Lost in the Tide of Okinawa?

I love Watanabe Shimai and I love Okinawa!  Through the sweat, blood (not really, no crashes this week) and tears (Japanese is hard!)  I've come to really love these people.  I'm worried about this upcoming transfer.... what if I'm not with Watanabe Shimai or not in Okinawa?  It's going to be a tough goodbye!  I can't think of a better place to be right now than serving the people of Japan.  I love it!  I'm exhausted, but I think that means I'm doing it right :)

I'm glad I'm from Washington!  I use it as a talking point all the time.  I always introduce myself and somehow they guess that I'm from America. :)  Then they ask where in American I am from.  When I say I'm from Washington they immediately talk about Seattle and Ichiro.  These people love their baseball.  I then try to be creative and relate it back to the gospel and why I'm here.  Most people think it's really interesting that I'm in Japan trying to speak their language while my family is still in the states.  They want to know why on earth I would come!  Well, I always love to share that :)  

We had a youth fireside at the beach the other day (the church as no air conditioning so it's almost better to do things outside).  I took my camera and I put it a safe distance away from the water (or so I thought)....well, the tide ate it.  I feel horrible!  Luckily, I was able to save the memory card, so I didn't lose all my pictures.  Stupid!  Well I won't do that again!  Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) said that she knows where to find cheap cameras so that is on my list of stuff to get.   So this week's pictures are a little lame, but next week will be better! :)

A lesson on "tides" :)

It's been especially hot and humid here this summer.  It's 8:40 at night and I'm sweating buckets.  When I first got here I thought it was a little weird that everyone carried around towels with them.  Well I've adopted that practice.  It is so hot!  Like nothing I've ever experienced.  A ward member was telling me that last summer they had a typhoon every other weekend.  We haven't had one yet.  I can't believe it's already p-day (Preparation Day)!  Time goes by so fast (and so slow too, whenever we bike hills, for example :).  We usually cook for ourselves, but the church members are so kind and feed us occasionally.  Once a month they put together a fruit basket for the missionaries.  It is big.  It's overwhelming how kind they are to the missionaries.  We are so lucky!

Some of the pictures I sent last week were from Asa.  It's a traditional Japanese dance.  It was really neat to go watch that.  It was held at the zoo so I got some cool pictures of bats (they are not bats like we know, they are more like flying foxes), ponies (apparently they are rare here in Japan) and fake pandas :) It was a great p-day!

Bowling on P-day!

We had an apartment check this week.  It was my first.  We cleaned a lot and then we cleaned some more.  We passed "inspection" and our reward was American cereal and cleaning supplies!  It felt like Christmas :)  We immediately ate Lucky Charms for a mid meal snack to celebrate!

Sweet rewards!

I sang for an investigator.  I sang!  I hate singing.  Actually, I despise it.  But he said that he loved hymns and I said great!  We have lots of songs that we sing at church and he wanted an example.  How could I say no?  I made him promise that he would come to church if I sang.  Well, he agreed so I was forced to sing.  I think it was a good trade off, but wow I really botched "I am a Child of God."

We had zone conference this week.  It meant that Watanabe and I navigated the bus.  I'm so glad I had her!  I would still be lost if I was by myself!  Thank goodness for companions!  It was great to travel and multi-task.  The AP's (that is missionary slang for Assistants to the President of the Fukuoka, Japan Mission - two missionaries that help the mission president and his wife oversee the other 230 missionaries in our mission) thought I was so funny because I talked to everyone.  I have no fear, but whatever comes out of my mouth is usually less than perfect Japanese.  But someday it will be perfect so I'm preparing for that day now! I found a new investigator on the bus :)  Yata!  (This means "I did it" or "Hooray")

I'm starting to make phone calls to people on my own now!  Always with Watanabe Shimai close by.  She sometimes has to translate mid conversation what is going on but I'm slowly getting better!

I absolutely love it here!  I have never worked this hard in my entire life.  I have never been so sure that God lives.  He loves us.  We went to a less active member's house the other day and talked about church.  I asked why she wasn't coming to church.  She has a really bad knee and she is in a lot of pain.  So I offered to wheel her to church.  I have never felt so much love for one person.  I knew that our Heavenly Father loved this woman so much.  Here she was in the middle of a tiny island in Japan and I just had this overwhelming feeling that she is a special daughter of our Heavenly Father, that He understands her and loves her.  That is true for all of us.  He is as close to us as our knees are to the ground.  And I really do spend a lot of time praying these days.  I need help :)  I love you family!  Be safe!  And have an incredible week!

xxooxxoo

Hawkins Shimai

Okinawa week 3 :)

I am SO HAPPY!  We had an absolutely wonderfully fantastically super duper week :)  Miracles, bike wrecks (the bike is fine and I think the post I ran into should make it), a new investigator and an adventure on one of the bases!  :)  I'll fill you in.... It's been GREAT!  

Remember how I'm really bad with directions?  Well it hasn't gotten any better in a foreign country and in a foreign language.  It's gotten worse!!  But luckily Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) is a pro.  I'm trying to learn a lot from her before she leaves me (she only has one transfer left before she goes home.) :(  Mom things are great.   I'm adjusting and working really really really hard.  I'm exhausted.  I never knew the meaning of tired before I got here.  The humidity and heat really kill you.  And we bike everywhere and are outside constantly.  But I love it :)  

The newest phrase I taught Watanabe Shimai in English this week:  "I think I'm going to die."  We biked up the longest, biggest hill for a solid 8 minutes.   There is no exaggeration there.  I had Frank Phelps' voice in my head from basketball season.  I wanted to crawl over and die, but Frank got me through it :)  Hence when we finally made it to a less active (unless active is a term that members of the LDS church use to describe someone who is a baptized member but who for whatever reason doesn't attend church very often or at all) member's house Watanabe Shimai quickly learned the phrase "I think I'm going to die."  :)  But I'm alive and we got a great work out and taught a lesson!

The more I am out here the stronger my testimony gets that God is not distant.  He is involved in the details of our lives.  He knows us individually and by name.  And above all He loves us.  Acts 17:27 is my latest favorite scripture.  (Verse 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:) I love the scriptures!  I was reading D&C 100 the other day and I felt like it was written just for me. 

We had miracle after miracle this week.  On our way home the other day I stopped a woman and started talking to her, gave her an Eikiwa pamphlet, etc.  Well, I turn around to hop (stumble) back on my bike and some cute little lady starts rapidly firing questions at me in Japanese.  When I finally had her slow down, I realized that she was asking me if I was a Mormon.  Well you bet I am!  She had a ton of questions about the church and I did my best to answer them.  Watanabe Shimai was caught talking to someone else.  This lady had met a member about 2 years earlier and saw the missionaries every once and awhile on their bikes, but hadn't been able to talk to one until now.  It was so neat to see what can happen when someone is simply a good example.  Now we have a new investigator :)  

Sydney wrote me a letter and it had a tons of ?'s so I'll try to answer them for you :)

1.  So missionaries can use Facebook now and ipads? When is your mission getting that?:  I have no idea :)  But I would love to have an ipad to show pictures!  Lots of people here have no concept of God as a God with a body that looks like us (we were created in His image).  It would be a great teaching tool.  But I don't know when we're getting them.  I'll keep you posted!

2.  Where do you live?  In an apartment.  Missionaries don't live with church members here because for the most part every one's home is very small.  

3.  Are you in a big city?  I think I am :)  Have Dad google it.  It's not rural that's for sure.  (Note from "editor":  Okinawa City has a population of approximately 139,000 people, 2650 people per km2.)

4.  Is the food  disgusting?  Well It is interesting that's for sure.  THIS WEEK I ATE:  fried squid (it wasn't bad,  it was a little gross to look at though), peanut tofu (bad bad bad decision, did not taste good), octopus (the name for it here is tako, ("taco") that is a totally deceptive word.  It's pretty chewy and well I'll leave it at that.  After that....well, I stopped asking what the food was and just ate it.  

5.  Are you currently teaching anyone?  Yep!  We've got our hands full.  We have about 7 (+a family) of investigators.  

We have Eikiwa (English) class every Thursday.  It's been kind of dying with the same old people attending, but this week we made some big changes and it payed off.  We had a huge turn out and lots of people said they were excited to come back next week.  After class we had a talent show. It went really well!  Until the very end when we had a food eating contest... with the new American missionaries (and two marines joined in)... we ate nato (fermented soy beans).  That was the grossest thing I've eaten yet.  I took my spoon to put it into my mouth and IT'S GOOEY!  I let the marine win.  He looked like death afterwards.  No update on his condition :)

Watanabe Shimai and I have had a great P-day(Preparation Day)!  I'll fill you in... We went and did service for a couple of hours on base.  There is a cute family that is "pcs-ing" to the states.  They have 5 girls and 1 boy.  Cute, cute family!  Well, it was the mother in the family's birthday today and she was in the house cleaning so we came and joined her with a married missionary couple, the Williams.  It was a lot of work and mom I wanted to thank you for teaching me how to clean.  We got a lot of work done!  Afterwards, the Williams couple took us to Subway!   I ate a sub :)  It tasted like home!  So weird to be on base and feel like I was back in the states.  But the family we served are somewhat recent converts and they're getting sealed together as a family for time and eternity in the temple in about two weeks!  I am so excited for them.  I wish I could be there! 

The Williams

Eating at Subway!

Oh, so I crashed on my bike on our way to a baptism.  I think the sidewalk and bike will be OK. The worst part was I did it in front of an auto shop.  Tons of people rushed to my aid.  So EMBARRASSING!  Thank goodness for helmets!  I'm a danger to the people of Okinawa.  Keep them in your prayers :)  

The Kardina sisters had a baptism!  Jessica (she is a "halfu" as the Japanese say), her dad is American and her mom is Japanese.  She is a wonderful girl!  Her parents are both not members but they came to her baptism and are extremely supportive.  I want to teach them!  :)  Wonderful family.  At the baptismal service we had an extremely less active member come... Mr. O.  He was in the big gang here.  He is missing some fingers.  He never lets us share a message and so I wanted to drop him from our "visiting" list.  We are so busy that we just dont' have time to meet with people who don't want to see us and who are so uncooperative.  So I was praying and trying to figure out how to tell Watanabe Shimai that I didn't think we should visit him anymore.  But I couldn't do it, so we visited him again.  I decided that I was going to pull a stubborn, foreigner move and just pretend I couldn't understand him when he said he didn't want to hear our message :)  That doesn't sound like me at all, right?  Well, I ended up praying and sharing a short message.  Then in broken Japanese, I invited him to the baptism.  (This was about 2 weeks ago).  Well......He came.  HE CAME!  I could have died.  I did a double take at the baptismal service.  Best day ever!  Never saw that coming.  I could have hugged him!  (I didn't).  It was great.  I still can't believe it! 

Well, I loved this week!  I still "think I'm going to die", but I am so HAPPY!  Eventually my body will catch up with my plans for this wonderful area.  I love you so much!  So so much!  Thanks for your letters and love!  Have a great week!

More Details! 2nd week in Japan

Thanks for your letters!  It was fun to read what everyone is up to!  To answer your questions mom...

I'm adjusting fine.  I had no jet lag or time zone tiredness which is a huge blessing since I was expected to hit the ground running.  I haven't missed a beat!

I email at the church building in Okinawa.  There are two computers so we bike our way over here sometime Monday to email you :).

Sister Watanabe and I serve in all three wards (congregations) in the city.  We go to two Sunday ward meetings every week.  Sunday is the day I'm most exhausted.  I'm HORRIBLE with names so having to learn triple the amount is exhausting.  But there are two other sister missionaries and four elders who help us out because our area is so big.  

Nope, I haven't been using the bug spray, just the anti itch cream.  Maybe I should prevent instead of just treating.  I'll take that into consideration :)

The grocery store... wow what an experience!  It's like Costco, but tiny and packed with a lot more people.  They have food samples and workers stand over the food with fans to wave the smell around.  I've had more interesting food than I care to list off.  Basically I have no idea what I'm buying.  Surprising, a lot of the foods are American brands.  So I usually can guess.  Plus I have a saint as a companion so I'm not starving.

Holy moly!  I'm at the church and we just heard a burst of thunder and pouring rain.  My first rain storm :)  I'm going to be soaked.  Time to test out my rain gear.

So this week has been FANTASTIC!

- Bikes are hard and I'm not graceful.  I've got skirts caught in my tires more times than I care to share, but I've figured out a unique strategy.  You see someone across the street, you bike over to them, greet them, try to get off your bike, fall, they help you, they have sympathy, BAM!!... share the gospel.  I'm very consistent.  My poor skirts and legs take a beating, but we've been able to share a lot of lessons that way :)  I'm just taking one for the team.

-  I experienced my first "splits" (term that missionaries use when two companionships "split" with their usual companion and spend a day with one of the missionaries from another companionship).  The first person Sister Black and I contacted is now an investigator!  She is a great lady with three kids.  We were able to meet with her again the next morning.  She seemed very interested in the Book of Mormon and eternal families.  I'm excited to meet with her again.

-  Our Eikiwa (English class) is great!  We meet once a week on Thursday and we teach English.  I love the responses we get!  English is so hard!  Nothing makes a whole lot of sense.  But I love talking with people!

-  My basketball skills haven't completely gone to waste.  We play basketball on P-days (preparation day) with our Eikiwa (English) students and it's a lot of fun!  It's nice being the tallest for once! 

-Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) is hilarious.  I love her.  I found out that whenever she wants candy she opens up our pantry and pulls out some cough drops.  She's had almost all Japanese companions and none of them knew it was medicine and not candy.  I love her!  She's only got one more transfer left :(

-  We taught Hedico San.  She has a baptism date for Aug 23rd.   She's a 70 year old lady and super nice.  She's got spunk, but her hearing is really bad.  We taught her the first lesson and I shared the Joseph Smith experience with her.  Well I was so nervous that I kept forgetting the words.  Watanabe Shimai was so nice that she whispered the words I would forget to me and the best part was our investigator couldn't hear her whisper.  :)

-  By the way...The bats here are bigger than birds at home.

-  I'm learning the in's and out's of contacting.  If there is someone within eyesight I'm pedaling my way over there.  We meet A LOT of people everyday.  It's a great experience.  There are so many good people here and I love hearing their experiences with religion and helping them learn more. 

-  We were exhausted last night!  It was so hot, but we had 10 minutes so we decided to go "housing".  That is term that we use for "knocking on doors" of houses or apartments to see if we can explain the beliefs of the church to people who may be interested in learning about our Heavenly Fathers Plan for us on this earth.  We went to the fourth floor of an aparto and found... a golden investigator!  We had such a good experience with him.  He was very interested in Christianity and the church and how the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together to answer life's questions.  And he asked if he could talk more with us!  That was a first :)  Miracles happen everyday here!  I love being a missionary!  It is such a great experience.  I am so blessed!  Sorry this weeks letter was so short!  I love you family! Have a great week!

Sister Hawkins!

Some background information on Okinawa...be sure to read the following post with the letter

Okinawa is in red at the bottom.

The name Okinawa means "rope in the open sea", a fairly apt description of this long stretch of islands between mainland Japan and Taiwan. Consisting of 49 inhabited islands and 111 uninhabited islands, Okinawa has a subtropical/tropical climate. During World War II, when heavy bombardment and suicidal Japanese tactics, including the use of civilians as human shields, killed 120,000 Okinawans or one fourth of their population at the Battle of Okinawa. Post-war they remained under U.S. occupation until 1972, and there remain several large American military bases on Okinawa Island. There have been a number of protests against the presence of the US military, usually after a high profile crime committed by a service member. However, the US bases contribute to the economy of the Okinawa main island. 5.3% of the Gross Prefectural Profit of Okinawa comes from the business related with the US bases. 

Okinawa-jima

Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The island has an area of 1,201.03 square kilometers. It is roughly 640 kilometres south of the rest of Japan.  The island is 7 miles wide at its widest part, but most of the island is only 2 miles wide.  

The island is 70 miles long.

A map of the island of Okinawa

Population: 1.385 million (2009)

Coral reefs

White sand beaches

Climate

The island experiences temperatures above 20 °C (68 °F) for most of the year. Okinawa and the many islands that make up the prefecture contains some of the most abundant coral reefs found in the world.  Rare blue corals are found off of Ishigaki and Miyako islands as are numerous species throughout the chain.

Food:

Okinawan cuisine is distinctly different from that of mainland Japan and bears notable Taiwanese influences. Okinawans too proudly proclaim that they use every part of the pig except the squeal and pork makes an appearance in almost every dish, including bits like ears, trotters and blood which are generally disdained by the Japanese. Even Spam has a distinct following.

Other Okinawan ingredients include vegetables rarely seen on the Japanese mainland such as bitter melon (ゴーヤー; gōyā) and purple yam (紫芋;murasaki-imo). Okinawan tropical fruits including mango, papaya, pineapple, dragonfruit and the sour lime-like calamansi (シークァーサー; shīkwāsā) are delicious when in season. Dark cane sugar (黒砂糖 ; kurosatō) is also a popular snack, eaten both as is and made into a vast variety of candies and pastries.

LANGUAGE:

Okinawa has its own language group, known as Ryukyuan (琉球語 ryūkyūgo in Japanese), which it shares (along with much of its culture) with the Amami Islands in Kagoshima prefecture. These languages are related to Japanese (together, they form the "Japonic family"), but are generally incomprehensible to Japanese speakers. The largest of these languages, the Okinawan language (Okinawan ucināguci, Japanese 沖縄語 okinawago), is spoken on the main island of Okinawa and the surrounding islands, and is not used much these days. Most people under 20 can't speak it, the most common exceptions being people who were raised by their grandparents and people who grew up in rural areas. To further complicate things, each of Okinawa's major islands has its own distinct dialect, some of which are different enough to be considered their own languages by some.

1st week in Japan!

I'M IN JAPAN!

Could someone teach me how to rotate this picture ?:)

Thank you for all the mail.  I really appreciate it.  I'm going to try to combine all the answers to your questions into this email.  Don't think that I don't appreciate you!  I'm just trying to be efficient :)

Did I mention I am in Japan?!?!?!?!?!? :)  I am so excited!  I have no idea what is going on and I LOVE IT :)  Guess where in the Fukuoka mission I am?   Okinawa.

Look it up.  It is the absolute southern part of Japan.  The hottest and most humid part of our mission and usually sisters and elders don't leave this area for a while.  For example, my companion has been here for 6 months.  It is so beautiful here.  People speak a different language than what I was taught in the Missionary Training Center.  No really!  It's called okinawabin and the older people speak it.  Native Japanese speakers can't understand them.  What an adventure!  It is hilly, it is hot, the bugs are bigger than life it's self!  Futons, fancy bathrooms, military branches, buying a new bike (or trying to find one at least... bike season is over so it was a challenge.), attempting to ride that bike in a skirt (there is no graceful way to do it, I've resorted to putting shorts on under my skirts.  Poor passersby were getting a funny show), eating whatever my native companion decides to cook, etc.  There is so much I want to tell you!  So i apologize in advance for the randomness.

First off, when I arrived in Fukuoka, I stayed in the mission home for 2 days.  Then I left early in the morning to catch a plane for Okinawa.  Okinawa is an island so we have to fly here and we could only have one suitcase on the plane.  It was kind of annoying, but it made things interesting.  My other suitcase was just shipped here so that's a relief!  I love my mission president and his wife they are extremely nice.  

Sister Watanabe and I in our small apartment.

It is hot and humid.  The ocean is on all sides of us.  

My companion's name is Sister Watanabe and she's from Japan.  She is the cutest thing that has ever been squeezed into a 5'2' frame! I LOVE HER.  Watanabe Shimai (Sister Watanabe) is fun and she has been here for awhile so she knows what's going on.  She loves throwing me under the bus to challenge me!  :) There isn't a single street contact where I don't get nudged to saying something :)  I love it!  She is 24, before her mission she was going to school in agriculture.  She is really good with people.  She is from somewhere in Japan... it starts with a K :)  Ha Ha!  She is an angel.  And her English?  Well... let's just say I'm learning Japanese really fast :)  She is teaching me lots and I'm working her to death :)  I say "hokori ni omoimasu" often to Watanabe Shimai.  It's Japanese for I'm proud of you... she died laughing the first time I said that.  She asked (or at least I think she did) what my teachers in the MTC were teaching me!

Our apartment is the size of a shoebox, a very cute shoebox.  The door frames are meant for tiny tiny people.  I saw the biggest bug of my life this morning on our way out of our apartment.  It was gone before I could take a picture, but it was huge, it had a million eyes and it could have eaten me.  

The view of the city of Okinawa from our apartment.

I am exhausted!  The heat kills you here.  I sweat constantly.  It's attractive.  I just got a new bike this morning.  It should last me all my mission.  It was one of the last small framed bikes on the entire island!  Super lucky.  But I look horrid riding it.  There is no way to ride a bike modestly in a skirt.  Your skirt can't be too long or it will get caught in the chain!  Sister Missionary problems!  And Dad, no cars in this area for the missionaries.  I'm fine with that.  I will be ripped when I come home :)  and so will all my skirts!  The roads here are non existent.  They have them but they are so small.  If I die during my mission it will be in a bike accident.  It's scary riding in a car here too.   The cars drive on the opposite side of the road (than the US)!

Yesterday I went to 2 baptisms... IN THE OCEAN!  Cool!  See the pictures.  Isn't it beautiful!  They were from one of the military branches here.  I'm in the actual city of Okinawa.  I didn't realize how many military bases there are here!  It's insane.  The two military "branches" here are massive.  but it's really difficult to keep track of everyone.  Especially in the summer.  The kids are out of school, people are on 2 month long breaks, they're moving bases called "pcs"ing, etc.  There are 2 English speaking branches (military) and a large Okinawa Ward (Japanese speaking).  Tell Ken and Krisy Nelson that I thought of them this week!  There are senior couples that serve on the bases and the Nelsons would be perfect for the job.  In fact there is a fun couple here that reminds me of them.  You have to be retired military or active duty to get on the base.

Japanese is hard.  But I have jumped head first into this experience.  I have no idea what's going on, but I haven't let that stop me.  On Saturday there was a ward activity at the beach.  Lots of our investigators came and it was a great experience to introduce them to the bishop and to members of the ward.  It went really well!  Sister Watanabe left me!  Well, she was in eye sight and sound so there was no breaking the rules, but she basically told me to go make friends and get to know the ward while she did the same thing.  We divided and CONQUERED!  The kids love me (I'm not being conceited).  They love it when I try to speak to them.  They laugh a lot.

My new friends!

The beach party....white sand beaches.

So I embarrass myself to make friends.  It's really working out great :)  The biggest blessing of the week was that beach party.  I talked to every single person.  And not a shallow conversation either.  I think it went really well!  If I didn't know a word, those kind ward members helped me figure it out.  And after a while I completely forgot that I had no idea what I was doing.  I went 2 hours forgetting that I can't speak the language. :)  It was a huge tender mercy to be able to communicate.  I love these people!  They are so kind!  But as soon as the party was over and we den do-ed (Note from "editor"...I don't know if that is a typo or a Japanese word) I went back to my normal poor Japanese-speaking self.

The Kamijo Family...I love them!

We have an hour each Thursday that we teach English class.  AKA... the foreigners teach the English class.  It is hilarious.  There is a pretty big American influence here.  There are over 30,000 service members and their families on the bases.  Don't worry, everyone I run into speaks Japanese and usually only Japanese so I'm getting plenty of exposure to the language.  I love looking at the English translations on signs.   For example, at the beach party there was a sign that was translated to English also, it read:  "Don't use the money after the wet."

Mom, it is 4: 30 pm right now if that helps with the time change stuff :) (It sure did help....McKenna is 16 hours ahead of us in the Pacific Time Zone.)  I have no idea what time it is at home... or day for that matter.  

I got a blessing at the MTC from a member of our district presidency before I left.  I was really nervous about coming.  I don't speak the language that well!  (Well I kind of do, but my accent it so thick!)  He blessed me that I would be able to adjust to new areas and new companions.  I haven't missed a beat!  No jet lag, no nothing.  I love it here!  I love the people!  I love the bugs!  I love the weird food they feed me!  My only complaints: riding a bike in a skirt, and getting a million bug bites!  If thats all I have to worry about my entire mission, then I'm set!

Life is great!  I am exhausted!  I am working my tail off and I love these people!  The food is a little weird, but I'm eating it all with a smile (be proud mom!).  Our investigators are great, but we had a hard time meeting the Fukuoka missionary standards of excellence (the goals set by our mission president).  That is going to change.  I am excited to just be outside, meeting all the people!  I love this gospel.  It is true.  If it wasn't I would have given up long ago.  No one in their right mind would relocate and learn a foreign language in humidity and heat that is out of this world, for fun.  This message brings peace and happiness that you can't find anywhere else.  I love it.  I love being a missionary and I love the beautiful people of Okinawa.

Ai Shite Imasu!

Hawkins Shimai.

This address is for while I'm in Japan!  

Sister McKenna Lain Hawkins
Japan Fukuoka Mission
9-16 Hirao-josuimachi
Chuo-ku
Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka
810-0029 Japan 

Week 9 - last at the MTC

I AM SO HAPPY!  :)  Life is wonderful, challenging & I am dying to get to Japan. 

 

But first....

 

Ok in TWO DAYS I will be flying to Japan!  Japan!  Crazy.  I am so excited.  Packing looks like it destroyed our room with all three of my roommates and I attempting to get something done here and there.  I cannot wait.  Mom thanks for telling me about Justin's mission call!  Singapore!  That is so exciting!  When does he leave?  Please tell him congrats for me!  And if he has any questions about the MTC to write me.  I know this place like the back of my hand.  Almost too well.  

I've been studying lots in PMG (Preach My Gospel) about what I can do to help the ward (individual congregations) and one of the suggestions is to encourage good activities.  I can't wait until I'm in Japan!  I can't wait to meet my Bishop and all the members!  I want to shake every members hand and be their best friend :)  Ok so that's probably a little overzealous but I definitely remember only so-so missionaries that would be in our ward and no one would trust them.  That will not be me!  

 

Lynsey White is getting married!  I'm completely heart broken that I won't be there, but I will be in spirit!  Lyns was like my adopted older sister.  I miss the White family! 

 

Last zone soccer match.

Ok so it's a little sad leaving the MTC.  Not really....I'm dying to go, but I love the friends I've made here!  Our district is incredible and so is our branch presidency (that is a term for the three men who are our districts ecclesiastical leaders).  They are fantastic.  The branch presidency wives are like our temporary moms.  They are so sweet.  One looks and sounds like Betty White.  So this week was full of a lot of lasts... Our last zone soccer game (Dad~I scored a goal.  I know you secretly think I'm not coordinated, but the mission has done wonders for me).  We taught our last lessons, had our last class period, said goodbye to our sensei Tachi (it was really sad, our teachers are incredible), and had our last TRC.  It was also filled with firsts.  Yesterday we had in-field orientation.  It's basically like cramming for a final exam.  You realize that you still need to learn a lot the day before the test.  We learned lots!  I was taking notes so hopefully I can remember everything!  Also, Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) and I were asked to help train the new missionaries.  So Wednesday in front of them (there are tons of them by the way!) we demonstrated how to begin teaching.  It was lots of pressure, but it went really well.  We were a little sad initially because the time for our "how to session" and our opportunity to Skype Japanese members overlapped.  But somehow we were able to do both!  We didn't plan a lesson, because we weren't planning on teaching but it went really really well.  I was so relieved.  That was the biggest miracle of the week.  Not botching our "how to begin teaching" and then somehow managing to "Skype Japan" (without a lesson plan or being prepared) too!  We have come SO FAR.  You don't realize it until you see where you started.  Those new missionaries have tons of fire and enthusiasm, but they're just lacking in focus.  You are able to learn so much here and I am so grateful I got to spend these last 9 weeks in the MTC. 

 

New Missionary tags!

We got our new missionary tags!  We'll wear them in the airport and in Japan until we get our official tags.  It was really exciting.  Oh funny story about that.  Lewis Shimai opens hers up and we're looking at them.  I recognize that my character for sister and her character for sister are different.  Well after some detective work we realize that Lewis Shimai's tag says Elder Lewis :)  Lucky she's a good sport.  We both ended up laughing really hard about that one.  Luckily these are just temporary! 

 

One of the sisters in our district had to go to the health clinic and while she was there she ran into a lady named Wendy who said she knew me.  I couln't figure it out.  She said she was my sister-in-law's niece and her that her parents are in Tokyo working for the church.  I couldn't connect the dots until I realized it had to be Emi's sister, which makes her my mom's sister-in-law's sister!  Well I had just figured that out when another sister who is also going to Japan came up to me and asked if I knew a Sister Mckenna Hawkins!   She had a package for me!  It was so cute.  Wendy helped "smuggle" in something from Jared, Emi and the kids!  It was adorable and it made my day.  I loved seeing their pictures and the candy lae/lay/lai was so cute from the kids! 

 

So some numbers for the week... there are a little over 1,000 missionaries leaving with us Monday.  We are flying off to over 500 missions around the world!  That's A LOT of 18 and 19 year olds who don't know a whole lot about what they are doing ..... yet!  It is one of the biggest groups ever but the numbers are increasing dramatically over the next 6 months.  I chatted it up with the cafeteria workers and they go through about 80 gallons of cholcolate milk... a day here in the MTC.  Wow.  There are districts made up of entirely sisters here at the MTC.  That's usually unheard of.  The fact that our district is half and half is so cool too.  I was looking at pictures from Sister Clark (one of our teachers)'s album and she and a Nihongin (Native Japanese) were the only sisters in their district.  Our district of 12 will be broken up as we enter the Fukuoka, Japan mission.  The mission will have its own districts and zones (comprised of multiple districts) where we will be a part of about 220 - 230 missionaries that make up the Fukuoka Mission, one of 6 church missions in Japan.  There are only about 130,000 members of the church in Japan and missionary work really started in Japan about 3 years after the end of WWII.  We have our work cut out for us and my immediate concern is mastering enough of the language to just get along.  Our primary focus in the Mission Training Center has been to learn Japanese primarily as it relates to explaining Christianity and the tenets of our faith.  "Normal" conversational Japanese is not a strength of mine and I am hoping to fix that problem with a lot of study and faith over the course of the next 9 months to a year.  Hopefully, I can be at my best, in terms of communication by my one year mark.  That will be a tough road for me, but I look forward to the challenge.

 

I'm off to go pack!  I am SO EXCITED!  :)  AND SO HAPPY! 

 

The next email you get will be from Japan!  :)

 

Love!

 

Hawkins Shimai

Elder Kunz and I

I got my travel plans! My last week at the Missionary Training Center!

Ok best week ever!  Buckle your seat belts because between the Forth of July, getting our travel plans and GETTING OUR TRAVEL PLANS, it has been a wonderful missionary week.  

Sister Hawkins with her travel plans!

First things first... As a missionary you are always exhausted.  Constantly!  Every morning when I wake up I remind myself that in about a week I will have the ultimate nap on the plane!  

That is one LONG nap!

Did I mention I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!  I am pretty excited about them :)  But even though I am so exhausted physically and mentally (it is hard work!)  I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.  There is nothing better than being a missionary!  I live, breathe and eat this stuff!  I love the opportunity I have to study the scriptures everyday!  I am learning so much. Sharing the gospel is so incredible.  No one is perfect and no one lives a life without hardship, worries and death.  The gospel is for everyone.  And when you have such a great blessing in your life how could you not share it!  I love it!  

We finally had a great TRC!  TRC... is when a Japanese-speaking member of the church volunteers and we teach them a lesson as we would a real, recent convert.  It's always a lot harder for us than teaching an investigator lesson, because it's not the usual stuff we do.  But it is super important!  Typically this is our least favorite part of the week.  It's on Saturday usually right after p-day (preparation day where we shop for our food and do our wash and write/read emails to/from home once we get to Japan) and I don't know why, but we always struggle with that teaching.  Well not this week!  We spoke, our wonderful volunteer understood, and it was actually really fun!  We taught a lesson and he had some great comments.  I loved it!  

Guess what?!  We had someone from the Skype department come to our classroom and tell us that we would have the opportunity to Skype members from Japan!  So on Wednesday we made the trek over to building 18 M and put on these massive headsets and Skyped a native Japanese church member!  It was so COOL!  Way challenging, but I LOVED it.  He was so sweet and we had a great discussion.  It was a little challenging to hear but we went with it.  Lewis Shimai's (Sister Lewis's) headset's mic wasn't working so it was pretty comical to watch us switch headsets every time a new person wanted to say something.  It was a little annoying, but we took it in stride.  I think it gained us some sympathy and every time it happened our sweet volunteer laughed pretty hard.  That is one thing I am VERY grateful for, laughter!  Laughter crosses all language barriers.  And if there is one thing I can do well, it's laughing.  Anyway, the highlight of that lesson (besides having the opportunity to teach him) was at the end he asked if he could take our picture.  Of course we said yes!  He pulls out his i-phone and snaps a picture.  Then he asked if he could put it on "Facebooku" (no mom, that's not a typo, it's really how they say it), so funny!  Wait for it... it gets more interesting.  So Sheehan Sensei (Teacher Sheehan) comes back the next day and asks us how Skyping members in Japan went.  Then he confessed that he saw that picture of Lewis Shimai and I on "Facebooku".  We died laughing.   I forget that real life exists outside of these walls and that people continue to go on Facebook.

Sheri Dew spoke to us in Relief Society Sunday.  She is the CEO of Deseret Book.  It was really interesting to listen to her.  Sundays really are the best here, because we get to have so many devotionals by wonderful people.  The MTC also records the talks so every Sunday night we get to take a pick of a recorded talk that we want to watch.  We watched one by Elder Holland, one of the 12 apostles,  when he came to the MTC a couple months ago.  It was so interesting to hear him speaking directly to the missionaries!  It's like a personal conference rather than a General Conference where the entire, world-wide church gets to listen and watch via satellite TV or BYUtv on Dish or DirectTV or the internet.  That will be one of the saddest parts about leaving the MTC is not being able to watch those anymore because we won't have time.

We met the Nihongin who are flying with us to Fukuoka!  Exciting!  I will be in Japan very soon.  Which means I will only be speaking Japanese.  Only!  So in preparation we have been having "Japanese only days".  And for an entire 24 hours, I only spoke Japanese (some of it was mangled, but I got my point across!).  So crazy!  I thought it was going to be relatively quiet in our classroom, but it wasn't!  It gave me a little confidence that I can at least say the really important things.  I'm starting to dream about Japan. I have made sure I have the really really important words down like: doctor, directions, etc. :)

The Forth of July was interesting in the MTC.  We watched the fireworks from campus.  They had tons of fireworks from the "Stadium of Fire" that we could see so it was fun.  Everyone in our district dressed up in red, white and blue.... even Nigh Shimai (Sister Nigh, she's from Canada!)  and Poole Choro (Elder Poole, he is from Austrailia)! :)  We got out of class early and got to watch the movie 17 Miracles.  I hadn't seen it before and it was really good.  Then they gave us an ice cream bar and shipped us outside to watch the fireworks.  We stayed up past 10:30 (our curfew) which was pretty exciting.   It was fun to remember a year ago, I was watching fireworks with Fabi and then raced home to watch fireworks with the family at the Slope Orchard.  Crazy how things change in just a year.  I learned the word for firework.  It's "hanabi" which translates into flower and fire.  So it's like flowers that are on fire in the sky!  Japanese is so cool.  

Fun cultural fact for the week.  The Japanese people are super polite.  I tried to give one of them a book and they said "It's ok if you don't give me the gift" (in Japanese).  I was completely offended.  Take it and then throw it away for goodness sakes.  But I came to find out that Japanese people when they're given a gift turn it down a couple of times and then when they finally take the gift they say something along the lines of "I'm so sorry, thank you very much" a million times.  No wonder some Japanese people think our culture is so rude.  Oh and they are all about their personal space.  That will be fun to remember.  I'm going to hug them regardless. :)  I'll pretend like I don't know what's going on.  That won't be hard to do. :) 

I saw my friend Aubreyann aka Sister McClune!  Love her!

Well that's my week!  I have one more p-day left when I will be frantically packing for the trip to Fukuoka.  

Love! 

Hawkins Shimai (who will be in Japan very SOON!)