So somehow it is transfer calls again and I don't really
understand how it is transfer calls because they were just here like....three
days ago. This has legitimately been the fastest transfer of my life, and I
love Palmer Shimai and she is leaving and so that breaks my heart. But, my new
companion is named Payne Shimai! Oh and Palmer Shimai is transferring to the
Osaka Zone (which was my last zone) into the area right next to Higashi Osaka
where she will be a Sister Training Leader! That will probably be the last area
of her mission and so that is crazy.
It was a really great week <3 I just really love
Tokushima. It is so sunny and beautiful and Island-y and we visit Less Actives
and work hard all day and I just really love it a lot!! I am so excited to stay
here for another transfer...and hopefully I don't get us too dreadfully lost
seeing as I have only been here for six weeks and the ENTIRE KEN is my area and
somehow I am supposed to find my way around here on my bike....so that should
be fun. But actually, that will be fun :)
Anyway, it was a great week and we did a lot of missionary
work and biking and visiting and teaching and all of that fun stuff...but that
is not what I am going to write about today. I am going to write about
something that I have recently come to terms with in Japan, and that is my
name.
When I got my name tag in the MTC it said: Gurandobigu
Shimai. When I got to Japan it said; Gurandobihhu Shimai. As I was leaving the Hombu
my first day, I was given a new name tag (for free!) because the first one I
had received was a mistake. And the new one said: "Gurandobiggu
Shimai". So I now had three different name tags, all of them with
different names on them as I headed off to Higashi Osaka. When I introduced
myself in Higashi Osaka I was met with looks of confusion, and asked to repeat
my name at least six billion times, and eventually our ward mission leader gave
up and just started calling me "Bigu" Shimai.
So, a quick break down of my name in Japanese -
Gurando + Bigu = extra large. Both words mean
"big" and so there was really no good nick name to go by. Ever since
I have been in Japan, my name has been met with looks of confusion and a few
struggles to pronounce my name, and then after a while...people usually just
give up and call me "Shimai" Or my companions name + tachi (the
plural for people).
At first, this made me a little sad. I thought about
changing my name to a shorter version of "Gurandobiggu" ..but there was
not really a good option...gurando or biggu....and I just never actually got
around to doing it.
As I became more confident as a missionary, I stopped being
embarrassed when people couldn't say my name, and started just smiling along
with them and laughing about it and patiently letting people struggle through
my name...or just being called my companions name, and it stopped making me
feel silly, unnoticed and even more out of place than a blonde girl in
Japan already is.
In the past transfer (when I went through the introduction
process all over again in Tokushima) I realized something. I realized that
although people could not remember what on earth my name was, they remembered
who it was that I represented. They remembered that I was a missionary for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One thing that I love about being
a missionary in Japan is my name tag. They are unique because our names are
written twice. Once in English, and once in Japanese. This results in our names
being very small, making the largest name on our name tags the name of Jesus
Christ.
My name is no longer a nuisance, but a reminder to me that
my mission is not about me. It is not about my name or what I make of myself,
it is about my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I am Gurandobiggu Shimai, a representative of Jesus Christ.
"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they
might have everlasting life."
3 Nephi 5:13
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