From last week :)

July 20th…

This week on Tuesday I will hit my "one year in Japan" mark.  Crazy!  It's starting to feel like the same weather as when I first got here.  There was a huge typhoon in Okinawa and it made it's way up here to the mainland.  It wasn't anything too major.  Sister Wiliams and I were actually not in our area at the time.  We were on splits with the Nagasaki Sisters when the typhoon started to hit.  So we packed up early to make it back to our own area before the transportation systems started to shut down.  We walked to the train station in torrential down pour and heavy rains while carrying all of our bags and pumpkins, jam, and a bunch of other goodies that we had been gifted from the Nagasaki Sisters.  We got lots of stares.  Nothing could be more embarrassing than ringing out our skirts, shoes, and socks while balancing a pumpkin while on a train.  :)  I may never be allowed back in the country.  

I love my area!  It took me a little bit to get to this point, but we have worked so hard and have served the people that it feels like home.  Williams Shimai and I act like we have been together for 5 transfers instead of just one.  Fun doesn't adequately describe our daily adventures :)  I love the ward as well.  On Sunday our typical chorister was sick so naturally as a Sister Missionary I am a perfect target.  Mom, remember I can't keep a tune right?  Well, it gets worse when I am in front of everyone.  I could NOT lead the music.  It turned into a whole ward event.  I had ten woman and even a handful of men lead all 3 songs with me.  The bishop just chuckled behind me the whole time.  On the plus side, I think that will be the last time I ever have to lead the music.  :)  

Yesterday was really wonderful!  One of our cute Nepalese investigators came to church for the first time!  Hopefully my lack of music leading abilities didn't weaken her testimony at all.  She stayed for Sunday School too.  I am just so HAPPY!  I'm getting letters from recent converts too and they all sound happy, they are going to church and they are reading the Book of Mormon.  I am so grateful!  Saturday we had another really great experience.  We met with one of our Vietnamese investigators and taught her a lesson.  We gave her a church tour and when we opened up the baptismal font she had lots of really great questions like,"Who is the leader of the church?" and "How do people join the church?"  "How can I know if God exists?"  So neat!  The spirit was really strong and when we got to the end of the tour she did not want to leave.  She loved being in the church because of the spirit that was there.  It reminded me that although our massive, beautiful church building in Okinawa was nice (is was wonderful, really) it is not necessary for conversion.  The church buildings all have the same spirit in them and that is what really makes it a special place.  

And lastly, all throughout this week I was reminded again and again of how much Heavenly Father loves His children.  As a missionary, I just try to do my best, work hard and hope and pray that Heavenly Father guides us to people who are searching for the gospel and vise versa.  I saw that constantly and consistently this week.  God is real.  He is a living God.  And through Jesus Christ we can come to understand more about who God is and how we can return to live with him.  I love it!  I absolutely love it!  :)

I hope you have a great week!  I love you!  And I am praying for you!

Hawkins Shimai

Learning sign language too

The Nagasaki Zone…what a great bunch of missionaries!

We are headed to Nagasaki today to go on "splits" with the sisters there.  I have never known exhaustion as well as I do now :)  It's been a very busy couple of weeks with going to different areas to help the sisters and trying to keep our own area blossoming.  It's been super busy.  And I have absolutely loved it.  We are running frantically from appointment to appointment, teaching lessons and having a blast.  Just a little over six weeks ago in this new area (Kurume) we were teaching just one lesson, if we were lucky, every week.  Now we are well, well over that :)  It is a huge blessing and I am so grateful.  I have learned a lot about the power of prayer and the miracles that come from "cheerfully doing all things that lie within our power."  I am so, so, so happy.  I really am.  I am seeing the change in our investigators and I am learning with them!  We have a wonderful cute nursing student who we have been meeting with.  Her name is Fukumi and we met her on the street.  She is just one of the purest, genuinely kind people I know.  She has come to church a couple of times and last Sunday she biked several miles in a torrential downpour (It's currently rainy season.  Even Seattle doesn't have this much rain!  I feel like I constantly smell like wet dog.  The other day we met with Fukumi and talked about how her views of God have changed and she said that she came from not knowing anything: only knowing Christ's name and hearing about Christmas to now feeling the peace that comes from His atonement.  I was just so surprised.  She told us so straightforward that she loves what she is learning and she has felt more joy come into her life because of it!  It was an incredible lesson.

This week has been fun because Williams Shimai (Sister Williams) and I are hilarious together.  Two Gaijin (foreigners) in the middle of Japan attempting to understand the train systems and learning Kanji (or learning how much more we need to understand).  It's been a blast!  We laugh constantly.  Last Wednesday we set out on an adventure to find a member's home... we some how ended up in the next ken (prefecture) and totally lost.  We started housing and looked up to see a huge, massive statue.  

Giant statue overlooking the neighborhood we got lost in.

Then we found two young mothers who have now become investigators :)  On our way back, I stopped someone on their bike and it turns out that she is Vietnamese.  (I know "hello", "I love you" and "God" in about 9 different languages)  I used what little Vietnamese I knew and she ended up leading us all the way through town to the nearest train station where we sat down with her and told her about Sac Mac Mon (the Book of Mormon in Vietnamese) and exchanged numbers.  It was a miracle!  And so funny as we used a mixture of English, Vietnamese and Japanese.

Finally the coolest thing ever happened to me!  We were on the local train line to teach an investigator and I saw three cute ten year olds on the train sitting near us.  They were deaf.  Luckily Oi Shimai (Sister Oi) had taught me some Japanese sign language before she left.  I signed to them "how are you" and they freaked out.  They were so excited!  :)  We had so much fun!  One of the girls opened up her notebook and we started writing messages.  When we had to get off the train and leave I gave them a free English class flyer and said if they came we would teach them American Sign Language :)  Only one problem, I don't know any.  Oops!  I might be studying ASL from now on!

The silly picture :) 

I love Kurume.  I really love being a missionary.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!  I love you!

Hawkins Shimai!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Our temple session was in Japanese.

The temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fukuoka Japan

Saying goodbye to Sister Oi :(  She has completed her mission.

My new companion….Sister Williams

Housing with Sister Oi

Visiting shrines in Nagasaki

More Shrines

More Shrines

皆さん久留米からこにちは！

Hello everyone!  

This week was crazy, busy, long and FULL of miracles.  Our preparation day (a day missionaries use to grocery shop, do laundry, cleaning and sight see) was last Saturday which in missionary terms means a LONG time ago.  Our typical preparation day is on Monday, but because we had an opportunity to go to the Fukuoka, Japan, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple we switched our preparation day to Saturday.  We absolutely loved the temple.  It was a huge adventure because the four sisters that attended the temple were all American!  We had to take lots of trains, leaps of faith, and wrong roads to make it to Fukuoka.  But it was an absolute blast and well worth it.  In the train station 7 people (we counted!) asked to take our picture. :)  So search Japanese blog websites and Facebook!  We have got to be out there somewhere!  The temple was beautiful.  I haven't been able to go for over a year.  The last time I went was in Provo, halfway through the my time at the Missionary Training Center before it closed for cleaning.  Last Saturday was also a long time ago because that meant we had to buy groceries two weeks ago and hope they lasted until today.  I'll just cut to the chase by telling you that they didn't last, so we called this past week the week of the famine.  I typically eat weird things in Japan, but not as weird as the things we ate this past week as we literally cleared out our cupboards.  Luckily we had members come through for us and miraculously yesterday (when we had NO food) we went out and worked and got a lot of onions, potatoes and a random scary looking bag of dried fish heads.  Those things have never tasted so good.  

This week was wonderful!  I wish I could tell you about it ALL, but I'll tell you about Fukumi Chan!  She is a cute 22 year old nursing student who Oi Shimai (Sister Oi) and I met our first week in Kurume last transfer.  We got her number and a couple weeks later we were able to get a hold of her and set up an appointment.  Because of how busy she has been, how busy transfer week was and getting a new companion we hadn't been able meet with her.  But we, through a set of miraculous events, were able to meet with her Friday and taught her about the Plan of Salvation.  It really had a big impact on her because she loves her family and also as a nurse she works a lot with human frailties and death.  We talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and asked Fukumi Chan if she had any questions and she said she had no questions, but instead gave us a summary of the Atonement, applied it to her own life and bore her testimony to us!  She is incredible.  She came to church this Sunday and stayed all three hours and during Relief Society (a class for the women in the church) shared comments and insights!  Williams Shimai (Sister Williams) and I just sat back in awe.  Quite speechless!  She said after church that she loved it, that she felt at peace and was grateful she had the opportunity to learn about Jesus.  It was incredible!  It has been a huge privilege to see the city of Kurume really grow in church membership.  We started just a few weeks ago with no investigators, the ones we did have dropped us.  But I have really come to understand the power of prayer and the blessings that come from enthusiastic, diligent, hard work. 

On a side note.  I love Williams Shimai (Sister Williams).  We are having a blast!  Getting lost daily, learning kanji, speaking Nepalese, etc.  Pray for us :)  

Love you guys!  Have a wonderful week!

ホーキンス姉妹より

Mugi fields

Too busy is never a problem for a missionary

What we see on our morning run!

Shrines and ancient temples all over the city

It is transfer week so I am emailing a day later, but I just wanted to tell dad HAPPY FATHERS DAY!  :)  I sent you a card, but I snuck some goodies in it so we`ll see if it makes it all the way to you!  Father`s Day happened to be full of miracles for us.  We were so busy running from appointment to appointment that we ate breakfast at 7, skipped lunch and ate a quick dinner at 8.  But the whole day I was just SO HAPPY!  Being too busy is never a bad problem for a missionary.  

We had three investigators at church!  And one of them was a family!  We had a great discussion with them about the peace and comfort that comes from anchoring our families in God and Jesus Christ.  The mother just smiled the whole time and when we asked her if that was what she wanted for her family she answered with tears YES!  We were able to teach so many lessons as well on Sunday!  At the beginning of the transfer we dropped almost all of our investigators so we have spent a majority of our time finding those who will listen.  Therefore, very few actually sit down lessons.  But Sunday we taught three people with members!  That is a miracle in and of itself in this area.  And in every lesson I really felt like our investigators were progressing and coming closer to their Heavenly Father.  And somehow our joints (the members who helped us teach) were just the PERFECT match for everyone of our investigators!  I have found over and over again that as long as we do everything within our power and work really hard that God really does make up the rest and more.  

We went through a phone this week and called all of our potential investigators and found little success.  Most everyone either hung up on us or said they really didn't have any interest.  I left a message on one phone and Saturday night we had him call back.  We played phone tag several times, but finally were able to speak to him.  I answered the phone (and for me the phone is the hardest thing to understand in a different language so I was a little nervous) I couldn't believe it when I heard him say that he was interested and wanted to meet!  We set up an appointment with him for Sunday and when we went with a member to meet we found out that it was actually a husband and wife!  The wife had a sudden death in the family and her husband was searching for anything that could bring her happiness when we called.  He took it as a sign from God and set up an appointment.  Our cute member that came with us was so wonderful.  She joined the church when her mother passed away and she shared a beautiful testimony about how families can be eternal through Jesus Christ.  

My testimony has really been strengthened this transfer.  I was NOT excited to leave Okinawa.  I was under the impression that I was stuck in a really tough area without much potential.  However, I have learned that Heavenly Father is preparing people in every part of the world.  We found 10 new investigators this week.  TEN!  The average for our mission per week is one.  It was absolutely crazy.  Hard work is essential, but faith is even more so.  We are currently teaching investigators that are Vietnamese, Chinese, Nepalese, Polish, Brazilian, Filipino, and Hispanic.  Fun does not even describe our lessons :)  It is an adventure.  I am learning so, so much.  I am so blessed!  I love what I am doing.  I am so grateful for this opportunity.  

Our friend from Napal

Have a wonderful week!  I love you!

Hawkins Shimai

Lots of Languages, Lots of Blessings

We played a joke on the sisters in our district…We said because of potential earthquakes Sisters should wear their helmets to bed :)

Apparently some believed us :)

Don't worry I am feeling a lot better.  I got a call from our district leader saying REST, so I spent all day Monday inside sleeping.  I had a super high fever and then I woke up that night and felt much much better.  The medicine finally kicked in and I am normal, healthy me now.  

A morning run 

Two Japanese girls asked us to play games with them

My desk

Sister Oi by our apartment parking place….the caption says "Mr. Christ's Church"

My bike had a flat so I used an old missionaries bike….but where was the key to the lock?  Hummm!

What you can find when you are lost!

Saga ward Church building

Sister Oi and I 

I have to tell you about my week!  I wish you were all just here to see what happens on a daily basis.  Nothing is ever dull when you spend your whole day speaking a foreign language and ride a bike in a skirt.  First off!  Yesterday!  Oi Shimai and I have been praying to find a Chinese investigator.  There is a perfectly good Chinese Book of Mormon just waiting in both of our bags to be given away.  We searched all week!  And this week was HARD.  No one would listen.  Kurume is a special place.  I have never ever worked in an area this hard.  We usually contact over a hundred people a day and typically at least seventy percent will listen.  In Kurume we get about 20%.  As soon as a say hello people "Kekko" ("I'm good!") us.  So frustrating!  I asked someone on the street if they could spend eternity with their family, be reunited after they die, how would they feel?  She looked at me and said "iranai" ("I don't need that").  Come on!  This is the greatest message ever!  But Oi Shimai and I have been working SO hard.  Poor girl she only has one week left on her mission and she is exhausted, but she's been working so much!  I love her!  But we went really all week without seeing any major success.  It was really frustrating.  But I have learned that when really hard things happen there is almost always something wonderful about to happen.  And guess what?!?!  It did!

We showed up for church on Sunday and found out that Elder Tashiro, a member of the seventy would be there and was speaking.  I was really excited.  Our mission president talks about Elder Tashiro all the time and about how wonderful of a person he is so I was excited to meet him.  Then we had a member come up to us and introduce her non-member friend, Yuki to us.  She is super nice!  Really tall, has two sons and guess what.... she is CHINESE!  But best part is is that she has lived in Japan for a long time so she speaks perfect Japanese!  We sat next to her during sacrament meeting and Oi Shimai and I were practically in giggles.  We couldn't believe it.  Then Elder Tashiro gave a talk.  He called up people from the congregation and had them bare a brief testimony.  The first girl was a freshman in HS.  She shared a wonderful testimony about how the gospel blesses families.  It set the whole stage for the rest of the time.  The spirit was so strong too!  I got called up and almost fainted.  But it all went really well!  And Yuka... she loved it!  She cried!   She left after sacrament meeting with tears in her eyes saying that she wanted her boys to be in an environment like this. Elder Tashiro gave a wonderful talk about families and Christ and it really touched Yuki. I was sad to see her leave after sacrament meeting, but she came back 3rd hour with one of her sons! He absolutely loved church too. They stayed for Elder Tashiro's fireside as well. Elder Tashiro during the middle of the fireside had Yuki come up in front of everyone and share how she felt coming to church. It was INCREDIBLE! The neatest experience I have had on my mission. This mother wants her and her two sons to be baptized. I was in awe the whole Sunday. Best member present lesson ever :) The whole experience really helped strengthen my faith that when we work hard, when we work smart and have faith, Heavenly Father allows miracles to happen.  I am so grateful to be here.  I am having an absolute blast doing what really matters.  I love it!  I am learning so so much!

Have a wonderful week!  I love you!

Hawkins Shimai

P.S. 

Pray for me!  Almost every single one of our investigators is a foreigner!  Nepalese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian, etc.  If you thought Japanese was hard try Vietnamese!  Crazy

Training in Nagasaki :)

Our view from the train on the way to Nagasaki

Riding the bullet train….Sorry for the technical difficulty

Sister Messer and Sister Suzuki

Training the Sisters in Nagasaki

This week was jam packed with lots of missionary work!  Oi Shimai and I went via the bullet train to visit and go on junkais (splits) with the four Nagasaki Shimai tachi (4 Sister missionaries in Nagasaki).  It takes us two hours in travel time, so we woke up early Monday morning, spent preparation day with them visiting lots of temples in and around Nagasaki and then spent the next two days there seeing lots of miracles and working hard.  It was great to get to know them better.  It made me grateful to see how hard and effective they are working and to be able to help them out in any way.  I got to work a lot with Lane Shimai.  We were both in the same Missionary Training Center district.  It was so fun to connect with her after almost a year!  We had a blast biking the CRAZY hills in Nagasaki and visiting investigators.  

We did have a scary experience however.  It was almost 8, completely dark and we knocked on an older woman's door that the missionaries had met a couple days before.  I think she might have had Alzheimer's because she had absolutely no idea who we were even though we told her several times that we were missionaries for the church.  She didn't open her door but we thought we heard her putting her shoes on so we waited patiently for about a minute.  Suddenly she was standing right next to us outside (she must have gone around the back)  she looked a little like the older lady in Harry Potter who turns into a snake.   Lane Shimai (Sister Lane) and I booked it out of there so quickly!  But we did see some neat miracles.  We found a potential investigator and exchanged numbers.   The Nagasaki sisters just called us and let us know that they met with her and were able to make a baptismal date with her!  It is so incredible to see how Heavenly Father really does have prepared children just waiting for the gospel.  Overall Nagasaki was a blast.  It is a fun place to work.  There is a large Catholic presence (something that is extremely rare in Japan)  so we were able to teach a lot about the restoration of the gospel. 

It was nice to come home though!  Slept in our own futons for the first time in a long time :) Oi Shimai (Sister Oi) and I spent the rest of the week working hard in our own area, Kurume.  We have been focusing on "gaijin den do"...Finding foreigner investigators.  I cannot even begin to explain what miracles we saw.  We prayed all day long to give away our Chinese Book of Mormon.  We started talking to a girl with great Japanese and invited her to our free English class.  She said thanks but she was really focusing on Japanese because she is from Taiwan!  We shared about the Book of Mormon she enthusiastically accepted a copy and we made an appointment for this week!  

We found lots of new investigators this week too!   I've found that the more people I talk to the more people we find that are willing to hear our message.  So many wonderful things happened this week!  But lastly, since I got in this area almost a month ago not a single investigator has come to church (that could be due partly to the fact that there were barely any investigators to start with), but this Sunday we planned to bike with one of our investigators (Hoan) to church .  He is Vietnamese and so genuinely kind!  He let us know that he was going to be a little bit late.

Our Vietnamese investigator :)

When he finally showed up he had with him two of his friends that we had taught and invited!  We had THREE investigators at church this Sunday!  It was a huge miracle.  I have learned that as we exercise our faith, do cheerfully all things that lie within our power and then leave the rest up to God that great things happen.  I am so grateful for this experience.  I am working hard, I am learning LOTS and I am having an absolute blast sharing the best message :)

I love you guys!  I hope you have a great week!  Have a great last couple days of school!  Love you!

Hawkins Shimai

A New Adventure!

Every week on the mission brings a new adventure, but this week has to top it all.  This letter is going to be a little short, we are taking the bullet train to Nagasaki to do some splits (exchanging missionary companionships) with the sisters over there so we have to make the train (riding it totally takes me back to Harry Potter with all the kids in their uniforms).  

We weren't making progress with most of our investigators in the area so after praying about it we dropped almost all of our investigators this week (except for Chuondad so keep praying for him please!).  It was a sad time for us.  This area is crazy and so, so hard!  It's never fun starting from ground zero.  But we were able to see huge miracles.  Wednesday we went on splits with the other sisters in Kurume.  I had a blast!  Messer Shimai (Sister Messer) became my companion (she is so cute, looks like Clancy!  She's SO tall!)  and we had a blast.  We were able to find a new investigator for them and learn lots of new ways to share the gospel.  

Tuesday I had my first experience with... Japanese hospitals!  For the last two weeks I have been super sick.  Coughing all through the night.  I had a high fever and I finally gave up and with lots of prompting from Oi Shimai (Sister Oi) I called the mission nurse and she recommended that I go immediately to the hospital.  I had a high enough fever that they quarantined me to my own little room with a mask.  So embarrassing!  Oi Shimai and I got to know each other too well waiting in that tiny room.  They don't know what I have, but it was a fun (and totally scary) adventure in the Japanese hospital.  

Thursday we had zone training meeting in Nagasaki.  We had a two hour train ride and Oi Shimai and I delivered our first training.  It was totally nerve racking!  

Friday and Saturday were basically our only days to work, but we worked so hard!  We were able to find 4 new investigators!  That has never happened on my mission!  I felt so blessed.  One of the girls we met came to the church and had a lesson with us.  She said she was really interested!  I am so grateful.  In "Preach My Gospel" it says that Heavenly Father will lead you to prepared people and he will lead prepared people to you and I have really seen that this week!  I am so grateful to have this opportunity to serve a mission.  Especially this week being really sick, I am grateful for the opportunity I have to just WORK.  Have a great week!

Sorry I can't figure out how to turn this :)  After planning at night for the next day, exhaustion set in !

Hawkins Shimai