had in the Philippines so they put us all in "lock down" ;).  Don't worry, we filled up the tub and all of the tea containers we are given during our daily dendo (teaching) adventures with water and we went shopping ahead of time so we wouldn't starve.  It was probably a good thing we didn't go outside Monday.  It was super windy and rainy, the weather overall was just nasty... but we kept power and the Mission President was kind enough to let us move our preparation day from Monday to Tuesday.  Hence I am writing to you a little late.  

Transfers are not until next week.  Exactly a week from today we will get the transfer calls.  I never realized until going on a mission how NERVE RACKING transfer calls are!  Especially on your last transfer.  You get a random phone call that tells you who and where you will be living for the next 6 weeks.  And two days later you are gone!  Williams Shimai (Sister Williams) and I want to "kick the bucket" -so to speak- together, but we'll see how it goes.  11 transfers teaches you that guessing the next transfer call is useless.  Crossing our fingers!  Although, I can tell you I am not sure I am ready for America.  Looks like skinny jeans are still in and I walked in to a sports depot today for bike stuff and I didn't recognize a SINGLE song!  They were all American songs too!  Culture shock is coming...

Sister Williams and I just got back from teaching Otosan (dad).  I just love him.  It went really well.  I was SO nervous.  His baptismal date is coming up and trying to reverse 70 plus years of habits in a foreign language is not simple.  But he has so much faith.  We brought a member with us today that was just incredible.  Members do so much!  As a young 20 year old I know that the church is true and I know that God lives and I know that commandments are for our good.... but when the testimony of a "normal" person (... a member) backs that up it goes so much smoother.  Otosan is quiting tea starting today and Williams Shimai (Sister Williams) and I will be finding some great substitutes for coffee. :) 

On the way back on the train (that we sprinted to make :) we talked with two cute elementary school girls that came and sat down by us.  They were convinced Sister Williams and I were twins. :)  Something about companions makes you end up becoming one.  

The rest of this week in a flash (so much happens!):

• Otosan told us that he got an answer from God through his prayers!  He said that although he has been Buddhist his whole life he has come to find a special amount of peace through prayer and scripture study of the Book of Mormon.  He then looked at us weird (probably because we usually cannot stop talking and this time we were in shock) and said "lets pick a baptism date!" We reminded him that he already had picked a date.  He laughed and replied "oh yeah"! Regardless he is pretty excited. 
• Our Eikaiwa (free English class) is coming to life!  Class sizes have doubled and I became the kids teacher (probably because my English is the most sketchy).  
• Winter is apparently the time for new ice cream flavors to come out in Japan.  Sister Williams and I are pretty happy missionaries! 
• Getting lost and getting directions from a little 7 year old girl (we were desperate!) went housing around the same area the next day and we met that same little girls mother!  It was a total miracle!  She was about to shut the door, but asked if we had talked to her daughter the day before.  After some deep thinking (24 hrs is a long time) we realized we did and we got to teach a great lesson!  ALWAYS ask for directions!  
• I love Asian Pears!  
• Found two solid new investigators this week!  A Filipino college student and a Chinese man.  We teach them both in Japanese.  :)  So fun!

And of course General Conference!  We got to watch it this week and it was SO wonderful!  Thanks mom for letting me know that Elder Bednar`s talk was awesome.  Our investigator came and only had 20 minutes before he had to leave for work so we just pulled up Elder Bednar`s talk and let him listen to it.  Problem was it was in Chinese so I didn't know what it was talking about (a little nerve racking!) But when we watched it after he left I was grateful for your input!  Good job Mom :)  

So sorry that was a lot!  I am just SO SO SO happy!  :)  I know this work is true.  I love it.  It`s the best thing I could be doing with my life right now.  I am grateful for this opportunity that I have to share the message that means so very much to me with my brothers and sisters in Japan.  I am a lucky missionary! 

Have a wonderful week! I love you! 

Hawkins Shimai 

Hitting my stride :)

I'm just so HAPPY!　I feel like I'm hitting my stride (knock on wood).  Squatter toilets, eating eel and dried eel bones (a first that happened this week.  I recommend it!), riding through wind, rain, typhoons, popping tires, teaching lessons and loving missionary life.  Remember in the movie Cast Away when the man comes back and can`t sleep on a bed and instead sleeps on the floor?  That just might be me pretty soon.  A lot happened this week, there always is.  But all I can remember is the lesson we just taught this morning (haven't had a real preparation day (the day that missionaries use to buy groceries, do their laundry,clean etc.)  in MONTHS.  But I I can't complain if you get the wonderful opportunity of teaching lessons!)

Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Yamaguchi zones in the Fukuoka mission.

Sister Williams and I have the cutest investigator ever.  He is in his 70's and was a referral from his daughter who is a member of the church.  She was back in Japan visiting a couple of months ago and introduced us.  The daughter went back home but we continued to teach him.  He has Parkinson's Disease and when we first met him Sister Williams and I were in shock.  He was just downright depressed.  There was no light in that man.  When we taught he laid on the floor totally incoherent and not participating.  We semi-willingly continued going.  He lives about an hour away by train, but we decided to give it a couple more shots.  A couple of months have passed since that first visit and having just gotten back from teaching "Otosan" (we call him dad).  And little by little he has been changing.  He is Buddhist (most people are here) and we had to beg him to read the Book of Mormon.  Some how he did and he got his hands on Liahona Magazine talks and General Conference editions of the Liahona and fell in love with studying.  Otosan, who was so depressed because he couldn't walk and couldn't contribute to his community or family, began to open up!  When Williams Shimai and I heard him laugh the first time we were in shock.  He is just the cutest old man ever!  Day by day he has been praying.  When Sister Williams and I first asked him to pray for us we were really surprised.  It was one of the most sincere, heart felt prayers I have ever heard (or even said!).  He most definitely speaks with God.  Little things like reading the Book of Mormon and praying, coming to church and testing his faith have brought about a NOTICEABLE change in him.  His daughter sees it via skype, his wife sees it as well and Sister Williams and I most certainly see it.  It has been an absolute privilege to teach him.  A little trying, it's taken a lot of patience and encouragement, but it has been the neatest transformation I have ever seen.  The gospel of Jesus Christ changes people.  It enables each and every one of us to lift ourselves up and out of bad places; be it physical or mental.  Otosan is a changed man.  Today we got on the train and visited him.  We had left him with some reading to do from the Book of Mormon and the Liahona (a church magazine printed in many foreign languages) we gave him.  And when we asked him how the reading went he just lit up.  He explained to us that there are a lot of similarities between Buddhism and Christianity, lots of the truths are the same.  However, he has felt the peace that comes from Christianity and that is something that in 70 years has not come to him.  He said he has been really sick lately, not able to walk at all.  But he has never been so happy.  He said he got his answer... he wants to be baptized!  To have Otosan come to that conclusion by himself was really incredible.  But we still had to teach the lesson we had prepared.  We taught the principle of tithing.... dun dun dun :)  It's a little bit tricky.  But we taught it and Otosan just laughed (still not sure why, but that should be a good sign, right?).  He said 10% to give to God is kind of high, but he would pray about it.  I can't adequately describe the lesson, but every time we shared a scripture, told a personal experience and/or testified he would just nod his head and grunt and then say something along the lines of "Well I guess if that is what God wants me to do..."  If we had taught that lesson when we first had met him he would have kicked us out of the door faster than we could have said "amen".  But his faith is so, so much stronger that I have ever seen it.  He wasn't willing to just take our word about tithing, but he was more than willing to ask God and that is all that matters.  I love him!  Please pray for Otosan :)  

Lots of other stuff this week, but that is just what stands out to me the most!  I love you all!  Have a great week.  Good Luck! 

Hawkins Shimai

An open house

This week was AWESOME!  The biggest news this week was the church open house we put on.  Our mission president asked all of the areas in our mission to put on an open house to give our members opportunities to invite their friends.  It was a busy week preparing for it and following up with our members to see what help they needed in inviting their friends.  Finally Saturday morning came around and Williams Shimai (Sister Williams) and I were running around like mad "men" trying to get the finger prints off the walls and get things looking presentable.  The more I am out on my mission the more I realize I am becoming my mother. It was mainly the missionaries putting on the open house, so Sister Williams and I would be biking around the city when I would spot some flowers and then I would insist that on our morning run we would come back to that place so we could sneakily snip some for our open house.  Even stole curtains from our apartment for table clothes :)  One of my only memories of selling our house in Texas was mom baking cookies and going throughout every room in the house so the smell of freshly baked cookies would penetrate every corner of the house.  Well, no ovens in Japan meant that was hard, but boiled vanilla worked just as well (Thanks mom!)  :)  The tours went really well.  Lots of members brought their friends and the spirit was way strong.  Before I transferred from Okinawa they had just completed the largest church building in Asia on that island.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  There were seven HUGE bathrooms!  Seven!  I would get lost constantly.  Coming from a new building like that to our modest little chapel that has just a handful of pictures and only the bare minimum had me wondering if people would be as willing to stick around.  Of course :)  The spirit we felt in that chapel this Saturday was so wonderful.  It was peaceful.  It didn't matter what our walls looked like or what language we had just given the tour in.  I have seen the spirit work miracles in the lives of the people we teach.  It is something you can actually see.  The open house was a huge success.  I was so grateful!  The flowers did look great though :)  

I LOVE you!  I am having so much fun.  Lessons, biking, finding, adventures, sushi, WASABI, lessons and finding those who are prepared to hear the greatest message in the world  :)  It's a blast! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Good luck!  頑張ってね!

Hawkins Shimai